Category: Documentary

By Joe Bendel. John Fahey knew the blues. He eventually published his academic thesis on Skip James and “re-discovered” real deal bluesman Bukka White. He could also play the guitar, combining a legit blues attack with an avant-garde harmonic sensibility. Never a commercial sensation, Fahey developed a cult following. The idiosyncratic guitar master consistently defied arbitrary genre distinctions, as does Nels Cline (probably best known for his work with Wilco). Despite their stylistic differences, both musicians make an apt pairing in First Run Features’ Guitar Innovators, a theatrical double feature of two mid-length documentaries opening this Friday in New York.

The late Fahey’s chaotic life offers plenty of grist for James Cullingham’s In Search of Blind Joe Death: the Story of John Fahey. The longer of the two films, Death surveys the guitarist’s life and his prolific but under-distributed musical output. The artist who playfully adopted the “Blind Joe Death” moniker had nearly as many distinctive creative periods as Picasso, including a sojourn through the world of old school New Orleans jazz. Apparently, he had a rather traumatic childhood, which Cullingham addresses briefly and diplomatically (rather raising more questions than he answers). However, he fully embraces Fahey’s image as an artistic eccentric, including plenty of viewer-friendly anecdotes as part of his portrait.

Including short animated interludes and talking head segments with The Who’s Pete Towsend and Fonotone Records’ Joe Bussard, Death is strong on biography, but is oddly stingy when it comes to the actual music. It will convince viewers that Fahey was important and influential, but might not move a lot of CDs and downloads for his heirs. Still, it represents a rare cinematic fix for blues fans. (LFM GRADE: B+)

Steven Okazaki’s Approximately Nels Cline personally introduces viewers to the American experimental jazz and rock guitarist, but it is not intended as an exhaustive study. Instead, it captures Cline’s creative process in the studio with several simpatico colleagues. The free improvisation and electronic instrumentation of Cline’s group sounds worlds removed from Fahey blues-roots music, but their choice of time-honored folk songs like “Black is the Color” nicely parallels Fahey’s modernist approach to traditional fare.

Cline also recruits an enormously talented ensemble, including the unusually versatile jazz trumpeter Ron Miles, who brings an In a Silent Way kind of vibe to the session. Violinist-vocalist Carla Kihlstedt also sounds quite haunting on their dramatic rendition of “Color.” We also hear the more abstract side of Cline when playing with keyboardist-programmer Yuka Honda (who also happens to be his wife). At half an hour, it should not overwhelm aesthetically conventional ears, especially given the warm, handsome look of the performance footage shot by cinematographer Dan Krauss at the storied Fantasy Studios.

Death documents a fascinating life, while Approximately records some striking music in the making, but both films speak to each other in intriguing ways. Shrewdly packaged by First Run, both documentaries are highly recommended separately or together as the Guitar Innovators double bill, which opened last Friday (8/16) in New York at the Cinema Village. (LFM GRADE: A-)

LFM DOUBLE-BILL GRADE: B+

Posted on August 19th, 2013 at 8:14pm.

By Joe Bendel. This international ring of jewel thieves was brought to you by the bureaucrats at the EU. It is a complicated story, but Havana Marking has her sources. Using animation to protect their anonymity, a handful of former members explain the inner workings of their loosely structured organization in Marking’s Smash & Grab: the Story of the Pink Panthers, which opens this Wednesday in New York at Film Forum.

Marking is careful not to unduly glamorize the high-end jewelry thieves that came to be known as the Pink Panthers, in honor of the Blake Edwards franchise. Yes, they always avoided bloodshed on their jobs, at least so far. Yet, they have always been armed robbers, rushing into each score loaded for bear. They have never exactly been Robin Hoods either, simply divvying up the proceeds from each job amongst themselves.

These were professionals, who invested significant time and money to meticulously plan each heist. Of course, they were not just men. Every caper started with a woman—a striking femme fatale, who would not look out of place trying on expensive jewelry as she cased the joint. Marking talks at length with one such scout. She goes by the name “Lela” for the purposes of the film and like many Panthers, she hails from the former Yugoslavia.

The shadowy group’s roots lie in the Balkans’ tragic war years. With Serb Socialist Party boss Slobodan Milosevic stoking the fires of ethnic hatred, the EU responded by imposing a punitive economic embargo on the entire Yugoslavia. Apparently Brussels hoped the widespread suffering would appeal to Milosevic’s heretofore unseen compassion, compelling him to behave better. Instead, it gave rise to an extensive black market, where future Pink Panthers learned the essentials of illicit commerce.

Reportedly, the Panthers largely consist (or consisted) of Serbians and Montenegrins, like “Mike,” Marking’s star witness. However, she presents a conscientiously balanced portrait of the various Balkan nationalities involved. In fact, Milena Miletic, a Serbian journalist and veteran of the anti-Milosevic protests, is clearly one of Marking’s most sympathetic and authoritative talking heads.

Even though Marking’s animated interviews with Mike and Lela look somewhat similar to those roto-scoped Charles Schwab commercials, they still serve as an effective counterpoint to the very real surveillance footage of the Panthers getting down to business. Unlike most true crime programming, there is nothing lurid or exploitative about Smash. Nevertheless, Marking’s eye for ironic imagery adds a bit of dash to the proceedings.

Leanly constructed and briskly paced, Marking’s film gives viewers a vivid sense of the scope and tick-tock professionalism of the Panthers’ operations. Fascinating and often darkly comic, Smash is a good documentary for viewers who do not ordinarily enjoy documentaries. Recommended for popular audiences, Smash opens this Wednesday (7/31) at New York’s Film Forum.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on July 30th, 2013 at 11:22am.

By Joe Bendel. The combination of an authoritarian government and a strict religion ought to make Musa a scrupulously law-abiding citizen. Unfortunately, he is one of many disenfranchised Uyghurs impressed into pickpocket gangs. Filmmaker Chen Dongnan captures the tragic human stories of those derisively referred to as “Xinjiang thieves” in the documentary short The Trail from Xinjiang, which screens during the Enduring Encounters programming block at this year’s Asian American International Film Festival in New York.

Like many youths from Xinjiang, Musa was lured to the big city with false promises. He quickly found himself involuntarily immersed in a world of petty thievery and drug dealing (by fellow Xinjiangnese). His friends Ali and Little Musa seem to have a more natural aptitude for crime, but that is not exactly a blessing. Between the three of them, they will experience the worst of nearly every imaginable urban pathology, including drug addiction, AIDS, and violent crime—everything that does not exist in China according to government propaganda.

Chen set out to humanize the marginalized Uyghurs, so she largely maintains her focus on Musa and his friends. Yet, Jiaquan, the founder of the Anyang Anti-Pickpocket League, emerges as the film’s most intriguing figure. Viewers might initially see him as Anyang’s answer to George Zimmerman, patrolling the streets with his twenty League volunteers. However, as Jiaquan came to recognize Musa and his accomplices, he started to sympathize with their exploitative circumstances. It is obviously a heavy commentary on Chinese social services when the Xinjiang thieves’ vigilante-nemesis becomes the closest thing they have to a social worker-advocate, but such is the state of things. Frankly, his story seems ripe for a full documentary follow-up, particularly in light of the film’s concluding “where are they now” recap.

At thirty-six minutes, Trail has more tragedy and raw, cautionary depictions of vice than scores of full length exposes. It is a decidedly humane exercise in muckraking, but it is still not for the squeamish. An unflinching film that puts viewers squarely in Musa’s shoes, The Trail from Xinjiang is highly recommended for China watchers when it screens this coming Thursday (8/1) at the Anthology Film Archives, as part of the 2013 AAIFF’s Enduring Encounters short film program.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on July 29th, 2013 at 12:21pm.

By Joe Bendel. Filmmaker Matthew VanDyke has unusual but highly pertinent qualifications to document the Syrian revolution. The self-described freedom fighter escaped from Gaddafi’s Abu Salim prison, where he was held in solitary during the Libyan civil war. Like a Twenty-First Century throwback to the partisan press corps that covered the Spanish Civil War, VanDyke both documents and advocates on behalf of the everyday Syrians rebelling against Assad’s dictatorship in his short documentary, Not Anymore: a Story of Revolution, which screens during the 2013 AFI Docs presented by Audi (as it is now officially, if awkwardly known).

VanDyke’s fixer is also his producer and subject. Nour Kelze sounds like she was once the sort of modern, educated woman so desperately needed in the Middle East. A former school teacher, she explains that she once wore fashionable clothes and high heels, but “not anymore.” With the onset of the Ba’ath regime’s crackdown, she became a war photographer, adopting the profession’s Kevlar helmet and vest.

Kelze guides viewers through the chaos that once was the thriving city of Aleppo. Although still populated, the neighborhoods strafed by Assad’s forces now look like a ghost town. Free Syrian Army commander “Mowya” wryly observes that Assad certainly made good on his promise to clear out the panhandlers from the desolate, bombed out streets.

While Not Anymore clocks-in just under fifteen minutes, VanDyke captured more action in that time-frame than he probably would have liked. Unlike some documentary filmmakers, he is clearly willing to put himself on the front line, just like his producer. That gives the doc real immediacy and authenticity.

Throughout the film, VanDyke’s interview subjects pointedly ask why America has not forcefully interceded on their behalf. He is understandably diplomatic in his responses, but the hard truth is for the last four years or so, American foreign policy has been more interested in cultivating relations with regimes like Assad’s than changing them. Perhaps his film will open some eyes. Granted, it has a decided point of view, but it still is a powerful example of cinematic journalism. Recommended for all viewers concerned about conditions in Syria, Not Anymore screens tomorrow afternoon (6/20) and Sunday morning (6/23) as part of the Truth Be Told programming block at this year’s AFI Docs presented by Audi.

LFM GRADE: A-

Posted on June 19th, 2013 at 1:24pm.

By Joe Bendel. As a child born into a life in North Korea’s prison camps, Shin Dong-huyk thought nothing was amiss when he witnessed the three hour beating of an eight year old girl caught with five grains of wheat in her pocket. Evidently Dennis Rodman, the regime’s newest apologist, has no problems with it, either. However, all viewers of good conscience will be horrified by the stories Shin and two former DPRK officials have to tell in Marc Wiese’s documentary Camp 14—Total Control Zone, which screens during the 2013 Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

That poor girl died from the injuries she sustained from her “teacher.” Her case is the norm rather than the exception. Children born to prisoners (because a guard either raped their mothers or arranged a coupling as a reward for heavy toiling) have a short life expectancy. Shin beat the odds surviving Camp 14 into his teen years, but at a price. At one point, Shin’s brainwashing led him to make a decision that still haunts him today.

Hyuk Kwon was a guard at Camp 22, where he tortured and executed prisoners on a daily basis. Oh Yangnam was a member of the secret police, who regularly rounded-up and interrogated suspects on the thinnest of pretexts. Both have defected to South Korea, yet they worry they might see some of the prisoners they once tormented should the two Koreas ever unify. Their accounts match Shin’s experiences, chapter and verse.

Through their testimony, sometimes illustrated by Ali Soozandeh’s stark animated sequences, Control conveys the breadth and depth of the Communist regime’s thought control. Clearly, any notion of human rights is absolutely foreign to North Koreans. Ostensibly, Control ends on an ironic note, with Shin expressing his ambivalence about the free South. Yet his remarks really prove just how profoundly broken he is as a human being.

Wiese has assembled a riveting examination of oppression and its lasting impact on the human psyche. While he maintains an intimate focus on his interview subjects, Soozandeh’s animation is grimly evocative, adding a truly cinematic dimension to the documentary.

This is a very good film, but also a very depressing one. The picture of North Korea that emerges is truly the closest thing on Earth to Orwell’s 1984—a dystopian state with complete disregard for its citizens’ well being. However, it points viewers towards Liberty in North Korea (LiNK), a rescue and advocacy organization Shin is affiliated with. Frankly, this is exactly the sort of film HRWFF needs to program more often (instead of Occupy Wall Street polemics). Highly recommended, it screens this coming Thursday (6/20) at the IFC Center and next Friday (6/21) at FSLC’s Francesca Beale Theater.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on June 14th, 2013 at 4:48pm.

By Joe Bendel. Evidently, Vitamin D is not a big priority in the provincial Muslim communities of southern India—women’s rights even less so. One prominent Tamil woman understands this from first-hand experience. For nine years, her family kept her locked away from the outside world until she finally consented to an arranged marriage. The poet-politician tells her story in Kim Longinotto’s documentary profile, Salma, which screens during the 2013 Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

The pre-teenaged Salma (as she is simply known) desperately tried to hide the onset of puberty, because she knew her parents would pull her out of school and sequester her until marriage. She actually valued learning, making her quite the problem child. She was also disinclined to marriage, holding out for as long as possible. Finally she acquiesced, only to find her circumstances largely remained the same. Only her jailers changed.

Secretly, at great risk of physical abuse or worse, Salma starting writing poetry, which a sympathetic family member furtively submitted to a publisher (not completely unlike Jafar Panahi’s This is not a Film, smuggled out of Iran in a cake). Her powerful verse became a sensation, scandalizing the village and outraging her family. However, it also made her a celebrity, forcing her in-laws to let her out into the world, setting the stage for an unlikely political career.

Salma is an eloquent advocate for reform and her experiences are almost unfathomable for the Twenty-First Century. She is well worth listening to, but Longinotto allows her to leave obvious 800 pound gorilla questions unanswered. Most notably, just about every viewer will wonder why she remains silent on the nature of the religion used to justify her oppression. In fact, she is still outwardly quite devout. Is it all for the sake of her political career? Longinotto never pushes her on the issue, despite all the fundamentalist misogyny expressed by her grown nephew, among others.

Nonetheless, reality speaks for itself in every frame of the film. Indeed, the implications of Salma’s personal history are inescapable. Longinotto nicely incorporates Salma’s verse, adding a literary dimension to the film. Informative and bravely intimate in a burqa-less way, Salma screens today (6/14) at the IFC Center and tomorrow (6/15) at the Francesca Beale Theater.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on June 14th, 2013 at 4:47pm.