True or False? 2013: After Tiller

This one is a toughie…it definitely is!

Settling into our balcony seats in Jesse Hall with a row-full of friends we all tried to mentally and spiritually prepare for this upcoming film. We all had different reasons for being there and different levels of interest or excitement. For me, to watch this film was a hard decision.

Hard. Howabout doggon tough. My heart was burdened as I walked into the theatre. After reading the synopsis on the True/False Film Festival website, I scribbled ‘After Tiller‘ on my list for possibles. Then, it just fit into the Sunday afternoon schedule, beating out ‘Leviathan’ for my Sunday matinée.

I am against abortion.

We all believe things that may or not be true and are either ignorant to this or not. Many things I think or believe are likely based in some strange lie I believe. My hope is that all things are made clear when Christ returns. Our society stands on different sides and on the fence regarding abortion, and within the Christian church, Believers believe differently on this issue. It is hard, doggon tough. Human life is to be celebrated and is not conditional on circumstance, utility, or whim.

‘After Tiller’ is a fascinating look into the semi-personal lives of four late-term abortion providers in the U.S. It takes us into the clinics and homes of the two women and two men who operate on women and unborn babies to provide this service. The producers of the film stated that they wanted to step away from the mainstream media’s way of covering abortion and actually get to know the men and women who make these decisions, both doctor and patient, each day. Who are these doctors and what do they deal with and how do they do their work after the death of their colleague and mentor George Tiller, who was murdered by an extreme anti-abortionist.

This film does a slam-up job of attempting to get two know these doctors as people. Some open up more than others. The two women doctors get quite personal with their decision-making and personal struggles in continuing providing abortions. One says that she struggles often with the fact that the stillborn child when removed looks like a baby, and cannot be thought of as anything else. The other female doctor wrestles with many late-term cases as she tries to decide if the story provided by the pregnant woman warrants the doctor performing the abortion.

The two male doctors let the viewer into their family lives. We meet one doctor’s Spanish wife and son and the doctor’s mother, who is not even immune of personal attacks. The other doctor has his wife, clinic manager and retired schoolteacher, beside him for the interviews. They even recount their loss of their horses and barn in a fire started by anti-abortion extremists.

Completely humanizing, several of my friends appreciated that aspect of the film. These are real people. They just may not be making the right choices. Documentaries throughout T/F show people making decisions that they live with because they believe it is the right or best thing to do. In this film, while their faces are not shown, several pregnant women, and a few husbands or partners, or shown as well. They are discussing their decision with the doctors in counseling sessions. For several expectant mothers the reality of children being born with abnormalities or fetal diseases leads them to this decision of abortion. For another it is financial. For another it is rape. These women express remorse and grief at their decision. They are not happy with their choice, but continue anyway.

Unfortunately, this film does not focus on these pregnant mothers post-abortion, as it is attenuated to the doctors on the other side of the room. We cannot see the mothers’ faces, but we see those of the doctors. In their faces we see internal wrestling and distaste.

Both pregnant mothers and doctors must live with their decisions.

If you cry when seeing this film, that is okay.

 “For thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness. And I will bring them out from the peoples and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land. And I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, by the ravines, and in all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them with good pasture, and on the mountain heights of Israel shall be their grazing land. There they shall lie down in good grazing land, and on rich pasture they shall feed on the mountains of Israel. I myself will be the shepherd of my sheep, and I myself will make them lie down, declares the Lord GOD. I will seek the lost, and I will bring back the strayed, and I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, and the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them in justice.

                                                                                                                                                                           (Ezekiel 34:11-16 ESV)

How will God feed his lost sheep when he re-gathers them? In justice! Justice does not come by an extremist’s bullet or lit match. Read more of Ezekiel 34 for more insight.

I pray that these four doctors hear God’s call for life and joy! We cannot know their hearts through this film and praise God that only He can bring true justice. My dear, burdensome prayer is for these four doctors. May this film lead you to pray for them, not hate them. May this film help you to see them as broken people, even as we all are, not as villains.

Should you see this film? Maybe. But if you only look through your lenses of pro-choice or pro-life, then you may miss the message of the film. There is too much grey area in this film to simply applaud or lam-blast it for its subject matter. If you want to see man’s brokenness and be forced to look to God’s sovereignty for true hope then please watch this film.

True or False? 2013: Cutie and the Boxer

A love story.

I walked along 9th street at the True/False Film Festival hoping to run into friends. When my previous film, ‘The Village at the End of the World’, let out too close for me to jump into a secret screening I thought of visiting, I strolled by the T/F box office to take a look at the window schedule. When I spied ‘Cutie and the Boxer’ I thought that might be a nice nightcap for the Saturday. On I went to the Missouri Theatre, where I read on the chalk board that sure enough the film was on for 8:30pm. Okay, great. Plenty of time to stand in a Q line, and maybe eat something prior to that cold wait.

Then I saw my housemate Josh who had just been rejected in the Q line from a showing of ‘The Expedition to the End of the World’. I invited him to join me for this intimate look of two Japanese artists. After purchasing some Subway, we started the line for the Q and after jumping and swaying to keep warm, received the reward for our promptness: Q numbers 1 and 2!

‘Cutie and the Boxer‘ is a thoroughly enjoyable and intimate look into the lives of a married Japanese couple, who separately immigrated to New York City to pursue art and decided pursuing their dreams together was better. Ushio was perhaps the most famous starving artist in New York and in his 40s, while Noriko was a 19-year old art student. They met, fell in love, and decided to marry and pursue their art alongside each other.

But that was many years ago. Today, they live and work alongside each other as well. Yet, the past is full of pain, hardship, struggles, and bitterness. Alcoholism and always living at the poverty line made for hard years, painful years.

The film’s smallness is what is most attractive, my housemate Josh said. It is small, with only a few other characters in the film, most of the dialogue is between this longtime couple, still married, still living around the poverty level, and still  doing art. The cameras focus in on Ushio and Noriko as they do their daily routine. Ushio makes some snarky remark and Noriko fires back. He makes a joke, she laughs. Etc.

I could honestly watch their daily lives through this film for many more hours! While a reality t.v. show crossed my mind, that may only cheapen this. They are not meant for serialization, but for art! They both live in this world, going from art showcase to studio to tea pots. These two are sweet, cute, endearing. But they are real.

If anything can strike one perhaps regarding their marriage it is that even with their brokenness and pain between the two, the remained faithful to each other. When one side let down the marriage, the other faithfully and perhaps gracefully held and waited. It lasts. This is even a bit surprising knowing some of the Japanese culture from which they emerged. Grace is not a word in Japan, yet Ushio and Noriko live it on the big screen.

Do we extend forgiveness to our loved ones? How do we respond to pain and hurt that is most assuredly to come when one lives so intimately with another human being?

True or False? 2013: The Village at the End of the World

Saturday morning at the True/False Film Fest held a double bill of Chilean films for me -and that was fantastic! My double bill of Greenland films were separated by a few more hours. My opening ‘Expedition’ that took me on a wooden ship to the frozen fjords of Greenland struck me Thursday night with crashing icebergs and thoughtful reflections by outsiders; the second Greenland film turned its attention to a tiny Inuit village, population 59, where hope continually sprang anew as the seasons passed.

This film, ‘The Village at the End of the World‘, carried a different tune than did ‘Expedition to the End of the World’. The first had an unknown, perhaps unwanted future ahead as the scientists and artists guessed at the transitions by melting polar ice caps and climate change as well as man’s adaptation to it all. Albeit through-provoking with much humor weaved within, there was a lot of looking backwards in the ‘Expedition’.

Not so, in ‘The Village’ as we come into the lives of this tiny fishing village, complete with powerful vistas and little, colorful wooden houses dotting the islet. An abandoned fish factory sits with no one to work it. A faithful and regular ‘village clock’-man regularly collects the people’s sewage and wheelbarrows it to a dump site. A young teenager sits idle in the village shop, dreaming of the big city. Village chief and head hunter faithfully sets out for fish, whale, and bear to feed his village.

This is no village stuck in the past, as one cruise ship adventurer suggests. No, they are moving forward. With several families moving away, the remaining talk of abandoning this ancestral home, but it is absolutely unthinkable. They fight.

How can they save their village, which is a 5 day walk to the closest town, has no medical service, relies on Danish subsidies, and a powerful shipping company for regular supplies? They fight.

This story touches the heart. And in many ways it transcends Inuit culture or Greenland or language barrier. These people reflect the fight that many small villages or towns across the world, especially in the U.S., are engaged in to keep their heritage alive and their livelihoods sustaining. When you watch this if you are from a small town, who will see their struggle for survival come through. Theirs is a hopeful one.

Where do you live? Did you escape the small town knowing that there is little there for you or that it is dying and strike out for greener (or less frozen) lands? Small town revival is real and active across the U.S. and globe, as the Internet and other technology continues to make the world smaller and more accessible for even the most raw of entrepreneurs. Just as ‘The Village’ is doing it, so can you small town.

Sure, the Inuit culture is used to harsh conditions, but it is the soul that drives one to innovation and survival, not seal fur coats or dried fish.

 

True or False? 2013: The Last Station

Many things are better not translated. In fact, several times during ‘The Last Station‘ I tried to listen to the words and comprehend with my rudimentary Spanish the perhaps better meaning than what a a quick subtitle could convey.

My joy in getting admitted with my high Q number was validated as this film hit my heart like non other this festival. Warning: this is a bit of a crying film, but at least not until the latter parts. My emotions were left bare, as one scene dragged my head forward and down, tears formed behind my glasses, and an understanding sadness overwhelmed me. By the end of the film my hands were palms up, praying along with the film for understanding and grace in these personalities on screen and those in my life as well.

In Spanish the film’s title is striking: La Ultima Estacion. Better translated it could really mean ‘the final station, or ‘the ending station’, or ‘the end’. But, my guess is that the directors wanted this title to convey heavy double meaning.

Within the film, five main characters are followed. None with any great speaking parts, but many with the thoughts, conversations (with God and each other), and even radio broadcasts to share their lives.

At first look-in, the title may refer to this little one-man radio station that was ran by a geriatric who gave daily broadcasts to his fellow nursing home residents. He is seen sitting atop mountains and beside the sea with his tape recorder and microphone so that he might then share these voices of nature through his radio program. It is steadying to the film and gives a bit of constancy to the impending death and loneliness that brings unpredictability to these residents.

But we see that beyond any simple radio program, ‘The Last Station’ perhaps has more to do with the realization that for those in the film that where they live and what they do and with whom they spend time equates to their final station in life -the one prior to death.

Why talk about one’s old house that you miss, one lady says as she chides her friend for holding onto the un-regainable past. “Just drop it,” she says.

This is their last station. From there, a few residents end their journey in the film, presented by morning PA announcements or memorial singing of hymns. One film character struggles through his old address book, searching for lost companeros, or friends, only to be met by operator voices explaining that the numbers are disconnected.

Death comes. How fast and when, we cannot know. But the certainty is ever-present in this screening. A few seemingly stand defiant and others see the inevitable not far away.

Religion comes into the film as these men and women struggle with death. The most compelling scene for me is a sequence of prayers by different persons overlapping and bleeding into one prayer of hope and peace, fear and uncertainty.

This is a heart-jerker but a necessary one to see. When I walked out my Spirit was asking questions: Do we care for our elderly? Do we visit or marginalize? How much is loneliness an effector in the elderly’s lives? How do we meet Death well? Do we expect a quiet sleeping goodbye? Are we scared? Do we only seek safety?

In C.S. Lewis’ ‘The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe’, one of the Pevensie children asks Mrs. Beaver if Aslan the lion is safe.

“‘Course he’s not safe. But he’s good.”

When we reach our last station do we expect safety? If so, then perhaps we need to re-watch this film to realize with Death comes hope and with loneliness comes a future of joy.

True or False? 2013: No

How does one get a whole nation to vote ‘No’ to a referendum?

That is perhaps a central theme to this fiction-meet-documentary set in the 1988 Chile. Nominated for an Academy Award, ‘No‘ is a simple, smart, retelling of perhaps-trying time in Chile’s history.

General Pinochet had been in many power many years following a CIA-assisted military coup, but the Chilean people wanted freedom, perhaps even democracy. With international pressure, Pinochet agrees to a simple ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ vote for legitimizing his reign over the growing South American nation.

In walks Rene to the shot, the film’s protagonist, to help solve the mystery posed. People are generally not fans of change and forcing a movement towards democracy to convince a majority of Chileans to vote ‘No’ to something required a lot of wit, conniving, and pure ad genius. And Rene did it. He willfully shapes, reacts and ‘Coke commercial’-ed his way to getting a nation to vote ‘No’, despite the human desire to always say ‘yes’ and encourage positivity.

How much is real or pure fiction is hard to guess in this film. It may even fall in line with this year’s Oscar-winning movie ‘Argo’ in the way it fills in a lot of gaps and makes it humanizing, funny, and down-right enjoyable.

Say ‘yes’ to ‘No’. Then you will be instantly become as those featured in the film’s advertising: dancing through streets, eating bagets in a park, and hanging out with scary mimes.

If you miss it at the True/False Film Festival, you may soon see it at a regular theatre.

True or False? 2013: The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear

Friday night turned cold. As the light faded in the streets of downtown Columbia, sounds bounced from building to building, especially those of a busker band in front of Panera on Ninth St. I heard banjo picking and fiddle and other instruments that completed a full sound. There, just out of the wind, performed Mountain Animation. So much so did I enjoy this Brooklyn, NY two-man band that I stood around tapping my feet and hands clapping to keep my warm and encourage other Fest-goers to join in. When I could not find a dollar bill in my wallet to thank them for almost a full concert I stood by soaking-in, I trotted to the ATM and returned to trade a $20 for a c.d. out of their banjo case.

When my festival volunteer friend Alex walked-by I joined her as we both we heading in the same direction. Then I jumped into the cold tent on the Uprise Bakery patio to await the two hours for the awesomest Q number possible (I got #2) for the Little Ragtag to screen ‘The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear’.

Lo and behold some friends joined in the Q and we ended up having a nice clan squeezed into the tiny theatre. This is my favorite place to watch films, especially as when I ran into the room all the front row couches were still vacant…not for long…ha! When the live-mixing girl finished busking at the front, the film started.

First scene lit-up to a man standing in front of a blue wall with peeling paint facing us. He is then asked questions by the off-camera voice (film director Tinatin Gurchiani). Then a boy appears against the same wall. Then we break away to follow his story for a bit. Back to the tattered blue wall we go for another person, then another, and on.

The questions are answered honestly and sometimes guardedly, depending on the character in the camera shot. More characters are added as the minutes go by and I get a sense that there is a wonderful progression -perhaps all these people are connected. Are they friends? Are they in the same town? No. What do they have in common?

Gurchiani pointedly answered that this film pulled together people’s stories from only a few weeks filming time to show the young people of Georgia, a former USSR country, sharing their hopes, fears, despair, and dreams. She asks a few characters what movie star they would be and what talents they have. To the second question an extremely poignant wedding scene emerges from one girl’s love song.

This film excels in its music score and the way it slams into the shot and fades away. Short vignettes and some live action make it speed up and slow down to take one on a journey through the hearts and minds of young people in the former-Soviet Georgia.

Is this the real Georgia or is it simply Gurchiani’s line-of-sight? She said in the Q&A that her people are not depressive people. Pain and hardship do come through, surrounded by the degradation of the Soviet-era architecture in the cities and rudimentary village life.

When you watch this you see people’s hearts. You see their dreams, either flowing free or being crushed by despair. You see perhaps a bit through their eyes.

Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.   (Genesis 21:19 ESV)

This film has an Ishmael-like boy, seemingly cast away to the fringe of society, who recites Little Red Riding Hood and dreams of acting the main part in his own Hollywood. God’s sovereignty reigns over this boy’s life. What will become of him?

What will become of the youth of war-ravaged Georgia? May dreams be real and hope be constant!

Watch the trailer here!

True or False? 2013: Pandora’s Promise

The first Friday film at the True/False Film Fest was fantastic and emotional. With that, my belly was empty and so I sauntered to Chipotle for a burrito and then retraced my steps to The Picturehouse, the venue in the Methodist church downtown. I grab a stair step and munched away. A Q line let in 150 folks for a Secret Screening as I sat there. Then, I joined a couple fest-goers in wonderful conversation on culture differences between the Midwest and the South, etc. before jumping into a formalized Q line for ‘Pandora’s Promise’.

Boy, I am so glad that I got into this one, as I had lucky number 3 Q ticket. First, The Picturehouse is a totally enjoyable venue with some super real characters covering the walls within -catch a film in there if possible.

‘Pandora’s Promise’ is sort of an environmental film, or at least gives a voice to a growing sect within the environmental movement, as liberal democrats are slowly deciding that one of the only quick ways to reduced carbon emissions is through nuclear energy.

The film then weaves a brilliant web passing through the issues of morality, safety, fear, incorrect facts, history, and relating it to the Japanese nuclear plant accident from 2011 and the infamous Chernobyl and Three Mile Island.

Leading Environmental and Nuclear Energy researchers were interviews back to back to make a case for the safe, clean, limited-waste and awesome potential for powering the globe. Strong computer graphics were designed, including one that showed that all of the nuclear waste in the world will fit across one football field, 3 m. deep- perhaps not as much as we might be led to believe. Another strong argument for nuclear power stands on the physics that the fuel can be re-used again and again to create one of the best types of sustainable power sources.

France is the archetype and example used for the future with the lowest CO2 levels in a western country.

Again and again, the case is buffered with more evidence and personal accounts of why nuclear energy is perhaps a wise and reliable way to power the world. Maybe. Decide for yourself.

True or False? 2013: The Moo Man

Friday morning, fresh off two films Thursday night and a few hours sleep (and writing blog reviews on those), I joined my friend Bobby to Q for ‘The Moo Man‘. And we got there early -boy am I glad we did!

Promised to be a compelling story showing the depth of care between an English dairyman and his cows, it fulfilled any hope or expectation for the film. Beyond that, it even added real calf birthing scenes, deep thoughts on the state of the British dairy herd, and animal welfare.

This farmer is wise, caring, resourceful, personable, and introspective. He calls his milk cows by name, speaking character attributes, oft with heavy personification, onto each one.

There is always one animal that you make a deep bond with, he says. She becomes the queen -the leader -of the heard. And there is always the trouble maker in the herd as well, he says.

This film hits deep to my filial love for British farming, as Dad immigrated to America from an English farm that cherished the husbandry of caring for livestock. When the film’s farmer helps pull a calf from a struggling birthing cow, it reminds me of my cold, wet night stood in a stall helping my uncle pull a big calf. The smells, emotions, etc, all come fresh to my mind!

And when the dairyman lays down beside his sickly animal, doing all he can to find out what ails her and stroking here and encouraging her to get well, it only too strikingly hits my hearts as the many hours I have laid beside one of our ailing goats on Rillington Fields, begging, encouraging, praying for it to get up and walk, eat, skip…

This is good. This is real. This is farming -not aggrandized, but showing daft animals, albeit lovable animals, led by an endearing and knowledgeable dairyman in southern England.

‘The Moo Man’ is a T/F Festival topper for sure!!

True or False? 2013: Winter Go Away

After enjoying my first T/F film earlier that evening, I jogged over to the Forrest Theatre to grab a Q ticket for my first of a couple Russian-focused films. And whatdayaknow, but two friends happened to join me as well! In we went through the paper mache animals and dangling tree branches into see ‘Winter Go Away’.

Russia’s growing fight for democracy and transparency is illuminated here in this Russian film with subtitles. It takes us to one year ago, when Vladimir Putin and his comrades are again up for re-election. Shown throughout the film are the woes, throes, and, foes of Putin and the concerted and passionate efforts by the Opposition to Putin’s continued ‘reign’ over Russian.

Filmed apparently over several months and by many cameras in Moscow and St. Petersburg, and perhaps other cities, rally after rally, protest after protest is shown as throngs marched the streets, interacted with the staunch police forces, and sang their cries for change.

While terribly exhausting for a viewer, the repeated camera shots of unlawful arrests, shouting objectionsists, and heated discussions starts to sink into one’s brain that something is stirring in the cities of Russia. People apparently want democracy. But, then there are the lies perpetrated by the Russian government that the American CIA is paying citizens to protest and rally. Really?

It is a difficult film to endure, especially if one is tired, but it is definitely enlightening. The emotions, desires, hopes of the Russian people are not too different from our emotions, desires, and hopes in America. Continuing to break any remaining Cold War-era thoughts of who are these socialist Russians, this film continues to help us see that we struggle for life, for freedom, for peace, and prosperity. And that struggle often means we must publicly stand for change.

Do we stand for change against injustice, racism, slavery, poverty, etc?

True or False? 2013: The Expedition to the End of the World

Courtesy: http://expeditionthemovie.dk/

Wow.

Again, wow! Maybe even a few more exclamation points and a bit of random superlatives.

Beginning the 2012 True/False Film Festival with such an explosive film as ‘The Expedition to the End Of the World‘ was the right choice. And there were a few hundred other folks that probably agreed. This Danish film with subtitles is perhaps opening a door into how science and art can once again thrive while side-by-side observing and documenting nature. If my words are underwhelming, please note that you will not be dissilusioned or dissapointed by taking time to watch this film.

There is a wooden ship. On this ship, which seemed to fit more into a turn-of-the-century Ernest Shackleton expedition to the South Pole, thrives a sortie (or perhaps purposefully not sorted) band of scientists, artists, sailors, photographers (and the never-seen film crew), “boldly going where no man has gone before.” And I mean this quite literally. They take the whole 90 min. traversing ice-bound waters, traveling up a thawing fjord in Greenland where perhaps no one, except stone-age residents, have ventured.

Apparently a National Park, the largest in the world, they somewhat illegally lived off the protected salmon, all the while pontificating and philosophizing on life and where Man fits into the whole picture. Occasionally side expeditions to explore the ice floes or bath in the frigid waters or collect soil and rock samples led the explorers to the far reaches of our planet, which one character dubbed ‘the end of the world’. This film is absolutely brilliant!

This film dazzled the eyes and only took me deeper into its spell as a soil coring drill spun its way to the deep permafrost or as great chunks of ice crash to the water below. These men (and woman) take great pleasure in their stark surroundings, realizing their minuteness in the grandiose scheme of the ever-changing landscape. A landscape that is footnoted by our nomenclature ‘Climate Change’.

“So what if it all melts,” one artist rambles. Humans have always adapted to our changing surroundings and perhaps we hold onto the present too much, he says. Maybe we should have a raft instead of two cars, he adds.

The real separation from civilization is felt – be it almost penetrable as it hangs in air below-deck and in the minds of the explorers as they saunter across the landscape.

This is not an environmentalist film. Far from it. If anything, the collaboration of Metallica music, colored pencil sketches, and fish heads make for a film that sees Man as we are. Whether originating from Mars or a happy accident or divinely created, the men see God around them, whether they recognize this. Several times the men note Biblical allusions and are brough to quoting Biblical connections.  The geochemist in the band of merry men recognizes that when he is digging in the soil, he is actually looking for something inside himself.

So many times my head nodded in agreement or understanding, trying to appreciate where these explorers say in relation to their humanity, as humor, whit, pure honesty, and philosophy come together to portray a microcosm of who we are and where we fit in Creation.

We had seen God in His splendors, heard the test that Nature renders. We had reached the naked soul of man.  —-Ernest Shackleton.