FILMS WORHT WATCHING by Robert Alstead

The Vancouver International Film Festival (September 27 - October 12) has a mouth-watering line-up of cinema in store. Now that the environment is a hot issue (sorry, bad pun), VIFF has introduced Climate for Change, a new strand of eco-minded films – documentary and drama – with a $25,000 juried environmental award.
I can recommend Garbage Warrior, which follows maverick architect Michael Reynolds who, having decided early on that his training was “worthless,” devoted his career to experimenting and developing totally self-sufficient eco-buildings. Reynolds’ message is that houses are one of the biggest contributors to energy waste in our society and fixing them can help reduce environmental hardship for future generations, while also freeing us from unnecessary financial burdens. “We need to be doing something now. Tomorrow morning,” he drawls, with a characteristic sense of urgency.
Reynolds has been creating earthships out of materials that would end up in a landfill – tires, cans, glass and plastic bottles – in New Mexico since the ‘70s. These fantastical-looking buildings are completely off-the-grid. No incoming sewage pipes. No water pipes. No electricity lines. He designs his buildings to make the greatest use of available energy from light, wind and rainwater. They are free-formed shapes, using curved earth walls and multicoloured bottle domes, and they have weird stuff like propellers pointing out of them.
The grizzled Reynolds, with his shaggy, grey hair, is great company as he articulates his passion for sustainable living with a mischievous sense of humour. Oliver Hodge’s judiciously edited point-of-view piece grows in strength as it follows Reynolds’ protracted struggle with local and state authorities who shut down his community of “earthships” in 1997 for building code contraventions. Reynolds’ response, after having been robbed of his livelihood, credentials and self-respect, is to suit up and take his battle to the state senate, with a mixture of bloody-minded determination and zealous conviction. Although the film only touches on the official issues with Reynolds’ architectural inventions, it is a story well told and the good-humoured warrior at the centre is an inspiration.
Continuing with the ecological theme is Laura Dunn’s The Unforeseen about a confrontation between developers and individuals trying to preserve an aquifer and a favourite swimming hole, and Khadak (aka The Colour of Water), a drama that explores the fate of Mongolia’s nomads pushed into the city to avoid a livestock plague.
In a different vein is Beaufort (Bufor), a drama that focuses on a group of young Israeli soldiers holding an ancient, high fort outpost, Beaufort, in Lebanon before the Israeli army’s retreat in 2000. While largely avoiding the political issues, the film captures the daily routine and fears of the soldiers as their position becomes increasingly more tenuous. Quietly-assured direction by Joseph Cedar captures the sense of isolation, camaraderie and stresses of the situation as the soldiers face increasingly heavier shelling.
Another to look out for is The Counterfeiters (Die Fälscher), an excellent German/Austrian drama, based on a true wartime story about the Nazi effort to swamp Britain and the US with counterfeit money. Realizing that they were bankrupt and losing the war, the Germans rounded up a group of experts in their concentration camps, from the worlds of finance, printing and counterfeiting, to create perfect copies of the pound and dollar for them. Specifically, the film focuses on a criminal fraudster, recognized by his Nazi captor as “… the best counterfeiter in the world,” who manages to survive the concentration camps through his wits and his artistic ability, and then heads up the team of counterfeiters. Although the team is given special treatment in a particular block of Sachsenhausen by a corrupt Nazi commandant, tension builds as their work nears completion and struggles ensue among the team about whether they should do the Nazis’ dirty work to survive a little longer.
Based on Bohumil Hrabal’s novel, the Czech dramatic comedy I Served the King of England takes a lighter look at the Second World War in Czechoslovakia and the years before and after. It is told in episodic flashbacks through the eyes of a naïve, Buster-Keatonish character who dreams of becoming a millionaire by owning his own hotel. It’s unusually playful and poignant at the same time. Worth seeing alone for the way it depicts the rise and demise of the Nazi dream of Aryan purity.
Finally, this year’s VIDFEST kicks off VIFF this year between September 22 to 25. VIDFEST features an array of screenings and events for people into animation, games, web 2.0, mobile, interactive content, and those who want to network with like-minded individuals. VIDFEST takes place at the Vancity Vancouver International Film Centre at 1181 Seymour Street.

Garbage Warrior, Oliver Hodge’s portrait of this environmental rebrand makes you want to drop everything and start building Reynolds-style “Earthships”. The VIFF film screening sponsored by Common Ground.

For more information about VIFF, visit www.viff.org For VIDFEST, see www.vidfest.com

Robert Alstead’s eco-documentary You Never Bike Alone about Vancouver’s Critical Masses is out on DVD at www.youneverbikealone.com