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Reviews
I Am Not Your Negro (2016)
profound and indelible statement that couldn't be more timely
PROGRESSIVE CINEMA - One of the most artistic and daring political statements at this years Toronto International Film Festival, was the world premiere of Haitian-born Raoul Peck's I Am Not Your Negro, based on James Baldwin's unfinished book Remember This House. Not surprisingly the film won the People's Choice Documentary Award for its "radical narration about race in America today." Peck is from Haiti and has created one of the most progressive filmographies in cinema history. He actually received privileged access to the Baldwin archives because the family knew of his outstanding works on the Conga leader, Patrice Lumumba, specifically the 1990 political thriller Lumumba: Death of a Prophet and the 2000 award winning drama on the same subject, Lumumba. They trusted in his ability to accurately represent Baldwin's life and writings, and so he took 10 years to bring this masterpiece to the screen, after being rejected by every American studio he approached. And public agencies said "this is public money so you have to present both sides!" Thus, his ability to produce this film through his own successful company and a supportive French TV station ARTE, allowed him to make a film exactly like he wanted, with no censorship, and no one telling him to rush the film or mellow the message.
Peck "didn't want to use the traditional civil rights archives." He chose to avoid the talking heads format and picked Samuel L. Jackson to embody the spirit of Baldwin in the potent narration. The film's powerful structure utilizing rare videos and photos and personal writings of Baldwin, and at the same time aligning them with contemporary issues of police brutality and race relations, creates a mesmerizing awareness of the continuity in the struggle for civil rights.
Baldwin made a deep impact on the young impressionable Haitian filmmaker. Peck remembers back in the 60s when mostly white Americans were honored in pictures on walls, and that "it was Baldwin who first helped me see through this myth of American heroes." He felt that Baldwin had been forgotten or overlooked, while James Meredith, Medgar Evers, the Black Panthers, Huey Newton, Malcolm X and other Black leaders were either killed off, imprisoned, exiled or bought out. There were rare exceptions on commercial TV, once where Baldwin talked on the Dick Cavett Show for an hour uncensored.
Baldwin, although a literary giant and a close friend to many leading activists, rarely appeared at events and mass rallies, and declined membership in parties or groups such as the NAACP, Panthers, SNCC, etc. And although he was homosexual, rarely focused on the issue of gay rights, which would have been even more isolating in those decades. Rightfully, this film brings to life Baldwin's poetry and passion for justice, and regains his importance in the field where art intersects activism.
While addressing the enthusiastic audience in the Q&A, director Peck mentioned, "I hope this film will help rephrase what is called the race conversation, which deep down is a class conversation." Although class wasn't developed as much as race in this film, not coincidentally, Peck is now in post-production on a drama about young Karl Marx(!) – a major historical figure who has rarely if never been a subject in America cinema. And all of Peck's previous films are imbued with a deep sense of awareness in the class struggle.
The director was a special guest at a TIFF Talk entitled Race and History where he covered many of the points mentioned here about taking control of your own artistic project. He defended the idea that an artist has a point of view and shouldn't be forced to compromise his political message, whether it's acceptable or not. Near the end of the conversation I was able to ask him a question about how difficult it is to market films on race and class. He responded by saying "I come from a generation that was more political and where the film content was more important. . . I tried to keep the content but provide a great movie. . .All my films are political but I make sure I tell a story, that it's art and poetry and that the audience will enjoy it." He confesses that he's privileged having his own company and that his films don't always have to make money. "It's about financing your movie, not making a profit. . .It's difficult to have those two sides in your head, because you know that having to make a profit means you often have to compromise. . .Once I have people trust me with their money, I am obliged to give them a great film -- I'm not obliged to give them profit." And he gave them a great film! I Am Not Your Negro was recently purchased by Magnolia Pictures for North American distribution, where they praised Peck for crafting a "profound and indelible statement that couldn't be more timely or powerful."
The Skyjacker's Tale (2016)
Totally absorbing and entertaining stylized documentary
PROGRESSIVE CINEMA - One of the most colorful and stylized political tales at the Toronto Film Festival this year is a documentary entitled The Skyjackers Tale. This totally absorbing and entertaining film, full of creative reenactments, tells the story about the murder of 8 people at the Fountain Valley Golf Club in St Croix, Virgin Islands in 1972. Pressured to find the murderers, the state apparatus rounds up several 'guilty' suspects, puts them through torture, a sham trial with forced confessions, even though they were represented by the famed progressive attorney William Kunstler, and sends them off to 8 life sentences. One of these unfortunate souls is Ishmael Labeet, the main subject of the film, who claims he never even went to the country club because it wasn't his kind of people – meaning white.
His life prior to the conviction involved a dishonorable discharge from the military for him "refusing to kill people that looked like me and never did anything against me." He went on to New York and joined the Black Panthers where he developed his revolutionary credentials. After returning to his home in St. Croix he hung with revolutionary groups that committed petty crimes – robbing to fund their work, and was eventually arrested for the murders.
After serving 14 years in American prisons, and they are described in great clarity in the film, he applies for habeas corpus. He goes back to St Croix, loses the case and is headed back handcuffed between two special agents to the US to finish his 8 life sentences when he chooses a much better option – he skyjacks the plane to Havana! Upon landing he is arrested and willingly serves 7 more years in a prison that "looks like a vacation compared to the ones in the US!" The movie actually starts at this point with him in Cuba, and the previous activities are shown in clever and colorful flashbacks. The skyjacking is artfully re-created using testimony from interviews with passengers who were on the plane back then, along with many others who are relevant to the trial, his life in St. Croix, the military, the Black Panthers, and most everywhere along his lifespan. He apologized to passengers who at first were frightened, offers them all 'drinks on the house' and was eventually described as "the most polite hijacker." The film explains how he got the gun on the plane, and how the whole hijacking took place, because Labeet is walking free in the streets of Cuba (location not revealed) and is interviewed at several locations, with many friends and family who know his remarkable story. He claims to be a revolutionary, not a criminal, and much better off than the other guys who are still in prison for the rest of their lives.
The cleverly crafted tale is directed by Canadian auteur, Jamie Kastner (Kike Like Me, Secret Disco Revolution) who traveled down to Cuba after conversations with his auto mechanic. "I went down to meet him after I looked him up online. Murderer! Hijacker! Revolutionary! I was curious how these work together. I thought I was going to meet a mass murderer. I met him and he claims his innocence and begins to tell me this amazing story. I am shocked and intrigued by each new revelation he made. He's a compelling lead character, a star in Cuba, funny, bright, sexy, a charismatic guy, and you believe him." Kastner continues, "But as a journalist I had to check the facts. So to have the cops and investigators in St Croix confirming the details that he was indeed involved with revolutionary gangs," added credibility to his story.
I was curious about a 'screenplay' credit in a documentary and his creative use of re-enactments. Kastner responds, "There is no narration per se, although some scenes are reenacted over dialog from real interviews. Recreations can be challenging. But any aesthetic tool you can do well or badly. Thin Blue Line is an example of it being well done." He defines docudramas as "creative non-fiction," adding, "The curse of a documentary is always what are you going to look at other than talking heads. Archived footage is always an asset but in my film – and since the trial in St. Croix happened back when recordings and smartphones were not available – there is very little footage to utilize." When asked if he felt Labeet was innocent or guilty, Kastner responds, "in the end... the murder mystery is really about something else – the justice system, whether or not it works. It's about a guy who took the laws into his own hands, rather than a story about his guilt or innocence. One of Labeet's defense attorneys says, "We can speculate all day whether these guys did it or not, but what we know for sure is they did not get a fair trial or anything else. There was a grave miscarriage of justice that was committed" and confirmed in this film.
And lastly, when reminded that Assata Shakur is the most well known American fugitive in Cuba, Kastner noted that, "just last month there was a list of about 80 American fugitives given asylum there over the years. But lets say if Assata is #1 on the list – Labeet is in the top 5." Now with US-Cuba relations thawing, talks about swapping spies and prisoners are expected, and Labeet's future is possibly in jeopardy.
The Birth of a Nation (2016)
One of the greatest films about race in American history
Seen at the Toronto Film Festival This is not to be confused with the other film of the same title, a 1915 silent film by acclaimed director D. W. Griffith, which portrays the Klan as saviors who defend the antebellum South and its system of slavery. This cinematic masterpiece tells the story from the victim's point of view, and never has a film captured the profound history of American slave rebellions as powerfully and artistically as Nate Parker's The Birth of a Nation. The story of freedom fighter Nat Turner and his 1831 revolt in Virginia has taken on deeper meaning and understanding due to the diligence and amazing artistic skills of actor Nate Parker (The Great Debaters). Not only is this his first directed film, but he also acted, produced and wrote the screenplay! This is no easy accomplishment and ranks along pantheon directors like Orson Welles.
Parker and his cast were greeted by the audience at the Toronto International Film Festival with a deserved extended standing ovation after its premiere screening there. It was by a wide margin the most important and intense film at the Festival coming at a time when America is dealing with its sordid history of slavery and current struggle against racism and police brutality.
You cannot watch this deeply moving film and not feel the humanity of the African American victims who were brutalized and held in bondage during the entire early development of the United States. In this film Nat Turner, until now a name usually associated with a fanatic religious preacher, has become a human being with a loving wife and family, a literate slave preacher who as a victim of violent oppression incomprehensibly gains an intense desire to risk his life to free his people from bondage. Although his rebellion resulted in the deaths of around 60 whites, and hundreds more African Americans who were victims of hateful revenge, Parker offers that his actions ultimately "forced the issue of slavery to the forefront of American politics which would result in the Civil War and eventual emancipation." Parker states, "for decades and probably still in many centers of the South, Turner's name shudders the soul. He's a terrorist to some liberator to others."
Turner survived the revolt and fled for two months but was captured, imprisoned and eventually hung. It was during his time in jail that his confessions were recorded by a wealthy lawyer (and slave owner) Thomas Ruffin Gray, who represented the other slave defendants. Many challenge the accuracy and interpretation of these writings which were also used as a basis for a 1967 fictional work by Pulitzer Prize winner, William Styron, who also penned Sophie's Choice. Using the same title, Confessions of Nat Turner, he embellished the story and his summations were challenged by Turner advocates in a book entitled, William Styron's Nat Turner: Ten Black Writers Respond.
There has never been a feature film on Turner and slave rebellions of this scope, although in 2003 the revered African American director Charles Burnett produced a stylized documentary called Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property, which addresses the complex interpretations of Turner's life and actions. The high production values of The Birth of a Nation are a result of years of preparation by Parker and his crew. It contains the most profound use of Billie Holiday's Strange Fruit in recent history, along with a music score by Henry Jackman that enriches the story and its complex and deep emotions. Also, it's not to be overlooked the unintentional comparison between these two driven individuals – Nat Turner, Nate Parker, both fighters motivated by courage and an unchallenged desire to right the wrongs of our imperfect Union, one with guns the other with film.
Among the remarkably effective cast who all shared in Parker's dream of telling Turner's story, Roger Guenveur Smith should be noted. His life's work has included a road tour of the one man play about Black Panther founder Huey Newton, and also appeared in many of Spike Lee's challenging fares about race and racism. Here he plays the role of the house Negro, the Uncle Tom who attempts to keep Turner's growing awareness of the need for action in check. There's also a telling scene involving a young slave who at first joined the rebellion but backed away when it looked hopeless. He went back and snitched to his master who informed the military that eventually quelled the rebellion resulting in Turner's failed mission. The young man is there to witness Turner's hanging and a tear drops from his eye, which the director zooms into and then out to a face of a Black soldier in the Civil War fighting to end slavery, implying the continuation of the struggle.
It's this constant determination in the African American community to address American injustice that has resulted in one of the greatest films about race in American history. A film that reached such dramatic heights I felt like I would never have to see another film again. Nat Turner – terrorist religious fanatic or revolutionary liberator? This film which firmly sides with the latter definition is sure to open much needed discussion on one of the most important topics in America when it has its theatrical release.