April 13, 2016
Page 5
Slate of Documentaries Worth Watching
Scoping out
the best at
Full Frame
o PinionAted
J udge
by J udge
d arleen o rtega
I just made my annual sojourn
to Durham, North Carolina for the
Full Frame Documentary Film
Festival, the premier documen-
tary film festival in the U.S. It’s
a highlight of my year and gives
me a chance to scope out some of
the best documentaries to watch
out for. I saw a terrific slate of
films, all worth seeing. Here’s
photo Courtesy of M agnolia p iCtures
what I saw, in order of my prefer-
Samantha Montgomery in “Presenting Princess Shaw,” in inspired
ences--and where I can, I’ve noted
film about a talented singer who became an Internet sensation
distribution information.
after toiling in obscurity for years.
1. “Two Trains Runnin’” blew
me away with its melding of sev-
eral musical and civil rights’ sto-
ries, all culminating in the events
of June 1964. During the very
time period that hundreds of col-
lege students traveled to Missis-
sippi for what came to be known
as Freedom Summer, a critical
turning point in the Civil Rights
Movement, two groups of young
white men--musicians, college
students, and record collectors--al-
so separately traveled to Missis-
sippi, but their interest was music,
not activism. They came in search
of Skip James and Son House,
obscure country blues singers
who had recorded magnificent
music 30 years before and then
disappeared. Through a deftly as-
sembled collection of interviews,
remarkable archive footage, and
brilliant animated sequences, the
film captures what a foolish thing
this was for young whites to do at
the time--only thinkable because
most whites outside the South
could not really comprehend the
extent of the racial divide that sev-
ered their own country. And the
thrill and danger of the search for
musicians who had captured their
imaginations (very much in the
manner of “Searching for Sugar-
man”) becomes a touchstone for
the awakening of white Americans
to the importance of the struggle
of their black brothers and sisters
and the beauty and truth that has
long fought for expression in their
music. The very summer--indeed,
the very weekend--that Andrew
Goodwin, James Chaney, and Mi-
chael Schwerner were murdered
by the police and the Ku Klux
Klan, these other young men made
a similar journey, discovered these
two forgotten voices, and brought
them to play at the Newport Folk
Festival a month later to a thun-
derstruck audience of privileged
folk fans. Watching their faces
as they listen to James’ gorgeous
falsetto is like watching a spiritual
awakening. This remarkable film
captures the way in which music
holds and carries the truths we are
not yet ready to recognize in full,
and the confluence of forces that
came together at that time in our
history through the voices of black
Americans and birthed social ac-
tion that we still desperately need
today. The film had its premiere
at Full Frame and features music
from James and House as well as
some of the greats who have cov-
ered them. You can follow the
film on its website (twotrainsrun-
nin.com) and on Facebook to look
for screenings; I am really hoping
it will find a broad audience.
2. “Presenting Princess Shaw”
was my favorite film at the Port-
land International Film Festival
this year, under its former title,
“Thru You Princess.” It holds up
well on second screening, and at
Full Frame Princess Shaw her-
self came on stage afterwards and
performed a couple of songs and
took questions (plus I caught her
in the halls for a hug the day be-
fore). This genuine, open-hearted,
and talented singer toiled in ob-
scurity for so many years, posting
songs and a video diary on You-
Tube (that is, into the void)--until
a visionary Israeli musician and
composer, Kutiman, built arrange-
ments around her original acapella
music and she became an internet
sensation. In the meantime, the di-
rector of this film found her while
making a doc about “YouTubers”
and connected with Kutiman and
C ontinued on p age 10