Movie Diary 4/18/2021

Two more from the 2021 Seattle International Film Festival.

Love and Fury (Sterlin Harjo, 2021). The talented Native American filmmaker takes a documentary look at a group of Native artists, from a variety of disciplines. The movie doesn’t just rely on the sense of discovery, but brings an unusual amount of intimacy to its encounters with the artists, and it barrels along at just the right speed. Main drawback: The tendency of some artists to talk too much academy-speak instead of letting the art do its own talking.

The Dog Who Wouldn’t Be Quiet (Ana Katz, 2021). A droll, mysterious item from Argentina, about a young man whose life, over the course of a few years, includes the loss of a dog, the finding of a wife and child, and the arrival of a mysterious pandemic that occupies the air above the level of four feet. It’s in black and white, doesn’t bother to explain itself, and clocks in at 73 minutes. This movie has something going for it, something ultimately charming.