Last November, we alerted you to keep an eye out for “Where Soldiers Come From,” a superb documentary that was about to make its broadcast debut on PBS. Heather Courtney’s film follows four friends from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula as they enlist in the National Guard, endure a harrowing stint in Afghanistan, and deal with a variety of challenges as they readjust to civilian life. We’re happy to report that, earlier this month, the film was awarded a well-deserved News and Documentary Emmy in the category “Outstanding Continuing Coverage of a News Story, Long Form.” It is ... Read More
‘Where Soldiers Come From’ Returns
September 6, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney was widely criticized for not mentioning the sacrifices of American troops during his acceptance speech. But the truth is that, barring some major battle that makes the news, few of us pay much thought to these brave young men and women. What drives them to enlist? How are they changed by their experience? What problems do they face upon returning home? Surely we owe them enough to care. One group of such soldiers is the focus of the superb documentary Where Soldiers Come From. First shown on PBS one year ago, it is being rebroadcast on many ... Read More
A Classic ‘Feel Bad’ Movie About Progress
April 2, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
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
Does Black History Need More Than a Month?
January 23, 2012 • By • Leave a Comment
Last February, Nike marked the annual celebration of all things African American with the limited release of four separate sets of sneakers. To quote from the company’s marketing copy describing the shoe: “The predominantly black upper of this Black History Month Air Force 1 is a nod to the past, because in the early days of the sport of basketball, shoes on the court were almost always black. The hints of gold all around the shoe are reminders of the golden moment we all are striving to achieve.” And here I thought the gold was a subtle reference to the mercenary nature of the slave ... Read More
PBS to Show ‘Where Soldiers Come From’
November 8, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
The upper peninsula of Michigan is a sparsely populated place with its own sense of identity — something it has in common with Afghanistan. The young men at the center of the moving documentary Where Soldiers Come From — all proud UP natives — never discuss this duality, but it helps explain the perceptiveness and compassion they display when their National Guard unit is deployed to fight in America’s longest-running war. When Dominic Fredianelli’s team finds weapons on an Afghan landowner’s property, and the man is taken away in handcuffs, Dom, a promising artist from Hancock, ... Read More
‘If a Tree Falls’ Revisits the Earth Liberation Front
September 8, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
The trajectory of Daniel McGowan's life is a familiar one: A young man from a conventional background finds meaning in a cause greater than himself. Thanks in part to overreaction by the authorities, he gradually becomes radicalized, dedicating himself to violent resistance — a course of action that grabs attention but ultimately backfires on him and his movement. An Islamic radical? White supremacist? Perhaps an anti-globalization anarchist? None of the above. McGowan was one of the key figures in the eco-terrorism of the 1990s, a man who used arson as a weapon in the fight to ... Read More
Documentary Tells Story of Art Saved from Stalin’s Fury
April 4, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
One of the most astonishing art collections on the planet is housed inside an obscure museum in the dusty Central Asian town of Nukus, Uzbekistan. The Igor Savitsky Museum is home to thousands of paintings and sculptures made by artists the Soviet government had banned, all collected by a former artist and archeologist who traveled throughout the Soviet republics in a desperate search to uncover these hidden treasures. "I found these paintings rolled up under the beds of old widows, buried in family trash, in dark corners of artists' studios, sometimes even patching a hole in the roof," ... Read More
‘Making the Boys’ Examines Controversial Gay Play
March 10, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
Mart Crowley was in a desperate situation. The screenplay he had written for 20th Century Fox was never produced, a TV pilot he scripted for a major star wasn't picked up by the network, and his agent had dropped him. Crowley needed something to write about that would get him back in the game. Then Crowley read a New York Times article in which theater critic Stanley Kauffmann complained that three of America's most famous playwrights — Edward Albee, William Inge and Tennessee Williams — were gay, but refused to write about homosexuality. Crowley, gay himself, thought this was a good ... Read More
Life in Prison Begins at 16
February 25, 2011 • By • Leave a Comment
It's difficult to choose the most heartbreaking scene in Dan Birman's documentary Me Facing Life: Cyntoia's Story. But a case can be made for one in which the 16-year-old central character, who is awaiting trial for murder in a Nashville, Tenn., criminal court, shows us her "sex list." It's a handwritten rundown, scribbled on a lined piece of notebook paper, of the dozens and dozens of people she had sexual relationships with during her troubled adolescence. In a detached, analytical tone, she proceeds to sort them by category: rapes (there were many), consensual encounters, those that ... Read More
