A nuanced documentary that follows a year in the life of legendary Helsinki all-boys choir Cantores Minores, from rehearsals to performances and behind the scenes.
The June episode of the Incluvie Movie Highlights provides 3 new and buzzworthy films presenting different types of love: Good Luck to You, Leo Grande with intimacy, Father of the Bride with familial love, and this month's feature - Fire Island, with intimate and romantic love. Movie Critic Melanie Ojwang joins us to discuss Emergency.
This is not a story of oppression but a story of liberation.
The social issues The Half of it takes on are handled well, between the antagonization brought on to Ellie for her race and the conflict that arises from her being gay. Both aspects of her character are built up over the course of the film and don’t seem abrupt or rushed. The film shows racism towards Ellie and her and father in varying levels, from having her schoolmates specifically address her as "Chinese girl” to the fore mentioned way her Dad is treated due to language barriers. The same can be said about Ellie being a lesbian. While she never truly “comes out” in the narrative, that does not undermine her journey of self-discovery from being meaningful. These ideas aren’t thrust upon the viewer in a preachy manor, the scenarios that occur feel believable given the rural setting. The film presents watchers with problems whom those like Ellie may face, and leaves us to sit with them and reflect.
Soul takes intangible concepts like self and personality and makes them completely palpable and simple to digest.
J Brooke, Incluvie Guest Columnist on 'Life and Beth' and 'Sort of': while living one’s truth is freedom, speaking it as a mandatory assignment can become captivity.
Fire Island is the more inclusive film of the two with the bi-phobic definition of pansexuality in The Thing About Harry and its obvious lack of colour on screen
