David Wants To Fly [Hot Docs review]

96 min ~ Germany, Austria & Switzerland

Director: David Sieveking ~ Producers: Martin Heisler & Carl-Ludwig Rettinger

Rating (out of 4 stars):
Hot Docs showtimes

Young, German filmmaker David Sieveking takes the advice of his idol, David Lynch, and studied transcendental meditation (TM), which was founded by the same guru whom The Beatles embraced in 1968, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. David embraces TM and one days hope to "fly" while cross-legged in the meditative position, which looks like a dodo hopping across the floor.

Problem is, the deeper he delves, the more inconsistencies he uncovers: a power struggle that erupts after Maharashi dies; an estate worth billions; the German yogi who wants to open an institute to make Germany "invincible" again, which sounds like Hitler to some; finding a former assistant who poured his savings into serving TM until he was tossed away; a woman whom Maharishi seduced then abandoned; a disillusioned donor who poured $150 million into TM; and so on.

I don't know if Sieveking set out to expose TM or if it came about by serendipity. What's more convincing is TM being a cult with gurus riding stretch limos, mind control, and lawsuits threatening nosy filmmakers.

Oddly enough, Sieveking uses his rocky relationship with his girlfriend as a subplot and it somehow works. Their rollercoaster romance emotionally grounds the film, which is really an investigative piece but told in a wide-eyed tongue-in-cheek manner. David Wants To Fly won't expand your consciousness, but open your eyes.

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Disco and Atomic War [Hot Docs review]

78 min ~ Estonia & Finland
Director: Jaak Kilmi ~ Producer: Kiur Aarma

Rating (out of 4 stars):Hot Docs showtimes

The little Baltic nation of Estonia was a pain in the butt of the old Soviet empire, according to this entertaining, tongue-in-cheek doc. Lying across the Gulf of Finland was a bourgeois capitalist country that beamed decadent Western shows into Estonian TVs that were rigged with an illegal antenna. Shows like "Dallas" undermined the Workers Paradise, because those antennae as well as videotapes of those shows spread across the Soviet empire like a virus.

Never mind Reagan and rampant corruption, "Who Shot J.R?" and the soft-porn classic Emmanuelle helped bring down the U.S.S.R. Director Klimi sets the right tone throughout. He weaves together stock footage and excerpts from vintage Estonian and Finnish TV (the disco footage is hilarious) to poke fun at the bad old Soviets, but features interviews with historians to keep his story grounded and complex. Tune in, comrade.

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Candyman: The David Klein Story [Hot Docs review]

76 min ~ New Zealand & USA

Director: Costa Botes ~ Producers: Bert Klein, Jennifer Klein, Costa Botes

Rating (out of 4 stars):
trailer & Hot Docs showtimes

David Klein made a lot of money selling JellyBelly jellybeans, starting in 1976. He's driven, smart and successful. He's also a super mensch--generous and kind. Maybe too kind. He sold his beloved jellybeans for peanuts and today that company earns millions.

This film nicely captures Klein's personality, and his invention will likely attract audiences. However, Candyman lacks a deeper issue to justify its feature-length running time. Are there other sides to Klein's personality? What exactly was the schism between Klein and his son after he gave away the company and now lives in a modest house? With one of its producers being Klein's son, the film only hints at those threads that it should've explored more. Candyman is too sweet for me.

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