At the ROM theater at the Toronto International Film Festival, separated by a long night, there were two new, singular documentaries about opposite sides of the world. Suroosh Alvi and Eddy Moretti’s Heavy Metal in Baghdad and Werner Herzog’s Encounters at the End of the World closed one day and opened another at the theater. Although they are different in style and subject, together the films showed the insanity of Earth better than the news ever could.

In its World Premiere last night, Heavy Metal in Baghdad played great to a public crowd. The doc follows the Iraqi metal band Acrassicauda as they try not only to survive in the war torn city but to practice and eventually get gigs. Directors Alvi and Moretti (of Vice magazine and their online film channel VBS.tv) give a brave and unique look into the Iraqi situation. Proudly lo-fi, and all the stronger for it, the film shows how totally fucked the band is, stuck in a homeland that doesn’t really exist, where you can live 15 minutes away from your best friend yet go six months without seeing them because you could get killed outside of your home.

Alvi and Moretti jumped into the city headfirst and created a powerful portrait of the situation by not analyzing the entire state of affairs but by giving you an insider, personal portrait of the band members and their lives there over three years. They pulled off a public show but eventually bombings get their practice space and the city gets so out of control its difficult to even meet each other.

Although the directors specialize in gonzo journalism ethics, the film is refreshingly down-to-earth. While other journalists on the ground are stuck in hotels or with troops for safety, Alvi and Moretti say fuck it, hire bodyguards and drive around. They go all over the intense city, but also acknowledge that it’s freaking scary from minute to minute.

The QnA was humble and informative, more about the band now being stuck in Syria under daily threat of being deported back to Iraq rather than the tiring “what camera did you use” questions. The filmmakers hope to get enough money and support to literally save the band members and their wives and kids. In a touching moment, one of the early band members was introduced, present in the audience, safe from the world in the film. Hopefully HMIB will play festivals around the world, as its personal story can be more enlightening than detached television experts reporting. More on the film in the next issue of Filmmaker. (You should also go to their website for more info or to donate to the band - heavymetalinbaghdad.com)

Werner Herzog’s new documentary Encounters at the End of the World had a press and industry screening to open today at ROM. The legendary director, known for going to incredibly dangerous places in order to film, went to Antarctica to profile the scientists working and living there. Herzog used his branded style of luscious images of nature covered by his accented voice-of-god diary narration, both humorous and prosaic.

While other documentaries have gone to this rarely seen part of the world, in Herzog’s hands it becomes about the magical underworld. The scientists are not boring nerds, but world travelers and poets. One man working is a trained linguist, living in a place where no language originates. Another man takes a break from his welding to explain his Apache royal heritage. A woman doing research relates tons of stories of near deaths in various countries, including going from city to city in a sewer pipe that was on the back of a truck, a free ride. Meanwhile the surroundings above and below the ice look like outer space, filled with new species found every day. Herzog takes Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom and gives it existential balls. He comes to the conclusion that nature will not put up with humans forever, sooner or later taking the Earth back from us.

Made in different worlds, both films bring sobering reality to audiences. HMIB is lo-fi with a harsh metal soundtrack. Encounters is slick with dreamy, mysterious sounds. One set in a once-bustling city destroyed by politics with people running for their lives. The other in one of the most remote places on Earth with idiosyncratic professionals looking for new life. Both show you individual stories within gigantic conditions, overwhelming you as a faraway land becomes strikingly close. But they also inspire you with their brave approach to go there.

Every 15 minutes or so, the subway runs audibly under the ROM theater. The deep rumbles fit both films well.

# posted by Mike Plante @ 9/09/2007 02:11:00 PM

Comments (2)

 
How is the Joy Division doc?
# posted by  Anonymous @ 9/09/2007 4:33 PM  

 
Good review m8. There's a site to download at http://totalcollectionmovie.blogspot.com
# posted by  Anonymous @ 9/20/2007 7:48 AM  

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