AIFF films clue locals into foreign cultures
The truth is that we in America live with such abundance that we simply are clueless about the rest of the world. We may feel we know, but it's an abstract knowing. "Recycled Life," nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary: Short Subject, lifts the shade and opens a window and offers a glimpse into a world that is beyond our imaginations.
In Guatemala is a city dump that encompasses over 40 acres. Living and working at the dump are almost 2,000 "guajeros" who scavenge the trash that is brought in daily by an endless stream of trucks. They crawl over the mounds of garbage for anything that can be eaten, worn or recycled. Many are second and third generation, people who know nothing else. The dump is where they live, raise their families, and struggle to keep themselves barely above the Plimsoil line of life.
What is also a reality is that the site is toxic, dangerous and exacts a terrible toll on the "guajeros." To step off the streets of Ashland and watch this documentary is jarring and disturbing. The third world is, in the main, an abstraction. But when its realities are brought to the screen in a finely crafted film, the result can be unsettling.
"Recycled Life" accomplishes what all fine documentary films can, if done well, and that's permit the audience to enter a world that is completely unknown. What this film reveals, through compelling filmmaking, is that the human spirit is a remarkable thing to behold, and can be, like a flower growing in a crack in the sidewalk, inspirational.
"Drifting Elegant" is an animated feature that touches on a number of complex issues that do not lend themselves to neat resolutions. Set in a small San Francisco apartment, which often feels overheated and claustrophobic, four 30-somethings confront their myopia about race, love, dishonesty and perhaps a rush to judgment.
Victor, a young Arab-American, is recently released from prison where he was incarcerated for rape. Because the victim gave a deathbed recantation, he is released. Nate, a white journalist, wants to tell his story; however, Nate's connection to the woman who accused Victor of rape is far more involved than at first suspected. Nate's best friend, an African-American developer, reveals his own surprising racism toward Arabs, during one of several intense discussions that these characters have. Meanwhile, Nate's wife is beginning to question everything about her marriage, and the five years she has spent with Nate. And so it goes.
This feature, while an interesting tapestry of dialogue, is also testimony to how quickly failed communication can metastasize and begin to poison all aspects of relationships. The antidote is often brutal honesty, which can be eminently difficult and fraught with risk.
