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vidlib@videolibrarian.com
 
Updated August 31, 2010 |
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Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman  (2009) 83 min. DVD: $29.95. New Video Group (avail. from most distributors). ISBN: 1-4229-8138-X. 
Although he may be recognized only in architectural circles, Julius Shulman (1910-2009) is noteworthy for his photographs chronicling the rise of American modernist architecture from the 1940s through the late 1960s. More specifically, Shulman elegantly documented architectural advancements in Los Angeles and Palm Springs during the mid-20th century, bringing them to the attention of the mainstream public. Dustin Hoffman provides star-power narration here, as director Eric Bricker follows the 90-something Shulman late in life, while weaving in a succinct historical primer of the photographer’s working relationship with heavyweights such as Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra, John Lautner, and Frank Gehry, among others. The film’s own visuals are often inventive, combining straight video footage with clever Terry Gilliam–like animation and Shulman’s own immaculate stills of 1950s “pod”–style houses and other futurist edifices that appeared on the covers of prominent architecture magazines. A fascinating portrait of a man so dedicated to the modernist cause that he was driven to retirement by the scourge of postmodernism in the late ’60s—only to experience a career resurrection in the late ’90s—Visual Acoustics celebrates a movement that reflected one of the most optimistic and forward-looking periods in American architectural and artistic history. DVD extras include audio commentary with Bricker, deleted scenes, and bonus footage. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (M. Sandlin)
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David Cross: Bigger and Blackerer  (2010) 90 min. DVD: $14.98. Sub Pop Records (avail. from most distributors). 
Bigger and Blackerer captures actor/comedian David Cross (Arrested Development) live at Boston’s Wilbur Theatre, where he’s clearly having fun, but also has some serious matters on his mind. The show begins with a young man (Dean Crow) portraying “Li’l Davey Cross,” who tells the audience, “Everything that I say tonight will be the truth”—after which he pitches an expletive-filled hissy fit and exits the stage, at which point the real Cross enters. An intentionally hypocritical exchange with a sign-language interpreter (Mort Burke) precedes a series of sketches in which Cross takes on eco-friendly brand names, the dexterity of junkies, impractical date safety tips, and other offbeat topics, before wading into the deeper waters of politics and religion. In regard to the Tea Party, he notes that “America has a proud, rich tradition of voting against its own best interests” and has much to say about the activists’ contributions to the healthcare debates, which segues into a bit on true believers (the Bible, he says, is “a treasure trove of chuckles”). From there Cross lightens the mood by recounting a trip to a Seattle porn store (not the smoothest transition) before wrapping things up with a riff on “Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” DVD extras include deleted scenes and a featurette on Cross’ work in the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Recommended. Aud: P. (K. Fennessy)
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For the Generations: Native Story & Performance  (2009) 57 min. DVD: $29.95 ($225 w/PPR). Native American Public Telecommunications (dist. by Vision Maker Video, tel: (877) 868-2250, www.visionmaker.org). This production from Oregon Public Broadcasting and Painted Sky presents a cross-country survey of contemporary Native American artists who perform and talk about their work, interspersed with messages about cultural health and social issues that affect young adults, including homelessness, dropping out of school, Type 2 diabetes, and suicide. Painted Sky outreach director Karen Kitchen says, “It’s important that our youth see these other young people as role models.” North Carolina’s Jana Mashonee, the first to appear, speaks eloquently about her heritage, but only her fringed outfit and backup dancers seem even tangentially relevant as she sings slick techno-pop covers of Led Zeppelin and Meatloaf hits. Fortunately, the other subjects are better at combining culture with art, including Portland’s Painted Sky Dancers, Nashville recording artist Bill Miller, New York R&B singer Martha Redbone, New Mexico’s songwriter/flute player Robert Mirabal, and classically trained Vancouver ballet dancers/choreographers Santee Smith and Michael Greyeyes. In addition to performances, For the Generations also captures rehearsals and encounters with fans in Seattle and Bellingham, WA. Despite the off-key start, the film does present worthy examples of artists doing their part to honor ancestors and inspire Native Americans and other interested parties to learn more about their history. Unfortunately, the image quality throughout is soft and slightly blurry, resembling consumer-grade video. A strong optional purchase. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy) |
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From Silence to Sound (2007) 48 min. DVD: $9.95. Brooklyn Girl Productions (avail. from www.indieflix.com). 
Filmmaker Chase Matthews’ documentary offers a profile of Justin Garrett, who went from being profoundly deaf to being able to hear as a result of surgery performed when he was 27. Interviews with Justin, family members, medical professionals, and others sketch the story of a life transformed by a decision to embrace the hope of a medical solution that also carried significant risk. Diagnosed at age 2, Justin experienced a challenging childhood: his divorced parents, Dean and Debra, found it difficult to care for a child with special needs, so the shunned lad rebelled, especially in light of their more favorable treatment of his younger sister, Emily. As Justin grew older, kids teased him, he couldn’t maintain friendships, and his mother kicked him out after he graduated from high school. Although things improved after Justin met the woman he eventually married, his disability continued to cause problems (hearing aids weren’t an option due to the degree of his deafness). At the suggestion of audiologists, he finally opted for a bilateral (double) cochlear ear implant, a major procedure that doesn’t work for all candidates. Matthews follows Garrett as he prepares for the surgery and incorporates footage from his time in the hospital, as well as the months afterward, as his hearing improves. Although emotional and moving, From Silence to Sound avoids pathos, letting the dramatic story unfold in a simple, direct manner. DVD extras include interviews with the filmmakers and a Q&A at the L.A. premiere. Recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)
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Romeo & Juliet (2009) 2 discs. 171 min. DVD: $28.98, Blu-ray: $29.99. Naxos of America (avail. from most distributors). 
Like Franco Zeffirelli’s famous 1968 film of Shakespeare’s play, Dominic Dromgoole’s 2009 staging at London’s restored Globe Theatre emphasizes the youthfulness of the eponymous couple and their friends. As Romeo, Adetomiwa Edun looks little more than 20, while Ellie Kendrick as Juliet appears to be in her early teens. And like Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey (Zeffirelli’s stars), most of the actors here give performances that can most charitably be described as enthusiastic but unpolished. Edun is the most impressive of the bunch—brash but virile, with a ringing delivery, but Kendrick offers little beyond schoolgirl exuberance, and the others’ efforts are too often undercut by stabs at crude humor. Zeffirelli, moreover, placed his young lovers in lushly romantic settings backed by a soaring score, whereas here the actors appear on a nearly bare stage, in relatively drab costumes, with the music confined to songs played on period instruments during the breaks. Ultimately, this production skims the surface of the tragedy—the final death scene is conspicuously unmoving—without compensating for the lack of depth with any visual richness, although the live audience (surrounding the stage on three sides as in the Bard’s day) appear to be enjoying themselves. DVD extras include a quick access feature to the most famous passages, and a photo gallery. Optional. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)
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Riddles of the Sphinx (2010) 56 min. DVD: $24.99 ($44.95 w/PPR). PBS Video (tel: 800-344-3337, web: www.pbs.org). Closed captioned. ISBN: 978-1-60883-191-3. 
With its human head and body of a crouching lion (symbolizing majesty), the Great Sphinx of Egypt has fascinated scholars and visitors for more than 4,000 years. Who built it and what does it represent? This PBS-aired NOVA documentary from filmmaker Gary Glassman examines the mystery of this wonder of the ancient world while also sketching a fascinating portrait of the society and workforce that created it. Tapping the expertise of archeologist Mark Lehner, who has spent more than 30 years excavating in Egypt, Riddles of the Sphinx explains how vast numbers of carvers and laborers used copper chisels and stone hammers to hew the Sphinx—the largest statue ever built in Egypt—from the plentiful limestone at the site, once part of an inland sea. Along the way, viewers learn interesting tidbits, such as the fact that this so-called guardian to the afterlife, situated in a vast “city of the dead,” was once brightly colored. Scholars also recount the golden age of Egypt’s Old Kingdom, describing the role of astronomy (particularly the sun), which shaped Egyptian views about life, death, and immortality. Looking at the contemporary fate of the Sphinx, Zahi Hawass—head of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities—describes efforts to stop the treasure’s deterioration in the face of tourism, traffic, and other threats. Informative and engaging, this is recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (S. Rees)
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Against the Grain: An Artist’s Survival Guide to Peru (2008) 65 min. DVD: $100: high schools & public libraries; $250: colleges & universities. Filmmakers Collaborative (dist. by New Day Films, tel: 888-367-9154, web: www.newday.com). PPR. Closed captioned. ISBN: 978-1-57448-247-8. Ann Kaneko’s documentary focuses on four Peruvian visual artists whose careers and creative output have been shaped by the military and political tumult that afflicted their country in the 1980s, ’90s, and beyond. Claudio Jimenez Quispe, whose uncle was a leader in the Maoist Shining Path movement, crafted retablos (wooden display boxes used for religious art) to depict the struggle between the government and the insurgency. After creating a silk screen featuring Mao Zedong with lush ruby lips, Alfredo Márquez was tagged as a Shining Path supporter and spent four years in prison. Natalia Iguiniz has been censored by the ultraconservative Archdiocese of Lima for using poster art to challenge Peru’s discomfort with feminist politics. And Eduardo Tokeshi, the politically uninvolved son of Japanese immigrants, found himself subjected to harsh racist-inspired criticism due to his shared ethnic heritage with repressive President Alberto Fujimori. Kaneko suggests that at a time when mass media was heavily censored and online communication had not yet taken root, the only creative tools left for making social statements in Peru were painting, folk art, and posters. While Against the Grain makes some interesting points, it never openly acknowledges the obvious: namely, the artists seem to have had no serious impact on shaping Peruvian society during the years of oppression. A strong optional purchase. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall) |
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Celestial Navigations: The Short Films of Al Jarnow (2010) 110 min. DVD: $29.95. Numero Group (avail. from most distributors). 
Anyone who enjoyed Sesame Street (as children or adults) will likely find this collection of shorts by Al Jarnow to be a pleasant nostalgia trip. Among the 45 pieces here made between 1968-1997, many were produced for the Children’s Television Workshop, from 1970’s “Yak” ( a loopy introduction to the letter Y), to raps on letters and numbers from the ’80s and ’90s. Other Jarnow shorts, shown only in underground festivals or museum exhibits, are more experimental, toying with patterns, forms, and the passage of time using a combination of conventional animation, stop-motion photography, home movies, collages of stills, and even direct scratches on celluloid. The segments run from less than a minute to 15, with the longest being the 1984 title piece. Largely a time-lapse record of the play of sunlight on the walls of Jarnow’s studio over the course of a year, “Celestial Navigation”—which is interrupted by animated sequences and a visit to Stonehenge—exemplifies the imagination, technical idiosyncrasy, and philosophical rumination that characterize Jarnow’s more personal work. Viewers can access the films chronologically or alphabetically, or in groups directed specifically to children or adults. DVD extras include an elaborate illustrated book with critical assessments, a tribute by Jarnow’s son, and notes on the films. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)
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The Soviet Story (2008) 85 min. DVD: $49.95. Perry Street Advisors (dist. by The AV Café, tel: 877-228-2233, web: www.theavcafe.com). PPR. ISBN: 978-0-615-27464-5. 
In The Soviet Story, Latvian filmmaker Edvins Snore offers a serious reconsideration of Soviet Union history circa the 1930s and ’40s, highlighting various events either stubbornly ignored by Western media and historians or glossed over as mere footnotes in a wider account of World War II–era Europe, including the genocidal famine aimed at the Ukrainian population, the U.S.S.R.’s participation in Hitler’s invasion of Poland, the Soviets’ war against Finland, their conquest of the neutral Baltic republics, and the massacre of Polish soldiers at Katyn. Snore builds his case using rare newsreel and photographic evidence, along with interviews of aged survivors of the atrocities who provide chilling first-person accounts of this bloody era. Even more disturbing is vintage footage of Western intellectuals supporting the Stalinist concepts of eliminating entire populations—most strikingly, George Bernard Shaw’s vocal prewar support of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Story laments the West’s continued inability to acknowledge the Soviets’ gross human rights violations during these years; in fact, Stalin’s belated alliance with the United States and Great Britain in defeating Nazi Germany is still considered by many to be more significant than the horrors committed under his command. DVD extras include bonus interviews. A disturbing, uncompromising, and powerful documentary, this is highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (P. Hall)
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The Young Romantic: A Portrait of Yundi (2008) 88 min. DVD: $28.98. EuroArts (dist. by Naxos of America, tel: 615-771-9393, web: www.naxos.com). 
In The Young Romantic, filmmaker Barbara Willis Sweete offers a thoroughly flattering portrait of Chinese concert pianist Yundi (formerly Yundi Li), the epitome of the modern classical music phenomenon. A technical wonder—he won First Prize at the 2000 Chopin Competition in Warsaw at age 18—Yundi is a highly personable, boyishly handsome virtuoso. In the film, Yundi expresses thanks to his family and teachers (some of whose methods might strike viewers as harsh), who in turn offer happy memories of the musician as a child. Yundi is grateful and deferential toward his older collaborators, notably conductor Seiji Ozawa, with whom he’s shown rehearsing a Prokofiev concerto in preparation for his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic. And he’s acutely conscious of his debt to both his country (he appears at the opening of Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts) and his audience (giving a recital even after injuring his hand so as not to disappoint them), and he works to nurture appreciation for classical music—making a guest appearance onstage with a pop star, for example. Although Yundi is still maturing as an artist, based on the excerpts included here he’s already a pianist who merits following. Presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and PCM stereo, DVD extras include a 44-minute 2004 recital at La Roque d’Anthéron in France, featuring all four Chopin scherzos and Liszt’s “La Campanella.” Recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)
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