Ronald Wright refers to the internal combustion engine as a “progress trap” — an invention that seems brilliant at the time but comes with unforeseen consequences. “The internal combustion engine was going to solve all the problems of horses and the limitations of railways,” says the Canadian author, whose book A Short History of Progress forms the basis of the new documentary Surviving Progress. “But,” he adds, “the engine has created a world of these enormous sprawling cities, and we’ve created settlement patterns where the density is so low, it’s impossible to ... Read More
Documentary Frames Graphic Art’s Political Ferment
March 2, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Back in the day, being a socially committed graphic artist was a particularly dangerous undertaking. Honoré Daumier was imprisoned for his work, and died impoverished. Käthe Kollwitz and Otto Dix had their work declared “degenerate” by the Nazis. George Grosz was arrested for allegedly insulting the German army. And so incendiary were Francisco Goya’s masterpieces, Disasters of War, the aquatint prints were not published until 35 years after his death. “In the past, the documentation of these artists had a terrific effect, which was why back then it was more dangerous to do ... Read More
Study: More Black Juveniles Sentenced to Life Without Parole
February 29, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Three weeks before the U.S. Supreme Court hears arguments on the constitutionality of sentencing juveniles convicted of homicide to life without parole, the first-ever study of youngsters serving these punishments has been released. The Lives of Juvenile Lifers, a survey of more than 1,500 prisoners who were sentenced prison terms of life without parole (known as JLWOP) when they were between the ages 13 to 17 was compiled by The Sentencing Project, an advocacy group for sentencing reform that opposes JLWOP. “Although it does not excuse their crimes,” the report sums up, “most people ... Read More
From Modern Albania, A Feudal Tragedy
February 23, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Give director Joshua Marston credit — he doesn’t take on easy film projects. Marston’s debut feature, 2004’s Maria Full of Grace, was about a Colombian drug mule and her desperate attempts to find her way in the U.S. It humanized a demonized underclass and featured a critically acclaimed performance by Catalina Sandino Moreno. Now, in The Forgiveness of Blood, Marston has gone to Albania to make a film about blood feuds and what adherence to a 15th-century set of legal codes known as the kanun has meant for a country on the road to modernization. “I was fascinated by the ... Read More
A Masterful Look at Anti-Apartheid
January 10, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Shortly after my mother died in 1983, I sat down with her financial adviser to go over her estate and to decide what to do with the money she had left me. I discovered mom had investments in South Africa, then a pariah state for its racist policy of apartheid. When I told the adviser that I did not want to invest in that country, her response was, “What’s wrong with South Africa?” My answer was to find another investment adviser and divest immediately — which made me one of the millions of people influenced by the international anti-apartheid movement, an effort that is exhaustively ... Read More
Two Russian Films Give Differing Views of Motherland
December 2, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
That adage “the more things change, the more they stay the same” seems to apply in modern-day Russia, and two films currently in release pound that point home. In one, it’s obvious that pop culture has moved far beyond the days of governmentally approved socialist realism art. In the other, the depressing truth is that the former Soviet Union may now be a nominal democracy, but it is as authoritarian and corrupt as ever. Khodorkovsky is director Cyril Tuschi’s exhaustive documentary about Mikhail Khodorkovsky, once the richest man in Russia, now languishing in a Siberian prison ... Read More
Searing Look at Rio’s Homicidal Police
November 11, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Brazil doesn’t make the Top 10 of Transparency International’s annual list of the most corrupt countries–it’s tied with Cuba and Montenegro at No. 69 out of 178 — but you’d never know that after watching Elite Squad: The Enemy Within, a white-hot blast of cinematic righteousness that makes Rio de Janeiro look like ground zero for sleazy dealings, extrajudicial police executions and political chicanery. Directed by José Padilha, whose 2002 documentary Bus 174 detailed how police incompetence turned a Rio bus hijacking into a disastrous media circus. This film is a sequel to his ... Read More
Reintroducing Paul Goodman, the ‘Public Intellectual’
October 18, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Once upon a time, there was something called a "public intellectual," and writer/pacifist/political radical/bisexual Paul Goodman was practically its template. Brilliant and witty, a New Left guru and regular TV presence on shows like William F. Buckley's Firing Line, Goodman was particularly famous thanks to his enormously influential 1959 book, Growing Up Absurd, in which he argued that society was so morally corrupt, youthful rebellion and disaffection actually signified mental health. "He's a wonderful example of an intellectual who was active as a citizen, who cared about young people, ... Read More
‘American Teacher’ Argues for Increasing Salaries
September 23, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Think teaching is a highly respected profession? Think again. A recent ranking of the top 200 jobs in America, based on such criteria as income, physical demands and stress, had public school teaching at a dismal 100 — and nearly 10 spots below teacher's aide. "Our society doesn't value the teaching profession as it should," says Ninive Calegari, one of the producers of American Teacher, a documentary film opening around the country beginning at the end of this month. "We tolerate incredible turnover and bad salaries. People think the job is easy because good teachers make it look ... Read More
Film Recalls U.S.’s First Overseas Guerilla War
August 15, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
If nothing else, John Sayles’ latest film, Amigo, reminds us that when the U.S. becomes involved in foreign insurgencies, it generally combines arrogance with abysmal cluelessness. Think of it as a case of “the more things change, the more they stay the same” — and it’s been going on for more than 100 years. Amigo takes place in 1900 in the Philippines. America has just won the Spanish-American War and is occupying the islands it has taken from Spain with absolutely no intention of giving them their independence. So, a native insurgency, known as the Insurrectos, led by Emilio ... Read More
