What do these things have in common: one of the last remaining matriarchal societies; an architect who has shaped a brave new world; and an exploration of the misunderstood despot, Vlad the Impaler? Answer? How our world is built and destroyed. Showing at the Montreal World Film Festival are these three wildly different documentaries – The Fall of Womenland, How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster?, and The Truth About Dracula.

Directed by Chinese-Canadian Xiaodan He, Womenland explores the world of the Mosuo people, a community of about 40,000 people who live in southwest China and practice a form of marriage based on “free love and sexual satisfaction.” When a couple is attracted to each other, they meet in the woman’s bed at night, but the man must leave before sunrise. They can hang out together during the day, but each lives separately in their mother’s house. When children are born, they stay with the mother, and it is the matrilineal uncles who provide the father figure for all children who bear their mother’s last name. When either party is no longer satisfied with the relationship, whether emotionally or physically, they find other partners, and no family member intervenes. There are never any jealousies, conflicts, or violence. To a Western audience, this is hard to imagine. However, the encroachment of modern civilization has effected profound changes on the Mosuo, bringing with it prostitution, disease, and new architecture in the form of tourist accommodation.

While the ancient landscape of the Mosuo is destroyed by modern society, Norman Foster, a septuagenarian British architect, creates new world orders across the globe with his innovative approach to architecture as seen in Norberto Lopez Amado’s documentary, How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster? Foster is particularly known for his transformation of airports that are more user-friendly and put the fun back into travel. Flight bears a significant influence on Foster as many of his design ideas stem from aerodynamics and the airy feel of flying. This is particularly evident in the bridge he designed in Millau, France. When it opened in 2004, journalists likened it to butterflies and cobwebs of steel.

This feeling is captured beautifully in the documentary with a fluid camera gliding across, over and under the structure aiding the audience in understanding the scope of Foster’s achievement. Making a utilitarian object seem lovely, and in harmony with nature is laudable, but in Foster’s Shanghai building for HSBC, and others like it, the architectural grandeur is more about China staking its claim in the world than fostering harmony.

Staking out territory also preoccupied Vlad the Impaler, and in his documentary, The Truth about Dracula, director Stanislaw Mucha travels Romania in search of the origins of one of the most evil characters in Western literature. Surprisingly, what is revealed almost immediately is that most natives know nothing at all about Dracula. They have heard about Vlad, though, and for many, rich and poor alike, the country people long for another stellar leader like Vlad. Many relate the story that, during Vlad’s reign, thievery didn’t exist because punishment was swift: immediate impalement. Another said that the nation actually needs three Vlads because there is so much corruption.

As Mucha takes us on a tour of the country, pausing to film people staring at the camera like portraits in the style of Vlad, we see how little bearing our Bram Stoker understanding of Dracula has on the real, poor Romania. In fact, while some foreign investors bankroll Disneyland-type amusement parks in Romania, the majority of the citizens still wait for a strong leader who will rebuild their country that lies in literal and figurative ruins.

Together, these three documentaries tell us something essential about the rise and fall of nations, and how the march of progress leaves many more in the organic rubble than it ushers into aeries of power.

Elizabeth Johnston, author of No Small Potatoes, teaches at Concordia University.

Documentaries of the World

HOW MUCH DOES YOUR BUILDING WEIGH, MR. FOSTER?, 2010 / Colour / 78 min, Dir. Norberto Lopez Amado, Carlos Carcas, United Kingdom – Spain.

Schedule :
September 06, 2010 • 10:20 • CINÉMA QUARTIER LATIN 13 • L13.06.1

THE FALL OF WOMENLAND, 2010 / Colour / 46 min, Dir. Xiaodan He, Canada.

Schedule :
September 01, 2010 • 14:40 • CINÉMA QUARTIER LATIN 14 • L14.01.3

DIE WAHRHEIT UBER DRACULA, 2010 / Colour / 82 min, Dir. Stanislaw Mucha, Germany.

Schedule :
September 05, 2010 • 10:00 • CINÉMA QUARTIER LATIN 17 • L17.05.1
September 06, 2010 • 21:40 • CINÉMA QUARTIER LATIN 17 • L17.06.5

Tagged as: Dracula, matriarchs, Montreal film, Norman Foster, World Film Festival