CURRENTS

BY BERNARD BOO

In a time when most documentaries are watched via streaming service, DocLands offers audiences the opportunity to experience some of the best films from around the world the way they were intended to be seen: on the big screen.

“Come back to the theaters and be blown away!” gushes DocLands Director of Programming Joni Cooper, who helps guide us through some of the highlights from the festival’s always-stellar lineup.

The DocLands Documentary Film Festival runs from May 10 to 14.

The Nettle Dress (U.S. Premiere) The future of fashion is sustainability and designers crafting from the heart. The Nettle Dress encapsulates this exquisitely, following textile artist Allan Brown as he uses nettles harvested from the fields in his native UK to fashion an intricately woven dress made in honor of his deceased wife’s memory. The dress takes seven years to complete, a stark contrast to the fast-fashion direction the industry has adopted in recent years.

“It’s a gorgeous film, kind of like a fairy tale," says Cooper. "It’s so gentle and beautiful and it goes through Brown’s whole process, talking about it a little along the way but mostly showing it. I hope there’s a community of sustainable clothing people in our area who will come out to see the film.”

Razing Liberty Square In 2015, the city of Miami announced a $300 million revitalization project for Liberty Square, a predominantly Black public-housing community. But the city’s motives were called into question when it came to light that climate change made the neighborhood more desirable for its altitude and dryness. Razing Liberty Square follows the neighborhood’s residents as they combat “climate gentrification” and try desperately to hold onto the community and culture that the city threatens to wrest away.

“It’s a really terrific film about social injustice around climate change in Miami. Just wonderfully done,” Cooper says.

The Arc of Oblivion (California Premiere) All films featured at DocLands are unique in their own way, but The Arc of Oblivion, by filmmaker-subject Ian Cheney, is perhaps the heaviest and most fascinating of all. Cheney documents his construction of an ark in his parents’ backyard in Maine, in which he plans to hold a comprehensive archive of humankind. He travels to the far corners of the globe — the Arctic, the Alps, the Sahara — to solicit the help of some of the world’s foremost archivists in a variety of fields, from librarians, to dendrochronologists (scientists who study tree rings), to legendary documentarian Werner Herzog. At the center of the film is a timely question: “What from this world is worth saving?”

“A really fun film. Guy in Maine decides to build a wooden ark on his

parents’ property to store data. Through this, he brings in people involved in all aspects of the world, including nature and data. Rings of trees are data storage, as are fossils,” notes Cooper.

Invisible Beauty No fashion industry figure has the fight of Bethann Harrison. Coming to prominence in the ‘60s and ‘70s as one of the first Black models to attract major attention, she used her platform to elevate other people of color in the space, opening her own modeling agency and garnering awards for her activism in the name of racial diversity in modeling. Invisible Beauty delves into the struggles and triumphs of Harrison’s life and career, with insightful interviews with the legend herself.

“She turned from the high fashion world to having her own modeling agency where she brought in people of color," says Cooper. "She is amazing, and she’s still incredibly active!”

BY JIM WOOD

If it’s local color you want — without leaving your car — drive east on Tiburon Blvd. for a mile off Highway 101 to Trestle Glen Blvd. where an acre of wildflowers awaits. Now in its fourth year of development, the meadow features stands of purple phacelia, sky blue lupine, yellow tidy tips, white yarrow, red valerian and, of course, patches of bright orange California poppies — all grown from seed. Better yet, for an up close and personal experience, park in the Blackie’s Pasture lot and walk a short distance to Trestle Trail, where a 600-foot pathway, replete with 75 bronze plates engraved with memorials, quotes and loving thoughts, joins plaques that discuss Tiburon’s colorful 140-year long railroad history — all of which is surrounded by blossoming wildflowers