“Mayor” – A View from Ramallah
Ramallah, a historically Christian city, serves as the seat of the Palestinian government. It is at the epicenter of Palestinian commerce and culture. It is also ringed by Israeli settlements.
Category: Film Reviews
“Hope Gap” — A Marriage Crumbles
The narrative is “inspired” by writer and director William Nicholson’s experience with the end of his parents’ marriage.
The Mindfulness Movement: Promoting Social Change
Jon Kabat-Zinn qualifies mindfulness as: “The actuality of things as they are; not as I would want them to be.”
“This Changes Everything” Doc Spotlights Women in Hollywood
An important new documentary focuses on gender discrimination on screen and behind the scenes.
“Imprisoned”: Film Combines Social Justice with Love Story
The Prison-Industrial Complex as an entity is finally beginning to seep into the consciousness of Americans. How and why the United States incarcerates it citizens, the role that race plays, and the approaches pitting punishment and containment against rehabilitation, are becoming more mainstream topics.
“At War” (En Guerre): A French Look at Labor Relations
In “At War” (“En Guerre”), the French film directed by Stéphane Brizé and starring Vincent Lindon, we watch
a conflict between workers in an auto parts factory in the city of Agen in the southwest of France — and the suits who measure everything by shareholder satisfaction.
“Nelly” — New Film Looks at Life and Work of Canadian Writer
Arcan was both appreciated and reviled. She was a finalist for the revered French literary awards, the Prix Médicis and the Prix Fémina. Perhaps the public couldn’t forgive her for living the life that she wrote about.
Lou Andreas-Salomé, The Audacity to be Free
Reminiscent of two big movies of the late 1960s, “Isadora” and “Women In Love” — both made when the Women’s Movement was gaining traction — the film is a rich tapestry of history, emotion, and visual imagery.
“The UnAmerican Struggle” — New Documentary Looks at Bigotry in Trumpland
Heidi Beirich, Director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), noted that the United States has always been “deeply racist, deeply anti-Semitic.” Beirich observed, “We have a history of all that kind of bigotry. It’s part of our DNA.”
“Trumping Democracy” — New Documentary Traces Trump’s Election Win
As a candidate, Trump stated he would express the facts “plainly and honestly.” Yet, the nonpartisan fact-checking website Politifact found differently. It showed that Trump’s statements had a 4 percent veracity rate and that 33 percent of his assertions were actually false.
