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Edinburgh International Film Festival · 2018

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2018

Documentaries

Programme

26 films · 16 reviews

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Almost Fashionable: A Film About Travis

(Country: US, France, Germany, Mexico; Year: 2018; Director: Fran Healy; Writer: Sarah Iben, Wyndham Wallace; Stars: Wyndham Wallace, Wyndham Wallace)

World premiere

Beautiful Things

Review preview for Beautiful Things

The desire to know where the documentary facet ends and the creative element from Ferrero and Biasin begins soon ebbs away in the face of bigger philosophical ideas.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
A symphony of consumerism and waste, built while detailing the lives of four men.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2017; Director: Giorgio Ferrero, Federico Biasin; Writer: Giorgio Ferrero; Stars: Van Quattro, Danilo Tribunal, Andrea Pavoni Belli, Vito Mirizzi, Vittoria De Ferrari Sapetto, Andrea Valfrè)

Full review See: Giorgio Ferrero on music and memory in Beautiful Things

UK premiere

Becoming Animal

Review preview for Becoming Animal

If this was a lecture it would be an intellectual maze into which students lose themselves and never find a way out

Angus Wolfe Murray · 1.5 out of 5
Audiovisual essay considering the spaces where humans and animals meet.

(Country: Switzerland, UK; Year: 2018; Director: Emma Davie, Peter Mettler)

Full review

UK premiere

The Eyes Of Orson Welles

Review preview for The Eyes Of Orson Welles

Drink in the imposition of expressionism through ergonomics, gaze up, craning at shots considered anew.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
A journey through the pictorial world of Orson Welles, his drawings, paintings and works of youth, seen for the first time on screen thanks to his daughter Beatrice Welles.

(Year: 2018; Director: Mark Cousins)

Full review

Scottish premiere

George Michael: Freedom - Director's Cut

Portrait of the Wham! frontman.

(Country: UK; Year: 2018; Director: David Austin, George Michael)

UK premiere

The Gospel According To André

Review preview for The Gospel According To André

Flashes a light to illuminate different stages in the life of the man who invented himself with style and grace.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 4 out of 5
Portrait of André Leon Talley.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Kate Novack; Stars: André Leon Talley, Anna Wintour, Tom Ford, Marc Jacobs, Norma Kamali, Isabella Rossellini, Diane von Furstenberg, Whoopi Goldberg, Sean Combs, Valentino Garavani, will.i.am, Manolo Blahnik)

Full review See: ‪Kate Novack and Andrew Rossi in conversation on André Leon Talley's inspirations, kaleidoscope eyes, and an Isabella Rossellini experience in The Gospel According To André feature , Kate Novack and Andrew Rossi in conversation on The Gospel According To André

UK premiere

Happy Winter (Buon inverno)

Documentary about the economic crisis told through the lives of families near the beach of Palermo.

(Country: Italy; Year: 2017; Director: Giovanni Totaro)

UK premiere

Hal

Review preview for Hal

Ashby's daughter Leigh MacManus is one of the few contributors to offer an off-set perspective of the man - and it comes with a poignancy and beat of heartfelt truth that is lacking elsewhere.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
Portrait of the director of Harold And Maude.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Amy Scott; Stars: Jane Fonda, Jeff Bridges, Dustin Hoffman, Jon Voight, Rosanna Arquette, Judd Apatow, Adam McKay, Alexander Payne, Beau Bridges, Lee Grant, David O Russell, Louis Gossett Jr., Hal Ashby, Norman Jewison, Caleb Deschanel)

Full review

International premiere

The Image You Missed

A filmmaker struggles with the legacy of his estranged dad, the late documentarian Arthur MacCaig.

(Country: France, Ireland, US, UK; Year: 2018; Director: Donal Foreman; Stars: Arthur MacCaig, Arthur MacCaig)

UK premiere

Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story

Review preview for Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story

Director Tiffany Bartok doesn't shy away from the depressing aspects of Kevyn's story, nor obfuscate his responsibility for parts of what went wrong.

Jennie Kermode · 3.5 out of 5
An intimate look at the make-up artist.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Tiffany Bartok; Stars: Christy Turlington, Brooke Shields, Cher, Isabella Rossellini, Naomi Campbell, Kate Moss, Linda Evangelista, Tori Amos, Isaac Mizrahi, Kevyn Aucoin, Jed Root, Linda Wells)

Full review See: Tiffany Bartok in conversation on Isabella Rossellini, Tori Amos, David Lynch's The Elephant Man, and a bullying interview in Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story , Tiffany Bartok in conversation on Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story

International premiere

Life After Flash

Review preview for Life After Flash

The presence of completists and super-fans is helpful, because you do not need to be either to enjoy Life After Flash.

Andrew Robertson · 3.5 out of 5
A look at the life of Sam J Jones, who played Flash Gordon in the 1980 version of the fantasy classic.

(Country: UK, US; Year: 2017; Director: Lisa Downs; Stars: Sam J Jones, Melody Anderson, Brian Blessed, Topol, Peter Wyngarde, Richard O'Brien, Deep Roy, Brian May, Peter Duncan, Howard Blake, Jaime Alba, John Altman, Martin Ballantyne, Ian Beattie, Manu Bennett)

Full review

European premiere

Light Years (Años Luz)

Review preview for Light Years

I'm not sure it constitutes scholarship in and of itself, but it is certainly (as with all good documentary) a satisfying look at something hereto unseen.

Andrew Robertson · 4 out of 5
A documentary portrait of Lucrecia Martel during the shooting of Zama.

(Country: Argentina, Brazil, Spain; Year: 2017; Director: Manuel Abramovich)

Full review

UK premiere

Meeting Jim

Story of Jim Haynes, the man who had a massive impact on Edinburgh's cultural scene.

(Country: Turkey, Spain, UK, Germany; Year: 2018; Director: Ece Ger)

World premiere

Miss Maria, Skirting The Mountain (Senorita Maria, la falda de la montana)

Examining the life of a trans campesina in Colombia

(Country: Colombia; Year: 2017; Director: Ruben Mendoza; Writer: Ruben Mendoza)

UK premiere

Nocturno: Ghosts Of The Sea In Port

Review preview for Nocturno: Ghosts Of The Sea In Port

Louis Dodd's music, Thomas Blazukas' sound, Mauricio Reyes Serrano's work as DoP - all give a sense of the dreaming seas, the night, choirs and candlelit coves, corneal close-up.

Andrew Robertson · 3 out of 5
Sailors on a Spanish fishing ship fight a silent battle during their long, empty hours in the port of Montevideo.

(Country: Spain; Year: 2017; Director: Álvaro Fernández-Pulpeiro; Writer: Álvaro Fernández-Pulpeiro; Stars: Iria Acevedo, Budi Arip, Carlos González Arrocha, Cimu, Carmela Fernández, Ousmane Lo, Marina Moreira, Papa Malick Ndiaye, Pedregullo, Elhaji Pouye, Mauro Recchi, Adama Seck, Osama Sene, Papa Sene, Mohamad Taufik)

Full review

International premiere

Piano To Zanskar

An eccentric piano tuner decides to deliver a 100-year-old piano to a school in the Indian Himalayas.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Michal Sulima)

World premiere

Postcards From The 48%

Two years on from the Brexit vote, what do people think?

(Country: UK; Year: 2018; Director: David Wilkinson)

World premiere

A Punk Daydream (Lamumam Oi!)

Review preview for A Punk Daydream

Although lacking polish and sometimes frustrating in its refusal to volunteer more historical context, either of the country as a whole or the Dayak, this remains an intriguing snapshot.

Amber Wilkinson · 3 out of 5
A look inside Indonesian Muslim punk culture.

(Country: Belgium; Year: 2018; Director: Jimmy Hendrickx; Writer: Jimmy Hendrickx, Kristian Van der Heyden)

Full review

World premiere

Pushkar Myths (Pushkar Puran)

Documenting a festival held near a lake city that is one of the most holy cities in the world in the Hindu religion.

(Country: India, US; Year: 2017; Director: Kamal Swaroop)

UK premiere

RBG

Review preview for RBG

Less a cross-examination than a powerful summing up of her career, Cohen and West succeed in revealing the personality of the woman beneath the gown but there's no doubt they want to heavily influence our verdict.

Amber Wilkinson · 3.5 out of 5
An intimate portrait of an unlikely rock star: Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Julie Cohen, Betsy West; Stars: Bill Clinton, Sharron Frontiero, Jane C Ginsburg, Martin D. Ginsburg, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Orrin Hatch, Lilly Ledbetter, Rush Limbaugh)

Full review

European premiere

Saving Brinton

Review preview for Saving Brinton

It is magical, a trove.

Andrew Robertson · 4.5 out of 5
When an eccentric collector discovers the showreels of the man who brought moving pictures to the Heartland, he begins a journey to restore the legacy of America’s greatest barnstorming movieman.

(Country: US; Year: 2017; Director: Tommy Haines, Andrew Sherburne; Stars: Michael Zahs, Rick Altman, Jan Boland, Carey Bostian, Serge Bromberg, John Dowdall, Kathryn Fuller-Seeley, Greg Prickman, Harvey Solberger, Mitch Thompson, George R. Willeman, Elaine Zahs, Julie Zahs)

Full review

UK premiere

Science Fair

Review preview for Science Fair

Cristina Constantini and Darren Foster have produced a film that charms, compels, shines a light on a field of competition that will be unfamiliar to audiences outwith the US.

Andrew Robertson · 3.5 out of 5
Nine high school students from around the globe navigate rivalries, setbacks, and of course, hormones, on their journey to compete at the international science fair.

(Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Cristina Costantini, Darren Foster)

Full review

UK premiere

Time Trial

Review preview for Time Trial

There's a savage kind of beauty in Pretsell's portrait of desperation and despair.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
A documentary following David Millar in his final season in the saddle.

(Country: UK; Year: 2017; Director: Finlay Pretsell; Stars: Thomas Dekker, David Millar)

Full review See: Interview with Finlay Pretsell about Time Trial

Scottish premiere

What Walaa Wants

Insight into the life of a Palestinian girl determined to become a police officer.

(Country: Canada, Denmark; Year: 2018; Director: Christy Garland)

UK premiere