Category: Documentary

By Joe Bendel. The classic 1980’s movie hero was a commando who could inexplicably bury himself in mud, yet spring up at exactly the right time to ambush an enemy army. Today’s prototypical protagonist is a man-child who tries to win back his elfin girlfriend by working in an organic food coop. How did we go so far wrong as a culture? Back in the ’80s, the best way to watch a bunch of crap blow-up was on VHS. It still is for some die-hards. Josh Johnson profiles the VHS tape and the people who love it in Rewind This, which screens during the 80’s themed Awesome Fest in Philadelphia.

There are scads of oddball films that were released on VHS, but have yet to get the DVD treatment. Partly this is because the big studios were late to the party (like they were right on time for the digital download thing), leaving the field open to bargain hunting independents. More importantly, the voracious demand of mom-and-pop rental stores across the country required a constant stream of new product, regardless of good taste or logic. Those zero budget wonders are a major reason why some collectors bitterly cling to their VHS tapes.

Johnson gives a good overview of VHS’s origins and its triumph over Betamax. While he covers the love affair between VHS and porn, he does not belabor the point, preferring to focus on the old school action and horror movies that became mass market commodities thanks to home video. In addition to a motley crew of blogger-collectors, Rewind features commentary from legendary grindhouse director Frank Henenlotter, Cassandra “Elvira, Mistress of the Dark” Peterson, Lloyd “Troma” Kaufman, David “The Rock” Nelson, and dudes from SXSW, Something Weird, Twitch, Severin Films, Cinefamily, and Alamo Drafthouse. There is also a Japanese contingent, including Shinji Imaoka, the director of Underwater Love, probably the most endearing Pinku Eiga film ever.

Rewind does not skimp on the vintage clips, reveling in the aesthetics of direct-to-video exploitation movies with lushly painted pre-Photoshop covers. Unfortunately, the not infrequent whining about big media corporations quickly grows tiresome. It is also rather off the mark. No distributors were bigger cutthroat capitalists than Golan-Globus, yet they brought us VHS milestones like the American Ninja franchise. Sadly, viewer tastes just shifted from red meat to vegan comfort food.

Despite the occasional eye-rolls, Rewind This offers some heartfelt nostalgia for some of the scrappiest films ever haphazardly released. Good, kind-of-clean fun overall, Rewind This! is recommended for all cult cinema fans when it screens Monday night (6/17) as part of Awesome Fest, which also totally deserves your support for their 30th anniversary screening of The Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie: Strange Brew on July 8th.

LFM GRADE: B

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

By Joe Bendel. In Morocco, men are rigidly patriarchal and domineering of woman, yet they often expect their wives and sisters to provide for them. That is a nasty catch-22 to reconcile. The divorced Khadija does her best as a wedding videographer, but it is never good enough for her freeloading family. Karima Zoubir documents her daily grind in Camera/Woman, an Al Jazeera co-production screening as part of the 2013 Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

Morocco is a man’s world, but women like Khadija do all the house work and evidently pay most of the bills. After her divorce, she and her young son moved back in with her parents and her lazy brothers. At least her mother does some cooking. The rest of the family seems incapable of doing anything besides passing judgment on her. Yet it is her jobs videotaping weddings (where everyone looks happy except the brides) and circumcision ceremonies that pays their rent. Unfortunately, that means she must work evening hours, which essentially makes her a prostitute in the eyes of her brother Abdel. Why, he can barely find the magnanimity to gorge on the food she buys.

Eventually, Khadija’s conflict with her family reaches a critical point, remaining unresolved when Zoubir’s film ends. If she made good on her promise to cut them off financially, there is an excellent chance they have all starved to death since then.

Yes, C/W is brought to you in part by Al Jazeera and, no, the film never digs too deeply into the socio-religious institutions responsible for the rampant sexism and exploitation Khadija and her fellow divorcees endure. Still, the women mince no words, decrying: “In our society there’s no mercy. It’s ruthless.” Likewise, it is clearly a disastrous Ramadan celebration when the family resentments come to a head.

C/W is far from a perfect film. Khadija’s friends are not well established and most of her family is understandably camera shy. Nonetheless, it vividly illustrates the misogynist nature of traditional Islamist society. Camera/Woman is the sort of film that instills outrage and a feeling of helplessness in viewers. Presented on a double bill with Going Up the Stairs, it makes a convincing case women’s rights are several millennia behind the times in the Middle East. One of a handful of eye-opening selections at this year’s HRW Film Fest, Camera/Woman screens this coming Sunday (6/16) at the IFC Center and the following Tuesday (6/18) at the Francesca Beale Theater.

LFM GRADE: B-

Posted on June 12th, 2013 at 12:50pm.

By Joe Bendel. Any women creating art in today’s Iran could be classified as an “Outsider Artist,” because you just cannot get anymore “outside” than a woman trying to express herself artistically in the Islamist state. The devout Akram Sartakhti apparently has no interest in political subject matter, but she still must navigate the institutionalized misogyny. Rokhsareh Ghaem Maghami documents her work and complicated domestic life in Going Up the Stairs: a Portrait of an Unlikely Iranian Artist, which screens during the 2013 Human Rights Watch Film Festival.

At the age of nine, Sartakhti was married off the Heider Rahimi, a colleague of her father’s, who was seventeen years her senior. When the Shah was scheduled to visit her school, Sartkhti and her classmates were told to leave their headscarves at home. Instead, she dropped out before learning how to read. For years, she lived in fear of her domineering husband, but as they advanced in age, her comparative youth somewhat turned the tables. Late in life, she turned the second floor of their townhouse into a studio.

However, Iranian law grants husbands ironclad control over their wives. Throughout Stairs, Sartakhti is worried Rahimi will refuse her permission to travel to Paris, where her grown children have organized an exhibition of her work, as an arbitrary means of asserting his power.

Sartakhti’s paintings clearly fit within the Outsider rubric. While nowhere near as polished or sophisticated as Iran Darroudi’s surreal landscapes, her surprisingly large canvasses show an intriguing sense of composition and a striking use of color. They are worth seeing, but of course public exhibition will always be a tricky proposition for any woman artist under the current regime.

Serving as her own camera crew, Maghami obviously earned the trust of the artist and her husband. Still, one wonders what happened after she left. Frankly, there is often a pronounced disconnect between the on-screen calm captured on film and the bitter stories Sartakhti tells of the early years of her arranged marriage. Many people will take Stairs as proof that arranged spouses can always grow to love each other, but at what cost? Maghami’s doc is rather ambiguous on this question.

Nevertheless, the fifty-one minute Stairs pretty clearly establishes the mandated gender inequalities of today’s Iran and how they severely hinder even a staunchly traditional woman like Sartakhti. An interesting portrait of an artist marginalized simply because she is a woman, Going Up the Stairs is one of the stronger selections of this year’s Human Rights Watch Fest. It screens on a double bill with Camera/Woman this coming Sunday (6/16) at the IFC Center and the following Tuesday (6/18) at the Francesca Beale Theater.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted on June 11th, 2013 at 3:20pm.

By Joe Bendel. Odds are excellent you have many products lying about the house that were assembled by Falun Gong practitioners. The Chinese Communist Party forces millions of religious and political prisoners to serve as outright slave laborers. Many victims of the so-called Laogai work camps are in fact Falun Gong practitioners. Two such Laogai survivors tell their harrowing stories in Michael Perlman’s exposé, Free China: the Courage to Believe, which opens this Friday in New York.

Based on traditional Chinese Taoist and Buddhist beliefs, Falun Gong was not always prohibited by the Party. In the movement’s early days, many Party mouthpieces even hailed practitioners’ healthy lifestyle. However, despite the lack of an organized bureaucracy, when the estimated number of practitioners exceeded total CCP membership, the Party freaked. Despite growing adherents within the military, the government responded much in the same fashion as it did at Tiananmen Square—with extreme brutality.

Jennifer Zeng was a Party member. Dr. Charles Lee was an American citizen. Both assumed their statuses would provide some protection, yet both were condemned to the Laogai system. Soon after international activists secured his hard fought release, Dr. Lee found the very Homer Simpson slippers his work camp had manufactured in an American retailer.

While Perlman’s film primarily focuses on the Falun Gong experience, he necessarily touches on human rights abuses that apply to all faiths and prisoners of conscience oppressed by the Party, including: the Tiananmen crackdown, allegations of prison organ harvesting, and the notorious internet firewall. Frankly, one would have liked to see Perlman pull a Michael Moore on Cisco executives, whose Chinese division regarded the intrusive Communist internet policing to be a swell business opportunity.

The testimony of Zeng and Lee is simply harrowing, encompassing tremendous physical and emotional torment. Perlman also incorporates expert commentary from Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), probably the most principled human rights advocate in the U.S. Congress, and former Canadian MP David Kilgour, who left both the Conservative and Liberal Parties for reasons of principle.

Free China wants to end on an optimistic note, but it sadly feels like a bit of a stretch. Yes, dissident Falun Gong supporters now have the means to report to the world the human rights abuses inside China, having founded NTD TV and the Epoch Times (which I proudly contribute to, in full disclosure). Yet, the Party’s oppression continues unabated. Since the current administration has essentially mortgaged our economic future to China, those like Rep. Smith who strive to alter the Party’s abhorrent behavior will have limited leverage for the foreseeable future.

Regardless, Free China is right on target in diagnosing the problem. Indeed, it does so with commendable economy, clocking-in at just a whisker over an hour. A timely wake-up call, it should be seen by everyone who values the right to think and worship freely. Recommended especially for younger New Yorkers, who must learn to appreciate these values, Free China: the Courage to Believe opens this Friday (6/7) in New York at the Quad Cinema.

LFM GRADE: B+

Posted on June 5th, 2013 at 9:50am.

By Joe Bendel. For all practical purposes, the act of blogging (something I do every day) is illegal in China, Cuba, and Iran. Despite violent state harassment, three women representing each country have become superstars of citizen journalism. Barbara Miller profiles this brave trio of bloggers in Forbidden Voices, which screens during the 2013 Brooklyn Film Festival.

Probably the best known of the three, Yoani Sánchez blogs at: www.desdecuba.com/generationy. Her reports on Cuban political prisoners and their mothers, wives, and daughters, dubbed the “Ladies in White,” have been picked up around the world. Like many of the peaceful protestors she covers, she has been savagely beaten by Castro’s thugs. Ironically, her international reputation provides her a measure of protection, but there is no mistaking the real and present danger she lives with constantly. For example, during the course of Forbidden, Sánchez reports the suspicious prison death of Orlando Zapata Tamaya and struggles to save the life of hunger-striking Guillermo Fariñas.

As brutal as the Castro regime might be, Zeng Jinyan probably faces an even more perilous situation in China. A human rights activist who blogs at: www.zengjinyan.wordpress.com, Zeng was crudely blocked from leaving her apartment by Party enforcers, well before she was officially sentenced to house arrest. With her fellow activist husband Hu Jia incarcerated, Zeng deals with the challenge of raising her young daughter by herself, in her state of captivity.

Farnaz Seifi now lives in the safety of exile, but her blog has long been terminated by Iran’s special internet secret police. She tries to support activists within the Islamist state by publicizing their plight as best she can, but she fears the reprisals her family might consequently suffer.

Evidently, it is relatively easy to smuggle hidden cameras into Cuba, because Voices includes more coverage of Sánchez than of her blogging colleagues. Yet, the images of Zeng are probably the most dramatic, including a brief interview with the confined woman, shouting down from her window. This is not meant to short change Seifi. She has seen the inside of interrogation chambers and her concerns for her family, friends, and country are genuine and genuinely moving.

Indeed, all three women are truly heroic, pure and simple. By shining a spotlight on Sánchez and Zeng, Miller makes it more difficult for their oppressors to make them conveniently disappear. When watching Voices, viewers will start to understand that conditions are far worse in each country than even the most steadfast critics of Communism and Islamist Fundamentalism most likely realized. This is truly an often shocking but extremely timely and compelling exposé. Frankly, it is hard to conceivably imagine how the upcoming Human Rights Watch Film Festival could proceed without it, but give BFF all due credit for selecting it.

Forbidden Voices is a case of cinematic journalism at its finest. These are stories that need to be told. Miller also pays tribute to the blogging ideal, rather elegantly celebrating the powerful and surprisingly poetic quality of their words. As a result, it is also quite rewarding when judged as a film on strictly formalistic criteria. Very highly recommended, Forbidden Voices screens this Wednesday (6/5) at Windmill Studios and Saturday (6/8) at IndieScreen as part of the “Magnetic” edition of the Brooklyn Film Festival.

LFM GRADE: A

Posted on June 3rd, 2013 at 1:06pm.

By Joe Bendel. Maybe there’s still yet hope for Los Angeles: the city is home to a small but vibrant flamenco scene. Of course, nobody is making much money—quite the contrary. The musicians, vocalists, and dancers all simply share a passion for the music. Katina Dunn documents their musical camaraderie in Kumpanía Flamenco Los Angeles, which screens this afternoon during the “Sweet Sixteen” edition of Dances With Films.

Flamenco originated in the tightly knit Roma community of Seventeenth Century Spain. Musicians and dancers from other cultures have been drawn to the music, but according to one vocalist, only Spaniards can sing Flamenco with the right accent. (Yes, he happens to be a Spanish expat.) Regardless of authenticity issues, the Los Angeles Flamenco community is distinctly diverse. Many local Hispanic musicians have adopted the music as their own – including Joey Heredia, a professional drummer comfortable crossing stylistic lines, whose impressive credits include work with Tania Maria, Poncho Sanchez, and Diane Reeves.

Japanese artists are also well represented in KFLA. Kyoto native Jose Tanaka is not just a leading guitarrista and composer, but clearly serves as a leader holding the community together. However, if one star truly emerges from the film, it would have to be Bailaora (dancer) Mizuho Sato. A striking performer with flawless technique, her sequences will hold viewers spellbound. She also provides real insight into the Flamenco aesthetic, especially when explaining how the demur nature of the presentation is part of what makes it all smolder.

Dunn nicely conveys the scene’s vibe and gives interested viewers an easy starting point to check out the assembled artists live—namely, the Fountain Theatre. Her selective but clever use of archival footage adds fitting context as well. She does right by the music, which is the most important thing.

While not reaching the lofty heights of Fernando Trueba’s Calle 54 (the true gold standard of music performance docs), KFLA is still quite a dynamic and engaging film. At just a whisker over an hour, it will leave most viewers wanting more. Appealing to the eyes and ears, Kumpanía Flamenco Los Angeles is recommended for general audiences when it screens this afternoon (5/31) as part of the 2013 edition of Dances With Films, in Hollywood, California.

LFM GRADE: B

Posted May 31st, 2013 at 12:04pm.