Review: It's a Girl! (2012)

I am a big fan of documentaries and the Netflix documentary tab is one I frequent often. I slipped in under the gun and watched It's a Girl!, which is leaving Netflix on July 11th.

It's a Girl! is about female gendercide, focusing on India and China, where the systems of dowry, the one-child policy, and societal preference for boys fosters a culture of violence, infanticide, and feticide. It can be a little hard to watch, in the most revealing ways. Hearing women talk about strangling their own daughters because they do not want girls in India and the lengths that the government goes to in China to enforce the one-child policy is heartbreaking. There is a clip of then-First Lady Hillary Clinton speaking at a conference about how actions must be taken until human rights and women's rights are the same thing...in 1995. Yet the problems remain.

The documentary itself is a bit slow-paced, but I like the animation used and the narrator is excellent. After completing it, I think the slower pace gives the viewer time to consider and reflect. The trade-off is that it makes it easy to turn off if you aren't committed to finishing it, and that would be a shame. I always say to watch the credits, because all those people worked for the film and their names should be read, but this is one of those times when you miss out if you don't.

The Netflix version goes away on the 11th, so please take some time to watch it before then. If you are moved to take action, you can seek out further guidance on their website, http://www.itsagirlmovie.com/, as well as an update on one of the families you see.

Review: 30 for 30: The Price of Gold

I love sports, I love sports movies, and I love documentaries, so it's not a stretch that I'm a big fan of sports documentaries. The drive and focus that it takes to becomes a professional athlete, as well as the often myopic view of the world necessary to stay a professional athlete is intriguing to me. I also find the differences between team and individual sports, and how that translates to the individual fascinating. There is a part of me that considered Sports Psychology as a master, looking into exactly that.

Anyway, I digress. So tonight I watched 30 for 30's episode The Price of Gold. For those who aren't aware, 30 for 30 is an ESPN show that highlights people and events in the sports world that might not get as much attention. The Price of Gold, however, is about one of the most well known events in recent sports history - the attack on Nancy Kerrigan and Tony Harding's involvement.

The attack happened in 1994. I was 12. I have very distinct memories of this happening and I admit that it spiked my interest in figure skating, which has never died. It's one of my favorite sports to watch and the reason I bemoaned not having TV during the Winter Olympics (that and I come from a family that cheers on the US Team, so I missed not being able to do so). 

Watching information about the attack as an adult was interesting. The commentary on the expectations of the sport, the image the sport actively tries to convey for female skaters (the Ice Princess, as they called it) and where it came from (Sonja Henie is cited as the major influence on that expectation) lays out why it was so easy for Tonya Harding, who defied all of those expectations by being a power skater who didn't care about the princess image, to be reviled by the sport. She came from a rough background and a rough family. Skating was her life.

Unfortunately, it's hard to develop any sympathy for Harding, who appears in the documentary extensively (Kerrigan declined to comment, her husband and coaches appear on her behalf). She's abrasive and remorseless. She sees herself as a victim and tries to paint herself that way. One of the individuals being interviewed made the comment that skating judges on the whole package - jumps, spins, grace, appearance, music selection, costume choice - and while Harding was an incredibly powerful skater, she refused to acknowledge the importance of those other things, which she believed to be inferior to skill on the ice. Paul Wylie, who was a prominent male skater in the same era and one of my favorite on the ice, stated that the judges made it known what kind of music and costumes they liked. Harding's response to this was rebellious...which is fantastic if you don't care about winning and you just want to skate. It's not great if your goal is a gold medal.

Skating is a sport full of favorites, partiality, and non-standardized judging. No one understands why some people win (Oksana Baiul winning gold over Nancy Kerrigan at the 1994 Winter Olympics was huge drama) and others are openly shunned, but that's skating. It's not a fair sport. Harding was a phenomenal skater, incredibly powerful and driven. What she did to bring herself up to the level of a National champion is amazing. But her attitude towards what happened to her, towards the barring of her from skating and the stripping of her gold medal, seems to have left her a bitter, angry person. Watching the documentary, I feel I understand her better and the situation better, in a way I couldn't have at 12, but it doesn't make me like her more. But I suppose that's the point of a documentary - to present a situation and let the viewer decide how they feel about it. If you remember the controversy at all, it might be worth the hour and half of watching this to allow yourself to reexamine your views from an adult perspective.

30 for 30: The Price of Gold is available for streaming on Netflix.

Review: China's Lost Girls (2004)

This has been sitting in my Netflix queue for awhile, but I actually watched it the other day. It follows American families on their way to China to adopt little girls while examining the effect the one child policy along with the preference for males has had on China's population. This was one of those that caught my attention for no particular reason, but I'm really glad I watched it.

The emotional story is there, of course. Little baby girls abandoned in parks and on streets because their mothers need a boy, then adopted by American families. A mother discusses how her husband said he would send her back to her family if she produced a daughter and how she paid a fine to keep her second child, a girl, after giving her husband a son. The families include a couple that has one adopted Chinese girl already, and they show where she was left and we meet her foster mother. The entire thing is really touching.

More striking to me was the effects that the one child policy has had on China. I've read a lot of articles about how the divorce rate among young Chinese is very high, which is believed to stem from a culture of single children. But this looks at young children, a population of whom is overwhelmingly male. One of the most visible effects of this is that many of the children (male and female) are overweight. An interviewed teenager comments that their parents' generation suffered so much that they want to indulge their children. The word used repeatedly is "spoiled". There are concerns about how violence against women, prostitution, and forced marriages are already rising, and that it will happen more as the disparity continues to rise.

It's a really interesting examination of the policy through the eyes of the adoptive families who benefit from the one of the greatest efforts to curb population in civilized history.Worth watching, absolutely.

Review: Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey (2011)

This had been sitting in my Netflix queue for awhile, but I got a chance to watch it after a bad day where I was stuck in bed. Might as well make use of it, right?

Being Elmo is the story of Kevin Clash, the man behind the puppet Elmo as we currently know him. It tells the story of his upbringing outside of Baltimore, his early love of puppets, and how he became a puppeteer for Jim Henson. Clash is currently a co-executive producer for Sesame Street, as well as the only puppeteer who handles Elmo.

I find puppets interesting, which is why I wanted to watch it, but I didn't expect the story to be so touching. It covers the challenges that the popularity of Elmo has caused for Clash as he spends a great deal of time away from his daughter. The creative process involved, the training for puppeteers - the entire film was much more detailed than I expected. I also got sniffly a few times, especially when Elmo meets with Make-a-Wish kids, with whom he is very popular. Clash appears to be a man who genuinely cares about the people that Elmo touches.

The film also shows him investing in the next generation of puppeteers. When a child who is interested in identified, he invites them to see where he works, interacting with them as a fellow professional, asking to see their puppets and discuss technique. This was done for him when he was a teenager by legendary puppeteer Kermit Love and you can see him passing along that legacy. To me, that shows the character of the man. He is reportedly one of the highest paid puppeteers every between merchandising (all the Elmo voices is him) and appearances, but he takes the time to help inspire people who want to do what he does. For a niche field such as puppeteering, that's so incredibly important.

I recommend this to anyone who has the time to sit and watch it. It's fascinating to see how the puppets are made, how puppeteers are trained, what goes into some of them, but also knowing that a man like Clash is behind Sesame Street makes me warm inside.

Review: A Film Unfinished (2010)

Today I watched A Film Unfinished, a 2010 documentary showing an unfinished propaganda film made by the Third Reich in the Warsaw Ghetto in May 1942, a few months before it was cleared. The original work is about an hour long, so the documentary runs about and hour and a half with the commentary. In addition to the film itself there are interviews with people who lived there at the time while they are watching the film as well as voiceover readings of court transcripts from one of the cameramen, journals from the Chairman of the Judenrat within the Ghetto, and letters from the SS officer in charge of the Ghetto.

The documentary is a look into one of the most fascinating areas of Third Reich for me - the propaganda machine that the Nazis created. Though the film lacks soundtrack or commentary in it's original form, other sources help narrate what we're seeing and provide context. The film oscillates between staged scenes of a luxurious life that some Jews apparently lived and the extreme poverty of others, focusing on the lack of sharing between the two. They also filmed staged aspects of Jewish religious life, including a life-threatening circumcision outside of a hospital.

One of the things the documentary does well is provide commentary on day-to-day life in the Ghetto, as well as the effect is had on those within it. When one of the women discusses how they became indifferent to the suffering of others, you can hear the pain it causes her to say such because she knows it's terrible, but she also knows that it was what she had to do to survive this. There are several stories that are similar and each one of them is paired with visuals from the original film that either prompted the story or illustrate it.

The documentary is a little slow and most of it is subtitled with the only English provided by the filmmaker. Many of the images are hard to watch, though if you have watched other films of this era, the images of starving people and corpses will feel familiar. But it's an interesting look at an incomplete project of the Third Reich. I probably won't watch it again, but I'm glad I watched it.

A Film Unfinished is currently available on Netflix online streaming.

Review: The Captains (2011)

I love Star Trek. Expansive universes are enthralling to me, so Roddenberry's work is perfect. I do not engage in the Star Trek vs Star Wars debate because they are different and I love then both. That said...

Tonight I watched the documentary The Captains, which is narrated by William Shatner and is his conversations with each of the Star Trek captains: Sir Patrick Stewart, Avery Brooks, Kate Mulgrew, Scott Bakula, and Chris Pine. He talks about their backgrounds, how they came into Star Trek, what their experience was like, and what it's been like since. A couple of highlights:

The conversation with Stewart happens at his country home and the gardens are so beautiful I couldn't believe it. Should Sir Patrick ever decide he needs someone to house sit, that is a sword I will fall on.

It was interesting seeing Shatner walk around some of these conventions and his interactions with the fans. There is one fan "Captain Dave" who appears to have ALS and is chair bound. He struggles to communicate and his mother speaks for him. He meets Shatner and Captain Dave begins to cry he's so happy to see him. Shatner's interactions with him are so touching and genuine (not a word I often associate with Shatner) that it brought tears to my eyes.

Avery Brooks is, apparently, a mad genius. He's a jazz musician and seems to communicate primarily through the piano. His segments are like a brief glimpse into the mind of a mad man. A really, really talented one.

Stewart is my favorite of the Star Trek captains. When Shatner talks to him about his own embarrassment and his dismissiveness of fans who claim that Star Trek changed their lives, Shatner appears rather vulnerable. He talks about how he feels the captains who came after were so much better and his realization, when he was boarding the flight to meet with Stewart and met the owner of the company that provides the plane who says he decided to become a pilot because of Captain Kirk, that he might have actually changed some lives. Stewart reminds him that each of the Captains who followed were building on what he created and that, if he died tonight, he knows he would be remembered by most as Captain Picard rather than Macbeth or others...and he's proud of that. Shatner mentioned that he's finally proud of it too.

The documentary is great if you are a Star Trek fan, but even if you're not, the examination of this sort of unique place in television and film history that Star Trek (and it's captains) hold is really worth the 90 minutes or so it runs.