5/4/18 From Mao to Mozart, Best Documentary Feature, 1979
I feel like I have some vague recollection of when From Mao to Mozart came out because I had a friend whose family was really into classical music, and it seems like something he would have seen and told me about (of course, I could be wrong). Anyway, childhood memories aside, I watched this documentary featuring virtuoso violinist, Isaac Stern as he makes a groundbreaking visit to China in 1979. China was still pretty closed off to Americans at the time and not much was known about it just a few years after the end of the Cultural Revolution. Stern, who died in 2001, is a wonderful guide because he has such a great spirit of curiosity about the people, the culture, the music, but also an irrepressible way of sharing his decades of experience with anyone who cares to listen, and in many instances, it is hundreds of people, old, young, all eager to learn from him. He encourages his 'students' to feel the music, not just be technically correct. Stern also meets teachers at a music school who were imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution, a dark time in modern Chinese history, where Western influences and anyone sharing them would be tortured, starved, locked away for years. Thirty years is a long time ago, and perhaps this may seem dated to some, but I think it's an eye opening film into what it was like in China, and if nothing else, it gave me more exposure to Isaac Stern, and I am now reading his memoir, My First 79 Years.
5/5/18 Defending Our Lives, Best Documentary Short, 1993
Whereas From Mao to Mozart may seem dated and so far removed from what we know of China today, Defending Our Lives is still frighteningly relevant. I think this should be required viewing in high schools and college campuses, and police academies (there are two fairly recent Oscar-nominated documentaries that are about sexual assault, The Invisible War and The Hunting Ground). Actually, everyone should watch it. The movie opens with Sarah Buel, Assistant District Attorney of the Domestic Violence Unit in Suffolk County, Massachusetts. You don't know this information for a while as she recites facts about abuse against a slideshow of photographs; you might think the violent statistics are from a war torn country or a less developed country. That would not be the case. It's right here in America. Buel was also a victim of domestic abuse and like the other women in the film, bravely tells the story of repeated abuse and repeated ignorance from the authorities. That's one the central themes: women who were repeatedly threatened and abused, but also tried to leave, sometimes moving to new states, but their abusers were NEVER stopped by the police. They paint a vivid picture of wanting to leave, but you're scared for your kids, for yourself, and then finally getting the courage to leave. And in the cases presented here, the women took their lives into their own hands and kill their abusers in self-defense. They asked, begged, for help, and were turned away. They ask why society turned its back on them and in some cases, their children; the deaths could have been prevented if the men had been jailed. There is some justice in the film, and the strength that these women show in telling their stories and trying to use it for good is powerful.
5/12/18 The Panama Deception, Best Documentary Feature, 1992
I don't intend to get angry when I watch a documentary, but it happens sometimes, and there's usually a good reason, as is laid out in The Panama Deception. This documentary from 1992 focuses on the invasion of Panama, ostensibly to defend the Panama Canal, but turned into a brutal use of force and puts American imperialism on full display. The film provides historical context for America's relationship with Panama, which doesn't seem all that different from the country's relationships with other Latin American countries (or other countries, period), which is to say pretty one-sided and often violent with a tinge of paternalism. It lays the background for the Iran-Contra Affair (for those of you who think of Oliver North only as the newest president of the NRA. The film includes interviews of reporters, political scientists and political/governmental representatives with voice over narration by the late actress, Elizabeth Montgomery. News clips show then President George H.W. Bush justifying his actions as necessary for the defense of the United States, but critics claim it was a way to combat his reputation as a wimp. Bush's Secretary of Defense was none other than Dick Cheney, who later served as Vice President under George W. Bush and was a strong supporter of the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. Ramsey Clark, former US Attorney General under President Johnson, suggested that what happened in Panama should be considered a war crime, and many others agreed. This is a sad episode in US-international relations, but one that is very rarely talked about these days; perhaps because there have been so many other sad episodes in the past twenty-five years. The documentary is available on YouTube.
Whereas From Mao to Mozart may seem dated and so far removed from what we know of China today, Defending Our Lives is still frighteningly relevant. I think this should be required viewing in high schools and college campuses, and police academies (there are two fairly recent Oscar-nominated documentaries that are about sexual assault, The Invisible War and The Hunting Ground). Actually, everyone should watch it. The movie opens with Sarah Buel, Assistant District Attorney of the Domestic Violence Unit in Suffolk County, Massachusetts. You don't know this information for a while as she recites facts about abuse against a slideshow of photographs; you might think the violent statistics are from a war torn country or a less developed country. That would not be the case. It's right here in America. Buel was also a victim of domestic abuse and like the other women in the film, bravely tells the story of repeated abuse and repeated ignorance from the authorities. That's one the central themes: women who were repeatedly threatened and abused, but also tried to leave, sometimes moving to new states, but their abusers were NEVER stopped by the police. They paint a vivid picture of wanting to leave, but you're scared for your kids, for yourself, and then finally getting the courage to leave. And in the cases presented here, the women took their lives into their own hands and kill their abusers in self-defense. They asked, begged, for help, and were turned away. They ask why society turned its back on them and in some cases, their children; the deaths could have been prevented if the men had been jailed. There is some justice in the film, and the strength that these women show in telling their stories and trying to use it for good is powerful.
5/12/18 The Panama Deception, Best Documentary Feature, 1992
I don't intend to get angry when I watch a documentary, but it happens sometimes, and there's usually a good reason, as is laid out in The Panama Deception. This documentary from 1992 focuses on the invasion of Panama, ostensibly to defend the Panama Canal, but turned into a brutal use of force and puts American imperialism on full display. The film provides historical context for America's relationship with Panama, which doesn't seem all that different from the country's relationships with other Latin American countries (or other countries, period), which is to say pretty one-sided and often violent with a tinge of paternalism. It lays the background for the Iran-Contra Affair (for those of you who think of Oliver North only as the newest president of the NRA. The film includes interviews of reporters, political scientists and political/governmental representatives with voice over narration by the late actress, Elizabeth Montgomery. News clips show then President George H.W. Bush justifying his actions as necessary for the defense of the United States, but critics claim it was a way to combat his reputation as a wimp. Bush's Secretary of Defense was none other than Dick Cheney, who later served as Vice President under George W. Bush and was a strong supporter of the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. Ramsey Clark, former US Attorney General under President Johnson, suggested that what happened in Panama should be considered a war crime, and many others agreed. This is a sad episode in US-international relations, but one that is very rarely talked about these days; perhaps because there have been so many other sad episodes in the past twenty-five years. The documentary is available on YouTube.
