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FOUR STARS

Stalags: Holocaust

and Pornography in Israel **** Ari Libsker (Israel)

Libsker's film seems to start off as a kind of sick joke or tale of camp perversity. How else to interpret its portrayal of Israeli Jewish writers who, using American pseudonyms, produced, in the early sixties, a series of cheap paperbacks with racy covers in which American PoWs are made the sex slaves of curvaceous, whip-snapping female SS officers? These books, called "Stalags," were enormously popular in Israel as were those in the sub-genre known as "Israelis," in which Jewish men travel to Germany to rape and torture women there. Libsker's film soon becomes a sobering and absorbing account of the young Israeli state's struggle to make sense of both the Holocaust and the concentration-camp survivors who emigrated there from postwar Europe. J.A.

Al Green, April 24, 9 p.m.; Isabel Bader, April 27, 7 p.m. 3 1/2 STARS Air India 182 ***½ Sturla Gunnarsson (Canada) The story of the 1985 aircraft bombing is so multifaceted and devastating, director Gunnarsson needn't have added the small touches of suspense at the beginning of the film to entice viewers. While his portrait of the extremists, investigators, families and political actors involved in the deadliest-ever mass murder of Canadians is more than enough to captivate viewers, his vivid retelling also provides an understanding of the events leading up to the bombing and the unspeakable emotional weight that remains. The film isn't strictly chronological, but skillfully jumps around as it picks up thematic threads, such as the terrorist forces at work and the intelligence agents trying to stop a massacre they could only speculate would even occur. The candour of the families, in particular, turns this into much more than a re-edit of the news, particularly their comments about the guilt they feel as survivors, or how some felt, standing in the airport terminal, a vague sense of dread. By distilling such a sprawling tragedy into a concise documentary, this film does a major public service. G.D.

Isabel Bader, today, 1:30 p.m. Anvil The Story of Anvil ***½ Sacha Gervasi (U.S.)

Like Martin Scorsese's Shine a Light, Anvil The Story of Anvil is a document of an indomitable rock band that refuses to grow old gracefully. Otherwise, the distance between the Rolling Stones and Anvil is astronomical. Anvil, based around lifelong friends guitarist-singer Steve (Lips) Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner, hails from Toronto, and the band was poised for metal superstardom 25 years ago with the album Metal on Metal, which is still cited by the metal big four (Megadeth, Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax) as a seminal influence. Where did it go wrong? asks a fan on a dismal European tour. "I can answer that in one word," Reiner says. "Two words. Three: We don't have good management."

British filmmaker Sacha Gervasi (writer of Steven Spielberg's film The Terminal) worked as a roadie for the band in his teens and this improbably winning and heartfelt film is a return favour for the stars of his youth. What starts out looking like a real-life This Is Spinal Tap evolves into something more like Man of La Mancha with drum solos. L.L.

Isabel Bader, today, 4:15 p.m.; Royal, April 27, 9:30 p.m. The Art Star

and the Sudanese Twins *** Pietra Brettkelly (New Zealand)

Like Madonna and Angelina Jolie, celebrated Italian-born conceptual artist Vanessa Beecroft wanted to adopt an African baby - two of them, in fact. Beecroft, famous for posing groups of naked women in the centre of an art gallery, has a powerful instinct for pushing emotional and social buttons. New Zealand filmmaker Pietra Brettkelly, who met Beecroft by chance in Sudan, followed the artist for 16 months, showing her attempts to bring the boys to her New York home and exploring her artistic milieu. A kind of poetic document of the artist in action, the film is a portrait of a real piece of work. Imperious and fastidious in her high-minded art-making, Beecroft is jaw-droppingly insensitive to basic human relations. She fails to consider that photographing naked children in a church might upset local Sudanese villagers, or that her New Yorker husband might want to be consulted about her decision to bring home a couple of African infants whom even he suspects she may think of as provocative props. L.L.

Cumberland, April 21, 9:45 p.m. and April 24, 1:30 p.m.; Bloor, April 27, 9 p.m.

Betrayal (Nerakhoon) ***½ Ellen Kuras, Thavisouk Phrasavath (U.S.)

Ellen Kuras is one of the best-known directors of photography in American independent film of the past 20 years, shooting such films as Spike Lee's Summer of Sam to Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. She started Betrayal, her first film as a director, a remarkable 23 years ago, and now this gorgeously shot meditation on a refugee family's experiences in the United States is finally finished. The film focuses on Thavisouk Phrasavath (who eventually became editor and co-director of the film) and his family's experience, from fleeing from the Laotian civil war to living in a refugee camp and arriving in the United States in the mid-eighties. The family's father, a career soldier who collaborated with the Central Intelligence Agency, disappeared when the communist government took over and was presumed dead. The story of the family journey - from refugee camp to being dumped by a corrupt sponsor into a crack house in Brooklyn - is chronicled, year by year, through some astonishing twists and turns. L.L.

Royal, April 19, 7 p.m.; Isabel Bader, April 22, 1:45 p.m.; Al Green, April 27, 2 p.m. Dance With A Serial Killer ***½ Nigel Williams (France, U.K.) Everyone loves a real-life police procedural, and this is a very satisfying one. The doc's intense, brooding mood is matched by the serious demeanour and hooded brow of its star, Detective Jean François Abgrall, who tracked and finally trapped France's most notorious serial killer, writing a bestselling book and becoming a national celebrity. Granted exclusive access to Abgrall's files, the filmmakers begin where the investigation did, on a beach in Brest where a woman was stabbed to death in broad daylight in 1989. Abgrall returns to the scenes of the killer's crimes and narrates the story of his dogged pursuit of a weird, slippery drifter named Francis Heaulmes all over France. A fascinating insight into the mind of not only a killer but also of a brilliant criminologist who builds a detailed profile of the odd, troubled man as he slowly closes in. J.P.

ROM, April 20, 9:30 p.m.; ROM, April 23, 11:30 a.m. Flicker ***½ Nik Sheehan (Canada) Brion Gysin, a close friend and collaborator of William S. Burroughs, invented a spinning lamp with pattern of shapes cut out from the surface of its cylindrical shade. A groovy accessory for a hippie crash pad, yes, but the Dream Machine was much more. Flashing flickering light with the same frequency as the brain's alpha waves, it induces hallucinatory visions in people who sit in front of it. Naturally, an entire subculture grew up around it, including figures from Marianne Faithfull to Kenneth Anger and Iggy Pop. Most fascinating is all the craziness that surrounded Gysin and Burroughs, which cannot be separated from the story of the machine: There were efforts to undermine the establishment with their noise weapons and put spells on astronauts in space. The film covers it all breathlessly. There are serious arguments associated with Gysin and the Dream Machine regarding the nature of art, mid-20th-century art history and the science of trances and artistic visions. On the other hand, the whole thing has a high degree of knowing nuttiness. G.D.

Royal, April 23, 7 p.m.; Isabel Bader, April 26, 7 p.m. Junior ***½ Isabelle Lavigne, Stéphane Thibault (Canada) With its unblinking vérité lens, Junior cuts through the jock clichés to get at a raw truth: At any age level, the typical career of an elite athlete is nasty, brutish and short. Here, the level is junior hockey in the Quebec major league, and the doc traces a year in the beleaguered life of the Baie-Comeau team. The directors have no interest in the game action itself - there's barely a frame to be seen. Instead, their focus is on the teenage boys hoping (most often in vain) to parlay their physical gifts into a pro career, and the gruff men (most often small-minded) who surround them: the tough coach, the profit-minded owner, the agents trolling for the next Sidney Crosby. What the film reveals, poignantly, is the contradictory pressures placed on these kids. Living far from home, squeezing slices of schooling into slabs of hockey, they're simultaneously babied and berated, precious gems one moment and yesterday's trash the next, treated like mindless children yet expected to act like mature adults. Very few prevail, while most merely survive, left with the kind of scars they won't be showing their grandchildren. R.G.

Cumberland, April 20, 7 p.m.; Innis, April 22, 4:30 p.m. Passage ***½ John Walker (Canada) This ambitious and fascinating exercise in postmodernist filmmaking hinges on the stories of the disastrous Franklin expedition to discover the Northwest Passage and the subsequent effort of Hudson's Bay Co. factor John Rae to solve the mystery of Franklin's demise. Director Walker smartly moves the action between past and present, seamlessly mixing straight documentary footage with historical recreations, actors with Arctic scholars, travelogue-style sections and symposium-like passages. Walker's sympathies clearly lie with Rae, who was vilified in his day (by Charles Dickens, among others) for suggesting Franklin's crew had resorted to cannibalism. Dickens's great-great-grandson shows up to acknowledge that Dickens was a racist and to apologize for the harm the novelist did to the Inuit. J.A.

Royal, April 20, 9:45 p.m.; ROM, April 23, 4:15 p.m. Song Sung Blue

***½

Greg Kohs (U.S.)

A song sung blue, everybody knows one - some more than others. This moving film follows the humble ambition of Milwaukee's Mike and Claire Sardina, better known in the working-class Midwest as the Neil Diamond tribute duo Lightning and Thunder. It's a modest-rise and long-fall story, one marked by unwavering faith, financial crisis and an life-altering freak accident. The close-ups are close indeed, offering an unvarnished look at an unhealthy family (the performers and two perpetually hungry children) wrapped up in a life preoccupied with performance. It's not about Diamond, or even his music - Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder, believe it or not, plays more of a role than the sideburned singer does. It's about a chase for some sort of purpose and comfort. It's quite a tale, candidly and unobtrusively told. (Fans of the haunting roots music of Great Lake Swimmers will want to know that Toronto's Tony Dekker created the film score.) B.W.

Bloor, today, 9 p.m.; ROM, Sunday, 7:15 p.m. STRANDED, I'VE COME FROM

A PLANE THAT CRASHED

IN THE MOUNTAINS ***½ Gonzalo Arijon (France)

This French-made documentary follows what is already a well-documented story of the 1972 Uruguayan rugby team that crashed in the Andes, forcing its survivors to resort to eating the flesh of the dead. Yet, there's artfulness in director Gonzalo Arijon's approach that takes the grisly story to a new dimension. The director interviews the survivors of Flight 571 and, in a time-tested documentary formula, follows them and their families back to the scene of the traumatic event more than 30 years later. Astute about the idea that memory is reconstructed more than recovered, the director uses Oscar-winning cinematographer César Charlone (The Constant Gardener, City of God) to reconstruct scenarios in an impressionistic manner, accompanied by the voice-over recollections of the participants, families and rescuers. Gradually, we get a sense of what it meant to survive for 72 days, the spiritual choices that governed their survival in the context of their Catholic faith, of ordinary people pushed to human extremes. L.L.

Bloor, April 23, 9 p.m. and April 26, 6:15 p.m. THREE STARS All Together Now *** Adrian Wills (Canada)

Cirque du Soleil's stage extravaganza Love, with its soundtrack of Beatles songs remixed by George Martin and his son Giles, piqued the curiosity of Beatles devotees. But did it earn a place in Beatles lore? This making-of doc, which tracks the origins of the Cirque production, argues a fairly convincing "yes," with Sir Paul, Ringo, Olivia Harrison and Yoko Ono all lending their support (sometimes guardedly, in the case of the widows) to the Cirque's ecstatic show. But there were doubts along the way. George Martin talks about fans viewing the songs as a holy grail. And, as Olivia says, any artistic reinterpretation of the Beatles' oeuvre has a hard time living up to meanings we've attributed to the music for so many years. Yet even naysayers who would like to leave well enough alone will be floored by the Cirque's vivid style, blending its usual athleticism with a kind of universal dreaminess. Beautifully shot and presented with rapid editing, the imagery joyously matches the fantastical with the commonplace, just as the Beatles did with their music. G.D.

Bloor, April 19, 9:15 p.m. and April 20, 3:45 p.m. As Slow as Possible *** Scott Smith (Canada)

This first documentary from director Scott Smith (Falling Angels) tracks the nearly blind writer Ryan Knighton as he travels from his home in Vancouver to Germany to witness a note change in a performance of the John Cage composition As Slow as Possible - scheduled to last 639 years. The obstacles Knighton faces are a filmmaker's bounty: oblivious (or curious) people, escalators, cobblestones. If ever you were wondering what it's like to go through life without your vision, this film provides great insight. Not that it's preachy, or sentimental. Without playing the pity card, Smith creates an emotional connection that results in some extraordinary moments. Structurally, it is sometimes unclear where Knighton is or why he is there. Perhaps that's meant to contribute to the theme of disorientation. One other quibble: While the original soundtrack is excellent, it would have been great to hear some Cage music that's not dragged out over six centuries. M.L.

Royal, today, 9:30 p.m.; ROM, April 22, 12 p.m. Be Like Others *** Tanaz Eshaghian (Canada, Iran, U.K., U.S.)

Since Ayatollah Khomaini, the spiritual leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution, passed a religious edict authorizing surgery for "diagnosed transsexuals" 25 years ago, Iran has found a way around the Islamic sin of homosexuality: sexual-reassignment surgery. Thus, while homosexuality may be punished by death, the government pays part of the cost of sex-change operations. American-Iranian filmmaker Tanaz Eshaghian combines a refreshingly even-handed tone with deep empathy in her portrait of young men facing the knife at a sex-change clinic run by the Paris-trained Dr. Bahram Mehrjalali. The film focuses on the contrasting stories of 24-year-old Ali, whose family threatens to kill her if she goes ahead with surgery, and Anoosh, whose mother comes to appreciate her new daughter. Another character makes a more dangerous decision - to keep living as a gay man. L.L.

Isabel Bader, April 21, 7:15 p.m.; Cumberland, April 24, 4:15 p.m. The Black List ***

Timothy Greenfield-Sanders (U.S.)

One of the first films sold at this year's Sundance Film Festival (to HBO), this intelligent, inspirational documentary was produced by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders and former New York Times critic Elvis Mitchell. It consists of a series of more than 20 direct-to-camera testimonies from distinguished black Americans, talking about their careers and what being black in the United States means to them. Greenfield-Sanders directed, while Mitchell conducted the interviews. Simple as it is, the film is often illuminating about the pervasive stamp of race in American society: Guns N' Roses guitarist Slash talks about his differences with singer Axl Rose over the latter's racist lyrics for the song One in a Million and Rev. Al Sharpton discusses the influence of singer James Brown on his personal theatrical style. Rap mogul Sean Combs talks about staring for three hours at his image on a Times Square billboard while thinking about his background. Combs's father, and most of his friends from his youth, died of gun violence. L.L.

Bloor, April 23, 6:30 p.m.; ROM, April 25, 12 p.m. Carts of Darkness *** Murray Siple (Canada) Rather than Joseph Conrad's Congo, this is a journey into the heart of Vancouver, a place where the homeless on the North Shore race shopping carts down sloping residential streets. For the most part, the focus is on individuals down on their luck, although some have consciously opted out of the workaday world - like Bob who lives for his flower garden and his art and earns his livelihood collecting cans. And here's where the film shows its true colours as a study of Vancouver's unique vibe. It's a destination of beauty at the bottom of a hill (for shopping-cart racer Big Al), the end of the tracks (for an alcoholic named Fergie) and a place to find a new life after a debilitating car accident (in the case of the filmmaker). There's a certain tranquillity to the city. Vancouverites notice it even in snapshots. But it's rarely captured so vividly in films outside the skateboarding and snowboarding genre. In fact, the director used to make extreme-sports videos, and some of that same chill-out optimism and openness are welcome when applied here to stories of hardship. G.D.

Royal Cinema, April 21, 7 p.m.; Isabel Bader, April 24, 12 p.m.

The English Surgeon ***

Geoffrey Smith (U.K.) One of England's top brain surgeons, Henry Marsh has been making regular visits to Kiev for more than 15 years to help his Ukrainian colleague Igor Kurilets - who operates an independent neurology clinic out of a KGB hospital - improve the horrifyingly archaic conditions. Beautifully photographed, this thoughtful film mixes harsh reality with gentle humour as it captures one of Marsh's trips. We watch the surgeon comb a local market with Igor looking for makeshift drill parts, diagnose mostly lost-cause patients and visit the "field of dreams" where Igor wants to build his clinic. We also watch Marian, a poor man from Western Ukraine, preparing for an operation to remove a brain tumour. Marsh is an industrious man of great compassion, yet an articulate realist when it comes to assessing the nature of his work. With original music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis. J.P.

Bloor, April 21, 9:30 p.m.; Isabel Bader, April 23, 4 p.m. The Forgotten Woman

Dilip Mehta (Canada, India)

***

The woman of the title is actually many Indian widows, who (like the 1930s characters in Deepa Mehta's Water) continue to live out their lives in poverty and neglect. This gorgeous but slow-moving documentary, written by Mehta and directed by her brother and collaborator, Dilip Mehta, delves into this ancient issue. The film begins with the ashrams of the sacred city of Vrindavan, where elderly widows essentially trade prayer for food. The director, a distinguished photojournalist, skillfully paints the streets of the city in ash and fog. But the big picture isn't pretty. Many widows remain imprisoned by traditions, including the idea that a widow is responsible for her husband's death.

Mehta's camera lingers on their stories, occasionally to a fault. Yet he does sketch in the social context, including the chilling indifference of the mall-going upper classes. The work of a Canadian widow turned activist provides one of a few hopeful notes. A.B.

Isabel Bader, April 24, 7 p.m. Her Name Is Sabine *** Sandrine Bonnaire (France)

Star of well-known French films including Vagabond and Monsieur Hire, actress Sandrine Bonnaire has also put herself behind the camera - filming, over a period of 25 years, her mentally ill but high-functioning sister, the beautiful Sabine. Now 38, 30 kilograms heavier, heavily medicated and living in a group home with specialized care, Sabine was recently diagnosed as psycho-infantile with autistic behaviour. She frequently lashes out, yet has the presence of mind to lock away her prized possessions. Bonnaire, who narrates the film, fearlessly examines whether five years in a psychiatric hospital or the disease itself caused her sister's deterioration, intercutting scenes from Sabine's life today with home movies - including a trip to New York on the Concorde - to illustrate the transformation. Sabine's attraction to her sister's camera makes for an intimate cinematic experience, while on a larger scale, the film subtly calls for greater compassion and more varied care for mentally ill adults. Winner of the FIPRESCI Award at Cannes in 2007. J.P.

Isabel Bader, April 20, 4:15 p.m.; ROM, April 26, 11:30 a.m. The Glow of White Women *** Yunus Vally (South Africa) Think of this film as a personalized one-man Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Think, too, of Frantz Fanon's Black Skin, White Masks and Eldridge Cleaver's White Woman, Black Man - but with greater ironic self-awareness and dollops of humour. Born of Indian parents in South Africa, Vally was raised as a Muslim during the decades of apartheid, and with the onset of puberty developed an obsession with the otherness and seeming inaccessibility of white women. Vally went on to have several "encounters" (his word) with white women and, post-apartheid, his fascination continues. He's something of a charmer, an articulate, self-deprecating tour guide through South Africa's thorny sexual and racial landscape, but he's also courageous enough to show his jerk side here. J.A.

ROM, April 19, 7:15 p.m.; Isabel Bader, April 22, 4:15 p.m. Second Sight *** Alison McAlpine (Canada, U.K.)

The film is as much a meditation on aging and the passage of time as a glimpse into the ghost stories of Scotland's remote Isle of Skye. Our guide is an 80-year-old widower and preacher, whose idiosyncratic ways match those of other old folks in the area, who tell their wide-eyed stories as if they happened yesterday. But our guide is hard to pin down. The film's best quality, though it may require patience on the part of viewers, is the care it takes to capture the old generation of ghost storytellers on their own terms, simply and respectfully. There's the astonishment in their faces, the lovely cadence in their words. Still, these folks (and it's difficult to tell if this is a virtue or a limitation of the film) remain as enigmatic as the ghosts they describe. Yet, like the apparitions they profess to have witnessed, the people of Skye stay with you for days after watching the film. G.D.

Cumberland, today, 7 p.m.; Royal, April 27, 7 p.m. Standard

Operating Procedure *** Errol Morris (U.S.) Taken in isolation, those photographs spoke infamous volumes, documenting the humiliation and, yes, torture of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers inside the walls of Abu Ghraib. But the fog of war spreads even to images as appalling as these, and Errol Morris is again intent on lifting the haze. Interviewing the soldiers who snapped the shots, Morris leads us "outside the frame" to establish both the specific and broader contexts - not just the moments leading up to and beyond the second frozen in the photograph, and not just the twisted mindset of the photographers, but the whole tainted philosophy that seeped down from the White House to spread its moral contamination. As always in a Morris doc, the argument is strong and the editing impeccable. Perhaps too impeccable. At times, the film risks aestheticizing what it condemns, moving too prettily - slow-motion shots of water dripping from a crude showerhead - inside its own cinematic frame. Still, the essential point is made: For the Bush administration, torture is standard operating procedure, and its ethical fallout merely a routine addition to war's collateral damage. R.G.

Isabel Bader, April 26, 9:15 p.m. Tiger Spirit *** Min Sook Lee (Canada)

The through line is the filmmaker's personal journey (a thematic specialty of the National Film Board of Canada) to better understand Korea's identity, partly in order to find her own identity as a Korean Canadian. But rather than dwelling on herself, she wisely focuses on the journeys of other Koreans such as defectors from the North who are trying to fight prejudice and make a life for themselves in the South. She also meets families lucky enough to have been chosen to participate in North-South family reunions, official exchanges that seem more like state-sanctioned publicity stunts than true humanitarian efforts by the two governments. Tragically, the reunion of brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles, separated for decades across the demilitarized zone, sometimes amounts to only a few brief meals and moments in a hotel room, as dim memories die away with old age. G.D.

Bloor, April 20, 6:30 p.m.; Bloor, April 26, 12:45 p.m. Virtual JFK: Vietnam

if Kennedy Had Lived *** Koji Masutani (U.S.) The title is self-explanatory, as the film posits one of those "What if?" scenarios beloved by certain historians and always popular with the rest of us. In this case, the hypothesis is grounded in the empirical facts of John F. Kennedy's conduct while in office - specifically, the foreign-policy issues he faced during his celebrated 1,000 days. Drawing upon declassified tape recordings and archival footage from Kennedy's unfettered press conferences (the latter a fond reminder of those days when presidents actually exposed themselves to non-orchestrated questions), the doc examines the behavioural evidence of six crises, ranging from the Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile Crisis through to Laos and Vietnam itself. In each case, Kennedy exercised restraint, emphasized negotiation and resisted the urging of many, not just the hawks, to commit to military escalation. His actions, criticized as weak "appeasement" at the time, have been vindicated since. The conclusion? No way JFK would have erred in Vietnam as monumentally as his successors. That's intriguing, but the film's broader conclusion is not: "It makes a difference who we elected president in times of war and peace." Ya think? R.G.

Isabel Bader, April 23, 9:45 p.m.; Royal, April 26, 7 p.m. 21/2 STARS Dear Zachary: A Letter

to a Son About His Father Kurt Kuenne (U.S.) **½ Some true stories simply demand to be told. This film addresses one of those: How Newfoundland doctor Shirley Turner allegedly murdered her ex-boyfriend, Andrew Bagby, in Pennsylvania, and gave birth to the couple's son after returning to her home province. But director Kurt Kuenne sees it differently: For him, the story at first is all about Bagby, his much-loved friend. "What would be the difference if one person was left alive?" Bagby's father asks, and that is Kuenne's focus as he chases around North America archiving memories of "Bags." The arrival of baby Zachary adds a twist, and then things go from bad to horrible. Canadians will be at a disadvantage in watching this heavy-handed film, because many of us will remember how it's going to end. And Kuenne is too immersed to make the grand statement he's aiming for. Yet his thick montages of memories and his tear-choked narrative are still compelling: This is really a cry of grief, maudlin and righteously angry. A.B.

Bloor, April 25, 6:30 p.m.; Isabel Bader, April 27, 11 a.m. Dreams With Sharp Teeth **½ Erik Nelson (U.S.) Prolific award-winning crafter of sci-fi, literary genius of the short story, episodic TV hack and born performer, Harlan Ellison is the brilliant, cantankerous star of this portrait of an artist, which mixes fun archival footage with scenes from the writer's life at his L.A. home, Ellison Wonderland. The film tantalizingly suggests that Ellison's acerbic personality and boundless creativity are rooted in his experiences with school bullies, his emotionally cold mother and the death of his father when he was 14, but never finds a deeper story or line of questioning to transcend its bordering on worshipful mood. Still, Ellison's righteous rants are highly entertaining, as are his illustrated "readings," making interviews with such luminaries as Neil Gaiman and Robin Williams bland by comparison. A must for sci-fi fans. J.P.

Isabel Bader, April 24, 9:30 p.m.; Bloor, April 26, 9:30 p.m. Flow: For Love of Water **½ Irena Salina (U.S.) In the wake of An Inconvenient Truth and The 11th Hour comes another documentary sounding alarm bells for the planet and the human race - this time because of the pollution, abuse and mismanagement of the planet's water resources. The film concentrates on the growing trend toward the privatization of water and the actions of companies such as Nestle, Coca-Cola, Suez and Vivendi, as well as the punitive corporation-favouring policies of the International Monetary Fund. Moving from Africa to India to the United States, the film depicts corporate heartlessness, government compliance and a situation that puts the world's poorest more and more at risk. Heartfelt, if predictable, the film ends with a call to action and optimistic images of activists (including Canada's Maude Barlow) and community groups around the world rallying for the basic right of clean, healthy water. The inspirational tone does get a little precious, especially when nonagenarian Indian activist and Gandhi scholar Siddharaj Dhadda quotes an almost certainly bogus letter from Chief Seattle to make the point that water, like air, should be free. L.L.

Bloor, April 24, 6:30 p.m. and April 26, 3:30 p.m. Life. Support. Music **½ Eric Daniel Metzgar (U.S.) The healing power of creativity and family love is revealed in this truly inspiring doc, which charts the amazing recovery of New York guitarist Jason Crigler from an Arteriovenous Malformation (the bursting of a collection of abnormal blood vessels in the brain) in 2004. A regular at the club the Living Room and sought-after guitarist by such artists as Norah Jones, Marshall Crenshaw and Teddy Thompson (all interviewed for the film), Crigler is told that he will never walk, talk, feed himself or hold his newborn daughter, let alone play the guitar professionally again. But the tenacious love and tireless hands-on work and faith of his family spur his remarkable comeback. The film's opening act - Crigler's wife, Monica, and family describe the night of his collapse and the frightening early days that follow - is riveting, as is the scene of his first performance in New York after his collapse, but by Act 3 the film starts meandering and has difficulty ending. J.P.

Isabel Bader, today, 7 p.m.; Cumberland, April 20, 4 p.m. The Lost Colony **½ Astrid Bussink (Netherlands) Dilapidated, mostly vacant and barely functioning, the vast Sukhum Primate Centre in Abkhazia (a subtropical region that fought for independence from Georgia in 1992) has a chance for revival when its former director returns to plan an international conference. The oldest monkey lab in the world, Sukhum and its plight become a metaphor for Abkhazia's ongoing tensions with Georgia, while the conference itself offers ample opportunity for eccentric humour. Footage from the glory days (monkeys being used for various research purposes) and eerie images of the facility's life today (row upon row of rusty empty cages, a researcher who searches the nearby foothills for signs of an escaped monkey colony, etc.) contribute to the surreal mood of this odd but entertaining doc. J.P.

ROM, April 23, 9:30 p.m.; Al Green, April 26, 4:30 p.m. Triage: Dr. James Orbinski's Humanitarian Dilemma **½ Patrick Reed (Canada)

This film follows the model of Peter Raymont's recent documentaries on Roméo Dallaire and Ariel Dorfman: A celebrated humanitarian goes back to the scene of a crisis, visiting old friends and reminiscing. This one is built around the concept of triage, the practice of setting priorities for patients using limited resources. Coincidentally, the film's weakness is a desire to do everything - too much historical information, too many characters and events. Orbinski was president of Médecins sans frontières (Doctors without Borders) when the group received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999. The film follows his return to Africa, long after he first went to help in the famine of Somalia in 1992, and recounts his subsequent experiences of the Rwandan genocide. The footage is regrettably familiar, and it is difficult, at this point, to find a new level of outrage at images of starvation and genocide. Orbinski is reserved but articulate, but his most important point - that compassion must be coupled with political astuteness - risks getting lost in the film's overwhelming detail. L.L.

Bloor, April 22, 9:15 p.m.; ROM, April 27, 7:15 and 9:45 p.m. TWO STARS Blast ** Paul Devlin (U.S.)

Like that exclamation point in the title, this doc seems a bit desperate for our attention - it's trying too hard in all the wrong ways. That's a shame, because the subject is fascinating: A team of astrophysicists sets out to launch a sophisticated telescope in a simple hot-air balloon, flying high enough to peek into distant galaxies. Ultimately, their goal is to answer the big question of the big bang: How did the universe evolve to its current state of vast galactic structures linked by even vaster expanses of dark matter? Now, to a guy like me, still wrestling with the mystery of how socks disappear into the black hole of my portable dryer, that question is a tad on the taxing side. Nevertheless, I wish the film had spent more time with the science and less with the scientists, who are shown labouring over their Antarctic launch, missing their far-off families, fretting and kibitzing and frolicking. There's a lot of interstellar filler here, designed to prove that, gosh, these astrophysical smarties are just regular folks with overstuffed craniums. Blast it Forget the folksiness I know, gimme the stuffing I don't. R.G.

ROM, April 22, 9:15 p.m.; Royal, April 26, 4:30 p.m. The Man Who Crossed

the Sahara ** Korbett Matthews (Canada)

In 1989, Frank Cole, a Canadian filmmaker, made the Guinness Book of World Records as the first North American to cross the Sahara by camel from the Atlantic to the Red Sea. His motive, apparently, was to confront his own fear of death, chronicled in his documentary about the experience, Life Without Death. On a return visit in 2000, Cole was killed by bandits in the desert near Timbuktu, a danger he had been specifically warned about days before. Director Korbett Matthews blends Cole's incandescent Sahara film footage with interviews with his grieving parents and friends and a visit to a cryogenic facility where Cole's remains are frozen. Though we learn that Cole was obsessed by the deaths of his grandparents, there is no further insight into what caused his morbid, dangerous compulsions. Because of the film's dearth of intellectual perspective, superficial parallels to Werner Herzog's Grizzly Man, about the naive naturalist Timothy Treadwell, don't hold up, and the ill-conceived climactic montage, including an implied re-enactment of his killing, feels pointlessly sensational and cruel. L.L.

Cumberland, April 22, 7 p.m.; Innis, April 25, 1:30 p.m. S&M: Short and Male ** Howard Goldberg (Canada)

Did you know sperm banks have minimum-height requirements for their donors? That job postings in China come with "shrimps need not apply" stipulations? That Napoleon really wasn't so dinky? A feature-length film on how little people are victims of height-ism is occasionally informative, but lacks structure and style. The idea that women and employers prefer tall men over small ones is not a blinding revelation, so an investigation into the relationship between male height and self-esteem and success needs much more "bite and humour" than S&M has. A segment on the bone-breaking lengths some little men resort to in order to gain stature is fascinating, but it's an exception in a film marred by whiny tinys, obviousness, and a half-hearted attempt that comes up short. B.W.

Royal Cinema, April 24, 7 p.m.; Isabel Bader, April 27, 1:45 p.m.

The venues

Al Green Theatre

750 Spadina Ave.

Bloor Cinema

506 Bloor St. W.

Cumberland

159 Cumberland St.

Innis Town Hall

2 Sussex Ave.

Isabel Bader Theatre

93 Charles St. W.

Royal Ontario Museum

100 Queen's Park

Royal Cinema

608 College St.

Winter Garden

189 Yonge St.

For more information,

visit http://www.hotdocs.ca.