March Sunday Corner With Lee Liberman AMEND: The Story of the 14th

This post written by our 

monthly correspondent, Lee Liberman

This is the tale of the 14th Amendment, a Netflix show-and-tell by public figures — actors, scholars, journalists, activists. The 14th is about the workplace, the voting booth, and behind the bedroom door, making personal and intimate one’s being an American citizen. It takes us through slavery, segregation, a woman’s control of her person, rights of sex and love, and the uproar following each advance by ultra-traditionalists and racists. 

A pair of eminent filmmakers have assembled this primer for us — part graphic teleplay (full of colorful animation sequences), part history lesson, part Ted Talk, that itemizes the rocky road to a more perfect union. The first drive toward parity incited the Civil War; the second the civil rights era of the 60’s, and now the third: a crazed reprieve of our racist Jim Crow past and what must be our drive to repel it. (Watch the trailer here.)

By the numbers white numbers are waning and blood is on the boil. Racism is out of the closet. That our minorities are about to outnumber white folk is whipping loathing and panic on the far right. AMEND: The Fight for America is both familiar and useful, laying out the facts as armor for the next battle. 

The author-showrunners are Robe Imbriano and Tom Yellin, both writers, producers, directors in long careers of documentary-making (disclosure:Mr. Yellin is an acquaintance of mine). What this team has given us, together with its roster of distinguished presenters, offers a formidable, lively display of infotainment, akin to if more didactic than Hamilton, that belongs on everyone’s plate, even with explicit content. Will Smith, America’s Fresh Prince, is the affable narrator of Amend (and executive producer, along with Larry Wilmore, both below) and does not rule out going into politics himself. 

So much of our litigation involves the 14th yet most of us barely know it exists, Smith tells us. The free speech and gun rights amendments are bandied about, but it’s the 14th that really affects our daily lives. “When I learned about it, I had to tell you,” says Smith; “this is why we are here —to tell our story, to tell its story.” 

“If you are born in the US, you are a citizen. And under the law, everyone in America gets this thing called EQUAL PROTECTION. That means we all have the same rights...; no one can take those away without due process (your day in court).....” 

We presume that ‘freedom’ is embedded in the Constitution, but it isn’t; it is implied. Only the IDEA of freedom is in the Constitution — freedom for white men. The majority of the first 16 presidents were slave-owners; their slave property did not figure. Hence it was the abolitionists among us who politicked for all to be named ‘citizen’ —to publicly insist on it because of the rights that attend to the appellation ‘citizen.’

Amend begins the lesson with Frederick Douglass, the slave who created a movement around ‘Why am I slave and you are not?’ Mahershala Ali speaks Douglass’s words (below), supported by other distinguished narrators of his road to citizen. His campaign led Lincoln to the Emancipation Proclamation; the amendment that ended slavery followed — the 13th. 

Lincoln’s prompt assassination brought Andrew Johnson to the presidency, a racist, who instituted Jim Crow laws imposing virtual slavery on the freed black population. Enter John Bingham (below), a white Ohio Congressman and abolitionist, a man of prolific credentials and character: 

“Those who set their feet upon the necks of defenseless fellow men...these man stealers, though their skins be as white as the driven snow, are the real niggers.” Bingham fathered the 14th in 1868 giving citizenship to every person born or naturalized in America. That is the second and perhaps real founding of the nation, moving us from ‘white male’ to melting pot. 

As soon as it was passed, the 14th was attacked in the streets, in the courts, in the press and is followed by the 15th—the right to vote. 

In retaliation, the old white male Supremes delivered ‘Plessey v Fergeson’ or ‘separate but equal’. The Court wrote that individuals are controlled by state not federal laws, ripping the guts out of the two new amendments and giving us a half-century of Jim Crow segregation. The South became a field of home-grown terrorists with lynching its arch-weopon. 

Martin Luther King (Samuel L. Jackson, below) launched the Civil Rights movement: “Only the negro can understand the social leprosy that segregation inflicts...emotional battle in a never-ending war…”. 

It has been a cage — segregated water fountains, bathrooms, pools, crumbling schools, fewer loans, homes and with scarce good jobs available, blacks have not been able to build intergenerational wealth. The 14th was a fraud; it was ignored. 

Shouted Alabama Governor George Wallace: “The South was set upon by the vulturous carpetbagger and federal troops so that the infamous illegal 14th Amendment might be passed... I say segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever!”..... 

In May 1963 Martin Luther King, helped by the new age of television, created a crisis that impelled President John Kennedy to act. The spectacle of nonviolent black youth prevented by police from entering (segregated) schools put Wallace on display. Kennedy sent troops and Wallace stood down. His collapse restored hope and sanity to the promise of the 14th. 

Women used the playbook of the civil rights struggle to lobby for the 14th to apply to them. “We want what men have had all these years.” 

“You can be somebody’s wife, somebody’s mother, somebody’s lover, somebody’s anything, but not SOMEBODY.” Women didn’t own their bodies, labor, or property until 1920 when they got the vote. The Equal Rights Amendment was written near 100 years ago in 1923, and Congress did not pass it until 1972. But wait, wait. The 38th state, VA, ratified it only last year in 2020. Arch-conservative Phyllis Schlafly (below c), the deadly debater, had mounted a backlash. To make good on the ERA, Congress must now extend the period of years in which ratification can take place.

The ‘love’ chapter will bring you to tears. Marriage and the 14th have a long history. By the time gay marriage hit the courts, intones Will Smith, “it’s not just about love. It’s about being seen and accepted by the government as full and equal citizens.” 

Cases overturning bans on interratial marriage and sodomy preceded the case for gay marriage. But in 2015, Obergefell v Hodges finally arrived from Cincinnati, the most gay-mean city in America. Says Civil Rights lawyer Al Gerhardstein, “How can this be legal in America? When we founded our government a second time [the 14th]...we said that all persons are entitled to equal protection under the law.” Gerhardstein ushered the case to the Supreme Court. Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the 2015 decision on the right to marry: 

 “The nature of injustice is that we may not always see it in our own times.The generations that wrote and ratified the Bill of Rights and the 14th Amendment did not presume to know the extent of freedoms in all of its dimensions and so they entrusted to future generations a charter protecting the right of all persons to enjoy liberty as we learn its meaning. No union is more profound than marriage for it embodies the highest ideals... In forming a marital union two people become something greater than once they were...they ask for equal dignity under the law...the Constitution grants them that right.” Said Jim Obergefell: that was the first time in my life as a gay man...that I felt like an equal American. (below l, Obergefell; r, Gerhardstein) 

The last chapter of Amend addresses immigration and its attendant issues. Orphaned following the emotional prior chapter, its impact does not measure up, but the whole is not lessened and immigration is about to have its day. In short, we move through generations of to-ing and fro-ing — thrilled, frustrated, horrified as we re-experience exactly how fraught ‘citizen’ is. Today’s intransigence and flagrant racism of the Trumpists may mean a violent relitigation of the right to vote. Amend authors Imbriano and Yellin have struck while the iron is hot. Whether George Wallace copycats will connive to rule over the coming minority-majority is now the boulder we must shoulder up the hill. January 6 was their opening salvo. 

For your July 4th weekend, Lutz Hachmeister's oddball THE REAL AMERICAN: JOE McCARTHY

The very title of this unusual -- in ways both good and bad -- documentary pulls us up short. What does THE REAL AMERICAN: JOE McCARTHY actually signify? That this guy could stand in for the "real" American, and if so, what the hell does that mean? That we're all a bunch of lying, cold-hearted opportunists willing to toss just about anyone (especially Democrats) in front of the bus? Well, maybe. That's pretty cynical. Well, yes, but since the film was directed, co-written and co-produced by a German fellow by the name of Lutz Hachmeister, who earlier gave us The Goebbels Experiment and the restaurant doc Three Stars, a more cynical look at America and Americans just might be in the cards.

Herr Hachmeister, pictured at right, has certainly done his homework concerning our Joe's history and actions, and has even gone a bit further behind of the scenes of our government and military at that time to bring to the fore some information buried more deeply than other films have shown us (including the documentary Point of Order, and a number of narrative movies in which old Joe played a supporting part). While his  "foreigner" status may have goosed Hachmeister to look at things differently, it may also have prevented him from seeing certain things as clearly as he might. Take Ann Coulter's place in all this, for instance. The director interviews Ms Coulter -- whom I consider one of the stupider mouthpieces of the frothing right-wing -- and then uses part of that interview in the film. But does he actually understand who Coulter is and what her place in American society might be? We've heard her on radio occasionally, spouting nonsense and lies -- such as her tirades about Obamacare last fall -- and we've waited for somebody to speak up and deflate the woman's shit balloon. But of course, on these right-wing radio fests, no one ever does. (For the best rendition yet of Ms Coulter, you really must see Thea Gill's interpretation of her in Joe Dante's sublime Iraq War sequence from the Masters of Horror series, entitled Homecoming.)

So here Coulter is yet again, above, spouting off about how "everything you've heard about McCarthy you have to hit the delete button on" (her quote is even used on the back of the DVD box), as though that is what we're about to discover from this documentary. But, hey, we discover no such thing. If anything, we learn even more about what an asshole McCarthy really was, how he consistently lied and pretended and led everyone from other elected officials to the public into thinking that our government was filled with Communist spies, in the process blithely destroying careers and lives along the way.

It is how our filmmaker shows us all this that gives me the most trouble. The Real American: Joe McCarthy is one of those documentaries that uses re-creations -- shown above (that's Joe as a young man) and below, with the would-be Roy Cohn at his side -- to bring to life its subject's story. And while these are well-acted enough, they stand out like the proverbial sore thumb -- in color, with all the 1950 trimmings of sets, clothes and so forth -- constantly calling attention to themselves in the worst way. Since Hachmeister's digging presents some fine archival footage and decent interviews with reporters, old friends of McCarthy, politicians and the like, why didn't he just stick with these rather than doing the "gussy-up" thing with the recreations?

If one is going to do this, do it cleverly and meaningfully like Sarah Polley manages in her excellent doc  Stories We Tell (streamable now on Netflix: click for the link). Shown against the real life footage of McCarthy, his wife Jean, the late Mr. Cohn and others, the actors (above) pale in comparison with their real-life counterparts (below) and don't really look much like them, either.

What the movie does give us, interestingly and well, is the story of how our own government, the CIA, and others were growing ever more annoyed and upset at what Joe was doing and saying, and so finally had to step in to stop it. All this is by far the most interesting of the "new" material the movie has to offer.

The McCarthy era is one that no truly patriotic American (and by that I mean the My country right or wrong: When right, to be kept right; when wrong, to be set right variety) would want to repeat. The Bush administra-tion tried to scare us into more of this with its stupid Iraq war and constant terrorism fears (ooooh: today is an orange alert!). It didn't work (not for long, anyway) and shouldn't ever be allowed to work again. We shall see.

Meanwhile, you can see The Real American: Joe McCarthy -- from Corinth Releasing and running 100 minutes -- on DVD by clicking here. It's worth a look and a thought about how this could happen then -- and what to do to make certain it doesn't happen again.

Important history made plain: Nancy Kelly and Kenji Yamamoto's doc REBELS WITH A CAUSE

For those of you who've come of voting (and perhaps thinking) age just recently and have grown up seeing one political party, when it disagrees with the actions of a democratically-elected government, simply shut that government down, a little history might be in order. There was a time (most of my life, actually) when Republicans and Democrats worked together to make good (and sometimes bad) things happen. The new hour-long documentary, REBELS WITH A CAUSE, brings back a taste of that time (the 1950s through the 1970s), as it tells the tale of a small, regional conservation effort spearheaded by a California Congressman that eventually grew into a (we hope permanent) legacy of National Seashores, National Parks and National Recreation Areas encompassing the nation.

As put together by film-makers Nancy Kelly (shown far left), director/writer/producer, and Kenji Yamamoto (near left), film editor and producer, Rebels With a Cause proves a fascinating time capsule of how conservationists, concerned citizens and elected officials helped projects like this one come into being nearly a half century ago. This was during a time when, as one interviewee notes, "Conservationists were the next step below Communists." It was also happening as one power-ful elected official (Republican, or maybe "Southern Democrat," as they were known at that time) maintained, "There will be not one penny spent for 'scenery'." Yes, there were bullies and blowhards back then, too, yet the cooperation between the two political parties shown here should bring an "if-only" tear to your eye.

There were many involved in this saving-the-coastlines project, which also saw a National Park come into being near an urban center (a new idea at the time), but among elected officials, the hero of this tale is certainly California Congressman Clem Miller (at right), a fellow I knew nothing of, even though I grew up in California, so I am happy to have made his acquaintance here. After his untimely death, his widow, Kathy Miller Johnson (below), carried on his work, achieving excellent results.

Ms Kelly and Mr. Yamamoto weave together a fascinating narrative with fine archival footage, graphics/animation and interviews with some of the people who brought all this to fruition, including Stewart Udall (shown below), Secretary of the Interior from 1961 to 1969. The film allows us to see how and why certain farmers who initially were against the idea eventually came around to supporting it. When things suddenly grew dire in the 1970s, no less than a surprise than President Richard Nixon ended up supporting the plan.

The documentary (narrated by Frances McDormand) lets us see what might have happened -- the ghastly Marincello Development -- had concerned citizens and elected officials not stepped in to stop it, and also how the first land trust for farmers came about in this county. Most of all it demonstrates how a movement this powerful began on a citizen level rather than on an "elected" level -- and still achieved its goal.

Rebels With a Cause will premiere on PBS stations across the country is April, which is Earth Month. It will be shown beginning April 16 in the Los Angeles area on KOCE, and in the New York City area beginning April 20 on WLIW. Click here on the film's web site to learn where else you can view it, but remember that the site doesn't post showings until two weeks previous to the time of its debut.

Bill Morrison and Bill Frisell's THE GREAT FLOOD gets U.S. premiere at IFC Center on Wednesday

Photography hounds -- particularly those who love the archival stuff -- along with history buffs and cinephiles of many stripes have a treat in store this week, as a most unusual movie opens here in New York City. THE GREAT FLOOD, a combination of archival footage found and arranged by Bill Morrison with music by Bill Frisell, takes us back to spring, 1927, when the Mississippi River rose over its banks in 145 places -- inundating 27,000 square miles (to a depth of up to 30 feet!). The flooding caused a mass exodus of displaced sharecroppers, thus adding to the migration of southern blacks to the northern United States, marking the coming of major changes in everything from population distribution and employment opportunities to culture and music.

Mr. Morrison, pictured at left, is the man responsible for the glowing, beautiful and moving documentary, The Miners' Hymns from 2010, and I would say that his love and under-standing of history, photography and justice is as equally strong in this new film. Again, there is no narration or dialog in The Great Flood. Instead, it's all visuals and accompanying music. But what visuals and music!

The latter is provided by guitarist/composer Bill Frisell, shown at right, who with other musicians and Morrison, tra-veled to the south during 2011 -- when the Mississippi again flooded to levels unseen since 1927 -- and were, one imag-ines, alternately freaked out & inspired by what they saw.

The visual footage Morrison has unearthed is remarkable in a couple of ways: that it still exists and he found it, for one thing; for another, that some of the film, having been shot on nitrate stock, has partially disintegrated. This deterioration does fit into the filmmaker's esthetic (Decasia) and, as used here, gives the finished film a kind of decaying/magisterial, glorified/sorrowful look.

In our current era of overdone special effects, this degraded film stock takes on its own odd, special-effect signature, bringing to the movie something that goes beyond even its usual (and often very special) "archival" appearance.

Musically, the movie is special, too, beginning with Frisell's use of the introduction to the great Jerome Kern song Ol' Man River, which we hear over and over, almost as a kind of vamping to help set us up for the powerful chorus. Never fear, that chorus eventually is heard in all its glory toward the film's finale. In between Frisell and his musicians (Ron Miles, trumpet; Tony Scherr, bass, guitar; and Kenny Wollesen, drums, vibes) give us all sorts of music, mostly jazz-inflected, that eventually combines to take us back to an event, in a time and place that seem both a century past and all too timely once again.

By timely I do not mean simply the new millennial flooding. It does not take much to imagine, as well, most of our country's citizens once again becoming sharecroppers of a sort, working for the wealthy and the corporations. Yet you can watch The Great Flood, I suppose, and not even dwell on any of that. Just lose yourself in the images, the music and the flow. But Morrison has divided his opus into sections, and one of these is titled, as I recall, "Politicians." Yup: There they are, and their behavior then is so like their behavior now that it is difficult not to draw conclusions.

Beginning with shots of maps of the area covered, the movie takes its time getting us to those old photos and film stock, but the wait becomes almost suspenseful, and once we see the images, both still and moving, we're hooked. By the time we get to the section in which the powers-that-be try to control the flood by blowing stuff up (below -- and uselessly, as it turns out), the incompetence and venality of certain of our governments becomes even clearer: This flood, along with the Katrina disaster, both took place under Republican administrations.

As much as I enjoyed -- reveled in -- the beauty of the film, I have to admit that the constant, uninterrupted flow of images and music did grow almost hypnotic from time to time, so a little pinch on the face or arm was necessary to snap my eyes to attention again. Otherwise, this film will be a must-see for many of us. You know who you are.

The Great Flood, from Icarus Films, in black-and-white and running just 80 minutes, opens this Wednesday, January 8, in New York City at the IFC Center, and on January 9 in Hudson, NY, at Time & Space Limited. Other engagements across the country? Hope so. And, yes: We've just learned that this film will be opening in Los Angeles this Friday, January 24, for a week-long run at the Downtown Independent. Meanwhile its NYC release at IFC Center has been extended. As is true, I believe, of most Icarus films, it will eventually be released on DVD, and maybe to digital and streaming -- though all of this can take a very long time, so see it at the theatrical venues, if possible. (How long? Well, one of the best docs of 2010, Icarus' Disco & Atomic War will be arriving on home video DVD and VOD on February 25 -- well over three years after its American theatrical debut.)

Shola Lynch's sad & salutary history: FREE ANGELA AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS

Here's a chance to take a bracing walk down memory lane and be surprised -- even if, as was I, you, too, were someone who lived in Southern California during much of the time depicted in the new documentary FREE ANGELA AND ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS. Even if you didn't live in either Northern or Southern California -- the two most impor-tant places in this fascinating film -- if you're of a certain age (50 or older), you probably remem-ber the brouhaha surrounding Ms Davis and her supposed involve-ment in an attempted kidnapping that took several lives and resul-ted in placing the woman on the FBI's most wanted list and, once she'd been captured, putting her on trial -- a kind of "show trial," in fact -- that many imagined she and her career would never survive.

What happened before and during this trial, along with its result, are the meat of the movie by filmmaker Shola Lynch, and a very good film this is. Ms Lynch has rounded up more archival footage about and featuring Ms Davis than I have ever seen, and most of it is fascinating stuff. The fact, for instance, that when the Black Panther party first came into being and into some power, Angela was studying in Germany. But so enthused was she about this development, that she simply had to come back home to the USA, where it turns out one of her heroes, Herbert Marcuse, was teaching in San Diego.

We see the Angela of then (above) and now (below) and learn of Davis' appointment teaching at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the scandal that followed. And then the botched kidnapping, leading to that Most-Wanted list (two photos below) and to the trial that takes up a major portion of the film. What a life this lady has lived! Not necessarily of her own choosing, either, but -- wow -- has she come through!

That trial -- with all its delays and its search for a fair and reliable judge (it went through six of them!) -- is something to see and consider. One thing that occurred to me while watching the film: In this day of the (still relatively) open internet and immediate access to so much information, it is unlikely that something like this accusation and trial could happen so easily without many more people being aware of the ridiculousness of it all. (On the other hand, the 60s and 70s were a time of real agitation and ferment, with people young and old willing to put themselves on the line for what they believed. What would they put themselves on the line for these days? More shopping opportunities on Black Friday?)

For those of us who followed the proceedings, even somewhat, at the time of Davis' trial, and relied on the American news media to bring us events, it is interesting now to know that there existed an enormous movement -- worldwide -- to free Angela. Living here in the good 'ol USA, you hardly heard a word about this. Most of the planet, it seems, was "pro" Angela, while only the United States was not.

So certain of Davis' guilt were the various police departments who had "investigated" because, supposedly, guns used in the kidnapping attempt were registered to Ms Davis. The major problem I find with the documentary is that this "gun business" is never followed through. In similar fashion to the recent documentary, Mumia: Long Distance Revolutionary, which simply ignores the entire case against Mumia Abu-Jamal, this Davis doc similarly does not bother to explain anything about those guns, other than they were said to be registered to Davis. Were the registration documents forged? Were the guns stolen from her and then used? Even if the movie-maker could learn no more about this, she might at least have told us that she tried and what the result was.

Still, the government's evidence as presented, certainly did not sway the jury. And being taken back again to the days of the late 1960s and 70s, to be reminded yet again of how blacks were summarily treated in those times, is important and salutary. As Angela herself tells us: "The idea that black people should be treated as equal -- and completely equal -- was a totally new idea." And it's one, unfortunately, that many present-day citizens of the U.S. still do not understand or agree with. (Just as they do not about the rights of gays and/or Muslims.)

Free Angela and All Political Prisoners (this title comes from the slogan for Davis' release at the time of the trial) is a wonderful time capsule for us seniors, and should make a most interesting one for the younger set, too, if they can only be convinced to spend this week's entertainment budget on some smart history rather than the latest would-be blockbuster. Yeah? Who am I kidding? (Child: if you go see the remake of Evil Dead over this movie, there's no hope for you, honey.)

In any case, the documen-tary -- from CodeBlack Films (a division of Lionsgate) and running 101 minutes -- opens today, Friday, April 5, via AMC theaters in major cities across the country: Washington D.C., Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Oakland, Philadelphia and Atlanta. Click here to find the theater nearest you, then insert your zip code and see what turns up.