Category Archives: film

RKS 2024 Film: “Sweetland”: Time to Recognize a New Canadian Film Classic: The Sea Giveth the Governments Taketh

“Sweetland” is based on Michael Crummey’s novel of the same name. The Fisheries Household Resettlement Programme administered by the Canadian federal government and Newfoundland provincial government offered somewhat meagre payments for inhabitants of remote outports to relocate to “economic centres of development”. Did economic theory destroy and mutilate the fabric of historic Newfoundland? To receiveContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: “Sweetland”: Time to Recognize a New Canadian Film Classic: The Sea Giveth the Governments Taketh”

RKS 2024 Wine: Does a Boggled Mind Benefit from a Bogle Family Vineyards Pinot Noir?

At the Hot Docs film festival winds down I have saved the most depressing films for last and as a film reviewer of documentary films when I say depressing I mean it. On my bitter end list is the story of a 16-year-old Kurdish refugee girl, whose mother has died frozen to death in someContinue reading “RKS 2024 Wine: Does a Boggled Mind Benefit from a Bogle Family Vineyards Pinot Noir?”

RKS 2024 Film: “Before I Change My Mind”: Enough Well Done Ambiguities to Choke a Horse

Robin (Vaughn Murrae) a junior teen arrives from Spokane, Washington to the Canadian province of Alberta with his somewhat geeky computer dad, Dan (Matthew Rankin). Robin experiences a flashback now and then about his past particularly his mother. The meaning of the flashbacks might constitute a moviegoer’s delight. Add to this ambiguity is Dan’s aversionContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: “Before I Change My Mind”: Enough Well Done Ambiguities to Choke a Horse”

RKS 2024 FILM: HOT DOCS: “The Ride Ahead”: Determination, Grit and Suffering

In “The Ride Ahead” expect a massive dose of suffering and genetic injustice alleviated, if not conquered, by a strong spirit resentful of being talked down to armoured by a boundless will to overcome obstacles facing severely handicapped Samuel afflicted with GNA01 Neurodevelopmental Disorder a progressive disorder so rare that there are a mere hundredsContinue reading “RKS 2024 FILM: HOT DOCS: “The Ride Ahead”: Determination, Grit and Suffering”

RKS 2024 Film: HOT DOCS 2024: “The Strike”: Memories of the East German Circus

Amidst great political and bureaucratic clapping the California Department of Corrections (CDC) opened the “state of the art” Pelican Bay State Prison’s Security Housing Unit (SHU) in 1989. Pelican Bay was designed for solitary confinement. Hundreds spent years in solitary confinement some as long as thirty years despite the United Nation’s maximum set at 15Continue reading “RKS 2024 Film: HOT DOCS 2024: “The Strike”: Memories of the East German Circus”

RKS 2024 Film: HOT DOCS 2024: “American Cats: The Good, Bad And The Cuddly”: Calling All Cat Activists and Cat Lovers

True confessions. I am not a cat lover. I am a “dog person”. Once upon a time I was cornered by a Quebecois cat and kept prisoner for a few hours. I suppose that cat sensed my at best “indifferent” attitude toward cats. I might share that story with you one day. Then I metContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: HOT DOCS 2024: “American Cats: The Good, Bad And The Cuddly”: Calling All Cat Activists and Cat Lovers”

RKS 2024 Film: “New Life”: The Brutality of Good Intentions or the Evil of “Good”

Jessica Murdock (Hayley Erin) all bloodied is running through the woods as if someone is pursuing her piquing your curiosity. Why is she running and why is she bloodied? Who is pursuing her? One of her flashbacks has her locked in some makeshift detention centre. This is getting heavier by the moment. Then that ladyContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: “New Life”: The Brutality of Good Intentions or the Evil of “Good””

RKS 2024 Film: “Wild Goat Surf”: Joanna Andrade Dreams but Down and Out in Penticton

Rell “Goat” Anderson (Shaylea Martin) is a thirteen-year-old surfer chick obsessed with becoming a great surfer although her summer of 2003 trailer park life in Penticton, British Columbia’s beautiful Okanagan is not progressing well for her. Goat has the look, the garb and attitude of a skateboarder a la Avril Lavigne’s “Skater Boy”. One problemContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: “Wild Goat Surf”: Joanna Andrade Dreams but Down and Out in Penticton”

RKS 2024 Film: HOT DOCS 2024: “Never Look Away”

The Canadian premiere of “Never Look Away” will be at Hot Docs showing on 27/30April2024 and 4May2024. Margaret Moth was a fearless almost Gothlike camera woman hailing from New Zealand as is director Lucy Lawless with her directorial debut. You may ask when viewing the film if she was addicted to the danger of operatingContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: HOT DOCS 2024: “Never Look Away””

RKS 2024 Film: HOT DOCS 2024: “The Bones”: Dino Intrigue!

Watch the documentary “The Bones” and you will never see dinosaurs the way you used to. I have taken my children to see the dinosaurs at The Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and now it is the grandchildren. Children are fascinated with dinosaurs but if you take them when they are too young, they mayContinue reading “RKS 2024 Film: HOT DOCS 2024: “The Bones”: Dino Intrigue!”