Pick here to go back to main page.
This is a documentary about a sled dog race on the remote Madeline Island during an unusually warm winter. It's not hard to get there, you just go as far north in Wisconsin as you can, drive a mile and a half into Lake Superior, and you're there. The motivations of various professional & amateur competitors gave a glimpse into how people deal with living in such an isolated area.
The Novitiate (2001 USA-WI) * of ****
On New Year's Day, 1975, a group of heavily armed Menominee Indians with combat experience in Vietnam took over a large beautiful yet unused Catholic Novitiate (an intake training facility). They demanded that the private property be given to them based on an absurdly incorrect assumption while they were having fun shooting the National Guardsmen in the woods around them. This documentary is about the time the calvary circled the Indians. As Marlon Brando put it, "It was kind of like Disneyland at the beginning." Paying the wages for the standoff got high, and it was ended when the Menominee were offered the property. The tribe realized that they did not even want the property, so they declined the offer and left. The monastery was severely damaged by an arson fire soon after.
of their respective owners.
Fishing Has No Boundaries (2000 USA-WI) *** of ****
This is a documentary about an annual fishing event for people with disabilities. You see the inherit commonalties in this show of what is involved in putting together and executing the event. Basic truths that have been forgotten by citified folks are easily used by the fishermen. The relations and interactions of organizers and participants is a microcosm of human spirit. The group has been trying unsuccessfully for years to persuade boat manufacturers to make the gates on the boats slightly larger so that wheel chairs could be rolled through. The biggest audience cheer came when the organizer said that they were taking pictures of the people in the wheel chairs being picked up and over the boat gates, and the pictures also had the boat manufacturers name in view. Coolness. "If you can breath, you can fish."
Heftig og begeistret (Cool and Crazy) (2001 Norway) *1/2 of ****
Unofficial site in Norwegian
*1/2 of ****
Rated: Unrated, but call it PG, or G for those who can't read the subtitles or understand Norwegian.
Length: 105 minutes
Director: Knut Erik Jensen
Cast: the town of Berlevsg, and the Berlevsg Mens choir
This is a documentary about a long running men's chorus in a very isolated fishing & canning town on the northern tip of Norway. The singing is amazing. I couldn't understand Norwegian, but that doesn't matter. The glory of the town's choir is the social backbone that keeps people sane in such a remote and difficult location. The major colors seen are blue and white. Sky, water, and snow are the major scenery with the only interruption being the houses being painted in solid colors with each house being different from the ones near by. This is common in Scandinavia to break up the monochrome and dark winters. This film is a bit long and slow, but it does a good job of developing the participants as people with individual personalities. A sound track album might be worth obtaining, but I wouldn't see this with out a special interest in the subject or location.