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What Ema ultimately wants is to bend convention to its breaking point. Regretting the decision, Ema plots to get him back with a cadre of female dancers, a version of extended family, who say they’ll break the law for her. The premise is that reggaeton dancer Ema (a fierce Mariana Di Girólamo) and her choreographer husband Gastón (a pent up Gael García Bernal) have returned their adopted 10-year-old son due to dangerous behavior. 25īy far the most original and visually stunning of this group (perhaps of anything I’ve seen yet this year), Pablo Larraín’s “Ema” juts between avant garde dance video and psychological horror with unpredictable, asymmetrical storytelling. At one point, Demers candidly asks, “How many people mourn their abusers?” Other critics have called this documentary Canada’s answer to the politicized “Blackfish.” Yet MarineLand’s deterioration is as much about human capriciousness as it is about protests.īoston Latino International Film Fest | Sept.
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Tucked into the obvious storyline are a few surprising plot twists. Even his girlfriend, also a former MarineLand employee, looks askance at his relentless advocacy. “The Walrus and the Whistleblower” pegs Demers as a problematic hero. Nathalie Bibeau’s documentary follows Demers as he quits MarineLand in protest of the inhumane treatment of animals, takes his #SaveSmooshi fight to Twitter and gets slapped with a defamation lawsuit. But living in captivity lends itself to animals identifying a human, instead of their own species as their mother. 18-24Īs a caretaker at MarineLand in Niagara Falls, Canada, Phil Demers didn’t expect Smooshi the walrus to imprint on him. Newburyport Documentary Film Festival | Sept. Amidst the chaos of our current situation, these films serve as a reminder of family’s formative influence. The way families react in crisis can be startling and potentially world-changing. In the nine films selected below, not all of what plays out is pretty. In these instances, the whole neighborhood becomes family. Some films highlight the resourcefulness that results from facing entrenched problems like gun violence and lack of quality child care. While not made with COVID-19 in mind, the lens of the pandemic adds new dimension to how these on-screen families manage situations like nurturing a new marriage and baby while geographically separated or introducing a father figure into a mother and son’s tightknit bond. Mothering in particular comes into sharp focus. Several feature-length films playing the Boston area’s fall film festivals challenge or expand the idea of family. No matter if defined by blood or love or proximity, the precariousness of who we keep close and how has suddenly become an inescapable, practically daily dilemma.
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Whether through forced togetherness or separation, the pandemic has caused significant reassessments of family relationships. Phil Demers is the subject of the documentary "Walrus Whisperer." (Courtesy Newburyport Documentary Film Festival) This article is more than 1 year old.