documentaries

Colum Stapleton

Ireland | 2004 | 70mins | Beta | Colour | Subtitled

When religion is losing its grip across the Western World along comes a Church that guarantees an encounter with the Divine - no faith needed - just the ability to stomach a visionary 'tea', fused by using two Amazonian plants. This 'sacrament' is a message spreading around the world through the endeavours of the Church of the Eclectic Universal Flowing Light - Christianity's strangest offspring.

Church leader Padrinho Alfredo toured Europe last fall. Accounts en route of 'doing the tea' during 12 hours services are described variously as the most terrifying, most joyous, most inspired experiences. Is it safe to allow people such Shamanic insight in an instant?

In the village of Ceu de Mapia, a haven in the heart of the upper Amazon rainforest, young and old participate in the nightlong ritual. Their connection 'with the astral helps untangle community tensions' and helps lighten the lost spirits of both the living and the dead. Their world is a paradise caught in an unwitting struggle with a spiritual global arena very unlike the Amazonian beliefs and traditions that are their background.

Jim Fields, Michael Gramaglia

USA | 2003 | 110mins | 35mm | Colour

You've heard of The Ramones. The movie traces The Ramones' history back to Forest Hills, Queens, where the group formed in 1974, united by a com-mon love of Iggy and the Stooges and the New York Dolls. The band's loud, no-frills, machine-gun style bucked the trend for instrumental virtuosity and musical orna-mentation. They are credited with solidifying the sound and ideals of punk rock.

The early, seminal days get the most attention, while the '80s and '90s are deftly and swiftly navigated... "without ignoring the more unsavoury elements of the story, like the creative stagnation of the group's later years, the immense acrimony that developed after Johnny married the woman Joey loved or, worst of all, Dee Dee's rap album." - Jason Anderson, Eye

The DIY, spontaneous style of the documentary is in keeping with the band itself . All of the interviewees - which include all of The Ramones plus Debbie Harry, Joe Strummer (in his last ever interview), Eddie Vedder and many others are given time to breathe, recording the shrugs, eye-rolls, and silences that reveal as much as any comment.

Visa Koiso-Kanttila

Finland | 2004 | 70mins | 35mm | Colour | Subtitled

Father To Son deals with the conflict between subjective memories and reality, and the way different methods of raising children pass from one generation to the next. How often and to what extent do we repeat the behavioural patterns of our fathers; can we change or break these pat-terns or is repeating them inescapable, and how many generations are needed for change to occur? Are the values we have inherited from our fathers still valid in the modern world?

Father To Son is the director's personal voyage of discovery in the history of his own family, which covers four generations of men, and the fundamental questions involved in fatherhood. Despite its serious topic, the film incorporates a dark sense of humour.