Journey of the Heart - Henri Nouwen

Journey of the Heart is a thought-provoking look at the life of this unassuming, charismatic scholar considered by many of his contemporaries as one of the best and brightest minds of his time. Abandoning the insular works of academia, Nouwen embarked on a radical and personal pilgrimage of downward mobility that led him to L'Arche, a community of people with developmental disabilities. This documentary features an inspiring conversation with Nouwen shot just a year before his death. Interviews with key friends, prominent colleagues and family members help complete the picture of this unique man of faith - a person of passion and compassion. (from Amazon.com)

Great film about a great man. Humility and thoughtful respect at its best. I am currently reading a few of his works - more to follow about them soon!

Encounters at the End of The World

Just about anywhere Werner Herzog goes becomes an interesting place, in part because the director shapes it with his distinctively sardonic eye. In Encounters at the End of the World, the 'Zog heads off to Antarctica, finding there a population of unusual people, hallucinatory underwater life, and penguins. He doesn't appear on camera, but the unmistakably Teutonic Herzog voice is very much with us all the time, a baleful tour guide for this blank destination. In the human outposts of Antarctica, Herzog finds the kind of people you might expect would gravitate to the edge of existence--the curious, the oddball, the wanderers who've run out of other places to explore. He finds some deadpan hilarity, especially in filming a communication drill involving people practicing blizzard conditions (they wear buckets over their heads while roped together). The underwater photography (a realm previously explored in Herzog's The Wild Blue Yonder) is by Henry Kaiser, and it meshes perfectly with the director's interest in alien eye-scapes. And when Herzog finally does find penguins, his imagination goes to the idea that some penguins go insane, scurrying off into their own suicidal directions. This isn't as arresting a film as Grizzly Man, but it is an entertaining travelogue spiked with quirky observations. --Robert Horton

Great film. As are all of Herzog's I suppose - humor and fantastic underwater photography and music.

An International Street

For those of you who are REALLY interested in Sesame Street....

The World According to Sesame Street is out of print, but available in many libraries - a terrific overview of The Children's Television Workshop, and Sesame Street abroad. Sesame Street is seen in many countries, and they try to tailor their show to address the cultural needs and interests of the country in which it is shown. A fascinating look at a non-violent show, in some areas where children already know much violence at a young age.

Our favorite episodes of Shalom Sesame are in Vol. 1 - we enjoy "barbazoni" (rubber duckie) in Hebrew! Also hosted by Itzhack Perlman.

Recount

At the height of the 2000 election season, CBS anchor Dan Rather quipped, "The presidential race is crackling like a hickory fire." Director Jay Roach (Austin Powers) recaptures that blaze in his smart HBO docudrama about the thriller in Palm Beach County. Written by actor Danny Strong, Recount bounces between the Sunshine State, Gore's Tennessee headquarters, and Bush's Texas stomping grounds. Gore adviser Ron Klain (an excellent Kevin Spacey) provides a privileged window into those weeks when the American public first became familiar with obscure terms like "hanging chad." (Since Klain has an ax to grind with the vice president, neither he nor Gore appear completely heroic.) First, the Democratic candidate pulls ahead; then he falls behind. Just as he prepares to concede, Klain's colleague, Michael Whouley (Denis Leary), spots an anomaly in the vote count, and the race continues. Enter eccentric Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris (Laura Dern, a certain Emmy nominee), who orders a recount, and former Secretaries of State Warren Christopher (John Hurt) and James Baker III (Tom Wilkinson), who oversee a process that ends up in the Supreme Court (where Ed Begley Jr.'s David Boies represents Gore). Produced by the late Sydney Pollack, who originally intended to direct, Recount skillfully integrates news footage with dark comedy, most provided by the foul-mouthed Whouley and Bush adviser Ben Ginsberg (Bob Balaban), who's still livid about JFK's victory over Nixon. If the Democrats come across as more sympathetic, the Republicans come across as more colorful--and strategically effective. --Kathleen C. Fennessy (from Amazon.com)

Great film - brought back horrible memories, but Dern as Katherine Harris is priceless.

Air Guitar Nation (2006)

"The axes are invisible, the chops are real"

"to err is human, to air guitar is divine"

"Tight long strums is what it's about, man"

"it's the last pure art form. (he) sees it as something that you can't commercialize, because it's invisible... you can steal some one's possessions, but you can't take away something that's invisible."

Set around the 2003 Annual Air Guitar World Championship Contest, and in particular around the first-time American participants, Air Guitar Nation plays like a tournament movie, pitting two opponents against each other, the "favorite" C-Diddy and the "relentless challenger" Björn Türoque.

This is quite a nice balance after the book about REAL guitar that I just read. Very serious musicians, albeit without any actual instruments. Enjoy!

News from off the soapbox: poverty in India

I saw Slumdog Millionaire yesterday. I thought it was great, plot devices were clever. Go see it - Roger Ebert's review is a better summary than I can give here.

It also, however, was yet another stunning depiction of the abject poverty that still happens, in this day and age, in the world. I was reminded of the following:

“To sum up, an overwhelming majority of the Indian population, around three-quarters, is poor and vulnerable and it is a staggering 836 million as of 2004-05. This includes 70 million or 6.4% who may be characterised as extremely poor with a per capita consumption of less than or three-quarters of the official poverty line. To this should be added 167 million of those who are poor with consumption not more than that fixed as the official poverty line. If this is relaxed to include those with a per capita consumption of up to 25% above the poverty line, called marginally poor here, then we find another 207 million. These three groups account for 444 million or 40.8% of the population. To this we add those with a per capita consumption between 1.25 and two times the poverty line as vulnerable and this group of poor and vulnerable comes to 836 million of Indians or well over 75% of the population.

“The next major finding is the close association between poverty and vulnerability with one’s social identity. The two social groups who are at the bottom by this classification are the SCs/STs, who constitute the bottom layer, and the Muslims, who are in the next layer. This does not mean that the other groups are far better off. The next group is the OBCs but better than the two bottom layers. Even for those who do not belong to any of these groups, the incidence is 55%.”

from ‘India’s Common People: Who Are They, How Many Are They and How Do They Live?’ by Arjun Sengupta, K P Kannan and G Raveendran in the Economic & Political Weekly, March 15, 2008

We have a LONG way to go in fixing this world. And I suppose fixing means different things to different folks: I mean making sure people are basically healthy and safe with enough to eat, and are not regularly tortured and persecuted. We as Americans are all yearning for a better 2009, it's hard to be reminded that there's so many places in this world where people quite simply do not have the ability, the means, or the luxury of even hoping for a better future. They are living moment to moment, with not many moments left.

A good place to read about India's social justice issues is at infochange.

Milk - a must-see film

Roger Ebert's review is best for this phenomenal film. Go see it. It may change the way you see things - it did for me.

Music From The Inside Out

It is the musicians themselves who come to the forefront, rather than the conductor or star soloist. Among the many memorable musicians featured are concertmaster David Kim, whose quest for a solo career ends with a life-changing epiphany that led him to the orchestra; trombonist Nitzan Haroz, who jams with a local salsa band each Thursday night; violist and artist Judy Geist, who finds connections between her painting and her music; and cellist Udi Bar-David, an Israeli who initiates a musical collaboration with a prominent Palestinian musician, in which music trumps politics.

While MUSIC FROM THE INSIDE OUT is about the many people within one musical ensemble, it is ultimately a personal musical journey. Each musician’s story reveals a struggle to maintain individuality, to test musical boundaries and to choose the path of an artist. Ultimately, the film attempts to break down the barriers that have long separated orchestra musicians and their audiences, and get to the essence of the music itself.

Terrific Film! We all know how "special" music is, etc - but nice to see all these perspectives. I rented this at our local library, I may show parts of it to the band in the spring.

Farmingville

The shocking hate-based attempted murders of two Mexican day laborers catapult a small Long Island town into national headlines, unmasking a new front line in the border wars: suburbia. For nearly a year, Carlos Sandoval and Catherine Tambini lived and worked in Farmingville, New York, so they could capture first-hand the stories of residents, day laborers and activists on all sides of the debate.

I thought this film portrayed many sides of a complicated issue, and was well done. Immigrants are people too - not just statistics. And yet in communities already overburdened by growing numbers and diminishing resources, who will pay the bill?

Questioning Faith

All his life, award-winning filmmaker Macky Alston has believed in a merciful and benevolent God. The untimely death of a close friend and fellow seminary student challenges Alston s deepest convictions. In an effort to resolve this quandary, QUESTIONING FAITH sets out on a journey of probing self-discovery. Alston sets up a network of interviews with a wildly diverse group of people in New York, to answer the pressing question: How does one believe in God in the face of so much human suffering? At stake here is not only whether or not Alston can maintain his faith, but also how human beings navigate their way through the darkest hours of seemingly senseless loss. A deeply moving and uplifting film, QUESTIONING FAITH reveals an underlying principle common to us all: the power of presence, as life calls us to be there for each other. from Amazon.com

Regardless of your religious convictions, this film is a snapshot of the human condition. It is well made and lets the participants speak for themselves.

Coming Soon to a Theater Near You!

I also saw some great previews today - here's the list of films I can't wait to see....

Milk
Frost/Nixon
Slum Dog Millionaire
Doubt
Happy Go Lucky

David is off for 2 weeks at Christmas - I suspect we will be seeing movies in shifts! Happy Holidays!

Synecdoche, New York

I know how to do it now. There are nearly thirteen million people in the world. None of those people is an extra. They're all the leads of their own stories. They have to be given their due.

Okay, the most bizzare film I've seen in a long time. A theater director's commentary on his own life - a "play within a play".

Lately I've been driven to rent films more than go to the theater, and I'm afraid I might have shut off this slow-moving film if it was on TV. A good wy to spend the afternoon. I would recommend this film if you like dark, thoughtful films that need to be slowly digested.

Well-Founded Fear

An unprecedented inside look at the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), award-winning filmmakers Shari Robertson and Michael Camerini take their cameras behind locked doors, where bureaucrats decide the fates of thousands of asylum-seekers each year. To be granted asylum, applicants must demonstrate a "well-founded fear" that their lives would be endangered were they to be deported. The asylum-seekers are at once hopeful and heartbreaking, at times too slick and polished, and in other cases painfully timid. All have the same desire--freedom to stay in America. As asylum officers struggle to determine credibility, balancing sympathy with good sense and tough-mindedness, their hard-made decisions ultimately hold a mirror to the broader, quickly changing, and controversial role of the United States in the world at large.

I think my recent quest to gain new viewpoints was sparked by the presidential elections - my acquiring this film form the library was part of that process. Like The Visitor, but in a different way, this film too made me think about the immigration question as it applied to people, not just numbers and statistics. And what of the INS workers who have to make these horrible decisions? They are people too. A complicated issue, but a film everyone should see.

Must-see film

The Visitor

The Visitor stars Richard Jenkins (Six Feet Under) in a perfect performance (Lisa Schwarzbaum, ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY) as Walter, a disaffected college professor who has been drifting aimlessly through his life. When, in a chance encounter on a trip into New York, Walter discovers a couple has taken up residence in his apartment in the city, he develops an unexpected and profound connection to them that will change his life forever. As challenges arise for his tenants, Walter finds himself compelled to help his new friends, and rediscovers a passion he thought he had lost long ago. The year's first genuine must-see film" (Ann Hornaday, THE WASHINGTON POST) about rediscovering life's rhythms in the most unexpected places

Terrific film, slow moving, but I was hooked from the start.

Religulous

by Bill Maher - now in theaters

My mixed review: I suppose we all bring ourselves into the theater, and my current self has been thinking a lot about the role of organized religion in our society, along with organized politics, education.....

Bill Maher in my opinion just goes too far, as I expected he might. He is right to cite the similarities between early religions and Christianity, and of course, many things have been done very wrong for the better "Christian" good.

I of course reflected upon it all in the light of my little knowledge of Quaker perspective. I left the film more convinced that we'd better all get our act together and start taking care of each other and our planet, regardless of our religions.

Maher is very concerned about finding the "unchristian" tendencies of others religions, and i guess he doesn't concern himself about being "unchristian" since he is not one. But the last sections of the film are him on his pulpit, urging others to give up religion and its messes to start saving the planet and ourselves. He seems to care about the future of others. Remarkably Christian, even? Or just marketing?

I'm inspired to read a little more faith and practice today, and ponder all this.

An Unreasonable Man (2005)

"What did you learn in school today Ralph, how to believe or how to think?" - Ralph Nader's father at the dinner table.

No wonder he ended up who he is today.

Whether you believe in his causes and methods or not, it is hard to not have respect for his sheer tenacity. We all need the Naders of the world to keep us safe, and open and free debate happening.