Dose of Reality

Scanning This Year’s Documentaries

Sometimes we peek into people’s bedrooms or their cultures.
Sometimes the subject is funny, other times it is brutal. But
documentaries also express the passion and prejudices of the
filmmaker, which means that they can also be self-indulgent, too
long, and even wildly disturbing. Good documentaries — like all
good films — require good storytelling to work. They should
challenge our beliefs and preconceived notions, but mostly they
should get us thinking about important issues. Based on watching
some of the documentaries (not made by Santa Barbarans) that will
be shown at this year’s Film Fest, there are certainly films that
fit all of these notions, good and bad.

The David Lynchian doc Plagues and Pleasure on the Salton Sea,
narrated by John Waters, features a mad Hungarian revolutionary, a
Christian nudist, martini-drinking land sharks, desolate towns,
tons of dead fish, a dying café with a great waitress, and an
offbeat artist who built — and lost — an art mountain. This
wonderfully weird production ultimately frightens when the lens
focuses on the doomed and polluted desert outpost and its
once-alluring lake, the Salton Sea.

Fine documentary-maker Anne Makepeace — and former Santa Barbara
resident (whom I know) — has written, produced, and directed
another compelling, beautiful tale. Rain in a Dry Land follows the
lives of two families from the Bantu tribe of Somalia as they
assimilate to U.S. culture after leaving refugee camps in Kenya.
It’s also about new generations, cultures being preserved — and
lost — and a remembrance that America is a country built on
immigrants.

Everyone of a certain age knows the ending to Christa McAuliffe:
Reach for the Stars, the sad story of the teacher who went to
space, but never made it home. Hard to believe that it’s been 20
years since the spaceship Challenger exploded after lift-off with
seven dedicated astronauts aboard. This loving portrait of Christa
McAuliffe is motivational, moving, and inspiring. This film should
be in all libraries, schools, and shown on TV.

Actors and theater buffs will enjoy Special Thanks to Roy
London, a love letter to actor/acting coach Roy London. Sharon
Stone’s deathbed tale at the end almost makes it worth sitting
through all the talking heads, from actors Brad Pitt, Geena Davis,
Forest Whitaker, and Hank Azaria to playwright Lanford Wilson
(London’s lover of three years) and actor/lover Tim Healey, of
Santa Barbara. Why not more movie scenes?

Little Man could also be called “Save the Baby.” There’s no love
like a mother’s love — and this is a mother’s worst nightmare. This
is the very long story of little Nicolas, who was born 100 days
early, from a surrogate mom, with a heart the size of a cashew and
weighing in at less than one pound. Nicolas has two mommies (one of
whom is the filmmaker), all the nurses and docs at Cedars Sinai
tending to his health, and less than a .00004 percent chance of
survival. You can root to let him go, or you can root for him to
live. You may think you know your leanings — until you meet the
cast. Not for the squeamish or pregnant.

Although the title of Three Women and a Chateau, the story of
“Carolands” (built by the heiress to the Pullman train fortune in
the early part of the 20th century in tony Hillsborough) is better
suited as a souvenir one buys after a house tour. It’ll be of
interest to history and grand house buffs or those intrigued by how
some people with too much money spend it and flaunt it.
Additionally, there are sports docs (see To The Maxxx sidebar page
35); wine/drug flicks (From Ground to Glass — see page 57 — about
winemaking; and Meth, about crystal methamphetamine use within the
gay population); music docs (Who Is Harry Nilsson [And Why Is
Everybody Talkin’ About Him]? and Everyone Stares: The Police
Inside Out); one about the poker trail; animals (including Guatan,
a 14-minute short about training polo ponies in Argentina); the
Nazi death camp story Belzec; Bozo Texino (shot during 10 years to
document the secret life and language of transients); even a few
more that I invariably missed, including several I’m most anxious
to see, including King Leopold’s Ghost (about colonial Africa) and
Willie Francis Must Die Again (about capital punishment in
Louisiana). It’s gonna be a busy 10 days, just on docs alone.