I Am Not Your Negro

First Hit:  The most powerful film I’ve ever seen about racism in America.

I always pull four brown paper napkins from the dispenser in the lobby prior to taking my seat in the theater. Generally, I use one or two for something like wiping my mouth after eating a powerbar. However, for this film I needed to have taken many more because my heart cracked open so many times during this film that I had to reuse my usual lot over and over again to blow my nose and wipe away the tears that kept falling from my eyes.

All the dialogue in this film comes from James Baldwin. Some of it from his unfinished book “Remember This House” while other sections came from his other essays and published writings. Using clips from films referenced in his writings, television clips, interviews, quotes from letters he wrote and other Baldwin writings, we get an amazingly clear picture of his experience, reflections and thoughts about living in Harlem, Paris, and finally back in the United States.

Baldwin’s amazing articulation of his experience, the black experience, in America through his writings by questioning his inner self is sublime. His self-awareness and the ability to see, understand, and enunciate the differing paths of his close friends Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. was ethereal.

There are moments in this film where Baldwin’s statements of awareness speak to and through the existence of all of mankind. Of course, the most powerful scenes are the actual clips of James Baldwin speaking, but Samuel L. Jackson's voice for the remaining Baldwin dialogue was well chosen. Baldwin's intense intelligent eyes belie the pain of what he experienced and saw in our society.

Using photos, film, and television clips from the early 1920’s through 2014, Director Raoul Peck was able to create a mirror of America’s racism that is not only bold, but at the very heart and soul of our still troubled racist nation.

I think that everyone needs to see this film and check within themselves about their own tendencies and be willing to change our hearts and maybe our future actions. I know I am more acutely aware of this issue having seen this film.

Jackson lent his distinct voice to aid in this film’s impact. I cannot find words to express the amazingly persuasive fluent film that Peck created. How he was able to pull all these pieces together in such a powerful way was outstanding in every sense of the word.

Overall:  This film had more impact on me than any film in the last 20 years maybe longer.

Films I Saw and Liked in 2016

These are some of the films I saw in 2016 that I liked and why. Eye In The Sky:  Gave a view of how war has changed through the use of drones and electronics. This was also Alan Rickman’s last film.

Where To Invade Next:  A Michael Moore Documentary about our inability to provide US Citizens with aspects of living we founded but never implemented.

Knight Of Cups:  This film is not everyone’s cup of tea but its esoteric nature touched me.

Hello, My Name Is Doris:  Sally Field was spectacular as a woman who tried to find love with a much younger man.

Deadpool:  Despite the thoughts of most other reviewers, I thought this was a very funny film.

Money Monster:  I like Clooney and the premise of this film about television stock pickers.

Golden Kingdom:  I loved the young monks and their clear devotion to their Buddhist practice.

Dark Horse:  Sweet film about a group of Welsh villiagers.

Nerve:  Although nothing great about this film, it was a blast to watch, which is enough sometimes.

Captain Fantastic:  I loved the premise and story of this film.

Southside With You:  I thoroughly enjoyed this version of Barack and Michelle’s first date.

Hell Or High Water:  Really evoked the old west with fine performances.

Lo And Behold, Reveries Of The Connected World:  Wonderful documentary about how we got the World Wide Web.

Samsara:  Powerful images showing the cycle of life.

Snowden:  I really liked how Oliver Stone told this sotry.

The Beatles:  Eight Days A Week – The Touring Years:  Outstanding documentary about The Beatles earliest years.

Sully:  Tom Hanks was great in telling this amazing true story.

Certain Women:  Very interesting study and story about these women's lives.

Nocturnal Animals:  I loved the acting in this film.

The Edge of Seventeen:  Wonderfully acted film about how hard it can be to be a 17-year old girl.

Loving:  Genuinely sweet film about how love can conquer – even the law of the land.

Moonlight:  Another film that opened the doors to a way of life that needs to be seen and accepted.

The Handmaiden:  Wonderfully filmed story about deception and love.

Arrival:  One of my most favorite films of the year as it shares the concept of non-linear time.

Hacksaw Ridge:  Well executed film about a conscientious objector and a very bloody battle.

Fences:  Although very “play like”, it is a wonderful study of a family.

La La Land:  A thoroughly wonderful engaging film about love.

Elle:  Powerfully acted film about the strength of a woman.

Manchester By The Sea:  The acting in this film is sublime.

When the Oscar Award listing comes out, I’ll share my opinions and best guesses.

The Eagle Huntress

First Hit:  Wonderful uplifting film about a young 13-year-old girl breaking the Mongolian sexist barrier of becoming an eagle hunter.

Not only is the young girl Aisholpan the star of this film so is her father Nurgaiv. His determination to support his daughter breaking the lifelong tradition that only men can become eagle hunters is amazingly beautiful.

This film documents this type of hunting by honing in on this family of nomadic people who live in Yurts in the Spring, Summer and Fall and live in a building during the Winter. For 12 generations, this family has developed top-notch eagle hunters. Aisholpan’s father and grandfather have won the top prize at the annual Eagle Hunting festival. To become an eagle hunter, the prospect must first find eaglets that are old enough to be taken out of their nests but cannot yet fly. Then comes the training which includes teaching the eagle to be carried on the hunter’s arm while walking and riding a horse, chase and pounce on animal skins being pulled on a string, and how to fly back onto the hunter’s arm while on a horse. The final barrier is to actually hunt and kill an animal with your eagle.

The film documents, Aisholpan’s lifelong desire to be a huntress, her dutiful practice and the difficult training regimen. When her father thinks she’s ready, they search out, find and capture an eaglet of her own. She trains the eagle and enters the contest.

All through this, there are interviews with elders who scoff that a woman, let alone a girl, has the strength and ability to become an eagle hunter. Her final test, will be to go into the frozen mountains, find and have her eagle capture and kill a fox.

The expansiveness of the land is well displayed here. The shots of this beautiful, stark, desolate and arid country touched me deeply. The shots of the eagles performing their training and captures was fantastic.

Aisholpan was amazing. Her beautiful smile, steely eyes and determination are perfectly documented. Her father Nurgaiv deserves kudos for defying tradition and old sexist ways by supporting his daughter's desire. Otto Bell did an amazing job of presenting us this amazing way of life and Aisholpan’s challenge.

Overall:  This was a joyful and uplifting film and made me want to go to the annual eagle festival.

Samsara

First Hit:  Powerful images, beautiful cinematography, and elegantly shot, if you want to see the circuitous cycle of life (Samsara) in musical rhythmic technicolor, watch this film.

How does a filmmaker create a film that encompasses “Samsara”, which can be interpreted as the cycle of life; the birth, dying and rebirth of all things?

Shot without descriptive words, and enhanced with elegantly selected music, Ron Fricke gives the audience a physical view of our world that most will never see. The images of life, death, rebirth and life unfolding in its own inimitable way tie this word together like no other film I've ever witnessed.

The ancient  art of dance is bookends this film with three very young Balinese dancers presenting religious and artistic expressions all with frozen facial gazes. The segment where prisoners dance on the exercise yard in the Philippines was oddly engaging. This is all balanced at the end by a Chinese troupe doing the 1,000 hands dance towards the end of the film. Their arm movement is ethereal.

We look at the food that sustains us and how it is processed in various parts of the world. Some of the scenes are very graphic, powerful, and, at times, difficult to watch. The slaughtering of animals and birds and how it is packaged for our consumption. This segues to observing an overweight American family eating processed fast food. This sequence ends with a very large obese man getting marked, with a felt pen, on his chest and stomach by a surgeon for weight loss surgery. It was a very graphic sequence.

The amazing memory I have of watching Tibetan Monks creating a large sand mandala in a monastery in Nepal  was re-engaged when the film presents the audience with a mandala being created. The added joy of seeing young monks, eagerly, carefully and intently, watching the older monks was emotionally stirring. The construction of a sand mandala is grain by grain over a number of days and is stunning to watch. The breathtaking colors of sand carefully laid on a predetermined pattern constructs a picture to represent life. This is followed by the monks destroying  the mandala thereby completing the mandala’s cycle: Birth, Death, and Re-birth exemplifying the meaning of "Samsara".

Part of how we humans view life is through our religions. To bring this to the audience the film shares amazing shots of religious buildings and areas across the globe. Mecca invites curiosity by seeing hundreds of thousands of people bowing and praying in unison while tens of thousands are circling the sacred Black Stone of the Kaaba. Buddhist temples of Bagan in Myanmar and Tibetan Buddhists in Ladakh India along with the amazing cathedrals of Notre Dame , Mont Saint Michel in France, the Basilica Di San Pietro in Italy, and the Church of the Redeemer in Jerusalem. Giving us a view of how humans have a particular reverence for our beliefs.

How do humans spend their time? Much of it at work and this film shares many segments of all types of people at work. The poorest of the poor in Sao Paulo Brazil scraping together a living, the suffering sulfur mine workers in Indonesia, a life size doll factory in Japan shares variety as does a coffin building shop in Ghana and then the sadness of people going through the trash dumps in Quezon City in the Philippines and Accra, Ghana.

Additionally, the physical beauty of the planet is one of the stars of this film including volcanoes, deep canyons, immense forests, and the ever-present water. The film shares the beauty of nature with the amazing creations of man like the Pyramids, man-made islands in the mid-east, shopping centers, and other amazing constructions of grandeur.

To exemplify death and the way humans try to control "Samsara" were the segments on the creation of guns. It was one of the most powerful and sad segments of this film. We witness gun manufacturing along with owners, proud owners, of their weapons that kill. They share this with pride. One warrior in Omo Valley in Ethiopia was especially arresting to see.

"Samsara":  The life, death and life again of everything. Truly a film of beauty creating thought provoking questions that each of us.

Ron Fricke is an amazing director. His vision is sublime. Like in his film Baraka, he selects stunning locations and gives us so much information about humanity that one will leaves the theater slightly stunned, intriguingly awake, and filled with thoughts about our place on this blue marble we call Earth.

Overall:  Amazing and overwhelmingly rich in beauty and thoughtful probes into our inner life.

The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years

First Hit:  An amazing and touching look at four young men from Liverpool England that changed music and the lives of many people forever.

For anyone one growing up as a baby boomer you will have some memory of The Beatles. Maybe it was listening to the 45 rpm single records or the 33 1/3 rpm LPs. Maybe it was the news programs showing thousands of people screaming their names as they went from place to place. Maybe it was watching them on The Ed Sullivan show.

Over the years, those memories have been enhanced and guided by various films, books and stories about The Beatles since their breakup. I’ve read all the books, seen all the documentaries, read all the articles, but none of them affected me as much as this film.

I teared up early in the film as joy, wonder, and respect overcame me about these four young men who followed their dream, to make music, together. I cannot say enough for Ron Howard and his ability to put together strings of old interviews, concert footage clips, while adding present time interviews with both Paul and Ringo and a small select group of others who were part of their concert past.

I was touched when Paul talked about the moment when Ringo joined the group and that they all knew the final piece was in place. He also spoke about how happy he felt when he and John realized that they both wrote music as their most favorite thing to do. Ringo spoke about how the group held each other together when they were being overwhelmed by admirers. Then they spoke about how in the back of a Loomis armored truck being shuttled off the field at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, they decided together that they were done with playing live musical concerts.

As with all their decisions, they did things together. They supported each other regardless of what came up. For instance, the whole issue that came up about John saying, that at the time, with young people they were more popular than Jesus and the controversy this statement started. Or even, more importantly, when they refused to play a concert because there would be segregation of black and white audience members. In fact, they were the first band to have written in their contracts that their audiences cannot be segregated.  

I enjoyed Whoopie Goldberg’s interviews especially when she realized that The Beatles taught her that she could be anyone she wanted to be and feel good about it. The surprise her mother gave her when she said they were going to Shea Stadium and see The Beatles was priceless.

Elvis Costello, Sigourney Weaver, Larry Kane, and all the other interviewees were perfectly placed into the archival footage. This film was amazingly edited to create a strong story about the life The Beatles were having during the touring years.

Ron Howard did an incredible job of piecing together this footage to present a strong story about The Beatles and their touring years.

Overall:  Fantastic and made even better because seeing the film in theaters gives attendees a bonus, The Beatles performing their Shea Stadium concert. Pure joy watching these young men play together.