Strong Island

— This look at the violent death of a black man 25 years ago and the judicial system that allowed his killer to go free is made personal by the director whose life was changed by the tragedy. As Yance Ford tries to make sense of his brother’s murder, the audience is drawn into the situation. His family was happy—loving, dedicated, and educated parents living in their suburban Long Island home with three children—but their lives were forever altered when their son, William Jr., was shot during an argument at a local garage. Evidence as to who killed William seemed clear but the grand jury chose not to prosecute. As Ford re-examines the event and interviews family members as well as himself, we’re drawn into the helplessness of their situation at the time. As Ford’s mother talks to the camera and we see her strong moral principles, the color-blind attitude she tried to give her children, and the pain as she confronts her failures, her struggles become all too real. Even Ford, as he comes to see he is in some ways partly responsible for what happened, needs healing that doesn’t seem to come. In the end, we’re changed by this excellent combination of investigative look and personal narrative, both pointing to the systemic indifference America still has for dead blacks. (Shown at True/False Film Fest 2017.)

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[2017. 107 min. Directed by Yance Ford.]
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/yance-fords-powerful-cinematic-memoir-strong-island

HyperNormalisation

— Adam Curtis, something of a BBC cult figure, seems to favor rambling over a direct approach as he blends archival footage with his own voice-over and ends up with a patchwork that packs a wallop. It’s part conspiracy theory, part history, and a lot of detours—almost like being lost in a Google search loop or falling for one more YouTube video, and then another and another. In the end, Curtis manages to add enough of a unifying gesture to this look at the current political landscape, to give us a sense of how we got where we are and to leave us a little conflicted as to where we're headed. It’s a very different kind of storytelling that’s greatly influenced by the internet and, at 165 minutes, you may be tempted to pass on it but it’s worth the time. (Shown at True/False Film Fest 2017, but it’s also on YouTube.)

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[2016. 166 min. Written and directed by Adam Curtis. With Adam Curtis, Donald Trump, Valdimir Putin, Victor Gotbaum, Patti Smith, Henry Kissinger, Hafez al-Assad, Thomas Schelling, Ronald Reagan, Timothy Leary, Ruhollah Kohomeyni, and many more.]
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/adam-curtiss-essential-counterhistories

Brimstone & Glory

— (Shown at True/False Film Fest 2017.)

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[2017, 67 min. Directed by Viktor Jakovleski.]
http://www.voxmagazine.com/arts/movies/true-false-film-review-brimstone-glory/article_33712b56-00fa-11e7-9b34-0b2075e3934d.html

Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?

—This is more an experience than a film. Travis Wilkerson narrates his work live, sitting just stage right of the screen in front of his laptop while a mix of interviews, images, and home-movies are displayed. Wilkerson had heard that S.E. Branch, his great-grandfather who operated a store in Dothan, AL, had killed a black man named Bill Spann in 1946. Information was sketchy and no one really wanted to talk about it, so the “film” is a recounting of his journey of discovery, but he spends little time on the killing itself. Instead he focuses on the men themselves and on their families, turning the “film” into a look at two families, one black and one white. The live narration makes the experience all the more personal and riveting. The title comes from Phil Och’s song “William Moore”: “Did you wonder who had fired the gun? Did you know that it was you who fired the gun?” and Wilkerson seems to accuse all whites of being responsible for all racism, past and present. Whether you agree or not, the look at the Branch and Spann’s descendants living parallel by decidedly very different lives raises lots of issues worth considering. This is a film/performance I'm glad I saw. (Shown/performed at True/False Film Fest 2017.)

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[2017. 70 min. Directed by Travis Wilkerson. Live narration by Travis Wilkerson.]
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-true-false-gun-wilkerson-20170304-story.html/

Quest

— (Shown at True/False Film Fest 2017.)

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[2017. 105 min. Directed by Jonathan Olshefski.]
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/a-stirring-portrait-an-city-black-family-968971

Manifesto

— This is Cate Blanchett showing off her acting chops and, I'm sure, a lot more but my knowledge of 20th century art just isn't up to fully understanding what's going on. She plays 13 characters, including a school teacher, factory worker, funeral orator, choreographer, punk, anchorwoman, CEO, scientist, puppeteer, widow, and a homeless man. Each character embodies a different “art manifesto”—things like Pop Art, Situationism, Stridentism, Suprematism, Futurism, Dadaism, Minimalism, Conceptual Art, Fluxus Art, and Dogma 95. The dialogue is a mix of musings from philosophers, painters, filmmakers, and artists, wrapped into 13 personas that sometimes seem antithetical or placed in surprising situations. It has humor and passion, but I couldn’t help but wish I’d known more about the various manifestos before seeing the film. People who were at the screening with me seemed to either love or hate the film—no one escaped without a reaction. It was originally presented as a Berlin and New York art installation with 13 screens, one for each character, and more recently packaged as a film. (Shown at True/False Film Fest 2017.)

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[2016. 94 min. Written and directed by Julian Rosefeldt. Starring Cate Blanchett.]
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/manifesto-review-967077/

Stranger In Paradise

— This film walks the line between fiction and documentary, something increasingly common in “documentary” films. In this case, Europe’s power relationship with refugees is observed in a dramatized Sicilian classroom setting where recent refugees are instructed by a teacher who can be gentle and fatherly, but at other times incredibly negative, sowing despair among those seeking happiness. The audience sees the roller coaster ride the refugees are on and understands instinctively the metaphor, but is left on its own to figure out what it thinks of the relationship. (Shown at True/False Film Fest 2017.)

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[2016. 77 min. Written and directed by Guido Hendrikxx. Featuring Valentijn Dhaenens.]
http://variety.com/2016/film/festivals/guido-hendrikx-immigration-doc-stranger-in-paradise-idfa-1201921740/

Step

— (Shown at True/False Film Fest 2017.)

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[2017, 83 min. Directed by Amanda Lipitz. ]
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/step-review-sundance-2017-966856