Rating: NNNN
KEEP THE RIVER ON YOUR RIGHT (David Shapiro, Laurie Gwen Shapiro, 2000) is the title of a travel book by this film’s subject, the septuagenarian Tobias Schneebaum, abstract expressionist painter and amateur anthropologist. The filmmakers got Schneebaum to retrace his youthful journeys to the wilds of Borneo and the Peruvian lowlands and to talk extensively about those experiences. This kind of film stands or falls on the personality of its subject, and in Schneebaum they have a great one, a figure who’s both a sparkling raconteur and an old kvetch. Rhapsodizing about the Borneo jungle, he’s also worrying about the footing on the muddy trail. “One slip and I’ve got another broken hip!” This screening is the first in Doc Soup, a series of monthly screenings sponsored by the Hot Docs film festival. You can buy a subscription (call the Hot Docs office, 416-203-2155) or a single ticket. 86 minutes. NNNN (ROM Theatre, October 12