Movie #1321 ........................."Morris from America"

Movie #1321 "Morris from America" is a feature film that is nominated for a Spirit Award for Saturday night this weekend, with the male lead up for best actor.  I think he has a good shot at it (he's the guy from the "Office").  The kid who plays Morris does a fine job here, too.  I didn't think there was a lot new here --- it's a coming of age film for a 13 year old who is just starting to like girls.  He has no friends yet in this new environment --- he's bullied because he is the only black kid in the school and he's American.  The kids in the school smoke weed and drink at their parties, but in front of teachers and other adults, they act upset that when he raps, he uses bad language.  He doesn't know where he can fit because other than the language he uses to rap, he has been leading a pretty squeaky clean life --- he's a good kid, and his dad has a great rapport with him.  He also has struck a nice relationship with his tutor, who looks out for him above and beyond her hour she spends with him daily.  I liked it, but I was uncomfortable what the film had this 13 year old do, esp. in one scene.  So I wouldn't recommend it to the young set, which is too bad because it is about them, but the language is pretty raw.  I would give this 3.5 out of 5.






"MORRIS FROM AMERICA"  2016      1 hour and 31 minutes     R-rated


 After moving to the provincial city of Heidelberg, Germany, African-American teen Morris Gentry has trouble making friends and takes refuge in hip-hop music -- until pretty Katrin enters the picture.

Cast: Craig Robinson, Markees Christmas, Carla Juri,

Movie #1320 ........................."Joe's Violin"

Movie #1320 "Joe's Violin" is an AA nominated short documentary that I saw today on vimeo, and it is very well done.  Very heartwarming.   The movie juxtaposes the 90+ year old holocaust survivor who was sent to Siberia with his father with a young 13 year old girl who gets the great gift of his detention camp violin that he no longer uses.  He wants to pass it down to someone who will use it and cherish it, and he finds just that person in this young girl.  There's some footage from the holocaust years interspersed with the reaction of the girl and her friends and her school and teachers finding out they are being gifted this prized possession.  I liked this a lot --- it's a feel good story among all the sadness, and we could use that.  I would rate it 3.8 out of 5 because it hit its mark and delivered, but could have given out a bit more information and insight into the situation.







"JOE'S VIOLIN"        24 mins        2016

A 91-year-old Holocaust survivor's violin donation during an instrument drive changes the life of a 12-year-old girl from the Bronx.

Release date: April 2016 (USA)

Directors: Kahane Cooperman, Raphaela Neihausen

Music composed by: Gary Meister

Cast: Joseph Feingold, Kokoe Tanaka-Suwan, Brianna Perez

Producers: Kahane Cooperman, Raphaela Neihausen

Nominations: Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject

Movie #1319 ........................."Fire at Sea"

Movie #1319 "Fire at Sea" is another academy award nominated documentary for this year, and this one I don't get why it was nominated.  It's too long, it has way too many gaps (at one point I was able to read WHILE I was watching it), and I have to admit I never did get to the end.  I think there was a 10 minute discussion about throwing up that I was following (or not)  at one point.  I applaud the topic  -- Europe's immigration struggles, but there isn't enough info given on what is going on --- the film primarily follows a little boy who tries to keep busy on this island, and he is a product of immigrating (doesn't he go to school?) and spends time making slingshots and shooting at cactus (that was a pretty long and boring sequence).  What I found much more interesting is the treatment of all these immigrants that come onto this island with very little infrastructure (like hospitals, etc.) to take care of them once they get there!  We see the guards frisking each and every one of them ---- but that's all I saw after watching it for an hour, but I'm assuming we find out what happens to them once that is over?  But not sure.  I just felt it should be worth the time since it was nominated, but I felt it wouldn't win, so I moved on.  Maybe some day when I have much more time, I might go back and see how it ends, but for now, I have other nominated films to watch.  2 stars out of 5.

"FIRE AT SEA"   2016   1 hour and 48 minutes


An island halfway between Sicily and Libya has become the vortex of Europe's immigration struggles, as observed in this documentary on Lampedusa, where more than 150,000 Africans each year make their first contact with European soil.

Cast: Samuele Puccilo, Mattias Cucina, Samuele Caruana, more...

Movie #1318 ........................."4.1 miles"

Movie #1318 "4.1 miles" is still another academy award nominated short documentary for this year, and it is on a popular subject, refugees trying to travel the 4.1 miles across dangerous sea in their inadequate boats to get from Turkey to a Greek Island.  Two men who man boats (not sure what they did before) find themselves going out constantly to save hundreds of people --- we go on a few boat trips with them and we are there as they try to save a mother and two children who have fallen into the water, and other travesties that occur, mostly to women and children.  It'll break your heart, esp. with what is going on right now all over the world with Syrian refugees.  I wish it gave more information , but it does give the impression that these boatmen are just two of many that find themselves thrown into first responding all of a sudden, and don't know what to do about it!  I'd give this 4 out of 5 stars ---- pretty powerful, what is here.

"4.1 MILES"    2016     26 mins

A coast guard captain on a small Greek island is suddenly charged with saving thousands of refugees from drowning at sea.

Director:

 Daphne Matziaraki

Stars:

 Christos Sapounas,  Giorgos Tsagarellis

Movie #1317 ........................."Extremis"

Movie #1317 "Extremis" is another short documentary nominated for an academy award this year, and it concerns one hospital dealing with a couple of cases that throw doctors and nurses and families into the huge problem of having to play god --- and decide to pull the breathing tube or not .  There's a mother, and the dad and daughter are dealing with the decision; there's a homeless man with no one but himself to make the decision, and a mother and daughter with brothers trying to help make the decision.  I have to admit, this movie puts me someplace I never want to be -- who would want to be thrown into this decision?  So it's uncomfortable in every sense of the word.  I wish there was more info dispensed in the film, and not just raw emotion......I wish it moved out of this one hospital and that it was a bit longer.  What's here is good, but after watching some of the other competitions in this category, I don't judge it as the best.


"EXTREMIS"  2016  24 mins

Available on netflix --- streaming.
A cherished life is slipping away.  In this time of grief, a family's love becomes both their anchor and their guide.

Movie #1316 ........................."The White Helmets"

Movie #1316 "The White Helmets" ---here is an AA nominated short documentary worthy of your watching -- it runs about 40 minutes but boy is it powerful.  It is not for young children, and even adults will find it difficult to watch.  However, what it smartly does is go back and forth from the actual footage of these white helmets pulling people out of recently bombed structures to the white helmets being interviewed about why they do this........It is available to stream on netflix (it is backed by netflix) so it gives it an edge over the other nominees in accessibility, but it's difficult to imagine another short doc that is much better (although I think I read 3 of the 5 nominated in this category concern Syria).  A quick synopsis of this film:  it introduces us to some of the guys saying goodbye to their families and  going to work --- so they look like firefighters, etc.   Then, when you (and they) watch a military (Russian) plane dropping a load of barrel bombs (the most destructive), instead of turning away, they get in their trucks and cars and run TO the destruction, quickly pulling out dead and alive bodies as quickly as they can, running up and down stairs finding out who lived in the building and where he/she is.  Unbelievable footage here --- They have been in existence since 2013, have saved over 58,000 lives (and lost some 125+ of their own)  They respond to scores of airstrikes every day, and since Russia has stepped in, situation has gone from bad to worse because Russia is targeting civilians (even hospitals!) while saying they are helping.... Part of the film goes away from the airstrikes to show how these untrained men are getting some training by traveling to southern turkey to find out how to use sound equipment, etc.  I don't know the film manages it, but by the end, you are smiling and left with some hope since their mantra is:  without hope, we die.  Here's an added thing about this film that brought tears to my eyes.  Here they are nominated and probably will win in this category, and the academy would want to give them an award and possibly a standing ovation for this group of people, but because of the recent ban, they will not be allowed into the country.  (That may change, but that's how it stands now ).  Check it out on netflix and I don't think you will be disappointed.  4.8  out of 5 stars.  I just wish it was a tad longer with more information on who funds them, and a brief history lesson maybe?


"THE WHITE HELMETS"       2016        40mins.

As daily airstrikes pound civilian targets in Syria, a group of indomitable first responders risk their lives  to rescue victims from the rubble .  

Movie #1315 ........................."13th"

Movie #1315 "13th" is a not-to-be-missed documentary that is nominated for an academy award this Sunday.  It deals with the 13th amendment which declared that, "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."  It shows you how our government has gotten around this amendment through all the years to the present,  mostly with mass incarceration, because there is a loophole above ("except as a punishment for crime...") I must say that I am a tough audience for documentaries; i.e. I don't like a lot of them because they seem to go on and on to me (they don't seem edited well nor edited enough) and they tend not to use the variety of ways to get across information that are available (and depend on just interview or whatever).  But this is one of the best I have ever seen ---- from the opening statistics that are given to us (that we have 5% of the total world population but have 40% in our jails, and there's a huge statistic of how many of those jailed people have been black) until the very end (where I was moved to tears about all the violence that has occurred these past couple of months in the streets of our cities), I was glued to the screen (it can be streamed on netflix right now).  I noticed that there were so many 5's (which is what I would give it), but then occasionally a 1 --- so I wondered what could be the argument against this obviously fine film (done by a female director, I might add) and the major accusation was that it has an agenda ---- to me, an agenda in documentaries is a focus, and  what good  documentary doesn't have one?  If the accusation is that it leans Republican or Democrat, that's incorrect because this problem of  mass incarceration has been deeply imbedded in our society since the Civil War and through most of the presidencies, whether they were one or the other....one other argument I read was that the film offers no solutions ---- but, once again, a good documentary might support the argument and not give solutions ---- that seemed obvious to me with this problem because it is understood that  there are no easy solutions at all --- the film's purpose was to bring to light a huge problem we have and to educate us on it. In addition, the film was meant  to open some eyes by showing us historically how we've gotten to where we are and why we possibly could have more problems right now --- as long and as informative as this film is, there were still some parts of the problem that weren't addressed, so I hope I can see more on this subject.  But my reaction to this film  was a wow!  not-to-be-missed film here.  Everyone should see it.  5 out of 5 stars.

"13TH"         2016            1 HOUR 40 MINS

In this thought-provoking documentary, scholars, activists and politicians analyze the criminalization of African Americans and the U.S. prison boom.  Many people interviewed including:  Angela Davis, Corey Booker, and Newt Gingrich.

Here are comments by  Ava DuVernay, Oscar nominee for her documentary "13th" 

My thanks to the Academy for amplifying the injustices of mass criminalization and mass incarceration that we chronicle in '13th.' Now more than ever, it is important to educate ourselves, explore our shared history and elevate our awareness about matters of human dignity.

It’s an honor be included in a category with such fine documentarians and to be nominated in a year that truly embraces and celebrates inclusion within our creative community.