FILM REVIEWS:
LEAD AND COPPER (USA 2024) ***
Directed by William Hart
The documentary LEAD AND COPPER is about the Flint water crisis - a public health crisis that started in 2014 after the drinking water for the city of Flint, Michigan, was contaminated with lead and possibly Legionella bacteria. In April 2014, during a financial crisis, state-appointed emergency manager Darnell Earley changed Flint's water source from the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (sourced from Lake Huron and the Detroit River) to the Flint River. Residents complained about the taste, smell, and appearance of the water. Officials failed to apply corrosion inhibitors to the water, which resulted in lead from aging pipes leaching into the water supply, exposing around 100,000 residents to elevated lead levels. A pair of scientific studies confirmed that lead contamination was present in the water supply. It is all-out saving money at the expense of human beings, least of all minority black people.
How did we not see this coming? How could we let this happen? Two questions were asked in the voiceover at the start of the doc when the voiceover says that the company deliberately falsified documents and polluted the waters. The answer is quite clear as the two questions are also asked in many docs whistleblowing bad companies that are run by guilty and conscienceless executives. The culprits here are different and do not include the CEO and top management but the government and governing bodies. This a prime example that no one can be trusted least of all the Government. Flint isn't America's first major lead crisis, and it will not be the last. The closing credits indicate all the counties that face the lead poisoning problem.
The Flint water crisis has a lot of grounds to cover, and director Hart has to decide what information to keep and what to omit. Hart concentrates on personal cases, especially the one involving a Flint resident who took up upon herself to collect water samples and raise a stink about the lead poisoning,
On April 24th, 2014, Flint, Michigan switched water sources to the Flint River, a cost-saving measure enacted by former Governor Rick Snyder and his appointed Emergency Manager. This decision poisoned a city that had already been neglected for decades.
Over 8 years, through interviews of members of Congress, local officials, environmental and engineering scientists, former EPA employees, and the families affected by lead poisoning, LEAD & COPPER investigates how city, state, and federal policies contributed to environmental crises like those experienced in Flint, Newark, and Washington, D.C.
State and city officials lie to the population of Flint, Michigan about the safety of their water, leading to thousands of people being diagnosed with lead poisoning. Lead & Copper exposes the dominoes that fell that led to one of America's worst public health disasters.
The film contains interviews by important sources that lend their hand in making the doc real. The interviewed include Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley, Former Flint Mayor Dayne Walling, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Congressman Elijah Cummings, Dr. Marc Edwards, Dr. Riché Barnes, and Dr. Phillip Atiba Goff.
LEAD AND COPPER belongs to the category of documentary that will enrage its audience. And with reason!
LEAD AND COPPER is available on Digital/VOD from Tuesday, November 19th, 2024.
Trailer:
MEMOIR OF A SNAIL (Australia 2024) ***** Top 10
Directed by Adam Elliot
MEMOIR OF A SNAIL is done in the painstaking lengthy process of stop-motion animation. The film was developed over an eight-year period. Don’t let the animation category discourage you, as this is an adult film with adult themes and a tale told in a rare and beautiful medium. (In the US, the film was rated R "for sexual content, nudity and some violent content" by the Motion Picture Association.) Among the voices are those of well-known stars like Kodi Smit-McPhee, Eric Bana, Dominique Pinon, Tony Armstrong, Nick Cave, and Jacki Weaver. The film's plot, which is loosely inspired by Elliot's own life, follows the trials and tribulations in the life of lonely misfit Grace Pudel (Sarah Snook), from childhood to adulthood.
The snail in the title comes from Grace’s obsession with snails. She collects and keeps everything that her resemblance to a snail. Grace sank into loneliness, becoming a hoarder, collecting snails (real and otherwise), even wearing a “snail” hat that her father had knit. One
of her favourite pet snails was Sylvia, named after author Sylvia Plath. But a lesson can be learned from this quaint creature. Though it moves slowly, it always moves forward and never retracts its path.
MEMOIR OF A SNAIL has the feel of Charles Dickens classics like OLIVER TWIST and GREAT EXPECTATIONS with the protagonist surviving as a poor orphan and with young children meeting up with old folks that determine their future lives. Like Dickens's stories, there is a happy ending for the long-suffering. The director’s love for stop-motion animation is also evident in the film’s protagonist, Grace finally living a stable life, while pursuing her dream of being a stop-motion animator.
MEMOIR OF A SNAIL has quite a few best moments. The best of these is the wisp of mist disappearing in the sky before forming the curled-up shape of the shell of an escargot.
The film is also charming in its presentation of sympathy for old people and for gay relationships. It is the classic fable of hope triumphing over life's despair with humanity. There is the surprise kiss of the two step-brothers, their love that causes the death of one of them. The old man in the park is treated with respect as with many of the other old characters in the story.
MEMOIR OF A SNAIL premiered at the Annecy Animation Film Festival this year (it won the Cristal Award for Best Feature Film) which I covered remotely. I requested a screener for MEMOIR OF A SNAIL but could not get it. Thankfully, this excellent piece of animation got picked up and is being released in North America. This film should have no problem receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature and is on my list for Best Animated Feature this year.
MEMOIR OF SNAIL opens November 15 in Toronto (TIFF Lightbox) and Montreal!
The film opens on November 22 in Vancouver and throughout the fall in other cities.
Trailer:
