God grew tired of us

This is an excellent documentary about a horrible ongoing tragedy. But there is a lot of hope in the story; John Bul Dau, one of the “lost boys of Sudan” the movie is about, is inspirational, a great leader. In the midst of all their suffering, I could not believe how much energy and optimism he displayed. He is truly an admirable person.

Part of the documentary follows several kids that are relocated to the States (thanks to Catholic Charities International). I found particularly interesting to see the culture clash that the group suffers, arriving to and having to survive in the States with what looks like very little assistance.  

Although they are very grateful, we learn that the older ones have to hold one or two jobs in order to pay back the cost of their move. Of course, the jobs they find are not particularly appealing or well paid, plus they have to face discrimination and ignorance. The younger ones, on the other hand, get to go to school and several of them try very quickly to absorb the American life style, leaving behind their roots and traditions, which leads to an interesting clash with people like John Bul Dau, who makes every effort to keep their memory and connections alive.

I highly recommend this moving and sovering documentary.

When the levees broke

Subtitled A requiem in four acts, this excellent Spike Lee documentary chronicles the tragedy of New Orleans after being hit by hurricane Katrina. Lee shows you what happened during the storm and afterwards, how the federal government took way too much time to respond, and how people are still finding their way back, not everybody wanting to return, and some not having the means to do so. The images of complete destruction are haunting, and on a much larger scale than what most news channels showed. Many of the survivors who went back to the city now live in not very sturdy trailers, for which they had to wait several months even though the trailers were parked and waiting. The reconstruction efforts are very slow, some people got back to their houses to find nothing but rubble or even bodies—even though the houses had supposedly been inspected and found `clean.’ It is clear that nobody was prepared for a disaster of this magnitude, but it is incredible that so little was done by the people in power who had the possibility to avoid the appalling aftermath.

You see a few courageous heroes who stayed to help or even went to the city and helped save lives when the streets were flooded and people were drowning. You also get to see unapologetic racism and classism playing a big factor in the way things went. Cops blocking bridges so people cannot get out, for example. Or Barbara Bush. Or insurance companies making ridiculous claims to avoid paying what they rightfully owe. And then there is politics and the blame game and people still suffering and waiting for help. At the end, you see those who have returned and how they are working to save the spirit of the city.

Moving and sad, this is a great example of what documentaries should be like, and a frightening warning to those who still believe the government is of and for the people.  

Murder on a Sunday morning

This documentary tells the trial of Brenton Buttler, a 15 year-old black high school student who was arrested in Jacksonville, Florida, in 2000, for the murder of a tourist white woman. There is nothing special from a technical point of view about how the story is shown, in that respect the documentary feels like a larger version of the true crime series shown on Court TV.

Other than that, this is one of those kinds of stories that, infuriating though they may be, one should watch and think about. During the trial we see how the police did not conduct anything resembling a serious investigation; Buttler was arrested two hours after the crime, was intimidated and physically threatened into signing a confession and it mattered little that his family accounted for him at the time of the murder. Lacking (almost) any evidence, it is disconcerting how the officers involved in the case still insist on their conclusions, unwilling to admit a mistake or something even more serious. The victim’s husband’s visual identification of Buttler is the only evidence the police has, and the defense attorneys also shed doubts on its accuracy.

Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, the director, specializes in documentaries about justice and what he calls societal taboos. Murder was awarded the Oscar for Best Documentary of 2001.

Unknown white male

Douglas Bruce finds himself one day riding the subway in New York without knowing where he is going. In fact, he doesn’t know where he is, he doesn’t recognize any of the buildings. Panic sets in once he realizes he doesn’t know where he took the train, or even his own name. Doug suffers total amnesia, a rare condition in which one forgets everything about one’s life. Well, this is not exactly true: He knows how to talk, and when in the hospital someone asks him to sign, he remembers his signature. This strange and fascinating condition is explored in this documentary that uses footage shot by Doug himself and directed by his (former) friend Rupert Murray.

I found the documentary quite interesting, but I also found it wanting in several respects. Part of it may be due to the simple fact that we still know very little about how memory works, so surprisingly little time is devoted to hard data, to what may be happening—as for why it is happening, nobody knows. Some hypotheses are mentioned, and as the story progresses we get some clues. But part of the problem with the story I think is due to what I perceive as a shortcoming of the director: There are questions that do not get asked, some that beg to be asked, and why they are not seems to be because everybody is so fascinated by what is happening that they assume that filming it is enough. Part of it I think is due to the friendship between Doug and Mr. Murray. Mr. Murray seems to go out of his way to make Doug feel comfortable, while obviously the subject matter may make him uncomfortable. So, at the end of the day, I find the final product a bit awkward. There are a few extras in the DVD that leave me feeling the same (at least there is consistency); I missed (being in Vienna) the controversy on the veracity of the story, so the short section addressing it didn’t mean much to me. There is a long section explaining how a sequence was shot. I found it very curious that the director put so much thought into the visual look of the final product instead of trying to add a bit more substance to it.

I like explorations of memory, and mental problems intrigue me to no end. So this was a good movie overall. It complements well other documentaries in similar subjects, like anterograde amnesia, the disease that Memento popularized. I had the fortune of watching in 2004 an excellent documentary by Koreeda Hirokazu about one such case in Japan, Without memory.