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Overlooked & Underrated Docs & Features
(click on broll or dschwartz for all his posts)
Into The Night: Portraits of Life and Death
Written and directed by Helen Whitney, Into The Night: Portraits of Life and Death is a superlative documentary film about the existential side of things—death, that is.
The film is divided into two parts. Part One features people’s thoughts and feelings about dying. Part Two begins with a small section called ‘Longevity Science’ about ongoing attempts to stave off death—and then continues with interviews with people about life and death.
Sharon Stone narrates the film speaking Whitney’s well-composed thoughts about life and death.
Part One: Nine men and women search for narratives of comfort in the face of death. Their stories are described below in the order of their appearance in the film.
Gabriel Byrne, renowned actor of stage and screen, who opens the film with the famous Dylan Thomas poem, “Do not go gentle into that good night.” This poem poses the central questions of both films that each person will answer differently: How will we go into the night? What is the narrative that will sustain us – or not?
Adam Frank, the astrophysicist and NPR commentator, who finds comfort in the stars after the death of his brother.
Caitlin Doughty, the young mortician and bestselling author with a huge online following, who worked in a crematorium to face her fears of death and is now a spokesperson for the alternative burial and Death Salon movement.
Phyllis Tickle, the religious historian whose near-death experience shaped her life and her fearless attitude towards her impending death.
Max More, the cryonicist and futurist who places his hopes in advanced technology as a way to defeat death.
Maajid Nawaz, a former radical Islamist from the UK, who believed that martyrdom guaranteed an afterlife in paradise until he began doubting the rigidity of his dogma, and has since become an international authority on anti-extremists.
Rev. Vernal Harris, the Baptist minister who, along with his wife Narseary, loses his faith after the death of his sons and struggles to find it again.
Jim Crace, the award-winning British novelist and dedicated environmentalist, who locates his narrative of comfort in the natural world.
Jeffrey Piehler, the Mayo Clinic surgeon who, at the end of his twelve-year battle with prostate cancer, discovers love and friendship, not legacy and accomplishment, is what sustains him in his final days.
Part Two: Presents candid, intimate portraits of men and women who are grappling with the same questions as those in Part 1. But Part 2 is more than a continuation; it explores wholly new territory featuring different lives and perspectives. Their stories are described below in the order of their appearance.
Science: In this section, scientists and scientist wannabes probe how rapidly advancing discoveries in the fields of aging and longevity might be changing our narratives about death. Their voices range from mainstream scientists such as Judith Campisi and Gordon Lithgow, who are focused solely on the connection between aging and chronic disease. Their mission is to increase the healthy years of life.
Mike West, is an outlier and visionary scientist specializing in aging research and regenerative medicine, pushing back against our acceptance of our natural limits. Aubrey De Grey, a British ‘transhumanist’ tackling aging as a challenge of medical engineering who believes humans can be redesigned to live indefinitely. Ray Kurzweil, futurist and author of The Singularity Is Near, posits a near future nanotechnology which helps us exceed the limits of the human mind and body. For both De Grey and Kurzweil, death is the enemy.
Sam Keen, a prolific author, and former editor of Psychology Today, is a life-long seeker who broke away from the fundamentalist certainties of his childhood. He spent much of his life searching for the story that could rescue him from death. He was present at the birth of Esalen Institute, traveled through the wilder shores of the New Age, explored Freudianism, Buddhism, even the art of trapeze, and is now living peacefully in Northern California writing his final book, My Ship of Death.
Tieraona Low Dog, M.D., a physician and alternative medicine practitioner who struggles with her stage-four cancer diagnosis, its impact on her family, and her own spiritual beliefs. In midst of her illness she embarks on another vision quest, drawing on the resilience of her Native American ancestors, to achieve some measure of equanimity.
James Kugel is formerly the Director of the Department of Ancient Texts at Harvard University, and an Orthodox Jew schooled in ancient Hebrew wisdom. He is nonetheless forced by his cancer diagnosis to reconsider their meaning. This tests–and finally deepens–his own relationship to God.
Joel Meyerowitz and Maggie Barrett, a successful photographer and novelist couple, are shocked by the sudden death of their closest friends. They abandon their lives of ambition and distraction in New York City, and come to realize that love, not art, will be their legacy.
The Town of Nucla: a small, dying town in Colorado whose aging citizens come to depend on the selfless wisdom of their faithful pharmacist, Don Colcord, who never takes a vacation, yet yearns for adventures in far-off places. Through his devotion he witnesses the final wishes of countless dying patients, and comes to appreciate the despair of the unlived life and the power of a fully lived one.
Koshin Paley Olsen and Robert Chodo Campbell, two American Buddhist monks who emerged from the AIDS crisis to form their renowned chaplaincy training program in New York—The Zen Center for Contemplative Care. Their mission is to be with people as they die, in their own unique way.
The two-part film features original music by Edward Bilous and Greg Kalember
Additional Music by Adam Neiman, Christopher Rife, and Robert White
Hunting for Hedonia
We have entered a new landscape with great promises and tempting horizons. But. we are also in unknown territory. The trail to discovery is open, and scientists with pioneering minds are blazing with high speed. How do we steer our course into the future? What will we find on our journey into the brain? And, are we ready for whatever that may be?’
Directed by Pernille Rose Grønkjær, written by Lane Frank and Pernille Rose Grønkjær, and narrated by Tilda Swinton, “Hunting for Hedonia” is a brief history of deep brain stimulation—DBS.
The pioneer of DBS was neurologist/psychiatrist Robert Galbraith Heath who appears throughout the film. In1950, he was the first to implant electrodes deep in the brain of a human. Heath treated more than 70 patients in his deep brain stimulation program at Tulane University. He was searching for hedonia, in the pleasure centers of the brain. Heath wanted to address maladies such as depression, tremors, Parkinson’s disease, dystonia, and psychiatric conditions, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder. For a period of time he was ‘king of the world.’
The arrival of the 1970s, and the emergence of the counter culture with its emphasis on freedom and openness portended Heath’s downfall. He was called to Washington, D.C. At a hearing he was attacked by his peers, accused of being the devil in a white coat. When Heath treated a homosexual, the doctor found himself in a miasma of attacks to his integrity and work on account of that one particular application of DBS
Grønkjær tells Heath’s story, and the ongoing story of DBS which is now an established part of medicine’s tools. We hear from a few physicians who are providing DBS, and/or expressing their concerns about it. We also follow a Parkinson’s patient at a Gainesville, Florida hospital undergoing DBS, and ‘Thomas’ who eloquently, heart-breakingly speaks of his life-time of depression. We meet a few more people who received DBS. So far, more than 70 million people have been treated with DBS.
“Hunting for Hedonia” is a finely crafted documentary that reveals the growing world of DBS, and leaves us with much more information—and a few questions about the future. I was touched and fascinated by the interstitial photographic images Grønkjær placed throughout the film.
The gorgeous music is by Jonas Struck.
The film recently won the Grand Prize at the Prague Science Film Festival.
“Hunting for Hedonia” is available in the United States on Amazon, iTunes, Vimeo, and Google Play.
Can Art Stop a Bullet: William Kelly’s Big Picture “I know art has power, and I am absolutely convinced that although a painting will never stop a bullet, a painting can stop a bullet from being fired.”
William Kelly
The collage consists of works by a number of artists addressing the crucial issue of violence versus peace. The art contains no explicit images of war or violence. Instead, Kelly sought images which contain point and counter point between the idea of the peace that some of us are able to live in generally, and the war and violence which others are suffering—with the aspirations that we will be able to bring a bit more harmony into the world.
Kelly is the host of the film, and in telling the story of this work we hear from a large number of people from many places speaking their thoughts on war, violence, and peace. Below is a list of the people who present on camera.
Professor Sasha Grishin AM, Art Historian and Curator
Martin Sheen, Actor/Activist
Professor Ian McLean, Art Historian
Ben McKeowm, Atist
J. D. Mittmann, Curator, Blackmist Burnt Country Exhibition
Rosemary Lester, Anti-Nuclear Activist
Dr. Tilman Ruff AM, Co-Founder, International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) Nobel Peace Prize Winners
Yukinori Yanagi, Artist
Don Brown, Film Translator
Emiko Okada, Hiroshima survivor/Peace Activist
Kiyomi Kohno, Hiroshima survivor/Peace Activist
Luis Iriondo, Artist survivor of the bombing of Gernika
Iratxe Momoitio Astorkia, Director, Gernika Peace Museum Foundation
John Keane, Artist
Peter Sparling, Dancer/Choreographer
Denise Navarrete, The Facing History School
Emerald O’Shaughnessy, Artist/Director, ArkT Arts Center, Oxford, UK
Michael Diaz, Teacher, The Facing History School
Wendy Flores, The Facing History School
Jayson Rivera, The Facing History School
Chaz Young, The Facing History School
Rokhayatau Ndiaye, The Facing History School
Emma Gonzales, Parkland High School Student
David Hall, Parkland High School Student
Zakia Bassou, Co-Founder, 1000 Roses, London
Cocovan, Artist
Francesco Pisano, United Nations Library, Geneva
Dr. Rama Mani, Founder, Theater of Transformations
D. Schwartz October 11, 2021
Solutions
“When society is detached from reality—bad things happen. The 21st century will either be our greatest century, or our worst. That’s going to depend on the choices we make in the next couple of decades.”
Eric Beinhocker, Economist
Introduction: Throughout the ages, each time a new technology has appeared, it has transformed our lives and society—today more than ever. Lead by digitalization, followed by new living and intelligent technologies, our world is being transformed in a way that’s difficult for us to comprehend.
In response, a group of 20 of the world’s leading scientists isolated themselves for 10 days at the renowned Santa Fe Institute, hidden away in the desert of New Mexico. They came from all corners of science representing environment, economy, democracy, social media, education, status of institutions, and artificial technology. Together, they intended to start a revolutionary movement with an ambitious goal: To secure the future of humanity through science by finding the path to a new paradigm.
Note: The meeting took place prior to the Corona pandemic.
Directed by prolific documentary filmmaker Pernille Rose Grønkjær, “Solutions” begins with ‘A Lineup of Humanity’s Most Challenging Problems.’ The film is organized by major categories the first of which is ‘VISIONS: The Mission for the Meeting and Visions for the Future.’
As the film progresses each major category concludes with a few key points. For instance, the first category is ‘SUMMARY’: (I know. Sounds like it should be the last.)
INDETIFY MAIN CHALLENGES and WORK ACROSS DISCIPLINES /// FIND IDEAS and SOLUTIONS THAT CAN HELP PUSH SOCIAL, POLITICAL and TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE /// FACILATATE A GLOBAL DIALOG ABOUT COMMON VISIONS /// TEACH HISTORY OF HUMANITY
Viewers see and hear the leading scientists presenting to camera individually and in group settings. Their passions, concerns, and hopes for humanity are palpable. This is another crucial film addressing humanity’s urgent practical and existential issues. Yet, it is challenging. I challenge and urge readers to view and talk about this film. A second viewing would be worthwhile—as I have already done.
“Solutions” is produced by Danish Documentary Productions, with music by Jonas Struck. The film is presented by the United Nations Association Film Festival—UNAFF 2021. This year’s festival runs October 21-31, 2021.
Lady Buds: Women, Cannabis, and California
“Right now all we’re doing is trying to just stay alive in the business. We’re just trying to get it done within the regulations, so that we can survive, so that we can go forward.”
One of the Lady Buds
A prolific filmmaker and exhibited fine art photographer, Chris J. Russo has directed her first feature—the documentary film “Lady Buds”—about women and cannabis in California. Russo spends time with farmer/entrepreneurs Chiah Rodriques, Sue Taylor, Felicia Carbajal, Karyn Wagner, and ‘The Bud Sisters’—also known as Pearl Moon and Dr. Joyce Centofanti.
The primary issue faced by the lady buds is the inevitable expansion of the industrialization of cannabis. Farmers are facing seemingly nonstop State-based bureaucratic challenges to the running of their hitherto bucolic farms, as well as the falling prices of cannabis. The women are doing anything and everything they can to maintain a community of relatively small farms.
Lady Bud Sue Taylor wanted to open an Oakland dispensary geared toward the health care needs of seniors. She did so, but it took a massive amount of effort, patience, and time to realize her dream, and, once realized, she suffered a riot sparked by the killing of George Floyd. Deeply committed to her dream, she weathered the loss gracefully.
It appears that California’s governmental bureaucracy will continue to push against small farms. And farmers will do what they can to push back. Cannabis, of course, is still a Federal Class 1 Drug. Eventually, though, cannabis will be decriminalized at the Federal level. When that happens there will be much more open business, of course, along with a good measure of chaos.
“Lady Buds” has received positive attentions from press: Screen Daily, The Hollywood Reporter, Forbes, POV—Documentary Culture, DEADLINE, Candid Cinema, The Film Stage, Film Threat, and SKUNK.
“Lady Buds” is a very well-produced film that, by the way, features beautiful northern California scenes. I also appreciated the work of Abby Posner and Taylor Rowley who provided the film’s music score.
The film is currently playing at the Mill Valley Film Festival, on October 11 and 12, and will be available virtually on the Mill Valley Festival website for the duration of the festival. Stay in touch with the film’s website to find ways you can see the film.
American Gadfly: High School Students Making Big Differences
“A couple of teenagers with a Twitter account, and a former Senator from Alaska have been able to put ourselves in front of the political establishment—jarringly. We’re in the face of the Democratic electorate, and I think we’re making a difference.”
Henry Magowan—Politically Active Teenager
Mike Gravel (May 13, 1930 – June 26, 2021) was a United States Senator from Alaska. He made a 2008 run for the Presidency. His politics were decidedly liberal. I do not know the precise origin of this story, but here’s what transpired:
A group of high school students—David Oks and Henry Williams, Henry Magowan, Elija Emery, Alex Chang, and Jonathan Suhr—with a strong liberal bent set out to give the then 89 year old politician another run at the Presidency.
Directed by Skye Wallin, “American Gadfly” follows the students as they work with Gravel and make a run for his place on the debate stage. There were two criteria needed to get on that stage: the number of donors and a polling criterion. The students managed to collect enough donors, 65,032, but missed the polling criterion which takes precedence over the number of donors.
The old adage applies, ‘it’s not the goal, it’s the journey.’ This run was important for, and gratifying for all the participants. The story is not over. Two of the students presented at the Young Democrats of America National Convention. And the group sparked the creation of The Gravel Institute.
Perfectly crafted, “American Gadfly” is another example of the growing number of young people taking responsibility for themselves and their world.
The film is currently playing at the Mill Valley Film Festival, on October 11 and 12, and will be available virtually on the Mill Valley website for the duration of the festival.
Reflection: A Walk with Water
“Long ago, when the earth was just lava, rock and ocean, something happened in the water. Something flickered to life. It came at first like the mist atop an emerging wave—just the first expression of a building momentum. And in time, a massive wave of life energy lifted from those oceans and covered the planet in a blanket of life forms. Life emerged there in those oceans, and it expresses itself now wherever there is water. It’s almost as if this quality of aliveness is just a glint that shines through the water in all things.”
Emmett Brennan
In "Reflection: A Walk with Water" director Emmett Brennan joined and covered a group of walkers in the Owens Valley, in the eastern Sierras, in southern California, to walk three weeks next to the Los Angeles aqueduct. The walkers were concerned about our changing climate—concerned, ultimately, about the quality of life on Earth.
Along the aqueduct's way we hear from a variety of ecologists, indigenous people, and permaculture practitioners sharing their knowledge and wisdom. Water, of course, is the prime focus. Brennan interviews farmers, engineers, grazers, and city planners all to address the health of our planet, our flora and fauna, and ourselves.
“Reflection: A Walk with Water” is very well crafted. I have viewed and enjoyed the film two times so far. I was also moved by the film’s music put together by a team of musicians and composers: Jacob Collier, Justin Kauflin, Emmett Brennan, Jiordi Rosales, Tammy Ari, and Geir Brillian. Yours truly would love to have the music sound track to enjoy.
Kudos to Emmett Brennan on directing his first documentary film, and hitting it out of the park.
Reflection: A Walk with Water will be playing at playing at the Smith Rafael Film Center on October 14 and 15, as part of the Mill Valley Film Festival.
D. Schwartz September 16, 2021
The Reason I Jump: A Revelation of Autism
“We are born outside the regime of your civilization. With all the killings and planet-wrecking humanity has committed, perhaps autism could help you remember what truly matters. Autistic people obsess over certain things because we’d go crazy if we didn’t. Repetitive things are comforting. They soothe me, and protect me from uncertainty.
“I want to grow up learning a million things. There must be countless other autistic people who have the same desire. We, too, want to grow. The hardest ordeal for me is the idea that I am causing grief for other people. Please, keep battling along side me.
“When I was little there was always a question that was a big, big worry: What am I going to become? Will I ever be able to live properly as a human being? I don’t pretend for a moment that everything I’ve written applies to all autistic people, but I wrote this book so that you can come to understand me, in the hope that my future will be connected to your future. Above all, that’s what I want.”
Naoki Higashida
Based on the book, The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism by Naoki Higashida, and produced as a documentary film by director Jerry Rothwell, “The Reason I Jump” is an exploration of autism as a way of being.
A narrator speaks the written words of the 13-year-old Higashida. We hear from five children with autism, and from their parents. The film acknowledges the challenges children and their parents face, but the overall focus is a positive vision of people with autism. The challenges children and parents face are both about the nature of autism, as well as the stigma human beings apply to those with this way of being. In this film, these challenges are well met—with joy.
“The Reason I Jump” is the most touching, moving, compassionate documentary film I’ve ever seen. I will see it a few more times—and will spread the word. This is a film everyone should see and digest.
The film is available in the United States on DVD and Netflix. See the film's WEBSITE for more information about releases elsewhere.
D. Schwartz September 13, 2021
Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet
A Tweet from Leonardo DiCaprio: “Attenborough’s documentary puts everything into perspective, not just the way we impact our planet, but specifically the way we can solve our environmental crises. It's an incredible journey into the science of our living planet. This may be the most comprehensive narrative yet.” —4:43 PM · Jun 10, 2021·Twitter Web App
With its record breaking damage to the good-ole US of A, it seems that hurricane Ida and the west’s record-breaking fires have garnered more than the usual explicit concerns about global warming by our mainstream media. To learn the down-low of our environmental degradation and what to do about it, I suggest you see Jonathan Clay’s “Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet”
What’s most unique about Clay’s film is the elegance and clarity with which he treats this ongoing urgent topic. This story, our story, starts with a 10,000-year period of time on Earth called the Holocene which was characterized as a stable period of time that enabled the emergence of our modern civilizations. That stability disappeared sometime in the twentieth century when we left the Holocene, and entered the Anthropocene—the Age of Humans—the age of warming and instability.
Our well-known David Attenborough along with Swedish scientist Johan Rockström are the film’s primary hosts with additional specialists speaking throughout the film. The boundaries in the film’s title refers to the stable global systems we were living in, and which are no longer stable. These are the ‘breaking’ boundaries—the ones we don’t want to break.
The first environmental system covered in the film is the obvious one: global warming which has obviously broken its boundary for stability and entered a global period of unknown proportions of heating, and, therefore, unknown amounts of global loss and damage.
Other boundaries covered in the film are habitat loss, the presence or absence of flora and fauna, the loss of forests, loss of biodiversity, mass extinction, loss of fresh water, the flow of two crucial nutrients—nitrogen and phosphorus, ocean acidification, air pollution, and loss of the ozone layer.
Of the many environmental films I’ve seen “Breaking Boundaries: The Science of Our Planet” is the most comprehensive. One viewing of this relatively short film—one hour and 13 minutes—provides the viewer an efficient education about the environmental catastrophes we have created, and what we can do now to reverse the losses and damages. When asked ‘what is THE most important documentary I should see,’ it is now “Breaking Boundaries.”
Like a few of the documentaries I’ve covered, this one is on Netflix. I will repeat what I’ve said about crucial documentaries. If you don’t have Netflix, find a neighbor, or friend, or relation who has Netflix, and see this film.
Misha and the Wolves
“She’s both a victim and a villain. She’s both. She is both in this story.”
Evelyne Haendel, Belgian Genealogist, Holocaust Survivor
Directed by Sam Hobkinson, “Misha and the Wolves” is a finely produced documentary about a lifetime falsifier who named herself ‘Misha Defonseca’. The ruse began as a young child. She feigned a connection with wolves, and constructed a story about being a Holocaust survivor.
Her book ‘Misha: A Mémoire of the Holocaust Years’ was wildly popular, and was translated into 20 languages. A French language film of Misha’s story as a little girl, Surviving with Wolves (Survivre avec les loups) also became popular.
After decades of pretense and money raising for herself as a Holocaust survivor, a few people became suspicious about Misha’s story. They began asking questions and seeking answers. The above mentioned Evelyne Haendel spent countless hours meticulously seeking and finding the archival information that finally ended this sham.
I have viewed this film two times so far. The story is fascinating, and the production quality is outstanding.
“Misha and the Wolves” is a Netflix film. If you don’t have Netflix, find a friend, relative, or neighbor who does!
Nature’s Cleanup Crew: The Crucial Roles of Scavengers
Directed by Robin Bicknell, and narrated by David Suzuki, “Nature’s Cleanup Crew” covers the scavenger species who do our world much-needed good. We are introduced to the very fine services of: Ants, Opossums, Foxes, Bacteria, and Vultures
Ants: Urban Ecologists Amy Savage and Clint Penick tell of the virtues of ants 23 species of which are found on and below Broadway, the one in Manhattan. They consume the equivalent of a quarter million in doughnuts annually. If you piled them up, they would reach twice the height of the Empire State building.
Opossums: Psychologist and Biologist Suzanne MacDonald was studying raccoon behavior which was convenient since they lived in her backyard. One night an opossum showed up, and to make a long story short, MacDonald fell in love with opossums. They are the only marsupial species in the United States and Canada. MacDonald comments that almost all the common beliefs about opossums are false, and she lists the many virtues of these very maligned creatures. The most well-known virtue is their massive consumption of ticks so many of which cause Lyme disease.
Foxes: We go to Berlin where we meet Evolutionary Ecologist Sophia Kimmig from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research. She studies wolves in metropolitan areas, and notes that global warming—my word for ‘climate change’—has brought populations of foxes farther north. One benefit Kimmig notes is their role in controlling populations of rodents and rabbits.
Bacteria: Environmental Engineer Satinder Kaur Brar of York University Institut national de la recherché scientific is working with a bacterium called Alcanivorax which can break down hydro-carbons into Co2 and water. She has completed tests of this process, and her next step is a large scale attempt to break down hydro-carbons—a potential global game changer.
Vultures: Evan Buechley Conservation Biologist of HawkWatchInternational/Smithsonian is supporting vultures who are decreasing in numbers around the world. This decline in vulture populations is increasing the incidents of human diseases. Vultures are experiencing loss from hunting, poisoning, and habitat loss.
All of the people supporting ‘nature’s cleanup’ are heroes in my book. Like other environmental documentaries I’ve seen, this film should be seen far and wide.
“Nature’s Cleanup Crew” is produced by Kensington Productions, and distributed by Bullfrog Films.
Beneath the Olive Tree
“The Greek Civil War (1946-1949) is considered one of the worst periods in Europe’s modern history. There is no accurate account of the lives lost, and it was never recorded in Greek history books. Years after the war ended, secret journals kept by women in exile were found buried beneath an olive tree.”
Directed by Stavroula Toska, and narrated by Olympia Dukakis, “Beneath the Olive Tree” introduces a heretofore hidden horror, ‘The Greek Civil War’ and decades of the horrific aftermath that ensued. The film’s focus is on the persecuted, tortured, exiled, starved, and execution of approximately 100,000 Greek women. The civil war lasted much more than the aforementioned three to four years. Attacks on women continued well into the 1970s.
The inciting incident to this story is the unearthing of a set of seven documents buried beneath olive trees revealing the horrific attacks men perpetrated on women.
In addition to revealing these decades of attacks on women, this is a deeply personal film. Toska’s mother was a victim. Having learned about the decades of attacks on Greece’s women, Toska visited her mother in Greece. We see, hear, and feel the love between mother and daughter—and we empathize with both women as they confront the impacts on each other of the revelations of the documents.
During these decades of unrest, Greece was torn apart by global politics—Western forces verses communist forces. Amongst countless others, Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt participated in the socio-political splits that still haunt and hamper Greece to this day.
Although there are now books and presenters who write and speak on the devastation perpetrated on these women. There is still the call for a full reckoning of this hidden horror. Toska’s film and the resources it provides help each of us who are just now learning about, and sharing about the books under the olive tree.
"Beneath the Olive Tree" left me utterly stunned. I’m still reeling from the hidden horrors revealed in the film, and in awe of the survivors, and everyone in this film who suffered, as well as those who revealed. I grieve for all of the victims. “Beneath the Olive Tree” is a story I will revisit from time-to-time.
Skid Row, Los Angeles
“Sometimes I ask myself ‘what would stop a person from helping somebody?’ I really can’t answer that. But, what I could imagine is fear. I truly believe that one day something greater than all of us is going to force us all to come together and see each other for who we really are. It’s not going to matter how much money you have in your pocket, it’s not going to matter what you’re wearing, it’s not going to matter if you have a car or not, it’s not going to matter none of those things. The only question that’s going to matter is, ‘are you hungry, are you okay, may I help you.’”
Gerald Hall
Veteran, U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant
Served from ’93-’97, Infantry Gunner, Aircraft Rescue & Fire Fighting Specialist
Homeless for 5 Years
Gerald Hall is our host in Van Maximilian Carlson’s touching and hopeful “Skid Row, Los Angeles”. Hall speaks of his own travail as a homeless veteran as well as that of several other veterans and many others. Of course, homelessness can be and is usually associated with hopelessness, but not in this documentary. Hall and the many other people in this film are fighting for their lives, for their dignity, decent homes—for acknowledgment of their worth in this world.
The residents of skid row live in tents. Throughout the film Carlson pans several times along the road these tents are on, pressing the point that this is simply not humane, nor respectful, nor just. But, the film’s point is these skid row residents have intrinsic value, and that value should be honored, respected, and supported.
Specifically, the residents are seeking decent and safe homes, health care, meaningful community, and meaningful lives. They are fighting against non-stop development, careless and cruel policing.
Carlson also covers the hope provided by caring people who are supporting skid row residents. Here are the organizations highlighted in the film:
Volunteers of America Los Angeles—https://voala.org/
Los Angeles Urban Voices Project of Leeav Sofer and Christopher Mack—https://urbanvoicesproject.org/
Skid Row Neighborhood Council a project waiting to be fulfilled—https://empowerla.org/srnc/
This year, 2021, Los Angeles Eric Mayer pledged one billion dollars to help end homelessness in Los Angeles.
“Skid Row, Los Angeles” is a crucial addition to the ongoing, preventable scourge of homelessness in the United States of America.
Note: In addition to being a prolific filmmaker, for this film Van Maximilian Carlson directed, produced, shot, edited, colorist, provided the music along with Phil Lober, and wrote the song, “Where Is My Home”
D. Schwartz August 21, 2021
The Seer and the Unseen Note: To state the obvious, some readers of this review will accept the veracity of the stories told in this documentary film. Others, not so much. In any case, I encourage all readers to view this moving and endearing film.
Introduction: “When the Vikings, the first human settlers, arrived in Iceland during the 9th Century, they encountered a land in the making. The Earth quaked, volcanoes erupted, wind and sea carved the cliffs. Nature was alive and all powerful. And the land was full of spirit beings. Trolls, hidden people, sprites and elves lived in every river and waterfall, mountain and lava rock. The Vikings knew that the only way to survive here was to become friends with these spirits of the land.
“But when conflicts arose and the Vikings upset the spirits of the land, those who possessed Second Sight, called Seers, could intervene between the human and the spirit worlds. Seers could repair the wounds in nature that the humans had wrought. The humans and the beings of the land made a pact to work together. The humans would protect nature and the beings of the land would protect the humans. But, time passed and the humans broke the pact…”
We are in Reykjavík, Iceland. Our leader into this seemingly magical realm is Ragnhildur ‘Ragga’ Jónsdóttir. Ragga is a wife, mother, and born seer. She is one of a number of Icelanders who, to various extents, accept and live in the existential reality of the unseen beings. Ragga is in frequent—if not constant—contact with these beings.
Whether or not one accepts this world, there is another way to understand Ragga’s world: A reverence for nature.
Director Sara Dosa’s “The Seer and the Unseen” follows Ragga during a particularly difficult challenge—the continued expansion of development of Iceland’s sacred land, and the concomitant loss of the unseen. She is not alone. There are other Icelanders who accept the unseen in their lives, and share in the loss.
Lava fields of Iceland are being destroyed, fields that house the unseen. Ragga is, of course, in pain because of this loss. She and her many friends and followers—seen and unseen—are fighting to save these lava fields. We are with Ragga as she confronts these losses, and finds a measure of success.
“The Seer and the Unseen” is a touching and endearing film. Irrespective of the challenge most of us face in considering the phenomena of the unseen, I whole heartedly encourage readers to enter Ragga’s world.
The film’s music is by Tara Atkinson and Giosuè Greco.
The Meaning of Hitler
“Humans are animals who kill other animals of the same species. They also develop the opposite, because we are herd animals. So, we develop sympathy, and love and collaboration and so on because a herd cannot exist without that. And so there are two conflicting elements in all of human society, and all attempts to fight the kind of Hitlerism that we are discussing here are really the attempt to strengthen one human reaction against another human reaction.
“The problem that we have is not that the Nazis were inhuman, but that they were human. That’s the basic problem that we have with ourselves, not with the Nazis. We also live out our own ideas. Fortunately, they are not Nazi ideas, but the Nazi ideas were acted out by people who were absolutely normal.”
Prof. Yehuda Bauer, Historian
“When somebody’s the President of the United States the authority is total.”
Donald Trump
Directed by Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker, based in part on Sebastian Haffner’s book The Meaning of Hitler, and narrated by Matilda Tucker, the documentary, "The Meaning of Hitler" is a focused review of Hitler’s impact and fundamental role in the massive carnage of World War II. As a matter of course, the film includes a cornucopia of archival material as well as contemporary footage of the current re-rise of fascism in Western nations.
The film presents a large number of thinkers on Hitler’s role in World War II and the Holocaust. The film’s first speaker, Martin Amis, makes an immediate connection between Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler. Trump appears a few times throughout the film. And as a matter of course, the film includes a cornucopia of archival material as well as contemporary footage of the current re-rise of fascism.
One third through the film we meet David Irving—historian, holocaust denier, anti-Semite, and racist. In his feeble attempts to separate Hitler from the atrocities of his own doing, Irving takes people on ‘real history’ tours in Poland in his quest to absolve Adolph Hitler of the massive damage he caused. Once introduced, Irving appears a few more times throughout the film.
“The Meaning of Hitler” is a superbly crafted documentary film that reminds us of the choices human beings are obliged to intentionally or capriciously make.
Personal Statement
Juliane Dressner’s, and Edwin Martinez’s “Personal Statement” is much more than a very well-done, inspiring feature documentary film. It is also a crucial campaign.
The filmmakers seek to give young high school students—especially the disadvantaged—the opportunity to receive and complete a college education. In addition to the usual documentary website, the film includes a strong media campaign called #WeBelongInCollege to promote high school students moving on to college.
The film’s heroes are three high school students: Christine, Karoline, and Enoch. All three are talented, motivated and passionate about their education. All three face many challenges the most daunting of which is living in a society that does not effectively support the college education of young people. Yet, recognizing that there is an inadequate number of well-trained counselors who specialize in supporting high school Seniors on their move on to college, each of these three students provide counseling and encouragement to their peers who are considering or seeking this advancement to college. And, of course, there is the agonizing requirement of students to compose and provide a ‘personal statement’ to impress and entice their ideal school.
The film covers each student’s home life, school life, the counseling they receive, and the three’s work as counselors themselves to their peers. We see the tough time they have determining their preferred school of choice—whether or not they get that choice. But, of course, these three students do move on, and we see the ultimately gratifying results.
"Personal Statement” is an engaging, and inspiring film—with the inevitable soupçon of painful and happy tears.
The 8th: The Struggle for Abortion Rights in Ireland
‘In 1983, the people of Ireland voted to add the 8th Amendment to their Constitution giving the unborn an equal right to life to that of its mother. Ever since, abortion rights advocates have been fighting to overturn it.’
Directed by Aideen Kane, Lucy Kennedy, and Maeve O’Boyle, “The 8th” is an Ireland-based documentary film about that nation’s reversed stance on abortion. The directors cover a brief history of abortion in Ireland, and follow the hard-fought battle to abolish ‘The 8th’. Finely crafted, the film gives voice to both sides of the abortion issue—and joyously celebrates these new-found rights.
There are many heroes in this battle, but one stands out. Her name is Ailbhe Smyth. As head of the ‘Coalition to Repeal the 8th Amendment' Smyth spearheaded the initiative that passed the legalization of abortion in Ireland. She appears throughout the film sharing hope, passion, and wisdom.
At the moment the United States’ Supreme Court consists of six conservatives and three liberals—for want of better terms. In the background of environmental catastrophes and a pandemic that has destroyed or damaged countless lives—and continues to do so—there is a gnawing concern about what will happen when the Court inevitably rules that States may go their own way on the subject of legal, safe, and accessible abortions.
“The 8th” has not yet secured release rights for the film in the United States, though that release will likely happen within a matter of months. The film, however, is receiving strong coverage in the US festival circuit.
Homeroom: A Year in the Life of High School Seniors
We’re in Oakland, California. It is 2019, the beginning of the school year. Director Peter Nicks and crew are on site covering the lives of this years’ Seniors through the school year. There is no narration. These students are participating in a cinema vérité documentary film.
The film focusses on students who have volunteered to participate on the All-City Student Union Governing Board. Beyond that focus, Nicks’ “Homeroom” takes us on campus, viewing daily life, and hearing students talking about and participating in their charge to provide leadership to the schools’ student body as well as to the adult leadership. That is to say, students have some say in school and district-wide policies.
In addition to simply being high school seniors, this student body and the student volunteers on the Student Union Governing Board grapple with a multitude of policy and social issues: school closings, budget cuttings, student deaths, teacher strikes, the school district’s 6-million-dollar annual budgeted police and security force which students deeply resent, the seemingly non-stop killings of people of color, the existential threat of global warming, and to top this list: the multiple impacts of Covid 19. (My one and only concern as a senior was how to get out of PE.)
In a story that could have easily degenerated into sensationalism, and despite the above overwhelming challenges these students face, “Homeroom” is ultimately a joyful celebration of a hopeful and caring youth, and a reminder to adults that these young ones are our future. Let’s put ourselves in their shoes
The Loneliest Whale: the Search for 52
With "The Loneliest Whale" prolific filmmaker Joshua Zeman took on a very long bet with his latest shot—to seek and find a virtually legendary whale called ‘52’—or, as the above title suggests, a forlorn whale which may or may not now exist.
A presumed cross between a blue whale and a fin whale, this whale had—or has—a call-out frequency of 52 hertz. No other whale-calling frequency exists, if, indeed, there still is a ‘52’ whale. Yet, there was strong evidence that such a whale exists or existed. However, oceanographer Dr. Bill Watkins who discovered ‘52’ passed away many years ago before he could provide formal documentation to the scientific community.
The ‘loneliest whale’ became an international legend which included the belief that there is only one ‘52’ left. Zeman wanted to search for and find this ‘52’ despite the gargantuan odds. He gathered a highly qualified team, and went to work. As luck would have it, there was information that suggested if ‘52’ exists now, she or he may be swimming the Pacific region along or near the southern California coast, wouldn’t you know.
Zeman and many others see something more to this story than taxonomy. The film’s ultimate overarching theme is isolation and connectedness. We anthropomorphize at the thought of this whale’s aloneness and disconnectedness, as we ponder our own.
A Bleecker Street film, “The Loneliest Whale” is an expertly crafted documentary that keeps viewers thoroughly engaged from beginning to end. Kudos to the filmmakers who are also pointing out via this film the ongoing degradation of our oceans.
The film's music is composed by Alex Lasarenko and David Little.
Youth v Gov
“I mean, I think for a lot of young people right now, life is really scary—because we’ve never seen a moment like this in history. And our feelings about our life and our future is all because of choices that we had no participation in. And so the plaintiffs join this case because we all know who’s to blame, and what needs to be done.”
Young Litigator
Christi Cooper’s documentary film “Youth v Gov” tells the story of 21 young people fighting for our environmental future. The young ones are supported by a large number of caring people including a powerful attorney, Julia Olson. Their weapons of choice are federal courts.
We follow the young people and their supporters through the agony and hope, the ups and downs as they face and traverse the federal courts system. They want to ‘force’ the federal government to effectively address the decades of massive damage perpetrated by—and still being perpetrated by—our government’s support of fossil fuels.
Post Film: The young ones and their team are still on it! Cooper reports: "The case is not over yet! It is currently with the district court, and Judge Aiken has ordered the Department of Justice attorneys to meet with plaintiff attorneys to begin settlement discussions. In addition,18 Republican state Attorneys General have filed a motion to intervene in the case, and want a seat at the settlement table. So, the case is heating up again, and definitely on the radar of fossil fuel-supported politicians. We hope that if Judge Aiken allows the plaintiffs to amend their complaint that it will be quickly back on the track for trial again!"
Whatever the final outcome may be “Youth v Gov” is ultimately a celebration, and one of the most moving and most significant environmental documentaries I have seen. This is more than a film; it is a movement. I whole heartedly suggest you also view the film’s organization, Our Children’s Trust.
The Dark Hobby we fish, we fish, we merrily swim, we care not for friend or foe, our fins are stout, our tails are out, as through the seas we go
Herman Melville
This is a crucial benefit of documentary films. They can unearth little known worlds of destruction and optimism, facilitating awareness and actions.
Paula Fouce’s “The Dark Hobby” exposes the horrors of the global trade of those who capture and traffic reef fish for hobbyists’ tanks. The film’s focus is on Hawaii, and a long-standing political initiative to stop the aquarium trade in the State of Hawaii. Of course, this is a global issue which the film acknowledges. There are few places on Earth that are protected from the ‘hunters’.
Approaching the film, I had no thought, idea, or knowledge of the existence of the issue of captive aquarium fish. Yet, in just a few minutes, after hearing and seeing the information, I, too, became an activist on behalf of fish.
The film proffers several rationales why it is imperative that we let our captive fish free. For instance, cyanide is used to stun the fish to make it easier to catch them. Many stunned fish are simply killed by this poison. And, longtime perpetrators of catching fish end up with yellowed skin from working with cyanide. Or, the hunters will use dynamite to stun the fish en masse, destroying reefs. Teresa Telecky, Ph.D., Executive Director, Humane Society International, estimates that 90% of wild-caught fish that are imported to the U.S. were caught with cyanide.
That, of course, is just one problem of the many concerns the film presents. The fundamental issue, in my humble opinion, is our beliefs, values, and attitudes about non-human life. To what extent do we attribute beingness to non-humans? If we believe the totality of the information Fouce has proffered, yes, even small fish are beings. And, the overarching issue is their wellness and freedom. In a little over an hour, hearing the many people participating in the film, sharing their knowledge and experience, Fouce has convinced me: Let the Fish Swim Free!
And of those people, the one I found most engaging was Robert Winter who pops up throughout the film, speaking with verve and good humor about the issue of aquarium fish.
Lest I forget, of course, there are plenty of scenes of gorgeous ocean seascapes.
I whole heartedly suggest you view see “The Dark Hobby,” and check out the film’s well-produced website—especially the Take Action page and the Fish Welfare Initiative.
Picture a Scientist: Women in Science
“Picture a Scientist” is a vitally important documentary about the oppression suppression, gender and racial biases women scientists have faced since science was created.
Directors Sharon Shattuck and Ian Cheney interview several scientists and others about the plague of negative experiences women have faced throughout their careers, and about the painfully gradual yet hopeful increases of participation women in science have appreciated.
The film offers a cornucopia of statistics, stories of the featured women, and a litany of the overt and covert negative experiences women have faced including:
unwanted sexual attention /// coercion /// assault /// subtle exclusions /// being left off crucial emails /// not being invited to collaborate /// vulgar name calling /// obscene gestures /// hostility /// passed over for promotions /// relentless pressure for dates /// remarks about bodies /// sabotaging equipment /// mistaken for a custodian (a.k.a. janitor) /// ignored in meetings /// inappropriate emails /// treated like a technician /// allotted about a thousand square feet less of lab space than men /// questioning competence—and likely more.
Fifty ways for misogynists to sabotage your career.
Jane Willenbring, Ph.D., Associate Professor at Scrips Institution of Oceanography, part of the University of California, San Diego tells a story emblematic of the misogamy women in science have experienced.
Willenbring had the very exciting and potentially rewarding opportunity to go on an expedition on east Antarctica. The primary leader of the four-person group was the well-lauded David Marchant, Ph.D. This was her dream come true. But, it wasn’t. The otherwise distinguished Marchant turned her dream to a nightmare by consistently harassing and abusing her throughout the expedition. Marchant physically damaged her, leaving a physical malady for life. Willenbring’s story, though, has a gratifying ending.
There have been much-needed advances of women in science, yet even today one finding from the 2018, the National Academies of Science, Medicine, and Engineering report on sexual harassment in STEM fields was that the best estimates are about 50% of women, faculty, and staff experienced sexual harassment, and those numbers have maintained so far.
Although there is still more work to be done, the film ends on an optimistic note painting a picture of much improvement in the worlds of women in science. I was left feeling and believing that advances for women in science will continue.
Available on Netflix, “Picture a Scientist” is a masterfully crafted film that urgently deserves a wide audience.
The film’s music is by the prolific composer Martin Crane.
The Wisdom of Trauma
From Science and Nonduality: ‘Trauma is the invisible force that shapes our lives. It shapes the way we live, the way we love, and the way we make sense of our world. It is the root of our deepest wounds. Dr. Gabor Maté gives us a new vision: a trauma-informed society in which parents, teachers, physicians, policy makers and legal personnel are not concerned with fixing behaviors, making diagnoses, suppressing symptoms, and judging, but seek instead to understand the sources from which troubling behaviors and diseases spring in the wounded human soul.’
Directed and produced by Maurizio Benazzo and Zaya Benazzo, “The Wisdom of Trauma” does exactly what the title promises—the revealing of the crucial role trauma plays in human illness and wellness. The film is actually two films: A cinematic essay about the work of Dr. Gabor Maté, and an exploration of the impact trauma has on human lives.
In the body of the film we hear and learn from Maté throughout the film and from a plethora of students of trauma and the work they do in helping people heal from it. We also hear directly from those who have suffered from and healed from their childhood traumas. Maté and additional interviewees share their experiences and thoughts about trauma. We also hear from several people who have been trapped and suffered greatly, in one form or another, by virtue of their early childhood experiences. And we also see Maté working with victims of trauma.
This film covers a lot territory. I was struck with all of the information, of course, but there was one scene that most moved me:
We are at a very large prison yard. It is daytime, just a few clouds in the sky. A giant circle of prisoners are standing or sitting along the outer edge of the yard. A woman with a loud speaker is standing alone in the center. The woman addresses the men saying, “During your first 18 years of life, if a parent or other adult in the household often or very often would swear at you, insult you, put you down, or humiliate you—step inside the circle.”
Some men step inside the circle. She makes another announcement about a possible verbal assault, more men step in the circle. By the end of the exercise, the circle is much tighter.
If “The Wisdom of Trauma” was received and recognized as it deserves, the above list of social maladies would be significantly diminished.
A Science and Nonduality production,“The Wisdom of Trauma” is one of the most important documentary film I have witnessed. In addition to deserving a wide audience, this film should also be found in the political and medical worlds’ halls of power.
8 Billion Angels
“If I just had this magic power, I would like to alleviate poverty, because when you’re poor, never mind the individual suffering, you’re destroying the environment because you have to. You have to cut down the last trees to try and grow a bit of food, to feed yourself and your family, or to make some charcoal. Or, you have to buy the cheapest food even if that did cause horrendous suffering to animals. I would like to change the unsustainable lifestyle of everybody else. We’re just greedy, and I always think about Mahatma Gandhi saying this planet can provide for human need, but not for human greed. And that is so right.
“And maybe the hardest of all, I really, really, really would love to change—without causing any pain or suffering—reduce the number of people on the planet because there’s too many of us. It’s a planet of finite sources, and we’re using them up. And that’s going to mean so much suffering in the future.”
Jane Goodall
Victor Velle’s “8 Billion Angels” is the documentary film about human overpopulation I have been waiting many years for. It has been utterly obvious that human beings are responsible—through our greed and ignorance—for our own continuing demise.
Velle organizes the film in a set of major topics:
Oceans
Land
Air and Rivers
Population
Solutions
The solutions section is, of course, the most crucial. Not surprisingly, the number one solution, which has been batted about for years, is female empowerment—the most compassionate approach to population reduction. Along with distinguished interviewees, the film introduces the work of schools and organizations that promote empowerment and the impressive results of their efforts. And, we are also reminded of cultures that squelch females.
The film’s interviewees share hope that somehow or other we are going to eventually reduce overpopulation. My question is: Will the much-needed reduction be due to some form of Armageddon, or to reasonable, humane strategies which are already available if and when the world choses to implement them.
I can only hope that people will find this film, put two and two together, and participate in compassionate solutions to overpopulation.
The Most Unknown
“This question of how much of the universe is understood is very much a moving target, because as we are able to stand in a new place, because we’ve learned something new, we then see other wonders that were not even visible to us before.”
Jennifer Macalady, Ph.D.
Microbiologist, Penn State University
Produced and directed by Ian Cheney, “The Most Unknown” is about scientists and their searches. Cheney, with a little help from Werner Herzog, takes nine scientists from around the world and pairs them up. The nine represent different disciplines, and each pair shares thoughts and experiences about their work. We are witness to the dialogs of the twosomes as they share their respective worlds.
This may sound like a dry film, yet it is anything but. Cheney takes viewers into the worlds of these scientists, revealing their human sides—their aspirations and dilemmas, and the challenges they face. Within their dialogs the scientists are addressing the origins of life, what is the nature of time, of consciousness, life in the deeper parts of the ocean, the scientific search for life in space, can the human mind move objects, and more. Along the way we are treated to awe-inspiring images of huge facilities designed to finally reveal the nature of dark matter, giant observatories, a large submersible vehicle that plums the ocean’s depths, and deep into dangerous water-filled caves in search of a few more microbial species.
The film’s atmospheric soundtrack is by Ben Fries and Simon Beins.
“The Most Unknown” is a previously hidden gem of a film easier found now that it is available on Netflix. Yours truly will view the film several times—especially once with my scientist-aspiring niece.
(PS: Did you know that there are approximately 35 trillion microbial species, and that science has discovered about a million of them? Well, you do now.)
D. Schwartz June 20, 2021
The Waiting Room: A Night at the Emergency Department
“Not everyone has a place to go. And there are often times where I don’t want to send a patient out into the cold with bad lung problems and no access to get medicines that night. I can’t just send him to the street. So, there’s no movement on that bed, and nobody in the waiting room can use that bed until that patient has a place to go. If I was a patient in the waiting room, knowing that there’s somebody who is completely stable, and didn’t need to be admitted, but there’s nowhere else to go, and I was stuck waiting for that bed, I think I’d be pretty darn frustrated.”
Emergency Department Physician
Peter Nicks’ “The Waiting Room” is another indictment of the United States’ fractured and economically failed healthcare system. The documentary follows a few doctors, staff, and patients during the night shift of a public metropolitan hospital that serves a largely uninsured patient population. Viewers see the pain, struggles, frustration, fears and hopes of all the people in this one night.
The film is also a testimony to the care, compassion and heroism of the staff and caregivers who work 24 hours, 365 days a year dealing with human life and death. I was most touched by a father who had brought his 10-year-old daughter to the ED suffering intense pain from an apparent throat infection. The father, as I would be, is in his own pain and fear for his child’s wellbeing, and is holding back tears of fear and care.
Distributed by Bullfrog Films, “The Waiting Room” is a very well-funded film, and the results of that support confirms the film’s powerful impacts on its viewers.
Last Breath
In their documentary film, “Last Breath,” directors Richard da Costa and Alex Parkinson take viewers on a suspenseful journey to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean’s North Sea.
Dave Yuasa, Chris Lemons, and Duncan Allcock are working for a crude oil extraction company. We don’t know specifically what tasks they are performing, we only know that these hard-working, technologically trained men are placing themselves in jeopardy.
The film starts at the top—the raging ocean. As their container is lowered, the three bodies are accommodating to the increasing pressures of the ocean’s depths. At the bottom they are breathing a mixture of oxygen and helium creating humorously sounding voices which are simply a part of the job.
Their equipment is heavy-duty and high tech, with plenty of failsafe mechanisms, but not enough. Lemons, who is engaged with his beloved Morag Martin, is the first to work on this round of tasks.
Workers on the job at the bottom of the ocean use thick multi-functional ‘life lines.’ One of the carriers breaks away, as it drifts, Lemon’s life line tightens and quickly breaks. To make matters worse, there are equipment failures elsewhere. Lemons is adrift in 4 degree centigrade water.
The film follows the three workers as they struggle to save their compadre.
Distributed by Dogwoof, and available on Netflix “Last Breath” is a captivating, well-crafted film that keeps viewers fully engaged from beginning to end.
The film’s perfectly haunting soundtrack is by Paul Leonard-Morgan. (I am making a point of acknowledging composers and performers of documentary sound tracks.)
Lucy the Human Chimp
Directed by well-lauded veteran filmmaker Alex Parkinson, “Lucy the Human Chimp” tells the epic story of a young woman’s devotion to the care of a chimpanzee who had been raised by psychologist Maurice Temerlin and his wife Jane as an experiment. Eventually, Lucy became unruly, and the couple made the painful decision to send her to Gambia, in West Africa, where the Abuko Nature Reserve would prepare Lucy for life in the wild.
Months before that decision the Temerlin’s had hired a young woman, Janis Carter, a graduate student, to care-take Lucy. Janis was 25 years old, it was 1976, she was working at the University of Oklahoma’s primate studies group.
Even though Janis was sternly warned not to bond with Lucy, the two bonded very quickly. When Janis finally confessed her misbehavior to Maurice, he was sympathetic, and let Janis know they were going to take Lucy to Africa. They couple invited—‘insisted’ is a better word—that Janis join them.
This was the inciting incident that changed forever the path of Janis Carter’s and Lucy’s lives. Janis remained with Lucy, in Africa, mostly in solitude, for at least six years.
“Lucy the Human Chimp” is amongst the most sensational, touching, moving documentary films I have viewed. Janis Carter’s journey is nothing less than jaw-dropping—and gratifying—a testimony to love, devotion, caring, and the dignity of non-human animals.
The Road Up
“For the first time in my life I can say I enjoy a job.”
Cara Participant
Directed by Greg Jacobs and Jon Siskel, “The Road Up” is a masterfully produced documentary about a Chicago-based program called 'Cara' which supports people who aspire to recreate their shattered lives in a healthy and fruitful manner. Cara’s centerpiece is a month-long ‘boot camp’ called Transformations held in a meeting room. The film profiles four attendees in a Transformations program.
The program’s conductor—and, in my opinion, hero—is Jesse Teverbaugh, a brilliant leader who experienced his own fall into hopelessness, fought his way out, and has changed the lives of a countless number of adults. Teverbaugh’s leadership is as confronting as it is compassionate. I noted with admiration the acceptance of crying in these meetings—including Teverbaugh himself.
On the surface it may seem Transformations to be a jobs program, but Transformations addresses much more. The following information comes directly from the film’s website:
“[Cara’s approach] essentially flips the script on the traditional formula, making the case that the first step on the road up isn’t finding employment, it’s finding hope, connection, and community. What some dismiss as ‘soft skills,’ Cara calls ‘harder skills’—conflict resolution, impulse control, even the ability to express love and accept it in return. To Cara, these are the essential skills that give their students the resilience they need to persist, and ultimately to thrive. By explicitly and emphatically stressing the ‘love’ in ‘tough love,’ Cara’s model pointedly critiques how we approach the entire issue of job training in America, essentially asking the question, “what if we’ve had it wrong all along?”
“The Road Up” is a hopeful film about people finding new paths to living constructive, productive, and loving lives.
The film is currently on the festival circuit. You can stay in touch with the film’s website, Facebook page, or Instagram page for updates on the film’s progress. Anyone interested in hosting a virtual or in-person community/organizational screening may contact the filmmakers at: The film's wide release will be in the first half of 2022.
Can You Hear Us Now?: A Season in the Life of Wisconsin Politics
“Can You Hear Us Now?” is another painful reminder of democracy’s frailty, as well as a call for hope and change from inspiring candidates.
Director Jim Cricchi and writer Susan Peters of Twelve Letter Films tell this all-too-common story of the sabotage of American democracy. This time the battlefield is in the State of Wisconsin. Governor Scott Walker is the bad guy, and this guy has plenty of minions—in the State and around the nation. Tony Evers is the good guy seeking the Governorship, fighting for a compassionate and just Wisconsin.
The film finds Walker in his third Gubernatorial race following his previous two consecutive wins, and Trump seeking his second Presidency. The primary foci of the film, however, are the several women Democratic candidates running for various local and State positions They are struggling mightily to get back their Wisconsin, the one with neither abusive gerrymandering, nor voter suppression, and no ID laws—the one that cares for all its people, and encourages them to vote, to participate in the ongoing political process.
Distributed by bullfrogfilms, and Amazon, “Can You Hear Us?” takes its audience on a rollercoaster ride of nonstop, State-based political battles and machinations. The passionate candidates are thoroughly inspiring. The film is expertly produced, and the soundtrack by Caleb Stine perfectly surrounds this dynamic story.
Five Years North
“Five Years North” is a deeply moving, expertly produced film taking place in the world of U.S. immigration as seen by a young illegal immigrant (‘Luis’) who ended up in New York City, and as seen by Judy—a Cuban-American ICE Supervisory Detention and Deportation Officer agent in his neighborhood.
The inciting incident that led to the film’s making occurred when filmmakers Zach Ingrasci and Chris Temple met the eight-year old Luis in his home town of Peña Blanca, Guatemala, while working on another project. Filming began in New York and in Guatemala when Luis arrived in New York, in late 2017, at 16 years old, alone and without papers. Naturally, Luis faced a deluge of challenges to stay in and thrive in the United States.
The film alternates between New York and Guatemala, and between Judy and Luis. We are introduced to Judy’s home life as well as her work as an ICE agent. She is candid in speaking her thoughts about ICE, yet is grateful for and committed to her agency and its work. And we are introduced to Luis’s life in New York, and his family in Guatemala. The love between Luis and his family, and the pains of separation his immigration has evoked within himself and his family are palpable.
T. Griffin's original compositions effectively enhances the film’s impacts on us viewers.
“Five Years North” is thoroughly engaging. I would happily welcome a follow-up documentary film about Luis and company.
“We hope ‘Five Years North’ deepens the immigration conversation and can support the incredible work of activists and organizations helping those crushed by the system.”
The Filmmakers
Elephant Refugees
The title says it all in Louise Hogarth’s “Elephant Refugees.”
The film covers a lodge called Elephant Sands in Africa’s dry, sandy, Kalahari woodlands of eastern Botswana. Created by founders Marie and Ben Moller in 2002, the lodge is dedicated to the care and feeding of wild African elephants under the duress of drought.
Starting in 2014, Botswana became the only southern African nation that disallowed elephant hunting. Elephants quickly learned this was the place to be. This change coupled with the global-warming-caused draught turned Elephant Sands into a challenging—to make an understatement—ongoing project.
As of the film’s making, the most difficult challenge was securing water for the elephants. The problem was exacerbated by the five years of migration to Botswana. As of filming, 60% of Africa’s elephants were in Botswana. I would not be surprised if that figure is higher now. Sadly, though, after five years of freedom from hunters, Botswana reinstituted the legalization of elephant hunting.
In any case, the family and their crew have weathered every difficulty and crisis they have faced in supporting elephants and in growing the lodge. I attempted to learn more about what’s happening now by emailing the lodge, but did not receive a response. In any case, the lodge is doing well as far as I can tell.
“Elephant Refugees” is a lesson in perseverance, dedication and love. The film won the Best Documentary Jury Award at the 2020 Sonoma Film Festival, and was an Official Selection of at least three other festivals.
‘At the back of the eye is the optic nerve. It connects the eye to the brain. The optic nerve receives no visual information. It’s a blind spot. At the exact point where the world meets the seeing of the world, we’re blind. We do not perceive this blind spot in our vision. The brain invents a world to fill the hole at the center of it. I am an actor who will give voice to the hole at the center of this film—because every film is, in part, an autobiography, because every image has a frame, and every frame excludes a world beyond its edges. And yet, when we understand something we still say, “I see.”’
Written, directed, and edited by Baltimore-based Theo Anthony, “All Light, Everywhere” is a meditation, an amalgam of vision, observation, bias, crime, policing technology, weapons, privacy issues, contemporary media, and justice.
Among several other people, Anthony introduces us to Steve Tuttle, spokesperson for Axon International, a large corporation which manufactures state-of-the-art Taser and surveillance equipment. We spend quite a bit of time with Tuttle and company learning the virtues of Axon’s products. In the last third of the film we are with African Americans sharing their thoughts and concerns about the policing technologies covered by the film.
Anthony does not propose answers, conclusions, nor solutions in his film. Instead, he journeys back and forth in time covering 18th century technologies of photography and measurements of several ilks, and 21st century policing and surveillance technologies including body cameras used by police, and measuring human brain activities (though what was being measured is not revealed). Viewers are left with intimations, a call to do their own meditation.
The film’s narrator is prolific voice actor Keaver Brenai. Composer Dan Deacon provides a consistently haunting sound track.
“All Light, Everywhere” is the winner of the Sundance Film Festival 2021 Special Jury Prize for Nonfiction Experimentation.
Assholes: A Theory
Directed and narrated by well-lauded veteran filmmaker John Walker, the flippantly titled “Assholes: A Theory” is a serious-as-a-heart-attack documentary film about rampant narcissism. The film is based upon the New York Times bestseller Assholes: A Theory by Aaron James who received his PhD from Harvard University, is a Professor of Philosophy at University of California, Irvine, and an avid surfer.
Walker’s film features at least 22 interviewees—including James—addressing the topic of ‘assholes’ some of whom are unabashedly self-proclaimed assholes.
James defines an ‘asshole’ as: ‘a guy who allows himself special ADVANTAGES in cooperative life / out of an entrenched sense of ENTITLEMENT / that immunizes him against COMPLAINTS of other people.
We then are taught the large quantity of asshole types via an interviewee montage: boorish, smug, drunk, arrogant, etc.
I was particularly touched, though, by two of the interviewees:
Sherry Lee Benson-Podolchuk secured her life’s dream of being an officer in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police only to confront a nightmare of misogyny. She fought for justice for 20 years—including filing a class action suit with Canada’s federal government. She received over 3,000 women’s signatures. Two years later the federal government appointed Canada’s first female head of the RCMP.
The recently passed Paul E. Purcell was the Chairman of the Board, President, and CEO of BAIRD financial services. In interview, Purcell presented a corporate culture driven by unwavering integrity. He noted that his was the only financial services company to not fire any personnel as a result of the 2008-2009 global financial breakdown.
The legendary John Cleese also appears throughout the film. In one segment he opined, “Bad behaviour is as old as human history, something we all encounter at some point—whether on the playground, in the workplace or in public life. But the phenomenon seems to be amplified in an age of venomous social media and resurgent authoritarian politics.”
And that’s the thing—a seemingly unstoppable virus of narcissistic behavior poisoning many cultures, including, of course, people of the United States. Walker’s film presents possible solutions, but it seems at the moment that ‘assholes’ reign supreme in many parts of American culture. Walker also spends time in and about Italy which has its own forms of narcissism.
“Asshole: A Theory” is expertly produced by John Walker Productions, this documentary deserves a wide audience.
The film is available in Canada from CBC Gem—https://gem.cbc.ca/
The Divided Brain: The World Iain McGilchrist Wants Us to Live In Iain McGilchrist is a former Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, an associate Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Consultant Emeritus of the Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital, London, a former research Fellow in Neuroimaging at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, Baltimore, and a former Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Stellenbosch.
Note: Although this documentary is about the divided human brain—left and right hemispheres—my proposed subtitle above refers to a unified world that our hero very much prefers, as do I.
Directed by Manfred Becker, narrated by Seana McKenna, and hosted by Iain McGiltrist, “The Divided Brain” takes the viewer through many worlds of thought regarding our brain, our culture, and our destiny as a species. The film’s initial focus is on the overactive logical left hemisphere of the brain, and transitions to the underutilized intuitive, emotive right hemisphere.
Becker and company take us on a journey through worlds of thinkers, scientists, and philosophers sharing their thoughts and experiences regarding our brains left and right hemispheres. McGilchrist eloquently states the problem: “We behave like we have right-brain damage.” His call is to focus on the much-needed care and nurturing of the left brain, and his hope is to see that focus help heal global sociological, psychological, and environmental maladies.
Amongst other places and people, the film’s journey takes us through a young children’s school, a clinic for brain damaged patients, time speaking with the legendary John Cleese, and a visit with iconic brain researcher Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor at her home. We also see a clip from her TED Talk presentation where she speaks of the stroke that changed her life.
Taylor categorically states that upon her recovery she was a completely different person. I was jaw-droopingly impressed by her home with its massive amount of art work Taylor has created and curated at home subsequent to her recovery. This time with her was in and of itself worth the price of admission to viewing this film!
The Year Earth Changed
“The astonishing speed and variety of nature’s response [to the pandemic] has shown that even modest changes to our lives can make a vital difference to wildlife around the world.”
Richard Attenborough
Directed by Tom Beard, and hosted by Attenborough, “The Year Earth Changed” covers the dramatic improvements the Coronavirus pandemic has given the natural world. The film displays many abandoned urban environments around the world that became peopled with animals, improving their lives, and supporting much-needed expansions of their populations. The film includes interviews of several passionate caretakers of our natural world.
The lessons learned from the pandemic can be applied to humankind’s post-pandemic behaviors. We can institute modest reforms and rectifications such as small shutdowns in the summer, nightly beach closers, and countless more opportunities to improve our natural world.
“This extraordinary year, the year the Earth changed, has not only shown us that we can help wildlife to flourish, but if we chose to do so, we can also transform the health of the planet for all. And far from being separate from the natural world, we’ve discovered that our lives are interconnected in deep and surprising ways. If we are to thrive in the future, now is the crucial moment to find ways to share our planet with all the life on Earth.”
Richard Attenborough
They Shall Not Grow Old
“You would be surprised that no matter what country you’re from, it’s more likely than not some member of your family was involved in this war. … The thing that I hope the film does is it encourages people to actually ask questions, do a little bit of research… you can find out a lot about the history of your own family. And now’s the time to do it because if you have parents or grandparents who are alive, it’s probably their parents that were fighting in the war. But in twenty years or so, that generation’s gone, that link will be forever lost.
“That’s all I wanted to achieve with this film, really, is to have people inquire into their own family’s involvement. In the end of the day, the strategy detectives, that stuff belongs in the history books, and the academic books. But, the film, and the humanity of it involves all of us in how our own family was shaped by this war.”
Peter Jackson
In addition to directing the mega-films, Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies which have given Peter Jackson legendary status, he is a World War I aficionado. The master filmmaker took 100 hours of WW I archival footage sourced from Britain’s Imperial War Museum, together with his 600 interview hours of WW I soldiers to tell a story of this war. The focus is on the United Kingdom’s four years of participation on the western front fighting Germans.
Jackson brings his perfectionist predilections to this harrowing yet engaging documentary. He worked with the finest craft persons available to bring the most accuracy possible to the film’s visual authenticity. As the story unfolds we listen to WW I veterans telling their stories.
The story arc is as simple as it is heartbreaking: The excitement of naïve—an understatement—young men marching through training, into battle, and then abandoned by post-war British society
Naturally, the film does not spare viewers from the carnage of battle.
The film has a well-deserved IMDB rating of 8.3—with more than 30,000 raters.
“They Shall Not Grow Old” is a Warner Brothers film. The DVD includes one Special Feature—‘The Making of They Shall Not Grow Old’ which is also quite engaging.
F.T.A.: A Hidden History Revealed
Directed by the late Francine Parker, “F.T.A.” is a feature documentary film of an early 1970’s tour by an American troop of performers putting on anti-Vietnam/anti-war shows throughout a few Asian countries. The film was released in 1972, and squashed less than two weeks later.
The FTA show was conceived by Howard Levy, an ex-US Army doctor who had just been released from 26 months of incarceration at Fort Leavenworth military prison in Kansas, for refusing orders to train Green Beret medics on their way to the Vietnam War. The show’s idea was inspired in part by Bob Hopes’ years of putting on shows in support of Viet Nam troops and the war itself. Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland were the two most prominent performers.
There are a few versions of the show’s title: The FTA Show, Free The Army tour, and Free Theater Associates. These titles were, in turn, a mockery of the Army slogan, ‘Fun, Travel and Adventure.’ The tour’s performers and troops much preferred their ascribed meaning of FTA as ‘Fuck The Army.’
Much kudos to Kino Lorber for curating “F.T.A.” which yours truly viewed on Blu-ray. Kudos, too, for these four bonus extras:
• Introduction by Jane Fonda
• 2005 interview of Jane Fonda
• ‘Sir, No Sir! — a 2005 83-minute documentary by David Zeiger
• Booklet with essays by historians David Cortright and Mark Shiel
I consider it crucial that viewers see the film with subtitles on.
Creating Woodstock: How It Really Happened
“It’s a singular event in history.”
Arlo Guthrie
In Mike Richards’ “Creating Woodstock” 22 performers and business people share their experience of the creation of the three-day concert called the ‘Aquarian Exposition: 3 Days of Peace & Music.’ The producers and staff recount both the ups and downs, of course, and the seemingly countless barriers to the festival even occurring.
The plan was for an audience of 100,000. People, however, turned the festival into a free concert when 350,000 more people arrived. Consequently, the festival started in chaos with the only performer festival personnel could find on hand—Richie Havens—who, without even an announcement, was practically pushed on stage. Over two and a-half hours Havens played every song he knew. There were still no other performers available, so he performed a few encores ending with his creating and improvising the anthemic song, ‘Freedom.’
There were countless barriers to the festival even occurring. For instance, New York’s Governor Rockefeller was about to bust the festival using the National Guard. The producers convinced the Governor that the festival moving forward would be less problematic than the otherwise inevitable riot of 450,000 people with its likely injuries and probable deaths.
Or, when an agent from the New York State Health Department showed up unexpectedly to scour the entire site for health violations which would have been plentiful to find. The agent arrived at the production trailer with his 15-year-old daughter who promptly disappeared. Instead of inspecting, this young man spent three days looking for his hip daughter. One festival producer opined that this wayward teenager may have single-handedly saved the festival.
In my opinion, what did save the day was the festival producers who had a very specific approach to their production—peace and trust in this mass of young people. Having seen 1970’s iconic documentary film, ‘Woodstock,’ and now this behind-the-scenes documentary, I can vouch for the wisdom of that approach.
The film’s DVD contains the following Bonus Features:
Arlo Guthrie Walks on Stage, Grateful Dead Do Over, Creating the Woodstock Posters, Concession Stands On Fire, and Off Duty Police on Working the Festival.
“Creating Woodstock” is a Cinema Libre production. See the film's website to learn how to find the film on streaming services.
Through a More Intimate Lens: Interview with Filmmaker Ross Taylor
Ross Taylor is an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Colorado Boulder. Previously, he was a visiting professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I discovered Taylor via his feature documentary film, The Hardest Day about veterinary performed in-home pet euthanasia.
I’m an animal lover, and had never heard of this way of saying goodbye. I watched and reviewed the film, and was profoundly moved by the heart, power, and quality of Taylor’s first feature documentary.
I quickly contacted Taylor, and we found ourselves in a friendship. In addition to Taylor’s film, I learned about his work as a photojournalist and was again moved by the quantity and quality of his human-centered photographs. Although photojournalism will always be in his DNA, Taylor is pursuing filmmaking. Based upon the quality and impact of his first film, and his passion for film, I believe he is going to have a successful career in filmmaking.
Taylor’s professional recognitions include National Photographer of the Year, Northern Photographer of the Year, New England Photographer of the Year, Virginia Photographer of the Year, and North Carolina Photographer of the Year (twice). His coverage of an Afghanistan trauma hospital garnered numerous international and national awards, and his work has also appeared twice on the cover of the Best of Photojournalism magazine.
Taylor was the inaugural fellow in the Multimedia, Photography and Design department at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication at Syracuse University. His master’s project was a series of films in the local burn unit. He is the lead creator of The Image, Deconstructed.
I spoke with Taylor telephonically from my northern California home to his Boulder digs.
Ross, tell me about the process of becoming a photographer and then a film director/producer.
I became interested in doing film from an early age, but I’m from a small town in the South, and we didn’t have any kind of resources to pursue film. It was never really an option. But, what was an option was visual communication through photography which was a cheaper entry point, and I found that very appealing.
So, I pursued journalism for quite a long time. I became very involved with the field. I was enthralled the idea of telling stories through visuals. My entry point was photojournalism, and I was quite involved with that for a long time.
I began to see the shift as the cameras we were using enabled us to do video production. There was one documentary that struck me called ‘Restrepo’—a war documentary. I had done some conflict photography as well. ‘Restrepo’ set something in me that seemed to make it possible that I could do video.
It’s not the only reason, but in part I left the field of photojournalism, and returned to graduate school where I studied short-form video production in a program at Syracuse University that addressed students who were leaving the field of photojournalism for producing video shorts. It was there I started thinking ‘how does one do a feature film?’ I’d always been interested in doing it. But, this was later in life, I was fortyish when I went back to school.
Fast forward, I was on a creative tenure track at the University Colorado at Boulder, and I did a photo project as part of that. It was about at-home pet euthanasia—the last moments people were sharing with their animal. There’s been very little media representation on it. It was very, very intense as you can imagine.
I was documenting the last photo appointment of my first trip where I realized I wanted to do a feature film. There was a thunderstorm, lightening was hitting all around, and you could hear the mourning sounds of a woman over her pet. It was very visceral, and there was no way you can convey this in a photograph as well as you could in a video camera. I thought maybe I could do a film on this. That’s what began the feature film.
Let’s go back a bit. Tell me about your formal education.
I’m from North Carolina, and went to school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I received my B.A. in photojournalism, and my Master’s degree from Syracuse University in New York—in short-form video production.
I got into photojournalism because of my father. He was an amateur photographer with a darkroom in a utility closet back when not many people had one. I was about ten or twelve years old. I just wanted to spend more time with my dad. It could have been anything that he did. But, it was because he did photography that I picked up a camera. I took pictures in high school for the year books.
And then in college I luckily took up a photojournalism course. I was pretty wayward in my education. I didn’t do that well academically, I struggled to find motivation within a major, or a course of study. Luckily, I took a photojournalism course, and it was like the light went on. I thought, ‘well, this makes sense.’ While other subjects were more difficult for me, photojournalism spoke a language I could understand—visual communication is easier for me to process.
I was from a pretty small area, and my thinking was pretty restrictive, I was unable to think expansively. I remember going to Washington, DC and thinking it was the most massive city on the planet. But, photojournalism opened that door. It was a series of peaking around the corner of photojournalism and thinking, ‘oh god, what’s next, what else can I see, can I witness?’ It just continued for quite a long time, and it kept just expanding. That’s the best way for me to process retroactively what the career arc was—an expansion of thought via visual communication.
What happened next?
After graduate school I was a visiting professor at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and then a visiting Professorship opened up at the University of Colorado Boulder. After that I received a creative track for tenure.
What were you doing?
You build a case for tenure with a particular expertise. My expertise is working and documenting in photographic and documentary film form the effects within, and the aftermath of traumatic experiences through a more intimate lens. I think because it was on my path or because of some of the things I’ve witnessed along the way, this was an easier connection for me—one that I’m more familiar with. I can move with respect and honor in these spaces. I feel very comfortable documenting and being present with people dealing with trauma.
I’ve found that people want to feel connected in trauma, in difficult experiences. They want to feel less alone. There is value in being with people in these moments, in documenting these moments, and in sharing them with others so that they know they’re not alone. I certainly see this trauma in pet loss. This is a quiet sadness people have felt.
When the story published of my photographic essay of people participating in their pet’s in-home euthanasia, it went viral, worldwide, it just exploded. I couldn’t believe how it took off. It appeared in many publications, and every time I would publish there would be a spinoff effect and other publications would pick it up. This was about a years’ cycle of exposure. It just shows that people have this experience, and it just had been bottled-up, and people haven’t seen representation of something so many people have felt.
When did you make the decision to move forward with a film?
In the summer of 2017, I was closing the photographic wing of the project, and that’s when I had that experience with that one family that was so visceral. I was photographing a very sweet family – Wendy and Rich Lehr in Florida, who had a dog named Mimosa. I wanted to attempt feature film, because it was then I realized it was only in a video that the experience could be properly documented. I started the project in 2018—not really knowing what I was doing. I knew one person that’s done a feature film. I didn’t have much connection to the industry.
Given that, you are a natural.
We had to balance the idea of documentation with the respect of the moment because it is profoundly intense. We worked with a former student of mine at Syracuse who does video, and became my cohort in this. We had to learn pretty quickly how to produce audio and video as a two-person team in very difficult situations. The gravity of the situation was reflected in the footage. It was intense, and it was something that I’ve never seen, never witnessed. It tended to present the reality of the moment at hand.
We worked about a week alongside what’s called Lap of Love—the largest at-home euthanasia service in the country. I became good friends with the CEO, Dr. Dani McVety-Leinen, who was instrumental in this film. She believed in the project and understood the importance of it. She helped introduce me to the veterinarians and we’ve become friends. We spent a lot of time together during this project, and I’m grateful for her (and the vets) support.
I always do this. I want people to know what I’m doing. I wanted to make sure that they understood the mission of the project. And, because they understood the mission they were on board with it.
Lap of Love gets a lot of media requests they deny because a lot of media outlets don’t come at the topic with the respect it deserves.
As far as I can tell, you are the only person who has addressed in-home euthanasia in in photographic and filmic media.
I’ve not seen anything in a feature film on the topic, and certainly not as much in photo. The film became by default one of the first large bodies of work on this topic in photojournalism and feature film.
What’s next?
I’m working with the refugee community with a man named PJ Parmar who is a doctor. He owns a place called Mango House which is the largest facility in Colorado—and probably the greater West—that provides medical and dental services for refugees. The facility also has space for refugees run by refugees. It is a massive complex giving a leg-up to the refugee community. The film and photographic coverage is about Mango House, but Dr. Parmar is the film’s central character. I’ll finish the film over the summer.
This project, does it have to do with issues of immigration and the law?
Yes. My eyes have been opened. I thought I knew something about the refugee community, but I was ignorant. I’ve learned a great deal about the refugee experience. They deal with a whole host of issues that the average person could not imagine. My heart goes out to that community. Like The Hardest Day I really want this project to work, to get out there. I’m hoping to learn what I can from everybody that’s been of help, including you, for the first film, and apply it to this next film.
Where are you at in the production process?
I would say 80% done. I’m waiting until we get post-mask. A lot of refugees are still wearing masks. I really want to be careful of ‘othering them.’ I want to make sure that we see plenty of faces. I’ve done a lot of the structure of the film. I’m just waiting until there’s a little bit of normalcy so that we can identify more with this community.
That film’s very exciting to me. But, then again, I think anything you do will be of great interest to me.
I have photographically covered the Boulder mass shooting that took place on March 22nd which I will continue to document as an archive of the Boulder experience.
Here’s one of my favorite questions: If you suddenly found yourself with ten million dollars, what would you want to cover?
My heart goes towards enriching community. It would probably be a hybrid of working in arenas where I would try to identify unresolved grief or disconnected grief that many people are sharing, and then come together through the documentary form. I don’t know what exactly that project is. I just see the natural arc where all the projects I’m exploring would tend to gravitate towards identifying experiences that we all share but don’t want to outwardly express as readily. And if we can find creative expressions that can unite people in that grief, I think there’s real power in knowledge that you’re not alone in that grief.
I also think about creating a center for visual communication in Boulder. If I can get funding, that’s something that I’d like to do both in photographic and film form through fostering community.
What would that involve, what would the substance of that be?
I’ve done a lot of training in the field of photojournalism. I’ve run national workshops. I find it exceptionally rewarding—helping and training professionals in ways of maneuvering with intent, and purpose, and respect. I think many people are not born with understanding how to document somebody’s pain or struggles. It can be a very bumpy experience for people as they learn in real time how to do that. But, I think there’s an impetus and a need to continue to train people how to respectfully add to the documentary experience in film and photo people going through these difficult moments. This work can be more powerful and more respectful.
That sounds like a great project. The sooner the better.
The tenure path is helping me to crystalize my overarching vision, and what I’m about. I think when I was a photojournalist I just responded, and I worked hard, but I didn’t have an undercurrent I was attuned to. But, I see more clearly now.
Film is a direct link to that. You can’t film people in a difficult moment like the loss of a pet without really understanding your purpose. You can’t just show-up, you have to know why you’re doing that. And you have to convey that quickly, and people have to pick up on that, and accept that, and believe in it.
***
Beyond the Visible: Hilma af Klint
Halina Dyrschka’s “Beyond the Visible” is the finest feature documentary film about an artist I have seen to date. The filmmaker unearths the story and work of prolific Swedish artist Hilma af Klint (October 26, 1862 – October 21, 1944). In a very short 94 minutes the film reveals an artist whose massive body of work had been buried and ignored by an illiterate, oblivious, and misogynistic artists’ world for many decades. (As far as I can tell, this is Dyrschka’s first feature documentary film—an amazing accomplishment.)
The central focus of the film are af Klint’s abstract pieces she began painting in 1906. These paintings are considered to be the very first works of abstract art. She continued painting abstractions the rest of her career.
The body of af Klint’s work is driven by her experiences and beliefs of a spiritual world. With an understanding that I am unqualified to make this statement, the impression I received having seen the many pieces presented in the film is that these abstract pieces are more than abstract. They include hidden symbolism ‘beyond the physical.’
Dyrschka’s film draws viewers into af Klint’s worlds and keeps us thoroughly engaged and mystified throughout the film. I whole heartedly suggest viewers see the film via Blu-ray. The Blu-ray disc includes additional interviews, deleted scenes, a rich painting gallery, and trailers. Plus, you have the visual benefit of Blu-ray standards.
In addition to the visual world displayed in the film, Damian Scholl’s music beautifully, perfectly reflects the virtues and qualities of af Klint’s work.
The Land of Azaba
‘What humans have done to the Earth is no less than a massacre of the other species.’
U.N. Convention on Biodiversity
‘The United Nations has declared 2020 - 2030 to be the decade of Ecological Restoration. This work is essential for mitigating climate change and protecting biodiversity.’
Along the Spanish/Portuguese border is a section of land called ‘Campanarios de Azaba Nature Reserve’ which consists of 34,800 acres of woods and agriculture. A growing community of people are working to ecologically restore this land. This project is in a state of non-stop becoming. The project began as 2,800 acres, and over the years large ranches have amended 32,000 acres to the project. The acreage will likely continue to expand. This land is the largest remaining tract of wild nature in western Europe.
Greta Schiller’s “The Land of Azaba” introduces viewers to this project, its people, along with the flora and fauna they are caring for. We spend time in the fields hearing from project staff and supporters, and seeing many animals such as horses, pigs, deer, rabbits and much more running free. But, these aren’t ordinary animals. The project made sure that they have the most ancient version of these species available. One of the primary values driving the project is “humans working to live in harmony with other species.”
As of the film’s release pray species were not included in the project, but plans were to add them soon. Indeed, near the end of the film we see rabbits being released. Given that, it is likely that pray species have already been added.
“The Land of Azaba" is another well-produced film about the beauty, power, and necessity of recreating our world in a more compassionate and sustainable manner. The people and their project are noble and inspiring.
A Southern Fix: Towards an End to Euthanasia of Pets
Between three and four million adoptable pets are euthanized annually in the United States. Some are euthanized compassionately, the rest are put into bins and suffocated in one manner or another.
Michael Samstag’s and Josh Gildrie’s “A Southern Fix” offers solutions to stem this tide of slaughter. The film begins with the usual unhappy news and images about our lack of care, let alone our mis-care of animals, but the film quickly goes on to feature people and organizations doing all they can to end the slaughter, and to provide loving homes for cats, dogs, and the occasional Pot-bellied pig.
The film features passionately dedicated people many of whom are volunteers working on animals’ behalf. This is the first time I heard the term ‘compassion fatigue.’ Having seen countless reports of medical personnel suffering from the hopelessness of saving many lives in this pandemic, I well understand the term as it applies to care for both humans and animals. It appears that the American southeast has the highest concentration of euthanasia in the United States, and, consequently, the most compassion fatigue.
Since there is more demand for pets in the northeast, and too many in the south, we follow a group of southern people throughout the film who are arranging a caravan of dogs and other pets who would have otherwise been euthanized being transported from the south to the north. Their destination is an understandably impatient group of people excitedly waiting to receive their chosen pet. These people are committed to their new pet’s care. The arrival of the caravan is the film’s much welcomed climax. This southern fix is in. It’s time now, to ‘fix’ the United States’ mistreatment of animals.
Do Not Split: The Fight for a Democratic Hong Kong
Directed and shot by Anders Hammer, “Do Not Split” is a documentary short that covers the violent conflict between Hong Kong’s citizens and Chinese forces for Hong Kong’s democracy.
Hammer simply lets his camera tell the story on the streets of Hong Kong—including protesters’ responses to this battle for freedom. The film ends in the pandemic with the streets emptied.
The film is available gratis from a few sites. My preferred site is Field of Vision.
“Do Not Split” has been nominated for an Oscar in the Best Documentary Short category. China will not allow the Oscars to be aired in its Hong Kong on account of the Oscar nod to the film, and because of filmmaker Chloe Zhao who made comments years ago about China that the government disliked. This is the first time Hong Kong has been stripped from seeing the annual awards broadcast of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since it was banned in1969.
Tell My Story
In March, 2018, Jason Reid and his wife were vacationing in Puerto Vallarta when they got the text and the call. Ryan, the youngest of their four children texted he was going to kill himself, and Reid’s mother-in-law confirmed that their youngest son committed suicide at the age of 14.
Ryan hung himself in the attic of their upper-middle class home. His approach was particularly well thought out with separate notes for his mother, father, and three siblings. He emptied his smartphone except for one post: HELP.
Going through Ryan’s room, Reid discovered a drawer with two separate short notes one of which contained only three words: ‘Tell My Story.’ The family was forever changed.
Directed and shot by David Freid, and produced by Philippe Diaz and Beth Portello, “Tell My Story” does just that. Only the story told is of the whole family, and of the ongoing tragedy of teen suicide. The film is a very powerful call to address and reduce teen suicide. Reid’s specific goal is to end teen suicide by 2030.
Freid follows Reid as he travels the nation learning about and speaking about his personal experience and what he has learned about himself, his family, and teen suicide. We also hear directly from the family’s three children as well as many other teens. Throughout the film we see clips of a joyful, playful Ryan Reid which are as endearing as they are gut-wrenching.
I whole heartedly suggest you see “Tell My Story” and that you consult the website’s Resources Page. The more people who view this film, the fewer teen suicides we suffer.
No Fear No Favor: Hope for African Wildlife
“We are the generation that are allowing the African elephant and rhino to go extinct. If you can’t bring economical value to the local people to protect animals, then you will never win this war.”
Interviewee
Written, directed, and shot by Mirra Banks “No Fear No Favor” covers African efforts to reduce—and, ideally, eradicate—the $20 billion a year poaching industry and to create environments that support both wildlife and human communities. For two years Banks was in Zambia's Kafue National Park—one of the largest intact wilderness areas in the world—and in Kenya and Namibia.
The film includes a few images of the usual horrific slaughter of noble creatures, yet the primary focus is on conservation efforts of non-African and African citizens. Workers from Game Rangers International support the establishment and on-going developments of these efforts to save African wildlife.
We hear from a few of the wildlife protection workers, and see plenty of elephants—along with quite a few pangolins. One of the workers was a former poacher who got caught, and is now dedicated to taking care of orphaned elephants raised by humans, and released to the wild when ready.
Poaching is very much alive and well, of course. I can only wonder who is winning. Global organized crime is driving the slaughter of precious wildlife with helicopters, night-vision technologies, and sophisticated weapons. The United Nations estimates African countries lose $50 billion annually to corruption—money that could and should be used to benefit both the peoples and wildlife of Africa.
On the side of compassion and wisdom we have non-profit organizations, community organizers, and documentary filmmakers like Mirra Banks fighting the good fight on behalf of wildlife. Who’s winning? I suspect the killers—and would love to be proved wrong.
Filmmakers' Choice Award, Andrew Sabin Family Foundation Environmental Award, Hamptons DocFest
Outstanding Cinematography, Tallgrass International Film Festival
Outstanding Excellence: Cinematography,
Excellence: Feature, Nature Without Borders
Award of Excellence, Impact Docs
Award of Excellence, Docs Without Borders
Award of Excellence, Accolade Global Film Competition
Award of Merit, IndieFest Film Awards
Annapolis International Film Festival
Woods Hole International Film Festival
Port Townsend Film Festival
Out of Africa International Film Festival(Kenya)
Lighthouse International Film Festival
D. Schwartz March 29, 2021
The Hardest Day: Love, Loss, and the Last Moments Between
Ross Taylor and Luke Rafferty have made the best possible feature documentary about in-home pet euthanasia. Until watching their documentary, I did not know that was even an option, let alone how widely available it has become.
Likely, many people do not know about it. Hopefully, more will learn about in-home pet euthanasia now that the two gentlemen have produced “The Hardest Day.”
The film covers several families who chose this more compassionate way of saying good bye. We are with these families and their veterinarians as they conduct the procedure at home, with family members participating. Taylor and Rafferty interview a few advocates of in-home euthanasia one of whom is Dr. Dani McVety-Leinen, CEO and Founder of Lap of Love—a nationwide resource that helps individuals and families find and utilize veterinarians to perform this noble service.
According to CNBC journalist Lorie Konish “A new survey from TD Ameritrade finds that 33% of Americans have considered fostering or adopting a furry friend now that social distancing is the norm. Across generations, that rate is highest for millennials, who came in at 50%, versus Gen X, at 33%, and baby boomers, 25%.” And according to The Washington Post, dog adoptions and sales have soared during the pandemic. This is all to say that even more people are going to face saying goodbye to their pet.
Having to put down my suffering cat at a clinic a few years ago, I can say with experience that in-home euthanasia is much, much preferable. I would be very remiss, though, if I did not state the obvious: Losing a pet means tears, many tears. Even the highly experienced Dr. Dani teared up during her interview. Unless you have a heart of glass, you, too, will tear up viewing “The Hardest Day”. This is a measure of how well the filmmakers have crafted their film, and how much they care for pets and their human companions.
Stay in touch with the film's Website for information on how you can see the film.
D. Schwartz March 25, 2021
Entangled: The Fight for the Right Whale
“Entangled” is a masterfully crafted documentary film directed by David Abel, and edited and co-produced by Andy Laub. Both gentlemen are vastly multi-talented and highly accomplished. Their film covers a classic conflict between environmental values and commercial concerns.
The North Atlantic Right whale is on the verge of extinction. Fishing lines and ship strikes are the primary culprits. Further exacerbating this environmental tragedy are changes in the whales’ available food sources. As I write, there are approximately 350 Right whales in existence, with about 85 reproductive females left.
Passions flare on both sides. Fishing interests are facing existential economic losses, while the Earth faces the loss of another rare and noble species. The film gives both sides equal time in making their respective cases.
Of the obstacles to saving Right whales, vertical fishing lines cause the most deaths. As I watched the film I thought, ‘there’s gotta be a technological solution, a way to have ropeless commercial fishing.’ Near film’s end it is revealed and demonstrated that a workable solution has been designed and created. It will cost, of course, but, if the Federal government can subsidize very large industries, it could subsidize the implementation of ropeless fishing systems.
“Entangled” is another crucial environmental film that deserves a very large audience. In addition to seeing the film, I encourage viewers to access the website—especially the link to Right Whale News.
The Elephant Queen
Filmed in Kenya, Africa, at the Tsavo East National Park and the Greater Amboseli Tsavo Ecosystem, The Elephant Queen follows a herd of elephants through a season of drought and rain, births and deaths. Athena, the story’s Queen, is the 50-year-old sole leader of the herd.
Directed by the highly accomplished and lauded team of Victoria Stone and Mark Deeble, the film tells Athena’s story with light-hearted humor, yet do not exclude the tragedies embedded in the story. The filmmakers' 25 years of living in the East African bush prepared the two to film this epic odyssey.
Chiwetel Ejiofor narrates the story, and Alex Heffes provides the music.
An Apple+ TV release, The Elephant Queen is another reminder of humanity’s neglect of the natural world, and of the nobility of the natural world. The film tells a story everyone should see.
The film is available in at least 46 languages, and features AD (Audio Description) for the blind or those with low vision.
Finding Courage: Confronting China’s Pogrom Against Falun Gong Practitioners “Finding Courage” is Kay Rubacek’s first feature documentary. Although first, the film is clearly the work of a seasoned professional.
In 1999, the Chinese Communist Party ordered the eradication of a meditation practice called Falun Gong or Falun Dafa. People in China are disallowed to talk about this practice. Since that gag order, the Communist Party has carried out more than 50 persecution campaigns against Falun Gong—detaining, torturing, and killing countless numbers of Chinese citizens. How many deaths attributable to the nation’s actions will never be known, but the death count is likely in the tens of thousands—possibly more. Then, of course, it is also not publicly known how many Chinese citizens have been or are currently imprisoned and/or tortured.
Rubacek’s film covers China’s unending, apparently successful attempts to quash the spiritual practice of Falun Gong (a.k.a. Falun Dafa) in that nation. Rubacek interviews several Chinese expatriate officials, yet the overarching story is told by Yifei Wang, a former journalist for the Chinese Communist Party. Wang tells her personal story, the story of China’s persecutions, and the intimate family tragedy of Wang’s sister, Kefei Wang, who was tortured and killed for refusing to stop her Falun Gong practice and allegiance.
Yifei wanted closure of the tragic loss of her sister. The film covers Yifei’s attempts to at least recover her sister’s body. She and others made a daring attempt to do so—at great peril to all concerned. After many efforts Yifei and her team were at least allowed to see Kefei’s body, and they also snuck in pictures of Kefie.
Yifei’s activism is nonstop, and she eventually brought herself and a large group of Falun Gong practitioners to a rally she presided over at the United States Capitol Grounds on a bright, sunny day.
China has the largest population of people in the world. Its government is an autocracy. The nation’s economic boon is attributed to the United States and many other nations utilizing China’s labor force for manufacturing. That boon has allowed the nation to widely expand its infrastructures, develop a space program, and vastly increase its military—including, of course, nuclear weapons. With respect to China, the word, ‘Communist’ has no significant meaning to yours truly. Their citizens have been hypnotized by the material wealth now available to these citizens. These same citizens are also subject to massive security efforts protecting the government from any citizen activism that threatens the current deeply entrenched regime—which is all to say it would likely take a global catastrophe to shake off this government’s golden stranglehold on its people.
Yet, as Rubacek has demonstrated, there are nonstop efforts to change the status quo in the upper echelons of China’s government. Irrespective of the chances to see significant reform towards citizen rights, this is the definitive ‘good fight.’
Produced and distributed by Swoop Films, “Finding Courage” is the winner of at least 7 film festivals, and was an ‘Official Selection’ of 20 film festivals. Viewers may find the film at the “Swoop Films” website.
Dark Circle
I just viewed First Run Features 2K HD restoration of the 1983 documentary, “Dark Circle”—about nuclear power.
This is not a review, rather it is a notice about the restored version and how imperative it is for us to remind ourselves of the non-stop apocalyptic realities of nuclear power.
The film was written and directed by Chris Beaver and Judy Irving, and narrated by Judy Irving.
It will begin streaming March 30, 2021.
Below are notes about the film from First Run Features, a review from the legendary Roger Ebert, filmmakers statement, awards and festivals, and the film's Wikipedia's site.
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First Run Features presents the Streaming Premiere of the 1983 Sundance Grand Prize Winner for Documentary, “Dark Circle”, beginning March 30, 2021.
It’s been 75 years since the start of the Atomic Age, with the U.S. nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki killing hundreds of thousands of civilians, but its trail of destruction has never ended.
“Dark Circle” covers both the period’s beginnings and its aftermath, providing a scientific primer on the catastrophic power of nuclear energy while also relating tragic human stories detailing the devastating toll radioactive toxicity has taken on people and livestock – focusing in large part on Rocky Flats, Colorado, whose plutonium trigger facility infamously contaminated the surrounding area.
Academy shortlisted for Best Documentary and a National Emmy winner, “Dark Circle” is no less potent today than it was 40 years ago. The new 2K HD Restoration done at FotoKem was assisted by the Academy Film Archive and supervised by co-director Judy Irving.
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“Dark Circle” is one of the most horrifying films I've seen, and also sometimes one of the funniest (if you can laugh at the same things in real life that you found amusing in Dr. Strangelove). Using powers granted by the Freedom of Information Act, and sleuthing that turned up government film the government didn't even know it had, the producers of this film have created a mosaic of the Atomic Age. It is a tribute to the power of the material, and to the relentless digging of the filmmakers, that the movie is completely riveting."
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
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FILMMAKER'S STATEMENT
by Co-Director Judy Irving
When I set out to make a personal film about the impact of nuclear weapons and power on ordinary people, I had no idea that the movie would create such a ruckus, or that it would still be so relevant 39 years after its release. My aim was to point the camera away from experts and politicians, and find stories about how plutonium is affecting us, even in the absence of a nuclear war. Those effects are not only physical, but psychological and spiritual as well. Having grown up under this nuclear cloud, I wanted to show how nuclear power and weapons are in fact the same industry, despite government propaganda that urges us to see them as separate.
Part of understanding this industry required that we travel to Japan to film interviews with survivors of the atomic bombings. We were astonished to discover that we were the first American film crew to do so. American writers and still photographers had been to Hiroshima and Nagasaki before us, but no documentary film crew until we arrived in 1979. To me, this spoke volumes about how much guilt and denial we bring to the issue.
After its theatrical release, Dark Circle was accepted for a national broadcast on public television, but then PBS gatekeepers broke the contract. Claiming we were not objective, they insisted that we cut a sequence in which we name the corporations that build the hydrogen bomb, such as General Electric, whose slogan is, ironically, “We bring good things to life.” Many of these corporations are PBS underwriters. We refused to cut the Arms Convention sequence and fought the obvious censorship. It took seven years before PBS finally created a new series, “POV,” to showcase films with a strong point of view, and when "Dark Circle" was broadcast it won a National News & Documentary Emmy – for PBS!
Flash forward three decades: with nuclear stockpiles growing, missile accidents in the news, and nine nuclear states including China flexing their powers with threats, "Dark Circle" is suddenly relevant again.
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Awards & Festivals
1983 Sundance Grand Prize, Nonfiction Feature
1983 Oscar Shortlist, Best Documentary Feature
1989 National Emmy Award, 'Outstanding Individual Achievement in News and Documentary'
U.S. Premiere: New York Film Festival
U.K. Premiere: London Film Festival (followed by regional tour sponsored by the British Film Institute)
Santa Fe Winter Film Expo First Prize, Nonfiction
Houston International Film Festival Gold Medal
Audubon Environmental Film Festival First Prize, Global Issues
American Film Festival Blue Ribbon
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GRIT
“When everything is destroyed, you can’t put a price tag on the history, the family, and the land that is gone.”
In 2006, PT Lapindo Brantas an Indonesian oil and gas company, was drilling in the sub-district of Porong, Sidoarjo, in East Java, Indonesia. There was a giant explosion of mud. The non-stop eruption of mud continues to this day, and is expected to continue until at least 2030. Much of the mud is being channeled to a river. Lapindo claims the eruption was caused by natural phenomena, the people believe it was caused by a demonstrable drilling error. Sixteen villages and thousands of homes were covered in mud.
Directed by Cynthia Wade and Sasha Friedlander, “GRIT” tells the story of the explosion and ongoing mud flow with a focus on its impact on the 60,000 people who were displaced. Aside from the devastation itself, a crucial issue the people struggled with is compensation for their losses. It took ten years for people to receive a measure of compensation, but only those who could provide evidence of land ownership received those funds.
The images of explosions and eruptions are fascinating, of course, but it is the human loss of homes that forms this tragedy. Miraculously, only 16 people were lost in this disaster.
Friedlander and Wade cover this human loss and the struggle for any acknowledgement from Lapindo that their drilling caused the disaster. The filmmakers follow Lapindo’s responses to the disaster and the socio-political fight for restitution, leading up to a Trump v. Biden-style Presidential election.
"GRIT" is well crafted, and thoroughly engaging. The film has garnered at least 14 film festival awards and received an EMMY nomination.
Warrior Women
“This country is built on the bones of our ancestors. We have our culture, we have our way of life, our language. What we’re trying to do is retain it, retain our right as a people—to be Indian. We want to be what we are, not what you are.”
Madonna Thunder Hawk
Directed by Elizabeth Castle and Christina D. King, “Warrior Women” is a documentary film that is one of several initiatives of the Warrior Women Project, an innovative collaboration of scholarship, media, and activism that provides a forum for the Warrior Women of the Red Power Movement. They are telling their stories in their own words for the benefit of current and future generations.
The principal characters are Madonna Thunder Hawk and her daughter Marcella (Marcy) Gilbert. Although the story of Native Americans is one of tragedy and horror, mother and daughter tell their stories to groups of children, fostering them with joy and humor to become part of the reclamation of their rights and cultures.
The film also includes references and coverage of struggles including Ruby Ridge, Standing Rock, Wounded Knee, and the attempts to reclaim what is currently called Alcatraz Island—an initiative that continues to this day.
“Warrior Women” has received 44 film festival ‘Official Selection’ notices and 14 festival ‘Winner’ acknowledgements.
Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You
“The E Street Band is a finely tuned instrument of great flexibility and power. They can float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. Our years of playing together have created a shorthand and efficiency in the studio comparable to a finely tuned racing engine. We are a unit 45 years in the making, decades in the refining—and we bring that power to bear when we engage with you. We perform in service to our audience. The pay is great, but you’re the reason we’re here. It is our commitment that hardens our purpose, our sense of do or die. E Street Band is not a job, it is a vocation, a calling. It is both one of the most important things in your life, and, of course, it’s only rock ‘n’ roll.”
Bruce Springsteen
The above text is the beginning of Bruce Springsteen’s narrative of his life in music, with stories and thoughts expressed throughout Thom Zimny’s masterfully produced film “Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You.”
The documentary includes ten new Springsteen songs from his latest album, ‘Letter to You’ recorded live—that is, there was no layering of instruments and voice tracks one by one. Instead, we are in the studio with Springsteen, his E Street Band musicians and producers, hearing the new songs as they can be heard on the released album. Between songs he tells his stories and expresses his thoughts about life. I humbly disagree, though, with Springsteen’s ‘it’s only rock and roll.’ For decades he has addressed existential issues the common person faces in their life in the United States of America. The film’s black-and-white cinematography is exquisite.
Whether or not you are a fan, or even familiar with Bruce Springsteen’s music, this is a stunning, powerful film that, ironically, leaves viewers in a quiet, contemplative mood.
Personhood: Policing Pregnant Women in America
“Your Honor, under Wisconsin statute 48.133, we are requesting temporary physical custody of the unborn child whose mother is Tamara Loertscher.”—litigator
Tammy Loertscher was living in Wisconsin, she was not aware of the draconian laws the state enacted to gain control of in utero human fetuses. When she simply, innocently asked questions and expressed concerns to her doctor about her first pregnancy, she found herself in a Kafkaesque world. Her unborn human was no longer hers. She didn’t know that Wisconsin was a ‘fetal personhood’ State, and that the State can prosecute women for miscarriages, stillbirths, and using drugs while pregnant. Wisconsin prosecuted Tammy for allegations that she used drugs during her pregnancy. The pregnant mother even experienced a stent in jail. This mother fought back.
In “Personhood: Policing Pregnant Women in America” filmmaker Jo Ardinger tells Tammy’s epic story of reclaiming her rights as a woman and mother, shares stories of other mothers’ experiences, and interviews two key heroes:
Paltrow’s career began as a fight for the right to choose abortion. Ironically, many of her clients were passionately against abortion, yet she received cases of women who had no intention to abort their pregnancy. Instead, these were women who used illegal drugs, and/or alcohol, or women who decided to delay cesarean surgery, and they knew they were in danger. Making matters worse, these women learned to not tell their doctors about their behavior for fear of prosecution and findings of guilt. Also, some charges against pregnant women were trumped.
The fundamental question the people and government of the United States faces is whether or not women who become pregnant lose their personhood rights. At the moment, 38 States treat fertilized eggs, embryos, and fetuses as ‘persons’—potential victims of a crime. Even women who have not used drugs or alcohol are being targeted. The State prosecutes pregnant women on the faux base of alleged child abuse and similar crimes. How many potential or current pregnant mothers know about what they may be facing?
Ardinger’s very well crafted film shines a light on this hidden world of veritable ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ oppression. Not just mothers and potential mothers, this is a crucial film all Americans to see.
Stray: The Street Dogs of Istanbul
Preamble: On December 7, 2017, I posted my review of ‘Kedi’— a documentary film about the stray cats of Istanbul. I love animals, and am delighted to share my review of Elizabeth Lo’s “Stray” about the stray dogs of Istanbul. As a lover of our natural world which includes, of course, cats and dogs, I am deeply concerned about animals who are not cared for. “Stray” however, shines a measure of hope for the dogs of Istanbul.
Turkey has a national policy of no-kill and no-capture towards all its stray animals. The City of Istanbul has approximately 130,000 stray dogs. This was not always the case. For decades Turkey practiced mass killings of strays. However, in June, 2004, the Turkish government passed a law requiring local governments to rehabilitate street animals rather than kill them. It requires the animals be sterilized, vaccinated, tagged, and taken back to the place where they were found.
In “Stray,” filmmaker Elizabeth Lo follows several of these stray dogs. There is no narration. None is needed. There is occasional text, but the dogs tell the story as we follow their lives on the streets and other places. Zeytin, a large, short-haired tan female is the film’s host.
Zeytin takes viewers on a tour of Istanbul including, of course, many stray dogs—and a few stray people some of whom take care of dogs they find and fancy. The film evokes pathos, hope, concern for the dogs, and fascination with this hybrid dogs/people world.
Composer Ali Helnwein provides the film’s beautiful, elegant music.
A Magnolia Pictures release, “Stray” is an incredible, noble, and deeply from-the-heart cinematic achievement.
I encourage readers to visit Elizabeth Lo’s Website to learn about her moving body of work, and to read this Interview of the filmmaker.
D. Schwartz February 27, 2021
Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry
“I honestly don’t know how any artist of any age with this kind of [meteoric] trajectory is doing it without a parent—someone who loves you more than life itself, and would do anything for you…”
Maggie May Baird
Billie Eilish’s mother is reflecting with empathy and concern about the plight of young people who find themselves in the midst of show business success, but lack the experiences of having been raised by mindful and compassionate parents. Thank goodness Billie has those kind of parents.
Prolific filmmaker R.J. Cutler has given us “Billie Eilish: The World’s A Little Blurry” a profile of the pop superstar and the loving family that has so carefully nurtured their daughter. Cutler’s 140-minute documentary follows Billie and family through the singer/songwriter’s 17th year of life. His camera does more than just tell the story. Cutler’s ears, eyes and heart evoke the vulnerable humanity of the members of this family. This is a rare and admirable skill that makes for a thoroughly engaging film irrespective of the viewer’s ignorance—mine, for instance—of our Hero
Eilish has the best music partner a superstar can have—her brother Finneas O’Connell who writes and produces with her, as well as goes with her on tours working behind the scenes, and on stage performing with his sister. Both Eilish’s father, Patrick O'Connell, and mother Maggie May have mainstream acting resumés. And let’s not forget Eilish’s dog Pepper who appears in shots peppered throughout the film.
Dads: In Celebration of Fatherhood
“I feel like being a father made me the man I am. My children taught me to be authentic, and be honest with myself. Fatherhood has given me a whole new identity.”
Glen Henry, father
The title says it all. Bryce Dallas Howard’s “Dads” features dads—some famous, others not so—speaking their thoughts, experiences, and expressing their feelings about fatherhood. Many of these dads break down in happy tears in interview as they speak of their fatherly experiences. The common denominator for all the dads is the radical life and character changes they experienced as dedicated fathers.
Robert Selby’s first child was born with multiple heart problems. The UPS driver did not have his own transportation, so made his way by public transportation to see his baby grow up through multiple heart surgeries and other treatments. His child is now happy and healthy.
Rio de Janeiro’s Tiago Queriroz experience as a new father inspired him to create a successful podcast on fatherhood.
In Tokyo, Shuichi Sakuma was working 150 hours a week when he fell victim to a painful autoimmune disease. Housebound, he spent two years convincing his wife to give him a child. She did just that, saying she did this specifically for her husband. Upon fatherhood the formerly dour workaholic became a joyful, healthy, happy human being raising his son at home, and attending ‘The Secret Society of Friends of House Husbands’ meetings
Rob and Reece Scheer ended up adopting four children, one girl and three boys. The two gentlemen went from no children to four children in six months. Three of them were still in diapers. Rob made the most unusual statement of the whole film. He said when he was six years old he knew he wanted to be a father.
Reece said he wanted to be a stay-at-home dad, so the family became one-income. And, they bought a farm with plenty of critters. The four adoptees came with significant life challenges, which, of course, gave the two parents significant challenges. Yet, Rob states with utter certainty and a smile on his face, “I won the lottery, I literally won the lottery.” This family could have their own documentary.
In ‘Hollywood’ we hear from Kenan Thompson, Judd Apatow, Will Smith, Neil Patrick Harris, Patton Oswalt, Ken Jeong, Conan O’Brian, Jimmy Kimmel, and Hasan Minhaj.
There is just so much love shining through “Dads”. The film is thoroughly engaging, and unless you have a heart of glass, you will find yourself with your own happy tears as you listen to and see these dads tell their stories.
A 15 year old runaway teenager who went by the street name of ‘Baby Girl’ was given a puppy—a Chow/Husky mix.
Doug James, an adjunct professor of communications arts at Spring Hill College, became the second owner of this puppy. He is telling parts of the story of the dog named Gucci.
Shauna Cooley Busby (‘Baby Girl’) was in a bad crowd of boys who eventually were demanding sexual favors of her, which she refused. In retaliation the boys hung the 12 weeks old puppy from a tree, and were slapping him, and then set the puppy on fire.
James was outside his next door home when he saw this puppy on fire.
Busby, crying deeply, asked James to take the wounded dog to the vet. At first James brought the puppy to his home, expecting him to die that night. The next morning James brought the puppy to Dr. Ann Branch’s veterinary clinic. She could smell the lighter fluid still on the dog. In interview Branch said “nothing can prepare you for something like that. You think you’ve seen it all—you haven’t.”
Word got out. An anonymous attorney offered to pay for the puppy’s vet bills. The puppy was treated by Branch, had surgery at Auburn University, and became a cause célèbre. The team of Doug James and his ambassador dog Gucci catalyzed the beginning of a healing that would spread throughout the United States of America.
Gorman Bechard’s “A Dog Named Gucci” tells the puppy’s miraculously long story, and stories of that ilk of many more dogs. His film is about the abuse of dogs, of course, and how this one puppy’s horrific abuse catalyzed a movement for criminal justice consequences for abuse of dogs and cats. Every State now has some version of legislation meant to reduce the abuse.
However, at film’s conclusion is the following text: ‘It is estimated that over 1,000,000 domestic animals are abused every year. Approximately 10% of those abuse cases are reported. Less than 1,000 are prosecuted.’
Bechard’s film is very well crafted, and is successful at making its plea for more protections.
A Personal Note: I found “A Dog Named Gucci” by accident. I was just scanning Amazon Prime for something about dogs. The film’s title intrigued me. My concerns about animals and plants runs deep, and I grieve for the abuse and destruction of all our flora and fauna. I well understand that this film is hard to take for some people, yet I hope my straight-forward outline of the story will find a few viewers, and that the film will find a few more viewers.
I Married the War
“The thing I needed most from him which was the talking and feeling, was the thing he needed least. He came back from the war, and he’s sitting right beside me, but he’s not really there.”
Anne Jackson
In 2011 Ken Rodgers and Betty Rodgers gave us their feature documentary 'Bravo! Common Men, Uncommon Valor' about a Viet Nam battle called Siege of Khe Sanh. The couple emphasized that this film was neither a pro-war nor an anti-war film—instead, it simply presented just what happened. I had the harrowing pleasure of seeing an early screening of the film at George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch, and the honor of meeting the two filmmakers.
Ten years later, in 2021, they have given us another well-crafted documentary, “I Married the War” about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and related disorders that military warriors suffer the rest of their post-war lives, and the impact these disorders have on veterans’ wives. Betty Rodgers interviews 11 wives of combat veterans from World War II through present day Middle East wars.
We learn the phrase ‘secondary PTSD’—the trauma wives experience and suffer from the existential loss of their husbands. As I viewed and listened to the wives tell their stories, I came to sense that ‘secondary’ is too small of a descriptor. Yet, as I listened, I also experienced the love, care, and dearness the wives bring to their wounded husbands.
“I Married the War” reveals another previously hidden fact-of-life about the impacts of war. The film honors these wives who suffer deeply, yet find the love needed for their spouses. The two filmmakers have done more than make a film. They have drawn attention to a heart-breaking problem, and are calling for much more support for spouses of combat veterans.
There are more than 5.5 million ‘military caregivers’ in the United States helping physically and mentally wounded veterans. The film’s website includes a Resource Page for spouses that will expand as new resources are discovered.
Orchestrating Change: The Odysseys of Ronald Braunstein and Caroline Whiddon
“I never contemplated the Me2/orchestras being this vehicle for social change. And Ronald had this wild idea, and now we see it changing people, taking them from this place of darkness into a place of strength and confidence.”
Caroline Whiddon, Cofounder and Executive Director of Me2/Orchestras
When he was ten years old, Ronald Braunstein’s father took him to see the Pittsburg Symphony Orchestra play Beethoven’s Ninth. Right then and there the young boy decided that conducting orchestras was for him. He did just that, became a well-lauded symphony conductor.
Braunstein attended and graduated from Julliard as a conductor. Amongst many other accomplishments, he won First Prize at the Sixth International Herbert Von Karajan Conducting Competition in Berlin—the most prestigious and competitive conducting competition in the world. He was the first American to receive this honor.
Braunstein’s conducting career was sidelined when his bipolar disease became evident at 30 years of age.
Braunstein met his now wife Caroline Whiddon when he was applying for a job. At the time Whiddon was executive director of an orchestra, and was seeking a new conductor. She hired our hero, who was still being sabotaged by his illness. He lost this job, but Whiddon maintained a friendship with Braunstein—that is, she fell in love with the fallen conductor, they married, and have a beautiful and fruitful relationship.
Braunstein and Whiddon decided to do something about people suffering from mental illness. The idea is simple: Create an orchestra that contains a large portion of suffering victims of mental illness. The film does not cover the precise origin of the idea of starting an orchestra of and for musicians with mental disorders, but one factor pointing to this emergence was Whiddon’s own suffering with mental illness symptoms. In any case, the two started the Me2/Orchestras. Note the plural. The idea and its execution has been so successful that there are Me2/orchestras popping up in the United States and elsewhere.
In “Orchestrating Change” filmmakers Margie Friedman and Barbara Multer-Wellin let the loving couple and many of their musicians tell their stories of lost and found, of finding healing in playing orchestral music with their peers. Most documentary films have a music score. This film, of course, has its own score of classical pieces.
17 Blocks
Davy Rothbart’s “17 Blocks” follows two decades of a family living in a lower class neighborhood 17 blocks away from the United States Capitol building. Rothbart initiated filming, yet some of the featured characters picked up cameras and have continued documenting their lives.
The community has its fair share of drugs, crime, and occasional murders associated with under-resourced communities. The documentary follows principal characters Cheryl, Smurf, Denice, Emmanuel, and the Justin Sanford-Durant family through the challenges, losses, and gains of two decades of lives lived—all in the shadow of the power brokers 17 blocks away who could eliminate the poverty behind the drugs, violence, and stunted lives.
“17 Blocks” is a slice of life film that deserves a very large audience. It has been well reviewed, and received 12 festival nominations and 14 wins. Unless you have a heart of glass, your heart will be deeply touched by the film’s people and their journeys.
Kudos to composer Nick Urata who led the film score’s team which perfectly wrapped the story in delicately performed music. In my opinion, if you don’t remember hearing a documentary film’s score, you have heard a perfectly composed and performed score.
Landfall
“I feel like once you’ve survived Maria, you can survive anything else that can happen in this country.”
Hurricane Maria survivor
From Wikipedia: “Hurricane Maria was a deadly Category 5 hurricane that devastated Dominica, St Croix, and Puerto Rico in September 2017. It is regarded as the worst natural disaster in recorded history to affect those islands, and was also the deadliest Atlantic hurricane since Mitch in 1998. … total losses from the hurricane are estimated at upwards of $91.61 billion (2017 USD), mostly in Puerto Rico, ranking it as the third-costliest tropical cyclone on record.”
Professor Cecilia Aldarondo’s “Landfall” covers the people of Puerto Rico in the aftermath of Maria’s landfall. The film also includes footage of non-resident American citizens exploiting the disaster—much like the carpetbaggers of post-Civil War American south. Puerto Rico is 1,000 miles southeast of Miami, Florida.
Aldarondo’s film does not contain narration. Instead she simply tells the story via beatific and demoralizing images of the island nation, as well as interviews of storm victims speaking of their losses, fears, and hopes. The nation’s people suffer from internal corruption, governmental incompetence and carelessness, as well as exploitation of the country by the United States government and its people. The film also includes archival footage of Puerto Rico.
The film’s perfect, haunting music is composed by Angélica Negrón.
“Landfall” is produced by Blackscrackle Films, and distributed by PBS and Field of Vision.
Film Festival Nominations and Winners
Nominee, Truer than Fiction Award, Film Independent Spirit Awards
Nominee, Cinema Eye Honors Spotlight Award
Grand Jury Award, Viewfinders Competition, DOC NYC Film Festival
Grand Jury Award for Best Documentary, Florida Film Festival
Best Feature Documentary, Guanajuato International Film Festival
Best Documentary, Milwaukee Film Festival
Best Documentary, Boston Latino Film Festival
Jury Honorable Mention, New Orleans Films Festival
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Freightened: The Real Price of Shipping The more hidden a problem is, the more urgent it is to solve that problem.
Once in a while my The Marin Post editor discovers a documentary film and informs me about it. This one is about shipping—giant ships bringing products to and fro for us to utilize and consume. ‘What a seemingly dry and obscure topic’ was my immediate reaction.
It took only a few moments watching the film to realize it is as crucial a documentary for us humans to see as any of the many environmental films that keep on coming our way.
Written and directed by Denis Delestrac, "Freightened" opens with metadata about these giant cargo ships which bring 90% of the products we consume to the west. The rest of the film is…let’s just say concerning.
Shipping is a 500 billion dollar industry. There are sixty thousand giant ships roaming our oceans, polluting our natural world. There are approximately 120 shipwrecks a year. 150 tons of crude oil pollute the oceans annually. Add other substances, 1.8 million tons of toxic substances feed our oceans annually. This is just a sample of the film’s revelations.
The primary culprit is called ‘flags of convenience.’ No matter the actual country of origin of any one ship, it can be registered with any United Nations country, and each country creates its own regulations which can be strict and protective, or not. Many, if not most ships fly flags under countries that provide minimum protection via their regulations.
"Freightened" may seem to be a most unlikely documentary you find yourself viewing, yet it is as crucial an environmental film as I have ever seen—and I’ve seen a lot.
The film is available in Amazon Prime, and available on disc via Polar Star Films.
M.C. Escher: Journey to Infinity
Every once in awhile I see a documentary film about which I am on fire. "M.C. Escher: Journey to Infinity" is now one of them.
In telling and showing the epic story of M.C. Escher’s life and art, director Robin Lutz has produced a masterpiece worthy of the artist’s legacy and legend. Lutz has gathered Escher’s words from his diary, lectures, correspondences and more, and charged actor Stephen Fry to perform this narration spoken as the renowned artist.
Lutz provides the requisite large number of Escher’s images as well as archival black and white film, and animations. It also appears that Escher’s work is a portent of the elaborate moving fractal images available to much of the Earth’s population.
Escher’s two sons appear throughout the film, as does singer/songwriter Graham Nash who appears near the beginning and end of the film expressing his admiration for Escher’s work, and how it changed his life.
Yours truly will purchase the film’s disc, if there will be one, as soon as it’s available—preferably on 4K.
Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir
Amy Tan is seated, searching through photograph albums and piles of photos. The acclaimed, prolific author is opening the documentary film about her life and times.
“All right,” she says to herself, “where is her photos? I used to have this all organized. And now… okay, let me see... This is my mother as a young woman, with her friends. This is the back of the mansion where she livedؙ—just out of Shanghai.
Tan continues, “In my office is a time capsule. Seven large, clear plastic bins safeguarding frozen moments in time—the past that began before my birth. During the writing of this book [Where the Past Begins: Memory and Imagination] I delved into the contents [of these bins]—memorabilia, letters, photos and the like. And, what I found had the force of glaciers calving.
“I am not the subject matter of mothers and daughters, or Chinese culture, or immigrant experience that most people cite as my domain. I am a writer, compelled by a subconscious neediness to know, which is different from a need to know. The latter can be satisfied with information. The former is a perpetual state of uncertainty, and a tether to the past.”
Thus begins Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir—directed by the beloved, recently passed James Redford. I have seen all eight of his feature documentary films. This, his last, is Redford’s magnum opus. His film covers Tan’s rich, rewarding life from before birth through 2020.
Tan’s journey to fiction was preceded by her work writing industrial/commercial texts. “I was looking for something more meaningful, and that’s when I started writing fiction. I met somebody who encouraged me to read fiction again. She gave me a reading list. And…, she was a writer. And…, I started to write. The things I discovered about writing at that point were so important to me—it was the notion that you could write and find out what you really believed and felt.
“All these things that had been submerged, they just came out. And it was because of fiction, because it gave you a place of safety. It wasn’t about you, it was about these characters—but it was about you. And at that point I knew I would write the rest of my life, I would write fiction the rest of my life. It was 1985, 33 years old. I never was so egotistical as to think I can make a living doing that.”
Except for 1993’s ‘The Joy Luck Club’ which I consumed—along with the mass audience the film garnered—I knew nothing about Amy Tan. Didn’t even know it was based on a book, possibly didn’t even know the name, ‘Amy Tan,’ was attached to the film. Well… better late than never.
Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir draws viewers into Amy Tan’s worlds, and keeps us thoroughly engaged throughout the film. I will be surprised and very unhappy if the film does not garner many awards and accolades. In any case, as a result of James Redford’s film, I am now aware of Amy Tan, and count myself a member of her international audience of readers and viewers.
Produced by Redford’s long-standing partner Karen Pritzker, Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir will have its World Premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival on Tuesday, February 2, 2021.
Kiss The Ground: Regenerating Earth
“We get the soil right, we can fix a lot of our issues. Healthy soils lead to a healthy plant, healthy plant, healthy animal, healthy human, healthy water, healthy climate.”
Ray Archuleta, Conservation Agronomist
Directed by Joshua Tickell, and Rebecca Harrell Tickell, “Kiss The Ground” is all about soil—not lifeless dirt, but fertile soil. The film’s fundamental premise is that farming with soil creates a cascade of far-reaching environmentally positive results. The film clearly confirms the accuracy of this premise.
The seemingly ubiquitous Woody Harrelson provides heartfelt narration, but it is the many environmental authorities and activists who make the points and the pleas.
I have viewed and reviewed my fair share of environmental documentaries a few of which specifically cover the many values of healthy soil and farming practices. “Kiss The Ground” is the most expertly produced and, especially, the most compelling documentary film on the subject of soil, farming, and their relationships to local and global environmental health I’ve had the pleasure to experience.
At the moment only 5% of farming in the United States is soil-based. Increasing that percentage significantly can obviate the need for farm subsidies, and increase farmers’ and ranchers’ incomes. But, it is the numerous global positive environmental and health impacts of soil-based farming that is the call.
“Kiss The Ground” is a Netflix documentary, but the film will be available on DVD and Blu-ray. I expect an announcement of the disc’s release by the end of January, and will amend this review with that information.
• Closed Captions (CC)
• Arabic
• Chinese (Simplified)
• Chinese (Traditional)
• Czech
• Danish
• Dutch
• English
• Finnish
• French (France)
• German
• Hebrew
• Hungarian
• Japanese
• Korean
• Norwegian
• Polish
• Portuguese, Brazilian
• Portuguese, European
• Romanian
• Spanish, Castilian
• Spanish, Latin America
• Swedish
• Thai
• Turkish
• Vietnamese
D. Schwartz January 13, 2021
Some Kind of Heaven: ‘Cocoon’ Almost Comes True
Lance Oppenheim’s “Some Kind of Heaven” starts out with a ballet of eight golf carts being directed by an elderly woman with a wireless microphone and a loud speaker. Following the ballet is a brief shot of a large rowboat driven by ten elderly rowers with the master rower at the back encouraging his charges, and following that is a very large swimming pool with a water ballet of eight elderly female swimmers also with their own director.
Welcome to Florida’s ‘The Villages’—also known as ‘Disney World for Adults.’ The above activities are just the tip of the very large iceberg of activities for the retirement community’s 130,000 residents. Movies—both documentaries and narratives—take us to places we’ve never seen, or, in this case, never even conceived. For almost all viewers, this is a new place. As I viewed the film I kept wondering: How is such a place managed? However, that question is, understandably, not addressed.
Instead, we spend our movie time going throughout much of The Villages, and spending quality time with four residents: Anne Kincer, husband Reggie Kincer, Barbara Lochiatto, and Dennis Dean. Each has their charms and their life challenges.
The world of The Villages evokes almost immediate socio-politico considerations and criticisms. Yet, being an elder, I had to consider what would it be like to live in this world. Of course, it would not be practical, but, still, I want to interview somebody there about: How do you manage this place?! In any case, Oppenheim and company focus on the personal stories of the above four retirees. My dropped jaw was retired by film’s conclusions.
“Some Kind of Heaven” is distributed by Magnolia Pictures, is currently playing in theaters, and will be available On Demand on January 15.
Playing For Keeps: The Upside of Downtime
“Some of my research has been with hunter/gatherer cultures. Children are free, they’re free to play and explore all the time. The adults believe that’s how they learn what they need to know. Children, all over the world, when they’re free they play at the whole range of activities that human beings have to develop skills at. They play at building things, they play with imagination, at logic, they play at language. Play is how children learn to create their own activities, solve their own problems, make friends. It’s how they learn to live life. Not because anybody’s making them do it, not because anybody’s encouraging them to do it. I’ve become convinced this is just what kids do.
“But, more so today, than in times past, we have to continue learning, our whole life, our world changes, which means we have to keep a flexible brain, we have to keep a brain that’s able to think creatively, think of new things, try new things—do all those that are done in play pretty much our whole lives.”
Peter Gray, Professor of Psychology, Boston College
It is with both sadness and gratitude that I write about one of the two documentary films James Redford directed before his untimely passing, “Playing for Keeps.” Redford passed October 16, 2020. I have had the pleasure of seeing and covering six of his feature documentary films—and to interview him for my book “Telling Their Own Stories: Conversations with Documentary Filmmakers.” He was a beautiful human being, and made countless contributions to our world via his films and his spirit.
And, by the way, he practiced what he preached. James played—including as a member of the band Olive and the Dirty Martinis.
“Playing For Keeps” is about the value, if not the urgency, that us humans incorporate play into our lifestyles. The film features two authorities on play—Peter Gray, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology at Boston College, and Dr. Stuart Brown, Founder of The National Institute for Play.
In the film we hear about and see several adults who have discovered play’s value, and are sharing their work, no, I mean play with the world.
• NBC’s journalist icon Lester Holt found the bass guitar and standup bass, and plays in a band.
• Kara Masciangelo, Information Services Manager, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, found a practically life-saving joy of paddle boarding in the waters of New York, New York.
• Jodi Smith, LCSW, RPT-S, CAAPT-I Canine Therapist, helps people find play through the intrinsic love given us humans by dogs—my favorite form of play.
• Isabella Miller, Program Director at the Berkeley FILM Foundation - a 501(c)(3) that gives financial support to local, independent filmmakers located in San Francisco Bay Area’s East Bay. She enjoys several hobbies, including classic film, writing, historic preservation and swing dancing.
• David Miles, Jr., Founder of Church of 8 Wheels, discovered and then shared the joy of roller skating with his students.
• Caroline’s work and play have merged. She mastered the hula hoop, and has incorporated it into both her play and her work. She teaches the hula hoop, and is working on, or has already received her Doctorate of Philosophy in Psychology at Meridian University. Her dissertation is on ‘Play and its Effects on Burnout and Compassion Fatigue Among Healthcare Professionals.’ A challenging topic at this time.
My main point, though, about “Playing For Keeps” is all the transmissible joy of adult play Redford has captured on his film.
In Case of Emergency: Sixteen Nurses Tell Their Stories “You can’t explain to your kid what it’s like to see somebody die or to see somebody so distressed or in agony. To hold somebody’s hand as their heart stops beating is a very hard thing to explain to anybody else.
“What we have been through has been extremely trying. We have seen so much suffering. We have seen so much death. I know I’ve been very distracted, that’s the easiest way to describe it. Distracted by what we’ve seen throughout the day, and my worry about what the next day is going to bring. How much worse can this get? There has to be better solutions.
“We need a little bit of an arching umbrella to guide us through these terrible, terrible and challenging events. I just think that we have to be open to looking outside of what the structure and the framework has been traditionally in this country. Because, it’s not working. And Covid just amplified where it doesn’t work.” Cathyn Robinson, MSN, RN, St. Joseph’s University Medical Center, Paterson, New Jersey
Carolyn Jones In Case of Emergency about emergency department nurses begins on the front patio of a home in the early morning. Cathlyn Robinson is sitting on the top of the stair case that leads to the sidewalk. She is taking a moment before she leaves to go to the emergency department for the day. She is wiping away tears as she speaks about the impact of the virus on her and hers. But, this film did not start in the Covid disaster—rather, a year ago. Like the whole world, the filmmakers did not know what they were getting into.
In Case of Emergency” features interviews with 16 nurses and 11 other medical personnel. Cathlyn seems to be the central character of the film. She is also a nurse trainer. All of the featured nurses, though, have much to say about their profession, and the nature of our current healthcare system. They speak about the stresses and challenges of their work on our behalf, but their commitment, dedication, and passion stand out and above from those stresses.
The pandemic appears in the film’s last 15 minutes, around May of this year, 2020. The nurses’ demeanor has changed, but not their commitment. As of this typing, the end of December, 2020, there is a surge, upon a surge, upon a surge of the virus. A number of hospitals are on the breaking point. I am grieving for everyone affected including the many who have died. And it is the entire medical staffs that I hold in my heart. My ire at the federal government’s neglect from the start of the pandemic knows no bounds.
In pre-pandemic times I would be encouraging readers to see this lovingly made film. Now, I insist. These nurses deserve all the support, credit, and praise we can muster.
I also draw your attention to the film’s Interviews webpage—see below—where you can see photos of 33 nurses, and hear excerpts of their interviews.
The Judge
Directed by veteran filmmaker Erika Cohn, “The Judge” tells the story of Kholoud Al-Faqih, the first woman judge to be appointed to Middle East’s Shari’a (Islamic law) civil courts. Living and working in Palestine, lawyer Kholoud uses her skills, passion, and heart to break a misogynist glass ceiling.
Cohn brings her camera to Palestine, into the offices, courts, homes, and street scenes of this beleaguered yet vital and progressing country. Kholoud’s presence is tough and confident in deliberating the cases of divorce, abuse, rape, children’s custody, and polygamy—husbands are legally allowed to have up to four wives. She is clearly taking on the inevitable gender controversies associated with a feminist stance, and pays the inevitable price, yet eventually triumphs.
“The Judge” is more than a dramatic story, though. After a very few minutes we are in Palestine, seeing, hearing, living vicariously in this time and place of old and new, of culture clashes, salivating at the foods we see—and almost smell—cooking. Omar Fadel’s music perfectly inhabits Cohn’s film.
This is a film that engages its viewers immediately, and sustains that connection throughout. I will see this film again.
Coda: The film’s website provides a link to the film’s press kit. I encourage viewers to download the press kit and read Erika Cohn’s ‘Director’s Statement.’
The Perfect Weapon: Cyber Warfare Around the World
“It begins to kind of destroy any trust that people have. And that destroys the credibility of democracy. That’s what Putin wants.”
John Podesta—political consultant who served as White House Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton from 1998 to 2001, and Counselor to President Barack Obama from 2014 to 2015
After viewing John Maggio’s "The Perfect Weapon" I gathered my closest two friends together that same day, and watched the film again with them. Our respective jaws were duly dropped. This is the first time I’ve had such a reaction to a documentary film.
The perfect weapon is cyber warfare—something we know about, but which remains far from our daily concerns. Yes, there’s virtually nothing we can do about it, but it is imperative that we understand the scope of cyberwarfare, and learn how it literally effects our minds, beliefs, and lives—leaving us vulnerable to manipulations of our beliefs and behavior by what, in contemporary parlance, are called ‘bad actors.’
Like the development and initial testing of nuclear weapons, the United States of America was first in using cyber technology as an offensive weapon—when President George Bush signed off on the tactical action to hack and sabotage aspects of Iran’s nuclear weapons program. One of the film’s interviewees proclaimed, “They crossed the Rubicon. The United States had basically legitimized the use of cyber as a weapon against another country against whom you had not declared war. It pushed the world into an entirely new territory.”
Iran, of course, quickly joined the cyberwarfare club.
The film’s coverage includes:
* North Korea’s massive cyberattack of SONY in response to the producing of, and attempt to distribute ‘The Interview’ a film mocking the ‘Supreme Leader.’
* The far reaching and very successful, ongoing cyberattacks of Russia’s favorite target, the United States’ political, security systems, and culture. A CNN reporter commented that, “The Russians want everyone in this country to mistrust everything.”
* China, too, has gotten into the hacking game. An interviewee shares that, “They stole the technology of some of the aspects of the US F-35 fighter. That’s the tip of the iceberg. China has attacked Google. They spent a year inside the [US] Office of Personnel Management, the most boring bureaucracy in America. They stole 22 million files of highly classified security clearance applications.”
Some, if not many, security experts are concerned about the rollout of the 5G cellular phone standard. Much of the equipment is being built by Chinese companies in the United States, giving that nation possible universal access to the private, public, and business lives of the world.
Expertly produced, HBO’s "The Perfect Weapon" opens a window of chilling information regarding the birth and growth of cyberwarfare. The film’s soundtrack is haunting, and its elaborate images evoke a complex, highly dangerous, out-of-control cyber world.
I hope that this crucial film will eventually be released on discs and other platforms for non-HBOers.
Belly of the Beast: Forced Sterilization of Women Prisoners in California
At some point in the 1930s, German researchers came to California as part of their research into eugenics. They had learned that the State has the most aggressive program of the forced sterilization of female prisoners in the world, and wanted to learn about and apply California’s methods to their own eugenics program.
Erika Cohn’s "Belly of the Beast" tells the history of this sordid, horrific, institutionalized assault on women’s minds and bodies in California and the nation. The film follows two heroes in the fight to eliminate the forced sterilization of women in California prisons.
At the age of 19 Kelli Dillon was imprisoned 15 years for the ‘crime’ of killing her abusive husband. During her incarceration she was sterilized without her consent, and lost precious opportunities to have children after she completed her time in prison. She has devoted her life to ending the practice of forced sterilization.
Activist attorney Cynthia Chandler filed legal actions on Dillon’s behalf. Chandler is the co-founder of Justice Now which fights to eliminate this practice. In addition to providing coverage of California’s forced sterilization history, the film is a profile of Chandler, and of Dillon.
In the film we learn that California sterilized more than 20,000 women—the government programs targeted women of color, indigenous women, women from Puerto Rico, and Mexican origin women. The program was officially discontinued in 1979, but that did not completely stop the practice. Indeed, Chandler reports that full protections for women prisoners has yet to be in place. The bad guy is the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. By the way, the State of California has the largest female prison—Central California Women’s Facility—in the United States.
The subject of forced sterilization of women in the United States has received little, if any, recent journalistic coverage. A very well produced, emotionally moving film, "Belly of the Beast" is a giant step towards shining a bright light on this dark practice.
I whole-heartedly encourage readers to see this crucial documentary film.
Kimberly Warner
Kimberly Warner is a veteran multi-talented filmmaker from Oregon. Her current project is entitled ‘Unfixed’ which refers to people who have maladies for which there are no cures. By virtue of being unfixed herself, Kimberly is already producing an ‘Unfixed’ podcast, and will be continuing work on a stand-alone documentary film when the pandemic subsides. Being unfixed myself, I became instantly interested in her work.
When did you find yourself working in media?
Media was a path that I hadn’t seen for myself. I grew up in a wellness/medically-based family. My father was a heart surgeon; my mother was a wellness counselor. I did the dutiful daughter thing and followed in their footsteps—read all the self-help books on the bookshelves, and the medical texts that my father would bring home.
I got my BA degree in pre-medicine at Colorado College, and was on-track to go to medical school, but switched over to the naturopathic track. I moved to Portland, Oregon in 2001 to go to the Naturopathic University of Natural Medicine (NUNM. )
I had a nagging feeling at that point that there was another way to heal and inspire and empower that didn’t involve an office and subscription pad. And yet I didn’t have a language for it. I’ve had a creative impulse throughout my life, but it wasn’t something that I pursued actively or thought that I’d have a career in. I ended up ignoring those impulses. It was two and a-half years into my studies at the NUNM before a medical event that was the equivalent of a 2X4 on my head that said, ‘You gotta get out of this and find a different path.’ I didn’t know what I was going to do at that point. I felt as if I was kind of dying following the path that had already been laid out before me. And I floundered for a while.
My husband now—my boyfriend at the time—loaned me his camera and said why don’t you start taking pictures or taking a class at a community college. And I fell in love with photography—composition, color, the ability to tell a story within a single frame—I was just really, really on fire with this new hobby.
It escalated pretty quickly. I ended up winning a major photography contest here in Oregon, and started selling that print to dozens of people within a few months. The photo was of an evocative large surf day out in a little town in Oregon called Depoe Bay. The photo looked like this wave was swelling, taking over the little town. It had sort of a Gregory Crewdson/Edward Hopper kind of feel. I think all of my imagery at the time was leaning towards the storytelling aspect of talking about isolation and loneliness—the human predicament. I noticed early on that my photography wanted to tell stories, and that’s what segued into film—because how do you tell a story better than make a film?
It was a pretty easy leap to take my imagery, and start to imagine those as story boards. That’s exactly what I did for my first short film. I used hundreds of still frames and sequenced them together into what became a storyboard for my first short film. That first film was way more successful than I ever imagined. It screened all over the world. I realized this was something I don’t want to stop doing.
I made a couple more short films, wrote a screenplay for a feature film that never got off the ground. Then I started realizing, ‘oh, there’s a business side to this, it’s not just me getting to play with imagery and story.’ And, of course, once you bring in the business element, things get a little complicated. So, I shifted into some filmmaking that involved brand stories. I worked for organizations—nonprofits as well as large corporations. That became a more viable way to continue this new-found love for film, and also making a living doing it.
Are you still making industrial films?
Not currently. I developed Mal de Débarquement Syndrome or MdDS around five years ago. When that happened I thought I was never going to pick up a camera again.
I was in the midst of a documentary at the time called Music Changes Everything that aimed to develop a deeper understanding of how an intensive discipline in the arts can shape the trajectory of a child’s life, specifically focusing on children living in underserved parts of the city. I was in the middle of that when the MdDS symptoms started. I really thought that my career in filmmaking was over.
After I got my feet underneath me, learning to live with this wobbly sensation that MdDS causes, I did do a ten-episode series for a local organization here that empowers people to do urban gardening. That felt like getting my feet wet again in the industry. I thought it was easy because it was on my own timeline. I was shooting, editing, doing sound. I wasn’t managing larger groups of people.
I do feel like that will come back into my life more and more, but I definitely have had to adapt. Before the MdDS I had a 40-person film crew working 18 hours a day. I am not capable of doing that again. I know that for sure.
Tell me more about MdDS.
It’s a rare condition, not a lot is known about it, but there are thousands of people around the world afflicted with it. Many people get it after a long period of travel. You’ve experienced sea-legs before, like when you get off a boat, and you feel for a while that the ground is moving underneath your feet. That is exactly the sensation, except it doesn’t go away. It’s like the brain adapts in an unusual way. I wasn’t in a prolonged period of travel before mine came on. About 30% of us haven’t been traveling before the onset. I’m in what’s called the ‘spontaneous’ MdDS category, rather than the ‘motion-triggered’ category.
What’s this like?!
Like a large wave underneath your feet, or the floor drops out as I’m walking. Sometimes it feels like you’re on a trampoline, or you’re walking in a bouncy castle. Sitting still or standing still are the absolutely the hardest. I’ve experienced this since March of 2015.
When did you find and use the word, ‘unfixed?’
I was on a pretty strong medical path most of my life. When MdDS started I was on a fix-it plan. I was obsessed with figuring out what was wrong with me and how to cure it— but I was seeing many doctors who shrugged their shoulders and said, ‘I don’t know what’s going on,’ or treated it through their specialty. So, after pursuing many thousands and thousands of dollars of fix-it plans for two years, I had to start looking at what it would be like if I lived with this forever.
In western culture, illness has long been treated, understandably, as an enemy to vanquish. Diseases are a problem to be fixed. This language pervades our health communication strategies. As a result, our culture is obsessed with fixer-upper stories, miracle cures, and pill-popping solutions. Our movies are animated by these stories, our TV medical shows dubbed, tongue-in-cheek, ‘disease of the week,’ and ‘Chasing the Cure.’ For many Americans, though, including myself, our illnesses cannot be wished away. We cannot change the channel. We are, as I say, ‘unfixed.’
‘Unfixed’ felt like a term that could potentially embody a wider spectrum of what it’s like to walk this world in a body that is uncomfortable and challenging, but also full of possibility and purpose. I didn’t have a lot of models or mentors for how to do this. I was tired of trying to find doctors and trying to find solutions. And, by all means this is not me saying I will not try treatments. I am always trying to find something, but my identity isn’t wrapped up in it any more. My sense of purpose isn’t wrapped up in it anymore. I feel a sense of self-worth that can include living in a messy, unpredictable body.
I decided I needed to find people that could teach me these things. Certainly my self-help background wasn’t going to be the place that I could look. So, I turned to people with chronic illness and chronic conditions. I realized that they have something to teach me, to teach the world. I decided to turn my camera on them. And that is how the documentary has started.
It started as the idea of a single film?
Yes. Working with my co-producer/editor Mia Allen, it started as a single film. I interviewed about 50 people. What I didn’t realize was that after these hour-long conversations with human beings who were contending with their own adversity in unique and powerful ways, was that I would fall in love with every single one of them.
In the beginning I saw it as a casting process, but I quickly realized they all had something to teach. I thought obviously I can’t make a film about 50 people, but I can start a video series that includes more of their voices, and then condense that down into maybe three or four subjects that we decide to film in the documentary.
After the interview process I realized I needed to expand my idea of how I wanted to share these stories. And that’s how the Unfixed Community YouTube Channel started. Every month I send them a question, and within a 21 day window, they turn on their smartphones and provide a five to seven minute video and send that back to me. Myself and my editor put those together into short, cohesive videos that discuss unique topics within the chronic conditions community. Their honest, unpolished moments are at the heart of the unfixed state – the highs, the lows and everything in between.
This video-series developed an audience that I never really expected, and now you can see them on Amazon’s The Disorder Channel. I hope we can continue these conversations. We planned to do 12 months all together. We have three months left, so I hope we can continue that. It’s been a great way to film and gather stories during the pandemic, because all of it is in the privacy of their own homes.
This has segued very naturally into a joint venture podcast—a collaboration between myself and Martel Catalano, the executive director of a non-profit called ‘Beyond My Battle,’ whose mission is reducing the stress of serious illness, rare disease, and disability through emotional support and educational resources rooted in mindfulness, awareness, and compassion. Martel and I are very aligned in our vision of wanting to find ways to help people thrive within their conditions, instead of getting into the Chinese finger-trap of trying to find a cure.
There’s a sense of while you are still pursuing the idealism of finding a cure, there needs to be tools, techniques, and sharing that involves acceptance and allowing relaxation around the conditions we have, so that we can mine the gems that are within the hardship.
We decided to turn Martel’s ‘Beyond My Battle’ podcast into the Unfixed podcast. I’m now producing the first season of episodes. Each episode has two guests who will be sharing conversations around a specific topic. One person has a chronic health condition. The other is a professional working within a relevant field or facing their own, unique battle. Each episode is an invitation to lean into curiosity, compassion, and empathy, while recognizing that we can all live powerful lives despite – or because of – our challenges.
Our ultimate goal with the podcasts is to open it up outside of the chronic illness community, and discuss all different types of adversity. In the chronic conditions community we are often only talking to each other. Our goal for this podcast is to open up that conversation so that we can recognize our shared humanity, no matter the circumstance.
I started this whole Unfixed project as a search for understanding. It was a way to learn to thrive with my own chronic condition. As I came to know these inspiring, brave and creative unfixed humans, it’s clear that Unfixed is so much more than my own discovery — it’s a shared experience. Together, we are learning to find joy, happiness and fulfillment under any circumstance and under any condition — even during a global pandemic.
As we mine the resources within ourselves, gleaning insight from our adversity, it is becoming more and more clear that this segment of the population — those living with chronic conditions — may have a heightened version of uncertainty in their lives. But at the end of the day, every human on this planet is unfixed. Adversity is inescapable. We all can learn from the lives of those who are unable to escape pain and difficulty, who live with it every moment of every day, and are using the pressure of their lives to transform themselves into more virtuous, kind, resilient and compassionate human beings.
What about the eventuality of a stand-alone ‘Unfixed’ documentary?
The feature documentary is the MAIN idea – the original motivation and mission behind the entire Unfixed project. But, because of the pandemic and then funding issues, I’ve had to adapt, it’s all on pause. We already shot about 1/5 of the documentary pre-pandemic.
Once principal photography is up and running again we project 16 more days of filming. Due to the medical needs of certain subjects, we will be unable at times to film full, eight hour days. Post-production is projected to take 28 weeks and distribution another 16 weeks.
Due to the uncertainty of the pandemic, we are unable to give updated definitive dates. Prior to the pandemic we were on schedule to finish principal photography by the end of October 2020 with two more months of b-roll and pick-up shots and post-production beginning January 2021. Obviously this timeline has shifted. Best case scenario we will be twelve to twenty-four months behind the original schedule, but due to the fragile nature of our subjects, our first priority is to ensure their safety. We will not begin filming on location again until it is safe to do so.
Overall, what’s been the response to the Unfixed project?
It’s been overwhelmingly positive. Ten months into production, we’ve been featured in national publications and podcasts. The video-series has won the Invisible Disabilities Association’s Media Impact Award. We filmed three subjects on location prior to the pandemic and are now on pause until it’s safe to resume. We’re actively looking for an executive producer, investors, charitable donations, a post-production team and mentors.
Thank you, Kimberly! I look forward to staying in touch with your work. Perhaps I’ll be in a podcast one of these days.
Coded Bias: Artificial Intelligence on the Loose Joy Buolamwini, a PhD candidate at MIT Media Lab at the time, created an ‘artificial intelligence’ (AI) app called ‘Aspire Mirror’ which functions like a mirror.
She would look in the ‘mirror’ and view inspiring images projected on her face. She noted immediately that when she put on a white mask it would be detected by the app. However, when she used her own African American face, the image would not be detected. This discovery put Buolamwini on a path of activism devoting herself to the worldwide adverse impacts of built-in bias in ubiquitous computer algorithms.
Two examples of algorithmic failure are: Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak discovered that he automatically received 10 times the credit limit that his wife received despite the fact that they share bank accounts, credit accounts, and assets. A much more dangerous failure occurred when, in 1983, a Soviet algorithm almost brought about a global nuclear catastrophe.
Shalini Kantayya’s Coded Bias is an exploration of the impacts of bias in computer algorithms—also called ‘data centric technology’ or ‘algorithmic determinism.’ Buolamwini is the star of this show. She appears throughout the film telling her story along with a host of experts about the destructive impacts of AI bias.
One of those impacts is ‘Risk assessment,’ a major category of algorithms designed to make decisions regarding college admissions, credit and loan applications, job applications/hiring, and criminal sentencing, recidivism, parole, and probation decisions. Lives can be shattered by faulty or biased algorithms. The film also addresses the dangerous use of facial recognition algorithms which sabotage civil rights.
A Rhodes Scholar and Fulbright Fellow, Buolamwini has addressed Congress, founded the Algorithmic Justice League, and created a personal website called: Poet of Code. She has been on several notable lists, and Fortune magazine named her “the conscience of the AI revolution.”
Coded Bias is a finely crafted documentary that exposes the damage done by biased computer algorithms to the fabric of global society, and points to crucial efforts to bring about social justice by removing built-in algorithmic bias.
Operation Odessa In 1997, a federal task force uncovered a plot to sell a Soviet military-style submarine to a Columbian drug cartel for $35 million.
In the style of a fast-paced 1980s caper movie, director Tiller Russell tells the story of how a few gangsters almost got away with this caper. Tiller juxtaposes interviews of the perpetrators with those of former governmental agents.
Russian immigrant Ludwig Fainberg, a.k.a. Tarzan, got his first job in America as an enforcer for the Gambino crime family. He didn’t stay long. He headed right to his beloved Miami, Florida. “Miami is a place where I would love to live,” he pronounced, “and where I would love to die.” Tarzan opened up a strip club called ‘Porky’s’—yes, from the film of the same name.
He hired ‘Fat Tony’ Galeota as Porky’s manager. The club was very successful. Russian mobsters learned about their comrade’s successful venture, and adopted the club as a virtual office. Galeota’s wife Kristy comments “Porky’s was definitely a place you could get killed.”
Like a pack of arctic wolves hunting for muskoxen, agents of the United States government went after this fresh meat. A multiagency task force was organized under the title 'Operation Odessa.'
Meanwhile, this small loosely organized underworld of trafficking in drugs, arms, cars, boats, planes, and Russian helicopters was flourishing—and expanded mightily when the Soviet Union collapsed. After so many deals of big ticket items, times became even more exciting when the boys got in bed with Pablo Escobar and the Medellin cartel. Then, on March 17, 1995, after Tarzan’s meeting with his (undercover) peer, he announced to one of his comrades a plan to purchase a Russian military sub and sell it to Columbian traffickers—and the rest is history which you may now watch.
"Operation Odessa" is a slick, fascinating, jaw-dropping romp through a criminal world that seemingly knows no bounds. The twists and turns in this film make it one of the more memorable documentaries I’ve seen.
Unless I missed it, I am very surprised a narrative film hasn’t been produced about this small group of bigtime criminals and their outrageous endeavors. In the meantime, though, we have this perfectly produced captivating documentary on Netflix.
Coda: I am also surprised that such a well-produced documentary has had little to no social media profile—including the lack of a website for the film. In any case, that potential train has left the station, and we are left with Netflix. That is all well and good, but there is a larger audience for this film. My hope is that once Netflix lets it go, folks will be able to secure the film in one form or another.
Enemies of the State "The truth is rarely pure and never simple."
Oscar Wilde
I am as fascinated with the making of Sonia Kennebeck’s documentary "Enemies of the State" as I am of the story she’s told.
The film’s three primary characters are parents Leann DeHart, Paul DeHart, and their son Matt. Leann and Paul were red–white-and-blue American patriots. They both worked in intelligence. Matt served in the Air National Guard, and received an Honorable Discharge.
The Hitch: Matt was a member of Anonymous, the international activist/hacktivist collective, and he was alleged to be a Wikileaks courier.
The story’s inciting incident occurred on January 25, 2010, when the DeHart’s home was raided by law enforcement officers who seized all electronics. The warrant alleged Matt DeHart solicited child pornography from two boys he met online. Matt adamantly denied those charges claiming the government’s real intention was to secure evidence of Matt’s espionage activities which he also denied. Matt claims he was drugged and tortured for days by officials of the United States government.
The raid set the family of three on a very unhappy odyssey. Matt went off on his own. On April 3, 2013, the family left their home, and went to Canada seeking political asylum. The film follows a dizzying amount of moves and counter moves by the family, and by the US government.
Some scenes include actors portraying characters from the real life drama. A variety of interviewees present their understanding and thoughts about what happened to Matt. Some are supportive of Matt’s claims, some are not, and some are befuddled.
"Enemies of the State" is an elaborately produced documentary film people will be talking about.
Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds
Directed by Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer, “Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds” is seemingly all about rocks and dust that arrive from outer space—meteors, meteorites, micrometeorites, and asteroids. But, that is just the tip of the iceberg. The film addresses the human impacts of all these rocks settling down to Earth—from teeny tiny specks smaller than fleas to asteroid planet killers, and everything in-between.
Herzog wrote the film, provided his patented narration, and cinematography. Oppenheimer, a Professor of Volcanology at the University of Cambridge, is the host, interviewing a wide range of people. The film takes us around the world to Mexico, Australia, France, Maui, Hawaii, India, Russia, Antarctica, Mecca, Saudi Arabia, and a set of islands between Australia and New Guinea.
Although there are interviewees who speak about the science of stones from outer space, the film focuses on the stones’ impacts on religion, culture, history, myths, and legends. The common denominator of the interviewees is the joy, passion, and awe they express about their work.
Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno is emblematic of this spirit. He was a scientist before entering the Church, and now works at the Park of Castel Gandolfo, the summer residence of the Pope, as a ‘planetary scientist’, and directs the facility including its observatory. Seeing no contradictions, Brother Guy exuberantly celebrates both science and his chosen religion. Listening to him made me want to drop everything and become a planetary scientist, too.
“Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds” deserves any and all the awards and accolades it receives. It is instantly engaging and does not let go. On top of all the information the film provides, we view a cornucopia of fascinating images, and hear gorgeous original music by Ernst Reijseger. The film leaves viewers with much to ponder about our very existence and beingness on planet Earth.
Enemies of the State
The truth is rarely pure and never simple.
Oscar Wilde
I am as fascinated with the making of Sonia Kennebeck’s “Enemies of the State” as I am of the story she’s told.
The film’s three primary characters are parents Leann DeHart, Paul DeHart, and their son Matt. Leann and Paul were red–white-and-blue American patriots. They both worked in intelligence. Matt served in the Air National Guard, and received an Honorable Discharge. He was a member of Anonymous, the international activist/hacktivist collective, and he was alleged to be a Wikileaks courier.
The story’s inciting incident occurred on January 25, 2010 when the DeHart’s home was raided by law enforcement officers who seized all electronics. The warrant alleged Matt DeHart solicited child pornography from two boys he met online. Matt adamantly denied those charges claiming the government’s real intention was to secure evidence of Matt’s espionage activities which he also denied. Matt claims he was drugged and tortured for days by officials of the United States government.
The raid set the family of three on a very unhappy odyssey. Matt went off on his own. On April 3, 2013, the family left their home, and went to Canada seeking political asylum. The film follows a dizzying amount of moves and counter moves by the family, and by the government.
Some scenes include actors portraying characters from the real life drama. A variety of interviewees present their understanding and thoughts about what happened to Matt. Some are supportive of Matt’s claims, some are not, and some are befuddled.
“Enemies of the State” is an elaborately produced documentary film people will be talking about.
Picture of His Life
Written, produced, and directed by Dani Menkin andYonatan Nir, “Picture of His Life” profiles iconic—and very courageous—underwater photographer Amos Nachoum. The aging photographer has at least one more goal to fulfill—to be the first underwater photographer of polar bears.
The film includes interviews of several iconic ocean lovers including Dr. Sylvia Earle and Jean Michel Cousteau, as well as comments by his sisters and his father who suffered from war-based PTSD, and was abusive to his son throughout his life. We also hear from his two sisters Michal Gilboa and Ilana Malchoum speaking about Amos’ life.
Of course, there are stunning still photographs and cinematic shots throughout the film. And, yes, Amos Nachoum did take photographs of polar bears under the water. His first attempt failed on account of a very annoyed male polar bear. Yet this was actually a positive outcome on account of his team’s discovery of a female polar bear with her two cubs swimming in the water. The team followed the three bears onto rugged land.
The film has received at least several film festival awards, and strong reviews from CNN, San Francisco Chronicle, and The Hollywood Reporter.
“Picture of His Life” is a beautiful film, about a beautiful man, and our beautiful, yet highly endangered natural world. I fully recommend it to everyone. See the film’s website to find the film.
Day One
There are 22.5 million refugees worldwide, over half of which are under the age of 18.
From the Filmmaker: “Day One” follows a group of teens from war zones in the Middle East and Africa, as they are resettled in St. Louis, Missouri, and enrolled at a unique public school for refugees-only. Traumatized upon their arrival—having survived war and years in refugee camps—the kids are guided through an incredible program of healing, PTSD intervention, education and adjustment by the school's passionate and talented educators, some of whom have chosen to live with their families in the inner-city in order to be closer to their students.
Our featured teens come from Somalia, Afghanistan, the Congo, Iraq, and Syria. Some have lost one or both parents, have been unable to attend school for years on end, and have suffered war traumas. These students and their families are faced with economic, language, psychological and cultural challenges, sometimes dangerous living conditions, and the U.S.'s turbulent anti-immigrant political climate. Filmed over the course of a year, we watch the kids progress through their layers of grief and loss as they attend school, forge new friendships, and prepare to be mainstreamed into "regular" public high-school with the support and mentorship of their unbelievably compassionate teachers and advocates. Their triumphs and tribulations all unfold with St. Louis as the backdrop: a rust-belt city in decline in the heart of ‘red’ America that has taken the bold step of welcoming immigrants as a solution for their growing socio-economic problems.
—Lori Miller
Nahed Chapman New American Academy is a two-year transitional K-10 public school. The school’s name is in honor of its beloved founder, Nahed Chapman, an Egyptian immigrant. She died prematurely in 2013. Students who complete the program have automatic acceptance to one of several high schools in the St. Louis area. Since the 1990s, St. Louis, Missouri, has resettled thousands of Bosnian, Vietnamese, African, Asian, and Middle Eastern refugees. There are 56 languages represented by these refugee immigrants. Ironically, rather than taking jobs away from St. Louis citizens, it was discovered that this educational program benefits the local economy.
“Day One” was filmed during a one-year period of time. Donnie Harris was the Principal. Seeing her commitment and dedication to this very challenging job, and how much she was beloved by her students and staff, it seems Harris stepped fully into her predecessor’s shoes.
Two very big events happened during the year of filming: The Trump administration’s implementation of a policy to severely limit the acceptance of middle eastern people into the United States, and Donnie Harris’s announcement that she was moving on in her life. Prior to Trump’s restrictive policy, the United States accepted 150,000 refugees annually. The figure is now 15,000.
All of the above sets the setting of this story of suffering yet grateful children finding a new life, affording them new opportunities. We hear and learn from both the school’s children and the staff. We empathize with the children as they deal with challenges of language, culture, trauma—and hope and success. Of necessity, the students live in an economically challenged area. A measure of the staff’s commitment to these children is the above-mentioned choice of some staff members to relocate their families to this impoverished area with its inevitable inner-city violence.
Kudos to filmmaker Lori Miller on directing her first feature documentary film. “Day One” is a well produced, thoroughly engaging and inspiring film that highlights the very best of humanity.
The Reunited States
“The greatest good we can do our country is to heal its party divisions and make them one people.” Thomas Jefferson
Ben Rekhi’s “The Reunited States” is a very well-produced powerful film covering the political and racial divides that are damaging the very fabric of the United States. The documentary is inspired by Mark Gerzon’sThe Reunited States of America: How to Bridge the Partisan Divide. Gerzon is also one of the film’s interviewees.
The film is a revelation to yours truly. It opens doors on a world of people and organizations who are dedicated to mending our divide. I had no knowledge that there was such a movement.
Rekhi lets the interviewees tell their stories.
David Leaverton was a Republican strategist living an upper-middle class lifestyle in Texas, with his wife Erin and their three beautiful children. Responding to the nation’s polarized politics and culture, David and Erin pulled up roots, bought an RV, and travelled through all fifty states, talking to people, getting to know about their lives and concerns. The family ended up putting down roots in Charlottesville, Virginia. Along the way Erin founded an organization called Undivided Nation.
Susan Bro’s daughter Heather D. Heyer, a young woman with a big heart and a passion for equality for all individuals regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, gender identity or preference, lost her life August 12, 2017 when a car plowed into a crowd of counter-demonstrators who were protesting a rally of neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan members and other white nationalists. Susan founded the Heather Heyer Foundation to address the national culture of division.
Steven Olikara was concerned about the lack of younger people in the halls of power at all levels of government. He created a caucus of young members of Congress, and The Millennial Action Project to spur bipartisan legislation.
We also follow Greg Orman in his campaign for Governorship of Kansas as an Independent. He expresses a great passion for breaking the binds of the two party system. Orman is a Board member of Unite America
At film’s conclusion we are treated with a montage of images of even more people all of whom are working passionately to end our divide with their own actions and organizations.
The Reunited States is an emotionally powerful film that challenges Americans to directly confront our broken status quo in the spirit of making a more perfect Union.
Interview
I was so struck by Ben Rekhi’s documentary that I wanted to learn what brought him to the challenging subject of this film.
What inspired you to film the documentary in the first place?
Honestly, it was after the 2016 election that I wanted to move into non-fiction. It was a way to not only process the new reality that we were in, but I saw it as a means to give others hope in a turbulent time.
'The Reunited States' was inspired by a talk I saw Susan Bro give in DC, where she talked about the need for difficult conversations to move past our divisions. Susan is the mother of Heather Heyer who was killed during the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. I was struck that if she who had suffered such a unimaginable tragedy could talk about reconciliation, then what were the rest of us doing? It was a huge wake-up call, so I approached her after the speech and asked her if I could follow her story.
Looking back, it was crazy to think that we could actually make a film about the most pressing issue of our time – our political divisions – and challenge the fundamental assumptions about where they come from. Thank God I didn’t know how hard it would be because I might never have started!
Why do you think it's relevant / important right now?
The core idea of the film is that polarization is not only an external problem – it’s an internal one as well that we are all responsible for. It’s been a turbulent several years, exciting for some and terrifying for others, but whether we’re on the left or the right, we all play a role in the divisions in this country. The film is about transformation and self-reflection, looking in the mirror and asking ourselves am I part of the problem? Or part of the solution? Honestly, it’s not something that is easy to articulate because we are all so passionate and partisan these days. But if it’s us vs. them, right vs. wrong, good vs evil, we will all lose in the long run. Life is not black and white. My biggest hope with the film is that it challenges us to look at ourselves and the world around us through a new lens. There’s a lot we need to discuss, but we can’t even begin to talk until we learn to listen again.
What do you hope to achieve?
I hope that The Reunited States does play broad and wide, as there’s something for everyone. I think it speaks to our times like nothing else I’ve done before. With all this division, all this despair, all this anxiety that we are all going through, my greatest desire is that the film can give people some hope when it is so badly needed. That it can inspire people and remind us that things will get better, and that we all have a role to play in building a healthier democracy. Because right now, we need all the hope we can get.
MEGAFIRES: Investigating a Global Threat
“We have very large airplanes, very large helicopters, lots of equipment on the ground, lots of people, fire engines—all of that, and there is no trend that we can see that indicates that we will ever be able to control extreme wildfires.”
Jack Cohen, Research Physical Scientist, (Retired)
Missoula Fire Sciences Laboratory, US
Cosima Dannoritzer’s “MEGAFIRES” is about forest fires that are out of control—aka wildfires—burning massive amounts of land, destroying homes and structures, killing and injuring wildlife and humans. Us west-coasters have had our fair share of them of late. Megafires, however, don’t play favorites. They are destroying around the world. America’s blinder-filled news media rarely report fires outside of the country’s borders.
“MEGAFIRES” takes viewers around the world providing horrific visions and stories of uncontrolled fires, and speaking with those who are battling against these fires, and those doing research to end this global nightmare.
The powers that be in the United States already know how to prevent megafires, but, like global warming, there is miniscule political will to take effective action. In any case, as Smokey the Bear says, us humans are directly responsible for these fires, and, of course, it is up to us to prevent them—through political actions. One interviewee comments, “We have about 20 years to get the needed work done.”
Learning about the factors feeding the emergence of megafires, it seems the most crucial two are lack of proper forestry management and, of course, global warming. The film provides firm evidence of why and how warming is contributing to megafires.
But, hope springs eternal. “MEGAFIRES” can open up eyes, ears, and minds. It is another very well-produced environmental documentary that deserves a global audience.
The Phenomenon: Making the Incredible Credible Preface: epistemology—the theory of knowledge, especially with regard to its methods, validity, and scope. Epistemology is the investigation of what distinguishes justified belief from opinion.
I have seen my fair share of documentaries about UFOs/aliens. Read a couple books, too, and watched a few seasons of ‘Ancient Aliens.’ I’ve never seen either a UFO nor an alien, yet I have no doubt that they both exist, and that they have been hanging around Earth since before we littered it. My conviction is based on evidence—that’s my ‘method’. Epistemologically, from an absolute perspective, I would need to have in-person contact in order to say that these folks and their vehicles exist.
James Fox’s “The Phenomenon” is another bit of evidence in support of my belief. Of all the movies and shows I’ve seen, this film is the most powerful, the most compelling, the most provocative. It is expertly produced, and features a seeming cornucopia of very high profiled witnesses who share their thoughts and experiences. I was stunned by film’s end despite having already seen and read so much information about UFOs. The film has the perfect narrator: Peter Coyote.
Some people are non-believers, some are believers, and some open to the possibility that extraterrestrials exists. All should see “The Phenomenon”.
Here is an incomplete list of names featured in the film:
Senator Harry Reid
President Bill Clinton
President Gerald Ford
John Podesta, White House Chief of Staff for Bill Clinton and advisor to Barack Obama
Bill Richardson, Former Governor of New Mexico
Christopher Mellon, Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence
Fife Symington, Former Governor of Arizona
Dr. John Mack
George Knapp, Investigative Journalist
Dr. Garry Nolan, Rachford and Carlota A. Harris Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Stanford University School of Medicine
Dr. Jacques Vallee, who was portrayed by Francois Truffaut in Steven Spielberg’s ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind’
NASA Astronauts and more ___________________________
Coda: For the non-believers, below is an essay which provides the aforementioned evidence regarding my becoming a true believer:
Extraterrestrial Intelligence
“A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.”
Paul Simon
“It is hard to fill a cup that is already full.”
Moat
“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
The Guy Who Wrote Shakespeare’s Plays
It began at grocery store checkout stands—magazine racks displaying the latest copy of The Inquirer. Occasionally there would be a front page photo of an alien accompanied by some outrageous headline. After so many exposures to tabloid stories and photos it became obvious aliens have really broken bad. They have an unquenchable anal fetish. Of all the possible things ‘in Heaven and Earth’ they would want from us humans! Probing our butts?!
I paid no attention. The existence of alien life and intelligence could not be proved or disproved. Unless one has a direct experience, it’s just someone’s story or evidence. In our cyber era that idea is more pertinent being that we can create all sorts of evidence. I ignored anything and everything about extraterrestrial intelligence. I was, and still am, struggling to find my own.
Then, a few things happened.
First, the repetition of stories of that ilk from various other sources. Movie movies—E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
A television movie, Roswell, staring Dwight Yoakam, Martin Sheen, Kyle MacLachlan, and Xander Berkeley.
I began to take more seriously the metaphor of the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey as a symbol which intimates alien interventions in our evolution—that is, they contributed to our DNA. We have met the aliens, and they are us.
I saw Fire in the Sky, a movie based upon a 1975 experience in Arizona. The experiencer, Travis Walton, had his Fifteen Minutes of Fame by sharing his story in his book of the same name. The controversy surrounding the event was not so much the event itself as it was the taking of lie detector tests by several witnesses. Most of them passed the test two consecutive times. The probability of that result—if the participants were lying—is less than miniscule.
Two students in my graduate program spoke of their experiences. I knew both, and found them to be serious, reliable sources of information. These were particularly sobering conversations.
Around 1980, I learned that the then governor of New Mexico had filed an FOI request with the United States government for information related to the 1947 ‘Roswell Incident.’ Anyone could request a complimentary copy of the material subsequently shared by our government with the Governor’s office. I requested, and six months later received a thick 9X12 manila envelope. I went through the dozens or more pages of this report. A large number of the paragraphs were redacted. Why?
I watched Sightings, a television series about metaphysical phenomena including aliens and UFOs which was on the air during the years 1992-1997. Henry Winkler—Fonzie from ‘Happy Days’—was one of the show’s producers. What stood out was the large number of distinguished military and law enforcement officials who shared experiences of UFOs.
I watched three seasons of The History Channel’s series, Ancient Aliens. These programs include lots of cheesy stories and ideas—but they also feature utterly mystifying evidence that point to alien interventions in our past.
In the mid-1980s I met a DJ from a major FM pop station at a party. As we spoke I learned he had been an air traffic controller early in his career. He told a supervisor he saw a UFO one time, and was told there would be serious repercussions for him if he were to go public with his experience.
I read two books—Abduction and Passport to the Cosmos—by the late John Mack, M.D., a Harvard psychiatrist who found himself treating people suffering from PTSD who vividly recounted alien abductions. Predictably, the Harvard establishment attempted to have Mack kicked out. They failed.
Mack died tragically and ironically while attending a London conference on the after-death state. Taking field research to the extreme, he was hit by a drunk driver.
Crop Circles: Over the decades I’ve heard about circles with simple or elaborate designs appearing—many overnight—on Earth. These are epistemologically challenging phenomena. With our Internet, and especially, Facebook, I have been able to keep up with the appearance of new circles. Perhaps it is a limit of my imagination, but I simply cannot conceive how—with the more elaborate designs—a group of humans can create these designs in the dead of one night. If humans do such, why hasn’t the complete act of creation been video recorded?
Where is the ‘win’ in believing or disbelieving in extraterrestrial intelligence? Your choice is nothing more or less than an aspect of your identity, your character. Some on both sides of the question benefit by advancing their respective positions publicly. Some pay a price for doing so.
If and when there is mass experience of alien intelligence and/or governments of powerful nations acknowledge such intelligence, the identity of our entire species, our world view, will be threatened and altered—to make an understatement. This time period would be called “AD’—‘After Disclosure’, and there are those who believe we already live in humanity’s AD.
BTW: It’s utterly obvious to me that they were here before we were.
D. Schwartz October 10, 2020
David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet
I rarely cover Netflix documentaries because,… well, they’re Netflix, and the streamer gives documentary films much-needed exposure. But, I do watch their documentary films, and this one, “David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet” is one of those films that should be seen by the whole world.
Attenborough is 93 years of age. He has had a magnificent and storied career covering the natural world. I’ve seen most, if not all, of his films. As a matter of course I watched this one, and it left me stunned.
In his introduction Attenborough says, “The natural world is fading. The evidence is all around. It’s happened in my lifetime. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. This film is my witness statement and a vision for the future.”
He then covers human being’s many ways in which we have damaged our natural world, and the inevitable results of our careless behavior. Sir David Attenborough is telling it like it is like he’s never done before.
The film takes us on Attenborough’s personal journey through the decades of his coverage of the natural world, and concurrently down the unhappy road of the inevitable loss perpetuated by us humans. As with all of his films, we are treated to exquisite images of the natural world, reminding us what a healthy natural world can be, and can do for us human animals and our home. He concludes the film by pointing out what we can reasonably do right now to stem the tide of destruction, and to revive our natural world.
“David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet” is directed by Alastair Fothergill, Jonathan Hughes, and Keith Scholey, and is produced by Silverback Films and the WWF. It is a documentary everyone must see. The film’s website provides suggestions on how you can help that happen.
[Note: As of October 10, 2020, the film has an IMDB rating of 9.2 by 5,204 raters.]
D. Schwartz October 10, 2020
Untouchable: Sex Offenders, the Law, and the Truth Preface: I was about ten years of age, living with my parents and older brother in a middle-class neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale. I came upon something in the home that I never saw before—a magazine for teenagers. I was making a very cursory thumbing of pages when I was caught by an article about something bad that happened on a date. It was, of course, about a date-rape, but that term was not in use at the time. When I finished the short piece I found myself feeling anger for the very first time in my short life. I was burning with internal rage that any man would do such a thing to any woman.
Directed by David Feige and produced by Rebecca Richman Cohen, “Untouchable” is an examination of America’s approach to sexual crime. Their film features interviews of victims of sex crimes, perpetrators of same, and various authorities speaking of the injustice handed out to perpetrators.
The film opens with Ron Book, a high-profile political power broker living in south Florida. He is expressing his concern about sex offenders—throughout the film. I am simpatico with his deeply felt sentiments which amount to ‘lock ‘em up and throw away the key.’ I understand, of course. I had similar feelings much of my life.
His daughter, Lauren, was horribly abused by her nanny for six years. She very bravely tells her story throughout the film. We see her evolve throughout the film, and by film's end learn that she has created a national profile for herself in support of the safety and security of children. She is somewhat reticent to confess, however, that she’s not quite the staunch advocate of punitive justice her father is. Instead, she focuses on safety for children.
The title "Untouchable" refers to two things: the people who commit sexual crimes, and the draconian laws and regulations that govern how justice is applied to the offenders. Immediately, cognitive dissonance ensues. As several interviewees share their knowledge about our justice system’s current status with respect to sex offenders, we learn that there is much need to reform the system of justice as applied to the offenders.
Nancy Gertner, a retired federal judge, points out that there are virtually no distinctions regarding the nature sex crimes. She notes that, “For judges that have any discretion at all, there’s no question that if you exercise that discretion because you see distinctions in the group of sex offenders, the reaction would be extraordinary. So, you err on the side of punishment, and that’s what we’ve all be doing for 20 or 30 years now. So, we’ve simply created a punishment machine, an endless punishment machine.”
Val Jonas, civil rights attorney notes that, “There is a huge disparity between the public’s perception of sex offenders and the truth, the empirical scientific actuarial truth behind sex offenders.” The empirical truth to which she is referring is that the American public believe that the recidivism rate for first offenders is 80%. The empirical rate is about 3.5%.
Finally, as state and federal laws have evolved, first offenders released from prison find themselves and their lives severely restricted by about 200 requirements for their lifetime. One released offender living an otherwise conscientious life found himself a victim of a late bus arrival. He was eight minutes late for home, back in prison for four more years. That practice is common and frequent.
“Untouchable” is available now for home video streaming iTunes, Amazon, and Google Play. Institutional streaming available on Kanopy. It is also available for institutional purchase or public screenings.
I still rage at misogyny. I’ve simply added mean-spirited and destructive behaviors by humans on humans and on our natural world.
Coda: I encourage readers to learn about a movement called ‘restorative justice’.
D. Schwartz October 7, 2020
Fly Like a Girl: Women in the Air and Beyond Yours truly flew Cessna 150s and 172s out of Atlanta’s Fulton County Airport for four years in the1960s. So, naturally, I must cover this much-needed documentary about women in aeronautics and space.
It was well worth it.
Katie McEntire Wiatt’s "Fly Like a Girl” opens with Afton Kinkade, a girl about 13 years of age, feeding and caring for her beloved chickens, and speaking about the three things she loves—the aforementioned chickens, Legos, and flying.
Kinkade is one of 13 women in the film speaking about their lives, challenges, hopes, and aspirations in aviation and space flight. Naturally, the women refer to the biases that have been keeping them away from aviation for generations. Yet, the film also mentions a few women from the earliest days who were aviation pioneers. It seems that when the planes got bigger, the women got elbowed out of the aviation world. The men wanted their glory, power, prestige, and, of course, money.
All 13 of Wiatt’s interviewees provide compelling stories about their lives as aviators and astronauts, and we get a few tastes of the iconic aerobatics competitor Patty Wagstaff twisting her plane in the air. The women’s message now is ‘we are here, and our numbers are growing. Women in Aviation and the International Society of Women Airline Pilots provide institutional support in championing the many roles women can, do, and should play in aviation and space flight. Women in Aviation also includes an annual ‘Girls in Aviation Day’ for girls 8 to 17.
“Fly Like a Girl” is a finely crafted, delightful, and compelling documentary that deserves a giant audience. It is available in theaters and on-demand—including the iTunes Store—starting October 9.
BTW: A new-to-me phrase, STEM, can be heard throughout the film. In case it is also new to you, it is an acronym for ‘science, technology, engineering and math.’
The Falconer
Rodney Stotts was born into a semi-impoverished community in the Maryland/DC region. His early life was on the streets, during a crack epidemic, losing friends and family to drugs and violence. He doesn’t look back or talk about it.
Instead he talks about and demonstrates his work as a licensed master Falconer, as well as his environmental work cleaning up rivers with high school dropouts under the aegis of The Earth Conservation Corps, and the creation of his Oak Hill Raptor Center and sanctuary which includes the participation of at-risk inner-city youth who are learning about raptors, nature and personal responsibility.
Annie Kaempfer’s “The Falconer” follows Stotts as he and his youthful helpers start the demanding work of refurbishing a hundred-year old dairy barn through to the humble yet deeply sincere opening ceremony. His goal is to protect raptors, heal and release them, take care of the birds who are unreleasable, teach children about caring for the birds, and for a few, how to become a Falconer.
Stotts is his own narrator as he speaks of his background, his philosophy of life, the healing he discovered caring for birds, and the children he teaches and mentors.
“The Falconer” is a richly textured, thoroughly engaging and inspiring film that I whole-heartedly recommend for us adults as well as children.
P.S. Don’t tell anybody, but Rodney Stotts is a very good singer.
The Boys Who Said No!: Draft Resistance and the Vietnam War
“I’m twenty years old, and it’s me that’s nose-to-nose with the American government for chrissake. There’s lots of fear, and the issue isn’t whether you get scared, the issue is what you do after you get scared.”
David Harris, journalist and author
Harris is talking about his decision to resist the United States government’s ‘Selective Service System’ which administered the military draft in the 1960s and 70s. He decided to help end the now-debunked, massively tragic Vietnam war which killed three million Asians, almost 60,000 Americans, and wounded 304,000 Americans. Harris became one of the leaders of the national Draft resistance movement that hastened the end of the war.
An estimated 500,000 young male Americans resisted the Draft, 10,000 were indicted, and 4,000 were imprisoned—including Harris. Countless Americans protested the war, and organized resistance against the Draft.
In “The Boys Who Said No!” veteran documentarian Judith Ehrlich includes interviews of 30 activists about their roles in supporting ‘Draft Resistors’—as opposed to the propaganda phrase ‘Draft Dodger.’ In-between the interviews we see horrifying clips of the war, and a wide variety of inspiring clips of the national movement that ended the war—and the Draft.
“The Boys Who Said No!” provides a much-needed lesson that American people can make a powerful, positive difference in the government and culture of the United States.
The film is finely produced, and should be required viewing especially for aging teens and young adults—and for those of us like yours truly who were not paying attention.
Weed and Wine: Two Crops, Two Families
Rebecca Richman Cohen’s feature documentary film “Weed and Wine” juxtaposes the viticulture of wine grapes in France, with the cannabis culture in the United States of America. In doing so the film features two families: the Jodrey’s of Humboldt County, in northern California; and the Thibon family in the Ardèche region of the Southern Rhone Valley.
The film features four subjects: Hélène Thibon and her son Aurélien-Nathanaël Thibon-Macagno, Kevin Jodrey and his son Nocona. Brief profiles of each appear beneath this review.
The Jodrey family runs a large cannabis farm deep in the Humboldt woods, and are dealing with the United States’ schizophrenic approach to cannabis as well as California’s chaos of laws and regulations following the state’s legalization. The Thibon’s are dealing with the annual harvesting and vinification of the year’s wine grapes.
Although the film includes a cornucopia of beatific vistas in France and Humboldt, it is the lives and challenges of the two families that we tune into as they harvest and work with their respective crops—and as they relate with their respective families.
How will the year’s vintages fair in the expansive and expanding world of wine? Aurélien is overseeing the vinification for the first time. The entire harvest’s commercial viability is in the hands of this young man. How will Kevin and Nocoma navigate the chaos of California’s legalization of cannabis?
Those questions are answered in this beautiful and delightful film about two families separated by a continent and an ocean. Roger Ebert once pronounced that no bad movie is too short, and no good movie is too long. I would happily spend much more time with these two families.
The film premiers at the 43rd Mill Valley Film Festival October 8 – 18.
Subject Profiles
Hélène Thibon (Hélène)
Hélène Thibon is one of the winemakers at Mas de Libian, a biodynamic wine estate in France’s Ardèche region of the Southern Rhone Valley, which has belonged to the Thibon family since 1670. Raised in a family of “peasant scholars,” as Hélene describes them, Hélene spent her childhood devouring books in her family’s library and caring for the animals on their land. After pursuing studies in viticulture and enology, she and her husband Alain settled at Mas de Libian to raise their son, Aurélien. Along with her parents, husband, sisters--and now son--she has cultivated organic and biodynamic wine at Las De Libian since 1993.
Aurélien-Nathanaël Thibon-Macagno (Aurélien)
Aurélien is the son of Hélene Thibon and a winemaker at Mas de Libian, an organic wine estate in France’s Ardèche region, which has belonged to the Thibon family since 1670. Before returning to his family’s land in 2017, Aurélien worked with winemakers in Germany, Switzerland and New Zealand, and interned at Domaine Méo-Camuzet in Burgundy while studying viticulture and oenology in Beaune.
Kevin Jodrey (“Kev”)
Kevin Jodrey is an internationally respected cannabis expert known for improving and forwarding the modern cannabis movement. Owner of Humboldt County’s Wonderland Nursery and co-founder of The Ganjier, Jodrey has been a cannabis cultivator for decades, running his own operations and offering consulting services to the broader community. A frequent speaker on cannabis-related issues, Jodrey is guiding the industry as it transitions to the so-called “Clean Rush”: a movement to regenerate the land through cannabis cultivation.
Nocona Jodrey (“Cona”)
Cona Jodrey is the son of Kevin Jodrey and helps to manage the family’s Wonderland Nursery in Humboldt County, California. When he is not supporting the family’s business, he is a multi-time and current US national champion kettleball lifter, whose results in his weight class place him in the world’s top-ten kettleball lifters for all competitive lifts.
Coda: As of today, September 28, 2020, California fires continue to rage destroying both wine and cannabis crops and facilities.
D. Schwartz
Los Hermanos / The Brothers
The brothers in Marcia Jarmel’s and Ken Schneider’s “Los Hermanos / The Brothers” are Ilmar and Aldo López-Gavilán. They were born in Havana in the 1970s to a long line of musical prodigies, and have well extended that line.
Although the brothers took different physical paths, they have always been close, and entertained a dream of performing together in the United States. “Los Hermanos / The Brothers” tells this uplifting story of how the brothers wove their way through the miasma of United States restrictions of travel to Cuba, and were able to realize their dream to play together in the United States.
As I watched this story unfold I became struck with the great joy the López-Gavilán family was sharing, as well as the film’s soundtrack of beautiful upbeat music peppered throughout—all performed by the brothers.
I cannot overstate the pleasure and excitement this film provides. It is a must-see—including children and teenagers.
Although part of a tightly knit family, the brothers took different paths. Ilmar, the violinist, who, at the age of 14, was sent to the Soviet Union to study the violin, never lived again in Cuba. Ilmar has settled down in Fort Lee, New Jersey, just across from New York City, separated by the infamous Washington Bridge.
Aldo, a pianist, composer and teacher remained in Havana with his lively family. He was mentored by Cuba’s classical and jazz pianists. Aldo’s wife Daiana Garcia is a conductor, and yes, she has conducted her husband.
We are also introduced to the brothers’ father Guido, a conductor prominent in Cuba’s flourishing music world. He headed Cuba’s Ministry of Music for a period of time, and helped found the music department of Cuba’s national school of the arts.
The brothers’ mother, Teresita Junco, sadly passed. She had a fruitful artistic and teaching career at national and international levels. Teresita was a tenured professor of the piano at the Higher Institute of Art, chaired the National Piano Commission, was a member of the Scientific Methodological Council, and a professor at The University of Arts of Cuba, and the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory.
Screenings may be found virtually throughout California via the Mill Valley Film Festival, 10/8-10/18. Here is the LINK to tickets for the festival. Suggested watch time is October 10th, 7 pm PST, followed by a live conversation with the filmmakers and local Latin Jazz legend, John Santos at 8:30 pm. RSVP HERE for the Live Zoom event.
For more information about the film, you can see the trailer HERE
Feels Good Man: The Hero’s Journey of Matt Furie
meme: 1. an element of a culture or system of behavior that may be considered to be passed from one individual to another by non-genetic means, especially imitation. 2. a humorous image, video, piece of text, etc., that is copied (often with slight variations) and spread rapidly by Internet users.
zine: a small-circulation, self-published work of original or appropriated texts and images. Zines are the product of either a single person or of a very small group.
In 2005, artist and cartoonist Matt Furie created a comic called Play Time which initially featured two characters Brett and Pepe the Frog (Furie has always had an affinity for images of frogs). He added two more characters, and published them in a zine called Boy’s Club which initially appeared in My Space. Although Furie did not know what a ‘meme’ was, images of Pepe quickly turned into one.
People started sending Furie emails with links to images of their own vision of Pepe. His friends suggested he lawyer-up to protect Pepe’s images and Furie’s rights, but the soft-spoken artist saw no need of such—until the Alt-right world claimed Pepe for their own, and our dear sweet frog became a symbol of hate and racism around the world.
Arthur Jones’ “Feels Good Man” tells Furie’s story of the appropriation of Pepe, and of Furie’s eventual fight to save the massively sullied image of our dear frog.
This is an incredible, instantly engaging film. Despite having next to no awareness of the cultural subjects Jones covers, I was immediately drawn into this strange new world with its all too pedestrian conflict.
“Feels Good Man” is Jones’ first feature film, and he has knocked the ball out of the park. This is one of the most memorable documentary film I’ve seen, and I fully recommend seeing this finely produced jaw-dropping story. You won’t forget it.
Shoot to Marry: Steve Markle’s Quest
“Is it unethical? Using a documentary to meet women? When I started on this path it seemed harmless. But, now I’m not so sure.”
Steve Markle
Steve Markle’s “Shoot to Marry” is the world’s,—no, the universe’s—first rom-com documentary film. The three-word title can be translated to: ‘I’m going to make a documentary about my attempt to find a woman who will marry me.’
Our hero does just that, he sets up meetings with a variety of women—one at a time, that is—spends time with them in a variety of contexts, films these encounters and dates, and narrates the whole thing. Just reading this logline, let alone watching the film, the controversial yet inevitable name pops up: Woody Allen—both in style and substance.
“Shoot to Marry” is hilarious, touching, and a fascinating study in chutzpah. The film won a well-deserved Audience Award at Slamdance Film Festival 2020, and Best Feature at the Canadian Film Festival 2020.
I enthusiastically recommend this film.
See the film’s website to learn how to find the film. If you have Amazon Prime, you can see it there.
PS: Markle is also a well-trained pianist and airplane pilot.
the Book Makers
“the Book Makers” is prolific filmmaker James Kennard’s first feature documentary, and he has hit the ball out of the park. The film covers a world I had never head of until this film: the art of books. Although it does not speak well of yours truly’s imagination or intelligence, I never even conceived that there is an art to the physical aspect of making books. Suffice it to say, I am fully informed now.
The film features book makers at work, speaking about and showing their art which is awe inspiring. We also take field trips to the annual Codex exhibition of book art in Richmond, California, and the Internet Archive in San Francisco—together those two experiences are also awe inspiring experiences of organizations and people who treasure words, images, books and the art associated with all three.
Although the documentary is less than an hour running time, I experienced the richness, care and love of a much longer film in this deceptively short hour. As soon as the film is available on disc, I will grab one and share this jaw-dropping experience with my near and dear ones.
Like the many books we see in the film, “the Book Makers” is expertly produced. I enthusiastically recommend the film to everyone, including children.
The film is playing at the 19th San Francisco Documentary Film Festival through September 20th, and currently available to stream HERE. Next in the Bay Area is DocLands October 8-18—at which point in October the film can be seen on local public broadcasting stations (PBS) nationwide, presented by American Public Television. Additionally, there will be a ‘focus event’ on the WORLD channel Tuesday October 27, at 4 pm and 11pm PT, and on Wednesday October 28, at 7 am PT.
Who Made You?: A Cinematic Meditation on AI and Robotics
What are us humans doing with the technologies of robotics and artificial intelligence? What is the impact of AI and robotics on humanity, the ethics and values of the development and applications of these technologies?
These are the questions explored in Iiris Härmä’s “Who Made You?”. The film goes around the world to Japan, Greece, Sweden, Spain, and Finland to address these questions.
Dr. Michael Laakasuo is the film’s de facto host, appearing and speaking at points throughout the film. In-between his statements we see other commentators, humans and robots communicating with each other, a self-made cyborg who walks around with a device buried into the back of his brain, people having chips placed in their bodies, the inevitable hyper-real sex bots, people performing AI-created music and poetry, and much more.
Two different versions of the film are available from First Hand Films: 58 minutes or 80 minutes. Yours truly went for the 80-minute version. I could easily have watched a two-hour or longer version, I was so captivated with the images and information about AI and robotics.
The Condor & the Eagle
“Ancient native prophecies say: ‘When the Eagle of the North and the Condor of the South fly together, Indigenous peoples will unite the human family’”.
Sophie Guerra’s and Clément Guerra’s “The Eagle & the Condor” follows four Indigenous leaders in their visits to the United States and Canada (the Eagle’s North) and to Ecuador and Peru, (the Condor’s South). The four—Casey Camp-Horinek, Melina Laboucan-Massimo, Yudith Nieto, Bryan Parras—are creating bonds and connections with Indigenous peoples in efforts to end the ecocide of Earth driven by the extraction and burning of fossil fuels. The goal is to ensure social justice as our ecosphere is healed. (Information about each of the four climate justice leaders is below.)
We are disturbed, of course, at the human harms and environmental damages perpetrated by the global fossil fuel industry, and inspired by the noble intentions and powerful actions of these defenders of Earth’s natural world.
This is a rare environmental film that left me with a glimmer of hope in a seemingly hopeless world. I would love the filmmakers to consider a docu-series about these international movements for environmental healing and social justice.
“The Condor & the Eagle” has been screened by more than 50 renown film festivals, has won at least 12 festival prizes, and was nominated in at least six additional film festivals.
If you are as inspired by this film as yours truly, I heartily encourage you to explore the film’s website. Docuseries or not, there will be many positive reverberations as the film is seen by more and more people.
The Four Stars
Casey Camp-Horinek: Hereditary Drumkeeper of the Womens’ Scalp Dance Society of the Ponca Nation of Oklahoma is a longtime activist, environmentalist, actress, and published author. Because of Casey’s work the Ponca Nation is the first Tribe in the State of Oklahoma to adopt the Rights of Nature Statute, and to pass a moratorium on Fracking on Tribal Lands. Casey was also instrumental in the drafting, and adoption of the first ever International Indigenous Women’s Treaty protecting the Rights of Nature. Casey often collaborates with I.E.N, Movement Rights and W.E.C.A.N.
Melina Laboucan-Massimo: Melina is Lubicon Cree from Northern Alberta. She has worked on social, environmental and climate justice issues for the past 15 years. Currently a Fellow at the David Suzuki Foundation, Melina’s research is focused on Climate Change, Indigenous Knowledge and Renewable Energy. Melina holds a Masters degree in Indigenous Governance at the University of Victoria with a focus on Renewable Energy in First Nation communities. As a part of her Masters thesis Melina completed a 20.8 kW solar installation in her home community of Little Buffalo in the heart of the tar sands which powers the health centre. Melina is often collaborating with NDN, Indigenous Climate Action, Seeding Sovereignty and the Indigenous Clean Energy Network.
Yudith Nieto: Yudith is a queer Mexican-American artist, interpreter, and organizer, enjoying spending time in the bayous of Louisiana working on projects like CRY YOU ONE, Amor y Solidaridad, a solidarity house in support of undocumented Transwomen, and recently BanchaLenguas, a Language Justice interpreters collective. Currently, she is part of the core leadership circle for Another Gulf Is Possible, and a youth organizer with Los Jardines Institute. For over five years, Yudith has been fighting for the rights of her fenceline community in Manchester, Houston in collaboration with T.E.J.A.S, and last year was named one of Grist.org 50 Fixers of 2018.
Bryan Parras: Bryan is a co-founder of Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services (t.e.j.a.s.) and the Sierra Club of Texas ‘Beyond Dirty Fuels’ campaign. A longtime environmental justice advocate based in Houston, Texas, Bryan co-founded the Librotraficante movement, serves as an Advisor to the Gulf Coast Fund, and sits on the board of the Environmental Support Center. Bryan was recently awarded a Gulf Coast Fellowship, and has been working to help organizations use media for education, organizing and advocacy.
Click HERE to find the film—scroll down to see all the options
Sisters Rising: Ending Violence Against Native American Women
“Sisters Rising” features six Native American women who are fighting back against systemic violence against their sisters.
Four out of five Native American women have experienced violence. One out of three will be raped. Native American women are 2.5 times more likely to experience sexual assault than all other American women. Most of the perpetrators are non-Native men. A federal statute disallows Native Americans from prosecuting acts of violence against Native Americans that occur on tribal land—a dirty little trick non-Native men know about.
This story is set in the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, North Dakota, which includes three affiliated tribes: Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nations.
The six inspiring sisters are:
Dawn White
Sarah Deer
Loreline Lacroix
Lisa Brunner
Chalsey Snyder
Patty Stonefish
The documentary is produced, directed and shot by Willow O’Feral and Brad Heck. The soundtrack is by Allison Leialoha Milham. (I’m a big fan of music composed for movies of all ilk.)
“Sisters Rising” is a disturbing, powerful film that shines a light on systemic violence against Native American women—and seeds hope via the empowerment of sisters by sisters.
You can support efforts to end the violence by contributing to:
The Biggest Little Farm
John and Molly Chester decided to follow in the footsteps of Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor who as Green Acres’ Oliver Wendell and Lisa Douglas left the Big City to a farm in ‘Hooterville.’ Unlike this fictional, six-season 1960s sitcom, the Chester’s left their real-life Los Angeles jobs for a 200+ acres plot of land 40 miles north of the Big City.
An accomplished and prolific documentarian, John covers the couple’s eight-year, potentially Quixotic quest in the delightful, harrowing, and truly inspiring “The Biggest Little Farm”. But, theirs is not just any kind of farm. The couple intended for their farm to be certified USDA Organic, a certification that comes with significant compromises. So, they also obtained Demeter Certified Biodynamic® certification, a much stricter approach to nature-based farming. The land they chose was virtually barren, the soil incapable of growing healthy trees and plants.
Yet, in addition to their own undaunted perseverance, the couple had two real-life angels supporting the realization of their farm which they named Apricot Lane Farms—‘Allen’ who was their Yoda, and ‘Todd,’ their magical dog. The film follows the gradual building of the farm through many accomplishments and a few demoralizing disasters, with lessons learned along the way.
Thanks to the Chesters, Apricot Lane Farms is much more than a farm. It is one of many beacons around the world calling human beings to eat and live with grace and health. In addition to visiting the farm, we can online order the farm’s products.
The film also features gorgeous music by the legendary Jeff Beal.
You can secure the film on Blu-ray, DVD, or Digital directly from this Page from film’s website. Or, you may purchase a public screening license to organize and host your own screening of “The Biggest Little Farm” at the venue of your choice (25+ guests). This includes schools, libraries, community centers, workplaces and—of course—farms!
Denise Ho: Becoming the Song
Written and directed by veteran filmmaker Sue Williams, “Denise Ho: Becoming the Song” is one of those documentary films that could easily be lost in the shuffle of this genre that has finally found its way in the worlds of filmed entertainment. Thanks to Kino Lorber, this film has been found and made available to the world.
Williams tells the epic story of Cantopop singer Denise Ho who found a few moments of musical superstardom fame in Hong Kong and China, and who became passionately involved with China’s takeover of Hong Kong, fighting for freedom and civil rights for the people Hong Kong. In doing so, she lost her superstardom, and became a much more powerful and empathetic human being.
Ho tells her own story, and Williams provides clips of increasingly more violent protests as the people of Hong Kong struggle for democratic values, and are met with escalating force by police. Ho participated in these protests, and was banned from China.
The film follows Ho from her huge stadium shows in China and Hong Kong, through the loss of these shows, to the emergence of her political activism on behalf of Hong Kong, and the birth of her authentic self. Williams includes clips of Ho’s singing performances from stadiums, to the smaller, more intimate settings.
Ho came out as ‘gay’ at the age of 35, and is a champion of civil rights for the LGBTQ community. She is a speaker for international human rights, and has been working as a film, TV, and voice actor since 1998. I am out of breath just typing these words about the many accomplishments of Denise Ho, as well as what her future promises for herself and our world.
Healing from Hate: Battle for the Soul of a Nation
“I was involved with the skinheads scene from the late-eighties, all the way to the mid-nineties. It was the birth of my daughter, seeing that little girl in the delivery room. My son, he was born 15 months later. They saw the magnificence in me when I couldn’t see it. They gave me the gift that allowed me to re-humanize.”
Former Skinhead
“Healing from Hate” introduces the inevitable counter response to the tragic emergence of American neo-Nazis, White Nationalists, and Skinhead groups who are fostering epidemics of hate and violence across the nation. The film covers former members of these groups who have found their way out, and those who are supporting the men and women who are contemplating exiting these groups, or have already done so, but are in need of continued support in creating new lives.
With input from sociologist and author Michael Kimmel—(Guyville, Angry White Men and Healing From Hate)—and interviews from members of "Life After Hate” we hear and see tragic, harrowing, and inspiring stories of men internally trapped in hate mindsets; former hate group members who are reaching out to the trapped; and those who have found liberation from the hateful mindset and hate groups they have peopled for years.
Directed by the multi-talented and well-lauded Peter Hutchison, “Healing from Hate” is one of a triad of films the director is producing in his coverage of hate. The other two documentaries are 'Angry White Men: American Masculinity in the Age of Trump' and 'Auschwitz: Journey into Reconciliation'.
“Healing from Hate” is a very well-produced, much-needed film addressing the emergence of a devastating subculture searing the people of the United States of America. It deserves to be, it needs to be seen by a very large audience.
The film opens in Los Angeles on September 4 at the Laemmle Virtual Cinema and will expand out nationwide from there.