Recapping…
From Toronto-based art house, world cinema, independent feature films and documentaries distribution company, College Street Pictures, comes a documentary we first profiled in May of 2012, when it was scheduled to screen at the Shefflied Doc/Fest.
College Street will open Christy Garland's intriguing-looking documentary, The Bastard Sings the Sweetest Song, in Toronto, today, Friday, the 18th, at the Royal Cinema.
The feature doc's synopsis reads:
Georgetown, Guyana, South America. Muscle is juggling a lot of balls. He has his eye fixed firmly on the middle class, hoping to pull his extended family up with him. In the meantime, his birds need constant attending, as he ekes out a living raising fighting cocks and songbirds. And he’s trying, not very successfully, to get his mother Mary off the booze. At 75, Mary has had a number of falls on her frequent sojourns outside the family compound, searching for drink. Mary drinks to forget, in particularly to drown out the night, which she has good reason to dread. She’s still able to recite by heart some of her moving poems, to her family who listen with love and admiration. But her determination to thwart Muscle, and his flawed attempts to control her drinking, has led her son to take more drastic action.
None of us here at S&A has had the opportunity to see the 71-minute film yet, so I can't offer any commentary on it. One review (via Film Threat) says…
"It takes a daring and sharp filmmaker to zero in on a sensitive subject without being invasive; Garland never oversteps her boundaries and documents the trauma as best as she can."
I received a screener of it today, and will hopefully watch it this weekend, so that I can share my thoughts on it next week, in anticipation of a potential release (even if just on home video or VOD) in the USA).
I also received a new, official trailer for the film, which is embedded below.
For our readers in the Toronto area (I know there are a few), check out the film this weekend, and share your thoughts with us afterward.
For showtimes at the Royal, click HERE.
If the film travels, we'll let you know as we find out.
Watch:
