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RedditWinterbottom and Whitecross went to extraordinary lengths to tell the story of the Tipton Three, hauling their crew on a long, risky, dusty journey. That's the adventurous part, which made this production a road movie for the subjects and filmmakers alike. The defiant part has to do with a sense of quiet outrage that runs through the picture. Some of this tone comes from Asif, Rhuhel and Shafiq themselves, but some also comes from the filmmakers' clear determination to do justice to their story.
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Dissent in Denver
VideoNation & Brett Story: If Barack Obama is promishing change from the bottom up, then what's driving the protests in Denver?
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The Party Crashers
Michael Gould-Wartofsky: Thousands of young activists are poised to protest at the Democratic and Republican conventions. In the age of Obama, is street protest still relevant?
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Organizing & Obama: A Forum
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Wanted: New Voters
Christopher Hayes: Obama's voter-registration drive could be the change America's been waiting for.
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Audrey Sprenger: In advance of the Democratic convention, the people of Denver speak out on behalf of their city's public library.
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Brave Nation Activist Award Winner
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Closely Watched Water
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The Disasterplex
Stuart Klawans: Superstars and superheroes fight and flounder through Hollywood's season of wanton destruction.
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Playing Politics for Laughs
Stuart Klawans: Reviewing a homegrown war documentary, a portrait of Native American life and a pair of spy comedies.
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Twilights
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Our Troubled Youth
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Until we get an accounting, let's be grateful we've got the docudrama.
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A travelogue, a party, a floating psychedelic jam session on the Bosporus, the documentary Crossing the Bridge: The Sound of Istanbul plunges you into more than a dozen different versions of contemporary Turkish music and introduces you to their practitioners, from the celebrated and venerable (film and recording deities Orhan Gencebay and Sezen Aksu) to the young and unknown (the loose collective of street musicians known as Siyasiyabend).
Your guides are the German-born Turkish writer-director Fatih Akin (best known for the drama Head On) and the German composer and bass player Alexander Hacke, who serves as the film's on-camera investigator, recording technician and occasional side man. As you might guess, this creative team values Istanbul as the world's all-time capital of crossover. The filmmakers honor people like Selim Sesler and Aynur, whose deep-rooted gypsy and Kurdish musics were not so long ago despised, or banned. But they're also delighted with the Canadian folk singer Brenna MacCrimmon (who revived a trove of 1950s Turkish songs), Ceza (the liquid-tongued Turkish hip-hop virtuoso) and Duman (the Golden Horn's leading exponent of grunge rock).
"I only scratched the surface," Hacke says mournfully at the end, as he packs up his gear. But that, of course, is the whole point.
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