The Falling Sky: A Rare Glimpse Into a Longstanding Indigenous Culture

The Falling Sky is a new documentary by filmmakers Eryk Rocha and Gabriela Carneiro da Cunha. Following the Yanomami people, who, for centuries have lived in the northcentral part of Brazil, in the Amazon rainforest.

The film focuses on Shaman and tribe leader Davi Kopenawa, who talks about the ancient stories of shamanism, and how it is passed on from generation to generation. It also talks about how hard his people continually work to end the devastating effects of colonization and deforestation.

A peaceful existence

The film uses a cinematographic focus, relying completely on the indigenous people to tell the tale. During the time they were filmed, the people are preparing for an annual celebration and feast, called the Reahu rite, which is the most important time in their “cosmology'‘.

This particular celebration is in honor of another great Shaman, Kopenawa’s father in law, who had passed within the last year.

Kopenawa fears that their shamanism might soon die out due to the reckless greed of the “Merchandise People”, the name he uses for the white gold rushers currently ruining the land.

His fear is that, without Shaman’s there will be no one to “hold up the sky” for humanity and that the world may come into an extinction of sorts.

These people have already begun to see many of their children die due to rampant malaria and other diseases, that the white people bring to the area.

The Yanomami people are very spiritual and believe that the spirits of their gods and ancestors, the Xapiri, who protect their people and the earth, have grown angry with the mass destruction of the world, and will cause the end of the world.

Kopenawa fears that the Xapiri will, and are, exacting their revenge upon these greedy capitalists, through destructive weather patterns and, if humanity can’t find an equilibrium, all will fall into chaos. This is what scientists have been predicting for many years, in what we know as climate change.

Kopenawa isn’t hopeful that the film will reach the people who have the power to end all of this greed, but hopes that the audience will hear their cry and fight along with them, to save these ancient tribes and respect their way of life, and their land.

Collectively, the tribes of the area work together, urging Brazilian people in power to silence the ravaging caused by greed, and to bring back balance to the Earth, their people, and their spiritual guides.

KimStim

in all honesty…

The Falling Sky is an out of the ordinary film that immortalizes an ancient culture, many of us haven’t seen or been aware of, before.

It is clearly a labor of love by the filmmakers for the Yanomami people, as the film stays entirely centralized on them.

It is a moving mosaic of a culture that has spent centuries living in balance with nature, only to watch it crumbling around them.

It paints for us their daily lives, and their deep, ethereal beliefs that fully intermingle with the natural beauty around them. The people and their lands are one, built upon a system of deep respect for mother nature.

Rocha and Carneiro da Cunha explain that “we did not want, in this film, to reproduce the same media images already proliferated on a large scale, but rather to create an aesthetic, political and cinematographic expression that would bring to the fore the beauty, courage and vitality of the Yanomami and the Watorikɨ community”.

And they have exquisitely achieved that, had it been a National Geographic-esque piece about the people. However, much of the messages surrounding the themes they attempt to communicate, become lost, because it leaves us with far too little information and an abundance of questions.

In a couple short scenes, we hear the Yanomami people speak about their culture, and the powerful, spiritual insight they have regarding the white people who are destroying their land.

Then the film jumps to random sections of people working together, cooking, chanting and walking around, that left me wondering what was going on. Where’s the message and its context in these scenes? What else are we seeing, and why?

There is over seven minutes in the opening scene, of a group of Yanomami people walking from one end of a field to another. That’s it.

At one point, a Yanomami woman speaks about her concern of other girls being raped, without any previous context of what she is talking about, until later. Not till them do we realize that these “merchandise people” are also assaulting the women.

KimStim

The topic seems to come out of left field within the contained, small world, peaceful living esthetic that is shown throughout. The filmmakers keep us so far away from the conflict happening, it is easy to forget that it is happening at all.

I felt that, had there been more editing, context, and even the smallest amount of exchange from the filmmakers to the audience, it would’ve still lived up to what the filmmakers wanted, while keeping us more engaged.

I had the press notes to read about and understand all of what the filmmakers objectives were, but regular audiences won’t, so they may misconstrue the point of what is being shown.

It left such a sense of disconnect that, I think, really failed the Yanomami and the audience. What good does it do to create such intimacy in pictures, just to leave us completely separate from understanding what we are watching at any given time?

The message that the film wants to impress upon people is so vital, that we need to feel closer to the Yanomami, and what is happening to them. For most of us, this film will be our only access to their world, so connection is even more crucial.

Still, the film shows us beyond the mystery, into a subculture of indigenous people, who are living despite the centuries of colonialism and destruction of their land, proving their strength, vitality and resilience.

Their existence is a living testament of rebellion and fortitude against the imbalances that other, larger societies often ignore. It is a rallying cry, to wake humanity up and see how much damage we have caused to the “mother” that sustains us all.

No matter what the billionaires say about moving to Mars, Earth is our only home. We must start giving back to it, for all that it has given to us.

One question that remains is: Will we ever awaken before it’s too late?

Regarding Us: A Timely, LGBTQ Film That Resonates Today

Regarding Us, written and directed by David Beck and Jennifer Bobbi, is a story about trans rights, finding chosen family in places that one wouldn’t expect, and how being misinformed or bigoted creates unnecessary barriers to people trying to connect on a human basis.

no protection

Veronica (Alexandra Grey), is a teacher who works at a Catholic school in NYC. She has worked here for seven years, and somehow the “board” finds out that she is trans. She is fired with no severance for her “lifestyle” and “choice”, immediately.

Denny (David Beck) is a newly single father to daughter Isabel (Andrea Rosa Guzman). His husband Adrian (Eliud Garcia) has recently left them, and Denny, who is a struggling actor, is trying to juggle his new life without his partner’s support. Denny does work on the side, as a tour guide and his own business of live Shakespeare telegrams.

When Veronica, who is seriously depressed at home, receives one of his telegrams, she is first annoyed because it was sent by a downstairs neighbor who harasses her daily because she’s trans. What begins between them, is something neither of them expects.

A new friendship

Caroline Stucky

Veronica and Denny’s friendship begins to grow when Denny asks her to be a care taker for Isabel. Veronica talks to Denny about her family and how she is treated in the world, while Denny gets to talk with her about the breakup of his relationship. Their support of one another becomes the grounding that both of them need at this point in their lives.

At school, Isabel makes friends with the new kid Kyle (Hudson Paul). Kyle is struggling with his feelings about his gender, but his family doesn’t approve of it. The two become fast friends and Isabel is very accepting of Kyle, given the openness of her raising.

Isabel encourages Kyle to dress up, wear makeup and to openly be who he is. Kyle’s mother Constance (Abigail Hawke), is a typical, white religious woman, who seems to understand what is happening with Kyle, but keeps it under wraps, discouraging Kyle from embracing who he is using threatening stories of how his life will be should he not hide it.

When Adrian then returns to Denny trying to reconcile, it ends up creating friction between Denny’s relationship with Veronica, and the kids friendship. Constance then reads about Veronica’s firing in the news, and bans Kyle from seeing Isabel. Tensions rise to the extreme, putting everyone at odds.

Will they all be able to come together and reconcile each other’s differences before it’s too late?

in all honesty…

Caroline Stucky

Regarding Us is a moral discussion about how bigotry and church based ignorance fail and harm their own people. It aims to spread the word about anti-Trans rhetoric and challenges the systemic false narratives being spread by misinformed leaders both in the church and government.

It humanizes and normalizes each character to show audiences that Trans and other LGBTQ people aren’t the villains that uneducated priests, pastors and government officials tend to malign them as.

They are normal, everyday, working citizens, who want the same love, acceptance and peace that is only afforded to cis gendered and heteronormative people in our society.

It also shows us how that type of hate and misinformation harms the LGBTQ community and others to separate and divide us more as a people. Like anyone else who is “othered” and treated violently in our communities, depression and suicidal ideation can become forefront for those struggling.

Grey gave a wonderful portrayal of Veronica, and, to my delight, both Guzman and Paul had stand out performances. Guzman’s vivacity and precociousness absolutely stole every scene she was in. Paul’s performance of Kyle, as a child feeling left out, was heart breaking.

Both of them showed up with performances that many adult actors couldn’t duplicate as well.

The film struggles with the script, as many things happen without explanation, leaving us with questions about “how”, “when” and “why”. For example, how would the Catholic school end up finding out about Veronica, and that her transition would be “all over Facebook”? Is she a celebrity? Did she tell someone who told on her?

Caroline Stucky

There are also parts where certain characters are added just to make things happen. These characters just happen to be doing things that end up bringing other characters together, in an overly simplistic way.

For example, Veronica’s downstairs neighbor, who harasses her by sending her pizza and the like, while not paying ahead of time, simply doesn’t work in a believable way. Every service we have is, in general, paid ahead of time, so not paying Denny ahead of time for the telegram simply wouldn’t happen.

Many of the scenes feel forced and several of the actors awkwardly stumble through their roles , which came across as disconnected with their characters and downright silly at times.

Still, the overall message was well plotted out and the “family film” feel made this subject more approachable, showing the LGBTQ community just as they are: Human, fathers, mothers, siblings, children, loving; caring; and even religious.

If the white, cis gendered, heteronormative “lifestyle” can be respected, so can other forms of human love, with the dignity and respect that they deserve.

In a time in America where we are literally destroying ourselves believing in the vitriol and hate that some religious and political people are making up to obscure the truth that they are the real villains, we need to see more messages in all media that align with the truth of this film.

It is most important for us to come together and see that we are not all that different, and that differences are our strength, not weakness. If not, we are doomed to keep repeating history over and over to the detriment of the 99%, and never hold those who are the real problem accountable.

American Delivery: A Much Needed Look Into the Heroes Making A Difference

American Delivery, directed by Carolyn Jones, is a timely documentary focusing on the women at the forefront of labor and delivery, who work tirelessly to help improve the lives of women, and put an end to the preventable high maternal mortality rate that plagues the United States.

From nurses, especially midwives, to the hospitals and clinics that care, the film highlights these she-roes protecting women’s health, who also fight the systemic racism that is complicit in the high percentage of black women who die in this country, giving birth every year.

Fighting the good fight

The statistics of maternal mortality in America are bleak, but there are those in the trenches who are working, across the nation, to make the stats get better. These special souls and more are highlighted throughout the film.

In Cleveland, Ohio, Dr. Airica Steed, a registered nurse, has become the first black and female CEO in MetroHealth hospital’s 200 year history. She is a staunch advocate for women of color in the area, and her mission is to create a health system that is fair and equal for everyone, including the staff that works there.

According to the film, Cleveland ranks lowest in the nation in livability for black women. Dr. Steed, and many of the nurses at MetroHealth work together, both in and out of the hospital, educating through outreach and taking steps to ensure the safety of a woman’s right to choose how they give birth.

Their midwives offer at home services both before and after the baby is delivered, educating new moms on all that they need to know about this new transition and, to help them find better outcomes for their own health, the baby’s health, nursing and mental health.

Carolyn Jones Productions

The film states that 1/3 of American cities fall under areas called “maternity care deserts”, where access to healthcare, food and other basic necessities don’t exist. These ghost towns house people, mostly people of color, that are all but forgotten.

Dayton, Ohio is one of these deserts, and the Five Rivers Health Center is a federally funded center, where women can get access to all stages of maternity care, regardless of ability to pay. This clinic, also led by a black, female CEO, Gina McFarlane-El, envisions it to be a “one stop” place for all things maternity and child care.

They service a wide variety of women that are homeless, in jail, and those who suffer with mental illnesses, with the quality of care so desperately needed there.

One of their midwives, Toni Tipton, is the only black midwife in all of southern Ohio. She heads a black women’s nursing group, while seeing patients, to help lower the number of infant mortalities, as black babies here are four times more likely to die than white babies.

With systemic racism, low education, food and housing insecurity, and widespread poverty among the people of color who live here, this clinic is a literal lifesaver in the midst of the crisis.

Most of the focus of the film is centered on the importance of midwives in labor and delivery, who are able to take a lot of the burden off of the hospital system. Midwives provide one to one care, both before and after birth, that is generally not available to mothers who take the traditional hospital route. They also provide more birthing options, allowing women more control.

These nurses provide lifesaving treatment, education, outreach and baby supplies to those who normally don’t have access to any of it.

In all honesty…

Carolyn Jones Productions

American Delivery is an essential film, not just because of its enlightening information, but because it sheds a positive perspective amidst the normalized media frenzy of the grim and disastrous.

Many documentaries I’ve seen tell us what the problems are, but don’t always offer solutions, or show us those who are already making the change happen. The negative perspectives can leave audiences baffled, with no way to know what they can do to help.

Many of the nurses and midwives featured have a history with subpar care from doctors and hospitals during their own pregnancies, that could have been avoided if this country would get their healthcare system together. They took their own trauma, and turned them into hope for other women.

Racism, of course, is the at the core of US society, that leaves way too many people of color without basic human needs and services. The noxious judgments about those in need, steeped in white supremacy and capitalism, is a brutal system that has plagued this country from the very beginning.

People of color are purposefully blocked from access to a good education, well paying work, and kept in poverty so they never reach true equity.

Women are still second class citizens, so we do not benefit from a toxic masculine society based on power and greed. Women of color, especially black women, suffer the most from the lack of care by affluent white ideology and pay with their lives in many respects.

The fact that they are three times more likely to die in childbirth compared to any other race is a blatant disregard of their lives stemming from hateful structures like slavery and Jim Crowe, that continue to poison our society today.

The essential work that these midwives and nurses do, is on the forefront of dismantling the nefarious structures of power that harm and kill black people at alarming rates.

Carolyn Jones Productions

Tanzania, which, according to the film, had the worst maternal mortality rate in the world, has cut their crisis in half by the hard work of nurses and midwives there. Why would one of the richest countries in the world even have this issue? Just take a look at our history to see how much it hates women and people of color.

Jones’s choice to allow these women a platform for their personal stories, trauma, joys and tears, gives a voice to those who might not otherwise have one, and also shows the audience a perspective not seen in other documentaries of its like. It is positivity, dedication and love in motion.

At such a crucial time in America, when women’s rights are being cruelly eliminated, this is the type of film we need when looking for hope. There are so many unsung heroes and she-roes, bringing light to the dark on Earth, that we never hear about.

Filmmakers like Jones pave a way for these lightworkers to be seen, and help bring us the promise that, working together, maybe we can solve the systemic poisons woven into our society, and let love and light prevail.

Against All Enemies: A Battle Cry For Help

Against All Enemies is a new documentary directed by Charlie Sadoff that explores the origins of hate groups in America, and why so many veterans become parts of them. With a plethora of information and across the political spectrum insights, this is a documentary that should be paid close attention to as it shows us much that needs to be healed in this country.

why are we so far from uniity?

The film focuses on the rise of extremist, right wing political groups the likes of The Proud Boys and Q Anon, and those who stormed the US Capitol on January 6th, 2021.

With the aid of former veterans both in the political arena and out, Sadoff explores these extremist groups from their leaders, their recruiting sites, their grooming of lost veterans and the misinformation that they spread.

These groups hail from a long history of white supremacy, racism, and other white nationalist groups like the Ku Klux Klan, in an intricate web of lies and deception. They feed off of fear, insecurity, low education and conspiracy theories.

Using these fears and insecurities, others who want power see opportunities for success in the political arena, and create platforms that feed into them. Trump, of course, is the biggest con artist of the myriad of politicians, who spread misinformation in order to incite violent action, to realize his own dream of fascism and dictatorship, which isn’t surprising, as his own father was in the KKK.

AP

Trump’s followers in the senate and other government positions continue to do whatever they can to push the white, cis, hetero normative, including banning books, not allowing LGBTQ+ to be seen, heard or protected, abolishing the right to choose, gerrymandering and suppression of voting for black and brown communities.

With the unbelievable amount of poisonous lies, these people continue to have strong platforms to keep spreading their malcontent because no one is taking them to task.

why recruit veterans?

According to the film, these sorts of extremist groups purposely focus on our vets. They need people who are armed/know how to use weapons, have an undeniably twisted sense of patriotism and who are most susceptible to radicalization, for a sense of purpose, belonging and “family”.

The leaders tend to all be white men, educated at white, bought-in, “elite” schools, who know the law, but are generally amoral and use it to their advantages.

As I’ve seen, with a hearty history of mental health education and counseling experience, US Veterans are not taken care of. Most of the men going into the military are young and inexperienced, who come home from political wars with PTSD and all kinds of other mental health needs, only to be shutdown and not cared for by our government for their service.

Take a group of people who have been traumatized; initiated by violence and war, then left to their own devices and not slowly reintegrated back to normal society coming home; add guns to the mixture and you’ve got an explosive concoction of vitriol, misdirected pain and the need for relevance.

It’s become astonishingly difficult to know who we can trust in politics and our daily lives and many inadvertently fall victim to those who con.

Mighty Pictures

in all honesty…

Sadoff has given us such an abundance of information packed into one film that it’s hard to know where to start.

We have had a crisis of military mental health since the beginning of military history. As a supporter of our troops, I have seen the toll that war takes on them. I’ve also seen a lot of people who get denied treatment from the government programs, such as the VA, that have promised to take care of them and their families.

What makes me most angry about this subject are the rich people who continue to use and exploit them as pawns, knowing full well that they would never do the job themselves nor expect their children to go to war.

The indoctrination involved, also explained in the movie, is sickening. More laws against disinformation and the online presence of these extremist predators need to be made before anything. There’s nothing “constitutional” about conning others and creating violence against other groups of people through hatred. We have laws against hate speech so why not online?

Sadoff also has a section comparing Isis with the domestic US extremist groups. Though they have many similarities, the US doesn’t crack down on the groups here like overseas, most likely because our perps are white.

The biggest threat to our democracy are cons like Trump and those who support him. I don’t know what hold he has over his supporters, but I do know that all he cares about is becoming an all powerful dictator. He has literally said it before and praised dictators across the world.

He is using Hitler’s words and tactics in his speeches trying to convince his supporters that dictators aren’t
”so bad”, and many of his political pawns are now in jail. Trump himself has almost 100 charges against him for fraud, sexual assault and mishandling of classified government documents. What else will it take to convince his supporters? It’s so blatant it’s frightening.

Absolutely zero legitimate presidents have ever had so many lawsuits against them in US history. Is racism so powerful that many citizens would vote for someone who is showing you who they are? It’s all “Fake News” unless Trump agrees with it.

MSNBC

The battle of “wokeness” is also being manipulated by the same MAGA politicians to mean something ugly, when it’s literally just being awakened to all of the injustices of our world. When we are able to see with more clarity, we are better able to fix the problems around us. Why would anyone want to stay “asleep”?

Our political system on both sides is rigged for the super wealthy only and needs to be overhauled, no question. Replacing this with fascist, hate filled politicians and rhetoric would be epically worse than what we have now, and there is a real possibility that the US could be walking itself ignorantly and apathetically into it.

Against All Enemies brings us a multifaceted buffet of the problems at hand, asking its audience to come up with answers that most of us don’t have the knowledge or power to answer. There is little here to keep us hopeful.

Trump’s presidency has left America with multiple questions regarding legality and how to handle a corrupt president. We need to come together and demand from our elected officials that laws to protect our democracy are vitally needed now.

The rise of authoritarianism is a real threat that needs real answers and effective measures taken against it. I personally am less afraid of a second Civil War, as mentioned in the film, than Trump getting the chance to change more of the government to his liking than he already has.

We’ve been there historically in the 1940’s and fought against it. Where is that same enthusiasm now? Why haven’t we learned?

Those of us who are awakened have an obligation to fight the rise of fascism with our votes and help those who can’t see clearly to wake up and find the clarity they need.

Fighting each other will only keep us divided without the ability to break from our self created gridlock and allow fascists to slip in in the meantime.

Do we continue to support and uphold the rubbish sold to us by the 1% and toxic capitalism, or will we have the courage to do the tough work of our own healing, and demand in large numbers that this non-sustainable society, hatred and malfeasance be banished for good?

The choice is ours. Vote like your lives depend on it, because they very well may.

1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted Culture; A Critical Find to Ending Homophobia in Religion

1946: The Mistranslation that Shifted Culture, directed by Sharon “Rocky” Reggio and written by Jena Serbu and Jill Woodward, is an eye-opening new documentary surrounding the, not so long, history of blatant homophobia in certain sects of Christianity.

Reggio directs and stars in this compelling, very persuasive and heart-breaking story, featuring her pastor father, Salvatore Reggio, who is a literalist of a bible that was never created to be a true translation.

Digging in

When Sharon Reggio heard that there was research being done about when and why certain bibles used the specific word “homosexual” in regards to behaviors demonized by some Christian religions, she jumped at the chance to create a documentary about it.

Identifying as queer herself, the documentary digs into the vast history on bible translation and she also tries to come to terms with her literalist father, who believes that the book he has is the literal word of God, and says there isn’t any way he will believe differently.

She teams up with Kathy Baldock, a straight Christian woman who became a fierce advocate for LGBTQ people after finding out all this information, and Ed Oxford, a gay Christian man who went to seminary when he was younger, but felt as a gay man he had no place in Christianity.

Together, with a collective of religious scholars, linguists, and opposing pastors, they try to figure out why the word “homosexual” was written in a translation of a bible starting in 1946 and beyond.

Who gets to change Words from an antiquated book?

Sweetbread Studios

This is who. A group of old, white, cis men.

These men agreed that the word homosexuality should be added to the Revised Standard Version of the Bible after a devastating mistranslation, sparking a cataclysmic “religious” war against the LGBTQ community.

The translation was challenged, but they couldn’t revise it again until 1971, due to a contract they signed. Subsequent translations chose to continue with the flawed translation, not knowing that the first group had already met to change it.

The biggest of the revised copies was The Living Bible, written by a man who was a salesman, not a scholar, who wanted a paraphrased version of the Revised Standard Version, so he could teach it to his children.

A copy of that version was later given to Billy Graham and he then started teaching it to his constituents in his revivals, which brought to life a slew of other conservative pastors, like Jerry Fallwell, who also put it into their “teachings”.

So a paraphrased book, not written by scholars, caught on like wildfire putting out a barrage of misinformation, bringing on more hatred and devastation to the LGBTQ community.

in all honesty…

Kathy Baldock and her friend Netto: Sweetbread Studios

This is truly a one of a kind film that stands to bring victory in the fight against homophobia and religious cruelty.

I sat in awe watching it, as an ex Catholic who’s bible never mentioned “homosexuality” in its translations, and had always wondered why other sects even mentioned it. I had seen the word “sodomy” written, but in the old translation of the time, sodomy meant rape.

Biblical literalism can’t be translated into words we use today, because no one actually knows what was really meant. If it’s been translated by countless, flawed humans throughout history, there’s no way that ANY translation could be the actual word of God.

These conservative religions are just another measure for white men to hold power over their masses and make tons of money from it. Reggio’s pastor father is a stern believer that this version is still the word of “God” and refused to listen to whatever she or the others had to say.

White power, conservatism, and politics have always scapegoated groups of people who are categorized as “different” from the white, straight, cis male norm (think WWII). If there was someone that they hated, they made sure to make it about the select groups and never about themselves.

We see it still with the queer community, the poor, people with disabilities, women, fat people, the BIPOC community and everyone else that bigoted capitalism wants to continue to put down or annihilate in it’s unrelenting scheme of greed and worldly domination.

Sweetbread Studios

The film industry is full of this discrimination as well, but independent films like these are crucial to shining a light on what is toxic in our society. Reggio was brave enough to bring her personal struggles into it, giving a living example of this particular bigotry.

I was astounded by her ability to still connect with her father, as I’m not sure I could reconcile with someone who outright denied the way I love and judged it a sin.

This is what a lot of LGBTQ people go through and much, much worse. The amount of murders, jail time, suicides, humiliation, psychological terrorism, broken families and bigotry that have been faced through the years caused by just being true to ourselves is horrifying.

Teachings like these by conservative “Christians”, whose title I use lightly because they are nothing like Christ, are devastating to everyone on Earth. Why should humanity identify with one, strict type rather than being part of the beauty and the “all” that humanity is and can be?

Hatred is learned and super toxic not only towards the people it is put upon, but also to the people who hold it. When power and big money is made to continue it, that is a mix for absolute disaster.

Watch this film and learn, then start doing a lot of research to educate yourself about the power of love to heal all that ails. We all have a choice to drink from the cup of poison that ignorant people have passed to us and question the lies we have believed and been party to.

Refuse to hate. Our very existence depends on it.

Slamdance 2023: Sign The Show: Working Toward A More Inclusive World

I’ve been a social justice advocate most of my life, doing all I can to push for radical progression and undo the legacies of toxic power and privilege. As a critic, I have continued as an advocate for underserved artists, highlighting mostly their work as opposed to mainstream, where the power imbalance is horrifically skewed.

I have been invited to the Sundance Film Festival the past 5 years in a row. My first invite came in 2019 and I was thrilled. As a person who lives with disabilities I worried about access to the Festival because I am unable to stand in lines for a prolonged period of time and was also concerned that most people who go there, get around town in busses or by walking.

There are so many reasons why neither of those wouldn’t work for me, so I reached out to Sundance’s disability team about it. I asked if there was special transportation for people with disabilities who were attending and, whether or not they could accommodate me, ongoing, in the theaters, to be seated inside early, so I wouldn’t have to stand in the long lines.

I was disappointed to find out that I was more or less on my own. Their idea of accommodation was “maybe” being able to set a chair outside the theaters for me, and they had no special transportation for those with disabilities, stating that most people use the bus (umm, big stairs?). They stated that there was also just a couple of placard holding handicapped spots throughout the whole town and that no lots were reserved or designated for people with physical disabilities.

Source: Sundance Film Festival

Needless to say, I didn’t end up going. When COVID hit, the fest was continued online so I was able to attend those. I thought it proved more progressive, for all sorts of people who couldn’t access the fest, for whatever reason, in the past.

Fast forward to Sundance 2023. Not only was there less online availability, I came across this article , regarding more accessibility issues at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, this time for famous jurors who were deaf/hard of hearing. I was not surprised but was angry that they still weren’t fixing these problems.

I posted about it on Instagram and was made aware that, ironically, over at their sister festival, Slamdance, was playing an absolute gem of a documentary about the deaf and hard of hearing community not being able to access their favorite live concerts, comedy shows and plays.

Sign The Show, directed by Cat Brewer, is a timely, all encompassing documentary bringing into focus the difficulties that the deaf and hard of hearing community have while trying to attend live events.

Answering the call

Cat Brewer

Cat Brewer was a college educator when she went to enjoy a music concert several years ago. She noticed that at this concert there was an interpreter signing the concert. Like most hearing individuals, myself included, she was unaware that the deaf community wanted access to live concerts and shows across the board, at all kinds of venues.

Brewer began investigating, talking to interpreters and reaching out to the deaf community inquiring about this subject and that planted the seed for the making of this film. She travelled all across the nation, interviewing interpreters, musical celebrities and deaf advocate groups.

The film references the American Disabilities Act (ADA), signed into law in 1991, quoting: “Any place of public accommodation is required to provide sign language interpreters or other effective means of communication for hard of hearing individuals.”

What the ADA doesn’t mention are the myriad of loopholes and complications that a given venue may have due for a myriad of reasons. For example, though a venue must fulfill the need for an interpreter, the ADA allows venues the option to pick one night of the show when an interpreter is available. So what if you’re not available that particular night? It’s not the venue’s headache.

Concert goers also have the option to call a venue ahead of time to secure an interpreter and be seated in the hard of hearing section, but there is no guarantee that the venue will actually have an interpreter when needed, nor be able to seat someone where they can actually see the interpreter.

Far too many venues don’t have accommodations like these and many others, on an ongoing basis, just as part of their business.

A Rallying cry

Source: Strong Brew Productions

Brewer speaks to several organizations and interpreters actively working to change this. Matt Maxey, founder of the organization DEAFinitely Dope, advocate for the deaf and hard of hearing community, has worked in many venues and concerts. signing hip-hop shows. He was discovered by Chance the Rapper while signing a show and Chance asked him to travel with the crew and sign the rest of his shows on his tour.

In 2006, the non-profit organization Deaf West Theatre, put up the Broadway musical, Spring Awakening, performing simultaneously in American Sign Language (ASL) and English, using a deaf and hearing cast. It was the first of its kind. Hearing performers had to learn ASL and learn about the experiences of the deaf and hard of hearing community from the deaf actors.

For the past ten years the Firefly Music Festival has been gathering incredible names in musical entertainment while accommodating people of all kinds, embracing the disability community. They pride themselves in being an all inclusive and safe venue for everyone. Why can’t every place do this?

The film dabbles in all the different ways that sign language isn’t just a modem of communication, but an entire language and form of bodily expression for the deaf. It has its own jargon, slang and impact that speaks to a distinctive group of people, whom otherwise would be shut out.

Every interpreter also specializes in different aspects of life including business, medical, education and performance art, so interpreters are not a “one size fits all” service. There are detailed components to the different types of signing including “deaf jokes”, innuendos and puns, and, what’s more, deaf people communicate and associate in ways that are different even to each other.

Source: Strong Brew Productions

In all honesty…

Sign The Show is a genuine accomplishment and a necessity for all people to see. There is so much to learn from it.

Brewer creates her freshman film with abundant heart and meticulous singularity on a subject that, until now, hasn’t had a spotlight. The message is one of full inclusion and it makes us aware that the way hearing people experience life and music, isn’t the only or best way to experience it.

This film shows that there are so many different ways to sense things in the world, and, if we could just stay open, that could enrich and enhance how we experience those things already.

Brewer’s prospective succeeds in a “ready to listen and learn” dynamic, making her subjects the priority, and allowing them to communicate without intrusion. The flow is smooth yet impactful without hitting the audience over the head with any biased agendas.

In this way, she is able to connect us with multiple, diverse people and entertainment genres in a succinct, easy to digest and non-judgmental way. This sense of ease creates comfort, allowing for the audience to really hear the subjects, and take in a lot of information that leaves you feeling inspired, not drained.

Andre 3000. Source: Strong Brew Productions

In documentaries, this is no simple task. Brewer works in an authentically optimistic, simplistic and approachable way to introduce the subject to those who are not familiar with it.

No one should have to go through what so many people do for access specific to their needs and to feel included. Ableism still runs rampant all over the world and it’s going to take more than defective legislation to change that.

Most of the time, even I don’t get screeners of films with closed captioning for review. How can deaf film critics give their important and unique perspectives on films without them?

It’s paying attention to those kinds of details in everyday life that can make an astronomical difference. Hearing the voices and hearts of those with disabilities are vital to our connection to each other as humans, and to the expansion of our knowledge and growth.

Although “othering” people is something that comes easily to humans, it doesn’t mean that these common fears and misconceptions cannot be challenged and laid to rest.

It’s passionate people like Brewer and those in this film, who answer their call when it comes, and bring a myriad of lived experiences to our attention. They beckon us towards progression and open our eyes to the beauty of uniqueness that is all around us.

The only question that remains is, will you be ready when your call comes?

Tribeca Film Fest 2022: Kaepernick and America: Do You Understand Why Yet?

It is 2022 and we are still fighting to root out white supremacy. Ignorance and misinformation still thrives today. An inordinate amount of black people in America are dying on a daily basis from crooked police and no one is doing anything about it. Everywhere white supremacy is gagging to stay relevant in a world that is aching to progress. The French even voted in an extreme right party in their recent elections.

Directed by Tommy Walker and Ross Hockrow, Kaepernick and America is yet another call to action in the fight to root out racism in America and save black lives.

Black Lives Matter

The film starts off with a review of Kaepernick’s rise to football stardom. Adopted into a well to do white family as a baby, he had a love for football from a very young age. The film shows us a picture of a paper Kaep wrote out in fourth grade, stating that he would play for the San Francisco 49ers. Fast forward fourteen years and that is exactly where he landed.

He started out as the backup quarterback, but after standing out in the first game he played, he found himself leading the team and thrust into the spotlight. Everyone wanted a piece of the hot new star who was making waves.

Who could predict the powder keg he would set off with one simple gesture of solidarity?

#BlackLivesMatter

Source: Triple Threat Television

Along with his rise, was the consistent appearance of new police videos surfacing. Starting with seemingly normal traffic stops, they ended up in tragedy for black drivers. From Philando Castille to George Floyd, the news was inundated with the unnecessary, brutal violence from police officers on African Americans.

Kaep was following the violence and began speaking out about it in interviews. One game, a reporter noticed that he didn’t stand for the National Anthem. After further investigation, Kaep stated that he was refusing to stand for a country that flippantly kills black and brown people with no consequences to the police people responsible for them.

Protests began breaking out all over the nation and an even greater movement, #BlackLivesMatter, was born.

It Cannot Be Said Enough, Black Lives Matter

Nate Boyer, a former Green Beret and football player, wrote an open letter to Kaep regarding his refusal to stand for the National Anthem. In it he expressed his feelings of pride for his service and the pain he felt regarding Kaep’s refusal. Kaep reached out to him explaining that he was trying to do it in a respectful manner and asked him for his input on what he thought might be a better gesture.

Source: Nike

Boyer told him that a gesture of respect in sports was usually to take a knee and that he thought that would be more considerate for Kaep to do at the next game, honoring America’s military. Kaep and a couple of other players, agreed to his suggestion and kneeled at the National Anthem.

The move set off a domino effect of white fragility everywhere. Claiming that Kaep had dishonored the military and the flag, whiny white people began setting his jersey on fire, booing him at games and hounding him on social media and everywhere he went.

Ultimately, it led to the destruction of his career, as wealthy, white team owners refused to pick him up to play after this, but, it also propelled him forward as a face of the civil rights movement; an activist who refused to give in to white supremacy.

In All Honesty…

WAKE UP AMERICA! I would love to see the day where these types of documentaries were a thing of the past.

But nonetheless we continue to need them because people are STILL NOT LISTENING. Americans like to do a lot of talking about “freedom” and “the flag” etc., but what they aren’t recognizing is that American “freedom” has never existed for anyone but white men since the beginning of this country’s existence.

Kaepernick and America brings into focus one man’s struggle with the systemic racism that has haunted America since its beginning. White supremacy was woven into every facet of our government and, any and all systems allowed to stand by the white One Percent. It continues to persist today.

As I write this, conservative Republicans are spreading false information to their followers every day causing a schism in this country not seen since the Civil War. White Supremacy is clinging to scarcity, hypocrisy, fear and deceit to remain relevant, and its followers are eating it up. The more rights they strip and the more fictitious fears they spread, the more their base loves them.

Colin Kaepernick’s symbolic kneel was not out of “disrespect” to anything. He knelt, in opposition to a country that turns a blind eye on the unjustifiable deaths of minorities, justly using his Constitutional rights. There’s nothing more American than that.

Source: Justin Pearcy @jpearcy68

Yet the consequences of him not kissing the ring of the oppressor was for him to lose his NFL career. The film exemplifies another example of what happens when any American of color says “No” to the white establishment.

One part I found rather paradoxical is when Boyer passionately mentions the Green Beret’s motto “De Opresso Liber” (“To Free the Oppressed”) as the reason why he joined. Yet, how many of our own oppressed citizens are actually free? The American Armed Forces still has much to do free American black and brown populations from the castigation and outright murder our government and white supremacy inflicts. Not to mention its own systemic racism, and the assault and silencing of women and LGBTQ+ troops in service over the years. Where is that motto in those situations?

The success and wealth of this country has everything to do with our minority populations. They may not have colonized it, but there would certainly be no America without the millions of black, brown and Asian bodies who suffered and died, being forced to build it. It truly is the great white lie; the absurdity of white history that is perpetuated over and over to our kids in school, in a vain effort to indoctrinate more into white patriotism.

Kaepernick and America is one of many documentaries done over the years in the attempt to wake America up to the blinders that have plagued us for centuries. Let us hope that filmmakers won’t have to continue to make many more of them before we FINALLY decide on real, progressive, inclusive change.

Until then, keep educating yourself. Real change truly does start with you.

Sundance 2022: Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power: A Hard Look at How Our Brains are Shaped By Visuals

Happy 2022! Welcome to our first review of the New Year and our coverage of the 2022 Sundance Film Festival. This year boasted a plethora of amazing concepts and films and the first of our featured films begins here!

Thought you knew all the ways that toxic patriarchy seeps into your brain and creates the way you view and think about women? Think again.

Nina Menkes, writer, director, producer brings forth a powerhouse of information from years of film showing how “gendered” film really is and how white, cis men keep their power by creating it.

The Male Gaze

Menkes uses one of her film classes as the backdrop to the documentary. Through her extensive knowledge of film and using copious amounts of film clips throughout the years as examples, Menkes makes the claim that shot design is “gendered”.

She claims that shots surrounding males and females are consistently made differently. Using the concept of “the male gaze”, coined by Laura Mulvey in the 1970’s, and interviewing a diverse number of directors and scholars, Menkes makes a powerful and compelling case that the male gaze has infiltrated almost all aspects of film since its beginning.

She outlines how the patriarchy has created what it is to be a woman, in its image and how damaging this image has become to women, men and people of all genders. She discusses how women are shot in order to be objects instead of subjects, rather, how they are looked “at” by the audience and the men in films.

Tricks of the Trade

Through the use of framing, lighting, camera movement, narrative position Menkes shows us some of the biggest differences in how men are shot versus women. She states that men are usually shot in 3D lighting versus women who are shot in 2D, which makes the woman more of an image rather than a person.

She states that women are shot in fragments a lot, i.e., we see close ups of breasts, buttocks, genitals etc., which objectifies women by their body parts rather than seeing them as a whole person. Male filmmakers tend to use slow-motion body pans more on women, as a subject of sexuality but with men, slo-mo shots are reserved for action sequences.

Source: Glamour

Menkes claims that what is seen as beauty is entirely controlled by who controls the cameras, which, throughout most of history has been mostly white men.

The question is raised, how do women navigate being powerful, yet sexy enough to the male gaze? It is addressed that men use glamour to “seduce” women into powerlessness, yet the only way women can be powerful is by being “beautiful”.

Thinking back to all of my days watching films and I can confirm that just about every single leading lady in the history of mainstream film falls within the parameters of beauty of the white male gaze. Thin, white, hairless, a perfect hairstyle, makeup and the perfect wardrobe. Have you ever seen one film where a woman wakes up with no makeup on?

As it is in mainstream society, a woman’s power in any industry belongs to her attractiveness and by her using her sexuality. How many times have we heard of a woman “sleeping” her way to the top? Casting couches anyone? Or how about Harvey Weinstein, Bill Cosby, R. Kelly and Marilyn Manson’s use of toxic power to sleaze their wishes of power over promising young women in entertainment?

Keeping a woman passive is another technique used, whether a woman is passed out, asleep or even dead. Menkes shows multiple clips of films where men use a woman’s passivity in order to gain power over her or use the “no means yes” approach; when the man overpowers or forces a sexual encounter. Most of the time the woman featured is depicted as “happy” that the encounter happened.

What kind of message is this sending to young men? Where do men get the idea that a woman is something to be acquired rather than an equal? The saying that “those in power write history” is ringing all too true in film as well as regular society. Societal “norms” come from somewhere and it’s generally cis-male and white.

Maria Giese. Source: Sundance Film Festival

The Power Imbalance

94%, yes that’s right, 94% of women in film have experienced sexual harassment or assault.

Maria Geise, film director and longtime women in film advocate stated that, in general, laws are not created to deal with the film industry in order to foster fairness.

She stated that they attempted to sue the film industry for discrimination against women using Title VII, as Hollywood is one of its worst offenders, even over the coal mining industry. Though they made some headway using the power of the EEOC, things still haven’t changed. As of 2021 only 12% of directors of the top 100 films were women, down from 16% last year. Maria has been actively fighting this since the 1990’s.

As it stands today, only 5% of film composers are women; around 16% of cinematographers are women and most film distribution houses are run by men. With statistics like this there’s no way what we are seeing in mainstream film isn’t biased.

In 2010 Kathryn Bigelow became the FIRST female director in all of Oscar history to win a Best Director Oscar. Looking at the rest of the crew though, every other head of department was run by a male. People have criticized her stating that she could’ve hired more women, but, according to producer, writer, director Amy Ziering, a director’s hands are tied on who to hire as producers/heads of departments, as there simply aren’t many women to hire.

Anyone who dares to complain about it simply gets blacklisted and never works again.

The message sent is that white, cis males run everything and use that power to pull everyone else into their lies. According to the film, they believe themselves to be the “ultimate subject” and it is normalized and accepted as truth by mainstream society.

Joey Solloway. Source: Sundance Film Festival

In All Honesty…

Brainwashed is a triumph and an essential “must see” for film buffs and audiences alike.
Menkes brings an enormous amount of information to us using her expertise, that is imperative to know about. Even with my extensive knowledge on film, I have to admit, I wasn’t aware of specific lighting techniques and how certain shots create subjects vs. objects.

The use of power by men over women is nothing new, but when we can see so many of the insidious ways we are programmed by them, it is much harder not to see them again. We become something of a robot without it, programmed to go out into the world and emulate what power wants us to emulate. Cause, hey, if we are busy hating ourselves, we won’t be busy figuring out how to balance that power.

I’m appalled with what I hear coming out of an industry that has the ability and resources to create things of such beauty and magic. It’s the main reason I created this company because film artists should be able to enjoy fair employment without having to degrade themselves or sell their souls to do what they love.

I’m grateful to and celebrate people like Menkes and all of the people in this film, who use film to reach, teach and enlighten. It is one of the most important types of media existing and has the capability to change the world—if only the gatekeepers would get out of the way.

Art needs to be available and accessible to everyone not just those who can afford it or the reigning gender/race. It is crucial in our ever evolving and diverse world that we open ourselves to more voices with integrity and without stereotype. We won’t be able to move forward as a collective without seeing the “whole” of everyone’s experiences.

A power shift is more than necessary to do. Right. Now. Filmmakers, think before you make. Writers, write with great care and respect for the craft and the world. Producers and distributors, use more than profits to justify your choices. Hollywood and the mainstream film industry, open up, change and progress, else bear the burden of your eventual demise.

The fire of change is sweeping the earth, whether you like it or not. Stand in its way at your own peril.

A La Calle: A Worldwide Call to Action and Help in Venezuela

“Si, se puede!” (Yes you can!) is the overwhelming battle cry of the people of Venezuela, fighting to be released from the dictatorial influence of current President, Nicolas Maduro. Under Maduro’s administration, Venezuela went from one of the richest countries in Latin America to one of the poorest.

Directors Maxx Caicedo and Nelson G. Narvarrete takes audiences to the streets of Venezuela in this timely and movement-inciting documentary.

From Inspiration to Autocracy

“In Venezuela, we don’t live, we survive.”

Venezuela’s soaring economy took a massive plummet after Nicolas Maduro took the reigns of the Presidency in 2013, following Hugo Chavez’s death. Chavez, who had been very popular for a time with the people, left a legacy of inspiration to those that followed him.

By 2017, the economy crashed, sending Venezuela into a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. According to the film, Venezuela’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) went down to 67%. In contrast, the GDP during America’s Great Depression declined to 29.8%.

To say that the people of Venezuela are in utter devastation is an understatement. To this day people do not have the money to afford basic necessities like clean water, rice, or milk. They also do not have access to affordable, life saving, medicines, such as insulin. According to the film, the crisis they are faced with has never happened in any other Latin American country in history.

Leopoldo Lopez, once the mayor of Chacao, Caracas, stepped up to become the front line leader in the Maduro Administration’s opposition party. He supported the early protests, led by groups of students, to challenge and replace Maduro. In 2015 the people managed to vote a majority of the opposition party into the National Assembly. Maduro spent the next several years using his power to undermine the National Assembly, even stacking their Supreme Court, in order to rule with an iron fist.

Source: HBO Max

Maduro falsely accused Lopez of “inciting violence” when Lopez’s explicit platform was one of non-violence. Maduro eventually imprisoned Lopez, where he continued to advocate from inside his cell. Lopez’s wife Lilian supported her husband and his efforts in the outside world.

When Lopez was finally freed from his house arrest, he continued his fight against Maduro and helped support the new Oppositional Party President of the Assembly, Juan Guaido. In 2019, with the help of the people and defected military, Guaido declared victory as the “new president” but Maduro refused. This caused another large scale uprising that, unfortunately, did nothing to change the regimes.

In All Honesty…

Caicedo and Navarrete bring us up close and personal with the ongoing struggles, both politically and economically, of the Venezuelan people. A La Calle stands as a towering rallying cry for the oppressed across the globe.

A La Calle allows us to witness, first hand, the effect that brutal totalitarianism takes on a people and democracy. From the trash collector and his family in smaller neighborhoods, all the way to the politicians standing with the people against Maduro, no stone is left unturned.

Amidst the chaos and suffering, there is an inexorable flame of hope from those pushing fiercely forward to protect and defend the country that they love. We get to see how ordinary citizens and university students become extraordinary heroes and how their incessant dedication towards the cause is keeping the people continuing the fight.

Source: HBO Max

In a greater sense, the film also showcases the power of the human spirit in it’s unwavering desire for justice and a balancing of the scales. A spirit that lives within each of us, that keeps us moving forward through the harshest of times and shines like a beacon on the darkest of nights.

It demonstrates the power that humanity has when it works together toward a common cause and against the much too common enemy of greed and destruction.

Despite countrywide protests; elections; uprisings and pleas for help from the International community, Maduro remains in power. The humanitarian crisis has caused millions to flee to Colombia and elsewhere for asylum.

International aid has failed to come into the country due to the Maduro regime closing the borders and enforcing them with military violence.

We have seen a rise in fascist politicism all across the world over the past several years. Wherever there is ignorance; suffering; massive income discrepancies; misinformation; oppression; silencing and an overall lack of basic human rights, despotism waits in the wings to take advantage.

The eyes of the world cannot turn its back from what is happening in Venezuela. We must remain vigilant and stand united to stamp out tyranny in all its forms.

For more information about the crisis in Venezuela, or how you can support the cause visit the film’s website at alacallefilm.com or visit the World Vision organizations website at Venezuela crisis: Facts, FAQs, and how to help | World Vision

A La Calle is currently streaming on HBO Max

The Body Fights Back: Exposing Western Society's Toxic Obsession with Weight

Rory Brown. Source: Gravitas Ventures

***TRIGGER WARNING: TALK OF DISORDERED EATING AND TRAUMA

Western society has a major illness. Driven by misinformation, propped up with biased medical studies and funded by powerful companies set to make the most money off of the results, the diet industry proliferates.

The diet and food industry is steeped in a history of fatphobia; racism; ableism; a capitalist society that makes billions on making sure that you don’t feel good and a medical community willing to go along with the misinformation for profit. It ultimately bolsters and maintains a toxic, oligarchical system based on prejudice and lies.

The Body Fights Back , written and directed by Marian Vosumets, pushes back at the toxic system to reveal the truth that most are unwilling to accept.

The Sacrifice of Real People in Exchange for Money

“Let’s just take care of ourselves turned to something horribly destructive”-Imogen Fox.

The Body Fights Back chronicles the daily lives of several, brave individuals of various ethnicities and sizes and how their lives have been impacted by toxic diet culture and fatphobia. The film focuses on life in the U.K. , though the stories could resonate anywhere in westernized culture where thin and white falsely equates to health and beauty.

Rory is a bodybuilder at his supposed “peak”. His body is the supposed “fit ideal”, but what he has to go through in order to keep it is impossible to sustain in the long term. Not only did he spend most of his time in the gym, he ended up developing an unhealthy obsession with working out and binge eating. His entire life revolved around how he looked and no one knew about the 10-15K calorie per binge, eating disorder he struggled with.

Imogen Fox. Source: Gravitas Ventures

Imogen, who struggled with being overweight due to a disability in her younger years, is now thin but still not healthy. Imogen talks about how awful her life was being overweight and how stigma and fatphobia affected her. Doctors would blame her weight for her health conditions, yet, she still has health issues even though currently thin. Imogen now fights back by speaking out about this biased discrepancy and is now a warrior for body positivity and equality.

Mojo is another body positive warrior deemed “overweight” by society. Mojo struggled growing up with a fatphobic, abusive mother who would tell her things like she had a pretty face, but her body didn’t match. Mojo reveals that she was molested by a family member as a child and her mother blamed her for it. She also was raped at age 13 and was told that was her fault as well.

Mojo has struggled with her weight and weight stigma her entire life, but is now beginning her journey toward self love and acceptance. She is an outspoken advocate for body positivity and is reframing her relationship with food. But the judgements by others steeped in fatphobia still plague her life.

The Diet and Stigma Effect

As the documentary proceeds, we meet a few others who are struggling and we begin to see an insidious pattern emerge. Whatever began the process for each person and whatever behavior they cope with, the main components feeding into all of the eating disorders is stigma, fear and fat hatred.

Western society embraces the toxic masculine and everyone suffers under it. The thin, white, female beauty normative that is worshipped by too many cultures is not only fatphobic but racist, elitist, ableist and driven by money. After all, if we feel there is something wrong with us, capitalism will create a product to “fulfill” the need, even though it never really works. It keeps us buying more.

Mojo. Source: Gravitas Ventures

Diets are a perfect example of that. Diets and all of the products created for them is a multi-billion dollar a year juggernaut, incessantly fueling body shame and stigma no matter what guise of “health” it hides itself under. There is study after study the shows that diets are proven ineffective, at around 98%, but people keep flocking to them and failing, inadvertently, getting fatter because of it.

When the body goes into starvation mode it slows the metabolism and then ends up holds everything it gets. As such, once someone eats normally again, they gain weight. It’s a natural protection mechanism to balance the loss in the body. Why would any competent medical professional recommend something to so many patients with as big of a failure rate as that?

BMI as well has been proven an ineffective tool to use on individuals. It was created to be used on larger populations, and, as we see in the film it is used to further bully and stigmatize people based solely on their weight. Then the medical and insurance community use that to usher in, what I like to call, lazy diagnostics.

Thin people can also get Type 2 Diabetes, have heart attacks, high cholesterol and high blood pressure, among other things blamed on “obesity”. All this type of “science” does is legitimize bullying and cruelty. Then, as they say in the film, it makes weight your “identity”.

And Even More…

The film goes on to discuss how dieting is steeped in patriarchy. It shames women for not “snapping back” after child birth and praises those who work tirelessly to have the body they had before pregnancy. It allows social bullying under the guise of “concern about health”.

As the film states; if government was so concerned about people’s health, why isn’t everything we eat natural and organic? Why does it cost so much to buy real, whole, food rather than the alleged “unhealthy” choices? Even the UK recently proposed a sugar and salt tax blaming “obesity” as a costly side effect financially burdening their National Health System.

Source: The Evening Standard

Do they really think it will work? How many times has a government mandated restriction ever stopped people from wanting and accessing what is outlawed or penalized? Look up Prohibition in the United States as an example.

The only people who will suffer under this particular tax, is the poor. The limited food supply they had financial access to, will be taxed at a higher rate and pesticide-ridden, inorganic, fruit and vegetables will be “prescribed” for them.

Why don’t more people realize that the system is purposely set up like this so that the rich thrive and the poor fail? Medical officials don’t want people healthy, they want us sick so they can get their kickbacks from the pharmaceutical industry when they recommend drugs that we have to keep taking to “stay healthy”.

In All Honesty…

Government and this toxic society wouldn’t know health if it ran over them with a truck. The lust for money and power keeps us all sick in a myriad of ways.

As the film states, we need a fair society that is compassion centered. Where individuals are valued and where mental health is a top priority instead of stigmatized. Though we are seeing a slow movement towards body positivity, big money is fighting it all the way.

The film introduces intuitive eating and the Health At Every Size (HAES) movement. It also features a look at the annual festival put on in London by the “Anti Diet Riot Club”, where all bodies are celebrated and loved for exactly what they are.

Every body is unique, legitimate and worthy of respect. Period.

The Body Fights Back is an effective, all encompassing overview of the adverse, repugnant repercussions caused by the toxic, fat phobic diet and food industry. It is a rallying cry for people to see the real truth and not what is falsely “fed” to us on our television and phone screens.

It is also a call for self love, kindness and highlights the importance of mental health before true physical health can ever happen. Westernized society is sick and there isn’t anything but greed behind it. The body will always fight back in order to obtain its predetermined-by-nature equilibrium.

It’s time we fight for and demand that our society embrace the same.

Legend of The Underground: The Struggle for Nigerians to Be Who and What They Are

“Nobody is free, until everybody is free!”

A truer phrase was never uttered. Legend of the Underground, a new documentary produced and directed by Giselle Bailey and Nneka Onuorah, explores the hidden, “non-conformist” culture alive and not so well in Nigeria. Non-conformists face ridicule, death threats, jail time, physical abuse and being ostracized by their families.

Michael

Michael, who currently lives in NYC, is an self proclaimed advocate for gay men. He speaks of an experience when he traveled to Washington DC a few years ago, to speak at conference about what he does and the services he renders.

Shortly after the conference, The Washington Post released a picture of him at the conference, embracing another man. He thought, at first, that everything would be ok because only American’s would see it. He was wrong.

When he returned to Nigeria, police busted into his apartment, threw out his clothes, burned other items and attacked him, hammering his head with a stick and beating him, while calling him homophobic slurs. Michael then fled for his life back to the United States claiming asylum.

“Non-Conformists” in Nigeria live in fear for their lives every day. Constantly being harassed by police and being accused of homosexuality based solely on how they choose to act, dress or for being “effeminate”. If found guilty in their courts, they face up to fourteen years in prison.

Source: HBO Documentaries

Obialor James “Brown”

James is an actor, singer, dancer/entertainer in Nigeria. Self expression is paramount not only to his life but his to his thriving Instagram account. James is an outspoken advocate for non-conformists in Nigeria. He lives with several other non-conformists in a safe house called “The Royal House of Allure”.

James has been arrested on multiple occasions for the posts he puts up on Instagram of him dancing and acting. In the documentary, we see him returning in and out of court on ambiguous allegations of homosexuality.

James’s popularity has only increased since he started his Instagram page. He coined the hashtag #theydidnotcaughtme in reference to his arrests and the fact that no police caught him engaging in sexual activities with a man.

Nigeria prohibits same sex “amorous relationships”, but the burden of proof is still on the prosecution. Many of these cases get thrown out due to lack of witnesses and verifiable proof. Police arrests, much of the time, are out of assumptions and hearsay.

James’s notoriety also brings a flurry of unwanted attention. He gets barraged with daily death and acid attack threats and people telling him he will “burn in hell” in his Instagram feed.

James’s newsfeeds and popularity catches the attention of Michael in New York, which inspires him to return to Nigeria to meet and collaborate with James.

Source: HBO Documentaries

In All Honesty…

Bailey and Onuorah have managed to pull together a solid, informative documentary.

Non-conformist struggles are worldwide. Fear and ignorance under the guise of “morality” or misinterpretations of religious texts are used everywhere to wreak havoc, war and pain on all kinds of innocent people. This is nothing new. Humanity’s seeming need to “other” people has caused reckless and irreversible damage since the beginning of our time.

The film does an excellent job laying out the specifics of the problem surrounding non-conformers in Nigeria but leaves us feeling lacking in what we can do about it. It also struggles with building a sense of inspiration and inciting a rallying cry amongst supporters.

We meet several fascinating people but really only get to hear about two of their stories in any depth. The most inspiring part peaks at a NYC Pride event in the beginning. From there, the pace gets a bit sluggish and the stories, choppy.

The lack of momentum and spirited emotion left me wanting. These are people who are, potentially, sacrificing everything to fight against wanton hate for the freedom to be who they are. They are beaten, jailed, ostracized and tortured in Nigeria, and, tortured in holding cells in the US when they seek asylum.

Given the consequences surrounding their choice to speak out, I felt they deserved something with more urgency and passion. Still, bringing these stories to an international audience couldn’t have been easy. Legend of the Underground stands strong as a crucial part of the international conversation we need to be having concerning human rights.

It chronicles the struggles of these freedom fighters while showing us the similarities we have with them, as human beings. Our need to feel love and be loved. Our need for expression and acceptance. Our need to open ourselves to differences and life-long learning.

Humans are complex creatures and none of us is like any other. However, what we miss a lot of the time, is that anything that a human can be is, in fact, human. Not everything we do as a species is benevolent or wholly loving. So why should we make it a priority to chastise others for who they love, or from benignly expressing their soul’s creativity and light?

Who is anyone to say what is right for anyone else? We don’t have to agree with or do anything that other people do, but everyone has the right to be what they are as long as it doesn’t harm themselves or anyone else. Why not focus our energies on improving ourselves and becoming the best, most loving being we can possibly be? The world is not bereft of war, violence, hatred, ignorance, or greed, but it is missing out on a whole lot of love and acceptance.

We can start by learning to love ourselves. Sometimes that first step toward loving change is hard, but it is so worth it in the end. Love’s beauty is as endless as all of the extraordinary beauty there is to find in the myriad of beings on this planet. Every time we choose love, we make a step forward in a global energy shift towards peace and good will.

I applaud these “non-conformers” for having the courage to speak out and inspire positive change in their parts of the world. I stand united with them in their struggle to shift the collective consciousness from ignorance and hatred to one of tolerance and love.

For in the end, what else is there, but love?

Sundance 2021: Mass: The Forgiveness and Film We All Need

2020 was a thoroughly exhausting year for most of us. We found ourselves fumbling to live amidst a raging pandemic and, many of us, through the politicians who didn’t do anything to protect us. Not only that, but in the US, the political climate was so divided with reckless disinformation and hate, that it left the country with a wound that has done nothing but fester and incite violence the likes the country hasn’t seen since the Civil War.

The January attack of the American capitol in Washington D.C. gave politicians their first taste of what it felt like when armed gunmen freely entered an arena they were never supposed to. Feelings, I’m sure, that resonated with those who have been victims in school and other mass shootings.

Enter on the stage Mass. Written and directed by Fran Kranz, Mass explores what happens when the parents of a mass shooter and the parents of one of his victims come together for a talk.

Awkwardness, Pain and Shame

The film opens in a rural church. Judy, the church coordinator, played by Breeda Wool, who starred in a very enjoyable short I covered in last years Bentonville Film Festival, is fussing over particulars regarding a gathering that we have no details on.

Jay (Jason Isaacs) and Gail (Martha Plimpton) hesitantly pull up. Reluctant to even get out of the car, they sit in awkwardness awaiting something we have yet to know. The tension escalates when they encounter Richard (Reed Birney) and Linda (Ann Dowd) in the meeting room.

Source: Sundance Film Festival

Brilliantly portrayed awkwardness ensues as the couples flounder through niceties and small talk, covering up the searing pain like a paltry potpourri sprinkled on a rotting corpse. The quiet moments betwixt are deafening and the discomposure sets in an incredible sense of irritation that makes the watcher want to crawl out of their skin, in order to call out the elephant in the room.

As the conversations continue and we are fed information piece by piece, we become aware of just how deeply serious and horrific the underlying story is. It may make some want to bail. Yet we are set up so gently; so purposefully, we find ourselves too invested to walk away.

“He Was Quiet and He Was Doing Well”

It is revealed that Richard and Linda’s son, Hayden, killed Jay and Gail’s son, Evan, in a mass school shooting. Emotions race with the ups and downs of a never-ending rollercoaster. Who do we blame, what is responsible? The conversations veer through a gamut of topics ranging from the failures of the mental health system, video games, isolation, parenting, the school, biology and bullying.

Humans, in general. try to find something or someone to blame when something tragic happens. It’s in our nature to want to know why. However, the details usually elude us and we are left only with assumption and ignorance. We rarely ever get to hear both sides of a story and sometimes an action is too terrifying to want to.

Kranz does an impeccable job with this quagmire, touching upon every question, disagreement and complication one could think of, with intelligence and meticulous craft. Every argument one side comes up with is countered with an equally compelling argument from the other side. His brilliant script gives the actors every precious word that they need to immerse themselves in the characters and render authentic, performance perfection.

Each of the four leads are powerhouse actors in their own right but I was astounded by their ability to hit every nuance of the character’s grief. Nothing is held back. They navigate the roller coaster ride with a capability that has eluded them all until this film and that is, obviously, saying a LOT.

Source: Sundance Film Festival

I am a huge fan of Isaacs and have been ever since I saw him in The Patriot. I grew up watching Plimpton in so many 80’s films and Dowd is my personal success story heroine. Birney is so versatile that I didn’t even recognize that he was in another Sundance film on my roster, The Strawberry Mansion. Each of them bring all of their years of experience and lovingly pour it into each character manifesting their best works to date.

Using all of the these elements, Kranz embroiders an exceptional and painstakingly intricate symposium on the effects of gun violence, grief, authenticity, blame and suffering, mixed with the beauty of whole hearted and sometimes agonizing forgiveness.

In All Honesty…

I never saw this one coming. Mass was my absolute favorite feature of the films I saw at Sundance 2021. I was speechless at the lack of accolades it received in Sundance’s awards.

I spoke with one of the producers who was at the festival and he told me that they managed to film this in a matter of two incredible weeks. Truly astounding. It shows you the level of talent, dedication and preparation involved in both the cast and crew.

Mass reminded me of one of the gorgeous, sleeper indies that manifested itself into the Oscar’s, in the days when films weren’t just one recycling after another. A time when originality and craft were chosen over flash and noise. A time when character mattered and the heroes looked like you and me. A time when what a film had to say was more important than how rich it could make someone.

Mass takes an incredibly controversial and violent subject and breaks it down to essential humanity proving the overwhelming power of forgiveness. It gives us hope that even through the most unspeakable horror, that we can still heal and that it is possible to see those that we want to demonize with compassion.

Source: Sundance Film Festival

In the Q&A, Dowd broke down a bit when discussing her character and relayed how she “held the grief” of a parent that lost a child throughout her time filming. As Linda, she gave the most realistic depiction of that loss that I’ve seen in a very long time.

Isaacs talked about how he found himself filled with hatred, at times, for all of the disgusting things that were happening in the world, from our toxic politics to the people suffering under it. He stated that this film helped him to see the humanity in others and the importance of forgiveness.

And we need forgiveness and compassion more than anything right now. The United States has had 31 mass shootings in January of this year alone. The worldly pandemic has kept us all more isolated than ever. Real human interaction and connection eludes us, as we all rely on electronics to work and communicate safely.

We need more compassionate films as well. Kranz’s feature debut is outstanding. Full of heart, honesty and naked vulnerability, you could tell that he was just as invested in this project as the awe-inspiring actors. The question is, upon the well deserved success of this film, will Kranz be able to continue to put out that level of passion and heart in the rest of his works? I hope he does because I’m rooting for him. At this profit obsessed junction in film history, I’d be thrilled if even half the films that were distributed had the same level of care and attention to detail that Mass has.

Art is meant to inspire; make us think; bring us together; show us different perspectives and teach us things we couldn’t learn any other way. As artists I believe we have a responsibility to use our platforms for as much good as we can, especially when we get the privilege of a green light on our work. Art doesn’t have to be as “deep” as Mass, but there are all kinds of ways we can inspire and put our best forward in all of the choices we make.

Bravo Fran. You’ve set your bar high and proven that you can meet it. I look forward to seeing what you choose to do with your spotlight.

Landfall: An Atypical Documentary on the Aftermath of Hurricane Maria

Filmmaker Cecilia Aldarando creates a film using a collection of vignettes of everyday life in Puerto Rico, post Hurricane Maria. Unlike most documentaries, Aldarando trades discourse for visuals. Though it paints a picture of several towns across the country and their post-Maria state, I’m just not convinced that “mostly visuals” communicates the story the filmmaker intended.

“They’ll Never See Us As Equals”

Despite being US citizens since 1917, Puerto Ricans still do not enjoy the same rights as US citizens.

Hurricane Maria, considered the worst natural disaster to hit Puerto Rico, St. Croix and Dominica in the past century, roared into Puerto Rico in September 2017. Puerto Rico was already $74 million in debt before this Category 5 storm hit.

The Obama administration attempted to address the debt installing a taskforce known as “La Junta” in 2016. The taskforce looked for ways to cut hundreds of millions of Puerto Rico’s debt, yet the budgeting ended up hitting Maria’s victims the hardest. They were left with no roads, bridges or helicopters to reach isolated people.

As has been widely broadcast in the past, the Trump administration did practically nothing for the widespread devastation and Trump himself was quoted to say that Hurricane Katrina was a “real disaster” in comparison. He was seen throwing rolls of paper towels, in Trumpian “let them eat cake” style, to desperate residents who had no electricity or clean water.

Trump was also reported to have stated that he wanted to exchange Greenland for Puerto Rico because Puerto Rico “was dirty and the people were poor”. And of course we can’t forget Trump’s numerous tweets scapegoating both Puerto Rico and the Democrats for Maria’s devastation and for making him look bad. Roughly 3000 people died due to the lack of the federal and local government’s response, yet he did nothing but deny it.

Source : Mandel Ngan-Getty Images

It wasn’t until January 2020, after terrible earthquakes and aftershocks created more devastation, that Trump declared Puerto Rico a disaster and approved the release of funds to aid them.

Couple that with widespread corruption throughout the Puerto Rican government and you’ve got the making of a revolution.

Aftermath

The film strays from the usual informational approach, supposedly to create a more intimate portrait of the people across the country. We see several different kinds of people from old to young, rural to urban, living in the altered landscape.

Elisa, one of the featured citizens, managed to rally her community to take over a local abandoned school for those in her town who were stranded and left homeless. The group cleaned up the school and used the kitchen and it’s classrooms as a “community living experiment” to house and feed those affected.

As can be expected, not all of the recovery efforts were benign. The film shifts our focus to the greed vultures that descended upon the ruins to take advantage of the devastated. Cryptocurrency millionaires, taking full advantage of the lack of taxes on new businesses there, swooped in to attempt to build brand new neighborhoods and make the locals believe they were there to help them.

Source: Blackscrackle Films

The Puerto Rican government was all too keen to cash in and allow these predators in. Widespread riots by the people ensued and after only 12 days, they managed to oust then Governor, Ricardo Rossello.

The fight didn’t end there though. The current governor Wanda Vazquez, who publicly endorsed Trump’s re-election, is also being set to task over corruption and withholding needed supplies, left to rot in a warehouse, meant for victims of the numerous natural disasters there.

In All Honesty…

I have very mixed feelings about this film.

Aldarando set out to create “poetic sensibility to documentary film”. Using moving images of a handful of different lives, Landmark “examines a ruined world at the brink of transformation, spinning a cautionary tale for our times.”

Aldarando definitely created a unique documentary, one vastly far from my expectations. This is unlike any documentary I’ve seen, but that isn’t always a good thing. A lot of what was filmed seemed irrelevant, making the pacing slow and leaving me confused about the actual point she was trying to get across.

I was hoping to be informed more. I was excited to learn, from the eyes of the people who live there, how the US’s lack of action and the corruption of their own government affected the people. Instead, I was left to make a lot of my own assumptions based on a lot of inconsistent, baffling imagery.

Source: Blackscrackle Films

If it weren’t for the press notes that I had available to me, I would not have understood much of what Aldarando was going for. There were a lot of extraneous, unnecessary scenes that didn’t seem to fit. Perhaps there was meaning for her, but it didn’t quite translate on screen, which makes me wonder if it will translate to her audiences.

Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a bad film and definitely has a place in history as one to watch and learn from. I guess I was just hoping for more straightforward knowledge from the people’s themselves. I wanted to hear about their struggles in a clearly defined, personal, well-planned tale.

I do believe Aldarando accomplished what she set out to create. Just know that, as a viewer, you will not get from Landfall what you get from most documentaries. It’s not traditionally set up but it definitely communicates. It’s energy radiates the tensions extending from the hearts of a thoroughly mistreated people who defy the victim label handed to them by colonialism, racism and greed.

Overall though, it’s a portrait of resilience, pride and survival. It is a rallying cry against corruption and greed. It is a testament of the human spirit that, eventually, will overcome the darkness that holds us down on a daily basis. One of the quotes featured in the film says it all:

“It was (became) the hurricane we had trapped in our chests”.

#Unfit: A Summary of Four Years of News with a Warning

“Donald Trump is like a practical joke that got out of hand”-George Conway

Let’s face it, the past four years have been some of the most tumultuous years America has seen. I don’t think there has been a president in history that has been so protested. It seems that everything the Trump Administration does is to destroy any and all progress we have attained with other administrations.

#Unfit serves as an all encompassing run down of Trump’s most shameful antics, that are only news to those who haven’t been watching all along.

The Psychology

Using experts in psychology and those who have worked with/known Trump, the film presents a strong case for what is known as “Malignant Narcissism”. According to the DSM-5, the default book that diagnoses mental disorders, Malignant Narcissism needs four components for this diagnosis. 1: Paranoia, 2: Sadism, 3: Anti-Personality Disorder and 4: Narcissism.

Using Trump’s own Tweets; clips from his interviews and press conferences; and his own actions/policies, they propose that Trump is, in fact, a Malignant Narcissist.

Critics of the psychologists who have come forward in the past, claiming that Trump is psychologically unfit to serve, state that these mental health professionals have no way of “diagnosing” Trump when he isn’t their client.

However, Trump’s consistent, tireless assaults on our people and our democracy seem to speak for themselves.

The Tarasoff Rule

Source: Bronson Park Films

The film takes us back in time for a bit to 1964 when Barry Goldwater was running for President. It talks about a stunt by psychologists to ruin Goldwater’s chances of winning by falsely accusing him of being psychologically unfit. Goldwater sued for libel and won, as they had no evidence to back up their claims.

Most of the time a psychologist/client relationship is protected under privacy laws. However, the Tarasoff Rule of 1974, “imposes a duty on a therapist to warn appropriate persons when a patient may present a risk of harm to a specific person or persons”. For example, if a client tells a therapist that they are going to kill themselves or another person, it becomes law for the therapist to report it to authorities.

The psychologists in the film contend that this rule applies to Trump and his actions and why they felt compelled to come forward because of it. They state that the evidence far exceeds claims from the Goldwater case, as Trump’s actions alone prove their claims.

Do we know if this is all true for sure? Of course not, and my guess is that we never will.

In All Honesty…

But that doesn’t mean it isn’t true either.

Trump, on so many occasions, has spent his time in our White House doing some of the most self serving and despicable acts any acting President ever has. He has proven himself to be unstable, unreliable, intolerant, revenge-driven, childish and downright disgusting.

He clearly has no boundaries and has no respect for the law or of anyone else but himself. He lacks a basic empathy that mimics demagogues of the past and of today. He has also sided with current demagogues, emulating their behavior and desiring their power. Anyone can see that.

Source: Bronson Park Films

But Trump supporters, according to the film, are supporting him because they are “angry”. Angry about being “left out”. They may have a right to be angry about certain things and may have some valid points regarding some of their anger. But if it’s just about “I’m not being celebrated anymore because I’m white”, that holds very little regard in our changing global society.

As human beings and as beings with souls we have the duty to learn and grow our entire lifetime. We have the duty to adjust with change and continue to educate ourselves on anything deemed “different” in the world because anything that a human can be is still human-good or bad. The bottom line is, one race does not inherently deserve all the glory, nor does one gender.

We have a duty to reject stereotypes and the toxic beliefs people we grew up with may have erroneously laid on us. We have the duty to help and serve each other, because NONE of us can do this alone. It’s okay to be angry about the way things are changing, but it is never ok to chastise or harm others because of it.

Trump reflects our dark sides like a glaring mirror and most of us don’t like to look at it. However, it is 100% up to us to deal with it. Do we continue to turn a blind eye believing “that doesn’t affect me”? Do we continue to let party politics divide us further and lead our country down a path that we won’t be able to fix for decades to come? A path that will have dire consequences on our lives and the lives of others?

Do we continue to buy into the vitriol and spite and allow the dark to consume us as a whole? No. The entire world survives on balance and we are not separate from that. Though we are FAR from balanced as a species, that doesn’t mean that life isn’t trying to get us there at all times.

Which is why we fight. It’s why we care. It’s why we help others. It’s why we share. Deep down we all know the answer, it’s just a matter of navigating our journeys to come back to our truths. That takes an inordinate amount of work that, again, we cannot do on our own. Being decent, kind and honest isn’t dumb, it’s right.

Source: Bronson Park Films

#Unfit is an important documentary for those who haven’t been watching the news these past four years. It makes some fascinating points. But at the end of the day, does it matter what Trump is diagnosed with?

It is to the point where our very existence is being threatened by extremists and their minions are willing to lay down like cowards to allow it to happen. Greed, power-the earthly kind, and chaos reigns in our world. We allow 1% of the population to covet and exploit the riches of our planet and dehumanize the masses, all for “things” that mean nothing in the end.

We cannot and must not, as a whole, allow someone like this a second chance. He has shown us over and over again who he is and what little regard he has for anyone else, but that still isn’t swaying those who wish to stay lost and buried under the muck.

#Unfit represents a wake up call to those of us who know better, to do better. We have the power, as a collective, to demand the “elites” out of everything. Rules can always be changed. Things that we value can also be changed. The question remains, though, will we ever actually DO something about it?

We MUST listen when anyone shows us who they are, because they are unlikely to change. Especially when they’ve been living that way for 74 years. Those who don’t are doomed to suffer the same consequences over and over again, ad nauseum.

We all need to open our hearts and be more compassionate. We need to listen more and talk less. We need to empathize with the suffering and find ways to ease pain. We need to reject the material gods that the 1% peddles as “happiness” and focus on healing and loving. All that has existed in the name of greed must be dismantled and driven out, starting with the “leaders” who value it.

We can do better, we just need the self esteem and clarity to recognize that we deserve it. Let’s do this together.

Bentonville Film Festival 2020: Coming Clean-The Greed and Racism Driving the Opioid Epidemic

Coming Clean is an eye-opening, disturbing documentary written and directed by Ondi Timoner. Through the history of other drug epidemics and the personal stories of those affected today, it explores the devastating opioid crisis in America and it’s calamitous impact on it’s people and economy.

History of Opium

The film indicates that there were four historical Opioid epidemics in history. The first started in the 1830’s China, pushed by British trade in China. A search of the internet brings up many articles regarding the East India Company and its pursuit of control in India.

The East India Company (EIC), built as part of colonization efforts by the British Empire, controlled most of India by the 1750’s. The war in India and British demand for Chinese tea, paid in silver, had put England into considerable debt. To supplement their income, they used the large Bengali source of opium to trade with China in lieu of paying taxes.

Though Chinese law prohibited opium trade, the EIC found ways to overwhelm the southern Chinese coast with opium, supplying and addicting millions. With the increased demand, it all but wiped out China’s silver supply.

The second came in the 1870’s with the dawn of morphine. According to History.com, German scientist Freidrich Surturner “first isolated morphine from opium in 1803”. The film states that when morphine was derived, it was considered better for you than opium because it was a purer product. However, it was 10x stronger than opium and was widely used in America for pain relief during the Civil War.

Then, in looking for a less addictive form of morphine, heroine was created in the 1870’s. Because it was synthetic it was thought to be non-addictive, yet the third epidemic started in the 1900’s.

By the 1980’s, a surge of the use of Oxycontin began, fueled by lies and greed from its creator, Perdue Pharmaceuticals. According to this article from The Atlantic, one letter published in 1980 in the New England Journal of Medicine fueled the current opioid epidemic.

Source: The Atlantic

This letter, also cited in the film, states that the writers found “there were only four cases of reasonably well documented addiction in patients who had no history of addiction.” And further, that “We conclude that despite widespread use of narcotic drugs in hospitals, the development of addiction is rare in medical patients with no history of addiction.”

Perdue Pharma ran with this, citing the letter in it’s claims that opioids were not found to be addictive. They told the public Oxycontin use was “safe”, disregarding the study’s actual findings.

How The Opioid Crisis was considered a Crisis

Illegal opiates ran rampant in poor neighborhoods of color in many forms, from heroin to crack cocaine. Though these crises existed well before the US called it a crisis, it wasn’t until prescribed painkillers, which led to heroin use, infiltrated upper class, white suburbia, that it was found to be a “problem”.

When it started killing an inordinate amount of white teenagers in affluent neighborhoods, then the government started looking into the problem. The film attributes higher use of pain pills in teens to a generation living with higher levels of anxiety and depression.

Though social media can bridge a lot of gaps, studies are finding that the lack of physical interaction as a major source of depression. Humans in general are “pack animals” and we need one another to survive. Social media is pervaded by images of the rich and beautiful, who’s lifestyles are actually rare and impossible for most to attain. This too contributes to depression.

Couple that lack with childhood trauma and you’ve got a perfect mixture for addiction. According to the film, if you have only one of six types of childhood trauma, i.e. abandonment, you are 3100% more likely to be an addict over your lifetime.

Now, add in a completely profit driven, broken mental health system and what results do you think will happen? There is a massive lack of mental health services and a bigger lack of sympathy for addicts. Many believe it is a choice, a belief that couldn’t be more wrong.

The Biology of Opioid Addiction

Source: Interloper Films

According to the film, opioid addiction starts in the body. Opioids disconnect the pre-frontal cortex, the part of the brain used in judgement and analysis, favoring the midbrain, where our basic impulses, like hunger, sex and thirst are controlled.

Like food and sex, opioids send in a rush of endorphins which, naturally in the body, are our “pleasure” hormones. Hormones produced in the brain, like dopamine and serotonin, are crucial for a sense of well being in the body.

Opioids, however, are synthetic, sending an unnatural rush into the body. With continued use, your body quits making natural endorphins because it no longer thinks it needs to. When this happens, your body becomes “addicted” to the opiate because it is now the primary source for these hormones. As such, withdraw can be excruciating and many addicts continue use not for the “high”, but to avoid feeling sick.

According to the film, in Colorado alone, there are currently more deaths per year from opioids than from guns, homicides and auto accidents combined. In 1999, America’s “drug of choice” was alcohol. By 2019, it was all about prescription drugs.

In All Honesty…

Source: Shutterstock

There is FAR more information to be learned in this film. What I’ve written are just some of the important highlights within it. It is crucial to see this film and inform yourself about the horrific greed/racism behind the profits made from people’s pain.

According to the film, Switzerland hasn’t had a heroin related death in fifteen years since they made it legal, in a controlled setting. They’ve been able to use an all encompassing process that includes mental health and housing in order to gradually reduce the amount of pain these people feel in general. Why can’t/won’t the US do this? The almighty dollar.

In fact, in 2018, a subsidiary of Perdue Pharma was able to get the patent on a new drug that could help with opioid addiction. Yep, the same company that got millions sick is now set to profit from it’s “cure”. How disgusting is that? America has a “for profit” healthcare industry that makes more money on people staying sick than getting better.

Now that COVID has hit everywhere, mental health in general has declined, because we are having to isolate even more than ever. This, in turn, is driving higher addiction rates. There is simply not enough help to serve the need.

Common street nicknames for Fentanyl in the US

The newest drug Fentanyl, is 100’s of times stronger than morphine, yet it is being laced in most street drugs. Fentanyl is also much cheaper overall to make and pharmaceutical companies/dealers stand to make huge profits from it.

Where, I ask you, will this end? When will life be more precious to humanity than the almighty dollar? The answer alludes me, but I can’t help but think how much better humanity in general would be without money ruling it. The reality though is that nothing is ever going to change without overwhelming demand for it.

The ruling class is poisoning humanity and the planet with greed. As long as they can keep us fighting one another, the focus will stay off of them and will keep us busy with things that don’t really matter. It will keep most of us sick, uninformed and poor. This is the only way they can keep things going the way they are.

In the meantime the lack of awareness and sympathy for others pain will keep driving addiction. When humans can’t get what they naturally need, i.e. support, community, living essentials and love they will always find substitutes to get it.

Healing from pain is a long, tough road. We need more love, compassion and togetherness to overcome the paralyzing power and corruption of money. Like opiates, it too is a poisonous addiction that won’t bring true happiness or fulfillment.

It’s clear from history that greed is responsible for mass destruction of all kinds. Ultimately the choice is ours as a collective. What remains to be seen is if a better way of life for everyone is important enough to step out of our comfort zones and actively push as long as it takes for change to happen.

I’m in. How about you?

A Girl From Mogadishu: An Incredible Journey of Survival

**TRIGGER WARNING: Contains references to Rape and Female Genital Mutilation**

A Girl from Mogadishu, written and directed by Mary McGuckian, is the story of the astonishing survival and odyssey of Ifrah Ahmed, portrayed by the talented Aja Naomi King. It is the story of a victim of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) and a young survivor of the Somalian Civil war, who turns into a powerful, international voice and advocate against FGM. It is an illustration of the power of toxic masculinity over women’s bodies and one of the voices of defiance against it.

A Warrior in the Making

The film begins during the 2006 Battle of Mogadishu, where it follows Ifrah as she is fleeing her village and also eluding the arranged marriage she refuses to be in. The bombing separates her from her father and brothers, and while she waits for them to return, she is gang-raped by three soldiers.

She manages to make it back to her Grandmother’s (Maryam Mursal), where she is restored to health. Her uncle (Hussein Abdi) gives her a phone number to a person that will get her out of Mogadishu and to her aunt who lives in the States. He tells Ifrah that her grandmother can no longer afford to keep her and that her husband-to-be won’t want her anymore because she has been raped. Though she is afraid to leave her home and family, Ifrah agrees.

Unbeknownst to her, the men that help many of the refugee women get to “safety” are actually responsible for trafficking them into a life of slavery. The driver of the bus tells her not to go with the men upon arrival of their destination and instead stay with him, as his wife is also from Mogadishu. She stays with the bus driver and his family until her Aunt sends Hassan (Barkhad Abdi) to help her get out of Africa and on a plane to the States.

With a fake passport and Hassan’s help, Ifrah makes it to Dublin, Ireland. There, Hassan tells her that she will not be able to go to the States as her Aunt is living there undocumented, so it will be safer for her to stay in Ireland claiming political asylum.

Ifrah, who has nothing and knows no one in Dublin, relies upon a local refugee organization for assistance. They give her shelter, food and clothing and help her with the legal process of claiming asylum there. Part of that process involves a full medical exam, including a gynecological pap smear. The doctor is horrified to see that Ifrah has been fully “circumcised” and from there, Ifrah learns that what she thought was a “normal” cultural, tradition is actually an unnecessary, traumatizing procedure with a long list of medical consequences.

A Terrifying Procedure

Source: The Politics Forum.com

According to the Office on Women’s Health, Female Genital Mutiliation/Cutting “means piercing, cutting, removing, or sewing closed all or part of a girl's or woman's external genitals for no medical reason.” There are generally three types, as seen in the image above, and Ifrah survived Type 3, which is considered the worst kind.

FGM is considered illegal in the US and in many other countries today, however, it is still being done. The Office on Women’s Health estimates that more than 513,000 women have been affected by FGM in the United States, and a whopping 100-140 million girls have been affected worldwide. Most of these procedures are done in non-sterilized areas like a floor. table or the ground. The cutting is often done by unsterilized glass shards, knives or razors.

The procedure is generally done when girls are very young, without any pain medication, under the guise of “a right of passage”, “hygiene” and to ensure a girl “stays a virgin” for her future husband. FGM is a significantly harmful procedure that inflicts long lasting psychological and physical consequences that can include death.

According to the film, 98% of women in Somalia-where Ifrah is from-have been cut. Ifrah was instrumental in bringing about the official laws passed in Ireland against FGM in 2012. Yet even today the practice is happening there. On November 28 of this year two parents in Ireland were found guilty of performing FGM in 2016 on their daughter, who was under two.

Regardless of where it is happening, it is crucial that information about this process be taught and spread in order to fight the ignorance surrounding FGM. Films such as this one, are an integral part of educating the public and international community about the atrocities these women face.

From Frightened Girl to Fierce Advocate

Ifrah Ahmed. Source: Irish Global Health Network

In 2010 Ifrah Ahmed launched her official organization the Ifrah Foundation. Their vision is the eradication of FGM and cutting in Somalia and worldwide. Their goals consist of “three pillars” of action, including advocacy, awareness raising and community empowerment.
According to the website Ifrah “is one of the world's top international FGM/C eradication advocates and activists. Ifrah has received multiple awards for her work and she campaigns relentlessly for legislation to ban FGM/C around the world. Ifrah is the Gender Adviser to the Government in Somalia.”

According to the film all of this activism came with its own consequences for Ifrah. She has received multiple death threats on social media and was disowned by some of her family members. She was able to return to Somalia and make peace with her grandmother, who was the one that sent her to be cut in the first place.

Her determination to end FGM globally is nothing short of inspiring and her ability to garner the ears of audiences is a triumph.

In All Honesty…

Overall the film is eye-opening and inspirational. McGuckian creates a comprehensive story of Ifrah Ahmed’s struggle, coupled with a strong, dynamic performance by King.

The film does suffer a bit with awkward timing and pace. Though we see a lot of action right at the beginning entrenched in the war, and Ifrah is a strong character to write about, her journey is laid out rather plainly. It is a relatively slow process filled with too much mundanity. I wanted to see more of Ifrah’s internal struggles rather than all of the legal processes that she had to go through.

The film is also filled with a lot of unnecessary voice-over, that could’ve been translated into action or been expressed during interaction with fellow characters. We also don’t get a clear impression of, nor the significance of, many of the supporting cast on her journey. For example, Hassan, who is played by the Oscar nominated Abdi, seemed to come out of nowhere. Why does Ifrah’s Aunt call upon him? Who is he? Why should Ifrah trust him? The way his character is portrayed leaves us thinking that there is a lot more going on than meets the eye, but it is never fleshed out.

Source: Pembridge Pictures

There are many inferred dangers on her escape from Somalia to Ireland, but nothing transpires from any of those either. For example, she had to travel out of Somalia and into Ethiopia to get to her plane, yet why was it still a danger once she got out of Somalia? Were women not allowed to leave Ethiopia at this point? There isn’t a clearly known reason behind the tension portrayed on her trip to Ireland, and the audiences are left to surmise all of the possible pitfalls. Perhaps if we knew what potential pitfalls she faced, it would have been easier to get lost in the story.

Regardless of the few mechanical hiccups, McGuckian and crew are still able to deliver a harrowing and thought-provoking story. The film is a good springboard to learning more about this courageous hero working to make a positive change to a brutal practice steeped in toxic masculinity. It sheds a light on a topic that isn’t spoken about enough. It opens a door to educating and reaching an audience that may not hear about it otherwise.

Aja Naomi King delivers an unforgettable, poignant performance as Ifrah and cinematographer Michael Lavelle paints a stunning portrait of the imagery of Earth’s natural beauty, coupled with the harshness of the lives humans lead within it.

Though the topic of this film is unbearably difficult, McGucklan finesses a delicate balance with just enough detail to convey FGM’s heinousness without scaring off the audience. It is a triumphant story celebrating the strength of women crushed beneath the toxic masculine. It is also a story of the human spirit and a remarkable hero who never set out to be one.

It stands as a testament that through surviving crippling adversity, there truly is great strength and inner power to be gained that nothing can ever take away.

A Girl From Mogadishu has been released in Ireland and the UK and will be released in the US in February 2020. Get updates from their website here.

Hava, Maryam, Ayesha: A Beautiful, Resonate Representation of Life As An Afghan Woman.

“Bear it,” Maryam’s friend says to her after Maryam finds out she’s pregnant by a husband who’s cheated on her with numerous women for the entire seven years of their marriage.

This is a quote that will probably resonate for women across the globe. After all, due to toxic masculinity, what do women not bear? Our thoughts, jobs, bodies, beliefs, even our very lives are dominated and controlled by the patriarchy. There is no woman that isn’t affected.

Hava, Maryam, Ayesha is director Sahraa Karimi’s first feature, and it is heralded as the “first independent Afghan film entirely shot in Kabul, with the director, actors and actresses living in Afghanistan. It raises the voices of the struggles many Afghan women face due to the patriarchy.

Hava

Source: Noori Pictures

We start with a look at a family steeped in old tradition. Hava (Arezoo Ariapoor) is a young wife and soon to be mother, who bears the responsibility of the entire household. She lives with her ungrateful husband and her aging in-laws, one of which is practically catatonic.

She attempts to navigate her daily chores; take full care of her ailing mother-in-law; appeasing the demands of her impatient father-in-law and cooking constant, last minute dinners for her thankless husband and his friends; all while dealing with the pain of being 8-9 months pregnant. Her only joy and strength is the feel of her child moving inside her.

While washing the dishes, outside in the cold, after her husband’s party she took no part in, she slips and falls on her belly. Her husband, who doesn’t even help her up, tells her that she has “disgraced” him in front of his guests. When she can no longer feel her baby move, she begs her husband to take her to the clinic. He refuses and leaves her there to go out with his friends.

Will her baby survive?

Maryam

Source: Noori Pictures

The next story focuses on the well educated, feminist, Maryam.

Maryam (Feresta Afshar) takes orders from no one. She is an independent, outspoken news journalist wanting to be taken seriously at her job as an anchor.

On her way home, and, throughout the rest of her story, she is inundated by calls from her husband Farid. Maryam has broken up with him because, for the majority of the marriage, he has cheated on her with multiple women. He blames the fact that they haven’t been able to conceive as his reason for his infidelities, but he is unaware that Maryam just found out she is pregnant.

Maryam tells her friend about her pregnancy, hoping to get comfort and advice from her, but instead her friend encourages her to go back with Farid, thinking the child will change him and bring their relationship closer. She blames Maryam’s stubbornness on her reading and education.

Maryam, sensibly, retorts that a baby will only make things worse and it will make her a prisoner. She knows that nothing is going to change her broken husband or relationship for the better, but in a place where abortion is illegal, what will she do?

Maryam’s story sets up a fitting segue into the final story.

Ayesha

Source: Noori Pictures

Ayesha (Hasiba Ebrahimi) is a teen from a middle class family. Her father died years back, so it’s been up to Ayesha’s mother to take care of her and her multiple siblings. It is her mother’s wish to marry Ayesha off to a well off family so they no longer have to support her.

At first, Ayesha refuses the offer from her cousin to marry because she believes that marriage should be for love and not arranged, as is the usual tradition. But when the boy she loves finds out she’s pregnant, he abandons and wants nothing to do with her. She and her friend then scramble to get the money for an illegal abortion and, for the sake of protection, she accepts her cousin’s proposal for marriage.

Will she come through this without arousing any suspicion within her family or community?

In all honesty…

Go see and support this film in any capacity that you can.

The patriarchy and all that women have to endure is nothing new. I think a lot of women can relate to many of these situations, but the film’s importance on the world stage is painstakingly crucial.

In 2011 Afghanistan was rated as one of the worst places in the world to be a woman. The war with the United States there has been going on for over 18 years, and the Taliban still continues to launch lethal attacks in pursuit of more territory. Afghan women have only recently been able to acquire a few of the essential day to day rights that men have enjoyed there for decades.

In 2019, director/writer Sahraa Karimi managed to become the first, female, general director of Afghan Film-the state run film company and archive in Afghanistan-since it’s opening in 1968. She is also the only woman living in Afghanistan with a Ph.D in Cinema. That, in and of itself, is simply astounding. Notes from the film’s website state that Karimi promised herself “to be the storyteller of my fellow countrywomen who seek to change their lives in a traditional society.” And she is doing just that.

Sahraa Karimi

In 2009, her documentary Afghan Women Behind the Wheel went on to win over 20 awards at major film festivals across the globe. Hava Maryam Ayesha, illustrates the way that 3 different women live today in Afghanistan, giving the world an up close look at something that has been hidden from us for far too long. Karimi stated that her goal for this film is “to narrate the lives of the women who haven’t had a voice for many years, that are now ready to change their fate”. Amazing.

Cinematographer Behroz Badroj helps Karimi create alluring moving imagery to go along with the narrative. It helps the viewer to become part of the intimate stories Karimi weaves, bringing us closer to each character and instilling a sisterhood and camaraderie that extends far beyond country borders. The more we see and learn how similar we are, regardless of race, religion or residence, the more human “others” become, and, goodness knows, the world needs more of that sort of understanding and compassion.

Ariapoor, Afshar and Ebrahimi bring integrity and veracity to the titular roles, giving us a glimpse of the characters, less through what they say and more through what they do. We get to experience their anger, sorrow, and frustration, along with their strength, courage and determination to defy the paralyzing patriarchy and live independently, without fear, in a world that does not belong to women.

Of course, women’s equality will take time and consistent advocacy across the world, but what better way to reach people than through film? As I’ve said countless times before , film can be a powerful medium to do good, surging across the world with the ability to take us anywhere. In the right hands, film teaches and connects us in ways we normally couldn’t. It allows us to see people and places we never would have otherwise and that can be life changing.

I am very proud to have been able to feature this film on our site as we continue building towards our goals that will give a voice to all the talented change makers of our world, such as Sahraa Karimi. I hope you will join the film revolution by supporting us and the gifted artists that we will continue to represent here.

Until next time! #TheRevolution