imagineNATIVE '19 Film Review - Red Snow

Your Nation can be a very complicated phrase. Dylan (Asival Koostachin) is Gwich'in from the Canadian Arctic and a Canadian soldier in Afghanistan. Aman (Shafin Karim) is the patriarch of a Pashtun family a teacher turned translator caught in Taliban territory working for the Canadian Army while trying to protect what's left of his family. His educated daughter Khatira (Mozhdah Jamalzadah) clad in a full burka tries to study quietly knowing that teaching  females got her mother killed. They are wary of their cousin Ramiz  (Kane Mahon) who leads the local Taliban cell forcing Aman to participate in an ambush that results in Dylan's capture.

Once captured and thrown into a dimly lit concrete room Dylan moves inward for solace to his spiritual upbringing, memories of the forbidden love he shared with his cousin Asana as a teenager and his strong connection to his grandmother Ruth (the great Tantoo Cardinal) and past family matriarchs before her. Aman and his family are also in survival mode. They join forces with Dylan knowing each is the others only way out then begin the three day journey across the difficult desert landscape dotted with Taliban forces and rival tribes to Pakistan.

Writer/Director/Producer Marie Clements looked to showcase native peoples and their land with the film. Crane shots supply the visuals of the vast seemingly endless desert, snow covered arctic and green mountain on the journey to Pakistan. Cinematographer Robert Aschmann particularly shines capturing the shots where desert, meets mountain, meets snow at the Afghan-Pakistan border.  Taliban Cell leader Ramiz calls Dylan an unwanted invader on his land during the latter,s interrogation. Dylan remembers his Inuit village and his teenage love Asana wandering across the blinding beautiful Canadian arctic terrain changing it's colour a droplet of red at a time in the titular and emotionally centric sequence  of the film.

Survival is the theme of Marie Clements Red Snow. Survival of culture, survival of the family, survival of tradition, language, religion, traditional way of life and the individual. Asival Koostachin embodies many aspects of the theme as Dylan a captured, interrogated Gwich'in Canadian soldier. The narrative explores several layers of conflict and resolution in a tight 93 minute package that is well worth the watch.

*** 1/2  Out of 4.

Red Snow | Marie Clements | Canada | 100 Minutes | 2019.

Tags: Canadian Arctic, Inuit, Gwich'in, Afghanistan, Canadian Army, Panjwayi, Taliban, Prisoner, Interrogation, Kandahar, Pakistan, Motorcycles, Notebook

Planet in Focus '19 Film Review- Tiere Und Andere Menschen (Animals and Other People)

A series of  animals bumping along in cages in the back of a vehicle greets the viewer at the opening of Tiere Und Andere Menschen (Animals and Other People). The outside sounds of wind and the traffic can be heard as they travel along to an unknown destination. The motion stops followed by the titular card then the first of what will become a series of animal entry triages to the  Wiener Tierschutzverein (Viennese Animal Protection Society). A crane is first up. Three staff inspect it for injuries, obstructions and foreign bodies determine if it can stand or if an X-ray is required then ask the driver where it was found and what happened to it. A small rabbit follows then an even smaller cat where we first see eye ointment is used for the first time mainly to see if there is any blinking in the animal.

The relationship between animals and humans is explored through a rare behind the counter view of an animal shelter. The staff take calls from the public, answer owners' questions, treat the injured, take in rescues, along unwanted hoping that adoptions balance out the arrivals. It's more about matching up humans and animals for the best chance of success. Do you have any small children? Other animals at home? Are you in the heart of the noisy city? Any height or weight restraints where you live?

The most interesting inhabitants are the long term apes. They are the alphas of the facility with staff often sitting outside of their cages paying them extra attention. Some employees become too attached which can be an issue at triage through to dealing with those that have passed the one year mark signifying an extended stay. The outside green spaces and pens along with quite large indoor quarters for the larger animals serve to avoid that cramped puppy mill feel so prevalent in North America.

Regular team meetings occur to review the status of each animal similar to what would occur in a hospital. Are any medications taken? If its a dog is being discussed, how does it react to people males vs females? children? other animals? Any physical changes or behaviour that may require further attention when the vet comes to visit. School kids come though on class trips to learn about the animals, everyday dangers to be aware of plus there are classes for adults looking to adopt that give clues to what an animal is trying to communicate through gestures, body language, and eye movement.

Everyday life at an animal shelter is tactfully explored in Tiere Und Andere Menschen (Animals and Other People). The staff treats every animal from the cutest bunny to a slithering snake with love, dignity, and affection. Strong connections are formed but never cross the line to cloud better judgment. It's a quiet insightful look at the facility where director Flavio Marchetti often just set up a stationary camera and let the bustling activity in shelter effectively tell the story.

*** 1/2  Out of 4.

Tiere Und Andere Menschen (Animals and Other People) | Flavio Marchetti | Austria | 2017 | 88 Minutes.

Tags: Vienna, Animal Shelter, Triage, Animal Rescue, X-Ray, Diagnosis, Adoption, Surgery, Feeding Time, Release.

Planet In Focus '19 Film Review - Artifishal

Human beings tendency to treat nature as a warehouse is the root idea behind Patagonia Films Josh Murphy directed Artifishal. The belief that nature exists to take what you want while dumping your waste anywhere you feel fit. The narrative splices in horrific scenes of frontier men posed with mountains of animal bones  juxtaposed to newsreels of streams and rivers full of fish.  Establishing the myth of endless resources until the government decided that it needed to insert itself to protect them as civilization was advancing to natures peril.

The theory was that with the advance of civilization dams needed to be built therefore fish hatcheries  were needed to mitigate for the loss of habitat.  The working logic as presented on queue by Brett Galyean Manger of Coleman National Fish Hatchery near San Francisco: population is going up water is a concern so if you want to still see salmon hatcheries are required as there is not enough water or environment to support salmon. Propaganda that dates back to the post U.S. Civil War era.

Spencer Baird as U.S. Fish Commissioner was the father of the practice starting artificial propagation with a hatchery bearing his name in 1873. Geneticist Dave Phillip explains that they were not scientist but instead, agriculturalists calling it Wildlife Management, Fish Propagation, birthing the agricultural mentality that still rules today. Its a farm; you raise, put them out you harvest them.  Questions began to be asked in the '70s and not until now are some of the most damaging practices set to be reversed.

Director Murphy highlights two key events that debunked the practice. First, Madison River Montana where they did a study in the seventies to stock one out of three fishing creeks. The non stocked locations doubled the number of fish while the stocked one halved leading to no more stocking of waters with self-sustaining populations in the state. The other Mount St. Helen's eruption of 1980 that decimated the surrounding river basins. No hatchery fish were put in a a result; 5 years later the fish were back at higher levels than before, doubling  two years after that showing what wild fish can can do even under the harshest conditions when not constrained by or forced to intermingle with hatchery fish.

Artificial documents the negative impact when a country becomes dependent on a multi -billion dollar industry. Hatcheries and Fish Farms provide jobs, create projects, justifies the existence of certain government agencies and a bump for politicians that have them built in their constituencies. Mother nature can do it better, have been doing it for thousands of years and for free. The wild method produces larger, healthier, sustainable numbers as opposed to smaller, diseased,weaker engineered fish. The empirical data supports this and its time that governments do as well.

**** Out of 4

Artifishal, Josh Murphy,  U.S.A. | 75 Minutes  | 2019.

Tags: Yvon Chouinard, Salmon Spawning, Dams, Spencer Baird, Ecology, Fish Hatcheries, Fish Farms, Fish Propagation, Washington State, Oregon, Montana, Biological Diversity, Protests, Government Legislation