The Ballad of Oppenheimer Park

The Ballad of Oppenheimer Park (Spanish: La Balada del Oppenheimer Park) is a 2016 Mexican documentary film by Juan Manuel Sepúlveda. It chronicles the lives of several First Nations people occupying Oppenheimer Park in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. They rest, recreate, perform, and protest in the park, on land that belonged to their ancestors. Throughout, they tease the filmmaker, who spent two years filming in the park,[3] and use performance to ridicule stereotypical representations of their identities.[4] The film is experimental in its narrative structure and plays with Western genre tropes.[5]

The Ballad of Oppenheimer Park
SpanishLa Balada del Oppenheimer Park
Directed byJuan Manuel Sepúlveda
Produced byIsidore Bethel, Elsa Reyes, Juan Manuel Sepúlveda
CinematographyJuan Manuel Sepúlveda
Edited byIsidore Bethel
León Felipe González
Production
companies
Fragua Cine, Zensky Cine
Distributed byIMCINE,[1] Torch Films[2]
Release date
  • March 2, 2016 (2016-03-02) (FICCI)
Running time
71 minutes
CountryMexico
LanguagesEnglish, Cree

Reception

The film premiered at FICCI[6] in 2016 and received the Riviera Maya Film Festival's[7] and Zanate Film Festival's Grand Prizes, the Málaga Film Festival's Best Documentary Award, and Special Mentions at the Cinéma du Réel,[8] DocsMX (Mexico City International Documentary Film Festival), and FIDOCS. It received a Best Documentary nomination at the 59th Ariel Awards.[9] Critics have praised the film for its humor and intensity and for Sepúlveda's closeness to those who appear in it.[10] Le Monde's Jacques Mandelbaum wrote that it "evokes the most shocking and poignant images imaginable."[11] The Hollywood Reporter noted that "some could accuse the director of making 'poverty porn' by focusing on so much debauchery and idleness, but as The Ballad of Oppenheimer Park progresses, the socio-political implications of the people and place depicted become increasingly clear."[12] According to The Georgia Straight, the film "captured camaraderie in hard times, dark humour in the face of oppression, and, more than anything else, simple community."[13]

References
  1. "The Ballad of Oppenheimer Park". Fragua Cine. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  2. "The Ballad of Oppenheimer Park". Torch Films. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  3. "DOXA 2016 review: The Ballad of Oppenheimer Park". The Georgia Straight. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  4. "The Ballad of Oppenheimer Park Juan Manuel Sepulveda". Avenir Vivable Journal, Michael Hoare. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  5. "The Ballad of Oppenheimer Park Directed by Juan Manuel Sepúlveda". Discorder Magazine. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  6. "The Ballad of Oppenheimer Park". Torch Films. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  7. "La balada del Oppenheimer Park". The Mexican Government's Cultural Information Database. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  8. "List of Selected Projects, Screenings 2015". Cinéma du Réel. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  9. "The Ballad of Oppenheimer Park". Fragua Cine. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  10. "Juan Manuel Sepúlveda y la resistencia lumpenizada". El Universal (Mexico City). Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  11. "Complainte amérindienne au Cinéma du réel". Jacques Mandelbaum, Le Monde. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  12. "'The Ballad of Oppenheimer Park': Cinema du Reel Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
  13. "DOXA 2016 review: The Ballad of Oppenheimer Park". The Georgia Straight. Retrieved 4 May 2021.
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