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

Asian Americans: The Omitted History of How Asian Americans Helped Shape America

Welcome to May and Asian Pacific Heritage Month!

Asian Americans is a stunning, five part series, narrated by Daniel Dae Kim and Tamlyn Tomita, that chronicles the lives and contributions of select Asian Americans who dared to make a difference. No different than any other Americans, most of them were inspired towards making better lives in the country that they loved and help build.

From the immigrants who came to America seeking freedom from tyranny and war to the generations who grew up here facing vicious racism and violence, one thing that’s certain, America as we know it would not exist without their contributions.

“Breaking Ground”-1850’s-1920’s

The first episode recounts the early surge of Asians immigrating to America. Many from China were lured in by the Gold Rush, but by the time they came, much of that rush was over. At the same time, the First Transcontinental railroad was being built. 80-90% of the construction crew was made of Chinese immigrants.

These immigrants sacrificed everything working in horrifying conditions for very little money. They literally blasted through mountains, risking cave-ins and weathering the unpredictable climates only to be excluded from a historical photo, and the history books once the railways were connected and complete.

Post railway work, the Chinese seeking to settle here faced terrifying racism, and, due to the perceived threat that the Chinese were taking American jobs, the US government set up the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was the first time in American history that a group of people were banned from entering the country solely on race. They became the first “illegal immigrants” due to their lack of documentation caused by restrictions inflicted by racist laws.

Source: PBS

Sikhs and Muslims also started to migrate to America at this time. Many worked as silk traders and traveling peddlers going town to town, dazzling American buyers with the exotic products from their country. Many from India also migrated to America to free themselves from British rule.

Numerous Asians in this time identified, in America, as “White” because only Black and White American could be naturalized. Due to more systemic, despicable racism, Black Americans were considered the bottom of the hierarchy of race so Asians did not want to identify with that. However, “Whiteness” was determined by the courts, so if one was not deemed white, they stood to lose their land, home and entitlements.

Some Asian families did succeed despite these impossible odds but all of them faced overwhelming discrimination and the threat of death.

Anna May

Source: PBS

I wanted to highlight one of the most astonishing Asian American women of this time period. Anna May Wong is considered to be the first Chinese American movie star. Her career included silent film, Talkies, theater, radio and television. Though she was considered a major movie star, she was still subject to the racism inflicted by White Americans.

Along with Japanese American matinee idol Sessue Hayakawa, any and all actors of color were portrayed as either submissives or evil. The film The Good Earth was touted to be one of the first inclusive Asian film epics. Anna May was offered an audition, but only for a supporting role as an evil wife. The leads went to white actors in “Yellow Face”, even though Anna May was the only one of Chinese descent. In the end, that supporting role also went to a white actress and two of the white actors portraying Yellow Face were nominated for Academy Awards.

“A Question of Loyalty” and “Good Americans”: 1930’s-1960’s

Source: PBS

The next two episodes chronicle the struggle of Asian Americans during World War II through the Cold War.

Asian Americans were still not able to be naturalized or vote. Even well educated Asian men couldn’t get hired in jobs considered to be “white jobs”. However this was the time of the first, American born generation of Asian Americans.

Japanese Americans born in America at this time, were known as the “Nisei”, or second generation. The Nisei were very proud of their country and wanted everything that other Americans did. But because of the rueful way they were treated by whites, many Nisei began to show more interest in their country of origin because there, they were treated as equals.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japanese Americans were shuttled off to concentration camps across the nation. They were separated from their families and locked away under the unwarranted fear that they were loyal to Japan even though 2/3 of the people in the camps were born in America.

Korean Americans and others were subjected to cruelty based on racist perceptions that they were Japanese. They had to wear buttons declaring that they were of different descent than the Japanese. There were also great tensions between Korean Americans and Japanese Americans due to Japan’s occupation of South Korea.

Korean American Susan Ahn, pictured with her brothers above, was the first Asian woman to enlist in the US Navy and became its first female gunnery officer. She spent her life serving America and even became a code breaker during Cold War time.

Many of the Asian Americans of this time, including Japanese Americans, who served in WWII for America were still re-imprisoned and treated with disdain, even after putting their lives on the line in the war.

Post WWII, Asian Americans were embraced more as Americans but were still excluded from white suburbs along with other People of Color. The “Go back to your own country” sentiment ran rampant as it still does today.

Only those who lived up to the white stereotype of “Good Asians”-i.e. being compliant; educated; having top notch jobs etc-were allowed to live in relative peace.

Meanwhile, Mao Zedung’s takeover of China and the Korean War sparked a whirlwind of anti-communist sentiments throughout America and most of the world. Again, people of Asian descent were suspected of ill deeds and punished, justified through the United State’s “Red Scare”.

Lives, businesses and entire industries were destroyed with no validation or evidence.

“Generation Rising” and “Breaking Through”: 1960’s Onward

Source: PBS

Emerging through the most recent decades, the show takes on the Phillipine American migrant farmers of California and the uprisings that ensued for fair working conditions and better pay. Most of these workers were not naturalized, therefore, subject to horrific circumstances that those with rights by the law didn’t have to suffer.

When the White grape farm owners brought in Mexican laborers to replace the striking Philippinos, shortly after, the Mexicans joined in the fight, which gave rise to Phillipino leader Larry Itilong and the better known Cesar Chavez.

Over in Hawaii, a greater amount of Asians become political. With an overwhelming majority, here Asians and Indigenous Hawaiians were able to make greater gains. Of course women still struggled behind the men and were mostly shunned from political office and other white collar jobs. In 1964, after years of struggle, Patsy Mink becomes the first Woman of Color in Congress.

Patsy Mink. Source: ITVS.org

The show then takes a turn toward the Vietnam War and the multitudes of Asian Americans who sacrificed for America both in the war and those at home fighting against it, who shifted the cultural landscape of the US. Post the war, followed a boom of immigration from Southeast Asia and another wave of perpetual racism. Once again, these new immigrants faced racist backlash, as did other Asian Americans mistaken as South Asian.

Wrapping everything up, are the racial tensions of early 1990’s Los Angeles that precipitated the Riots in Koreatown, the tech boom of Silicon Valley and the dawn of the Dream Act.

In All Honesty…

Asian Americans is an incredible starting point to shedding some light on the awe-inspiring contributions made by the United State’s immigrants. Even with an astonishing amount of information packed meticulously in this series, it’s not enough.

I was confounded by how much of our country’s history and people have been excluded from general school curriculum. I felt that there was more, much more, on this subject alone that wasn’t addressed. As a series, Asian Americans  was only able to tell a handful of the remarkable stories of courage, determination, honor and grit regarding our Asian immigrants. As someone who grew up and was educated in America I feel astoundingly cheated. None of this was taught to us and it makes me angry.

I was also taken aback, but not surprised, about all of the heart breaking, despicably racist acts forced upon a people just looking for freedom and a better way of life. It made me so livid and sad at times that I had to stop watching just to handle all of the emotion burning through me.

The worse part about this is that literally nothing has changed. We may have laws now that “protect” minorities from certain discriminations, but that doesn’t stop them from happening. What have we learned from imprisoning nearly 130,000 Japanese Americans? Nothing.

Now the newest deemed “threat” is from Mexican and Latin American immigrants who also flee horrifying circumstances for a better life. New federal data from 2019 shows nearly a million arrests made at the US-Mexico border alone, the highest reported since 2007. Human beings are in detention facilities across the US as we speak in horrible conditions. Is this ringing a bell? It seems to me that White people are, and have always been the greatest threat to this country and many more across the world.

Source: PBS

Why don’t humans learn? Why must we be susceptible to relive the same, tired, ignorant actions that have held us back and harmed us collectively in the past? When will any of us realize how much we need one another and also that ANY land across this beautiful planet doesn’t inherently belong to any of us?

Asian Americans is full of stories that need to be told and taught on a regular basis in school curriculum alongside the innumerable stories of those enslaved, murdered and exploited under the tyranny of White “supremacy” and colonization.

It is a documentary told through the eyes of Asian Americans and the lineages built through brave souls enduring hell for the promise of a better life. It is the history of our world and our country. It stands as a legacy to those it features and highlights the suffering, courage and accomplishments of a great people.

I cannot overstate the necessity of documentaries and series that explore topics like these. When we focus all of our time and attention on one view, race and gender, we become lost as a collective. How can we ever come together as a whole if we never get to see the whole picture?

Asian Americans airs on PBS in the US, May 11th and 12th, 2020, starting at 8pm each night.

Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound: A Walk Through the History of Sound in Film

Director Midge Costin has woven a comprehensive frolic through the history of cinematic sound. Starting with the age of “talkies”-the first movies using vocal sound-through the digital age, she explores how sound has flourished and made it possible for film to connect further with its audiences.

She highlights sound’s importance in film and walks us through the art of appealing to one of our greatest senses, featuring some of the incredible artists behind sound that, more times than not, aren’t given the attention they deserve.

Sound Changes Everything

Thomas Edison launched the phonograph in 1877 and the first silent narrative film in 1903. These inventions, arguably, gave birth to cinema. The problem was, filmmakers didn’t have the technology to record sound or voices and synchronize it with the film. The first film with sound, synchronized musical score and sound effects was Don Juan in 1926, followed shortly after by the first “talkie” The Jazz Singer in 1927. Audiences were amazed.

In 1933, King Kong became the first film to feature enough artistic sound techniques to define the niche as “Sound Design”, and, as such, Murray Spivak became known as the first sound designer. As films continued their sound engineering growth and new techniques were developed, stereo sound revolutionized film in the 1970’s, as all sound on prior films had been in mono. A few noted “change makers” of this time were legends, Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas and Walter Murch-who is deemed the “Father of Modern Sound”.

Before mobile technology, filmmakers were all but forced to use the sound libraries that the studios had and were at the studio’s mercy for everything. Coppola, Lucas and Murch created their own production company in the late 60’s, daring to split from the studio system and make their own films. Though they had some failures, that move ultimately set up their careers to be the juggernauts we know today.

Another notable change maker of the 70’s was Barbara Streisand. She revolutionized sound technology spending a then unheard of one million dollars on sound alone for her 1976 hit A Star is Born. Her persistence in greater sound excellence tipped the scales for films to follow.

From manual to digital

Ben Burtt. Source: Goodmovies Entertainment

Star Wars emerged in 1977, loaded with it’s 6 track Dolby stereo sound. Exceeding every executives expectations in the box office, it became the new norm for sound in film that followed. Ben Burtt became Hollywood’s “go to” for original sound effects after winning the 1978 Academy Award.

1986 heralded the Digital Era of film and the start of Pixar as it’s own spin-off company funded primarily by Apple’s Steve Jobs. Gary Rydstrom revolutionized sound collaboration on Pixar’s short Luxo Jr. In it was born Pixar’s well known desk lamp mascot and Gary was recognized as a pioneer for coming up with a digital form of “talking” using only sounds.

By the mid 90’s, sound became fully computerized and as technology advanced, turned into the sound we have today.

Costin streamlines modern sound for the audience into sections she calls the “Circle of Talent”. This breaks down sound production into three realms: Voice, Sound Effects and Music. Each of these realms are then divided down further to the corresponding technical teams that create production recording; dialogue editing; automated dialog replacement, or ADR; SFX; Foley; Ambiance and the film’s musical score.

These teams collaborate, creating mood, emotional tone and vocal clarity through multifaceted ingenuity, grossly overlooked by an industry and a society that is singularly obsessed with the “pretty faces” in front of the camera, instead of the vast wealth of artistry behind the scenes that is key to making those “pretty faces” look so damn good.

Let’s hear for the girls

Anna Behlmar. Source: Goodmovies Entertainment

If Edison, Lucas, Coppola and Merch were female I doubt we would have heard of them at all because most of history has been written and dominated by white males. Just imagine the plethora of talent that was historically and wholly looked over in favor of sexism and racism.

Many spouses of these “great men” have been ignored and their contributions to their husband’s inventions and careers left behind without a trace. But who would Thomas Edison be without the help of his wives Mary and Mina? Would he have been able to spend all of those hours inventing away from his children and family without their hard work?

Only recently have Marcia Lucas’s contributions to Star Wars: A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi and Raiders of the Lost Ark been brought to light. A talented editor in her own right, she and George met in film school and she went on to become a most sought after editor by the likes of Scorsese and Coppola.

So too have sisters in sound suffered behind their male counterparts. Plenty of women in sound have been denied work due to sexist thinking. Anna Behlmar, who’s incredible sound resume includes massive hits such as Braveheart, the Mission Impossible franchise and Thor, states it best in the film when she says “people who say, ‘well you know. it’s a big, action, war movie, a guy should do the sound.’ It’s like why? Has he been in a war? This idea of one gender being better than another, I think, is kind of silly.”

That’s putting it mildly. It’s flat out ridiculous, but toxic masculine thinking like this still pervades the industry.

Cecilia Hall. Source: Goodmovies Entertainment

Cecilia Hall, during her time as supervising sound editor of Top Gun, created a painstakingly meticulous library of exotic animal screeches and roars to enhance the sound of the jets. According to Hall it was “the single most labor intensive editing process I’ve ever experienced”. It was taking them so long to complete that a studio executive, who came to fire her. scolded her saying that the film “wasn’t about the sound”.

Fast forward a few months later and Cece and partner, George Watters, were nominated for an Academy Award, prompting this exec to send her flowers with a card that stated “I guess it was about the sound”. Hall later went on to win the Academy Award in Sound Effects Editing for The Hunt for Red October.

In all honesty…

Costin does a monumental job packing a lot of information into an audience friendly, 90-minute journey through the origins of sound. Costin herself has an impressive resume of sound experience ranging from The Rock to Armegeddon.

For obvious reasons, over half of the film highlights the work of men involved in sound technology, but Costin spends as much time as she can highlighting and adding in many notable female artists. It is frustrating to see and know so little about women’s contributions to this technology even though I know it exists, and I wish a bit more information on that would’ve been added.

Also, it seemed a bit insensitive and rather uncomfortable, given the strong, recent movement of #MeToo and Time’s Up, to see the inclusion of interviews with John Lasseter in the Pixar section of the documentary. As a woman included in the movement it felt a bit like a breach of trust, especially coming from a female filmmaker. Though Lasseter was pivotal in the creation of Pixar, the background information alone would have sufficed.

Multiple allegations have been made by Pixar employees regarding Lasseter’s inappropriate behaviors, and though the allegations were enough for him to “retire” from Pixar, he was still quickly nabbed up by Skydance studios after, to widespread criticism.

Those allegations would have been enough to exclude him from any project I was doing, and I believe it is in every artist’s interest to apply responsibility and care to sensitive matters such as these. However, there are more things admirable about Making Waves to let one bad apple spoil the whole.

Alyson Dee Moore. Source: Goodmovies Entertainmet

Overall this is a solid, well-made documentary, useful for those not just in the industry, but for audiences who want to come to a better understanding of what these artists go through to create the marvelous works of art we see today.

It illustrates, in easy to understand language, the extent of the level of collaboration required to create the all-encompassing world of sound in a film. It touches upon and visualizes the historical highlights of the evolution of sound in film without dragging or ever being boring, and, for those of us old enough to remember, piques nostalgia from the legendary films of an age when “Original Screenplay” actually meant “created, undertaken, or presented for the first time”.

Making Waves is more than a film school primer, standing in its own right as a comprehensive homage to the art that is Sound in Film and an impressive first time documentary from an accomplished sound artist.

Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound opened October 25, 2019 and has been nominated at both Cannes Film Festival and Critics Choice Awards.

Sundance 2019: Advocate: Fighting For What is Right

Advocate, a new documentary by filmmaker Rachel Leah Jones, is the true story of Israeli attorney, human rights advocate and freedom fighter Lea Tsemel. Nominated to this years Sundance World Cinema Documentary category, we get a close, intimate view of an extraordinary person and unrelenting soul in the fight for Palestinian rights.

Born Into Turmoil

Lea Tsemel was born in 1945 in Haifa, Isreal, a town where Jews and Muslims co-existed. She was literally born in the age of the Arab-Israeli conflict, when Zionist beliefs clashed with Arab nationalism over rights to lands sacred to both the Jewish and Muslim people. A civil war broke out in Palestine between the Jews and Arabs there, and, by 1948, a mass migration ensued of Palestinian refugees who fled or were cast out of their destroyed homeland.

Raised in Zionist beliefs, Lea volunteered to fight for Israel when the Six Day War started in 1967 and managed to be the first Israeli woman to visit the Western Wall, since the Jordanian occupation and Israeli shut out in 1948. What she found there changed her beliefs about Palestinians and opened her eyes to the lies that the Israeli government told its people about Israeli occupation. The government called it a “War for Peace”, when really it was all about besieging and colonizing a land that was already occupied and calling it their own.

Source: Home Made Docs

Starting with her very first trial as an attorney in 1972, Lea fought for Palestinian freedom fighters who were caught, imprisoned and tortured in Israeli prisons. Fifty years later she is still defending and a staunch advocate for the human rights of a people deemed “terrorists” in her country.

Always an Uphill Battle

The first case Lea takes on in the film, is about a 13-year-old Palestinian boy Ahmed and his 15-year-old cousin Hassan who are accused of entering Jerusalem with knives in order to harm as many Jews as they could. Hassan allegedly murdered a young Jewish man and was shot and killed by Israeli police in turn. Israeli news immediately assails the young “terrorists” and is fast to judge them as dangerous.Though Israeli law doesn’t punish children as adults till they are 14, due to media sensationalism and distortion, the public wants young Ahmed tried as an adult for maximum penalty.

A second case involves Israa Jaabis, a young Palestinian wife and mother, who stands accused of a suicide bombing, when propane tanks in the backseat of her car accidentally ignite at a checkpoint. Though no one but Israa was injured, the Israeli media paints a compelling picture of a “terrorist” who’s intent was to blow herself up in the city center to kill as many Jewish citizens and officials as possible. However, they don’t disclose Israa’s two prior suicide attempts due to her past history suffering with depression and an abusive marriage.

What also is missing in these newscasts, are the reasons why so many Palestinians are willing to sacrifice their own lives in their fight against Israel.

For over 70 years war has raged between these two countries, mostly over the fight for sacred, religious land and monuments. But Palestine has consistently been on the losing side in the war. Israel, funded in part by the United States, has displaced and killed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and continues to do so.

Source: Home Made Docs

Tsemel has seen in real time the unscrupulous side of the Israeli government and court practices heavily skewed in bias and bigotry. She knows how every Palestinian deemed a terrorist by the Israeli media is actually responding to the long standing violence, oppression, jailing and torture of their own people by Israel.

Though she doesn’t condone the violence, she is able to see and understand the aggravation of a people who are killed, persecuted and displaced daily by a well funded, unrelenting government.

One Voice Speaking for Many

Lea Tsemel isn’t the only voice in Israel speaking up for Palestine, but she is nearly the only one who represents Palestinians accused of criminal acts in Isreal. She has long been scrutinized by her colleagues, the press and the public.

Once nicknamed the “Devil’s Advocate”, she and her family have been threatened with violence and murder, spat on and ostracized for her work. She knowingly defends people at a clear disadvantage, but her faith in what she is doing and what is right has never faltered. She is also one of the only practicing female attorneys in Jerusalem and has never allowed anyone to intimidate her out of the system.

Despite insurmountable odds, from biased media to dishonorable judges, Lea’s unwavering tenacity brought about an Israeli Supreme Court decision, creating a law that now disallows any guilty “confessions” elicited by torture or under duress, to be admitted in court. It was the first law of it’s kind and a major triumph for Tsemel and her staff.

It is these rare triumphs and her own hope for true justice and peace between the two nations, that keep her moving forward despite the overwhelming disproportions.

Source: Home Made Docs

In All Honesty….

This film is timely and incredibly important.

In an age where anyone who dares to stand with Palestinians is labeled an anti-Semite, Jones takes a huge risk bringing this very touchy subject to the forefront. The tensions between Israel and Palestine are at an all time high and countless Palestinians are still being killed, tortured and displaced from the only place they know as home.

Using a “fly on the wall” technique while following Tsemel; creatively incorporating animation over real people to respect individual privacy; cutting between Tsemel’s present and past and interviewing members of her immediate family, Jones creates an effective, all-encompassing view of Tsemel’s life and paints a picture of an all but unheard of Israeli justice system steeped in bias and Zionism.

Jones shows a wider perspective of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and a point of view seldom used in world news today. We get to know a champion of justice who has spent decades fighting for the rights of people she was taught to hate. It shows us the resilience of the human spirit and just how much one person can affect a giant system predisposed to prejudice and intolerance.

Advocate also illustrates the effects of a tendentious, fear-mongering media that only tells a society what they want it to know rather than the truth. The spread of misinformation is a cancer to the world that can only breed ignorance and malcontent. Though almost no writing is ever totally without bias, literal lives are at stake in this situation and the Israeli media seems responsible for fueling the fire of a seemingly endless conflict.

Humanity must make a crucial choice: Is being “right” worth more than hundreds of thousands of lives? Is it possible for one culture to overcome the toxic “patriotism” saturated in bias, long enough to see the humanity in another? Can centuries old religious beliefs be put to rest long enough to enable the much needed objectivity to establish peace?

The answers can be found if we are courageous enough to look past what is being fed to us and exhume the truth buried beneath it all. Until then, we must rely on daring filmmakers such as Jones, to bring that which is unseen to light.

Advocate premiered at Sundance Film Festival, January 27, 2019

Slamdance 2019: Behind The Bullet: A Glimpse Into the Impact of Pulling The Trigger

Premiering at this year’s Slamfest, Sundance’s edgier sibling, is a documentary by Columbine High School graduate and director Heidi Yewman called Behind The Bullet. The film explores the impact that “pulling the trigger” had on 4 every day individuals in four completely different scenarios.

Using an interesting technique of telling each individuals story from present to past, we get a glimpse of each person’s lives years after each incident, culminating with the story of each incident as the documentary’s climax.

Christen

The film starts with Christen McGinnes, the victim of an attempted suicide. Christen was one of the very few that survived a gunshot to the head. She has endured nearly 50 surgeries to reconstruct her face after the gunshot wound blew off her lower jaw. She spent three weeks in a coma before even realizing she was still alive. Through all of the pain and trauma she endured, both before her suicide attempt and after, she now has a renewed interest in life and has been happy to wake up every day since.

Will

Will Little started out in life with a narrow outlook on life. Basically raised in the streets of Philadelphia, Will fell victim quite young to the gangster lifestyle in his neighborhood. There was a lot of violence, drugs and plenty of guns. Guns helped him feel protected and safe in a place he never truly was. It was just another night on the street when Will, at only 19, shot and killed another young man. He spent many years in jail and now spends his life educating other people in his community about the effects of violence and the consequences of gun use. Through the forgiveness of his victim’s brother and his own 180 degree life turn around, Will finds the courage to forgive himself and create something advantageous out of tragedy.

Kevin

Kevin Leonard lives in a rural area of North Carolina. Though he lives in a quiet, remote area where residents were used to being able to leave their doors unlocked when they left their houses, he found himself a victim of a home robbery one night. Unable to see the intruders at first, he ended up shooting one as they tried to escape. The man laid on his front lawn for over thirty minutes before he died. It was a night that has haunted Kevin ever since. He was let off for the man’s murder because it was in self defense, but he has never been able to let go of watching someone die. Plagued with nightmares and other symptoms of PTSD, Kevin attempts to navigate his life since the incident and find peace, but feels less safe now than he ever did before.

Taylor

Taylor Dwyer was only 8 when tragedy struck. His father, who traveled a lot for work at the time, bought a gun for his wife and family for protection. One day, his wife accidentally left the gun out and Taylor got a hold of it. Innocently playing with it, he shot and killed his 5 year old brother. His family knew it wasn’t his fault and spent the next ten years trying to raise Taylor the best they could with compassion and forgiveness. But no one can escape consequences of something so utterly final and consequential. He says that this incident hasn’t changed his outlook on using guns other than heightening his diligence on keeping them locked away.

Source: BTB Productions

Our Gun Problem

Since there are multiple shootings every single day in the United States, and recently, seems to be a mass shooting every other month, the debate on gun violence is at an all time high. Let’s just be honest here, without big corporations and the NRA consistently fighting for greed, there would be less of a debate and more answers. A constitutional amendment created in a time of war used as a means for the public to buy machine guns today is preposterous. But we know it’s only a front for the true reason gun incidences keep rearing their ugly heads. It’s more about power and money.than self defense.

Fear is sold in just about every single thing we buy today and guns are no exception. Nine times out of ten, the reality is that no one is sneaking around your house trying to figure out how to kill you. Most rape victims know and trust their assailants. Researchers say that there is less than .00039% chance of being killed by a serial killer, even though 49% of serial killers kill with guns. Americans are more likely to die from cancer and heart disease than anything else and guns don’t lower that risk. In 2018 there were 82 school shootings, the highest amount ever since 1970. So is the answer more guns for “protection”?

Director Heidi Yewman herself lost people she cared for in the Columbine shooting and she has since spent her life advocating against gun violence, yet more and more mass shootings continue to happen. She isn’t the first documentarian to address gun violence and, most likely, won’t be the last. Though bringing this film to life was meant to impact us in some way, I’m not quite sure that it will make as great an impact as she intended.

The Stories

The film’s way of presenting the stories is interesting, leaving the “juiciest bits” until last, rather than telling each person’s story up front. However, I’m not sure it really worked in this instance. Because we were following each of the subjects and their friends and family around, we do get intimate glimpses into their lives, but not knowing what actually happened to begin with leaves a bit of a hole throughout the entirety of the film.

For example, we see Taylor and his family as they live day to day, going to church, talking to others about their son/sibling being shot, but without background on what happened, it seems more like boring reality TV than a compelling story.

We see Christen going to appointments for the restructuring of her facial deformities, but since we don’t even know what happened, it’s hard to try and relate to or sympathize with all she is going through. We find out that Kevin is a bit of a recluse and his segments focus on his day to day life and the death of his dog, rather than knowing how he was affected to begin with.

I felt like the incidents involving the guns were supposed to be the focus, as it’s about how using a gun on someone affected each of them, yet we don’t know what actually happened until the end.

Source: BTB Productions

The most interesting part of this is getting all of the incidents, pretty much at once, at the end, which does make for a compelling climactic feel. But the rest of the film suffers because of this choice and makes an imposing, colossal societal issue seem commonplace. I wanted to care more about each of the people since their stories are devastating and deserve to be heard. But choosing to film in the order Yewman did, made a huge difference on the film’s overall impression and effect.

I might be wrong, but I don’t think we are meant to be focusing on a person’s day to day life when the subject of a documentary is about gun violence.

In All Honesty….

I don’t want to leave the impression that the film is bad. Regardless of structure this is still a very important story to tell, from a fascinating slant. Most of the time we only get to hear from victims of gun violence, and this time we hear about how using guns affects those who use them legally. I really wish Yewman had chosen to structure the documentary differently to make a greater impact and generate as much emotion as possible from the viewer.

I can only imagine the difficulty these people had in telling their stories to the world, so it behooves any filmmaker to tell their stories in the strongest possible way. Because the audience never knows why we are following these people for certain until the end, it creates a level of “every day” that becomes more “ennui”. This should never be the case in a documentary about such an important and relevant subject that infects and kills Americans every single day.

I think this film will struggle finding distribution because of this. In an already competitive industry saturated with films, a filmmaker must create inventive, visionary work, even with strong subject matter, because the subject matter can’t carry an entire film alone. A strong, artistic piece comes down to creativity coupled with smart choices and this film, unfortunately, didn’t quite have what it took to leave an impression.

Behind The Bullet premiered at Slamdance January 25,2019.