Film: The Wolfpack

Unusual parents, highly protective and unemployed, chose to strictly enforce that their seven children remain inside their apartment, rarely leaving, for the children's entire lives. This documentary catches the children at their crossroads, where some have chosen to take first steps toward re-integrating with people, nature: the outside world, a world only watched until now through their apartment windows and vicariously imagined through the thousands of movies they've viewed.  -dp

http://www.thewolfpackfilm.com

From: http://www.filmlinc.com/films/on-sale/the-wolfpack

THE WOLFPACKCRYSTAL MOSELLE, 2015USA | FORMAT: DCP | 89 MINUTES 

First-time feature filmmaker Crystal Moselle trains her camera on an utterly unique subject in this documentary that seems destined to join the ranks of Grey Gardens and Poto and Cabengo as a portrait of fascinating figures dwelling in society’s margins—or, in this case, a housing project on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. The Angulos are a family with seven long-haired children—six boys and one girl, ages 16-24—whose names are culled from ancient Sanskrit and who have been homeschooled by their mother and forbidden from leaving their apartment by their withdrawn Hare Krishna father. 

However, no restrictions have been placed on the children’s movie-watching diets, and the six brothers have not only grown to become die-hard cinephiles, they also collaborate on elaborate, meticulously staged remakes of their favorite films. Their love for movies signals a long-suppressed desire to engage with the outside world—but how do you reconnect with society when the inside of your apartment and your vast DVD collection is all you’ve ever known? 

Moselle enjoys a tremendous degree of access to the Angulo brothers, who have managed to become sensitive, passionate, and surprisingly self-conscious people eager to bridge the gap between the world they’ve invented for themselves and the great outdoors. A Magnolia Pictures release.

Theater: In My Father's Words, by Justin Young

Dundee Rep presents

IN MY FATHER'S WORDS

By JUSTIN YOUNG

Directed by PHILIP HOWARD Gaelic translation by IAIN FINLAY MacLEOD

With ANGUS PETER CAMPBELL, GARRY COLLINS and MUIREANN KELLY

In an old wooden house by the shore of Lake Ontario in Canada, Louis battles with his elderly father, Don, whose decline into dementia is gradually robbing him of the ability to speak.
Into their lives comes Flora, the caregiver that Louis employs to look after Don. Flora, who is of Scottish heritage, understands that the 'nonsense' that Don speaks is fragmented Gaelic, opening up an ocean of revelations and buried family history spanning the Atlantic.
In My Father's Words is a beautiful play about identity - national and personal - and language, and the utter indivisibility between the two.

http://www.59e59.org/moreinfo.php?showid=204

Theater: Happy Days, the Flea Theater, June 2015

This description was found online at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Days_(play)

Beckett confided to Brenda Bruce what was going through his mind as he sat down to write the play:
He said: "Well I thought that the most dreadful thing that could happen to anybody, would be not to be allowed to sleep so that just as you're dropping off there'd be a 'Dong' and you'd have to keep awake; you're sinking into the ground alive and it's full of ants;^[16] and the sun is shining endlessly day and night and there is not a tree … there's no shade, nothing, and that bell wakes you up all the time and all you've got is a little parcel of things to see you through life." He was referring to the life of the modern woman. Then he said: "And I thought who would cope with that and go down singing, only a woman."^[17]

Below- playwright, director and actors:
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) is widely recognized as one of the greatest dramatists of the twentieth century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969. Mr. Beckett is most renowned for his play Waiting for Godot, which launched his career in theater. He then went on to write numerous successful full-length plays, including Endgame in 1957, Krapp’s Last Tape in 1958, and Happy Daysin 1960. Mr. Beckett received his first commission for radio from the BBC in 1956 for All That Fall. This was followed by a further five plays for radio including Embers, Words and Music, and Cascando. Like no other dramatist before him, Mr. Beckett’s works capture the pathos and ironies of modern life yet still maintain his faith in man’s capacity for compassion and survival no matter how absurd his environment may have become.

Andrei Belgrader is a theater and television director. 

Performed by Brooke Adams and Tony Shalhoub 

http://www.theflea.org/show_detail.php?page_type=0&show_id=161

Film: Of Men and War

From the official film web site: http://www.ofmenandwar.com/about

Anger consumes a dozen combat vets long after their return from the front. The warriors in Of Men and War have come home to the United States, but their minds are stuck out on the battlefield. Like figures from a Greek tragedy, all have traumatic memories that haunt them to this day. Ghosts and echoes of the war fill their lives. Threats seem to spring out from everywhere. Wives, children, and parents bear the brunt of their fractured spirits.

 

At The Pathway Home, a first-of-its-kind PTSD therapy center, the film's protagonists resolve to end the ongoing destruction. Their therapist is a Vietnam vet himself, helping the young men forge meaning from their trauma. Over years of therapy, Of Men and War explores their grueling paths to recovery, as they attempt to make peace with themselves, their past, and their families. 

Film: Life is Sacred, 2015; director Andreas Dalsgaard

The following description is from the film's official web site: http://lifeissacred-film.com

THE STORY

This is a story about a fearless politician and his devoted followers. With an army of young people hoping for change, he uses mimes, pencils, flashmobs and superhero costumes to attack the corruption and violence in Colombia. A young woman falls in love with the movement, but to change a society penetrated by illegality, turns out to be much more difficult than she ever anticipated.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR COLOMBIA

For two generations we have been bombarded with stories about the evils of Colombia. The image has been one of drug lords, guerrilla groups, paramilitaries, and corrupted politicians that rule over citizens and society. If you are from Colombia, you probably want to share a positive story of change. Share this other face of Colombia, the one of hard working people, who tirelessly struggle for a real democracy..

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR THE WORLD

If you are from any other country, you probably want this story to inspire your own politicians and prove that a peaceful change is possible, without corruption and violence.

Our goal is to open up the debate about morals and politics, not just in Colombia, but everywhere. 

 Director Andreas Dalsgaard

Film: What Tomorrow Brings, 2015; director: Beth Murphy

Summary from official movie web site:

WHAT TOMORROW BRINGS is filmed in a small, conservative Afghan village that has never before allowed its girls to be educated. Now, for the first time ever, girls in Deh Subz village have their own school – the Zabuli School. The narrative arc of this film plays out over the course of a school year as we follow the stories of three students, two teachers and tenacious school founder Razia Jan. While the girls are learning to read and write, we find that their education goes far beyond the classroom. 

WHAT TOMORROW BRINGS is a coming-of-age story in which young girls struggle against tradition and time, and discover that their school is the one place they can turn to understand the differences between the lives they were born into and the lives they dream of leading. 

The story of the Zabuli School, and all those who bring it to life, unfolds at a time when the political and security situation in Afghanistan is rapidly changing. Twelve years after the US kicked out the Taliban – making it possible for Afghan girls to go back to school– the Taliban is staging a comeback. This is a precarious moment in history, and although no one is certain what tomorrow brings, we can feel confident the girls will be brighter and better-prepared because of the love, support, protection, and education they have found at the Zabuli School.

The trailer: https://vimeo.com/62455117

Web site: http://principlepictures.com/what-tomorrow-brings/

Film: Burden of Peace, 2015; director: Joey Boink; researcher: Sander Wirken

From the film's web site: http://www.burdenofpeace.com

The documentary 'Burden of Peace' tells the impressive story of Claudia Paz y Paz, the first woman to lead the Public Prosecutor's Office of Guatemala. The country that has been ravaged for years by a devastating civil war, in which nearly 200,000 Mayan Indians were systematically massacred, is today one of the most violent countries in the world. Claudia starts a frontal attack against corruption, drug gangs and impunity and does what everyone had hitherto held to be impossible: she arrests former dictator Efraín Rios Montt on charges of genocide. His conviction becomes the first conviction for genocide in a national court in the world history.

Film: A Pigeon Sat on a Branch

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/film-reviews/a-pigeon-sat-on-a-branch-offers-perch-perfect-existentialism-deadpan-laughs/article24919767/?service=mobile

Film: The Trials of Spring, directed by Gini Reticker, 2015

Shot on the streets during violent suppression of protestors, and using news media journlism footage, this intense film covers the chronological events that have alternately given the women of Egypt hope and despair for the future. The star, Hend Nafea, and other dissenters, men and women, have fought for a more free society in Egypt since the January revolt in 2011 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egyptian_Revolution_of_2011). The goal of many activists since the fall of Mubarak has been to achieve freedom from police and military brutality and to receive fair trials in the court system. Unfortunately, conditions in Egypt have become worse with every successive regime since 2010.  Instead, many Egyptian people have been cruelly apprehended, tortured and unfairly tried in an attempt to rule the country with an iron hand. Hend Nafea has made heroic efforts to expose each regime's unjust use of violence against men and women; in March 2015, Hend herself has been sentenced to life imprisonment. Fortunately, she has been able to leave the country.

We were thrilled at the film's screening to learn that Hend herself was in attendance, answering questions and eloquently expressing her concern for the need to publicize current conditions. The Egyptian people are being exposed to the ruthless Sisi government tactics of random kidnapping, imprisonment and execution without trial.

This film made it very clear that the future achievement of women's personal freedom and political power will go hand-in-hand with the spread of peace and stability in the world. Egypt should be made to have a Truth and Reconciliation process to come to grips with past abuses of power; and Egyptian women need to be empowered to be physically safe in private and public spaces, and to become judges who have the freedom to judge, based on the law, fairly and not politically.

-dp

Film: This is My Land, director Tamara Erde

A film which asks the question: Can there be reconciliation between the embittered people of Israel and Palestine when their respective public educational systems perpetuate sentiments of passionate nationalism and revenge? It became very clear in the film that young people on both sides have virtually no understanding of the historical pressures and persecution of the other side that has led to the current conflict. Perhaps a broader inclusion in school textbooks covering the historical developments of each people prior to 1948 would help lead the next generation toward an understanding of the "other" and a way toward peace instead of violent conflict.   -dp