Fig Trees (2009) [N/A]

Release Date:
February 9, 2009

Original Title:
Fig Trees

Alternate Titles:
Feigenbäume

Genres:
Documentary | Music

Production Countries:
Canada

Ratings / Certifications:
 N/A

Runtime: 100

FIG TREES is a documentary opera about AIDS activists Tim McCaskell of Toronto and Zackie Achmat of Capetown as they fight for access to treatment drugs. Documentary interviews, speeches, press conferences and demonstrations are sampled, taken apart, and set to music, replayed this time as operatic scenes. A surreal fictional narrative is intercut with the stories of their struggles against government and the pharmaceutical industry. In this fictional world, Gertrude Stein decides to write a tragic opera about Tim and Zackie and their saint-like heroism. She kidnaps them, transports them to Niagara Falls, and forces them to sing a series of complicated avant-garde vocal compositions. However, when Zackie ends his treatment strike and starts taking his pills, Gertrude realizes that there will be no more tragedy, and thus, no more opera.

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Cinematography:
Ali Kazimi

Director:
John Greyson

Editor:
Jared Raab
Bill Layton

Musical:
David Wall

Producer:
John Greyson

Production Design:
Bill Layton

Production Manager:
Damion Nurse
Elena Pilar Nanes

Prop Maker:
David Frankovich

Visual Effects:
Matt Greyson

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