Category Archives: 2022

RIOTSVILLE, USA

RIOTSVILLE, USA               3 ½ suns

The lone documentary for today was RIOTSVILLE, USA taking us back to 1967 and 1968, a time when unrest was impacting America’s cities brought about by the racial injustices of the era. The usual government response was to put down the riots with police forces outfitted in riot gear. The filmmakers researched and found archival footage of two mock towns the army built called “Riotsvilles” that were used for training military and police how to respond to domestic civil disorder. It covers the establishment and findings of the Kerner Commission, created by the Johnson administration to make recommendations for dealing with this civil unrest. The commission was made up of only moderates but still made some recommendations that the conditions of the unrest needed to be addressed. However, the only steps actually enacted were those dealing with increased funding and training for the police. (How predictable.) The documentary is also notable for covering the events of the 1968 Republican National Convention held in Miami. Everyone has seen pictures of the Democratic Convention in Chicago, but few can remember the convention where Richard Nixon received the nomination and the protests that accompanied it. The film points out that the police there were trained at the Riotsville facility. It is a fascinating story of one aspect of the sixties that is long forgotten.

The Territory

The Territory                      4 suns

In The Territory we return to Brazil to the Amazon rain forest in this documentary about a small tribe of indigenous people called the Uru-eu-wau-wau who eke out an existence largely separate from the rest of society. Unfortunately for them, with Brazil’s right wing government comes the spreading of farm land into the Amazon that threatens the tribe, which now consists of less than 200 people. The filmmakers filmed both sides of the conflict, staying with the natives in the forest and the farmers as they try to establish a new home. The filmmakers don’t take sides on the issue, but allow the people to tell their own stories. We see also the story of one woman, who is not a native, but joins in their fight to save the land through working with the government and journalists to raise awareness of their plight. To make things even worse for them, the threat of Covid arrived during filming taking the lives of some of the tribe. The importance of the rain forest’s destruction expands with the realization that it threatens to accelerate climate change, bringing the subject to a global significance. The film has to be one of the most challenging to make and at the same time dealing with a subject of the greatest importance.

Framing Agnes

Framing Agnes                  2 suns

Framing Agnes has to be one of the more unusual films I have seen at Sundance. It concerns a study of transgender individuals that was conducted at UCLA in the 1960’s by a Harold Garfinkel. Agnes, a transgender woman is one of the main subjects of the film. All that exists from the study are the transcripts of the interviews that Garfinkel conducted with his subjects, both female and male. Therefore, the filmmakers conduct reenactments of the interviews using transgender actors playing the parts of the participants. You can’t really call this a documentary, but it is more a reimagining of trans history. Some of the participants in the study are said to be less than honest as they use their chance to speak as a way to portray themselves how they want to be seen. The film is both informative and funny, but I have to say not something I can begin to really understand.

Descendant

Descendant        4 ½ suns

My personal favorite for the day was Descendant, a documentary about a community of Black people near Mobile, Alabama who are descendants of slaves that were brought to the area on the last slave ship to arrive in America. The shipment, on a vessel called the Clotilda, was illegal as it was done in 1860 long after the slave trade from Africa was outlawed. When the slaves were freed in 1865 this group of former Africans had been in captivity for only five years unlike the other former slaves born into slavery. They banded together and formed the town of Africatown and their descendants still live their surrounded by industrial areas in an environment dangerous to their health. An additional twist is that the industrial land is still owned by the family of the man who brought the slaves here, Timothy Meaher. The wreckage of the Clotilda has long been the subject of myth, but a search in conducted in the movie resulting in its discovery that promises to improve the lives of the town’s inhabitants. I was very impressed with the quality of the storytelling and the inclusion of the residents along with the background of some of the original founders of the town. I hope the film sees much wider release. I would even watch it again with my movie watching friends!

Marte Um

Marte Um           3 ½ suns

Marte Un means Mars One. In this Brazilian drama that has a special meaning about hope for the future as we see the lives of a working class black family as they struggle to raise their children and survive. The mother, Tercia, has doubts that she may be cursed when things go wrong for them. Each of the four family members face problems when obstacles are put in their way, but eventually they realize they have much to be thankful for. The film was made in 2018 when President Bolsonaro, the extreme right wing candidate was elected. Although this connection was mentioned in the film’s promotional materials I didn’t see how it played into the story, so it wasn’t quite what I expected. But it is still worth seeing.

Klondike


KLONDIKE           5 suns

My personal winner for the day was KLONDIKE. It’s a fictional story about a Ukrainian couple who live in an isolated farmhouse in Eastern Ukraine, but it is set in 2014 during the war of Russian incursion when a Malaysian airliner is brought down by a Russian missile. News footage from the actual events give us more background to the story. Tolik and Irka are expecting a child, but their world faces havoc when this war is brought to their doorstep. Tolik struggles to deal with the damage to their home, the soldiers who demand that their needs be met and a wife who refuses to leave her home. Things are further complicated when Irka’s brother shows up and we find that the family has sympathies on opposite sides of the conflict. The camera work is striking with the very long scenes that slowly reveal the horrors of war in the background while the characters are struggling just to survive. The film is highly relevant to today with its message about the futility of war. It deserves some special recognition.

Emergency

Emergency         3 ½ suns

In the comedy Emergency, graduate student Kunle and his best friend, Sean are about to go on an epic journey, partying all night at the fraternity parties at their college campus. But the plans of the two young black men are interrupted when they discover an unconscious white girl on the floor of their house. The pair along with their Latino friend, Carlos realize the danger they are in if the police are alerted to their situation and must improvise to get the girl to safety without endangering their own lives. What follows is a comedy of errors as the men deal with one mishap after another. The film started as a short film from a few years ago that has now been expanded to the full length movie now showing. It is a good combination of silly comedy making a statement about the perceptions that young black men must face despite the levels of success they may reach.

Leonor Will Never Die

Leonor Will Never Die    3 ½ suns

Leonor Will Never Die received the World Cinema Dramatic Innovative Spirit Special Jury Award. The movie fits in well with the name of the award as the premise was especially creative. Set in the Philippines, elderly Leonor Reyes was once a major screenwriter for Filipino action movies. But now she mainly stays at home and can’t pay all her bills to the frustration of her son. One day she takes renewed interest in one of her old movie scripts after reading that the studios are looking for new scripts, but then she ends up in the hospital in a coma after being struck in the head by a falling television. It is then that the film takes us into uncharted territory as Leonor goes about creating an action movie in her mind concerning an action hero names Ronwaldo. She appears in her own movie, manipulating events to her own liking, occasionally reworking scenes that didn’t work out right. The imagined movie then sometimes blends with real life to somewhat resemble ideas out of The Matrix. The film is something of an homage to seventies action movies from the Philippines which was quite an industry in those times. It is especially violent and heavy on heroic scenes for its action stars. I certainly did not know what to expect with this one.

892

892                                         4 suns

892 was the winner of the U.S. Dramatic Ensemble Cast Special Jury Award. It is a fairly straightforward story concerning a desperate former U.S. marine who has decided to hold employees of a bank hostage so that he can receive what is owed to him by the VA. I thought it seemed a little slow moving for a hostage taking drama. There were few action scenes and most of the film dealt with the negotiations between the marine and the police negotiator. But by the end I realized that this was a representation of an actual event which explains a lot, especially why such a subject was chosen. The acting performances were especially superb including John Boyega of Star Wars as Brian, the marine and Michael Kenneth Williams as the negotiator in what would be his final film role. This film is very unlike one from last year called Prime Time, also about a hostage situation, but was more dramatic and tension filled. Of course that one was a fictional story. 892 serves as a reminder about how our obligations to those who serve often go unfilled.

Nanny

Nanny                                   4 suns

The winner of the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize was Nanny, a film with supernatural elements that doesn’t quite rise the level of full-blown horror. We meet Aisha, an undocumented immigrant from Senegal, who gets a job as a nanny to a wealthy Manhattan couple taking care of their girl, Rose. Aisha is a mother herself, but has left her young son in the care of a cousin back in Senegal. Her hope is to be able to bring the son to the U.S. to join her one day. However, the situation is less than ideal as her employer’s problems begin to spill over to affect her own life, compounded by a supernatural presence that appears to invade her thoughts and dreams. Hope comes in the form of the grandmother of a man she meets played by Leslie Uggams, whom she can confide in. The film portrays the difficulties faced by immigrants who are parents in the U.S. as well as dealing with issues of mental illness among a population not equipped to handle them. Fortunately, the movie ends with a hopeful note.