Actresses have for years lamented the lack of quality lead roles for women in Hollywood. While it’s been an issue for dramatic roles, the documentary genre has had little problem finding complex, fascinating woman living interesting lives. In fact, it’s where we find some of the most intriguing female characters on screen today. Rialto Channel celebrates some of these women this September with a selection of female skewed documentaries about women who live, or lived, a different kind of life. Kicking the series off this Thursday is the stunning and thought provoking The World Before Her.
Actresses have for years lamented the lack of quality lead roles for women in Hollywood. While it’s been an issue for dramatic roles, the documentary genre has had little problem finding complex, fascinating woman living interesting lives. In fact, it’s where we find some of the most intriguing female characters on screen today. Rialto Channel celebrates some of these women this September with a selection of female skewed documentaries about women who live, or lived, a different kind of life. Kicking the series off this Thursday is the stunning and thought provoking
The World Before Her.
Here are my highlights for the week.
MORDEN: Camilla Lackberg’s Fjallbacka Murders – Series One
Starring: Claudia Galli Concha & Richard Ulfsäter
Directed by: Jörgen Bergmark, Marcus Olsson, Rickard Petrelius
Screening: Tuesday 2nd September, 8.30pm
Those of you who read these highlights know I can be a touch obsessive; so it shouldn’t be a surprise I watched the entire first series of Camilla Lackberg’s Fjallbacka Murders (6 feature film length television movies) back to back. The series centers around writer Erica Falck (Concha) and her husband Patrick Hedström (Ulfsäter), a local cop, in the sleepy Costal town of Fjallbacka. I’ve come to find the lilting sounds of the Swedish language calming, even in the middle of solving gruesome murders. Lackberg mixes together a nice blend of family drama and grisly small town murder in this picturesque and beautifully shot series. Lackberg is now Sweden’s biggest selling crime writer, but even if you’ve read her murder mysteries you’ll find plenty of new material here. It’s a must-see for murder mystery fans.
The World Before Her (2013)
Starring: Pooja Chopra, Marc Robinson & Ankita Shorey
Directed by: Nisha Pahuja
Screening: Rialto Documentary, Thursday 4th September, 8.30pm
This remarkable documentary looks at two quite different groups of young women living in contemporary India. One are liberal, middle class teenagers determined to pursue a life of independence by winning the Miss India beauty pageant. The other are young girls sent to camps run by militant Hindu fundamentalists where they’re indoctrinated as traditional Hindu woman. It’s an incredible story and was a real struggle for documentary filmmaker Nisha Pahuja to tell; taking four years to make and three years to shoot. Pahuja, who is New Delhi born and Toronto raised, had to deal with “the histrionics of 20 underfed, overworked, highly shrill beauty queens”; and ‘the fundamentalist camp organiser who was not told a camera crew would be there and did everything in his power to shut us down after one day of shooting and two years of me trying to get access.” Her persistence was worth it - this is a fascinating insight into a culture bound by its past and trying to find a way into its future.
Southcliffe (2013)
Starring: Rory Kinnear, Sean Harris, Shirley Henderson, Anatol Yuse
Directed by: Sean Durkin
Screening: Rialto British, Sunday 7th September, 8.30pm
This 2014 Bafta awarding winning television series is a must see for those who recently enjoyed the British series Broadchurch. Directed by Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy Mary Marlene), Southcliffe is a quietly disturbing psychological drama about the impact a mass murder has on a sleepy British town. The series explores grief, responsibility and redemption as we watch those impacted by the tragedy try and make sense of it over a year. At the center of this introspection is David Whitehead, a journalist with a childhood connection to Southcliffe, who returns to his hometown only to be confronted with painful memories. Southcliffe starts slow, but you’ll quickly be gripped as Durkin moves back and forth throughout time, revealing the haunting and heartbreaking consequences of people’s behavior.