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Show A-8 ‘Maiden’ sails into spotlight Story of all-women sailing crew told in documentary CAROLYN WEBBER ALDER The Park Record COURTESY OF SUNDANCE INSTITUTE A still from “Sea of Shadows” by Richard Ladkani, which explores the devastation caused by the fishing industry off the coast of Mexico. Swim into ‘Sea of Shadows’ Doc explores the devastation off coastal Mexico JAY MEEHAN The Park Record Not that long ago you could grab one of the world’s most sublime fish tacos off a street vendor and, marveling at the ebb tide, stroll down the beach at San Felipe as if you owned the joint. These days there is something different in the air along the northwestern coast of Mexico’s Sea of Cortez. The tropical paradise remains as a physical manifestation but additional variables have disturbed the carefree vibe it rode in on. Take the Totoaba fish, which can grow as large as an NFL left tackle, for instance, and the endangered porpoise referred to as the Vaquita. Now, in order to understand the equation that puts both species on the cusp of extinction, you’d also have to plug in the local fishing community, the Mexican Navy, the Chinese Mafia, and the Sinaloa Cartel. And that’s where Austrian documentary filmmaker and cinematographer Richard Ladkani enters the frame. With “Sea of Shadows,” the fourth film he has brought to the Sundance Film Festival set to screen in the World Cinema Documentary Competition, Ladkani is out to educate the world of an impending ecological disaster. “Segments of the regional Wed/Thurs/Fri, January 23-25, 2019 The Park Record fishing industry have joined the cartel solely out of a need to survive,” Ladkani said in a phone interview with The Park Record from Baden, Austria. He remained shaken from his and his crew’s experiences documenting the human-caused devastation and the extreme peril in which the conservationist side attempts to cope. “The San Felipe people are scared because they envision the whole coastal area will turn into a war zone controlled by the cartel. We are hoping with our film, to expose what is going on,” Ladkani said. Introducing filmgoers to “heroes” like Carlos Loret de Mola, an investigative journalist from Mexico City; Jack Hutton, a key drone pilot onboard the conservation vessel “Sea Shepherd;” and local San Felipe fishermen Javier and Alan Valverde, the film gives you an up close and personal look at the war zone. What’s happening is that the market for the “swim bladder” of the Totoaba (referred to as the “cocaine” of the sea) as a fertility enhancer in Chinese diets, has risen to such a level that cartel-supported fishing fleets with their miles of gill nets also snag the Vaquita, of which there are only fifteen remaining in the ecosystem. The large Mexican naval presence results in some arrests, of course, but wrist slapping is the rule of the day. There is no actual deterrent. “What is happening in Mexico is yet another example of human-caused devastation due to the greed of a few,” Lad- kani said. “By illuminating the problem through cinematic and compelling storytelling while offering solutions and captivating heroes with a cause, I hope to help save this precious ecosystem, which is on the verge of total collapse. “You need to be right at the front line to have an impact not to just make a good film but to make an impact. We used drones, various camera teams and more than a half dozen Go Pros just to stay close to the action. “I believe each one of us has the ability to be part of the solution. I try to use my skills as a filmmaker to inspire audiences to never give up on our planet and help bring change toward a better and brighter future.” “Sea of Shadows,” an entry in the Sundance Film Festival’s World Documentary Competition, is set to screen at the following times and locations: Sunday, Jan. 27, 5:30 p.m., Prospector Square Theatre Monday, Jan. 28, noon, Temple Theatre Thursday, Jan. 31, 6:30 p.m., The Ray Theatre Friday, Feb. 1, 6 p.m., Tower Theatre Saturday, Feb. 2, noon, Holiday Village Cinema 2 Tracy Edwards did not form an all-women yacht sailing crew with the intent of becoming a symbol of feminism. In fact, as she claims in the film “Maiden,” she disliked the term feminist. She simply wanted to do what she loved and accomplish her aspirations. Edwards’ struggle to realize her dream of participating in the 1989 Whitbread Round the World Race is depicted in the documentary “Maiden,” which is set to premiere in the U.S. during the Sundance Film Festival. Edwards faced a sailing community that was vocally against her and her team’s determination, as well as personal doubt about her own abilities. She became an image of feminism. Alex Holmes, who directed and wrote the script for the film, first heard about Edwards’ story when she spoke at his daughter’s graduation from elementary school. Holmes was moved by Edwards’ “remarkable story” and her “engaging character,” but also the fact that the barriers Edwards had to break through were still the ones Holmes was reminding his daughters to conquer. “It’s astonishing that, even after all these years, the world somehow tries to limit our daughters and not present them with all the opportunities that they should have available to them,” he said. He knew the world needed to be reminded of Edwards’ experience. So he walked up to her after her speech and told her he was interested in portraying her story in a film. Holmes was continuously impressed by Edwards as he learned more about her story, as well as the story of the other 12 women on the Maiden crew. He interviewed each of them for the doc- TRACY EDWARDS/COURTESY OF SUNDANCE INSTITUTE “Maiden” is a film by Alex Holmes in the Sundance Film Festival Spotlight program. The documentary tells the story of the all-women sailing crew that competed in the 1989 Whitbread Round The World Race. umentary. The film starts with a look into Edwards’ younger years. She was a troubled teen who fled from home and sought refuge on a boat. She learned about the Whitbread Round the World Race and immediately wanted in, but she struggled to find a crew that would allow a female to join them. So, in the late 1980s, she decided to form an all-women crew. “Maiden” is honest, Holmes said, because the crewmates were candid in their interviews. They mention how difficult it was to work with Edwards at times, and Edwards was upfront about her anxiety and self doubt. But what helps the documentary provide the honest, raw feelings throughout the journey is the footage from the race. The crewmates kept a camera on board, and Jo Gooding, one of Edwards’ long-time friends and the chef on board the Maiden, used the camera to capture the spirit of the characters. She showed the stressful, sullen moments as well as the elated ones, Holmes said. With footage from the time, it was easy to depict the truth about how the female crew was treated as well. Questions directed to the women during interviews included, “How are you all getting along together?” and “What do you do for chapped lips?” while the male sailing crews were asked about their tactics. Holmes said prejudice and chauvinism were undeniable themes of Maiden’s journey, and were included in the documentary. Since those problems still exist today, he felt it was important to remind people, particularly young women, to push past limits. “What I hoped the film would do would be to invigorate my children and others to say, ‘Actually you know what, if Tracy could do that, if she could take on all that, and follow her dream and really push herself to the limits, then maybe I could do that too in whatever field I’m in,’” he said. “Maiden,” an entry in the Sundance Film Festival Spotlight Competition, is set to screen at the following times and locations: Friday, Jan. 25, 6:15 p.m., Grand Theatre Monday, Jan. 28, 6 p.m., Library Center Theater Wednesday, Jan. 30, 11:30 a.m., The MARC Theater Saturday, Feb. 2, 7 p.m., Redstone Cinema 2 Comedy explores feminism ‘The Man Who Played With Fire’ comes to Sundance Filmmaker shows other life of author Stieg Larsson EMILY ARAGONES/COURTESY OF SUNDANCE INSTITUTE Emma Thompson, left, and Mindy Kaling star as two women in comedy with vastly different backgrounds in “Late Night,” premiering on Friday at the Sundance Film Festival. Nisha Ganatra directed the film. ‘Late Night’ offers perspective on field dominated by men BEN RAMSEY The Park Record Stieg Larsson had an intimate sense of Sweden’s dark side, which comes across vividly in his Millennium Trilogy — “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” and its sequels. Director Henrik Georgsson’s new film about Larsson, “Stieg Larsson — The Man Who Played With Fire,” shows how the author came to understand that side of Sweden while researching and reporting the far right. “If you’re expecting a film about him as a crime novelist, this is not that movie,” Georgsson said. “People know him, of course, as the crime novelist and they don’t know much about him. We wanted to do a film about the real Stieg Larsson, what he was really doing in his life.” For most of his adult life, Larsson sought to shine a spotlight on racism and fascism, and became one of the leading experts on the far right in Europe. He didn’t start writing novels until the last few years of his life. Georgsson said he was selected by the producer to create the “The Man Who Played With Fire” because of his Nordic Noire work in the television shows “The Bridge,” and “Wallander.” Georgsson continues in that tradition in “The Man Who Played With Fire,” chronicling Larsson’s life from his early childhood to his untimely death of a heart attack in 2004. The film draws heavily from interviews with his co-workers and colleagues both at the newspaper TT News, where Larsson was a designer, and at Expo, the anti-racist magazine he helped COURTESY OF SUNDANCE INSTITUTE Olof Berglind as Stieg Larsson in “Stieg Larsson — The Man Who Played With Fire.” Larsson made himself an expert on right-wing extremist groups, and Berglind portrays him in the film’s non-speaking reenactments of Larsson’s life. found. Some of the interviewees conceal their identity out of fear for their lives, having received death threats while covering the far right. “The Man Who Played With Fire” also uses an actor to play Larsson in reenactments, none of which use dialogue. Georgsson used those scenes to create Larsson as a presence in the film, by depicting him doing things like drinking coffee, and they often feature Larsson aggressively smoking cigarettes while out collecting information on Swedish neo Nazis or poring over paperwork on the same subject. “The Man Who Played With Fire” shows Larsson’s work to be backbreaking and dangerous, and a large part of the film focuses on how difficult and often poorly compensated Larsson and his colleagues were in their efforts to guard democracy. “He’s not famous, not even in Sweden, for that part of his work,” Goergson said. In many ways, the point of “The Man Who Played With Fire” is to affirm that sometimes-fruitless work, as it chronicles both Larsson’s rise to prominence and the rise of nationalist groups from their skinhead roots to the buttoned-up, parliamentary present. “We take the open society and democracy for granted, but maybe it’s just this little gap from the Second World War until now, and that this is just a little (anomaly),” Goergson said. “Start thinking about, maybe it’s not impossible that (fascism) will happen again. “It’s really like what Steig says in the end,” Goergsson said. “That maybe 20 years from now, we won’t have democracy,” “Stieg Larsson – The Man Who Played With Fire,” an entry in the Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Documentary Competition, is set to screen at the following times and locations: Friday, Jan. 25, 6 p.m., Broadway Centre Cinema 6 Tuesday, Jan. 29, 9:30 p.m., The Ray Theatre Wednesday, Jan. 30, 8:30 a.m., Prospector Square Theatre Friday, Feb. 1, 10:00 p.m., Redstone Cinema 2 Saturday, Feb. 2, 11:30 a.m., Egyptian Theatre JAMES HOYT The Park Record For the trio of women behind “Late Night,” a comedic entry in the 2019 Sundance Film Festival’s Premieres program, the project was a deeply personal one. But for Indian-Canadian Nisha Ganatra, Indian-American Mindy Kaling and native Briton Emma Thompson, “personal” isn’t as narrow of a term as it may sound. The film, helmed by an experienced director in Ganatra (with a long resume including work on “Brooklyn NineNine,” “Dear White People” and “The Mindy Project”), a star in Thompson (“Love Actually,” the Harry Potter series), and a script written by co-star Kaling (“The Office,” “The Mindy Project”), is the product of three women who have been around the block while navigating the entertainment world. Ganatra cited her experience in Hollywood’s diversity programs, Kaling’s experience writing and acting over the nine-season run of “The Office,” and Emma Thompson’s origins in sketch comedy before being typecast as, in the director’s words, “nice women in boring frocks,” as pieces of the creators that went into production. “This is sort of fun for all of us to get back to our roots and our love for comedy and what made us excited about making the movie in the first place,” Ganatra said. The film’s plot centers on the relationship between Katherine Newbury (Thompson), a well-established late night comedian with an all-male writing staff, and Molly (Kaling), an ambitious young writer Newbury brings on as a diversity hire. As Newbury reckons with declining ratings and accusations of “white feminism,” Molly brings ideas to the table that cross a generational divide and help the television standby get back on track — and allow the characters to, maybe, learn something in the process. Ganatra said that while the film tackles themes like white privilege, divisions of age among feminist women and the broader challenges facing women in show business, “Late Night” at its core is a story about two people crossing a wide personal and generational gulf to affect change on a larger scale. “Instead of the women who break through and close the door behind them, feeling like, ‘Oh, I made it, thank God, nobody else can get in here, (the film is about) how important it is for this generation of women who have done the hard work — to make it — to kick that door open for those coming in behind them,” she said. Presently, Ganatra says that while, on the outside, the cultural mainstreaming of feminism and events like the #MeToo movement would appear to have begun evening the odds for women and other marginalized groups in Hollywood, a lot of work remains to be done on that front. “For me, I’m an optimist and I’m a hopeful person and I feel like things are always getting better, but that change is not coming as fast or as large as it needs to,” she said. Ganatra said she believes comedy is one of the most potent narrative genres in terms of speaking truth to power, and that she hopes the film’s message sticks the landing in the minds of the audience of industry professionals and film enthusiasts attending the Sundance Film Festival. “I hope the Sundance audience comes away laughing,” she said. “I hope everybody comes away seeing something to think about. It’s a really fun movie, to hear really intelligent women talking about these things in a really funny manner.” “Late Night,” an entry in the Sundance Film Festival Premieres program, is set to screen at the following times and locations: Friday, Jan. 25, 6:30 p.m., Eccles Theatre Saturday, Jan. 26, 9:00 a.m., Eccles Theatre Sunday, Jan. 27, 3:15 p.m., Grand Theatre Monday, Jan. 28, noon, Sundance Mountain Resort Screening Room Tuesday, Jan. 29, 8:45 p.m., Library Center Theatre Tuesday, Jan. 29, 9:30 p.m., Eccles Theatre Saturday, Feb. 2 8:30 p.m., The MARC Theatre Sunday, Feb. 3 6:15 p.m., Tower Theatre |