We will be meeting tomorrow (Thursday, November 10th) at 9:30 to watch "THE
ANTHROPOLOGIST" and to discuss our list of films. We still have quite a few
documentary films on our list. If you have a favorite documentary or two on
the list that you would like us to consider, this would be the time to
mention it and put in a good word for it.
Earlier I had given reactions to "BLOOD ON THE MOUNTAIN" and "DISTURBING THE
PEACE." Yesterday I watched "THE UNCONDEMNED" and today I watched "THE BEST
WORST THING THAT EVER COULD HAVE HAPPENED.."
"THE UNCONDEMNED" addresses war crimes and crimes against humanity. The film
is about a court case arising from the Rwandan Genocide that established
rape and sexual assault as crimes against humanity that could be prosecuted
by international courts. This is a difficult film with some very disturbing
images and snippets of horrific testimony. Much of the film, however, shows
how idealistic young people became involved in Rwanda because they wanted to
offer their skills to help bring justice. They were unprepared for what they
would encounter and what they accomplished in many ways benefits from
serendipity. Obviously, the most important people in bringing the
perpetrators to justice were those willing to testify to what they saw and
experienced. The investigative and legal journey is quite fascinating and
the film has a "happy ending" of sorts. A significant amount of the dialogue
is subtitled. The film deals with difficult material which some could find
too intense and most people won't have a "can't wait" attitude about seeing
it.
As many of you may share, the post-election hangover has been pretty bad.
"THE BEST WORST THING THAT EVER COULD HAVE HAPPENED." has provided a helpful
therapy session. The film is about the ill-fated Broadway debut of the
musical "Merrily We Roll Along." This was a Hal Prince and Stephen Sondheim
collaboration for which they decided to cast teenaged actors for this play
that basically showed jaundiced middle-aged adults regressing to their
younger more idealistic selves. Serendipitously, ABC was interested in
making a documentary of a Prince-Sondheim musical being developed so one of
the musical's star performers had a treasure trove of footage when he later
decides to make a film about this show. A lot of the types of journeys the
musical tried to illustrate is played out with members of the cast. Jason
Alexander (George on "Seinfeld") was one of the young actors in the show. I
loved this film. Perhaps it was where I was emotionally when I saw it, but I
found it fascinating and moving. Much of the film is made up of archival
film and video making the image quality and sound quality less than crisp. I
don't know if any work is planned to improve that when the film is released
into theaters. The current screener is, however, not a final version because
the credits were not provided. Anyway despite those caveats on image and
sound quality, I would recommend further viewing.
I have not heard from anyone about their viewing experiences with "COMING
THROUGH THE RYE" or any of the other films for which links were provided.
Your feedback about these films will be helpful to our meeting discussion.
Joel
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