The Invisible War on Radio West

This radio interview might be interesting to whomever is presenting about The Invisible War. A few days ago, SLC-based radio host, Doug Fabrizio, did an hour long show about the film. You can listen to the entire broadcast by following this link: http://radiowest.kuer.org/post/12412-sundance-invisible-war and scrolling about 1/3 down the page to the link that says "listen."

Ice

I agree with Jans that the personal focus on Balog was a distraction in Chasing Ice. The audience response after the film when Balog joined the crew on stage made it seem obvious that most audience members viewed him as the film's central character. And maybe in an individualistic culture such as the U.S. it makes sense for a filmmaker to have a strong central human character in a film. However, for me, the ice and the natural landscapes in this film were so powerful and mesmerizing that I saw nature as being the films central character, and I really started to become frustrated when the focus of the film shifted from nature on a large scale to focus on the minutia of one individual human experience.

I do understand that without Balog's determination and his devotion to this subject that we'd never have these beautiful images. So, I am grateful to him on that level -- but his work is so much larger than what he is and it would have been nice to see it stand on its own.

The government will do the right thing only after every other option is exhausted.

About Chasing Ice and Finding North.

(Please don’t rap more, Jans,

we can all live your verse sans)

but your first blog entries are due by Saturday!

so rap or rhyme or write, respond some way.

Both films were more polished that the others we have seen, with the exception of The Art of Rap, which Drew rightly identifies as a vanity piece for Ice T (but still, great to see those poetic masters compose!).

It pleased me to see the stage full of women involved in Finding North for the Q & A, as opposed to a few guys or mostly guys and a woman. It was obvious the filmmakers were well-financed and skilled, with Jeff Bridges and T-Bone Burnett adding their voices to the film for extra gravitas. It’s almost like we expect to see a sound track available (maybe it is!). They certainly found sympathetic and varied people on whom to focus, which made the film even more powerful. We recognize the degree to which hunger negatively impacts all these remarkable hard working people with tremendous potential. The urban poor and rural poor all suffer. The food deserts and teacher teaching honeydew, the relationship between obesity and poverty—the film touched on many issues, and judging by the Q & A about how that junk food winds up in the food pantries, there were many issues left out. They did seem to suggest we have the solutions. My favorite quote, maybe of all time

The government will do the right thing only after every other option is exhausted.

(Ties to Invisible War, Chasing Ice, Finding North…)

Chasing Ice was beautiful. I did want to ask that young filmmaker, Orlowski, how he got involved in the project (which seemed a sort of vanity project for/about Balog). From the web site, it looks like he got involved with Balog as videographer for the EIS (why do they call it that? To get Extreme in the name?). For me, the moving ice, the stupendous photographs and photographic records got bogged down when the film backed away to talk about Balog and his determination and his knee and his family members. I guess that was to trace an individual artist’s devotion to his craft and the environment, but I would have preferred a visual poem (perhaps a purely poetic documentary) about human impact and receding ice, without the distraction of Balog. Am I the only one who felt that way?

Loved Mark’s comments on ½ Revolution. Tiara and I were agreed that it was amazing to be there and see the revolution unfolding—but those stylish filmers (not willing to go as far as filmmakers) did not seem to be of the revolution (that’s at least part of the reason why they could leave).