I saw two movies today after Mishima, but didn’t get a chance to write them up until now.
It’s hard to talk about Burning the Future: Coal in America as cinematic art. This documentary about the environmental effects on mountaintop mining is propaganda, pure and simple. But as I’m in complete sympathy with its message–that coal industry profits and our lust for electricity are ruining the health and lives of the people of rural West Virginia–I liked it, anyway. Director David Novack humanizes the issue by giving us a chance to really get to know some of the victims-turned-activists. If you nurse any stereotypes about hillbillies, this movie can cure you.
Novack answered questions after the film, but I wasn’t able to stay for the Q&A, as I had a ticket for another film about to start. Which brings us to:
Jerusalema. This is the best new film I’ve seen at the festival–hands down. Like the Warner Brothers gangster flicks of the early 1930’s, it tells the tale of a street punk who rises to the top of his profession through a combination of brains, charm, and ruthlessness. But this isn’t prohibition America, but post- Apartheid South Africa. In other words, it’s a society filled with grnding poverty, new opportunities, lingering racism, and bitter disappointment that the revolution didn’t bring Utopia.
In this environment, Lucky Kunene (Jafta Mamabolo as a boy, Rapulana Seiphemo as a man) shows both street smarts and book smarts. Accepted into a business school but unable to pay for tuition, he takes to hijacking cars. Eventually he’s taking over Johannesburg tenements, intimidating both the tenants and the landlords, and doing well by pretending to do good. Both actors manage to make him both repulsive and likeable. You can’t help rooting for Lucky even when you feel bad about it. Since most of the movie is told in flashback, you have a pretty good idea where he’s going to end up–even if you aren’t familar with the genre.
As far as I know, Jerusalema is not set for commercial release, which is too back. It plays again tomorrow (Monday) night at 9:15 at the Rafael.
Bayflicks 