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.

Gabor Kalman's THERE WAS ONCE... is a Holocaust documentary worth keeping

If the job of a good documentary is to document, then Gabor Kalman -- the director and co-producer (and also one of the subjects) of the very fine Hungarian Holocaust film THERE WAS ONCE... -- has done his job, and then some. His film tells of how Gyöngyi Mago, a present-day Catholic school teacher in Kalocsa, Hungary, discovers an interesting, some might say, shocking, part of her local history: a thriving Jewish community was once part of Kalocsa but has now vanished entirely.

As she researched, Ms Mago came upon Kalman's name and contacted the man (shown at right), who -- as have done literally all the Holocaust survivors from this town -- had gone on with his post-trauma life completely away from Kalocsa and even from Hungary itself. Kalman turned out to be a documentary film-maker, and so, as soon as Mago and he connected, this film began its formation. And while the film-maker may not be a grand stylist, he knows how to assemble a movie in which the facts stand out and the story comes together in a manner that grabs and holds you.

I say Kalman is no stylist -- yet even in this area, he has managed to give us a few memorable flourishes that should remain with your for a long while.  One of these, shown above, is a photo of an elementary school classroom in a Jewish school in which the lighted figures (five of them) are the only survivors. The rest, including the teacher, were lost to the Nazis. Kalman comes back to this shot, again and again, playing with it in ways that connect the figures and bring additional meaning, memory and poignancy to the proceedings.

As for school-teacher Mago, shown above, she keeps at her task of uncovering and exploring until she has unearthed and interviewed a number of survivors -- whose feeling about their "home town" range from angry to heart-breaking.  Ditto those of the non-Jewish townsfolk she interviews, many of whom claim there was no anti-Semitism experienced in pre-WWII Kolocsa. This seems an exaggeration; in any case, as we learn, there is plenty of it afoot currently, as a rock pierces the heads of one of the women at the present-day memorial service.

We get a good dose of Jewish-Hungarian history here: How the Jews first came to Kalocsa and slowly assimilated. We get reminiscences, some of which are hard to hear and even harder, one realizes, for the speakers to bear. We see what "objects" (a Herend porcelain figurine, for instance) mean to a survivor. Finally, the movie asks a pertinent question -- What is home? -- and allows one of the survivors to ruminate on the total dissolution of family ties that was brought about by the Holocaust.  "We were supposed to be living -- and dying -- in Kalocsa," he tell us.  This documentary is one for the books, an important addition to the historic record, and a moving account of discovery, memory and setting up safeguards.

There Was Once... opens today, Friday, September 23, or a one-week run in New York City (at the IFC Center) and in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Sunset 5.