Lake of Fire is an impressive documentary, 18 years in the making, about abortion. At times, it is difficult to watch due to some graphic footage and descriptions, but the graphic nature of the film is never gratuitous nor exploitative. Lake of Fire provides an honest look at many aspects of the issue and does not shy away from some of the more gruesome details.

Although the film rests definitively on the side of pro-choice, it allows defenders on both sides of the issue speak their minds. At nearly two and a half hours long, the film allows the issues to develop slowly and thoroughly and with intelligence. Despite showing the pro-life movement in a bad light by focusing a good deal on the violence perpetrated by some of the more extreme people, the film is most concerned with showing the complexity of the issue.

With a lengthy running time and with covering a long period of time and a wide-variety of voices, Lake of Fire could have easily lost it’s narrative path, but it never does. The film is well-organized, brilliantly edited and beautifully filmed. The choice to film or convert footage to black and white helps take away any distractions of the different time periods and allows the filmmakers show graphic material in a way that has an impact but it not so graphic as to feel gratuitous. Read more »

Second Skin examines the lives of various people who immerse themselves in the world of online gaming, specifically Massively Multiplayer Online Games. The film shows some of the positive aspects of these games, such as people meeting and falling in love, and the liberating effects the games can have for those with physical disabilities. It also delves into the serious problems addiction to these games can have. The strength of the film lies in the compelling subjects interviewed for the film. Second Skin is a good introduction to the issues raised when people spend such a significant amount of time interacting through an online environment. The insights won’t be new to anyone who has been following the effects of any kind of online social interactions, but the interviewees make for engaging viewing.

Second Skin provides a lot of statistics throughout, but sometimes they seem out of context. The numbers are often only tangentially related to the story.

The section about the liberating effects of online gaming for those with physical disabilities is disappointingly short and feels like a bit of an afterthought. The film would have been stronger if one of the subjects from this short segment were one of the people the film follows more thoroughly.  Read more »

Trouble the Water is a fascinating and multi-faceted film about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. The film intercuts footage taken during the storm by Kimberly Rivers Roberts with the story of their attempt to return to normal life after the storm. Rivers Roberts and her husband, Scott, did not evacuate and shot some amazing footage of the rising water. Their efforts after the storm speak to how poorly the local and federal governments handled the tragedy. Focusing on the personal stories of Kim and Scott and their friends and family makes Trouble the Water engaging as we watch people with difficult pasts pull together to become heroes and survivors.

As with the best documentaries, Trouble the Water transcends their personal stories. Trouble the Water is as much about poverty, racism, and the role of the government as it is about these specific individuals. Trouble the Water is an intellectually stimulating and emotionally engaging film.

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Say My Name is an interesting look into the world of female hip-hop artists and would make a compelling double-bill with Who Does She Think She Is. Like that film, Say My Name allows the artists to speak without interference from the filmmakers and is loosely structured around common themes that develop from their stories. Say My Name speaks with both established and new artists from New York, Atlanta, Detroit, and London.

Say My Name speaks volumes about the misogyny in mainstream music and hip-hop culture without becoming didactic. There is only one short stretch toward the end of the film where it directly confronts this issue but it bubbles under the surface throughout the film. It is more of a celebration of the female artists but the need of this celebration points to the inequalities in the male-dominated industry. Read more »

Blindsight follows a group of mountain climbers, led by Erik Weihenmayer who was the first blind person to climb Mt. Everest, who lead a group of blind Tibetan children in an attempt to reach the peak of thhe 23,000 foot Lhakpa Ri. The children are all engaging and their back stories are far more interesting than the tale of the climb. Many of the group leaders seem more focused on having the children reach the peak than on doing what is best for the children which makes Blindsight rather aggravating to watch.

Oddly absent from Blindsight is footage of the children attempting difficult parts of the climb. Most of their footage is of them on what seems to be relatively level ground. The infighting among the group leaders supplies what little drama the film has to offer. This would have been a better film without the mountain climbing part. I was much more interested in the blind school established by Sabriye Tenberken and the stories of the children who attended it. I want to see that movie. Read more »

The Corporal’s Diary is the moving story of the families (focusing mainly on the mothers) of two U.S. soldiers in Iraq. Both soldiers were victims of an attack. One died and one suffered serious injuries. The film documents how these tragedies brought the two mothers together.

The film is constructed using the video and written diary of Corporal Jonathan Santos. Santos’ family was unaware of the written diary until after his death when his belongings were shipped home.  His mother recounts how Santos bought a video camera when he found out about his deployment. The film’s subtitle, 38 Days in Iraq, describes the short time from when Santos leaves for Iraq, meets Matthew Drake, and are attacked.

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At the Death House Door is an insightful look into the life and career of Carroll Pickett who was the chaplain at a prison in Huntsville TX where he presided over the execution of 95 inmates. The film intercuts the story of Pickett’s life with the case of Carlos DeLuna, a man sentenced to death despite some rather dubious evidence.

The film is equally thought provoking and moving. By revealing Pickett’s evolving thoughts about the death penalty, the film avoids any didactic temptations.  The film allows Pickett to drive the narrative as he struggles with a way to understand and deal with what he had been asked to do. The film opens with the fascinating revelation that he recorded his thoughts into a tape recorder after every execution, which his family knew nothing about until the making of the film.

Lending complexity to the story was Pickett’s involvement with the prison prior to becoming chaplain. The prison was the scene of a hostage drama where a couple members of Pickett’s congregation were killed.

The parallel story follows a couple of Chicago Tribune reporters who investigate the Carlos DeLuna case. The two storylines cross by the end of the film as Pickett reveals the details of DeLuna’s botched execution.
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Who Does She Think She Is focuses on five artists who try to balance their artistic drive with motherhood. The film places their struggles in the larger context of women being underrepresented in the art world. Although the film highlights five artists, it also interviews or shows clips from other experts which helps show the scope of the issues raised.

The strength of the film lies in the interviews with the main interviews with Angela Williams, Camille Musser, Janis Wunderlich, Maye Torres, and Mayumi Oda.  All five are fascinating although it seems like Williams, Wunderlich and Torres get most of the screen time. Musser, especially, seems to barely have a presence. What makes Who Does She Think She Is exceptional is that these women have varying degrees of success in balancing art and family. Despite the small sample, the film represents the complex ways such balance can play out.
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Torturing Democracy is a compelling and convincing film about the treatment of those people detained in the years after the 9/11 attacks. Relying heavily on government documents and interviews with members of various government organizations, this documentary traces the systematic way the Bush administration justify increasingly harsh interrogation tactics and manipulated the law to protect those involved.

Torturing Democracy is well-researched, almost to the point of overwhelming the viewer with facts. Because of the preponderance of details, I found the film a little hard to follow at times, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Although I don’t consider supplementary materials in judging films for the Notables Committee, my curiosity led me to look at the Torturing Democracy website which includes a rich archive which further supports the claims made in the film.

The archive and the entire film can be access via the Torturing Democracy site.

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There’s a thin line between a personal video essay and self-indulgence and, unfortunately, An Alternative to Slitting Your Wrist leans heavily toward the latter. The film follows Owen Lowery who decided to spend a year doing things he always wanted to do after being hospitalized for attempting suicide. These things range from the trivial (squirrel fishing) to the painful (scorpion bite, getting tazered) to the banal (hang gliding, bungee jumping).

Two sequences deal with heavier issues and provide the film’s only interesting and engaging parts. Lowery’s attempt to reconnect with his father by bringing him to a studio to record a song his father wrote nearly saves the film. Lowery’s attempt to confront his childhood abuser holds promise but the abuser refuses to appear on camera, so all that is offered is an audio-recording of the encounter.

Despite the seriousness of the topic, much of the film feels disingenuous. The film is punctuated by Lowery reading from his embarrassingly puerile journal entries. Someone should have intervened and warned him that these entries sound like bad high school poetry. Some of the scenes (like him banging his head against a wall) feel staged. By the end of the film, Lowery admits to not knowing what effect this year had, thereby confirming my suspicions about the pointlessness of the endeavor and of the film.

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