Page 14
February 14, 2018
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The history of Native American peoples are unearthed from a long-vanished Canadian village and a
reverence for ancestors and of connectedness across generations comes to life in Francois Girard’s
‘Hochelaga, Land of Souls,’ one of the dramas coming Monday, Feb. 19 and Wednesday, Feb. 21 to
the Portland International Film Festival.
A Lens
C ontinued froM P age 11
safety, or even emotional and
physical sustenance. Charlie takes
a job working for a man who races
horses and develops a bond with a
horse named Lean on Pete; a nat-
ural at working with horses, Char-
lie’s work leads him to a dawning
recognition of the harshness of the
horse-racing world just as his own
world crumbles. Anchored by the
remarkable performance of Char-
lie Plummer as Charlie, the film
is a perceptive depiction of the
American underclass, revealing
with compassionate but clear eyes
the little lies that adults tell them-
selves in order to avoid looking at
their vulnerability and culpability.
Watching Charlie’s vulnerability
made me weep for all the children
who somehow manage to survive
unthinkable odds while suffering
right in plain sight. The film plays
on Wednesday, Feb. 28.
“The Third Murder” from Ja-
pan is a compelling crime drama
that asks bigger questions about
the nature of truth and what qual-
ifies one to judge another person.
The story revolves around a law-
yer who takes the open-and-shut
case of man who has confessed to
a murder that would be his third,
of his former boss, the owner of
small factory. The defendant tells
wildly inconsistent stories and
does not present as one would ex-
pect from a serial murderer. The
lawyer, the son of a prominent
judge who convicted the defen-
dant of the murder of two loan
sharks 30 years before, is motivat-
ed by a desire to find a good le-
gal angle, and the meetings of the
defense team feel more like script
meetings than a search for the
truth. But as the investigation and
each confusing conversation with
the defendant raises more ques-
tions, the lawyer finds himself
drawn into a quest for the truth
to the
World
that humanizes him in surprising
ways. The film plays on Sunday,
Feb. 18 and Sunday, Feb. 25.
“Our Time Will Come,” the
work of Hong Kong director Ann
Hui, tells a story of the Hong
Kong underground during the Jap-
anese occupation in World War II.
The film focuses on a number of
stories, primarily that of an ear-
nest primary-school teacher, Fang
window into a chapter of Hong
Kong history that is little known
in the West. It plays on Tuesday,
Feb. 20, and Thursday, March 1.
You can find info and order tick-
ets or a screening pass at www.nw-
film.org or at the box office inside
the art museum. Paper guides are
all over town and the online guide
contains links to previews of most
of the films. It pays to show up at
‘Our Time Will Come,’ the work of Hong Kong director Ann Hui,
tells a story of the Hong Kong underground during the Japanese
occupation of World War II. The film is one of the 136 films and 48
shorts to be screened this month at the Portland International Film
Festival. For a complete schedule, visit nwfilm.org.
Lan, who lives with her mother
and becomes radicalized after
seeing how a visiting intellectual
whom she admires is smuggled to
safety by members of the Dong-
jiang guerrillas. Fang is then re-
cruited by the fierce guerilla lead-
er, Blackie Lau, and eventually
becomes a leader herself. While
the film is in many ways standard
patriotic fare, director Hui focuses
on more personal stories, such as
Fang’s relationship with her moth-
er, and her ex-boyfriend’s quiet
courage working for the Japanese
undercover. It’s an interesting
least a half hour ahead of every
show with an advance ticket, as
Portland demonstrates every year
what a great movie town it is by the
enthusiastic audiences who come
out in force. I’ll have more reviews
next week of some of the 40 films
I plan to see. Come join the feast!
Darleen Ortega is a judge on
the Oregon Court of Appeals and
the first woman of color to serve
in that capacity. Her movie review
column Opinionated Judge ap-
pears regularly in The Portland
Observer. Find her movie blog at
opinionatedjudge.blogspot.com.