Mad Hot Ballroom

Today we kicked off our 2005 SIFF attendance by seeing Mad Hot Ballroom at the Harvard Exit Theater. Mad Hot Ballroom is a documentary about 5th Grade students in three New York City public schools who take part in a manditory ballroom dance program which eventually culminates in a city-wide competition for a coveted trophy. The movie has drawn a lot comparisons to Spellbound, the excellent 2002 documentary on the National Spelling Bee, as both films are about kids and their involvement in these hyper-competitive situations. While I would have to say that Spellbound is a better film, Mad Hot held up on its merit and was quite enjoyable. The film was a big hit with the SIFF crowd and got a rousing ovation as the credits came up at the end. The kids and teachers in the film are great and definitely make it worth seeing when it goes out to wider release later this month. You can check out reviews on the film here.

In the evening we headed over to the Northwest Film Forum to catch Kings of the Sky, an experimental documentary about world-famous troupe of Mongolian tightrope walkers and circus performers in Chinese Turkestan. Part of the experimental nature of the film is that it attempts to tell the story without any narration or commentary to guide you through the film's imagery. While the concept is interesting and there were some great shots of amazing tightrope feats, I found the film challenging to follow without anyone to explain what we were seeing on screen. Trying to stay engaged in the film took a lot of concentration and energy. Eventually I just burned out and ended up leaving early.

For more on SIFF, check out Tablet Magazine's SIFF Blog.