Vital, joyous and as important as life: Kief Davidson and Pedro Kos' BENDING THE ARC

What a thrill, a joy, an unexpected amazement it is to see a new documentary that addresses (other than global warming) one of the most important subjects in our world today -- the right to health care for all human beings -- and does this is a manner that first makes you sit up and take notice and soon has you glued to the screen in wonder, and then in tears -- of thanks -- for the good work the people you've met have done and are continuing to do. If you can sit dry-eyed through BENDING THE ARC, I shall be very surprised. Boy, do we need this movie now!

As directed by the team of Kief Davidson and Pedro Kos (shown above, with Kos on the right) and written by Cori Shepherd Stern, the documentary covers some 35 years, during which its protagonists -- we begin with just three of them; today there are many more -- who've formed a group called Partners in Health (PIH) slowly bring some decent health care to the general populace of Haiti and then go on to Peru, where they help solve the problem of Multi-Drug-Resistant Tuberculosis, eventually help bring relief from AIDS to developing countries, and finally move to post-genocide Rwanda, where we watch and marvel as a fine health care system is developed.

The three (then) young people who form this group are (shown above, from left to right) Jim Yong Kim, Ophelia Dahl and Paul Farmer. We see the steps along the way in each of the situations they encounter and so become aware of, not simply the problems -- plenty, of course -- but how each is tackled and (in some form) surmounted. Initially we may find ourselves thinking, "Oh, some more do-gooders," but soon the good that they are doing countermands most other concerns. It's real. And it counts.

When the movie becomes the most personal, showing us individuals suffering from TB and then AIDS, along with what happens to them, it also hits hardest and strongest. Also powerful and anger-provoking are the near-constant attempts by academics, politicians and the medical profession, as well as the powers that be, internationally (initially, The World Bank is one of these), to undermine the PIH accomplishments, rather than embracing them and helping foot the necessary bill.

The documentary is full of excitement, suspense and surprise, as well as peopled with memorable  characters whom we grow to care about and hugely appreciate, especially some of the patients (shown above and below) to whom PIH ministers and saves, or not, along the way.

Unlike the very lightweight and close-to-embarrassing doc that opened last week, Prosperity, Bending the Arc makes no claims that its protagonists can save the world. It simply shows us what can be accomplished by smart, caring people who keep trying. What happens to these three is interesting, of course, but in the case of Mr. Kim, it is rather amazing and thrilling -- bringing a much-needed change to one of the world's most powerful organizations.

The titular "Arc" here is that metaphoric "arc of justice," which philosophers of the kindly sort tend to see bending very slowly toward justice for all. While it is difficult, under current American (not to mention much of the rest of the world's) leadership, to even remotely believe in this possibility, Bending the Arc, against all odds, will convince you that this is indeed happening.

My one caveat with the movie is that nowhere does it mention the probable problems that crop up when dealing with dictatorial governments in places where your group needs to provide help. What special arrangement had to be made, for instance, and what was "skimmed off the top"  by government officials? Of course it would not prove helpful to further endeavors to even bring up this subject, I suppose. Just as this sort of thing becomes the price of "doing business" in a corrupt country, it is undoubtedly also the price of doing good. Still, one can't help but wonder how the negotiations worked.

From Abramorama and running 102 minutes, Bending the Arc -- a shoo-in, I would think, for an Oscar nomination -- opens this Friday, October 6, in New York City at the Village East Cinema,and then the following Friday, October 13, in Boston (Sommervile Theater) Los Angeles (Laemmle's Monica Film Center),and Washington DC (Landmark's West End Cinema). On Friday, October 20, it hits San Francisco (Landmark's Opera Plaza) and Berkeley (Landmark's Shattuck Cinemas). If you're interested in arranging a screening for your community, click here then scroll down.

Peruvian-style Capitalism meets major opposition in Heidi Brandenburg & Mathew Orzel's WHEN TWO WORLDS COLLIDE

We've heard, over the years, a lot about Brazil's deforestation of its Amazon region but not so much about what neighboring Peru has done. We're brought up to date with with a jolt and much vigor by the new documentary, WHEN TWO WORLDS COLLIDE that takes us back a few years and then forward as two major political leaders in Peru -- the country's then-President, Alan Garcia, and Alberto Pizango, President of AIDESEP, the country's major organization devoted to indigenous rights -- square off against each other and the policies that each represents.

As very well directed and photographed (sometimes in the midst of violent unrest) by Heidi Brandenburg and Mathew Orzel (shown above, respectively right and left), and edited by Carla Gutierrez to maximize our understanding of what is going on from various angles and viewpoints, the documentary brings us up-close-and-personal to power wielded South American style by two men absolutely intent on seeing that their ends come to fruition.

While Progressives and environmentalists will of course side with Señor Pizango (above, center) and American Republicans and other promoters of Capitalism will favor Garcia (below), the filmmakers do an excellent job of offering up both men's viewpoints honestly (Garcia refused to cooperate or give interviews to the the documentarians), but it is clear from what we see that the Peruvian government, under Garcia and his minions, enacted laws that were actually illegal. Under International Convention C169, to which Peru was a signatory, it is mandatory that before the government passes a law that affects the rights of it native people, those people must first be consulted. This was never done, and since these laws have given huge corporations the power to despoil the Amazon and impact badly the heath of the natives, Pizango goes full-out against Garcia to stop this.

How all this is done -- via speeches, actions, and the use of the media to (mostly) bolster the government's case -- escalates into the kind of implacable force that leads finally to violence and death. The film, evolving rather like a thriller, proves intelligent and engulfing, showing us concisely and irrefutably how actions have consequences, many of them unintended -- perhaps on both sides, though the use of what appears to have been unnecessary gunfire by the government forces places a stronger burden of guilt upon Garcia.

The documentary show us once again, but dramatically and with startling immediacy, how the one percent of America -- in the South just as in the North -- exercises its control with an iron hand, consequences be damned. It also shows how, in fighting this control, the limits of behavior can be stretched past the breaking point.

Many scenes resonate, but one in particular, in which a cold and entitled TV talk show host "interviews" Pizango and tells hims that she should not have to be without electricity and lights because of his protests. "What about our rights?" he counters, and she cuts him off, ending the interview.

We hear several times from a scurrilous Minister of the Interior, as well as from various indigenous people, and the most personal and saddest part of the film deals with a father whose son was one of the policeman who were killed during the violence with protesters, when several of the protesters were also killed. The man's son has never been found, and the father spends his days and months searching for any information. What he finds at last is deeply moving and unsettling in ways expected and not.

The two worlds here -- wealthy and poor, the government and the people, the urban and the indigenous -- do indeed collide, and this will happen more often now that, thanks to activists, whistle-blowers and the use of social media, we can more quickly see and understand what is going on in our world and why. Once you've viewed this strong and riveting movie, I suspect that it will come to mind first from now on, whenever you hear of or think about Peru.

From First Run Features and running 103 minutes, When Two Worlds Collide opened in New York last week at Film Forum, where it is continuing its run through this coming Tuesday. It will open in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Monica Film Center on Friday, September 16, as well as in another ten cities and theaters. Click here to see all currently scheduled playdates.

Note: The DVD of this film, also from First Run Features, 

will hit the street come Tuesday, November 15. 2016

Camilo Vila's 186 DOLLARS TO FREEDOM, Peruvian prison movie, opens in NY & L.A.

We've had naive, young Americans hauled off to a Turkish prison in 1978's Midnight Express, a Chilean prison (1982's Missing), a prison in Thailand (1999's Brokedown Palace) and now a Peruvian prison in the badly-named 186 DOLLARS TO FREEDOM. There have probably been a number of other Americans-in-foreign-prison films, but these four jump quickly to mind, the last because it just opened this past Friday here in New York City and will open this coming Friday in Los Angeles, the other three because they boasted big-name stars and/or were somewhat-to-very successful.

Formerly (and much more interestingly) titled City of Gardens, the new Dollars/Freedom film, based (and ain't they all) on real-life events, tracks Wayne, a young American surfer/
teacher riding waves and working in Peru, who is arrested one sunny day for little or no reason and then imprisoned on trumped-up drug charges. As co-written (with Monty Fisher) and directed by Camilo Vila (shown at left), the film is part romantic drama (mostly via flashbacks), part political
/cultural treatise, and part torture porn. As you might surmise these parts do not work together well to provide an edifying whole.

The problem is not so much that the parts could not coalesce as that they simply don't. The flashbacks are used in clunky fashion, the expository treatise sections are explained to our imprisoned hero with i's dotted and t's crossed ("I had no idea there was so much suffering here," he then exclaims), and the torture porn (above), when it finally arrives, has our naked hunk trussed up and bled like a pig. And then suddenly -- spoiler just ahead -- he's seen sprinting off to freedom when, by all rights, he ought to be bleeding to death. Filmmakers, please: If you insist on feeding us this sugared crap, would you at least try to make it a tad believable.

On the plus side, the cast assembled for the movie is certainly watchable. In the lead role is one, John Robinson (above). Remem-ber that platinum blond kid from nearly a decade ago in Gus van Sant's Elephant and Lords of Dogtown? He's grown up some and here sports a nice body, on display a lot. Facially, he looks like he could easily play Patrick Wilson's younger brother. His acting? Acceptable, if not inspired. However, his character is way beyond the adjective naive. (In the movie, Wayne calls himself stubborn, yet in these particular circumstances it registers more like stupid.)

In prison Wayne makes both a good friend and a bad enemy -- played respectively by Johnny Lewis (above) and Alex Meraz (below). The former has a secret rooftop garden that makes the movie's former title even more pertinent.

The seen-mostly-in-hot-flashbacks lady in Wayne's life is played by the very beautiful Anahí de Cárdenas (below), who brings a hint of passion -- not something we get much of from Mr. Robinson -- to the proceedings.

Probably the best-known performer, film-wise, would be Deborah Kara Unger (below), as the glacial and exceedingly unhelpful representative from the American consul.

The award for weirdest role/performance goes to Grant Bowler (below), who plays Jesus Christ. Mr Christ, an inmate rather than the original (though the latter might have proven more original) comes onto the scene out of the blue (or the murk) and quite late in the film, and from that point on, things move from hairy to hairier, culminating in a whirlwind of carnage and idiocy, followed by the ususal title cards that advise us what happened -- to Peru and to our hero. If this movie is based on fact, then somebody, as a certain Señor Ricardo used to say, has some further 'splainin' to do.

186 Dollars to Freedom -- from Four Fish Films LLC, and running around 100 minutes -- opened this past Friday in New York City at the Quad Cinema and will open on Friday, September 28, in Los Angeles area at Laemmle's Monica 4-Plex.