Great Speeches from a Dying World.

Brendan Kiley on Great Speeches from a Dying World, currently screening at Northwest Film Forum through December 11: "The conceit sounds like a liberal-guilt gimmick - a documentary about homeless people reciting speeches by Chief Sealth, Bobby Kennedy, Sojourner Truth, et al. But Stranger Genius Award-winning director Linas Phillips steers clear of didacticism and portrays his subjects as they are: partly victims of circumstance (child abuse, mental illness), partly victims of themselves (they're all addicted to drink or crack or both). But deep down, Great Speeches is less a movie about homelessness than a movie about language - its subjects' hard-luck stories aren't ends in themselves, but a means to understanding the speeches."

Robert Horton finds Great Speeches "strangely, unexpectedly moving. The words are stirring, and when their inspirational messages are gamely recited by people whose luck has run out, their messages sound completely new again."

Online viewing tip. SIFFTalk with Linas Phillips.

Posted by dwhudson at December 5, 2008 2:51 PM