The film also provides unique insight into the fall of Communism which led to the harsh economic climate that made these women vulnerable to the tactics of the traffickers. Often, Chakarova laments how things were better under Communism and takes the viewer to her all but abandoned hometown.

The first half of the film focuses on the initial tragedy and legal battle. The second half revolves around Charlene’s continuing advocacy and the stories of other people who faced similar discrimination.

Despite the importance of the issues raised and Charlene’s emotional story, For My Wife is not consistently engaging. Even with a relatively short 60 minute running time, the film drags in spots and is a bit repetitive.

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.

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. 

The entire episode is available to view here.

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.

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.

The Corporal’s Diary Trailer 3 Minutes from Patricia Boiko on Vimeo.

Unfortunately, these positives are often undermined by a couple of factors. One is that Maher goes after mostly easy-pickings. The people he chooses to interview tend to have fairly outrageous ideas which are easy to dismiss. He does speak to a couple of more moderate believers but he mainly focuses his attention on points that he agrees with and does not pursue any murkier gray areas. The other factor working against Maher is that he often interrupts the interviewees to make a joke. Although Maher is often funny throughout, his humor often cuts off the possibility of any real insights. His attitude toward most of the people is generally mocking.

The case against Monsanto made in this film is quite convincing. The interviews are relevant and poignant and the evidence is well-researched.   The filmmaker, Marie-Monique Robin uses a series of Google searches to frame the film. I found this choice unfortunate because some of the searching she does undermines the power of the rest of the research. For example, she points to a Wikipedia article that clearly shows a “citation needed” tag. However, many of her other searches reveal relevant and important facts and the preponderance of the other evidence support her case.

After watching several films for the committee, I am seeing an interesting correlation among several of the films, including this one, Blood and Oil, I.O.U.S.A. and Consuming Kids. These films all point to deregulation during the Reagan administration as one of the causes of whatever issues these films focus on. I am curious to see if any of the remaining films also point to this period of history as a turning point.