DuVernay’s Documentary “13th” Needs To Be Seen

Ava DuVernay’s Academy-nominated documentary 13th exposes the intrinsic flaw of America’s 13th Amendment. DuVernay's Documentary "13th" Needs To Be SeenNeither 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.

While abolishing slavery is well and good – how did it ever happen in the first place?! – the amendment allows for the practice to continue through the penal system, a system that systematically incarcerates black males in America, a population that, only 4% of the overall population, accounts for 40% of prisoners. Black ManDuVernay outlines America’s dismal history of discrimination and servitude, citing Jim Crow laws as well as the systematic targeting of black leaders such as Angela Davis and Black Panther Fred Hampton.DuVernay's Documentary "13th" Needs To Be SeenPresidents Nixon, Reagan and Clinton are all indicted for the role in the morass as well as So-Called President Trump. Most insidious of all is the monetization of the mass incarcerations – corporations such as WalMart and Time Warner directly profiting from these policies – as well as the understanding that another iteration of the racist laws awaits us all. DuVernay's Documentary "13th" Needs To Be SeenDuVernay’s film needs to be seen. Okay, so what are you doing? Watch it now!Institution is not a building but a method

Walt Disney’s “Song of the South”

While researching my Undergraduate Thesis on Walt Disney, Goodness!, I visited the Walt Disney Archives in Burbank in 1986 to view Song of the South, their only film unavailable for public viewing. Walt DisneyNot only did they deny me access to the film, but they refused to answer any questions about it. “Have you shelved the film because of racist stereotypes like Uncle Remus?”

“We cannot comment on that.”

My thesis was not in fact on the racism (nor sexism) inherent in the Disney creed but rather in their tendency to simplify (or rather stupefy) details of story. Walt DisneyThe best example of this was their decision to keep Jiminy Cricket alive throughout the Disney version of Pinnochio as a road buddy when in fact Pinnochio kills the insect in the opening pages of the original story by Carlos Collodi. Walt DisneyThe irony is that Song of the South is not a skeleton in Disney’s closet – Uncle Tom’s and all – but an example of just another film which uses gimmicks and song – Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah Zip-A-Dee-A – to cover up bland story-telling and stereotypes that have undercut many Hollywood films.Walt Disney

To say nothing of the country as a whole.

Screenplay: “Nogo, The Anti-Trump”

The film opens with an extreme close-up of a black man, Nogo, driving at night on a deserted road. Screenplay Nogo, The Anti-TrumpThe camera pulls back to reveal Nogo being followed by a full-size pickup truck, its high beams bearing down. Nogo is forced off the road. The driver and passengers, each bearing arms, lean out of the truck as Nogo leaps out, tire iron in hand.The Anti-Trump“Tolerance! You got that?” He smashes out a headlight and then the other as the driver raises a shotgun.Screenplay Nogo The Anti-Trump Nogo stares back, defiant. “You better have more than that.”

Black out, gun shots. Opening credits roll. Screenplay: "Nogo, The Anti-Trump"

Yes, just think Django Unchained meets Punch Drunk Love meets Easy Rider.

Canada’s Soul: St. John’s to Port Aux Basques

After three days at Will’s house in St. John’s, I began to hitchhike back west.

June 14, Ride One: St. John’s to Kelce Groose Turnoff (Brown Rabbit) Old and young guy, dog hair all over the back seat.

Ride Four: Argentia Turnoff to Marystown Turnoff (Red LTD) Scottish guy, still wild, music just as wild, “Watch yourself down there. It’s back woodsy.”

Ride Nine: Frenchman’s Turnoff to Fortune (Red Schneider truck) “LSD is shit.”

With the ferry service to the French island of St. Pierre Miquelon cancelled, I hoped for a ride on a trawler, the Marguerite, and stayed overnight in a cheap motel and watched Butterflies Are Free. Canada's Soul: St. John's to Port Aux BasquesThe Marguerite left without me. I hitchhiked back up the peninsula and then across Newfoundland.

Ride One: Fortune to Grand Banks (Turquoise Ford) Wanted to do something for me…”If I wasn’t married.”

Ride Five: Trans Canada Highway Turnoff to Cornerbrook (Old blue car) Eldery lady spoke of mongoloid mentally retarded boy; offered me a little red bible.

Ride Six: Cornerbrook to Stephenville (Old green car with no back seat) Doug drove (getting married in two weeks) with Pat (intense, speed user) and Brian (hard drinker) in the front seat; all moose and salmon poachers, each been to jail a few times, went to the dump looking for bears; drank four beers by the time they dropped me off at the ferry.Canada's Soul: St. John's to Port Aux Basques

Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers

The Battle of Algiers is known for its neorealism, cinema verite as they say, images so real that we have to be told they’re not.

BATTLE OF ALGIERS

Its strength, however, lies not only in its images.

Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers

But in its development of a central theme: our inherent inhumanity to one another.

Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers

The chaos of knowing that.
Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers

And that it will never change.Gillo Pontecorvo's The Battle of Algiers

The Cattle Drive in Howard Hawks’ “Red River”

It’s not the story nor the setting nor even characters that make Howard Hawks’ 1948 Red River an epic, but the images of the cattle drive.The Cattle Drive in Howard Hawks' "Red River"

A herd of 9,000 used in shooting this iconic story element. The Cattle Drive in Howard Hawks' "Red River"Nothing compares to these images throughout the 133-minute film.Red River

The Cattle Drive in Howard Hawks' "Red River"

Except maybe Montgomery Cliff sucking poison out of Joanne Dru’s shoulder.The Cattle Drive in Howard Hawks' "Red River"

That’s pretty good too.

The Failure of Parker’s “Birth of a Nation”

Birth of a Nation had promise – a compelling narrative most of all – but fails. Instead of exploring the contorted depths of American history, Parker trains the camera on himself, too often in close-up, reacting to repetitive brutality. The Failure of Parker's Birth of a NationViolent images dominate – people’s teeth getting hammered out, exposed brains – when  the story of a remarkable man, Nat Turner, could have been developed, asking who really spoke of this: As we pushed on to the house, I discovered some one run round the garden, and thinking it was some of the white family, I pursued them, but finding it was a servant girl belonging to the house, I returned to commence the work of death. The Failure of Parker's Birth of a NationThe film does not elucidate nor does it have vision, as did Steve McQueen in 12 Years a Slave, but is solely a chronicle of violence, flat and tediously rendered, craft-less as anything of the Superhero genre.

Looking-Outness in Film: Murnau, Ozu & Varda

I dream of looking outside the image.

Looking-Outness in Film: Murnau, Ozu & Varda

F.W. Murnau’s “Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans” (1927)

Escaping from the frame.

Looking-Outness in Film: Murnau, Ozu & Varda

Yasujiro Ozu’s “Tokyo Story” (153)

Considering what could be.

Looking-Outness in Film: Murnau, Ozu & Varda

Agnes Varda’s “Le Pointe Courte” (1954)

Getting my head on different.

Terence Malick’s “Knight of Cups”

Words float through: Empty. Death. Grasping. Terence Malick's "Knight of Cups"The camera drifts underwater, everything a sweeping, swinging visual. Terence Malick's "Knight of Cups"Redeem my life. Justify it. That blinded you. Terence Malick's "Knight of Cups"I turned you upside down, my son. Longing for something other. Terence Malick's "Knight of Cups"There’s isn’t a story, just characters who stand about, some playing handsies. Terence Malick's "Knight of Cups"Nobody’s home.
Knight of CupsYou have to fly. Fly. Knight of CupsHigh up. Everything’s just a…speck.Terence Malick's "Knight of Cups"

(Extracts from Knight of Cups in bold italics)

The Visual Manna of Tarkovsky’s “The Mirror”

Russians may find profundity in the story and themes of Andrei Tarkovsky’s 1975 film The Mirror, but for the rest of us it’s the images, the visuals.

A woman runs.  Visual Manna Tarkovsky The MirrorA barn burns.  Visual Manna Tarkovsky The MirrorA bird lands on a boy’s cap.  Visual Manna Tarkovsky The MirrorA dog leaves a cabin.  Visual Manna Tarkovsky The MirrorA boy looks back at himself.  Visual Manna Tarkovsky The MirrorThe music plays. And we reflect.  Visual Manna Tarkovsky The MirrorWe know something about who we are, as if a light glowed behind us, as if this was not so much a movie as a dream that we had somehow conceived together.