Brief Clips of My Bluestockings Bookstore Reading

I have just posted clips of my Bluestockings presentation on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgO_OQG4JSg In this reading (on October 14th), I discussed the conventions of the female quest for identity in The Silence of the Lambs and The Secret of Roan Inish, emphasizing my feminist reading of heroic journeys. Among the topics I touch upon are: disorientation at the start of the quest; the hero's self-sacrifice; and why many cinematic quests are action films. At a trim 6 1/2 minutes, it is a good intro to some of the key ideas in my book, Cinematic Quests for Identity: The Hero's Encounter with the Beast (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015). I hope you will take a look!

Sarah Gavron's "Suffragette"

Factory workers and British suffragettes Maud (Carey Mulligan) and Violet (Anne-Marie Duff) in a still from Suffragette.

In theaters now, Suffragette is that rare narrative film made from the point-of-view of a working class woman, in this case one living in early 20th century Britain. You can read my interview with the director, Sarah Gavron, here: http://www.filmjournal.com/features/demanding-be-heard-sarah-gavron%E2%80%99s-%E2%80%98suffragette%E2%80%99-dramatizes-british-women%E2%80%99s-fight-vote

My review of Suffragette also appears in Film Journal International: http://www.filmjournal.com/reviews/film-review-suffragette

Patricio Guzmán's The Pearl Button: In Theaters this Weekend

A still from "The Pearl Button" of the Humboldt Current, which marks an area of low salinity ocean that flows along the west coast of South America and that marks a unique ecosystem. (Courtesy of distributor, Kino Lorber Pictures).

If there were a poet laureate of Chile’s Atacama Desert, it would be documentary filmmaker Patricio Guzmán. In Nostalgia for the Light (2011), Guzmán probed that high, arid land, famous for its observatories, and its spectacular views of the Milky Way, for evidence of crimes that are the subject of all of his documentaries. They were committed during the sixteen years of dictator Augusto Pinochet’s regime. In his latest documentary, The Pearl Button, the writer-director becomes the bard of oceans, and in his sublime narrative voice, ruminates on their depths as the repository for human history.

The Pearl Button is comprised of several storylines that arise from that quotidian object. One button represents the only piece of evidence in a murder case that will never be brought to trial. It was discovered off the Pacific coast of Chile, not far from the Atacama Trench, annealed to a railroad tie. These wooden ties weighed down the bodies of Pinochet-era victims dropped from helicopters. Guzmán re-enacts that chilling crime and imagines the body and mind of the “disappeared” person now flowing in oceanic memory, along with countless others who suffered the same fate. 

Writer-director Patricio Guzman on his epic voyage along Chile's Pacific coast during production of his sublime documentary, "The Pearl Button." (Courtesy of Kino Lorber Pictures.)

During production on The Pearl Button, the 74 year old writer-director embarked on a sea journey along Chile’s 2,600-mile coastline, mostly inaccessible by land or air. Along the way, he discovered another narrative thread: the story of Jemmy Button, an indigenous 19th-century man who was paid one pearl button to travel to England in order to be “civilized.” Button later returned to his coastal community, among many other nomadic aboriginal locations in what is now Southern Chile and its archipelago. Europeans eventually decimated the native peoples, although some escaped. Guzmán speaks to a few of their descendants, including the last Kawésqar speaker. Once ocean nomads, they are now prevented by the Chilean government from putting to sea in their traditional canoes.

At Bluestockings Book Store

Me at Bluestockings Bookstore on October 14th, discussing chapters from my book, Cinematic Quests for Identity.

Having the opportunity to do readings is definitely the best thing about writing a book. Last night, at Bluestockings Bookstore in New York City, I had a terrific audience of movie lovers, some of whom stayed afterward to talk about Jonathan Demme's "The Silence of the Lambs" and John Sayles's "The Secret of Roan Inish," and to tell me how much these quest movies meant to them. One woman shared a story about Howard Shore, Demme's composer, and another wondered why people continually embark on quests. (It's a lifelong struggle for those who wish to live the "examined life.") Thank you, Bluestockings staff and customers for a very special evening! (And to Pete and Brian for topping it off with baseball and nachos.)Please check back early next week for video clips from the reading.

My Bluestockings Bookstore Reading

Please attend if you are in New York City! You can see a full-size version of this invitation by going to "Upcoming Events" on my Facebook page. The "reading," which is a presentation on the quest in The Silence of the Lambs and The Secret of Roan Inish, is on Wednesday, October 14th at 7 PM, at Bluestockings Bookstore, http://bluestockings.com/

Nora Ephron Documentary at New York Film Festival

Jacob Bernstein's "Everything is Copy," which premiered at the New York Film Festival last week, is a documentary about Nora Ephron, the writer-director of Julie and Julia and many other romantic comedies. The filmmaker is Ephron's son. Read my review of "Everything is Copy" on Biography.com: http://www.biography.com/news/everything-is-copy-nora-ephron-documentary-review

Ongoing New York Film Festival Coverage

You can read my New York Film Festival coverage in several places this year, including this website. Links to the newest posts on Film Journal International are below. Please check back again in a few days. 

Haskell Wexler and Pamela Yates in Nicaragua on the set of Latino (1986). (Photo courtesy of Skylight Pictures.)

I spoke with Pamela Yates about Rebel Citizen, a documentary that is actually a candid, extended interview with Haskell Wexler, the two-time Oscar-winning cinematographer and director (Medium Cool, 1969). Yates (Granito: How to Nail a Dictator, 2011) speaks to Wexler about his little-known passion for making documentaries. Rebel Citizen will screen at NYFF on October 6th and 11th. Film Journal International’s Screener Blog: http://www.filmjournal.com/rebel-citizen-haskell-wexler-receives-documentary-tribute-new-york-film-festival

Filmmaker Laura Israel whose Don't Blink: Robert Frank screens at NYFF next week.(Photo courtesy of NYFF)

The second interview is with Laura Israel (Windfall, 2010) whose new documentary, Don’t Blink: Robert Frank, is about that Swiss-born photographer and filmmaker. Frank is best-known for his book of photos from 1955, The Americans. Israel has worked with him for many years, so her documentary is an intimate portrait of the artist, but it is also a skillfully rendered interpretation of his work. Don't Blink will screen at NYFF on October 4th and 6th. Film Journal International’s Screener Blog: http://www.filmjournal.com/dont-blink-new-york-film-festival-interview-director-laura-israel

My NYU Bookstore Reading

I hope you will take a look at clips of my recent presentation on Jonathan Demme's "The Silence of the Lambs" at NYU Bookstore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEnhvA10x7k&feature=em-upload_owner

Also, snippets of the question and answer session are here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=spEWFMU8h38&feature=em-upload_owner

New York Film Festival Screens a New Documentary about Ingrid Bergman (First in a Series about NYFF)

Ingrid Bergman was an avid photographer and maker of "home" movies, footage of which appears in Stig Björkman's documentary. (Photo courtesy of the New York Film Festival.)

In Stig Björkman’s Ingrid Bergman in Her Own Words, which will screen at The New York Film Festival, an archivist observes that the radiant star of so many memorable films saved her photographs and “home” movies, as well as her school assignments, and her children’s school papers, because early in her life she had learned the value of such mementos. Orphaned as a young adult, Bergman went to live with relatives who died three months after her arrival.

Ingrid Bergman in Her Own Words is organized chronologically, moving from the actress's girlhood to her early work in Swedish theater, to her triumph in Hollywood, which began when Bergman was brought to the U.S. by David O. Selznick to make Intermezzo (1939). After working with Victor Fleming and Alfred Hitchcock, she went to Italy to realize her dream of working with Roberto Rossellini. Her affair with the director resulted in a swift and stinging rejection by the American public.

At first puzzled and then deeply wounded by this sudden withdrawal of admiration, Bergman would not return to Hollywood until 1956 when she appeared in Anatole Litvak’s Anastasia. Her final theatrical film, before her death from cancer, is also discussed in the documentary. It marked Bergman's return to Sweden to appear in Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata (1978).

My Reading at NYU Bookstore

My first reading for Cinematic Quests for Identity: The Hero’s Encounter with the Beast took place at New York University Bookstore last night. No author could ask for a better audience. Friends, family, colleagues and former students from CUNY/Baruch and CUNY/City Tech attended. I read briefly from my first chapter, which is about Jean Cocteau's La Belle et la Bête (1946), and then did a presentation on the conventions of the quest in Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs (1991), the subject of my second chapter.

Afterward, we had a terrific question and answer session and a book signing. Check back in a few days for video clips from the presentation.

My Interview with Filmmaker Stanley Nelson, Jr.

A still from the documentary, "The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution," opening in September in New York City.

I have just posted links to my video interview with Stanley Nelson, Jr. whose documentary, "The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution," is a history of that political party. In the interview, Mr. Nelson speaks about the genesis of the film project, his choice of interviewees for the documentary, and the influence of the Black Panther Party on the civil rights movement, among many other topical issues. Mr. Nelson was gracious enough to grant me about 30 minutes; for easier viewing, our interview is divided into two parts. Check back soon for a link to my feature article on the documentary, which will appear in Film Journal International.

Relief From Summer Blockbusters

A still from Christian Petzold's Phoenix depicts Nelly (Nina Hoss), an Auschwitz survivor. 

For those who want to escape the usual summer fare, and see films intended for adults, Christian Petzold's Phoenix (in German with English subtitles) and Stevan Riley's Listen to Me Marlon are both terrific choices, as is Nadav Lapid's The Kindergarten Teacher, (See my FB page, March 9th: https://facebook.com/Maria GarciaNYC).

Some readers may have seen Petzold's previous film Barbara (2014), set in East Germany, which is about a medical doctor hounded by the secret police. It starred Nina Hoss, the German writer-director's frequent collaborator. In Phoenix Hoss plays Nelly, a Jewish singer who survives Auschwitz only to find that her German husband may have betrayed her. My Film Journal International review is here: http://www.filmjournal.com/reviews/film-review-phoenix.

Listen to Me Marlon is a documentary based on two hundred hours of audiotapes Marlon Brando recorded, in part because he was engaging in what he called "self-therapy." Having given up on psychotherapy, the iconic actor just started talking to himself. Because these recordings constitute the entire narrative track, it feels as though Brando is telling his own story. Riley's stills and archival footage are as skillfully edited as the soundtrack. Read my Film Journal International here: http://www.filmjournal.com/reviews/film-review-listen-me-marlon.

"Caffeinated": A New Documentary for Coffee Lovers

In Caffeinated, a young woman harvests the fruit that contains the seed or coffee bean.
(Still courtesy of Filmbuff.)

The coffee farmer, the bean, the roaster, the taster, as well as the espresso machine-maker and barista, all from different parts of the world, appear in a new documentary, Caffeinated, directed by Vishal Solanki and Hanh Nguyen. (It opens in theaters on July 14th.) Driven by an appreciation for coffee and American coffee consumption and culture—coffee is our most imported commodity—this feature-length debut is an entertaining look at one of the few handmade products in the world.

Coffee production has always been and still is a male-dominated enterprise, yet Caffeinated features the voices of many women, including the farmers of Las Hermanas (The Sisters) in Jinotega, Nicaragua, an Indian “taster”—just like a wine taster, she grades the product—and women entrepreneurs who have founded companies that support the sustainable development of coffee. In their interviews, it appears that Solanki and Nguyen also encouraged male farmers to emphasize the role played by female members of their family. This is most apparent in sequences shot in Central America in which farmers point to wives and daughters who are harvesting and sorting the cherry-like fruit from which the coffee bean is derived. Special attention is also paid, in the course of the documentary, to representing racial diversity.

Caffeinated is distinguished as well by the filmmaker’s visual sensibilities: Thoughtful use of light and camera angles to emphasize the beauty and color of the landscapes where coffee is grown, is also apparent in the sensuality with which the faces of farmers and their workers are photographed. Solanki and Nguyen also possess an eye for the symmetry of machines that roast, grind and steam coffee. While the documentary is beautiful to look at, and the co-directors are objective and journalistic, the editing is uneven. A sequence on the use of pesticides and its damaging effect on women’s health, for instance, draws no coherent conclusions, and often in the documentary, the narrator’s identity is unclear. Caffeinated is nevertheless impressive in its scope, and for the fact that it does not use music to manipulate the viewer’s emotions.

Those who enjoy Caffeinated will also appreciate Nick and Marc Francis’s Black Gold (2006), a fascinating study of the economics of the coffee trade. See the link to my interview with the filmmakers in “From My Archives: Interviews” (to the left of this column.) Thanks to Dropbox dropping the ball, you will need a log-in to access it.

Bree Newsome Takes it Down

An AP photo of Bree Newsome's arrest after she removed the Dixie flag from the South Carolina State House.

By now, the video of Bree Nelson removing the Dixie flag from the South Carolina State House has surely gone viral. (If you have not seen it, go to YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gr-mt1P94cQ.) Shortly after Brown v. Board of Education (1954), the state of Georgia began flying that flag, and in a celebration to mark the beginning of the Civil War, South Carolina did the same in April of 1961, at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. During last week's "Meet the Press," Washington Post writer Eugene Robinson, referring to that 1961 incident, said the Dixie flag "was flown as a symbol of massive resistance to racial desegregation."

Ms. Newsome's actions this morning reversed the battle cry of the Dixie flag: Now it is a call to action for all Americans, the beginning of a new fight in the longest running war in our country. It began before the signing of the Declaration of Independence, with our genocide of American Indians in one of the biggest land grabs in history, and our trafficking of Africans in the slave trade that established the fortunes of many Northern and Southern families. Our ownership of those slaves furthered the growth of our capitalist economy. Institutionalized racism, the cause of economic disparities in America, continue to benefit the enfranchised among us, most of whom are white. But Ms. Newsome's actions are not intended to divide us.

In the summer of 1964, the racism and hatred that the Dixie flag represents killed two Jewish men, Andrew Goodman and Michael Shwerner, and their colleague, a Black man named James Earl Chaney, right before the start of the Congress of Racial Equality's voting registration campaign in Mississippi. I was a school-girl at the time, and my family had just moved to the suburbs. We were the first with a Spanish name to live in that neighborhood. A Black family with two children arrived shortly afterward. The father was an anesthesiologist and the mother a nurse. One night, shortly after the bodies of the three activists were found, we were awakened by the siren that called our volunteer fireman to work. A cross was burning on the lawn of the Black family's home.

Memories of Orson Welles

A still from The Third Man of Orson Welles (Courtesy of Rialto Pictures/Studio Canal).

New York City's Film Forum will be screening a restored print of Carol Reed's The Third Man (1949) later this month. The script was by Graham Greene, and the movie stars Joseph Cotten, Alida Valli and the incomparable Orson Welles. While I am hard-pressed to pick my favorite Orson Welles movie, in this one he makes his best grand entrance. And, The Third Man is a terrific example of British noir. Thinking about Welles led me to recall our trip to Morocco . . .

. . . where my husband and I embarked on a long drive to El Jadida in order to see the locations used in his Othello (1952), namely the Portuguese Cistern and the Fortress of Mazagan. Welles's version of the Shakespeare tragedy, which he adapted and directed, and in which he played the title role, is one of the best film adaptations of that play. (Those who like the play and Welles's portrayal should screen Laurence Fishburne's performance in Oliver Parker's Othello, 1995.) Here are a few photos that will illustrate Welles's wonderful choice of location for Othello.