woobooridesagain Reviews

Welcome to Leith (2015)

Good Triumphs, But At What Cost?

[6/10 · 31 May 2016]

Leith, North Dakota, is a small town. It is the very upper curve on the dot of the 'i' in the middle of nowhere. With a population of less than thirty individuals, it nevertheless prided itself on its small and isolated nature. That all changed when white supremacist chat board demagogue Craig Cobb moved into the neighborhood, and suddenly the small town was the focus of national attention, as Cobb declared his intention to turn Leith into a haven for the white supremacist movement, to live in a place where the "purity" of the white race wouldn't be uninterrupted by society at large. Taking advantage of cheap land prices and the town's small government, Cobb ultimately intended to take over the town completely Ultimately, Cobb's dreams of creating a white supremacist promised land fell through, for the same reasons that have plagued the white pride, hate group movement since its inception. Violent rhetoric, preached without subtlety and ultimately self-destructing in a pointless show of force. In total, the grand vision of a white-supremacist utopia amounted to Cobb, a fellow white supremacist and his family, and three others who, at the time of writing, have shown little interest in picking up where Cobb left off. Cobb and his cohort were arrested and forced out of the town.

But when Cobb had made his intentions known, the media--as the media is wont to do--took off with it, declaring it a battle over the soul of a tiny slice of America. A battle of good versus evil, akin to a real life Western, with the outlaws trading in black hats for shaved heads. And this is the mistake made by "Welcome to Leith", as this view of good versus evil overshadows a much more important series of questions raised by the events portrayed in the story: At what point does society at large infringe on the rights of the individual to express their viewpoints, their lifestyles and how far can they go to oppose them?

A disclaimer: by no means do I support the White Nationalist movement, or whatever other monikers and labels they use to disguise their true, hate-filled intentions. These men have violent intent that can only be described as evil and repulsive. Their views and methods have been the force behind some of the greatest tragedies of the last century. But it is important to note that under our system of freedom of speech and freedom of self-expression, they have every right to express these viewpoints, so long as they do not engage or plot violence and harm. And while it is indeed true that this is exactly what Cobb and his followers have espoused, nevertheless, we also see some rather underhanded deeds committed by those opposed to the invading white supremacists.

Although it is hard to blame them for their actions, the citizens of Leith nevertheless did engage in campaigns of harassment against Cobb and his followers, vandalizing their property, denying them services, ultimately culminating in a town ordinance being passed that was transparently intended to be solely for the purposes of kicking Cobb out of town. While it is difficult to feel sympathetic towards these particular lifestyle practitioners, it is important to bear in mind that this same action could have been taken against anyone with a viewpoint or lifestyle that clashed with that of the town at large. It isn't difficult to imagine Muslims, Jews, homosexuals, or any other cultural or racial minority receiving similar treatment in the place of Craig Cobb and his white supremacists. Treatment that, in Leith at least, now has legal precedent.

This is not to say that the citizens of Leith would engage in such behavior. Indeed, it would appear that Leith is a town that welcomes viewpoints of cultural diversity. Yet the lengths at which the town went to remove this element that they detested, supported at large by society due to the controversial viewpoints of the ones they targeted, is an important question to address. One that, ultimately, the film seems to hint at, then promptly ignore in the face of documenting the ensuing, spectacular fall of the white supremacist movement in Leith, North Dakota.

Ultimately, "Welcome to Leith" merely documents a moment in time, hinting at greater, more thought-provoking questions, but does not seem to want to focus on them. Instead, it focuses on the same sensational viewpoint taken by the media at large. The good people of Leith won out over the forces of evil, we have our happy ending. For "Welcome to Leith", that is all that we ultimately get.

Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)

Right Place, Right Time, Wrong Person

[9/10 · 13 May 2016]

In 1999, a man with a camera discovered that a cousin of his was a noteworthy member of a growing movement that would shake the art world to its foundation, make us question what art is and see the world of art change in as radical a way as Warhol and Picasso. He'd document these formative years for almost a decade, becoming the unofficial scribe for the next big wave in art.

Unfortunately, he was a bit of a nutter.

A film that shows that, indeed, destiny seems to snatch people and play merry hell with them, Exit Through The Gift Shop is obstinately a film about the (in)famous street artist Banksy, known for his striking counter-culture style. It has even been called a case of the documented turning the camera around on the filmmaker. But none of these can truly describe the surreal experience that this documentary becomes. The best I can do is to say that the film is about a man by the name of Thierry Guetta, who through chance and circumstance, becomes the man who captures on film the birth of a movement, is swallowed up by it and then--perhaps quite accidentally--hijacks it for himself.

Thierry was on vacation in his native France in 1999, when he discovered that his cousin just happens to be the street artist "Invader", one of a number of people at the forefront of the provocative and thought-provoking street art movement of the late 90's and early to mid-aughts. Thierry also happened to have a compulsion to film every aspect of his every day life. From there, Thierry finds himself becoming part of that movement. Be it a desire to be a part of it, or simply piggybacking on the fame of others, Thierry became the cameraman for a number of street artists. Eventually, his desire to film street artists at work reached its zenith: he wanted to film Banksy.

Banksy, who to this day keeps his identity a secret, is the most recognizable name in the street art movement. Indeed, his name is a by-word for the art form in the same way that Picasso is a by-word for cubism. Be it fate, coincidence or sheer chance, Thierry and Banksy's paths crossed, and Banksy found himself under Thierry's lens. As time went on, Banksy confides in Thierry, opening up to him and his camera a part of his world that many have since wished they could have been a part of. But through innocent encouragement, Banksy and his comrades in the street art movement find themselves creating a monster, as Thierry puts his camera down and picks up a stencil and the moniker "Mr. Brainwash."

Whereas most documentaries are thought-provoking, or moving, or fill us with a sense of wonder, "Exit Through The Gift Shop" is a laugh riot. We are treated to watch as hapless street artists who invited Thierry into their reclusive world find themselves caught in the riptide that is the almost demented whim of their cameraman. While it shows the birth of the street art movement in fascinating detail, the true focus of the documentary throughout is the man behind the camera. The closest one can come to a comparison is if "Grey Gardens" suddenly had the Maysles put their cameras down and become residents of the dilapidated mansion themselves. We watch the steady transition of a man from an observer to an active participant, laughing and cringing the entire way. One has to admire the sheer enthusiasm that Thierry approaches his newfound subject of obsession, which leaves even the men who began the art movement baffled. The entire time, the man behind street art's most recognizable images displays the wit he's most famous for, giving the film an air of satire that makes it simply surreal.

Do yourself a favor. Sit back and watch this documentary with slack-jawed wide-eyed awe. It's an experience that anyone with even a basic interest in street art, documentary filmmaking and, hell, life in general should experience.

Finders Keepers (I) (2015)

The Story Behind A Media Circus

[7/10 · 26 April 2016]

We often see on internet news websites little bits and snips of "weird news", things that seem too bizarre, too inexplicable to be real. The story of John Wood and Shannon Whisnant is one of these stories. Through this documentary, we get a rare glimpse into the lives of the people behind the strange and altogether unlikely series of events that brought two very different men from Carolina together in a battle over, of all things, an amputated leg.

John Wood lost his leg in a fatal plane crash that saw the father he loved, Tom, die. Already a troubled man, the trauma of the crash sent him over the edge, with drug abuse and alienation from his family causing him to enter into a downward spiral. Eventually, everything he owned ended up in a storage unit. Desperate for something to have to reconcile with the event, he took claim of his own amputated limb, and eventually preserved it through a bit of backwoods mummification. It was among the possessions in the shed that was eventually sold to a wheeling-dealing haggler named Shannon Whisnant. Discovering the foot in an old grill, Shannon claimed ownership of the foot after it was discovered to be a medically amputated limb. John wanted it back. The ensuing media attention to the story would change the lives of both men, though to the public at large, it was just another story of Southern-fried strangeness and backwoods idiocy.

Starting with the story of the leg itself, the strange set of circumstances which saw it amputated from its owner and its backwoods method of mummification, the documentary then transitions into the story of the battle over the severed leg, before examining the lives of two men who are, at their core, damaged in more ways than just physical scars and amputated appendages. John, a recovering addict who desperately sought the approval and love of his parents. Shannon, physically abused by his father, like many people in the age of reality television and internet broadcasting desperately seeks fame and recognition.

Although it is an easy trap for many to focus solely on the lurid details of the leg and the battle for it that ensued shortly thereafter, the documentary succeeds in telling a story that you aren't likely to see on reality TV or the internet, examining the lives of both men in an ultimately sympathetic way. About the only fault that can be said for the film is that, while the story is interesting, the documentary becomes thoroughly average. Neither terrible nor exemplary, it succeeds at telling its story from a new and refreshing angle, but the tale it tells is simply not one that is overwhelmingly engrossing. It's competent, and it does an excellent job of taking a look at its subjects in a way that no one prior had even bothered to attempt. But there is only so much story you can get out of the struggle over a severed foot. That and perhaps it is a little too lenient in its examination of the exploitation of these two men by a news and entertainment media that was clearly interested only in the bloody details.