Oscar nominated Documentaries: Strong Island, Icarus, Abacus: Small Enough to Jail; Last Men in Aleppo

Best Documentary Features for 2017

Have I told you I love documentaries? I really do, and this year's nominees (I have seen all but one of the films) are well done and cover a range of topics, and use a couple different narrative techniques, including the directors being part of the film, not just directing it; just filming and letting the action and people involved propel the story; or filming and interviewing for different perspectives and providing a lot of background data. A great documentary will make a stereotypical topic interesting, maybe even heartbreaking; you will come away more informed, more engaged, more curious. Many times (it seems to me) documentaries get short shrift in general and the Oscars are their moment in the sun, whether or not they win, they get a lot of publicity and then maybe the directors or producers can go on and make more films. This is my way of suggesting that you try at least one of these films (which one, I leave up to you).

1/26/18 Strong Island (on Netflix streaming) - Director Yance Ford directs and features in this documentary about her brother,William Ford's, 1992 murder in Long Island, and which the grand jury declined to go forward with charges. Ford directs, but also features in the film as he recounts events in the family's history and the events surrounding the shooting, and the quest to understand what happened and why the all white grand jury seemed to turn its back on William, a young black man. Yance interviews his mother, sister and a few of William's friends. He conducts a phone interview with one of the investigators, but nobody else from the authorities will speak with him. As gut-wrenching as the film is, I fell in love with Yance's mother, Barbara Dunmore Ford, an educator who founded Rosewood, a school for women on Riker's Island; she had a dignity and strength, and a desire to find some kind of good in her son's death. Sadly, she died towards the end of the film. One thing I would liked to have seen, and maybe Ford tried and it just never happened, was to interview the man who shot William, or the other man who was a witness. Maybe that would have detracted from Ford's goals/objectives, but maybe there would have been remorse or something worth hearing. This is a multi-layered story: it's about the Ford family, and other African American families' quest for the American dream; it's about wanting justice or some kind of resolution for William's death; and it's about the American justice system in general. And on some level, it's about Yance Ford coming out (intentionally or accidentally, I wasn't totally clear) to William about being gay and transgender. Ford is the first transgender director to be nominated for an Oscar. Some may wave that off, but to a group that is marginalized, ignored, harassed and threatened, this is a big deal.

2/5/18 Abacus: Small Enough to Jail (Amazon Prime) - If you don't remember the financial collapse of 2008, then congratulations, you were probably not born or too young to have your 401K demolished by the greed of some very large banks; banks that were classified as "too big to fail", meaning, heaven forbid, the leaders/CEOs/COOs/presidents couldn't be put in jail or the world economy would go further in the toilet than it already was. On the other hand, Abacus, a community bank in Chinatown, New York City, that self-reported wrongdoing by one of their employees, this was a bank and leadership that COULD be charged. Thomas Sung is a Chinese immigrant who came to the United States when he was a young man, became a lawyer, and then founded Abacus, a bank that catered to the Chinese community in New York, and who understood the needs and fears that immigrants have about large institutions. It became a family run business, with two of Sung's daughters becoming executives in the bank. The film tells the story of the Sung family and Abacus Bank against the backdrop of the mortgage collapse in 2008; comparing Abacus to the larger (much larger) banks and what happened to those companies and executives. Director Steve James interviews the Sung family, the Sungs' attorneys, prosecutors, jurors, members of the media who specialized in financial news or reporting in the Chinese community. He also includes testimony from the trial, which was very enlightening. If financial films make your eyes cross, James (and his subjects) present their information in a clear and very understandable way. This is not just about a bank and its officers being accused of wrongdoing, it's about a family invested and committed to its community and neighborhoods, and it's about a family who poke, annoy, support and love each other. Thomas Sung was around 80 years old when the film was made, and he acted and looked like a 60 year old, still full of life and passion.

2/10/18 Icarus (streaming on Netflix) is probably my least favorite of the documentaries, although with the Winter Olympics happening right now, it's very apropos. The film starts out with director Bryan Fogel wanting to improve his race results in amateur cycling races, and it seems like a great idea to him to try doping, and to try and hide the results (right there he lost me and it felt like I was suffering through the next couple of hours). He reaches out to a doping expert in the US who at first says he would help, but then, he thinks, oh, this could ruin my reputation. However, he recommends Grigory Rodchenkov, who at the time was the director of the Russian anti-doping program. Rodchenkov gleefully agrees to help Fogel cheat the dope testing, telling him how to freeze his urine and get it to Russia, which interestingly involves a trip to the US by Rodchenkov. What comes to light in the film is the role that Rodchenkov and his superiors played in the doping scandal of the Sochi Olympics (which is why this year, Russian athletes are not competing under the Russian flag, and probably why they have not won any gold medals). What follows is something out of a John Le Carre novel as Rodchenkov admits to cheating, says it came all the way from the top, and then threats against Rodchenkov by the government, and him escaping to the US, leaving his family behind. He is now under witness protection because there are legitimate threats against his life. Rodchenkov is like your Uncle Vanya, he's jolly, laughs a lot, he's avuncular, endearing himself to Fogel and possibly to the viewers. Fogel never circles back to the original premise of the film, his cheating to do better in a race, and if it was worth it, or if there have been side effects from taking the different hormones. The timing couldn't be better for this nomination, the Oscars and the Olympics, and it is an interesting  topic, but I think the other documentaries are better.

2/14/18 Last Men in Aleppo (streaming on Netflix) is a film about the White Helmets, civilian volunteers in Syria who have been rescuing and helping their fellow Syrians, often at extreme risk to themselves. It features Khaled, who is like a big teddy bear who loves playing with his children and worries about their future; and Mahmoud, a very serious young man, who worries about his younger brother, who is also a White Helmet. It is unreal what is happening in Syria, the Assad regime and his Russian allies bombing civilians, children, old people, without any hesitation or qualm. It is unfathomable to those of us who have never lived through anything like that, to think that people do live under those conditions, with a severe lack of food, medicine, and yet, there is a spirit that is indomitable, as the besieged residents of Aleppo hold protests against Assad. The White Helmets willingly put themselves at risk, because they love their country and their countrymen. It's beyond bravery, but I don't know what the right word would be. It's impossible to watch this movie without being moved. Some day, Hollywood is going to make a movie about the White Helmets, and it will not even match what really happened. As a post script, director Feras Fayyad and his team will not be attending the Oscar ceremonies because their visas were denied. Thank god we're being protected from a filmmaker (sarcasm font).