The Greening of Southie And On The Wing

[October 1st, 2008]

The Greening of Southie
The problem with saving the environment—at least when it comes to documentaries—is that it’s inherently less dramatic than destroying the environment. That’s an inadvertent lesson of the new film by Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis, who last year co-produced the transfixing omnivore-dilemma doc King Corn. This time Cheney directs (and Portland native Ellis produces) an account of constructing the first residential green building in South Boston, a working-class Irish Catholic ’hood where most discussions of nature involve Matt Damon asking how you like dem apples. As the Macallen Building rises 11 sustainable stories, the rich stop-motion photography is the envy of any glossy magazine, and the ethical shades of gray that distinguished King Corn are again in evidence, as Cheney shows Boston hard-hats preparing the kind of earth-conscious luxury living they will never be able to afford. But Southie is otherwise devoid of tension: The condos go up, and the “points” the project accrues from an accreditation council feel at best arbitrary and at worst self-congratulatory. Dem apples are green, all right, but they’re also a little sour. Opens Monday, Oct. 6, at the Hollywood Theatre.

On the Wing
Closer to home, Dan Viens captures an instance of nature moving into the city of its own accord, and the observers who have taken pains to ensure it feels at home. The Vaux’s swifts are tiny, fast-flying birds who annually take up residence in the bulky brick chimney of an elementary school in Northwest Portland; each September, a crowd of picnickers gathers on a nearby hillside to watch the flock return home for the night, forming an avian whirlpool as they spiral into their communal perch. The society that has formed outside the chimney is just as interesting; it includes a man who grills shrimp in a Goldschläger marinade, and a couple debating “whether we would have sex or watch the swifts.” (The only morning observer is one scraggly-looking guy who takes notes.) Viens thoroughly analyzes the odd phenomenon of people spellbound by animals doing what they would do anyway. And in his fluid shots of the aerial ballet, he makes the fascination seem completely, well, natural. Cinema 21. 7 pm Thursday, Oct. 2. 1 pm Saturday-Sunday, Oct. 4-5.