WERE THE WORLD MINE (dir. by Tom Gustafson)—Tired of gay coming-of-age tales where the hapless homosexual must navigate the dangers of proms, lunchroom harassment, and menacing jocks? This overstuffed bonbon not only turns the tables on the oppressors, but does so with a Shakespearean subplot taken from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The resulting spectacle resembles a Maxfield Parrish painting crossed with an Erasure pop video.
DOCUMENTARY FEATURES:
* ALL TOGETHER NOW (dir. Adrian Wills)—If the name Cirque de Soleil shrieks preciousness and Las Vegas bloat, you will still be charmed by this examination of the staging of Love, the Beatles tribute destined to run forever at the Mirage. Propelled by an artistic vision, the show’s director-creator Dominic Champagne soon comes up against the micromanaging Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison, who have differing visions on how their husbands’ musical legacies should be dramatized. Interviews with surviving Beatles Paul and Ringo will bring a tear to the eye of anyone born between 1950 and 1960; these boys are hardwired into our collective cultural hardware.
* AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD (dir. Dan Stone)—When did the exhortation “Save the Whales” become a cry of derision, poking fun at animal rights activists? This film should revitalize the slogan, as Japanese vessels still illegally harvest the rare mammals. To their rescue is the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, which challenges the whalers through often-violent ocean confrontations. Breathtaking footage of these oceanic duels, deckside and in the air, make this troubling film equally irresistible. Crisp editing by Patrick Gambuti, Jr. and Kurt Engfehr.
* THE BETRAYAL (co-dir. Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath)—A film 23 years in the making, and doubly fascinating because of it. An examination of a Laotian family that still struggles to understand their native country’s—and their father’s—criminal liaison with the United States during the Vietnam War. New footage is linked with 1985 video from the co-director’s first years as a Brooklyn teen transplant. The resulting synthesis is at once disorienting and illuminating. A haunting and compassionate portrait, amplified by the imagery of co-director Kuras, a cinematographer for several Spike Lee films, as well as for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
* BULLETPROOF SALESMAN (dir. Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker)—So long as countries battle one another and political strife foments, German businessman Fidelis Cloer is quite content. He sells armored cars. Three weeks after the fall of Baghdad, he passes through army checkpoints to walk among the rubble, inspecting sucide bomber sites and selling his latest car models to diplomats in danger. Cloer radiates a polished bragadoccio and spouts a number of business slogans that drive his work. Sample: “Chaos is opportunity.” But he’s also savvy enough to recognize the moral gray area of his livelihood. A complex portrait of a war profiteer.
* DIPLOMACY: THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT (dir. Rasmus Dinesen and Boris B. Bertram)—In less than an hour, this compact and powerful film not only explains the crisis in Darfur but also examines how the United Nations Security Council has been dealing with the ongoing genocide in which more than 400,000 have been slaughtered. With an unwavering but uncynical eye, the film examines the challenges of maintaining relations with Sudan even as the Sudanese government denies its role in the killings. Heartbreaking.
FLYING ON ONE ENGINE (dir. Joshua Z Weinstein)—Saints come in unlikely human containers; Dr. Sharadkumar Dicksheet, 77, croaks his words due to larynx cancer, lives in a rat-infested Queens apartment, travels mostly by wheelchair, and has an unruly bird’s nest of dyed hair and a taste for champagne. He is also known as “the messiah for the disfigured” for performing restorative plastic surgery on more than 140,000 Indian children with cleft palates. Fascinating and humbling.
GARRISON KEILLOR: THE MAN ON THE RADIO IN THE RED SHOES (dir. Peter Rosen)—A production of the PBS series “American Masters,” this is a respectful portrait of a man who created a literary world called Lake Woebegone, which has existed in the ether of radio since 1974. Keillor plays the genial host of this documentary, doling out homespun revelations with practiced candor while a group of fellow performers sings his praises, but admits he is hard to know. Chances are you will come away unable to divine between the real Keillor—if such a man exists—and his august radio show persona. With the late Robert Altman.
* GUEST OF CINDY SHERMAN (dir. Paul H-O and Tom Donahue)—A modern-day retelling of the Beauty and the Beast myth, SoHo-style. The boorish, puerile Paul H-O, a stalled sculptor on the Manhattan art scene who now hosts a cable access show, meets the elusive, enigmatic Cindy Sherman, already a legend for her photographic self-portraits. To everyone’s surprise—especially Paul’s—she falls for this unpolished doofus. H-O now has complete access to the art world, but remains an outsider, his sole identity as Sherman’s lover. A brash, whiny, and often repellent screed nonetheless offers the first insight into Sherman, while taking potshots at her world.
