April 26, 2017
Page 15
A Feast of Films
c ontinued froM p age 8
violence. This film gives this par-
ticular family a place of respect
and challenges the dominant nar-
rative about African American life
by holding up the mirror of truth.
I really hope this empathetic film
finds a platform and an audience.
“Step” was the best of the three
documentaries I saw about school
life. Amanda Lipitz, directing her
first feature-length documentary,
chooses to follow the senior year
of the first graduating class at the
Baltimore Leadership School for
Young Women, which aims to
successfully place all its students
into college and to equip them to
succeed there. The film focuses
on three young women and on
the dance team to which they are
all devoted. It provides useful
windows into the struggles that
are typical of African American
girls and the amount of fight and
sheer luck it takes for even those
in such supportive environments
to aspire and reach goals beyond
survival. The role that dance plays
for these girls is also important,
planting into their bodies a sense
of determination and expression
they didn’t know they possessed.
I’m not completely sure the film-
maker knows what she has here,
but she handles her young subjects
with care and respect so that the
film doesn’t feel exploitive as oth-
er such films do. It is headed for a
theatrical release (I just saw a pre-
view for it in a theater this week-
end) and is worth watching for.
“An Insignificant Man” is a
fascinating window into Indian
politics, following the insurgent
campaign of Arvind Kejriwal for
political office in New Delhi. A
tax official, turned activist, turned
politician, Kejriwal is a polarizing
figure, fighting against corruption
amidst criticism that he is himself
is arrogant and controlling. The
film follows two years in which he
headed the formation of the Com-
mon Man’s Party and an anti-cor-
ruption movement that certainly
appears necessary. Unassuming
and compelling, the fascinating
mixture of his alliance with an-
other anti-corruption politician
with whom he later splits, as well
as various dramatic events, leave
viewers to wonder where the truth
access to police and officials car-
rying out their jobs, and elects
to simply show rather than using
talking heads to tell the story. In
many ways, the real life action
is an effective choice, forcing
viewers to struggle with how
difficult it is to evaluate which
police and leadership choices
are the most defensible and the
soundest. On the other hand, the
film’s dispassionate tack may in-
crease the possibility that viewers
will simply project and then take
away the same perspective they
brought into the theater. Still, it’s
interesting to watch an apparent-
ly well-meaning, new police chief
earnestly express fairly solid ideas
geous” (available now online
on YouTube Red) is a pleasant
but not particularly illuminating
look at the life and transition of a
transgender online personality. In
his early years, Greg Lazzarato,
the second of three brothers in a
loving middle-class family, was
an ebullient character and diving
champion. At age 14, he estab-
lished an online presence, coming
out as gay and dispensing make-
up tips as Gregory Gorgeous.
After the passing of his beloved
mother, he began transitioning to
female, a process which is docu-
mented here. Gigi is pleasant and
warm, but because she has such
a loving family and significant
Tayla Solomon (from left) Cori Granger and Blessin Giraldo from the documentary “Step.”
of Kerjiwal’s own capacity to
bring change may lie. Follow the
film at insignificantman.com.
“The Force,” which won a
documentary directing price at
Sundance, is a two-year look at
the Oakland Police Department
during a period in which it was
under federal monitoring and
pressure to reform. Director Peter
Nicks was given unprecedented
at reform and then blink when he
has to make a particularly dif-
ficult moral choice; and then to
watch a similar transformation
in a well-meaning mayor. There
are a lot of questions raised and
not answered in the film, but that
approach offers some benefits for
deepening understanding of this
complex topic.
“This is Everything: Gigi Gor-
means, her story feels more like
that of Kaitlyn Jenner (whom she
admires) than that of most trans-
gender people -- and she is not
insightful enough to add much
self-reflection or insight in the re-
telling.
“Depth Two” probes deeply
for the truth of war atrocities in
Serbia soon after they are cov-
ered up, but it would help to know
more than I did about the context
of the crimes. The film opens with
a description of the discovery of a
truck filled with bodies at the bot-
tom of the Danube and continues
narrating the discovery of mass
graves. The narration consists of
voices of those who unearth these
finds, and also people who were
witnesses or victims or perpetra-
tors of the tragedies they reveal.
The filming itself is mostly of
barren landscapes connected to
the sites, which gives the film an
apocalyptic feel but also dimin-
ishes its impact, especially since
American audiences will be read-
ing the narration in subtitle form.
Worth seeking out if you are inter-
ested in this particular set of war
tragedies; though they are typical
of what happens in war, this film
is a bit hard for someone outside
Serbian culture to access for its
full impact.
“Storyboard P, a stranger in
Sweden” follows a talented street
dancer to Sweden, where he danc-
es and teaches and hustles and
refuses to compromise in even
the smallest way in deference to
his art. He’s a wonder when he
dances, but both he and this film
are intermittently exasperating in
their disdain for practical reality
and refusal to engage with who
is bearing the costs of Storyboard
P’s choices. I always want to root
for art, but this particular exam-
ple sometimes made that difficult,
especially since the filmmaker
doesn’t add much insight to the
exercise.
Darleen Ortega is a judge on
the Oregon Court of Appeals and
the first woman of color to serve
in that capacity. Her movie review
column Opinionated Judge ap-
pears regularly in The Portland
Observer.
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