LFF - '3 Needles' tackles a global epidemic

Chris Tilly is moved by Thom Fitzgerald's powerful new film

Oct 21 2005

TO's first film of the fest following the glorious opening-night gala screening of 'The Constant Gardener' is '3 Needles', a project that also tackles corruption, disease and death in rural Africa.

This is just one facet of writer-director Thom Fitzgerald's hugely ambitious film, however, a powerful piece that attacks the global AIDS epidemic head-on through three stories that take place on three different continents.

The most successful section follows a nun (Chloë Sevigny) to a mission in South Africa where she aims convert those dying of the disease to Catholicism.

That story is intertwined with the tale of a corrupt blood collection service which is slowly but surely infecting an impoverished Chinese community.

And in the third (and weakest) of the vignettes, a struggling Canadian porn actor (Shawn Ashmore) hides the fact that he has HIV from both his fellow actors and his family.

A compelling and challenging journey, the film is notable for some stunning photography and powerful performances from the likes of Stockard Channing, Olympia Dukakis and a quite brilliant Sevigny.

Unfortunately, Fitzgerald's canvas is so broad that he struggles to keep all the narrative plates spinning at once, and the result is a film that fails to hold together as a coherent whole.

Nevertheless, we doubt there's a more moving or compassionate film playing at the festival this year.

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