LEAGUE OF EXOTIQUE DANCERS opens theatrically on May 20, 2016 in Toronto (Bloor), Vancouver (Rio), Edmonton (Metro Cinema) via KinoSmith

Legendary Burlesque Queen and Russ Meyer Star
KITTEN NATIVIDAD, her cutey cartoony still emblazoned
on the equally legendary gentlemen's club, The Body Shop.

League of Exotique Dancers (2016)
Dir. Rama Rau
Prd. Ed Barreveld
Starring: Kitten Natividad, Camille 2000, Delilah Jones, Gina Bon Bon, Holiday O'Hara, Judith Stein, Lovey Goldmine, Marinka, Toni Elling

READ THE FULL **** FOUR-STAR REVIEW by Greg Klymkiw HERE

LEAGUE OF EXOTIQUE DANCERS - HOT DOCS 2016 Review By Greg Klymkiw - a history of the art of Burlesque through the seen-it-all eyes of Burlesque Hall of Fame inductees

Legendary Burlesque Queen and Russ Meyer Star
KITTEN NATIVIDAD, her cutey cartoony still emblazoned
on the equally legendary gentlemen's club, The Body Shop.

League of Exotique Dancers (2016)
Dir. Rama Rau
Prd. Ed Barreveld
Starring: Kitten Natividad, Camille 2000, Delilah Jones, Gina Bon Bon, Holiday O'Hara, Judith Stein, Lovey Goldmine, Marinka, Toni Elling

Review By Greg Klymkiw

I've always loved burlesque. As a healthy, young lad growing up in Winnipeg, I was surrounded by the finest in this magnificent form of entertainment thanks to a crusty old booking agent by the name of Gladys Balsillie who managed a stable of formidable talent on constant view in only the finest gentlemen's clubs of my old winter city. Known famously as "Gladdie's Girls", these ladies were no mere strippers, but featured performers who put on super-cool shows with props, costumes, jokes, storytelling and even narrative arcs to their dances. The greatest of these ladies was the incomparable June Tracy, a ribald, full-figured octogenarian beauty who spun deliciously dirty tales through her craggy, chain-smoke-charred voice pipes. Not only could she twirl one tassel-adorned breast at a time, she oft-performed her famed bubble bath act in a claw-footed tub and then, always ended every show with a series of vigorous bows and the best exit-line ever: "Thank you, thank you, thank you," she'd belt out and then, after a perfectly-timed pause, "…Thank you, relatives!"

- my review of Beth B's EXPOSED

Last year I prefaced the 2015 edition of Hot Docs with a review of Exposed, Beth B's insightful documentary on contemporary burlesque, which, at the time, was making its DVD debut on Zeitgeist Films home entertainment. One year later, I'm faced with the world premier and opening night picture of Hot Docs 2016, which is none other than ace Storyline Entertainment documentary producer Ed Barreveld's League of Exotique Dancers, directed by Rama Rau.

Rau trains cinematographer Iris Ng's expert lens upon a group of exotic burlesque dancers who are not only still with us, but are on the precipice of their induction into the Burlesque Hall of Fame, which will include more than the mere ceremony, but full-on burlesque shows by a number of these great ladies.

The interviews not only provide a rich history of burlesque, but reveal a cornucopia of insights into the themes of female power, grace and showmanship during a time when women in North America were viewed by most men as Madonnas or Whores, Housewives or Harlots, Molly Maids or Madams (and maybe even a healthy/unhealthy mixture of the aforementioned couplings). Though the film provides any number of positive perspectives on the art of burlesque, it also sheds light on those who view it as sex-trade work, pure and simple, some of their lives replete with abuse, addiction and sadness.

One thing they seem to all agree on, though, is that burlesque was a far cry from straight-up stripping and certainly light-years ahead of how disgusting many of the contemporary clubs have become since the implementation of lap dancing, private dancing and the addition of dark V.I.P. rooms which are little more than whorehouses.

Burlesque is bump-and-grind, to be sure, but with the implementation of costumes, makeup and even stories for the various dances, it's hardly a stretch to declare it erotic performance art of the highest order. Some of the thematic elements of the dances might be imbued with satiric and/or political intent, whilst others are simply there to entertain, but what one cannot deny is the fact that fun, and often humour, are the order of the day.

Seeing these grand ladies in their august years, seated like royalty on their respective perches, dolled-up and dressed to the nines, prancing and parading us through neighbourhoods of their past, is a thing of sheer beauty. To see them perform now, is even more tantalizing (attention all GMILF aficionados), especially in juxtaposition to cutter Rob Ruzic's expertly edited montages of archival footage from the golden age of burlesque.

Each of the women make for magnificently entertaining and insightful interview subjects, but if I'm allowed, I'm picking a handful of favourites. Gotta love the Canadian content (this is a Canadian film, after all) with Judith Stein, her famed monicker none other than the saucy "Great Canadian Beaver", the beautiful and erudite Toni Elling recounting the experience from the women-of-colour perspective and Marinka matter-of-factly discussing her sales of used G-strings to those fetishists wishing to take the scent of a woman back home with them.

Kitten Natividad shares her love story
with master filmmaker, the late Russ Meyer.

The inclusion of the gorgeous, supremely intelligent and truly legendary Kitten Natividad made the whole movie sing for me. Director Rau importantly focuses on Natividad's professional and personal relationship with the great Master filmmaker Russ (Faster Pussycat Kill Kill, Beneath the Valley of the Ultra-Vixens, Up!) Meyer. We get to visit the front yard of his modest suburban dwelling (from which one can see the famed HOLLYWOOD sign) and hear Natividad's reminiscences of what sounds like a truly and deeply profound love story. The film also gives a healthy nod to Meyer's place as a film artist, including some terrific clips from his work and the genuinely amazing footage of Russ cutting on a Movieola in his garage.

I couldn't help but shed a tear as Natividad recounted Meyer's final years afflicted with Alzheimer's and how she selflessly took on the role as his primary caregiver.

What Rau's film finally proves is that sex might sell, but the business and art of selling sex can be infused with great love, joy, intellect, imagination, self-discovery and humanity. This, is a good thing. Judgement is easy. Acceptance is what distinguishes us in the eyes of whatever Creator looks down upon us.

THE FILM CORNER RATING: **** 4-stars

League of Exotique Dancers is a Kinosmith release. Its world premiere is the opening night of Hot Docs 2016.

HERMAN'S HOUSE - Review By Greg Klymkiw - Premieres on PBS July 8, 2013: An Absolute MUST-SEE!

HERMAN'S HOUSE, a film by Angad Singh Bhalla, produced by Lisa Valencia-Svensson, from Ed Barreveld's visionary Storyline Entertainment, is a call to action. Call it activist cinema, if you must. Ultimately, it is cinema in as fine and pure a form imaginable. Telling the harrowing story of an African-American convict who has spent over 40 years in solitary confinement within a prison once used as a slave breeding plantation and a committed young artist who seeks to deliver a glimmer of hope to this wrongfully convicted human being, it's as maddening as it is moving. Welcome to America! The PBS Premiere is July 8, 2013. Check your local listings It's Online: July 8, 2013 – Aug. 6, 2013. PBS direct link below. The following is a slightly revised reprint of a review that first appeared during the Hot Docs Film Festival and the film's Bloor Cinema theatrical run.

Herman's House (2012) ****
dir. Angad Singh Bhalla
Starring: Jackie Sumell, Herman Wallace

Review By Greg Klymkiw

Herman Wallace.

African-American.

Black Panther activist.

Commits armed bank robbery.

Sentenced to 25 years in Louisiana's Angola Prison (a former slave breeding plantation). 1972: Wrongfully convicted of murdering a prison guard. The evidence is clearly trumped up. Even the wife of the murdered guard believes a miscarriage of justice might have occurred and wants the truth. Appeal after appeal. Nothing.

Herman Wallace was placed in solitary confinement. In 1972. 23 Hours a day. Every single day. A cell measuring six feet by nine feet. It is now 2012.

Solitary confinement is torture. Herman Wallace has been tortured for 40 years. Repeat. 40 years. Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to America.

In light of a statement made by Jon Hubbard, a Republican legislator from Arkansas in his book, "Letters to the Editor: Confessions of a Frustrated Conservative", it's even more clear where America is headed unless people say "No!" to this continued madness. (And in Canada, we can't afford to be complacent about this. We're currently ruled by psychopaths also.) In his book, the moron Hubbard wrote:

"“… the institution of slavery that the black race has long believed to be an abomination upon its people may actually have been a blessing in disguise. The blacks who could endure those conditions and circumstances would someday be rewarded with citizenship in the greatest nation ever established upon the face of the Earth.”

I've never been more proud to be a Canadian after seeing Herman's House. This is an American story, but it took Canadians to bring it to the screen.

Herman's House is an extraordinary film about extraordinary people in a country that has sadly learned nothing since 1776 but the right of might, the power of the dollar and the exploitation of the poor - a country that purports to be the most powerful democracy in the world, but is little more than a backwards Totalitarian State - run by a greedy, mean-spirited, prejudiced Old Boys Club. Or, call them what you will - an oligarchy, gangsters, the New World Order - or Hell, why not all three? Bush I, Bush II, Clinton, Obama, all those before and all those who will come after - they're just puppets anyway. To paraphrase Michael Corleone in Godfather II: They're all a part of the same hypocrisy.

The people, the Real People, are the victims. Surprisingly they persevere. They shed their victimhood by fighting back - not with fists, but with the weaponry of activism, the fighting spirit of the soul.

This is a movie that will anger, frustrate and yet finally, move you to tears as it explores real compassion and understanding amongst those with the only power they have - their hearts, their minds and most of all, imagination. At times, the storytelling in this miraculous work is so artfully wrought, one occasionally forgets it's a documentary and you find yourself thinking, "Jesus, if this really happened, things are more fucked in America than I ever imagined." Then comes the proverbial pinch. You're not dreaming. You're not watching a neo-realist drama. These are real people, this really happened and is, in fact, really happening.

In America.

When the New York artist Jackie Sumell heard about the plight of Herman Wallace, she began to correspond with him. In time they forged a deep friendship on opposite ends of the country - one free, the other in prison. And not just prison - solitary confinement.

For a crime he did not commit. (And even if he did, which he clearly did not, but just saying - even if he did, you do not torture someone for 40 years. Unless, of course, you are a Totalitarian State - which, though some try to deny it - America most certainly is.)

Jackie began to use her power as an artist to imagine and create the world in which Herman lived. Soon, she began to plumb his imagination and try to discover what a man in solitary might concoct if he could have his very own dream home. Working strictly from Herman's specifications, Jackie created an art piece that represented Herman's design. Not only did Jackie create a work of art (that has toured to five countries), she was able to provide a vehicle for Herman to plumb the depths of his dreams.

Director Angad Bhalla spent five years following this story. We meet with Herman's family, friends and former cell mates and are privy to telephone conversations between Jackie and Herman. On subject matter alone, this would have been a fine film, but it goes well beyond having great material. This is a real movie made by a real filmmaker, surrounded by a first-rate team of collaborators - all of whom have rendered a picture of finely wrought drama and cinematic artistry of a very high order.

Ricardo Acosta's editing skillfully juggles several years worth of material and delivers a compelling forward thrust. The top-drawer cinematography by Bhalla and Iris Ng is full of superlative compositions and a magnificent, deft use of light. Punctuating much of the film are a series of stunning animated sequences by Nicolas Brault that blend perfectly with the overall mise-en-scene.

The sound mixing by the legendary Daniel Pellerin is especially brilliant - capturing the delicate blend of superb location sound, voice-over, Ken Myhr's highly evocative musical score and most astoundingly, the recordings of Herman on the phone (eerily and occasionally punctuated with a computer generated voice that reminds us that the State Correctional Institute is monitoring the conversation).

Welcome to 1984 in 2012.

Welcome, once again, to America!!!

What I love about this film is that it's infused with an independent spirit. The production value and artistry are of a high order, but there's nothing slick about it. Nothing feels machine-tooled in the way so many contemporary documentaries are fashioned. It's grass-roots storytelling - replete with passion, vigour and a deep emotional core.

And, Goddamn!

It's one hell of a great story!

The PBS Premiere is July 8, 2013. Check your local listings It's Online: July 8, 2013 – Aug. 6, 2013. Visit the PBS website HERE. The official Herman's House website is HERE.

Ed Barreveld’s annus miraculous - By Greg Klymkiw - Feature Article from POV Magazine on one of Canada's finest producers of documentary product is now online!!!

Ed Barreveld’s annus miraculous

Feature Article for POV Magazine

By Greg Klymkiw

This is acclaimed Canadian documentary producer Ed Barreveld (or "EddieB" as he's known on the mean streets of Toronto). He is seen here through the lens wielded by his four-year-old daughter HAZEL.

This is a shot from one of Ed's productions, THE WORLD BEFORE HER, the critically acclaimed and multi-award-winning feature documentary examining the role of young women in today's India.

This is a shot from another one of Ed's productions, HERMAN'S HOUSE, the critically acclaimed and multi-award winning feature documentary exposing one of the most heinous human right violations in American History (that continues to this day).

These are Ukrainian Garlic Sausages. They really have nothing to do with this other than the fact that the author of this story is UKRAINIAN.

This is Canada's premiere magazine about documentaries and independent films. It is celebrating its 20th year and under the visionary editorial stamp of Canada's legendary Marc Glassman, IT ROCKS BIG TIME! This is where you will find my article on EddieB, Master Gangsta' of Canuck Doc Production. JUST CLICK THE POV LOGO ABOVE AND YOU WILL BE TAKEN ON A MAGIC CYBER CARPET RIDE TO THE ARTICLE THAT PROBES ALL THE CAVITIES THAT ARE FISSURES UPON THE CANADIAN DOCUMENTARY LANDSCAPE. ENJOY!!!

THE WORLD BEFORE HER - Review By Greg Klymkiw

Award-winning doc The World Before Her opens theatrically

The World Before Her (2012) ****
dir.Nisha Pahuja


Review By Greg Klymkiw

Enrolled in a Hindu camp for women, Prachi icily declares that she'll kill (in self-defence) anyone who's against her religion.

"I am not a Gandhi supporter," she asserts from within this camp devoted to Hindu fundamentalism. "Frankly, I hate Gandhi."

Nineteen drop-dead gorgeous participants in the Miss India Pageant prep for a Bombay Times cover shot. "Oomph factor" is everything. "The look is sexy," says their coach. "Not bitchy."

What, then, is the future for the young women of modern India?

Is it adherence to thousands of years of subservient tradition or finding success through beauty? Is it deepening their love for the Hindu religion through rigorous paramilitary training or maintaining their ties to religion and culture while engaging in the exploitation of their sexuality? The chasm between these two polar opposites couldn't be wider and yet, as we discover in Nisha Pahuja's extraordinary and compelling documentary feature The World Before Her, the differences are often skin deep as parallel lines clearly exist beneath the surface.

All of this makes for one lollapalooza of a movie! Vibrant, incisive, penetrating and supremely entertaining, director Pahuja and her crackerjack team deliver one terrific picture - a genuine corker!

Seamlessly, and at times breathtakingly, we shift back and forth between the contestants of the Miss India Pageant training tirelessly within the walls of an urban Novotel for their shot at fame and fortune and the life of Prachi, firmly committed to a career - as she likes to call it - of serving her God, country and culture and preparing in the rural splendour of the Durgha Vahini training camp for young women.

Both groups of women must submit to the rigours of near-castigatory physical activity - albeit very different forms of it. Prachi learns the art of self defence - how to break a man's arm, how to stave off a knife thrust and turn the weapon against her opponent. The beauty contestants engage in punishing exercise regimens, not unlike the U.S. Marine-like maneuvers the Durgha Vahini women go through and are drilled in movement and precision: how to stand, how to walk. What our fundamentalists-in-training don't have to put up with are the hours of beauty makeovers - the most appalling of which are the burning sensations inflicted upon the beauty-queens-in-training during skin-lightening treatments. Ugh! As a fella, I even cringe at the thought of waxing.

For me, however, perhaps the most phenomenal footage in the entire movie are the differences in the relationships the two sets of women have with their parents. The mother and father of one beauty queen contestant are both so open, liberal, supportive and intelligent that their belief and pride in their daughter is deeply moving.

Prachi, on the other hand, is another story. Whenever her father opened his mouth my jaw kept thudding to the floor with such force and frequency, that if metaphor morphed into reality, I'd need to have major dental and periodontal surgery to restore it back into place.

Anyone who does to their kid what this guy does is an asshole. Yeah, yeah, yeah - it's a cultural thing! Big deal! Besides, a Hindu Holy Man I know had bestowed upon me the gift of an English translation of Hindu religious writings and I might be blind, but I sure don't remember anything in there like the following:

Prachi's evil clown of a father is seen sitting cross-legged, often with a smile on his face and his eyes raging with the fires of fundamentalism as he describes how he has been regularly beating his daughter for years in order to teach her right from wrong. Astoundingly, he admits that if his daughter had to engage in a Holy War and die for her religion, he'd be both happy and proud. He even infers that it would be okay in his books if his treatment was mirrored by a future husband.

When he proudly declares how he cured his daughter at age 12 from ever lying to him again, I came close to losing it completely. Daddy Dearest took a red hot iron from the coals and seared the flesh of his daughter's foot so that: (a) it would take weeks to heal and that every time she limped in pain, she'd remember how naughty it was to lie and (b) that the scar would be a constant reminder of her indiscretion.

I reiterate, my pal of the Hindu Holy Man persuasion, a respected Pandit (or as we often refer to him, Panditji) wished to provide me with a first-rate source of Hindu teachings and philosophies and after seeing The World Before Her, I scoured it religiously (so to speak) to find something resembling the idiocies spouted above.

Nada.

Sadly, when Prachi is interviewed about these events, she seems totally at ease with this - going so far as to blithely admit she prefers her Dad punching rather than slapping her since she's able to withstand the pain from the former and not the latter.

It must be all the military training she gets in the female terrorist camp.

As if I wasn't agog enough, Prachi admits that her father DESERVES to beat her because he let her live when she was born. You see, he considered murdering her as she was female, not male.

The film relates the stomach turning statistic that one million female babies in India are murdered every year due to the fact that male children are preferred. They're bread-winners. Women are, uh, parasites who need to be married off. Beyond some basic servitude, it seems they don't offer much anything else of value.

You know, I might have missed something, or maybe the English translation was off, but AGAIN, I really don't remember reading ANYTHING in the Hindu Holy Writings about murdering one's newborn daughter.

This is barbaric.

Prachi's story both parallels and contrasts wildly with the story of one beauty queen referred to in the film. Her mother was so disgusted that her husband wanted to murder their newborn daughter that she left him. The result, a beautiful, intelligent young lady who went on to claim the crown of Miss World India.

I have a few choice descriptive epithets for fathers like the aforementioned, but I'll allow my usual restraint in such matters to refrain from citing them here.

The bottom line is that The World Before Her is must-see viewing for everyone - men, women, sons, daughters - of all races, cultures, traditions and religions. My 11-year-old daughter watched the movie with me and I can't begin to express how profoundly it affected and touched her.

Even more extraordinary were her observations that: (a) the beauty pageant contestants were also beholden to men the way the "old-fashioned" women were and (b) that both sets of women were making their own choices in spite of being in a world where others want to make choices for them.

You know, I couldn't have said it better myself.

This is a revised review that appeared during the 2012 edition of the Hot Docs film festival. "The World Before Her" is now playing theatrically at the Bloor Hot Docs Cinema via Kino-Smith before rolling out on a platform release across Canada. For tickets and info visit the theatre's website HERE.

HERMAN'S HOUSE, a film by Angad Singh Bhalla, produced by Lisa Valencia-Svensson, from Ed Barreveld's visionary Storyline Entertainment - Reviewed By Greg Klymkiw

HERMAN'S HOUSE is a call to action. Call it activist cinema, if you must. Ultimately, it is cinema in as fine and pure a form imaginable. Telling the harrowing story of an African-American convict who has spent over 40 years in solitary confinement within a prison once used as a slave breeding plantation and a committed young artist who seeks to deliver a glimmer of hope to this wrongfully convicted human being, it's as maddening as it is moving. Welcome to America!

Herman's House (2012) ****
dir. Angad Singh Bhalla

Starring:
Jackie Sumell,
Herman Wallace

Review By
Greg Klymkiw

Herman Wallace.

African-American.

Black Panther activist.

Commits armed bank robbery.

Sentenced to 25 years in Louisiana's Angola Prison (a former slave breeding plantation). 1972: Wrongfully convicted of murdering a prison guard. The evidence is clearly trumped up. Even the wife of the murdered guard believes a miscarriage of justice might have occurred and wants the truth. Appeal after appeal. Nothing.

Herman Wallace was placed in solitary confinement. In 1972. 23 Hours a day. Every single day. A cell measuring six feet by nine feet. It is now 2012.

Solitary confinement is torture. Herman Wallace has been tortured for 40 years. Repeat. 40 years. Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to America.

In light of a statement made by Jon Hubbard, a Republican legislator from Arkansas in his book, "Letters to the Editor: Confessions of a Frustrated Conservative", it's even more clear where America is headed unless people say "No!" to this continued madness. (And in Canada, we can't afford to be complacent about this. We're currently ruled by psychopaths also.) In his book, the moron Hubbard wrote:

"“… the institution of slavery that the black race has long believed to be an abomination upon its people may actually have been a blessing in disguise. The blacks who could endure those conditions and circumstances would someday be rewarded with citizenship in the greatest nation ever established upon the face of the Earth.”

I've never been more proud to be a Canadian after seeing Herman's House. This is an American story, but it took Canadians to bring it to the screen.

Herman's House is an extraordinary film about extraordinary people in a country that has sadly learned nothing since 1776 but the right of might, the power of the dollar and the exploitation of the poor - a country that purports to be the most powerful democracy in the world, but is little more than a backwards Totalitarian State - run by a greedy, mean-spirited, prejudiced Old Boys Club. Or, call them what you will - an oligarchy, gangsters, the New World Order - or Hell, why not all three? Bush I, Bush II, Clinton, Obama, all those before and all those who will come after - they're just puppets anyway. To paraphrase Michael Corleone in Godfather II: They're all a part of the same hypocrisy.

The people, the Real People, are the victims. Surprisingly they persevere. They shed their victimhood by fighting back - not with fists, but with the weaponry of activism, the fighting spirit of the soul.

This is a movie that will anger, frustrate and yet finally, move you to tears as it explores real compassion and understanding amongst those with the only power they have - their hearts, their minds and most of all, imagination. At times, the storytelling in this miraculous work is so artfully wrought, one occasionally forgets it's a documentary and you find yourself thinking, "Jesus, if this really happened, things are more fucked in America than I ever imagined." Then comes the proverbial pinch. You're not dreaming. You're not watching a neo-realist drama. These are real people, this really happened and is, in fact, really happening.

In America.

When the New York artist Jackie Sumell heard about the plight of Herman Wallace, she began to correspond with him. In time they forged a deep friendship on opposite ends of the country - one free, the other in prison. And not just prison - solitary confinement.

For a crime he did not commit. (And even if he did, which he clearly did not, but just saying - even if he did, you do not torture someone for 40 years. Unless, of course, you are a Totalitarian State - which, though some try to deny it - America most certainly is.)

Jackie began to use her power as an artist to imagine and create the world in which Herman lived. Soon, she began to plumb his imagination and try to discover what a man in solitary might concoct if he could have his very own dream home. Working strictly from Herman's specifications, Jackie created an art piece that represented Herman's design. Not only did Jackie create a work of art (that has toured to five countries), she was able to provide a vehicle for Herman to plumb the depths of his dreams.

Director Angad Bhalla spent five years following this story. We meet with Herman's family, friends and former cell mates and are privy to telephone conversations between Jackie and Herman. On subject matter alone, this would have been a fine film, but it goes well beyond having great material. This is a real movie made by a real filmmaker, surrounded by a first-rate team of collaborators - all of whom have rendered a picture of finely wrought drama and cinematic artistry of a very high order.

Ricardo Acosta's editing skillfully juggles several years worth of material and delivers a compelling forward thrust. The top-drawer cinematography by Bhalla and Iris Ng is full of superlative compositions and a magnificent, deft use of light. Punctuating much of the film are a series of stunning animated sequences by Nicolas Brault that blend perfectly with the overall mise-en-scene.

The sound mixing by the legendary Daniel Pellerin is especially brilliant - capturing the delicate blend of superb location sound, voice-over, Ken Myhr's highly evocative musical score and most astoundingly, the recordings of Herman on the phone (eerily and occasionally punctuated with a computer generated voice that reminds us that the State Correctional Institute is monitoring the conversation).

Welcome to 1984 in 2012.

Welcome, once again, to America!!!

What I love about this film is that it's infused with an independent spirit. The production value and artistry are of a high order, but there's nothing slick about it. Nothing feels machine-tooled in the way so many contemporary documentaries are fashioned. It's grass-roots storytelling - replete with passion, vigour and a deep emotional core.

And, Goddamn!

It's one hell of a great story!

"Herman's House" is playing in Toronto at the Hot Docs Bloor Theatre. For showtimes, dates and tickets, visit the Bloor website HERE. The official Herman's House website is HERE.

THE WORLD BEFORE HER - Review By Greg Klymkiw - HOT DOCS 2012 MUST-SEE #5

The World Before Her … (2012) dir.Nisha Pahuja … **** By Greg Klymkiw

Enrolled in a fundamentalist Hindu camp for women, Prachi declares with icy resolve that she will kill (in self-defence) anyone who's against her religion. "I am not a Gandhi supporter," she asserts. "Frankly, I hate Gandhi."

Nineteen drop-dead gorgeous participants in the Miss India Pageant prep for a Bombay Times cover shot. "Oomph factor" is everything. "The look is sexy," says their coach. "Not bitchy."


What is the future for the young women of modern India? Is it adherence to thousands of years of subservient tradition or finding success through beauty? Is it deepening their love for the Hindu religion through rigorous paramilitary training or maintaining their ties to religion and culture while engaging in the exploitation of their sexuality? The chasm between these two polar opposites couldn't be wider and yet, as we discover in Nisha Pahuja's extraordinary and compelling documentary feature The World Before Her, the differences are often skin deep as parallel lines clearly exist beneath the surface.

All of this makes for one lollapalooza of a movie! Vibrant, incisive, penetrating and supremely entertaining, director Pahuja and her crackerjack team deliver one terrific picture - a genuine corker!

Seamlessly, and at times breathtakingly, we shift back and forth between the contestants of the Miss India Pageant training tirelessly within the walls of an urban Novotel for their shot at fame and fortune and the life of Prachi, firmly committed to a career - as she likes to call it - of serving her God, country and culture and preparing in the rural splendour of the Durgha Vahini training camp for young women.

Both groups of women must submit to the rigours of near-castigatory physical activity - albeit very different forms of it. Prachi learns the art of self defence - how to break a man's arm, how to stave off a knife thrust and turn the weapon against her opponent. The beauty contestants engage in punishing exercise regimens, not unlike the U.S. Marine-like maneuvers the Durgha Vahini women go through and are drilled in movement and precision: how to stand, how to walk. What our fundamentalists-in-training don't have to put up with are the hours of beauty makeovers - the most appalling of which are the burning sensations inflicted upon the beauty-queens-in-training during skin-lightening treatments. Ugh! As a fella, I even cringe at the thought of waxing.

For me, however, perhaps the most phenomenal footage in the entire movie are the differences in the relationships the two sets of women have with their parents. The mother and father of one beauty queen contestant are both so open, liberal, supportive and intelligent that their belief and pride in their daughter is deeply moving.

Prachi, on the other hand, is another story. Whenever her father opened his mouth my jaw kept thudding to the floor with such force and frequency, that if metaphor morphed into reality, I'd need to have major dental and periodontal surgery to restore it back into place.

Anyone who does to their kid what this guy does is an asshole. Yeah, yeah, yeah - it's a cultural thing! Big deal! Besides, a Hindu Holy Man I know had bestowed upon me the gift of an English translation of religious writings and I might be blind, but I sure don't remember anything in there like the following.

Prachi's evil clown of a father is seen sitting cross-legged, often with a smile on his face and his eyes raging with the fires of fundamentalism as he describes how he has been regularly beating his daughter for years in order to teach her right from wrong. Astoundingly, he admits that if his daughter had to engage in a Holy War and die for her religion, he'd be both happy and proud. He even infers that it would be okay in his books if his treatment was mirrored by a future husband.

When he proudly declares how he cured his daughter at age 12 from ever lying to him again, I came close to losing it completely. Daddy Dearest took a red hot iron from the coals and seared the flesh of his daughter's foot so that: (a) it would take weeks to heal and that every time she limped in pain, she'd remember how naughty it was to lie and (b) that the scar would be a constant reminder of her indiscretion.

Sadly, when Prachi is interviewed about these events, she seems totally at ease with this - going so far to admit that she prefers when he punches her to slapping her as she's able to withstand the pain from the former and not the latter. It must be all the military training she gets in the female terrorist camp.

As if I wasn't agog enough, Prachi admits that her father DESERVES to beat her because he let her live when she was born. You see, he considered murdering her as she was female, not male.

The film relates the stomach turning statistic that one million female babies in India are murdered every year due to the fact that male children are preferred. They're bread-winners. Women are, uh, parasites who need to be married off. Beyond some basic servitude, it seems they don't offer much anything else of value.

You know, I might have missed something, or maybe the English translation was off, but I really don't remember reading anything in the Hindu Holy Writings about murdering one's newborn daughter.

Prachi's story both parallels and contrasts wildly with the story of one beauty queen. Her mother was so disgusted that her husband wanted to murder their newborn daughter that she left him. The result, a beautiful, intelligent young lady who went on to claim the crown of Miss World India.

I have a few choice descriptive epithets for fathers like the aforementioned, but I'll allow my usual restraint in such matters to refrain from citing them here.

The bottom line is that The World Before Her is must-see viewing for everyone - men, women, sons, daughters - of all races, cultures, traditions and religions. My 11-year-old daughter watched the movie with me and I can't begin to express how profoundly it affected and touched her.

Even more extraordinary were her observations that: (a) the beauty pageant contestants were also beholden to men the way the "old-fashioned" women were and (b) that both sets of women were making their own choices in spite of being in a world where others want to make choices for them.

You know, I couldn't have said it better myself.

"The World Before Her" is playing Wed, May 2 7:00 PM at the Isabel Bader Theatre, Sat, May 5 9:30 PM at TIFF Bell Lightbox 1 and Sun, May 6 11:00 AM at the Isabel Bader Theatre during Toronto's Hot Docs 2012. For tickets, visits the Hot Docs website HERE.

HERMAN'S HOUSE - Review By Greg Klymkiw - Hot Docs 2012 Must See #1

Herman's House (2012) dir. Angad Bhalla
Starring: Jackie Sumell, Herman Wallace

****

By Greg Klymkiw

Herman Wallace - African-American. Black Panther activist. Commits armed bank robbery. Sentenced to 25 years in Louisiana's Angola Prison (a former slave breeding plantation). 1972: Wrongfully convicted of murdering a prison guard. The evidence is clearly trumped up. Even the wife of the murdered guard believes a miscarriage of justice might have occurred and wants the truth. Appeal after appeal. Nothing. Herman Wallace was placed in solitary confinement. In 1972. 23 Hours a day. Every single day. A cell measuring six feet by nine feet. It is now 2012.

Solitary confinement is torture. Herman Wallace has been tortured for 40 years. Repeat. 40 years. Ladies and gentlemen, Welcome to America.

Herman's House is an extraordinary film about extraordinary people in a country that has sadly learned nothing since 1776 but the right of might, the power of the dollar and the exploitation of the poor - a country that purports to be the most powerful democracy in the world, but is little more than a backwards Totalitarian State - run by a greedy, mean-spirited, prejudiced Old Boys Club. Or, call them what you will - an oligarchy, gangsters, the New World Order - or Hell, why not all three? Bush I, Bush II, Clinton, Obama, all those before and all those who will come after - they're just puppets anyway. To paraphrase Michael Corleone in Godfather II: They're all a part of the same hypocrisy.

The people, the Real People, are the victims. Surprisingly they persevere. They shed their victimhood by fighting back - not with fists, but with the weaponry of activism, the fighting spirit of the soul.

This is a movie that will anger, frustrate and yet finally, move you to tears as it explores real compassion and understanding amongst those with the only power they have - their hearts, their minds and most of all, imagination. At times, the storytelling in this miraculous work is so artfully wrought, one occasionally forgets it's a documentary and you find yourself thinking, "Jesus, if this really happened, things are more fucked in America than I ever imagined." Then comes the proverbial pinch. You're not dreaming. You're not watching a neo-realist drama. These are real people, this really happened and is, in fact, really happening.

In America.

When the New York artist Jackie Sumell heard about the plight of Herman Wallace, she began to correspond with him. In time they forged a deep friendship on opposite ends of the country - one free, the other in prison. And not just prison - solitary confinement.

For a crime he did not commit. (And even if he did, which he clearly did not, but just saying - even if he did, you do not torture someone for 40 years. Unless, of course, you are a Totalitarian State - which, though some try to deny it - America most certainly is.)

Jackie began to use her power as an artist to imagine and create the world in which Herman lived. Soon, she began to plumb his imagination and try to discover what a man in solitary might concoct if he could have his very own dream home. Working strictly from Herman's specifications, Jackie created an art piece that represented Herman's design. Not only did Jackie create a work of art (that has toured to five countries), she was able to provide a vehicle for Herman to plumb the depths of his dreams.

Director Angad Bhalla spent five years following this story. We meet with Herman's family, friends and former cell mates and are privy to telephone conversations between Jackie and Herman. On subject matter alone, this would have been a fine film, but it goes well beyond having great material. This is a real movie made by a real filmmaker, surrounded by a first-rate team of collaborators - all of whom have rendered a picture of finely wrought drama and cinematic artistry of a very high order.

Ricardo Acosta's editing skillfully juggles several years worth of material and delivers a compelling forward thrust. The top-drawer cinematography by Bhalla and Iris Ng is full of superlative compositions and a magnificent, deft use of light. Punctuating much of the film are a series of stunning animated sequences by Nicolas Brault that blend perfectly with the overall mise-en-scene.

The sound mixing by the legendary Daniel Pellerin is especially brilliant - capturing the delicate blend of superb location sound, voice-over, Ken Myhr's highly evocative musical score and most astoundingly, the recordings of Herman on the phone (eerily and occasionally punctuated with a computer generated voice that reminds us that the State Correctional Institute is monitoring the conversation).

Welcome to 1984 in 2012.

Welcome, once again, to America!!!

What I love about this film is that it's infused with an independent spirit. The production value and artistry are of a high order, but there's nothing slick about it. Nothing feels machine-tooled in the way so many contemporary documentaries are fashioned. It's grass-roots storytelling - replete with passion, vigour and a deep emotional core.

And, Goddamn!

It's one hell of a great story!

"Herman's House" is playing in Toronto at the Hot Docs 2012 Film Festival on Fri, Apr 27 9:00 PM - TIFF Bell Lightbox 1, Wed, May 2 9:15 PM - The ROM Theatre and Sun, May 6 9:30 PM - TIFF Bell Lightbox 2. For tickets, visit the Hot Docs website HERE. If you miss it at Hot Docs, I can't imagine the film not being picked up and handled properly by a great theatrical distributor. This movie needs to be seen far and wide. The official Herman's House website is HERE.