The Janes                                            5 suns

We go back to the late sixties and early seventies with The Janes. This impressive documentary tells the story of an underground group of young women in Chicago whose mission it was to allow women to get access to safe abortions at a time when abortions were illegal in nearly every state in the country. It may be hard to remember now, but before abortion was legalized by the Supreme Court in 1973 desperate women who found themselves pregnant went to mob controlled doctors in unsafe settings to have illegal abortions, often with deadly results. This group of about eight women, mostly in their twenties were active in the civil rights movement and other causes, but found that the male dominated activists cared little about women’s causes. Thus, they formed a group they called Jane to aid young women and girls who needed safe abortions. The documentary interviews the women of the group, now in their seventies and eighties, to get their stories and uses archival footage of Chicago and events of the time, giving us a fascinating portrayal of the story. In the Q&A afterwards three of the women show that they are still active and passionate about the causes they are behind. It is also made clear that this issue is still forefront in their minds and the outcome is very much in doubt.

A House Made of Splinters                                           4 suns

In the documentary department we travel to eastern Ukraine for a sad story of children in pain. Many children are forced into orphanages as the courts seek to protect them from broken homes brought on by the plague of widespread alcoholism. This problem has only gotten worse with the 2014 war with Russia and the loss of job opportunities created by it. In this documentary the filmmakers go inside one temporary shelter for these kids where they live and are cared for by the social workers while the courts decide whether they can return to their families or be placed in an orphanage. Despite the circumstances this shelter offers protection and some stability to these children who have been neglected at home. The filmmakers focus on four children, both boys and girls, in particular, following their stories as they try to reconcile matters at home. It is especially heartbreaking to see children whose parents do not even make the effort to call or see them.

Last Flight Home                              4 suns

Last Flight Home is a special documentary from a filmmaker known to Sundance, that wasn’t even supposed to be made for the public. When her 92 year old father, Eli, decides to end his life, Ondi Timoner is determined to preserve the last two weeks of his life, filming the time spent with the family and the legal process of allowing this voluntary termination according to California law. Eli Timoner was the founder and CEO of Florida Airlines, which he saw grow from a tiny operation in the seventies to a major player in the market in a few short years. Sadly, Eli suffered a stroke at age 53 and had three kids to raise with the help of his wife. The closeness of the family we see in the film is moving and joyful. We can be thankful that this daughter was so willing to share this experience of the passing of life with the world.

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                      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                  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        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!

All That Breathes             4 ½ suns

For my final documentary film I saw the winner of the World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize, All That Breathes. This story comes from New Delhi, India where two Muslim brothers, Saud and Nadeem have made it their life’s work to rescue and care for injured black kites. There is a Muslim belief that feeding meat to these predatory birds will help ward off troubles. They often cover the sky and are drawn to the city where they feed on the waste of the human population. But the pollution of the air caused by heavy industry takes its toll on the birds and they often fall from the sky where the brothers and their enlisted crew rescue them, bringing them to Saud’s basement where they can be nursed back to health. The film poetically connects the birds to the entire ecosystem, giving their efforts a higher purpose. We see their efforts to keep the enterprise going including their applying for grant money and Saud’s plan to get more animal rescue training in the United States. All this is going on at a time when anti-Muslim violence plagues the city amid increased religious conflict that the government does little to stop. The film is a lesson about how living things find ways to adapt to their changing environment.