Rosenwald

First Hit:  I love when I get to learn something new, and to have it be about a humble yet an amazing person, sublime perfection.

Julius Rosenwald did something that had me absolutely amazed. As the CEO of Sears Roebuck company, he founded a way to build over 5,300 all black schools throughout the South.

In the early part of the 20th Century Afro-Americans were not allowed to attend the white only schools in the South. The schools they were attending were in poor run down, left to die, buildings and the people who taught the kids were either barely or not educated themselves.

Working with Booker T. Washington of Tuskegee University, Rosenwald devised a plan to create a way that prompted communities to build new schools using financing from Rosenwald.

This film also talked about Rosenwald’s other philanthropy efforts through grants and other organizations. The filmmakers used archival footage, scenes from films that represented the time, and recent interviews to create an amazing tale of giving. However for me the coup de grace was short footage of him giving a talk about his success – beautifully humble.

Aviva Kempner wrote and directed this amazing biographical documentary of an amazing man.

Overall:  This was a great, humbling, and honorable story of a very benevolent man.

Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine

First Hit:  A very interesting and accurate view of Steve and his relationship to the people at Apple and his life.

I had a working relationship with an employee who worked very closely with Jobs in the late 1990’s. A few of the stories he told about both Steve’s brilliance and tyrannical behavior were reflected in this film.

What I liked most about this film is the way the makers weaved a way to show both. What I was disappointed about was there wasn’t much about his relationship with Steve Wozniak and his early on main rival,

Bill Gates. However, the dramas that were only briefly referred to including; the 5 other CEOs like John Scully whom Jobs thought almost ruined Apple, were mildly sufficient. The famous product reveals were covered well and was his struggle with owning his paternity of his first daughter Lisa.

Many of the interviews were revealing and when one person, who was a lead engineer on one of  Jobs' projects, lost his wife and family to the effort he gave jobs, I could really feel his pain - so did he.

Alex Gibney did a very good job of piecing together archival footage and recent interviews with friends, others, and family.

Overall:  This was a very interesting film about a driven man.

Meru

First Hit:  Extraordinary film about an amazing, heartfelt adventure of perseverance, courage, and fortitude.

Conrad Aker, Jimmy Chin and Renan Ozturk share their amazing story of how they came together to tackle, twice, the famed shark finned peak called Meru in North India.

The film effectively documents, each of their separate paths to work through their fears while challenging their physical abilities to tackle the steep ice covered path they created leading to the final shear smooth granite face, edge to the summit.

You will be entranced when you see the avalanche that challenges Chin, or the fall that tests Renan’s ability to rehab back into shape. Their friendship and trust permeates this film just as their trek will transfix you.

The photography, mostly by Chin, is absolutely superlative. Knowing that he and Ozturk filmed this adventure while attempting to complete a climb that has never been done before is truly outer worldly.

Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi did an astonishing job of directing and editing this historical footage.

Overall:  What a story.

Listen to me Marlon

First Hit:  It was very interesting to hear Marlon Brando speak about his acting and his life.

Two performances of Brando’s still stand out to me; “On the Waterfront” and “Godfather”. My reason for these two among many powerful roles, was that the first captures him young and new to the profession, while the latter was after years of experience and the subtly and strength of his ability to be at the top of his game showed through.

This film has many still pictures of Brando, a few film clips of him in a particular film and clips of him outside of film-making. For the most part the voice overs are minimal and it is Brando’s voice taken from recordings he made for himself. There are also voice mail recordings from his answering machine and a couple interview segments.

What struck me about this was how strongly he felt about bringing a character to life through the use of facial expressions, looks, and an embodiment of the person in his own body. He commented on how many actors before him just gave their personality to each role they played. He didn't feel that they brought a character to the role and he found that disdainful.

The film also documented his personal life and the difficult things that happened to his son and daughter.

Steven Riley and Peter Ettedgui wrote this with a strong focus towards telling Marlon’s story. Riley did a great job of piecing together snippets of film and audio material into a great story.

Overall:  It was a fascinating look at a great actor.

Cartel Land

First Hit:  An eye-opening timely film about the Mexico United States border drama.

This is a film about two different issues: How the drug cartels in Mexico are taking over towns and intimidating the local citizens. Then there is the story on the Arizona side of the border and how citizens are out there protecting the area from the influx of Mexicans coming across the border illegally.

In the first story citizens want to take back their town by following a group, led by an MD, that is going out and arresting drug cartel members. This story gets worse as the government gets involved and we begin to see how the more things try to change, the more they stay the same. In the other part of the story, a vet who turned his own life around believes, with this friends, that he is saving the USA from influx of drugs and illegals coming across the border. He does his best to work with the US government but in reality he’s out there doing this thing. I would have liked more integration of the two stories, or separate the stories and make two films; both are interesting.

Matthew Heineman directed this film and some of the camera work during the raids on cartel personnel was fantastic. There are no holds barred as citizens walk up and hit the captured cartel members.

Overall:  This was a very interesting film reflecting the conflicts below and above the US border.