DOCUMENTARIES: THE PURSUIT OF TRUTH AT
MIFF
By Joel Johnson
These are the nonfiction films that seek to tell us about
the world around us, whether it be how flawed the American justice or
electoral systems are or about the music and misadventures of a rock band or
about the relationships between men and women in a tribe in Africa. They
might allow us to simply observe and come to our own conclusions, or they
may be compelled to try persuading us to action. While pictures and concepts
are presented to us by the documentary filmmakers, we, the audience, must be
willing to examine what is presented to determine whether it is the truth.
The
classic film Casablanca has many memorable lines. One of my all-time
favorite lines is Claude Rains’s gleefully underhanded Captain Renault
ordering his men to “round up the usual suspects.” That line probably
doesn’t sound quite as funny to the subjects of the Sundance award-winning
film After Innocence. They have
been convicted of serious crimes of murder and rape only to be exonerated
thanks to the intervention of the Innocence Project and the scientific
advances in identification through DNA. Plucked from death rows and lengthy
prison terms, how does one adjust to losing years, careers, family, and
friends from one’s life? How does one pick up the pieces of a shattered
life? This is what Jessica Sander’s documentary tries to show as well as
focusing attention of the flaws and frailties of American Justice. Stephen
Holden (New York Times) describes the film as “calm,
deliberate, and devastating.”
www.afterinnocence.com
Showing with After Innocence will be Richard Searls’s
work-in-progress Dennis Dechaine,
which addresses his controversial conviction. Everyone will agree
that the rape and murder of a twelve- year-old girl is a most horrible
crime, but did Maine prosecutors play fair to convict Dechaine? After the
screening there will be panel discussion that will include Dennis Maher, one
of the exonerees, and author Jim Moore who has written about Dechaine’s
conviction. This is definitely an “eat-your-vegetables” session that will
generate a lot of attention and thought about critical issues for our system
of justice
Among the many charges made about the last two presidential elections is
that there was a systematic program to suppress African American voter
turnout. Director Ian Inaba’s American Blackout
focuses on Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney’s efforts to
bring attention to the disenfranchisement of a bloc of voters who have
supported Democratic voters. We get a portrait of the congresswoman in her
efforts to oppose the agenda of the Bush administration. While it may be
easy to dismiss the complaints about election fairness as the “sour grapes”
of losers and to label the film as a strident partisan diatribe, the
critical underpinning of the democratic process is faith that the true will
of the people will be reflected in the outcome of elections. This is a
lesson that we must heed not only here in the United States but also in our
experiment in trying to plant an effective democratic government in Iraq.
This may energize liberal partisans and appall conservative ones, but
neither should take much comfort in a process that a growing number are
viewing with mistrust. Winner of the Best Documentary at the Cinequest San
Jose Film Festival and a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival,
this is another film from the Sundance Arthouse Program.
www.americanblackout.org
True Lies is a three-minute film
by Ian Inaba and Anson Vogt that mixes poetry slam and politics.
Bound to Lose sounds like the
perfect title for a Red Sox movie—especially pre-2004, but this film
actually chronicles forty years of a legendary psychedelic folk rock band
called The Holy Modal Rounders. This is a band that cherished its outsider
status, cultivating a cult following. Its high point was being included in
the soundtrack for the classic 1960’s film Easy Rider. The film may
look a bit like the documentaries that show up on the cable music channels
as the Rounders have all the classic waywardness afflicting rock bands: bad
performances, drug addictions, breakdowns, splits, reorganizations,
personnel changes, and all the personal abrasion that goes with long tours
together in a compressed environment. If you are somewhat familiar with this
band, you may be very interested in “the rest of the story.” I must confess
that I don’t have any memory of this group. Of course, the interesting thing
about this kind of movie is that as you listen to the group’s music you may
realize (A) how much you missed or (B) that you really do know their songs
without knowing who did them or (C) that going forty years without knowing
their music wasn’t a bad thing at all.
The Chances of the World Changing
bears some similarity with The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill in that
a single individual takes on the task of “saving” one of our fellow
creatures. Richard Ogust, Chances’s equivalent of Parrots’
Mark Bittner, is devoted to turtles instead of parrots. The turtles—some
1200 of them—have apparently been rescued from Southeast Asian food markets.
There are a few other similarities, too. Bittner was evicted when his
landlords decided to renovate, and Ogust is evicted by fellow tenants for no
clear reason. Bittner testified at a hearing as San Francisco decides what
to do about the parrots, but Ogust seems to have a more conflict-ridden
relationship with government officials. Exactly how Bittner is able to
devote himself to his birds while not having any obvious means of support
did cross my mind, but since Ogust’s turtle rescue mission has cost him
$500,000 over five years, that question seems much more pertinent. Anyway,
it will be interesting to see whether the MIFF audience finds the
slow-moving turtles as compelling as the parrots that fly.
If you born more
than thirty-five years ago, Jonestown conjures up horrific memories and lots
of questions. How so many people could join Reverend Jim Jones’s Peoples
Temple, give everything they owned to the Temple, cut themselves off from
family and friends, move to Guyana, and then all be induced to drink poison
at the behest of its founder is a great mystery. Stanley Nelson’s
Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple
seeks to shed light on the abrupt self-destruction of Jones’s idealistic
interracial community. While the film chronicles a fascinating story of the
man Jim Jones and of the dangers of giving another individual so much
authority in making decisions about one’s own life, it’s hard not to
anticipate the film being an out-and-out downer. The film is destined for
broadcast next year on PBS. Some may find the small screen a more attractive
medium for this kind of film.
Director Raymond De Felitta’s ’Tis Autumn: The
Search for Jackie Paris
is a documentary that will be a must-see for jazz fans. Jazz vocalist Jackie
Paris was one of the premier interpreters of bebop jazz during the 1950s.
However, the film works on a couple of other levels. First, it shows how an
individual (De Felitta himself) becomes obsessed with something and wants to
learn all he can about it. Then we eventually begin to understand the life
that might cause a talent like Paris to step away from stardom to obscurity.
How close did he ever get to a comeback? Part of the Sundance Arthouse
Program, this will probably create lots of new fans for this now-obscure
talent.
www.hangoverlounge.com
Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg’s The Trials of
Darryl Hunt is another film, like After Innocence,
that shows how an innocent man could be convicted of a vicious rape and
murder of a white woman. Black and poor, the legal system swallowed up
Darryl Hunt in its rush to convict. He lost twenty years from his life
before he is finally freed with the help of the Innocence Project, but he
very easily could have been executed. Watching this film won’t be
particularly comforting, but understanding how our legal system works or
doesn’t work is absolutely critical to making the system more fair. “Eat
your vegetables” now or later on HBO. The
Open Window is a short film featuring local casting director
turned actress Dee Cooke that will be shown in the same screening.
www.breakthrufilms.org
Anthropologist and
filmmaker Robert Gardner brings two films to this year’s festival. His
Forest of Bliss (1986) allows the
film viewer to be an observer of the religious traditions in India along the
Ganges. There is no dialogue or narration to explain what is happening to
the viewer. Gardner’s Rivers of Sand
(1974) does have an English narration and introduces us to the Hamar people
of Ethiopia, who have a society that is characterized by a marked level of
sexual inequality. Gardner will be participating in a panel discussion
entitled The Impulse to Preserve, which is also the title of
Gardner’s new book. Gardner’s work is important as the power of global
culture to alter local culture has homogenized the world and increasingly
makes impossible the anthropological work that occurred just a generation
ago.
