March 25th, 2007
films
From the theater release notes:
“Chronicles the recurring patterns of disenfranchisement witnessed from 2000 to 2004 while following the story of Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, who not only took an active role in investigating these election debacles but also found herself in the middle of one after publicly questioning the Bush Administration about the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Some call Cynthia McKinney a civil rights leader among the ranks of Shirley Chisholm and Malcolm X. Others call her a conspiracy theorist and a ‘looney.’ American Blackout gains unprecedented access to one of the most controversial and dangerous politicians in America and examines the contemporary tactics used to control our democratic process and silence political dissent. The film features interviews with: US Congressional Representatives John Lewis, Cynthia McKinney, John Conyers, Bernie Sanders, and Stephanie Tubbs-Jones; former US Civil Rights Commissioner & Dean of UC Berkeley’s School of Law, Christopher Edley; BBC journalist Greg Palast; and, Van Jones, Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center.”
I can sum up this film in one sentence: Cynthia McKinney is awesome. She’s a hero and a role model for women everywhere. I have been quite disillusioned with voting given the events of last two elections, but this film made me rethink my position–particularly seeing how hard some people of color worked in Florida, Ohio, and Georgia (and elsewhere) to claim their right to vote, only to be turned away. The emphasis McKinney and others interviewed place on the power “outsiders” have at the ballot box was quite convincing, and even though I still don’t think voting is going to cure all that ails us, I’ll be filling out my voter registration card this week. Of course, viewing the details of the collapse of the US political system is pretty devastating, and the interviews with the politicians and operatives involved in denying folks the right to vote are positively creepy and chilling. For that reason alone this film is a must-see.
You can buy American Blackout on DVD via the above link for $15; it is definitely worth the price, if you can afford it, to arrange showings of this film in your living room, loan out to friends, etc. Highly recommended.
Sof Ha’Olam Smola (At the End of the World, Turn Left)
From the IMDb comments:
“For non-Israelis, Left Turn at the End of the World is a revealing look at conflicts between Jewish communities originating in different parts of the world. Forced to live next to one another in a desolate “development town” in the Negev, Indian Jews from Bombay and Moroccan Jews, each confronting a loss of status (or imagined status) in their countries of origin, begin by despising one another and ultimately learn to live with one another, mainly through the agency of two teenage girls who befriend one another despite their differences in outlook.”
There was much that I appreciated about this film. It dealt with a topic I know almost nothing about–immigration to Israel. I was fascinated watching the cultural differences and conflicts play out against a fairly mundane plot–the layering of cultures on top of each other, including the effects of colonialism, was really just astounding to observe.
In other ways, though, this film reminded me of a cartoon. I’m not sure if the effect was intentional, but the characters–especially the female ones–were superficially drawn and stereotypical: the virtuous maiden, the Lolita, the good self-sacrificing wife/mother, the sexually voracious widow. There was quite a bit of open (heterosexual) sexuality in this film–more than I would have expected in a similarly themed US-made film. One scene that I found particularly troubling was the ’seduction’ by a teenage girl of her older teacher; this material was not handled in anything remotely approaching a feminist way. Of course, this is not a feminist film, despite its mild criticism of the Israeli government; politics are used here more as a plot device, to provide a problem for the community to solve, which of course it does by the end of the film.
The best part of the movie was the friendship between Nicole and Sara, which was open, affectionate, amusing, warm, sweet and loving. Despite the obligatory “lesbian kiss” scene–practicing, of course, for heterosexuality–the connection between the two young women had a depth that the rest of the film lacked, and despite the physical affection the two displayed, was not pornified in the way a similar deep affectionate friendship would have been in a US film. It reminded me of the best parts of my adolescent friendships with other girls and definitely helped soften and deepen what was otherwise a fairly superficial plot line.
The Pornography of Everyday Life
Heart has a post up about this, but just to add my $0.02: Jane Caputi did an amazing amount of work here, the likes of which has not been seen since the feminist antipornography campaigns of the 1970s and Jean Kilbourne’s brilliant feminist films on advertising, “Killing Us Softly” and “Still Killing Us Softly” (though look, she has a vol 3 out!). In “Pornography,” Caputi juxtaposes images from advertising with images from pornography, and the likenesses are frighteningly undeniable. This film does a phenomenal job of making connections between advertising, porn, sexism, racism, the destruction of the environment, and the capitalist heteropatriarchal disrespect for all life.
This film moves along at a good pace–Caputi was trying to cover a lot of material in a short time. Unfortunately, the speed of the presentation sometimes inhibited the viewer from absorbing the impact of the connections before moving on to the next topic. The narration, part of which was given by Caputi herself filmed seated on a couch, lacked a resonance and passion that I would have appreciated–it seemed a bit pat and scripted.
However, this film, with its great production values, will be a valuable tool for feminist education about the connections between advertising, pornography, sexual and racial violence, and the poisoning of the planet. Highly recommended!
