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This week, catch up with some of the best documentaries of the year: animated doc Archipelago, featured in our latest ebook Subjective realities, is screening in Canada and the US; The Meaning of Empathy is screening in the US and Ontario; and North By Current is screening in North America.
Wherever you are in the world, catch up with one of the indie gems of the year, Everything in the End, on Sept 23 at the Vail Film Festival.
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In our recent ebook on creative nonfiction film, Subjective realities: The art of creative nonfiction film, I interviewed Québécois filmmaker Félix Dufour-Lapperière about his gorgeous animated film Archipelago, which is still making the rounds at film festivals. The interview appears in our case study on animated documentaries. This week only, you can catch it in both Canada and the US!
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Québécois animator Félix Dufour-Laperrière makes his first foray into documentary filmmaking with Archipelago, which mixes archival footage with animation to tell the story of the land along the St. Lawrence River. Working from a documentary about the St. Lawrence from the 1940s, which itself is an inaccurate depiction of the region at the time, Dufour-Laperrière annotates, paints over, and plays with the footage, and in turn, our sense of the history of the land.
Our guide through the territory is a woman who represents the river, an animated outline whose body is made up of live action footage of the river. She’s in conversation with a man, talking about the land, its twists and turns and islands, and how it’s changed over time. Throughout the film, there’s a sense of the impermanence of the people who live on the land: a group of dancers from the archival footage are animated into ghost-like figures; a collection of animated people rise up from the river and into the heavens.
Although the film is told mostly from a French settler perspective, the film does acknowledge the Indigenous Peoples who were there first. Innu poet Joséphine Baconinterrupts the narrative with her poem about the land, in Innu-aimun, as a reminder that our entrenched narratives about history tend to ignore the presence of Indigenous Peoples. Throughout, Dufour-Laperrière asks us to question how we tell the story of our land, how much that story is told by the dominant culture, and how that story changes over time as the culture itself changes.
Working with twelve different animators in an improvisatory style — no storyboards or detailed plans were used — allows Dufour-Laperrière to create an always inventive and surprising visual style. Each stop we make along the St. Lawrence unlocks secrets of the land and its people, sometimes with small, personal stories, and sometimes, with stories of a broader community.
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Get tickets:
Click here for tickets in the US at the Camden International Film Fest (until Sept 26).
Click here for tickets in Canada (Sept 22-29) at the Ottawa Animation Film Fest.
One of the best documentaries (and films) of the year hails from the Kainai First Nation in Canada and is streaming in Ontario and the US this week at two different festivals.
Here's an excerpt from Orla's intro to her interview with Tailfeathers:
Click here for tickets in the US at the Camden International Film Festival until September 26.
Click here for tickets in Ontario.
One of the best works of personal creative nonfiction of the year had its premiere at the Berlinale before heading to the Frameline Film Festival among others. Don't miss your chance to catch it now. It still has yet to secure North American distribution.
Here's an excerpt from the introduction to Orla's interview with director Angelo Madsen Minax:
Click here for tickets at the Camden Film Festival.
One of the best films to world premiere in 2021, and still seeking distribution. Don't miss your chance to catch it.
Here's an excerpt from Orla's intro to her interview with the director Mylissa Fitzsimmons:
Click here for tickets worldwide.
Happy watching!
Best,
Alex Heeney, Editor-in-Chief
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The Seventh Row newsletter is a free weekly newsletter featuring streaming recommendations, primarily for Canada, the US, UK, and Australia, but always features at least one worldwide streaming recommendation. We also offer occasional giveaways of free downloads of our favourite films and other benefits! Questions? Comments? Reply to this email, or find us on Twitter @SeventhRow. If you're reading this because someone forwarded this email to you, consider that helpful button to become a regular subscriber.
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Seventh Row is a nonprofit Canadian film criticism publication and publishing house. We're dedicated to helping you expand your horizons by curating the best socially progressive films from around the world and helping you think deeply about them. This newsletter is run by Seventh Row (http://seventh-row.com) but features exclusive content not found on the website.
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