RKS Film: “African Moot”: A Dual Personality Review: Toronto Hot Docs

Ok, what is a “moot”? It is an experience just about all law students suffer or enjoy. It is a mock trial in front of judges based on a fictional case. The judges may be actual judges or legal practitioners. It involves hours of preparation added on to a crushing workload of everyday lectures. So in addition to simulating litigation it also imparts what it is like balancing a heavy workload which many lawyers suffer from.

Having practiced law for 33 years I still remember my moot with my partner Nina at McGill University in Montreal. We had a case of a young man convicted of drug dealing. He was tricked by police to make a drug deal so the issue was if there was “entrapment” which might result in the charge being dismissed. Talk about stress and pressure!

In this documentary law students throughout Africa participate in an annual  pan-African moot competition. So I have been there and done that and have an inside track few viewers will have. So I will assume a dual personality in this review.

My View as a Lawyer

This documentary captures the anxiety, terror and joy of a moot. The preparation. The rehearsal. The exhilaration. The challenges. It also gives a snapshot that however much you prepare a question or two from a judge can cause you to stumble and falter no matter how well you have prepared your oral argumentation. At times acting and improvisation can save your butt. It also may determine your appetite to become a litigation lawyer or as they say in the United Kingdom a barrister. As a lawyer I thought this an accurate and entertaining if not a nail biting documentary.

My View as a Film Critic

I worry that the intricacies of a moot and legal argumentation may be lost on the average viewer. What I identify with and smile about may not have the same effect on the non lawyer viewer. For the non-lawyer this may be but a foggy “game”. It may be too complicated to digest and for the filmmakers I say a principle in tort law that you take the victim as the victim was. In other words you take the viewer as they are.

You will see the stress and the tension. Emotions are flying all over the place but will the viewer be able to really connect with the emotional roller coaster faced by these students? Has the documentary become too obscure and complicated?

The End Result

As a lawyer viewer I can closely identify with the preparation, rehearsal and final performances and it resonates with me. As a lawyer I give it a 90/100.

As a non lawyer I see this as complicated and difficult to digest for the non lawyer viewer. I would give it a 79/100 rating.

It is more than simply a moot but an examination of African society and how it views the future of African justice. But are these intricacies apparent to the viewer?

You can see trailer here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93ZDZBnfbnA

The film can be seen in theatre at Hot Docs on April 30 as a world premiere and on Wednesday May 4. As of May 1 it can be streamed for 5 days geoblocked to Canada.

A film by Shameela Seedat.

RKS Poetry: “The Beady Eyed Man and Concentration Camps”

The Beady Eyed Man and Ukrainian Concentration Camps

The beady eyed Russian man
or perhaps the Messiah according to the Grand Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church
fond of $30,000 watches
establishes “filtration camps”
bolstered by mobile crematoriums on wheels
the bells of Adolph Eichmann the final solution ring a final peal
mass graves full of a killing zeal
forgetting beady eyed man all the Russians liquidated in Nazi “filtration camps”

RKS Wine: Croix de Bonpas Côtes-du-Rhône Villages

The Croix de Bonpas Côtes-du-Rhône Villages 2019 is a blend of 60% Grenache, 30% Syrah and 10% Mourvedre.

Bonpas Chateau

On the aromatic side notes of big fat almost overly ripe strawberries, blueberries, cactus pear and a tad of black licorice.

On the palate moderate tannins, rhubarb pie, white pepper, blackberry and blueberry clafouti. Moderately long finish. Match with duck breast with cherry preserves, steak tartare or Greek Keftedes.

(Croix de Bonpas, AOC Côtes-du-Rhône Villages 2019, Bonpas, Caumont-sur-Durance, France, $17.95, Liquor Control Board of Ontario # 22283, 750 mL, 14%, RKS Wine Rating 89/100)

RKS Wine: Stag’s Hollow 2021 Muscat Frizzante

I know Stag’s Hollow in British Columbia’s Okanagan for some very serious high-quality wines. They are also not shy about pushing the boundaries with their Albariño, Dolcetto and Tempranillo. And they are at it again with a Muscat Frizzante. You will not see much Muscat wine produced in Canada.

More than a decade ago I attended the New York Wine Expo and sparkling Muscat was hot with rappers quaffing it and acreage was expanding rapidly in California. It certainly isn’t as hot as used to be. Can Stag’s Hollow bring back Muscat’s aura?

It is packaged in 250 mL cans with some playful colouring. On the nose a hallmark Muscat aroma of peach rules the roost with nectarines, Orri tangerine and a bit of honey. A light fizz but this is no Brut! The hegemony of peach asserts itself on the palate. The addition of 9% Albariño adds some acidity rescuing the wine from cloying sweetness. Sparkling Muscat is a wine I believe a glass or two might suffice so a can is perfect with its “large pour”. Great for people on the move in the summer. If you can find pizza with peaches as a topping this wine is for you. Similarly, if you can find a hot day as the slight fizz is a good thirst quencher. Serve chilled.

The wine is a blend of 53% Orange Muscat, 38% Muscat Ottonel and 9% Albariño.

Enjoy on a hot day.

$32 for a 4 pack of 250 mL cans. Perhaps it is best to order from the winery at stagshollowwinery.com

RKS Film: “Sam Now”: The Cycle Repeats

“Sam Now” is a creative adventure into self-discovery that casualties in life often repeat themselves inflicting harm on the next generation.

Sam Harkness and his bother Reed had been amateur filmmakers since childhood especially after discovering an old Super 8 camera in their garage. A favourite character in their movies was a superhero “Blue Panther” they created. Sam was the actor and Reed the cameraman. They lived a comfortable middle-class life in Seattle with mother Jois and father Randy.

Jois disappears without a note or a clue in 2000. Reed and Sam decide to make a movie about the Blue Panther finding Jois. Talking about police bureaucracy and an obsession with privacy the police respond to a missing persons report saying they have located Jois but she wants no contact with her family.

Through their own detective work they locate Jois living with Professor Edward Gosselin in Oregon. Jois had confided with a fellow employee at a local restaurant in Seattle she would be leaving with a man that took her to his speaking engagements throughout the world. An exciting life.

Sam claims not to have been affected by the defection of Jois. But life experiences dictate otherwise as he has trouble forming lasting relationships and he dips a bit too heavily in the bottle. Brother Jared was affected seriously by his abandonment.

After not seeing his mother in three years Jois presents no concrete answer for what she did to Sam other than saying she had to see herself and get out of the control of everybody. One might think she is a classic airhead with a cruel and selfish streak in her. But she has a secret that explains her lack of remorse about her abandonment of her family. She proclaims that she is not the one that needs mending. She seems above it all. As a viewer you may find some compassion to accept why she might have done what she did but it may be more difficult to forgive. In this regard that is the same conclusion you might reach after seeing another Hot Docs film “Silent Beauty” for which you can see my review here https://setthebarlifestyle.wordpress.com/2022/04/18/rks-film-silent-beauty-a-monstrous-chain-of-pedophilia/?fbclid=IwAR1PVCXylOto_tjE-UGGUCh2nunkgx-RRsIEo3yozNMblxmbWTyNEK8I4VU

In both films the cycle of bad is so easily transferable from generation to generation.

On the lighter side of things I wondered if “Sam Now” was a documentary about a movie or a movie about a documentary.

Playing in theatre at Toronto Hot Docs on May 1/5 and as of May 2 it will screen virtually for five days.

Directed by Reed Harkness.

RKS Film Rating 77/100.

“Travels to a Different Time” : 4July1975: Umea, Sweden: Germans Getting Piggish

Woke up freezing cold and with great bravery uncovered myself and quickly dressed. The Germans were up and stuffing themselves with breakfast and never even offered me some. I had no food. Come on guys have a heart as I got you in free to a couple of discos and beer to boot. Fortunately a gas station we stopped at was selling some milk so I had a litre for breakfast. I am drinking 3 litres of milk a day as it is so cheap as compared to other beverages. We stopped for lunch but again they stuffed their yappers not offering me a bite. God bless em. We ended up in Umea and thank goodness for a marketplace. I was ravenous. Made it to youth hostel in Umea and played some Frisbee with some Danes and a Swede.

“Travels to a Different Time” : 3July1975 : Sundvall, Sweden: Up in the Land of the Midnight Sun

Up early and to the German’s Simca heading North into the land of the Midnight Sun. Bought our breakfast supplies on the way and kept bombing around until 15:00 where we stopped at a lake. The owner of the house invited us to swim and use his chairs facing the lake. We ate lunch in the sun in his comfortable chairs. The water was cool and refreshing but I was dive bombed by a seagull several times. Perhaps it did not like Canadians. A lady in a VW showed us the way to the youth hostel in Sundvall. We had supper and after that I used my press pass to enter a bar and chat with the owner who bought us some beer. We stayed until 01:00 and it was still light outside!

RKS Film: “Atomic Hope”: The Bad Boys of Climate Change Advocacy (Toronto Hot Docs Festival)

There is nothing like documentary film to flip you on your head and make you realize that perhaps nuclear power is the most efficient and quick way to reverse climate change.

Initially the anti nuclear power people were on the fringe but decades later they are part of the establishment so the pro nuclear power movement now finds itself on the extreme fringe. I recall the day where open air atomic bomb testing occurred. And many of us are not far removed from Hiroshima and Nagasaki which led to blind opposition to anything nuclear. Many of us have perhaps an irrational fear of nuclear energy driven by our emotions and not by logic.

Fossil fuels account for 83% of total energy use. Demand for energy is on the rise. Climate change effects are rapidly threatening our lives and renewable energy such as wind and solar are helping but they are unreliable and when a source is unreliable you increase its use making it more expensive.

We have an interesting example of the West trying to stop tyrant Putin from decimating Ukraine and its populace and what is his weapon? It is fossil fuel. What would the situation be if Germany had not decommissioned its nuclear plants?

I will let you listen to the bad boys promoting nuclear energy and if you are concerned about climate change you owe it to yourself to watch this documentary. I am thinking they are not bad boys!

Directed by Frankie Fenton.

The film is part of the Toronto Hot Docs Documentary Festival and can be seen in theatre on May3/8 and for 5 days virtually commencing May 4.

RKS Film Rating 86/100.

“Travels to a Different Time” : 2July1975: Stockholm, Sweden: Too Many Winos and Police

Up at 07:00 thinking I would go to student employment office but gave up on that idea. Went back to sleep feeling like bugs were crawling all over me. Scratching and itching! I am into my austerity programme so today I will eat one meal only. I will go to the smorgasbord at Hotel Rydberg at 53 Drotting. I went to Kulterhuset to listen to a record which was very good. The two German guys I met were on the steps outside when I was leaving. So they came to Hotel Rydberg and ate daintily while I stuffed myself. No gourmet delight but it fills the stomach. We waddled out and I headed home at a slow pace. I had my last hot shower in Stockholm and planned my next stop. Then went into town and stopped at a park and counted 19 winos in a tiny park. They are all over the place and there are so many police! Home to bed early as on road tomorrow with the Germans.