Staff Picks: Movies
Staff-recommended viewing from the KPL catalog.
This blog is fourth and final in a series in which I take a look at four films in our collection which deal with illegal immigration, first and foremost from the perspective of those who undertake the journey, but also from viewpoint of their family, the communities they immigrate to and border patrol officers charged with repelling them from entering the country. Sin Nombre, Which Way Home, Mojados: Through the Night and El Inmigrante are all films that take a look at illegal immigration in greater depth and with a greater diversity of opinions than can be included in the typical media coverage of the debate. If you have a desire to take a closer look at the hows and whys of illegal border crossing, I urge you to check out one or all of these films.
El Inmigrante (The Immigrant)
This final documentary, El Inmigrante, tells the story of one who succeeded in reaching America, one who actually had succeeded several times and was experienced in crossing the desert where he would go on to work in America sending money home to his family. The last time Eusebio de Haro crossed through the desert he would never get home again. He and his travelling companion crossed the dessert, plagued by thirst, and found themselves before an elderly Texan couple, on whose land they stood. They pleaded the Americans for water and a rifle was drawn. Eusebio’s companion ran for his life and Eusbio was shot down from behind while fleeing. From here the documentary fleshes out Eusebio’s story with accounts from his mother, father and his numerous siblings who share memories of their fallen brother and give us a sense of where he came from and why he would make the journey.
Members of the U.S. Border patrol are interviewed and found to be surprisingly sympathetic toward the travelers they guard the border against. Less sympathetic, the vigilante border guards who’ve decided their government is not doing enough and with rifle in hand they watch over their small piece of the border. You hear from people who lived and worked with the gun man including his friend and Sheriff, the same officer who was called to arrest him. and his opinions about his guilt as well as his feelings on the justness of his punishment. And we also hear from Eusebio’s brother who took the news of his brother’s death as a challenge to make the same crossing himself. Now he works in construction and sends money home and remembers his brother and his jokes. Those who made the journey or attempted it contemplate whether the crossing is worth it, whether America is the land of plenty they imagined.
Having travelled via film from Honduras and Chiapas, through Mexico by train, across the Rio and through the desert, into America itself with these poor, tired travelers, will your opinions of the immigration debate be altered, re-affirmed? Whatever your take on the issue, I think everyone can benefit from the rare opportunity of hearing the voices of those the debate is centered on, not just the lawmakers and U.S. citizens who contribute to the debate. Whatever your opinion is, each of these films are excellent stories of individuals who take up a journey of which they have fear, perhaps not too much knowledge of the dangers waiting them and with hope for better things driving them on.
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El Inmigrante
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This blog is third in a series in which I take a look at four films in our collection which deal with illegal immigration, first and foremost from the perspective of those who undertake the journey, but also from viewpoint of their family, the communities they immigrate to and border patrol officers charged with repelling them from entering the country. Sin Nombre, Which Way Home, Mojados: Through the Night and El Inmigrante are all films that take a look at illegal immigration in greater depth and with a greater diversity of opinions than can be included in the typical media coverage of the debate. If you have a desire to take a closer look at the hows and whys of illegal border crossing, I urge you to check out one or all of these films.
Mojados: Through the Night
After I watched Which Way Home, I looked to see what other films we had on the subject. Mojados tells the story of three would be illegals attempting to cross the river and then the vast expanse of Texan dessert beyond. While they are also from the far South ends of North America, these travelers have at least enough resources to do without the hardship of balancing on top of a rocking train car and simply say good bye to their families before jumping in a taxi and heading north. They are dropped off in a nondescript area along the side of the Rio Grande/ Rio Bravo. Then they hide in the bushes and wait for night fall and it is from that point that all their troubles begin.
At 64 minutes this is not a very lengthy documentary but I think it delivers a sense of what this portion of the journey entails. There is some criticism aimed at Tommy Davis, the director for not doing more to distinguish the characters from one another and for the jiggling hand held camera work. However, of the films described in this blog, it is in my opinion that the director of Mojados has gone through the most pain and effort to bring us the story of his subjects (Though I can’t say that without mentioning the two years of research spent with train travelers on the part of director Cary Fukunga or the time he invested with actual members of the much feared Mara Salvatrucha in preparation for Sin Nombre). Mr. Davis is actually making the journey with his subjects as we witness it. He is climbing the same fences, drinking the same bacteria infested water, eating the same molding tortillas and standing through the same freezing dessert nights afraid to sleep for fear of never seeing the sun again. Also included are interviews and accounts of some ranchers who pity the travelers but are also vexed with the damage done to fences and other effects of their passing.
Again, I don’t want to give away the fate of these travelers, but rest assured, the endings, inconclusive or unhappy, thoroughly illustrate the desperate act of crossing the border and the likely hood of survival.
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Mojados: Through the Night
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This blog is second in a series in which I take a look at four films in our collection which deal with illegal immigration, first and foremost from the perspective of those who undertake the journey, but also from viewpoint of their family, the communities they immigrate to and border patrol officers charged with repelling them from entering the country. Sin Nombre, Which Way Home, Mojados: Through the Night and El Inmigrante are all films that take a look at illegal immigration in greater depth and with a greater diversity of opinions than can be included in the typical media coverage of the debate. If you have a desire to take a closer look at the hows and whys of illegal border crossing, I urge you to check out one or all of these films.
Which Way Home
With Sin Nombre still fresh in mind I was pleased to come across Which Way Home while I was perusing the new releases in the Audio Visual department. This was a documentary about the real-life youths making the journey by train. Even more astounding than witnessing the same dangerous circumstances of riding “el tren,” now with actual lives at stake, was the extremely young age of those who rode it. “La Bestia,” the beast, this is the affectionate and fearful title given to their transport by the main figure, Kevin “El Gordo” or “Fatty.”
Kevin made this journey at the age of 14, making him the eldest among the children featured in the film. In fact, most of the children in this documentary are only around eight or nine years old. What a terrifying thought to think of my own child riding on top of a train all the way across the length of the Mexican territory. Some ran away from home. Some never had a home and some were sent by their families with hope they would arrive in America and be able to send money back home. The children laugh, make jokes and sing just like any other children. It is difficult not imagining a child you know of the same age making the journey.
I was very moved by two travelers in particular, Olga and Freddy, whose youth and innocence seems impossible in those surroundings. They are preoccupied with childish games but also worry about the dangers of their journey and sit awake through the night telling horror stories of what happens to those swept off the roof by a tree branch and between the cars below. When they talk about crossing the desert, as they must when they reach the end of the line, they have an air of bravado. They seem unconcerned with the warnings given by social workers who have volunteered to assist and inform the travelers in their crossings. However, although the situation is pitiful there is a lot of joy in the movie, thanks to the children.
The journey they share ends differently for all of them, and without saying too much, I can assure you that none of those endings is entirely unhappy, but it should be remembered that happy endings are not in store for all those who travel this way, perhaps they are even the exceptions to the rule.
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Which Way Home
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Recently I took in a series of four films that brought me witness to a 2,000 mile journey undertaken by over 160,000 hopeful men, women and children every year. They departed from El Salvador, Honduras and the far southern Mexican state of Chiapas, traversing hundreds of miles of open country while perilously perched atop a freight train, to the edge of the Rio Bravo/ Rio Grande and across to great expanses of Texan dessert, a portion of the journey which in itself would take four, five, maybe six days to cross. After this odyssey the travelers must be wary of immigration officers, conmen and thieves. Some came to support their families, some to be reunited with them. Perhaps they will find work. Others came to escape, from the law of their homelands, from its criminal elements, perhaps both. It was a fascinating journey as well as an emotional one. Along the way I was given a perspective of the immigration debate that is ignored more often than not. That being the experiences and hopes of the immigrants themselves, the individuals most involved in the debate, but who are heard from the least.
If that is a perspective that you might also be interested in, I urge you to check out these movies. Here’s the first in the series; watch for the rest later this week.
Sin Nombre (Nameless)
Sin Nombre is a fictional film about youths travelling across Mexico by train, illegally. There are many films that describe some of methods and also the dangers of crossing America’s southern border, but it was not until I had seen this film that I considered how a poor traveler, often as not coming from Mexican states that are distant from the border or maybe even they have come from countries further south such as Honduras or Guatemala, how does such a traveler cross the distance of Mexico itself. In this case it is the railway that provides a means of free travel, however for the young people in this movie hopping a train does not mean finding an empty box car and hiding until the iron house begins chugging down the rails. It seems that Mexican authorities have made the cars inaccessible leaving the migrants one option for a free ride, sitting on top of the railroad cars themselves. Without shelter from wind or rain, heat or the freezing nights they sit atop the cars, bouncing down the tracks and watching out for branches, bridges or other low obstacles that would brush a body right off of the train and under the steel wheels. There is constant danger of this. Someone must also stay awake through the night watching for obstacles. They are afraid to fall asleep for fear of falling off the cars or worse, between the cars. For people with no money and a strong desire to get closer to the U.S. border, this is sometimes seen as the only option.
The film itself is excellent. Two teenagers from two very different, yet neighboring homelands meet on the train traveling north. Sayra leaves her home life in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Willy or “El Casper” is from the far southern Mexican state of Chiapas. El Casper is hunted by his former gang members, whom he has offended and now he must keep a wary eye trained for members of Mara Salvatrucha, the gang which he had so recently considered to be his family. El Casper knows the train lines and though recognized by the other passengers as a gang member which keeps them at a careful distance, they also recognize the valuable resource he is in helping them not only in staying on the train without being spotted by bulls, or railroad guards, but also how to survive on top of the train. Sayra comes from Honduras travelling for far northern New Jersey to be reunited with her family. It is clear that Sayra is not a street survivor like El Casper .These differences in origin’s departed from, the relatively stable family life Sayra has left behind and the life threatening circumstances of Willy’s presence on the train illustrate the desperate and varied circumstances that drive someone to make the dangerous journey by train.
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Sin Nombre
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In my previous post, I mentioned the film In the Mood for Love because of its lush and stylistic cinematography. Released in 2000 by acclaimed director Wong Kar-wai, the film takes place in Hong Kong in 1962. Two lonely neighbors are brought together over the fact that their spouses are engaged in an affair; and while they're committed to not duplicating the deceit by having their own tryst, a bond between them developes a unique intensity as they find solace in eachother's company. A film that resists cliche at every turn, In the Mood for Love is buttressed with strong acting performances and an amazing musical theme that evokes the anxiety and aching desire between these two characters as they grow closer with every masterfully shot frame. A truely original work of simplicity and beauty!
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In the Mood for Love
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There are certain films that are beautifully rendered and a joy to watch because of the way in which the cinematographer has chosen to use light or a certain kind of film that produces striking and dynamic images. Here are a few of my favorite films where color, light and shadows are as central to the end product as are the plot, characters or setting.
Days of Heaven
Amelie
Red Shoes
In the Mood for Love
Schindler’s List
The Man Who Wasn’t There
The Thin Red Line
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
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Red Shoes
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Kisses is a small-scale but affecting film that showcases the impressive talents of its two young actors. Emotionally and physically abused tweens Dylan and Kylie, set out on a twenty-four hour adventure in the big city in hopes of escaping their domestic problems. Searching for Dylan’s big brother, who allegedly lives in Dublin, these two tough yet sweet kids from the suburbs discover that the city possesses both a dangerous and exhilerating side to it. Kisses effectively mixes together a romantic tale about childhood innocence with the grim depictions of an unforgiving urban environment.
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Kisses
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The tearjerker is a film that transcends one’s predispositions and cuts into those deep and often impenetrable portions of our shared, collective humanity to move us in ways we never dared to admit. Another view, one much less celebratory, reads the tearjerker as the sort of film that eschews realism for romanticized dramatic effect, that idealizes human relations, or that revoltingly rejoices in the most insidious forms of Hollywood sentimentality. Sometimes intellectually or creatively deeper than acknowledged, but still retaining of the elements of the cheesiness factor, are films that balance both of these tensions and contradictions; films that are both at times lurching toward being maudlin and overwrought and yet at other times depict authentic and truthful depth.
Here is a short list of films that will have you racing for the Kleenex.
- The Way We Were (1973)
- Kramer vs Kramer (1979)
- Umberto D (1952)
- Sophie’s Choice (1982)
- Love Story (1972)
- Terms of Endearment (1983)
- Bambi (1942)
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975)
- Glory (1989)
- An Affair to Remember (1957)
- The English Patient (1996)
- The Elephant Man (1980)
- The Deer Hunter (1978)
- The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (2007)
- The Mission (1986)
- The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1968)
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The Way We Were
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I had been waiting anxiously to see the film The White Ribbon for some time, due in part because it was directed by Michael Haneke and in part because it nominated for the best foreign film Oscar in 2009. Michael Haneke directed the film Cache, a French thriller that I really enjoyed. I expected The White Ribbon to have the same slow-building suspense and beautiful cinematography as Cache, and I was not disappointed. The movie revolves around the people of a small village in Germany just before the beginning of World War I. As mysterious “accidents” befall members of the community, the villagers (and the audience) are left wondering who could be so brutal to his/her fellow man. The village pastor uses a white ribbon in the movie as a symbol of innocence, but it quickly becomes clear that no one in the village is entirely innocent. As the suspense builds, the World War I backdrop becomes particularly pertinent: it perfectly reflects the growing unease and tumultuousness in the village and reiterates the subject of lost innocence.
The White Ribbon is a fairly long and slow movie, with a subtly creepy feeling that pervades the story. If it’s an action-packed thriller you want, this is not the movie; however I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys intelligent, beautiful film making and a good mystery.
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The White Ribbon
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Having recently taken over the responsibilities of selecting films for our audiovisual collection, I’m excited to report about some of the new titles that I’ve recently ordered. Some are here in the building and others are on their way. Why these films you ask? Well, these are personal favorites of mine that I would argue with great adoration and zeal that because of their artistic merits warrant their inclusion within our diverse and varied cinema collection. Some are big name classics and others are great films that have either languished in obscurity or have been appreciated only by its ardent fans. Some may have already been part of our collection in years past and now have a second chance at falling into your hands. I hope you enjoy these movie treasures.
- The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
- Ghost World
- Carnal Knowledge
- Coming Home
- Blow-Up
- Heathers
- Hoop Dreams
- Killing Fields
- Lone Star
- Little Big Man
- My Left Foot
- My Private Idaho
- Il Postino
- My Beautiful Laundrette
- The Professional
- Splendor in the Grass
- Silence of the Lambs
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Blow-up
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