The Last Season

A documentary about mushroom pickers? Who would expect this to be a poignant journey into the hearts of two men who come from different parts of the world to pick a highly valued (pricey) Matsutake mushroom outside a small town in Oregon? Dosa used her education in anthropology to steep this fascinating tale in a cultural setting, the province of Asian men from the war-torn years in Cambodia and Laos and American men who fought in Vietnam. Like any good story, it's about relationships that develop; in this case, as the men invest two autumn months each year to try to make their fortune. Dosa also uses her considerable film-making skills to keep the story on track, to make everything in it vital, and to entertain us as we learn about a world that has been invisible to most Americans, particularly because the mushroom's customers are primarily Japanese. How Dosa found the real-life characters that are the center of the documentary speaks to one of her considerable film-making gifts.