Good Ol' Freda, a documentary by Ryan White

As Freda Kelly says near the beginning of the documentary Good Ol' Freda, she has a good secretarial job in Liverpool now, but it is not as exciting as the one she had from 1962-1972. She was personal secretary to the Beatles, starting at age 17, chosen by Brian Epstein from the scores of young working women who frequented lunchtime concerts at the Cavern. She accepted without consulting her dad, who definitely did not approve of the motley lads, but she won him over to her side. She had a knack for cross-generational communications, becoming part of the glue between the Fab Four and many of their own parents. Everyone seemed to love Freda.

Kelly took her job in the months just before the Beatles became famous. Pete Best was still the drummer and the band had only a local following. She helped with the fan club and took over when its founder lost interest. Unknowing of what was about to occur, she changed the fan club address to that of her home. A few months later all of the postmen knew her house.

Kelly was interviewed often as the Beatles secretary and her letters in the fan newsletter were widely read. It was once rumored that she had married Paul McCartney, but she was mostly forgotten by the public after the Beatles split. She kept out of the limelight, especially by staying in Liverpool when the Beatles incorporated moved to London. When she disassembled the Beatles Liverpool office, she gave away many of its artifacts to fans, keeping little herself.

Viewers at our film discussion seemed charmed by her down-to-earth manner. Talk after the film veered to personal memories of Beatles days. It was fun to hear three people remember when they attended Beatles concerts at the Chicago Amphitheatre or at Comisky Park. Everyone seemed glad to have come to our program.

The Lunchbox, a Film by Ritesh Batra

Friday night January 9, 2015 was a historic occasion for the Thomas Ford Memorial Library, as we showed our first film with our newly-installed projection and sound system. While that is not news that made the Chicago Tribune, it was a big deal for us. Our film fans will have a better viewing experience, and our staff will be saved many set-up hours each year.

I was grateful for the seven people who braved the bitter cold to come see and discuss The Lunchbox, a very fitting film for our upgrade debut. We specialize in showing independent and foreign films. The Lunchbox is a critically-acclaimed 2013 film from India set in Mumbai where a very efficient delivery system drops many thousands of lunch boxes on desks in offices daily. Many of these lunches are lovingly made by wives or other family members and carefully packed in stacking tins zipped into thermal cases. It is unlike anything we see in the United States.

Though the Harvard Business School has studied and held up the Mumbai lunchbox deliveries as a model worth emulation, in The Lunchbox, the unthinkable has happened. A lunch has been delivered to the wrong person. The ensuing situation connects two lonely people of different generations. Will a romance develop? Is there just more heartache ahead? In his first film, director Ritesh Batra builds dramatic tension as the young woman and older man deal with difficulties of their lives.

It was all thumbs up at the film discussion and the discussion was lively. It was worth bundling up and coming out in the cold to see.

The Lunchbox. Sony Pictures Classics, 2014. 105 minutes.

The Sapphires, a film by Wayne Blair

Bonnie and I have been watching the British comedy Moone Boy on our local PBS station. One of the standout characters is Martin Moone's imaginary friend Sean Murphy, played by Chris O'Dowd. O'Dowd is also creator of the program. If you have also been watching and would like to see more of O'Dowd, try the 2012 Australian film The Sapphires, an entertaining musical look back at the 1960s.

The story line is that four talented aboriginal girls from a small town outside Melbourne form a singing group hoping for fame and fortune. O'Dowd is Dave Lovelace, the promoter who discovers them and suggests that they switch from singing country songs to Motown soul so they can tour American military bases in Vietnam in 1968. The premise may sound a little far-fetched, but the story is inspired by a true story. Of course, the film producers do not actually tell the true story, changing many of the most important details, but they do capture the sound and look of the time. (Disregard the 1970s Tupperware that appears at a sales party.)

The Sapphires is promoted as a comedy, but it has some serious content. The group is in danger in a war zone, of course, but more critical to the story are scenes in the Australian outback, where they are put down by whites as sub-human. We even see government officials taking away light-skinned children to raise as whites. Comedy and romance, however, dominate. The funniest scenes are those in which the girls learn to sing with soul under O'Dowd's direction.

My library showed The Sapphires in its film discussion series. Attendance was small but we had a great discussion. Everyone said that they were glad they came.

Tim's Vermeer, a film by Teller

Tim Jenison is a former rock musician whose tinkering with sound equipment led to his becoming an inventor and computer graphics artist. At some unspecified time in the past, he noticed how perfect the light, shadows, and colors are in the paintings by Johannes Vermeer. He read books questioning Vermeer's undocumented techniques and concluded that the Dutch painter had to have used an optical device. Flush with funds from all of his successful inventions, he set out to discover Vermeer's method.

Tim's Vermeer is an entertaining film documenting Jenison's obsessive five-year effort. The "proof" of discovery would be Jenison's recreating one of Vermeer's masterpieces using the theorized methods. How could the inventor pull this off, for he was not even an amateur painter? Confidence in himself is something Jenison seems to have in abundance. His experience with the infinitesimal details of computer graphics probably helped developed his awareness of all things optical. Through trial and error, he developed an unusual sequence of mirrors that helped him paint spot by spot with no underlying drawings. The results were almost photographic.

Many in the art world doubt that Jenison really discovered Vermeer's method. If Vermeer did use Jenison's system of mirrors, it would help explain why there are so few paintings by the master, for it is a very slow process. But neither the secretive Vermeer nor any of his contemporaries wrote about how he painted nor left any such mirrors in their studios. We will never know unless some 17th century documents are discovered.

In any case, as I have said, the film is very entertaining. Jenison and the cast of characters around him, including magician Penn Jillette and painter David Hockney, are fascinating people. The mysterious subject of Vermeer appeals to many art fans. Viewers are left with numerous unanswered questions. I think Tim's Vermeer is a great choice for film discussion groups.

Tim's Vermeer. Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, 2014. 80 minutes.

The Waiting Room, a film by Peter Nicks

Who has not been to a hospital emergency room, either as a patient or as companion to a patient? I think I have been twice as a patient: once when I hit my head with a hammer trying to pull a nail and another time when I popped my knee out of joint. Both times were minor emergencies when I could not wait for a doctor's office hours. Emergency rooms are created for such times, but that is not what we see in the documentary The Waiting Room (2012) directed by Peter Nicks.

The Waiting Room was filmed at Highland Hospital in Oakland, California over a 24-hour period in 2011 or possibly 2010. On the DVD cover below the title is the statement "24 hours. 241 patients. One stretched ER." Of all those patients, several were victims of accidents and violent crimes, but most were people without health insurance trying to obtain treatments that they were unable to procure from general practitioners or the specialists to whom they would have been referred if they had health plans. Without appointments, those without life threatening conditions sometimes waited many hours to be seen by the physicians and nurses of the hospital ER. The waiting room was large and crowded.

Unlike many documentaries, The Waiting Room has no explanatory narration. One film reviewer says film viewers are "like flies on the wall." Another said that the film was true cinema verite. In an interview, the directory said that he wanted to show exactly what happens in an urban county hospital emergency room and let viewers decide what it all means. He also indicated that policy wonks from opposite ends of the political spectrum have praised the film as evidence for their positions.

Attendance at the Thomas Ford Memorial Library's showing of The Waiting Room for its film discussion was small, but our discussion was lively and somewhat personal. There was empathy for the patients followed by the filmmaker's cameras and admiration for the hospital staff. Discussion trended toward national health care policy, of course, and were left with a series of timely questions: "Has the launch of the Affordable Health Care Act relieved any of the stress on urban emergency rooms? Is The Waiting Room now an out-of-date film?" Time to ask a librarian.

Nicks, Peter. The Waiting Room. Cinedigm Entertainment Corp., 2013. 80 minutes. OCLC: 856022442.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams: Humanity's Lost Masterpiece, a Film by Werner Herzog

In 1994, the timeline of human art lengthened dramatically. In fact, it doubled when three explorers discovered a wealth of ancient paintings in a cave above the beautiful Ardeshe River in rural Southern France. Radiocarbon dating identified the horses, bison, lions, bears, and other images found on the limestone walls to be approximately 32,000 years old. To preserve the paintings, the cave has never been opened to the public and even access to scientists has been strictly limited. Luckily for us, veteran German film director Werner Herzog and his cinematic team were given a few hours in Chauvet Cave to film the wonderful art, resulting in the documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams: Humanity's Lost Masterpiece.

Unlike many ancient figures, the animals painted in Chauvet Cave are not by any means simple or crude. The artists were keen observers of nature and very skilled at drawing. Their figures display an understanding of anatomy and evoke motion. The artists were even able to use the curves and hollows of the walls to enhance the vitality of their elaborate scenes. I find it fascinating that so much was done so cleverly by flickering firelight.

Herzog interviews many scientists inside and outside the cave. They tell us how the ancient mouth of the cave collapsed, how cave explorers located fissures evicting cave air, how the painters worked, and what is being done to preserve the art. Lovingly, the cinematographer dwells slowly on the images, letting us see the cave's most famous images again and again.

Herzog, Werner. Cave of Forgotten Dreams: Humanity's Lost Masterpiece. IFC Films, 2011. ISBN 9780788614156.

Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles, A Film by Jon Foy

Image that you are walking in a city, such as Philadelphia, Chicago, or New York. You have to cross a street. In doing so, you notice what appears to be a plaque imbedded in the street. Do you read it? If it made no sense to you, would you even think about it later?

Young high school dropout/document courier/artist Justin Duerr and his friends in Philadelphia began noticing strange tiles in the streets in the 1990s. The recurring message intrigued them.

Toynbee Idea
In Movie '2001
Resurrect Dead
On Planet Jupiter 

What was that about? They had to know and started an investigation, culminating in the documentary Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles.

Ten of us gathered at the Thomas Ford Memorial Library on a Friday night this fall to view and discuss the 2011 documentary, which Roger Ebert had included in his best documentaries list for that year. We have seen many unusual films in our over ten years of meeting, and Resurrect the Dead scored high on our weird scale. (I wish we really had a formal weird scale so I could report the score.)

We were captivated by the unrelenting efforts of Duerr and his friends Steve Weinik and Colin Smith to discover 1) who was making and laying the Toynbee tiles, 2) what they meant, and 3) where were all of the tiles. The third question was the easiest to answer, as people from Boston to Kansas City had noticed tiles and shared their pictures on the Internet. A large concentration were in Philadelphia. A small scattering of tiles had also been discovered in South America, one of which included a Philadelphia street address. Much of the film shows the researchers trying to answer questions one and two.

Our group of film fans was riveted to the screen, eager to learn the research teams latest discoveries. Look for the documentary at your library or request it through interlibrary loan.

Foy, Jon. Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles. E1 Entertainment, 2012. ISBN 9781417235858.

The American Scream

On Friday night after showing The American Scream to our film discussion group at the library, I had the worst nightmare that I can remember having since childhood. It involved my going into our kitchen and hearing a scream coming from the stew pot on the stove. Even in my dreams I should have known better than to lift the lid on the stew pot. I can't even begin to describe the horror.

This is all a little surprising. Though there are plenty of grizzly images in documentary The American Scream, which shows three home haunters and their families preparing for Halloween, the film was mostly light and sweet. Some of the home haunters were obsessive in their efforts to put on a good show in either their basements or backyards, but they all seemed intent on having good fun. There were some family issues to sort out, but every family seemed to love being a part of the fun. I especially liked the father and son who volunteered as clowns for parties and community events when they were not preparing for Halloween. It all made me want to decorate our yard or go to a haunted house right away.

You might ask what there was to discuss in a mostly straight forward documentary chronicling a month of preparations for Halloween. I'd suggest examining the characters in the film and your own community feeling about the holiday. You'll probably start talking about your own Halloween memories. That's what the ten people who came to our discussion did.

Here is the trailer to give you a feel for the film: The American Scream trailer.

Searching for Sugar Man, a film by Malik Bendjelloul

At Thomas Ford, we are quite proud of our film discussion program, started by Aaron Schmidt in 2003. We have shown a lot of great out-of-the-mainstream films, constantly enlightening and entertaining our regular and occasional discussion group members. That said, I think there was a special buzz about the room when we showed Searching for Sugar Man, a documentary about the life of folk/rock singer Rodriguez. The film had gotten many positive reviews but few venues in the western suburbs of Chicago had shown it. There was elevated interest in our showing of the film. Rachel Hoover, our selector, made an excellent choice for our series.

Searching for Sugar Man tells an incredible story. Sixto Rodriguez of Detroit, Michigan was a successful if somewhat mysterious local musician in the late 1960s and early 1970s. He sought no publicity but did record two albums that sold very poorly in the United States. What no one in America noticed was that someone took copies of these albums to apartheid-torn South Africa where they became "the music of the times." Many former protesters attest that he was an inspiration for their movement. Most incredibly, Rodriguez never knew. He dropped out of the music scene, and worked in construction in a city that was falling apart.

This could be a very sad story, but it is not. The film is a celebration of music, much of it running through the soundtrack.

What struck me is the frequent comparisons of Rodriguez to Bob Dylan. I can understand how the social commentary in the lyrics of several songs suggests the comparison, but vocally and musically I think Rodriguez sounds much more like Don McLean and Jose Feliciano. The studio albums, which were recorded in London and California, were given rich orchestral treatment typical of the era. In interviews, his record producers repeatedly state they still can not figure out why he was not a star in America. Over 40 years later, the Coming from Reality album sounds very good to me.

It is nice to add that Searching for Sugar Man won numerous awards and that Rodriguez seems to remain a humble character not turned by fame. We can hope for more happy endings.

Searching for Sugar Man. Sony Picture Classics, 2013. 87 minutes.

42 and The Baseball Encyclopedia, 8th ed.

When Bonnie and I got home from seeing 42, the recent movie about Jackie Robinson's breaking the color line of major league baseball, I went straight to one of our bookcases for The Baseball Encyclopedia. We had questions to answer, and since our 8th edition of the BE has comprehensive statistics and facts through the 1989 season, we could verify details from the movie.

My first question came from the opening sequence of the movie. The 42 moviemakers included Stan Musial as one of the star players who missed playing time due to World War II. I thought that he had played for the Cardinals without interruption through the war, but I was wrong. He missed the 1945 season. BE verifies the gap in his career.

My second burning question was the identity of the pitcher that the Dodgers traded to the Pirates early in the 1947 season after he had led a petition effort to get Robinson off the team. (I had trouble keeping track of character names during 42.) I was able to triangulate the answer by checking three sections - "The Teams and Their Players," "Trades," and "Pitcher Register." I learned that K. Higbe was a starting pitcher for the Dodgers in 1946 and for the Pirates in 1947. "Trades" showed that Kirby Higbe was traded by the Dodgers on May 3, 1947 to the Pirates with four other players. I checked the "Pitcher Register" just to see how many games Higbe played before the 1947 trade. The answer was four. He had been the Dodgers' winningest pitcher in 1946, so the trade sent a strong message to the rest of the team.

Bonnie wanted to know about the Pirate pitcher who beaned Robinson in one of the games between the teams. His name was Fritz Ostermueller. Though he was called "a mad dutchman" or something to that effect, he was born in Quincy, Illinois. Not every objecting player was from the South.

I had read about Dodger manager Leo Durocher being suspended for a year but had not remembered that it was 1947. The "Manager Register" in BE showed that it was and that he was back at the helm in 1948. The 42 writers did not rearrange events for dramatic effect in this regard.

Of course, the manager that we most wanted to verify was Ben Chapman, the Phillies skipper, who heckled Robinson with racial slurs mercilessly each time the Dodger came to bat. During the credits at the end of the film, the filmmakers indicate that Chapman's managing career ended the next season. That was true, as Chapman managed 79 games into 1948 and was fired by his 7th place team. His lack of success, not his racism, probably sealed his fate. Bonnie and I discussed why the umpires did not stop what was obvious racist behavior. The umpires and the league that paid them may not have wanted Robinson in uniform either. Besides, umpires mostly eject players or manager for disputing or insulting umpires.

42 shows Robinson, the 1947 Rookie of the Year, stealing bases almost at will whenever he reached first base. He led the National League in the category that year, but I was surprised to see he did so with only 29 stolen bases. Perhaps, being intentionally spiked by a rival player mid-season took a toll on his speed. Two years later, when he was the National League Most Valuable Player, he would again lead the league with 37 steals. He played 10 years in the major leagues, all with the Dodgers in Brooklyn, and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1962.

At first, I thought Harrison Ford's portrayal of Branch Rickey oddly comic, especially his low voice, but I got used to it. He has many of the best lines in the movie. However, I was always aware that it was Harrison Ford on the screen. The rest of the cast seemed real to me. The movie was a bit too pretty, as movies often are. Perhaps it should have been in black and white. Still, it achieved its goal of telling the story and I would like to see it again.

The Baseball Encyclopedia. 8th ed. MacMillan Publishing, 1990. 2781p. ISBN 0025790404.

Karen Cries on the Bus a film by Gabriel Rojas Vera

We have all imagined, if only for a moment, the lives of strangers. Most of us guess a few stereotypical details and drop the matter quickly. Colombian film director Gabriel Rojas Vera, however, after seeing a woman quietly crying on a bus in Bogata, wrote and directed the film Karen Cries on the Bus, the story of a timid woman trying to break away from her marriage to find a more satisfying life. From the opening scene of Karen on a late night bus, viewers know something has gone wrong in her life.

Dressed nicely, if somewhat plainly, she seems out of place on the bus and in the poor neighborhood in which she drags her rolling suitcase. In the dark, she pleads for a room and overpays. In the morning, after she discovers the filth and insects, she begins her search for a job with which to support herself. The quest is, of course, difficult for a woman who has never worked outside the home, and her resolve is quickly tested by offers from her mother and husband to let her return to where they want her.

The director has said that he was quite astonished by the strong response to his film by women in his country. He thought he was telling an individual's story, but many women of Colombia and elsewhere identify with Karen's struggle against the demand that she return to the role her family had assigned her as a youth. Our film discussion group at the library was sympathetic and appreciated the artful storytelling. Karen Cries on the Bus is a good addition to foreign film collections.

Rojas Vera, Gabriel. Karen Cries on the Bus. Film Movement, 2011. ISBN 9781461843849.

The Story of the Weeping Camel

This week's final nature film is a docudrama called The Story of the Weeping Camel. Like Winged Migration, the producers use artistic license in the creation of this film, arranging scenes to tell the story that they want to tell, a sort of Mongolian legend in which traditional music is used to manage a problem associated with a rare white camel calf*. I don't want to tell you what as to save the surprise.

While the plot may be scripted, the setting is authentic. Viewers see nomads from Mongolia's Gobi Desert raising their camels, goats, and sheep and living in their gers. We observe the daily life of four generations who seem to be quite prosperous. Inside their gers, are colorful blankets and painted furniture. They may not have been moved recently. Outside the scenery is stark and dry, but the herds seem large and healthy. Camels drive the pump that lifts water from their well. The herders trim hair off the camels to weave their own ropes. The scene seems timeless, except for some bright plastic barrels and the radio that the grandfather keeps. We learn late in the film that they could have a television, but the elders fear the children would waste their time.

The pace of the movie is slow compared with Hollywood fare, but that is a big part of the charm. You can learn much more about the film and life in Mongolia at the National Geographic website.

The Story of the Weeping Camel. New Line Home Entertainment, 2005. 87 min. ISBN 078065014X.

*In the film, the baby camel is referred to as a colt, but I found that zoos consistently use the term calf in their postings on the website ZooBorns. National Geographic also uses calf in its website description of the film.

Jane's Journey

We continue nature film week with Jane's Journey, a biographical portrait of Jane Goodall, who has become a champion of conservation and the ethical treatment of animals. At nearly two hours, this documentary recounts the primatologist's long career, showing her childhood, early chimpanzee studies in Gombe National Park in Tanzania, and global campaign for a variety of environmental causes.

Thanks to Goodall's father, who was an early advocate of home movies, we are able to see her as a child, and she was comfortable in front of cameras when National Geographic arrived at her compound on the shores of Lake Tanganyika in the early 1960s. The magazine articles and television specials that National Geographic produced made young Goodall an international hero quickly. The first half of Jane's Journey describes her years of primate study, her failed marriage with photographer Hugo Van Lawick, and the loss of natural habitat for the wildlife of Africa. The second half shows Goodall as ambassador to the world. A subplot throughout is her strained relationship with her son Hugo, known to people worldwide since his birth as Grub.

Because her causes are now her life, we travel to many troubled places in the later part of the film. The saddest may have been in the United States, as Goodall visited a Native American reservation where poverty and lack of hope have led to many adolescent suicides; her Roots and Shoots program is supporting community gardens to improve nutrition and create civic pride there. Her visit to a Congolese refugee camp was also quite moving. There, as in many places, she is surrounded by people eager to transform their lives and environments.

Jane's Journey will be appreciated by her fans worldwide.

Jane's Journey. First Run Features, 2011. 111 min.

Winged Migration

As I mention in my review of Himalaya with Michael Palin a few weeks ago, we got a flat-wide-screen television which excels at showing nature programs. To celebrate, I am making this nature film week at ricklibrarian. Today we start with one of my favorites, Winged Migration by director James Perrin. This film about the world's birds, many of whom travel great distances seasonally, is filled with dramatic forests, mountains, beaches, and deserts against which the colorful birds are strikingly beautiful. With little dialogue, the film records flocks of birds traveling north to breed and south to escape the winter. In some sequences we simply hear wind, waves, and the flapping of wings. Sometimes new age music accompanies the birds in flight. It is wonderful viewing.

Like many films that we have seen on PBS's Nature or National Geographic Specials, Winged Migration is the story of a year. What distinguishes this film, which was a feature attraction in theaters, is the point of view. We are close flying alongside the birds crossing spectacular landscapes. To get such shots, the producers had to go beyond the rules followed by many nature filmmakers who record unscripted events. Perrin and his crew hatched flocks of migrating birds that imprint well and taught them to accept the sounds of motor boats, ultralights, paragliders, trucks, and motor scooters. We do not hear motorized sounds or the calls of bird keepers, all of which were edited out of the scenes. In the special feature Making-of, the producers admit that their film is not real life but stress their recreation of nature.

Over 450 people worked on the film, 17 pilots and 14 cinematographers. Shooting took three years and another year was spent editing. Each minute of the film represents about two months of a crew on location. The movie was release in the U.S. in 2003 and is still stunning. Viewers with new televisions should borrow Winged Migration again.

Winged Migration. Sony Pictures Classics, 2003. 89 min. ISBN 9781404923096.

Bill Cunningham New York directed by Richard Press

Who's that man in the blue windbreaker taking candid photos of people on the streets of New York? Why do so many people seem so unconcerned when he lopes ahead or behind them, snapping shots from many angles? Do they know him? Yes, many do. He's Bill Cunningham, fashion photographer of the New York Times, and for decades he's been taking their pictures for his Sunday fashion column. Many Manhattanites dress up hoping Bill will notice their wild hats, capes, shoes, earrings, purses, and vests, and they are quite pleased when their photos show up in the newspaper. They strut for Bill, who is the subject of the intimate 2010 documentary film Bill Cunningham New York directed by Richard Press.

There are many surprising things about Bill, including his age. At over 80, he dashes between his Manhattan assignments on a bicycle regardless of the weather. At several points, I thought he might get hit by a cab, but he seems to be protected by a guardian angel. He also lived at the time of the filming in an old artist apartment at Carnegie Hall without a closet, kitchen or bathroom. Most of the space was taken with filing cabinets holding his photo archive. His bed was a mattress propped on boxes wedged between cabinets. He always eats out - the cheaper the better. Despite his total lack of pretension, he receives invitations to many of the most exclusive society affairs in the city, where he never accepts even a drink of water while others wine and dine.

Before our film discussion group viewed Bill Cunningham New York, I couldn't imagine being interested in a fashion photographer, but Bill is a totally free spirit who seems to enjoy nearly every minute. In the serious moments of the film, you will discover that he works very hard to remain independent. Whether he is a viable model for living is a good topic for any discussion group - after they stop laughing.

Bill Cunningham New York. Zeitgeist Films, 2010. 84 minutes.

Skin, a Film Directed by Anthony Fabian

Genetic science was not well understood by common people in the 1950s when a dark-skinned girl was born to Abraham and Sannie Laing, white Afrikaners living in the East Transvaal of South Africa. History was also misunderstood, as white Afrikaners had been taught that their ancestors had settled an empty land long before the arrival of dark tribes that they forced to work their crops and mines. The idea that many of them were of mixed race seemed ridiculous to them. With their own prejudices against blacks, her parents raised Sandra as white, not preparing her for the protest that arose when they sent her to boarding school. Nor did they imagine the three decades of trouble dramatized by director Anthony Fabian in his 2008 film Skin.

With a talented cast from Great Britain, South Africa, and other Commonwealth countries, Skin portrays the pervasive prejudice of 1950s to 1990s. Shopkeeper Abraham Laing (played by Sam Neill) will not allow the blacks to hand him money; glaring at them, he taps on the counter when they try to do so. Other people stare at Sandra (played by Sophie Okonedo) when she goes into a restaurant with date who talks constantly of chicken farming. When Sandra's racial classification is contested in court, crowds fill the courtroom and the streets. Her ever-changing legal status makes her life difficult, but is almost irrelevant in the end. She is seen as an outsider by everyone.

Skin is an excellent choice for film groups, for it is artfully made and has troubled characters with perplexing situations worthy of discussion. Viewers at the Thomas Ford Memorial Library were sympathetic and wanted to learn more about the Apartheid Era and current South African affairs. Because its distribution in the U.S. was very limited, many libraries can debut it to their communities. We had our best turn out of the season.

Trailer on You-Tube

Skin. E1 Entertainment, 2011. 107 minutes. ISBN 9781417233816

Terry Jones' Barbarians

Who were the Barbarians? According to Terry Jones of Monty Python fame, the Barbarians were, by ancient Roman definition, all the peoples of the earth who were not Romans. The Romans, as you might know, regarded other people who did not conform to their ideal culture as inferior, brutal, uncouth, unrefined, crude. Add dangerous, violent, chaotic, blood-thirsty, ravenous, and other such terms, and the Romans had good reason to strike preemptively to protect their nation and way of life. The word barbarian has survived with many negative connotations. And because the Romans were the victors and wrote the histories, their views of the ancient world have been preserved and accepted as fact.

Were the Celts, Goths, Vandals, Huns, Persians, and other ancient societies really so terrible? Terry Jones and a community of historians and archeologists now question the Roman view and have found copious evidence that the Romans have misreported many events, including the nail-hammering Sack of Rome. The Barbarian cultures were often wealthy and technologically ahead of the Romans, who were really great as soldiers, lawyers, and builders, but less known for their arts, literature, math, and science. Women in Barbarian cultures had more rights than those in Rome, and Barbarians were more accommodating to foreign cultures. Unlike Rome, most of the Barbarians did not maintain standing armies. Jones and the historians that he consults pose that the Barbarians were often less likely to rape and pillage than the Romans. So, just who was more civilized? Who was just posing to overthrow governments and steal other cultures' wealth?

Jones presents his views in a very entertaining set of BBC programs Terry Jones' Barbarians, with a companion book Terry Jones' Barbarians. I was not quite sure at first how serious he was, for he is still an excitable, highly animated performer strutting on screen, giving us a smile and a laugh. He even slips a few Python lines into the script. But he takes viewers to the battlefields, archeological sites, and museums, and he lets the experts make their case that the Barbarians deserve reconsideration. Jones even contends that many British and Americans people owe their Celtic ancestors more respect.

Terry Jones' Barbarians was shown on the BBC in 2006 and does not seem to have gotten much attention in the U.S. Only the first four episodes appear to be available via DVD. The only evidence I have found that there were more episodes is the Internet Movie Database entry for the series. I'd love to see them.

Terry Jones' Barbarians. Koch Vision : Distributed by Koch Entertainment, [2007], 2 DVDs. ISBN 9781417229932.

Jones, Terry. Terry Jones' Barbarians. BBC Books, 2006. 288p. ISBN 9780563493181.

The Big Year, Directed by David Frankel

I am not contemplating making 2012 be my "Big Year." Even if I was, I would not tell you. The odds of winning the race to see or hear the most bird species in a year are better if no one knows you are running. "Running" is the correct word. Competitive birders run for planes, run through money, and run toward the sound of a bird. That you will learn in the movie The Big Year, directed by David Frankel, loosely based on the 2004 book The Big Year: A Tale of Man, Nature, and Fowl Obsession by Mark Obmascik.

In the original book, Obmascik recounts January 1, 1998 to December 31, 1998, a year in which three men independently set out to break roofing contractor Sandy Komito's one year bird spotting record for the North American continent. One of the men was Komito himself. The others were successful businessman Al Levantin and insufficiently funded software engineer Greg Miller. Obmascik's book is a serious story with humorous overtones. Readers come away from the book learning how only a person willing to give up everything normal could do a Big Year. The movie stays pretty true to the book in spirit, though it plays for more laughter. You expect this with comic actors Owen Wilson (as Kenny Bostick), Steve Martin (as Stu Preissler), and Jack Black (as Brad Harris).

As a very laid-back birder, I found much to like in the movie. The scenery is great, and many real birds get walk-on (fly-on) roles in the entertaining story. The producers even worked with the Cornell Lab of Ornithology to make the birding as authentic as possible, and all 745 birds spotted by the top birder are quickly shown during the credits. Of course, you don't have to like birds to like the movie. It's a romp across America with three funny men, one of whom pays a terrible price to win. Not yet available in DVD, but it will be popular when it is.

Autism: The Musical

What is autism? I have just watched the documentary Autism: The Musical, and I am having trouble pinning down a definition without referring to a dictionary. I know it is a neurological disorder that interferes with a person's ability to communicate and socialize, and it may manifest itself many ways, as shown in the film which follows five elementary and middle school age children. The four boys and one girl have very different abilities. Henry knows much about dinosaurs and sounds like a professor telling others what he knows. Highly verbal Wyatt seems to understand everything that is going on among the people around him yet not be able to join in; he tells his mother exactly what will happen if his is mainstreamed at school. Adam can play the cello but is highly excitable and may start running in circles. Neal is non-verbal but shows great promise with a keyboard speaker. Lexi can sing songs by Joni Mitchell yet has trouble putting together a sentence of her own. Autism must be a large family of disorders to cover these five children.

Educator and drama coach Elaine Hall is the mother of Neal. She had the idea that he and other children could put together a musical performance after starting the Miracle Project, a theater program that mixes typically developing children with those with special needs. Such a program would challenge the children and show others how not to underestimate them. Filming the work must have been a given from the start, for Hall has been coaching child actors for television. Many of the parents of the children also have television and entertainment ties.

Like Mad Hot Ballroom and Young @ Heart, the cameras show much more than rehearsal and performance. Viewers meet the children and their families in their homes, some of which have had marriages torn by the pressures of raising special needs children. The upcoming musical actually seems to be an almost forgotten plot element at times, as the stories of the children dominate our attention. And that is just fine. We do see some scenes from the musical at the end, which are important but probably less so than the story of its creation. Autism: The Musical, which won numerous film festival awards, deserves being in many library DVD collections and is a good title for film discussion groups.

Autism: The Musical. Docuramafilms, 2007. ISBN 1422907996.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling

How many horcruxes and how many hallows? Where were they all to be found? How did Harry, Ron, and Hermione beat the Dark Lord? I read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling twice back in 2007, but there was so much I had forgotten. When I saw the final Harry Potter movie a week ago, I felt almost like an HP newbie. I knew what the outcome would be, but many plot details had been deleted from my memory. Wondering afterwards how closely the script writers had followed the book (and wondering how porous is my brain), I chose to reread the 759 page book.

Now I can report that the script writers (1) stayed relatively close to the book in intent and (2) strayed a little farther in detail, and (3) my brain has some pretty big holes.

(1) The action of every chapter after the death of Dobby is reflected in the movie. The beginning of the movie Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 can be found around page 480 in the book. The sequence of scenes after that point is pretty much the same. The same people live and die. Those who survive rebuild the wizarding world.

(2) Some details were changed. In the movie, Hermione decides the brave trio of young wizards should ride out of Gringotts' vaults on a dragon; in the book, it is Harry's idea. In the movie, Luna recommends that Harry ask the ghost Helena Ravenclaw about the location of her mother's lost diadem; in the book, Harry himself realizes that only a ghost would know but does not know which to seek until told by Peeves. The scene that takes place in a boat house in the movie is set in the Shrieking Shack in the book. In the movie, Ron has to coax Hermione to destroy one of the horcruxes, while in the book she does it readily.

(3) I did not remember the part about Ariana Dumbledore being in the picture in her brother's tavern at all. I forgot the sequence of events involving the diadem. I was surprised to see Mrs. Weasley in the battle. I had forgotten how Harry learned Snape's secrets. I did not remember all the stone statues defending the bridge. My memory loss since 2007 was major.

Now that I have that all straight (though I still have to think hard to count off the horcruxes), I can hardly wait for the movie to get to the Tivoli Theater in Downers Grove, our favorite place for a second viewing.

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. 2007. ISBN 9780545010221.