Talking About Trees

This is a documentary, and a moving one. In Sudan, an aging group of men, all filmmakers themselves and calling themselves the SFG (the Sudanese Film Group), are trying to bring cinema back to the local population. They reminisce about their own histories as movie makers, while they screen Charlie Chaplin's "Modern Times" for small but affectionate locals. But they are only able to show movies on a small scale and to few people, when their real objective is to revive a destitute movie house so that the young can experience the magic of a movie theater. This movie is really about the love of cinema. As a movie lover myself, I was emotionally invested. Completely. I was made teary-eyed by the passion of these older movie lovers, and it is with them that the movie really soars. These 4 cineastes are gentle, funny, and lovable. They carry with them both a wisdom about their perhaps futile cause, and a wariness about the realities of having to live under totalitarian rule. It is these 4 men and their passion. You will love getting to know them and spending 90 minutes with them, especially if you care about movies as much as they do. A find!

The innate goodness of the subjects' intentions is appealing enough - a group of filmmakers attempt to restore an abandoned outdoor theater to bring back film to their town - but the story moves far too slowly to muster up any notable momentum. The documentary mostly depicts the men sitting around chatting and walking around the abandoned theater, discussing the difficulty of their restoration efforts. In the screening I attended, it was obvious that viewers cared about the group's noble mission, but not enough to sit through the entire film. Several people in my screening walked out within the first hour.

'Talking about Trees' is a beautiful portrait of friendship and hope. With four light hearted protagonists who still maintain the gravity of their situation in a claustrophobic environment. To see them explore their expression in conversation and their pursuits is most inspiring to the rest to us. It only makes us, fellow filmmakers want to capture our own environment in its humblest, most honest form.