"Girl Rising" Movie Review

What prevented you from attending school? An arranged marriage? Child slavery?

"Girl Rising" is the story of nine girls in developing nations deprived of education just because of their gender. Each story is written by a writer from the girl's homeland and told through a mixed narrative that is slight fact and slight "made for tv" re-imagination. 

The story is narrated by 9 actresses. Narrators include Cate Blanchett, Selena Gomez, Anne Hathaway, Salma Hayek, Alicia Keys, Chloe Grace Moretz, Liam Neeson, Freida Pinto, Meryl Streep, and Kerry Washington. The stories are so compelling that you won't even try to guess which celebrity is narrating.

One girl is a child of the dump. Another was sold into bonded labor while her brother was allowed to attend school. Then there is the girl whose parents sold her to buy a beaten-up car for her brother. But through determination and often intervention from others, they are taught to read, and have the opportunity for education.

The narrative is presented by 10x10. It's an organization advocating for female education across the world. Read more here.

'The House I Live In' Tackles The War on Drugs

"As America remains embroiled in conflict overseas, a less visible war is taking place at home, costing countless lives, destroying families, and inflicting untold damage on future generations of Americans. Over forty years, the War on Drugs has accounted for more than 45 million arrests, made America the world’s largest jailer, and damaged poor communities at home and abroad. Yet for all that, drugs are cheaper, purer, and more available today than ever before. Beyond simple misguided policy, The House I Live In examines how political and economic corruption have fueled the war for forty years, despite persistent evidence of its moral, economic, and practical failures."

The House I Live In explores the failed War on Drugs. 

Well, failed in terms of lowering durg use, drug crimes, and crimes overall. But successful if you are a politician seeking to be "tough on crime". 

After all, there are 2.3 million people incarcerated. That's more than those in any industrialized country. 

The film won the 2012 Grand Prize Jury Prize for Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. 

Director Eugene Jarecki, also directed Why We Fight, which won the Jury Prize for Documentary in 2005. On The Daily Show, Jarecki said the drug war was blocking much of the progress brought on by the Civil Rights Movement. 

He conducted interviews with dealers, politicians, law enforcement, affected families, and the incarcerated in over 20 states. Among these is his childhood nannie and second mother, whose son was arrested for drug crimes and many other family members have been in and out of prison because of drug offenses. 

Jarecki told Ebony magazine, "The drug war shouldn’t be mentioned without the word fail in front of it so there is never any doubt. It’s a failure on every level. It’s up to us to put the issue to bed."

Sheri Linden of the Los Angeles Times said, "It's a film as profoundly sad as it is enraging and potentially galvanizing, and it's one of the most important pieces of nonfiction to hit the screen in years."

Movie critic of all critics, Robert Ebert, gave the film 3 and a half stars, calling it a "shattering case against the War on Drugs."

The House I Live In is in limited theater release and SBW is sad we may have to wait until the DVD release to see it.  

"Why Do You Have Black Dolls?" Documentary

Samantha Knowles' short film Why Do You Have Black Dolls?, screened this past weekend at the 15th Reel Sisters of The Diaspora Film Festival & Lecture Series in Brooklyn, New York. 

"Why Do You Have Black Dolls?", is a film inspired by a question asked of an 8-year-old girl. It explores the history, the beauty, and the pride that is the black doll. Through its characters, a little-known community of black doll enthusiasts, it reveals that the black doll is more than a plaything; it is a cultural artifact that represents the history of the people it depicts." 

Watch the trailer here.

Documentary: 'Slavery By Another Name' - Tonight on PBS

"Slavery by Another Name "resets" our national clock with a singular astonishing fact: Slavery in America didn't end 150 years ago, with Abraham Lincoln's 1863 Emancipation Proclamation. Based on Douglas A. Blackmon's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, the film illuminates how in the years following the Civil War, insidious new forms of forced labor emerged in the American South, persisting until the onset of World War II."

The website is here.

In Good Academy Awards News - 'Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights' Oscar Nod

The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement was nominated for Best Documentary Short.  

 

See a clip of the film here. 

'In the days leading up to Barack Obama's victory in the 2008 election, former civil rights activist, James Armstrong, looks back on the early days of the movement.  At age 85, Mr. Armstrong works as a barber in Birmingham, Alabama.  He experiences the manifestation of an unimaginable dream of the election of the America's first Black president.  This colorful and courageous activist of the Civil Rights era casts his vote, celebrates Obama's victory and proudly unfurls the American flag as he is inducted into the Foot Soldiers Hall of Fame. Mr. Armstrong links the magnitude of the present paradigm shift with challenges he faced in the past: from his sons' integration into an all white school to the Bloody Sunday march for voting rights. The documentary raises questions about democracy and patriotism in the face of adversity, and the vigilance and action required to ensure continued forward movement to end racial injustice.'  

Here's to hoping it wins!