Léa Pool's fine nostalgic drama, THE PASSION OF AUGUSTINE, makes its U.S. VOD release

"We're going to fight -- for our convictions, for our girls, for our music, for everything we believe is right." So states the nun in charge of the Catholic Convent School that doubles as a music academy for talented girls in the hinterlands of Quebec. The time in the 1960s, when lots of change was afoot in the U.S., Canada, and pretty much all western democracies. And while the film -- THE PASSION OF AUGUSTINE -- might initially seem one of those us-against-them melodramas that pits the good guys (in this case, girls) against the bad, the subject matter here is actually much broader that merely that: the necessity for, along with the difficulties and growth that can come, via change.

Made in 2015 and winning seven Quebec Cinema Awards (formerly the Jutra Awards), the film is directed by the Swiss-born Léa Pool (shown at right, who has worked as filmmaker in French Canada for, I believe, most of her career) and written by Pool, together with Marie Vien. Ms Pool has given us a number of fine narrative and documentary films, including Lost and Delirious and Pink Ribbons, and I would count The Passion of Augustine among her best. Pool and Vien tells their story, which includes a rather large cast of characters to meet and get to know within a mere 103-minute time frame, succinctly and well, broadening the scope sufficiently so that we can understand in both the small and large picture, as well as what is really at stake here.

The lead character is the music-loving nun, Mère Augustine, in charge of the school and the girls who attend it. As played, and very well, by Céline Bonnier (shown above), this character, whom we get to view warts and all (humility, as Augustine's nemesis points out, is not her strong suit), makes a terrific heroine to take us through these changing times, as politics, religion, education, sexuality, and feminism were all jostling for position during this fraught decade.

How the filmmaker engages us with all this is quite nicely handled, never pushing too hard, while allowing us to view and understand both sides of each question that arises. We get a good sense of the school's student body (above), with special emphasis on one new student, a niece of Augustine (Lysandre Ménard, two photos below), who is also something of a piano prodigy, even as we enjoy meeting and appreciating the alternately funny and moving group of nuns, below, who work so hard to make certain this unusual school succeeds.

A higher-up member of the local archdiocese wants to close the school, so the die is soon cast in terms of antagonist/protagonist, even as that new student must face not only a major musical competition but the growing sickness and possible death of her mother. All sorts of change is on the horizon, including a "shocking" new dress code for the nuns, and Ms Pool handles all of this with humor, charm and the kind of quiet understanding that avoids melodrama.

As it reaches its most interesting, believable and in no way foregone conclusion, the movie is satisfying on a number of levels. Dialog is smart and true, the direction is appropriate but un-showy, and performances are fine, right down the line. (The musical score also includes some lovely renditions of Chopin, List and Bach.)

When, toward the film's end, someone suggests, "Have faith in the future," us older folk may quickly recall the 1960s and realize how easy it was to feel that way back then. Now? I'm not at all convinced (though I might be more so if I lived in Canada).

From Under the Milky Way and Solaris, The Passion of Augustine, in French with English subtitles, will make its VOD debut nationwide on all major platforms this coming Tuesday, August 15.

Léa Pool's PINK RIBBONS, INC. questions our standard response to breast cancer

This could be the most important documentary of the year. Forget that: of the decade. You might say that it goes against conventional wisdom, except that this isn't wisdom, really: just conventional, follow-the-leader, lemming-like behavior in the quest for a feel-good quick fix. In any case, the film is going to be extremely unpopular among the powers-that-be in the corporate and medical world.

PINK RIBBONS, INC., the new documentary from Canadian film-maker Léa Pool, shown at right, is likely to make those people apoplectic even a few minutes into the movie. Not that Ms Pool or any of her many interviewees ever raises their voice. No. These people are quiet, concerned, informed -- and fed up. As you may be, too, once you've watched the movie in its entirety.

Believe me, I have nothing against the color pink or against ribbons in general. In fact, hearing the story of the woman, now elderly, who first came up with the idea of a ribbon as a symbol for breast cancer, proved both a heartening and appalling experience. Appalling because her initial ribbon was the color orange -- nothing wrong with that -- but when a very well-known corporation wanted to buy from her the right to own that ribbon and use it to hawk product and make money, she said no. And so, clever company that it was, it simply changed the color to pink. And that's how we've become stuck with pink products galore that would have you believe that they are all helping to fight breast cancer.  

Are they not? Well, Pink Ribbons, Inc. shows us why they not only are not helping but may actually be hindering, as well. Ms Pool and her researchers get down to the nub of things by pointing out how certain companies, while going "pink" to raise money to help fight breast cancer, are simultaneously manufacturing products that are linked to causing the disease.

This is capitalism run typically amok, and further encouraged by the huge commercial success of the entire "pink" campaign that has, as the movie so insightfully demonstrates, raised millions of dollars in the name of breast cancer -- very few of which are devoted to prevention of the disease or to the real education of the public, but rather go for "research" and that long promised "cure." As social critic Barbara Ehrenreich (above, who leads off this fine film) quietly explains, "The effect of the whole pink ribbon culture has been to drain and deflect the kind of militancy we had...." As the movie points out, with specifics that encompass psychology, sociology, economics and politics, the breast cancer movement has changed from activism to feel-good consumerism.

We watch, aghast, as Pink seems to take over the world: from the expected Teddy Bears to food product (what Barbara A. Brenner, below, ex-Executive Director of Breast Cancer Action, says about a certain company's yogurt campaign is highly instructive, while what we learn about the Kentucky Fried Chicken campaign is downright shocking). Even Niagra Falls and the Empire State Building go pink! Starting back in the 1970s -- with the Reagan administration's push toward "private" and "business" solutions to health, social welfare and charity -- the film moves on to the Pink Campaign's selectively leaving out those women who are dying via Stage 4 Breast cancer (come on, this campaign is about surviving, not death!), quietly and effectively raising your hackles in the process.

By the time it gets to exactly where all the money raised for breast cancer actually goes, and why, and to the big pharmaceutical companies such as Eli Lily who appear to be working both sides of the street, you'll  be ready to cry uncle. After watching this 97-minute documentary, TrustMovies has come up with a couple of slight rhymes that he plans to live by from now on:

If it's pink, it'll likely stink

and

If there's a ribbon, 
 somebody's fibbin'

Or, to put it even more succinctly by quoting the objective of this compassionate, well-reasoned documentary: to persuade the word's citizenry to simply "Think before you pink." 

Pink Ribbons, Inc., from First Run Features, will open this Friday, June 1 in New York City (at the IFC Center) and in the Los Angeles area (at Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex and Playhouse 7), and will begin a limited release that will hit at least 20 more cities across the country in the weeks to come. Click here to see all currently scheduled playdates.