For this week’s batch of Weekend Streaming Recommendations, I’ve chosen to pick a quartet of excellent documentaries, but with an added bonus: To enhance your viewing pleasure, I’ve included interviews I conducted with the films’ directors and subjects! It’s like special features for streaming movies!…well, kinda. There have been a truckload of great, great documentaries coming out over the past year or so, and these four are some of my favorites.

The Square

Recently nominated for an Oscar for Best Documentary, Jehane Noujaim’s The Square is about the Egyptian mass protests staged in Cairo’s Tahrir Square that have rattled the country over the past few years, and it’s also one of the most thrilling, culturally significant, awe-inspiring films in recent memory. Streaming exclusively on Netflix, the film follows a handful of revolutionaries, all from different walks of life, as they devote their lives to wresting the power away from oppressive dictators Hosni Mubarak and his over-powered successor, Mohammad Morsi. You couldn’t ask for a more inspirational, captivating on-screen personality than the film’s primary subject, a young, brash, loudmouth revolutionary by the name of Ahmed Hassan who you’ll never forget. – Watch the trailer

Interview with director Jehane Noujaim and producer Karim Amer

Tall as the Baobab Tree

One of the best documentaries I saw at last year’s San Francisco International Film Festival, Tall as the Baobab Tree follows a family in a small Senegalese village that struggles to transition into a new age of modernity that threatens to disrupt their established, traditional roots. When a freak accident puts a young girl named Coumba’s family in a desperate financial situation, her father chooses to sell her younger sister Debo into an arranged marriage. With Coumba being the first in the family to attend school, she’s able to dream of a bigger, better future for herself, and she wants to rescue her sister from the forced fate imposed upon her by their father. Though the script is fictional, the story speaks to the real-life status of a part of the world teetering on the precipice of modernity. It’s a beautiful, important film, and a story more people should be familiar with. It isn’t streaming for free at the moment, but it’s a special film that’s worth shelling out a few bucks. – Watch the trailer

Interview with director Jeremy Teicher

Blackfish

I’m never, ever going to Sea World again, thanks to Blackfish, a bracing, revealing documentary by Gabriela Cowperthwaite. The film examines the fatal consequences of marine parks keeping animals like killer whales in captivity through the story of one whale in particular, named Tilikum, who’s taken the lives of three trainers since his capture. Cowperthwaite interviews current and previous employees of these parks, and their accounts of the tragedies surrounding Tilikum and whales like him are shocking. With so many people having misconceptions about how these sea parks operate (me included), Blackfish is a must watch, and will hopefully help to bring about change in the way we treat animals in captivity. – Watch the trailer

Interview with director Gabriela Cowperthwaite

A Band Called Death

“Before there was punk, there was a band called Death”, reads the poster for the rock-doc A Band Called Death, directed by Mark Christopher Covino and Jeff Howlett. The tagline speaks the truth: Before the Ramones or The Clash rose to prominence, three brothers from Detroit started a band in their parents’ house and eventually recorded the world’s first pure punk record. The band was forgotten and never received credit for pioneering a genre of music, but in 2008, their music resurfaced and word about the lost “forefathers of punk” began to spread like wildfire. Dannis and Bobby Hackney, two thirds of the band, recount the troubled history of their musical journey, including the demise of their self-destructive, spiritually inspired late brother, David. – Watch the trailer

Interview with subjects Dannis and Bobby Hackney

Tall as the Baobab Tree was one of my favorite films at the San Francisco International Film Festival, a serene, beautiful story about a Senegalese family torn between modernity and tradition. Director Jeremy Teicher took some time to chat with Way Too Indie about his inspiration behind the film, his amazing experience shooting it, how he wanted to depict Africa truthfully, stealing a shot from Quentin Tarantino, and more.

Where did the idea for the film come from?
Junior year in college, I had an off semester. I was studying film, theater, and English at Dartmouth, making short films…film student stuff. I had this opportunity through a non-profit to go to this school in a village in Senegal, which is where I’d end up working for years. [The gig was] they’d fly me out for two weeks, I’d cut and edit a video, they’d use it on their website. I said “Sure!” and going in, I did a lot of research watching specifically what types of documentary-style videos for non-profits have been made, and I saw that it was all really tear-jerking stuff where you feel pity and are inspired to give money, which is fine. But culturally, I felt that it very much ‘others’ them. It’s a very ‘other-ing’ sort of tactic to make you feel sorry for someone else and empathize with them.

I met these students at the school who were about my age—I was 19 and they were 16-17. A group of about fifteen of them were the first [kids in the village] to go to school. The village school was built in 2000—before that, there was no access point to education. No one ever went to school. It wasn’t even a thought in their minds. It was amazing to hear their stories, and that ended up being the focus for my film project for the non-profit—just capturing stories about their daily lives. I was inspired meeting them because they’re so determined and optimistic in the face of huge challenges. I felt inspired by them rather than feeling pity.

[I thought] it would be cool to make a documentary [since I’d never made one before]. It seemed like the right way to approach it, to capture their daily lives and put out a voice that showed the optimism and determination rather than the pity. I got funding through a fellowship, went back [to Senegal] and made This is Us.

[During] the course of making This is Us, Dior, who plays the main character [in Baobab], and I began talking about forced marriage, which is a lot of the reason why girls can’t go to school [there]. I had no idea this was happening. [This became] a big part of the documentary.

Coming-of-age stories [have always interested me]. [What I saw] in Senegal was quite the coming-of-age story. Imagine you wake up, go to school [in the city], and you don’t fit in because you’re from this remote village. Then, you come home, and you don’t fit in at home anymore because you’re the only one who has an education. You feel out of place. That’s a universal teenage feeling. [In Baobab], it’s put in an extreme context. These kids are a part of this big social and cultural change, [which makes it] an amazing coming-of-age story.

I think in narrative. I dream in narrative. I thought this would be an amazing narrative film to focus on the emotions [involved in] what’s going on, specifically on the issue of early marriage. Going back to the pity thing, forced early marriage is a huge international issue, and when we talk about it, we react with shock and disgust. “How could people possibly do this?” But what I saw in the village was that these aren’t evil people—everyone’s just doing what’s best for their family. So, how does early marriage happen when statistics show that it’s better to send girls to school? It’s a result of being between two worlds—the cultural, traditional world and the modern world—and not operating fully in either one. It’s this tragic situation, but if you have empathy with it rather than disgust towards it, I think that’s a better place to start when working toward social change.

What stood out about the film to me was how peaceful it is. There are profound issues being addressed, and there is conflict, but the film doesn’t feel intense in any way.
You look at Blood Diamond or War Witch, and what do you see? Guns, yelling, violence—what I would call sensationalism. I really wanted to make a film that brought people together, not with sensationalism, but with a sense of shared empathy and understanding. It’s cool because suddenly, you’re empathizing with the village elder. [He’s] condemning girls to early marriage, but you understand why. You don’t condone it, of course, but you understand it.

I wanted to make a film that captured [what I felt] when I was in the village—the pace of life there, the introspective conversations and shooting the shit that people do, the close bond between families. When these kids go to the city, they miss being at the village, even though they know the city is where the opportunities are. I wanted to capture that. That’s a big reason why the film is the way it is, why we didn’t have any plot twists for the sake of an exciting story. For me, it was really trying to capture truth as much as possible. I wanted to make a human film. I knew that it would be an important film for people working on this issue, but I wanted to make a film that anyone could have an emotional connection with, without using sensationalism.

What could you convey in a narrative feature that you couldn’t have in a documentary?
Firstly, it just felt natural—[in narrative] is just how I imagine stories. Specifically [for this film], I thought that narratively, I would be able to capture very specific moments and interactions that wouldn’t happen [in a documentary] unless [we recreated them.] Also, with narrative, you have the liberty to craft—in the editing and the music and the performance—these very specific moments. I think we were able to create empathy with the sisters using narrative because we could capture an intimate moment like them braiding each others’ hair. In a [documentary,] it might feel like you were observing rather than being a part of it. In narrative, we can capture these ultra-close-ups and capture the eye glances that make you feel like you’re there rather than observing.

Also, we had a lot of stories [from the kids] that we wanted to touch on, and we couldn’t touch on everything. With a narrative script, we could say “These are the experiences we want to highlight.” Artistically, it enables you to penetrate deeper into certain moments between characters, so you [understand] the relationships a lot better.

Talk about ‘C’est l’afrique!’
(laughs) It means “It’s Africa!” [in French]. Somebody would be two hours late [on the shoot], there would be a tree that fell across the road and they couldn’t show up to the shoot. ‘C’est l’afrique!’ [It was] basically the mantra of…you don’t have control over the environment and you have to let go. The American crew and I were trying to be super strict like on a shoot in the US, but you have to be adaptable.

There was no electricity [in the village], and at night it got pitch black. [At the end of the day, before it got dark] we’d take horses to the hotel and back with a cart to put all the [equipment] on. [One day, at the end of shooting] there were storm clouds on the horizon, and our cart got a flat tire. It started monsooning and getting dark at the same time, so we were stuck out in the village with all of our gear. It’s not the most secure place to be with thousands of dollars in film equipment. We had to cover [the equipment] with our bodies and wrap them up in our clothes. Finally, we had a horse come pick us up in the dark, but that was the craziest moment [of the shoot].

You’re only 24.
I was 22 when we started shooting, and had my 23rd birthday on set!

You’re very talented for being so young. What are some of your influences?
I appreciate the compliment for sure, but I credit very largely Chris Collins, my cinematographer who I hope to be able to work with forever. He’s the man. We went to high school together, [so] it’s an awesome relationship.

[At one point, making a feature film] seemed crazy, but I saw one film and thought to myself “Okay, I can do this.” It’s called Munyurangabo by Lee Isaac chung. It was shot in Rwanda on 16mm in a week or something with non-actors. That was a huge influence on Baobab. I got to meet Isaac, and he gave me a lot of advice, which was cool. Aesthetically, I drew some influence from PT Anderson. In There Will Be Blood, the landscape is a character.

We had a plot outline [for the film], but it was mostly just the beats of the scene, and the dialog was improvised. I don’t think I would have thought to do that unless I had seen a lot of the mumblecore films over the last ten years. Then there are just some directors and films I love. Woody Allen and Wes Anderson are close to my heart. I stole a shot from Quentin Tarantino (laughs).

Which shot?
There’s a shot from behind the village elder’s head. That’s the Marsellus Wallace shot. I thought “How do we make this guy seem powerful?” Pulp Fiction! (laughs)

Talk about how the experience has been showing Baobab across Europe and now in the US.
We’ve been doing the festival circuit since August to garner as much acclaim as possible. We did a lot in Europe and we played in the Middle East as well. [There’s been] great festival reception. I’ve seen audiences really respond to the film. We do a lot of educational screenings where kids are not choosing to watch the movie, and you think they might be bored to tears, but every time, most of the kids—in Paris, in Norway, here in San Francisco—are super engaged and identify with the characters.

For more information about the film, visit tallasthebaobabtree.com, and for information about forced marriage for girls, one of the main themes of Baobab, visit girlsnotbrides.org

The thing I’ll remember most about this year’s San Francisco International Film Festival were the amazing conversations I had with some of the talented filmmakers in attendance during the festival’s two-week stretch. Everybody was open and willing to share their enthusiasm about film and filmmaking, and all of the good vibes were fueled by the festival’s exceedingly strong program. Film after film, I was thoroughly entertained and excited.

The list below is my top 5 films from the festival, but only spots 1 and 2 were a lock for me. The other three spots could have easily gone to a number of other films at the festival. John Vogt-Roberts’ The Kings of Summer showcases three of the most promising young actors in the game right now standing toe to toe with some of the funniest people on earth. Morgan Neville’s Twenty Feet From Stardom was a sleeper for me, packing more emotional punch than I expected from a documentary about backup singers. Atiq Rahimi’s achingly gorgeous The Patience Stone is a force of nature that grows on me more and more as I sit with it. Prince Avalanche is flat-out one of David Gordon Green’s best films. And the list goes on.

I encountered a few clunkers at the festival, but there were too many excellent films for the bad ones to sour the experience. Overall, SFIFF 2013 was an excellent two weeks at the movies, and I highly recommend you make the trip out here next year. It’s a big festival with a lot of buzz and fantastic guests, but with none of the stressful chaos or hectic energy of other, more popular festivals. It was a complete blast, and I look forward to next year.

Though the festival is over, make sure to stay tuned to Way Too Indie in the coming weeks for tons of amazing content coming out of the festival. We’ve got a FLOOD of great interviews from SFIFF coming your way in the coming weeks—

Michael Cera & Sebastian Silva—Crystal Fairy
Richard Linklater & Julie Delpy—Before Midnight
Sarah Polley—Stories We Tell
David Gordon Green—Prince Avalanche
Alexis Denisof & Amy Acker—Much Ado About Nothing
Nick Robinson, Gabriel Bassos & Moises Arias—The Kings of Summer
Onata Aprile, David Siegel & Scott McGehee—What Maisie Knew
Atiq Rahimi—The Patience Stone
Jeremy Teicher—Tall as the Baobab Tree
PJ Raval & Dennis—Before You Know It

Way Too Indie’s Top 5 Films at the San Francisco International Film Festival

#5 – Much Ado About Nothing

What I found impressive about Joss Whedon’s Shakespeare adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing was that it felt more ‘Joss’ than ‘William’. Whedon and his merry band of thespians do what they do best—tell a story with uncanny wit, sass, silliness, and humanity. Shakespeare’s play is timeless, and Whedon respects this. Modernity plays no role here, and the focus is squared solely on the ever-shuffling relationships of the marvelously acted characters.

I hesitate to say that there is a standout in the cast—everyone has moments of greatness. The film’s leads, Alexis Denisof and Amy Acker, are prime examples of how Whedon extracts every bit of potential out of his actors. They transition from brutally disdainful to drunkenly flirtatious on a dime, effortlessly, and they pull off hilarious slapstick gags that would be cringe-worthy in the hands of most. These physical bits are Chaplin-funny. By the end of the film, I felt great—completely satisfied and wholly content. I hope this isn’t the last we see of Mr. Whedon on the independent scene.

#4 – Tall as the Baobab Tree

Jeremy Teicher’s Tall as the Baobab Tree explores the transitional social climate of a small village in Senegal where the recent introduction of education into the village by way of a newly constructed school has shaken up old traditions. Previously, girls had commonly been forced into early marriage, but with education now accessible to them, the prospect of early marriage has become far less appealing. A new, fortuitous future is now within their grasp, but the old ways of the village can’t be undone so easily.

Teicher, only 24, depicts Senegal and Africa in a refreshingly optimistic and respectful light in his narrative feature debut, eschewing the heart-wrenching, pitying depictions seen in most films about the community. He shows his characters happily sitting and sharing a meal with one another, laughing and teasing, making plans for the future and enjoying the present. This is universal stuff, a family story. Few things excite me more than when a young filmmaker finds his voice early, and Teicher’s staggering potential shines bright like the sun in Baobab.

#3 – You’re Next

Festivals like SFIFF are often inundated with weighty films that can leave you mentally and emotionally exhausted, so it’s an absolute treat when a film can leave you physically exhausted—You’re Next had everybody who watched it at the festival breathing heavy, jumping, screaming, and occasionally running. Seriously. The guy sitting next to me literally leaped over his seat and darted for the exit. It was hands down the most fun I had at the festival.

Adam Wingard’s gorefest—in which a rich white family taking a vacation is terrorized by crossbow-wielding freaks—deserves its spot on the list because it’s the best example of the genre in years. Not only does Wingard instill fear with style and cinematic inventiveness, he does it with a sharp intellect—nothing is dumbed down here. None of the kills in You’re Next are revolutionary, but they feel revolutionary because they’re filmed so freakin’ well. The when you see an axe kill, it feels like your first time seeing an axe kill—brutal, brutal, brutal. Also, the hero that emerges from the group of victims is one of the baddest butt-kickers since Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley. Ladies, prepare to feel empowered.

#2 – Before Midnight

One of the first films I saw at SFIFF this year was Richard Linklater’s third installment in his wonderfully improbable ‘Before’ romance series, Before Midnight. It set the bar sky high for the rest of the festival, enchanting me with stars Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy’s effortless, impassioned performances and Linklater’s silently spectacular direction.

Set (and filmed) 18 years after Jesse (Hawke) and Celine (Delpy) met on a train in Vienna in Before Sunrise, and 9 years after their fateful reunion in Before Sunset, Before Midnight follows the duo, now parents of twin girls, as they find their youthful affection for each other battered by the stresses of reality. Hawke, Delpy, and Linklater have all upped their game to unbelievable heights here—an almost 15-minute-long shot of Jesse and Celine driving down a winding road while having an immaculately acted conversation is simply breathtaking. It’s the best film in the series, and I’m completely aware of how bold that statement is. Just watch it—you’ll understand.

#1 – Stories We Tell

Though I find Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight to be virtually flawless, Sarah Polley’s Stories We Tell feels just a hair more special to me right now, in this moment. Linklater’s romance saga has been moving me for nearly two decades, but Polley’s film touched me deeply and swiftly, in a way that no other film did. For this festival, in these two weeks filled with dozens of films, Stories We Tell was my favorite film.

In an intrepidly naked and personal documentary, Polley skillfully weaves together a tapestry of memories of her late mother Diane, contributed by members of her family and old friends. We walk beside Polley as she doubles back on her family’s history, uncovering life-altering secrets as she conducts breathtaking—and sometimes heartbreaking—interviews with her subjects.

The immediacy of the film is what makes it so engaging—there wasn’t a single moment where I wasn’t completely glued to the screen. I hung on every word, every image, and marched to every single beat of Polley’s drum. You can’t ask for much more from a film or a director. It’s got everything—suspense, laughter, tears, betrayal, heartache, and one of the most richly textured voice-overs I’ve ever heard, provided by Polley’s father, Michael. I wouldn’t dare to delve into what makes this film truly special, as I’d be robbing you of one of the most thrilling movie experiences of the year. It was a close race between spots one and two on the list, but Polley’s willingness to graciously invite us deep into her personal life solidified her top spot.