Don’t be distracted by the will-she-or-won’t-she-find-a-relationship throughline, or the gulf between computer proficiency and interpersonal ability that’s the film’s ostensible subtext. The most “interesting” thing about Taliya.date.com, which was funded and aired by Israeli television, is the film’s structure, and the illusion being peddled. Although Finkel gives the standard impression at the outset that events are unfolding before us, it gradually becomes clear (from clues like a 2002 date on the screen) that everything has taken place in the past. Even more audacious (or deceitful), the entire movie is comprised of reenactments and recreations. If you somehow didn’t figure this out along the way, there’s a line buried in the end credits to the effect that the film was adapted from the book of poems Finkel published in 2009.
So what, exactly, is being documented? If you guessed Finkel’s narcissistic disorder, pirouette to the head of the class.
First Position
The expertly assembled dance doc, First Position introduces us to a half-dozen youngsters — including a Philly-raised adoptee from Sierra Leone, a preternaturally self-possessed son of a Navy doctor, the gifted Palo Alto daughter of a high-strung Japanese mother and English entrepreneur, an electrifying Colombian teen in Queens, and a long-limbed, pretty-in-pink, self-described “princess” — with dreams of becoming professional ballet dancers. Bess Kargman’s crowd-pleasing film does a marvelous job of introducing and limning its characters, their goals and their home lives, and galvanizing our rooting interest.
For my money, it would be enough to watch talented, committed adolescents progress through a year of training and development. But audiences demand a stronger narrative and higher stakes. So First Position gives us a culminating goal-slash-shark in the water: the annual Youth America Grand Prix, an international competition that’s essentially a nail-biting talent show for top-drawer schools with scholarships and ballet companies with open positions.
First Position
The film’s final reels are fraught with tension and frankly irresistible, yet I couldn’t help feeling manipulated. I didn’t need the specter of winners and losers to be invested in the subjects’ lives and spooked by the specter of injury or failure that could end a burgeoning career and demolish a child’s carefully constructed identity, sending him or her into a tailspin. I expect I’m in the minority (once again), though, and First Position will receive across-the-board raves.
I could have, and perhaps should have, talked about Patagonia Rising, the last of the four films in the extensive SF DocFest lineup that I previewed, after The Greenhorns. Both works are concerned with the workers of the land, and the allure and necessity of a way of life. The threat in Patagonia Rising consists of five massive dams the government is considering constructing as a way of turning the water resources of rural southern Chile into electricity for the populous north.
Patagonia Rising
Brian Lilla’s beautifully photographed doc makes a persuasive case that the dams would cause irreversible damage to ecosystems and even the Pacific Ocean (which the enormous Baker River flows into). We get articulate talking heads, effective maps and even a spot of animation. Best of all, Lilla introduces us to numerous Patagonians with fascinating faces who would suffer from displacement or, conversely, benefit from selling their land.
Unfortunately, unlike the Baker, Patagonia Rising doesn’t get deeper as it goes. Thirty minutes would do the job as well as its 89. And while there’s no question the doc has the ability to change hearts and minds, its earnestness is conveyed in a monotone that ultimately becomes numbing. Bring your own emotion, and you’ll be fine.
The 10th San Francisco Documentary Festival runs October 14-27, 2011 at the Roxie in San Francisco and October 14-20 at the Shattuck in Berkeley. For more information visit sfindie.com
