Matt and Alan have been watching a million documentaries a day. Just for you. This is their 4th report. Check out reports 1 through 3 here:
http://www.brightestyoungthings.com/movies/silverdocs-day-2-joe-berlinger-gets-crude/
http://www.brightestyoungthings.com/movies/silverdocs-report-2-maysles-best-worst-movie/
http://www.brightestyoungthings.com/movies/silverdocs-report-3-winnebago-man-does-me-a-kindness/

In this edition:

October Country
Directed by: Michael Palmieri and Donal Mosher
Buried within a global film festival focused on pressing topics such as genocide and environmental catastrophe, the insularity of October Country could feel trivial by comparison. But this riveting documentary focusing on the difficulties of a low-income working class family in upstate New York peers into an unglamorous existence filled with devastating drama on the smallest scale. The film takes an unflinching look at the struggles of the Mosher family, a clan whose generational struggles with teen pregnancies, mental illness, and abusive relationships now finds itself in its third cycle, encroaching upon a fourth. Dottie, the family matriarch, constantly questions when the cycle of her namesake will be conquered. In the absence of an answer, October Country articulates a haunting truth.

Verdict: Screen it

check out the trailer here

The Horse Boy
Directed: Michel Orion Scott and Rupert Isaacson
Even as awareness of the autism spectrum continues to seep into the public consciousness, bearing witness to those living with the daily, often-incomprehensible struggles of the affliction can be jarring. The Horse Boy chronicles one family’s struggle to come to terms with the diagnosis of their four-year-old son Rowan. Rowan’s father Rupert, a documentary filmmaker whose spent time among the bushman in his numerous transcontinental sojourns, encourages his skeptical family to embark upon a trip to Mongolia where his son will be assessed by shamans. While Rupert’s oversized persona and inner process can be overbearing (his wife Kristin is inexplicably second banana in the film), the film raises difficult questions about the roles of belief, perception and environmental factors and how they relate to mental illness. It’s heartbreaking to watch Rowan’s parents search for meaning in every movement Rowan makes, constantly searching for even the slightest sign of improvement in the most innocuous gesture. And while The Horse Boy provides no clear-cut conclusions (it does quite the opposite, in fact) it is a compelling, unflinching look at the extreme lengths we are willing to go for those we love.
Verdict: Screen it

Let’s Be Together
Directed by: Nanna Frank Møller
In my effort to branch outside of my distinctly American choices at Silverdocs, I pushed aside an opportunity to watch The Philosopher Kings for Let’s Be Together, a Danish documentary about a cross-dressing homosexual 14 year old whose intolerant Brazilian father reveals himself to be a
homo(bi?)sexual drag queen. For what would sounds like an intriguing tale of familial discord and the complexities of acceptance, Let’s Be Together’s conflict is minute, if existent. Hairon comes from a home where his supportive mother helps him pick out Baby Phat pumps while his burly step-father happily takes him fishing. When Hairon travels to Brazil to visit his father, the confrontation between the two plays like a mild domestic dispute rather an an earth shattering rejection of Harion’s identity. After a few slammed doors and crocodile tears, Hairon’s father happily acquiesces by making him a garish outfit for his Cleopatra-inspired 15th birthday bash. With its sparse dialogue and distractingly long takes, Let’s Be Together offers little insight into the complexity of Hairon or his family by never exploring the conflict that is supposed to drive its premise. Rather, it presents a charmed, unlikable brat who fails to appreciate the acceptance and love he’s so lucky to have.

Verdict: Skip it

Cat Ladies
Directed by: Christie Callan-Jones

Two of my best friends are cat ladies. After watching this film, I feared for their future. During the course of its 60 minutes, I texted one of them to promise me that they’d never get in the habit of picking up strays. She dutifully agreed. Cat Ladies come in two types: the Elmira and the hoarder. The Elmira (my phrase, not the filmmaker’s) is the cat lady who puts up countless photos of her pets and talks (kisses) them like they are human beings. The hoarders are the misguided souls who believe taking in every cat they come across makes them a crusader for the four legged downtrodden. In reality, it makes you have unhappy neighbors, a bill upwards of $3,000 per month and over one hundred cats living in your house at a time. One hoarder compares the feral cat’s strife to that of the “Negros in the States.” Did I mention her bed was taken from her, deemed a source of contamination? It’s not difficult to see through the paper-thin veneer of these women’s unquenchable longing for human relationships that is both satiated, and in most cases, exacerbated by the enormous responsibility their cats have become. The elefeline in the room: why cats? What is it about this animal that satisfies a distinctly feminine psychological longing for intimacy? Cat Ladies shows how people can be to get enmeshed in a lifestyle that began by choice but gradually provides no alternative. What it lacks is a psychologically balanced protagonist who happens to own more than 6 cats. It left me wondering whether those two things are mutually exclusive.

Verdict: Rent it