Top 5 Political Films at Fantasia Film Festival

Posted by Trent Lee in FringeBlog on July 21, 2015

1. (T)error

Enter the world of FBI counter-terrorism as documentary filmmakers, Lyric R. Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe, shadows FBI counterterrorism informant, Saeed, codename: Shariff as he infiltrates US homeland terror suspects, Taliban and ISIS sympathizers. The doc follows Shariff in his last op as he goes deep undercover to find evidence on a Protestant-turned-Muslim extremist, while digging into FBI archives of subversive campaigns by the agency on civil rights and Black power organizations until the events of 9/11 and the “war on terror.” A subversive film itself; see what Sundance, Tribeca, HotDocs Film Festival are raving about. error will scrutinize and blur the lines of who you think are the real terrorists and reveals the true face of terror to be uncertainty.

July 21 at 3:30 p.m. // J. A. De Sève Cinema (1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W. LB-125)

2. The Visit

Imagine a documentary of mankind’s first contact with the third kind. But instead of us learning about them, we see, from aliens perspective, them learning about us. The comprehensive and believable experts suspends all reality from audiences as we’re made to believe this narrative’s actually happening. Delving into political scenarios, protocols, procedure and response by UN representatives, European Space Agency and militaries as they hashed it out. While experts, lawyers to theologians, initiate thought experiments into philosophical quandaries from what it means to be human, do aliens see another reality we cannot, ultimately, whether we can coexist with humanities’ aggressive need to control the world and destroy what we cannot control or understand.

July 27 at 3:00 p.m. // July 28 at 7:30 p.m. (SOLD OUT) // J. A. De Sève Cinema (1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W. LB-125)

3. Anima State

An intellectual allegory of the Pakistani state, a man without a face, concealed underneath bandages, goes on an indiscriminate killing spree across Pakistan with impunity. As his crimes grow more brazen, killing poor mothers, trans people and police, it’s apparent the state is unable or unwilling to reign in the lone wolf gunman. With undercurrents of government apathy and society’s lawlessness, Anima State screens Pakistan’s present state as one of virtual anarchy, corruption and chaos where the media and politicians has no means of maintaining order, control and justice. Banned from Pakistani cinemas, Anima State is a gritty, raw and despairing look into current realities afflicting Pakistan.

Aug. 2 at 7:45 p.m. // J. A. De Sève Cinema (1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W. LB-125)

4. Marshland

After Franco’s fascist totalitarian regime collapsed in Spain in 1980, two city cops travel to an isolated rural town in the marshes to solve a string of gruesome murders of the town’s teenage girls. The secretiveness and distrust of being denounced by friends, family and neighbours that gripped citizens during the fascist regime continue to permeate after Franco’s reign. Townspeople seem to know something and are hiding it from the modern world. Only two outsiders can shed light into the marshes’ secrets. A psychological neo-noir thriller, Marshland was awarded 10 Goya Awards, the equivalent of Spain’s Academy Awards. The film perfectly captures the atmospheric tension, suspicion, hardboiled socio-political terror of post-Franco Spain.

July 24 at 9:50 p.m. (SOLD OUT) // J. A. De Sève Cinema (1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W. LB-125)
Aug. 3 at 5:15 p.m. // Concordia Hall Theatre (1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W. H-110)

5. She Who Must Burn

After the state forces her to close her planned-parenthood clinic, Angela, a nurse, refuses to abandon her practice despite peaceful protests that turns vicious. The Barkers, a family of evangelical extremists, believe God has chosen them to stop what they believe as the murdering of babies and make Angela pray she’d skipped town. Rule of law quickly decays as terrorists target state authorities and the town descends into anarchy. She Who Must Burn is a stunning Canadian horror film by director, Larry Kent. A political, religious and feminist examination of the current US debate on abortion politics and religious fanaticism.

July 26 at 5:00 p.m. // J. A. De Sève Cinema (1400 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W. LB-125)