Documentary shorts and Mrs. Doubtfire

I want to say that I love my library system. I've been able to get so many movies for free, or just $1, from my county system, but I have reached the point where they don't have some of the movies I need. But then I discovered Interlibrary Loan which lets me borrow (without leaving my chair) videos from other library systems within Minnesota - for FREE (well, tax dollars, but such a deal!). So, almost everything reviewed in the next few entries is an ILL (as we call it in the biz). Onward.

11/25/16 Music by Prudence, Best Documentary Short, 2010
11/25/16 The Blood of Yingzhou District, Best Documentary Short, 2006

I feel like it's been a long time since I last watched a documentary, so my brain got nourished as well as my stomach over the Thanksgiving holiday. I watched Music by Prudence a couple of years ago, but like so many of those already watched films, I wanted to take another look. I still love it. "Prudence" is Prudence Mabhena, a young woman who was born with arthrogryposis, a disease that affects the joints, and has left her wheelchair-bound. The movie is about Prudence and her friends at King George IV's School for the Disabled in Zimbabwe who find an outlet for their feelings and observations in music. In Zimbabwe, as in many countries, the disabled are feared and ostracized, so for Prudence and her friends, Honest, Energy, Goodwell, Marvelous and the others, to form a band, Liyana, and perform for diverse audiences is quite something. I really liked the music, which has about five types of percussion, keyboards and a few vocalists. The spirit is pretty uplifting, and while there a few tearful moments, I found myself smiling quite a bit. I don't know if this is available online, but it is on Netflix and through Interlibrary Loan in Minnesota.

I would like to focus on some positive aspect of  The Blood of Yingzhou District, but it was hard and heartbreaking. The last 10 minutes or so gave me a little relief, but getting there was difficult and made me so angry. "The blood" is blood that people from the Yingzhou District sell to make money; while you cannot get AIDS from donating blood under normal and safe conditions, these poor villagers sold blood, had important components 'extracted' and then their blood was returned to their bodies after it was mixed with other people's and thereby contaminated (I'm doing this from memory, so I am trying to capture the process as best as I can). The movie focuses on the children of these villagers, many of whom are orphaned or neglected by their families after their parents die. Even though their relatives may love them and want to care for them, they are afraid that if they associate with the kids (who may or may not even be sick) that nobody will want to be near them. It really is an education issue which is not easily overcome. The movie focuses on three sets of children: Gao Jun is a little boy of undetermined age who is very isolated after his primary caregivers die and his uncles are afraid to get too close; Nan Nan was being raised by her older sister before being placed in an orphanage where she gets some medical care and affection, but still has contact with her sister; the Huang children are three siblings who have been shunned, teased, and bullied by their village. We do see a few outreach workers trying to educate villagers about HIV/AIDS, and how it cannot be spread by casual contact. It's ten years later and I do not know if it is any better or worse or how the children are doing. I'd like to think things are better, but I don't know.

11/26/16 Mrs. Doubtfire, Best Makeup, 1993

I'm not sure what kind of review to do. Is it lazy to just say that Mrs. Doubtfire starring Robin Williams is still funny twenty-four years later? It is funny, he is funny, the situations are funny. Williams is Daniel, newly divorced from his wife, Miranda (Sally Field), and even though he tries to be there for his three kids, he doesn't always do it to Miranda's expectations. This sets the stage for an unpleasant custody agreement where Daniel can only see the kids once a week. Any other dad might have just settled for that, but not Daniel. Miranda advertises (she thinks) for a housekeeper/nanny for the kids, which Daniel sabotages in a pretty funny way. He then takes the job for himself, or rather Euphegenia Doubtfire. It just gets hilarious from there, as Daniel and his brother Frank (Harvey Fierstein) and Frank's partner, Jack, who are makeup artists, to come up with a disguise. The disguise is what won the Best Oscar for Makeup. Mrs. Doubtfire embodies the traits and behaviors that Miranda had told Daniel that she wanted from him. The kids are not all that thrilled at first, but Miranda is, and gradually everyone loves Mrs. Doubtfire. Miranda starts dating one of her clients and old friends, Stu Dunmire (Pierce Brosnan) which is a little awkward for Daniel/Mrs. Doubtfire. A series of events transpire that release the kracken, and it gets a little crazy. If I only watched the scenes where Williams cuts loose, Mrs. Doubtfire dancing, running between the kitchen and the bedroom to make a cup of tea, and on and on, and I would have been happy. The fact that there is a nice, fun, touching story wrapped around his frenetic behavior is a huge plus. I think families could watch this movie today and still enjoy it as much as they did twenty years ago. Chris Columbus, who directed a couple of the Harry Potter films, Home Alone 1 and 2, Night at the Museum and many others, shows his comic chops here, in one of his earliest directorial efforts. If you're looking for something the whole family can watch over the holidays, you might consider this (there is some innuendo because Mrs. Doubtfire has to wear prosthetic body parts, so some people may think it's not okay for little kids, and that's probably true, but older kids 11/12 could watch; there are more offensive things in commercials).