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July 10, 2019
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audience feeling entirely too good
and not forced to confront their
complicity in oppression of black
folks in their city. That said, I’m
happy to know about this partic-
ular Seattle community leader.
I suspect the film won’t have a
theatrical release, but may find a
place to land online.
One of the best docs I saw was
“One Child Nation,” an expose’
of the one child policy that was in
force in China for 35 years, from
1979 through 2015. Most peo-
ple in the U.S. know little about
the policy, beyond the resultant
heightened favored status of male
heirs which led to a generation of
“little emperors” and a wave of un-
wanted baby girls who were later
adopted, including by Americans.
Not only does this film lift the veil
on a host of much more troubling
human rights violation attendant
to the policy, but it also provides
an occasion to witness director
Nanfu Wang’s own awakening.
She notes that, having grown up
under the policy, she did not ques-
tion it until becoming a parent her-
self in the U.S. An important part
of the journey the film makes is to
document how a practice or pol-
icy with devastating consequenc-
es can be so woven into daily life
that we don’t think to question its
effects. This film documents what
it can mean to wake up and follow
where the questions lead. It will
open theatrically in August.
“Midnight Traveler” also
means to wake us up, to the plight
of asylum-seekers and the strug-
gles they encounter to build a sta-
ble life away from home. Here, a
young Afghan couple, both film-
makers, document their own jour-
ney out, aiming to escape pressure
and death threats from the Taliban.
They leave with their two young
daughters, first to Tajikistan and
then on foot through Turkey, Bul-
garia, and Serbia as they make
their way to the European Union.
It’s a harrowing journey, caught
on their cellphones, and the film
gives a sense of the dangers and
uncertainty they face, along with
all the ways they attempt to make
the best of their circumstances.
The film has garnered attention
and awards on the festival circuit
and is scheduled for a theatrical
release in September.
“The Apollo” exhaustively
mines the history of the legendary
Apollo Theater in Harlem, which
has been a showcase for African
American talent since the 1930s.
Its stage has been the host and of-
ten launching ground for a virtual
who’s who of African American
entertainers ranging from Billie
Holliday and Louis Armstrong to
Gregory Hines to the Supremes--
and this film invites them to share
war stories about what they were
paid, how they were received, and
how hard they work. It also lingers
on the open of a play based on
Ta-Nehisi Coates’ book, “Between
the World and Me,” an occasion to
reflect more deeply on black pride
and freedom of expression. It’s es-
sential viewing for any student of
African American history and an
occasion to savor the cultural rich-
es hosted here. The film premieres
on HBO this fall.
“Fly Rocket Fly” tells the
story of the first private space
company and its founder, Lutz
Kayser, a sort of Elon Musk of
space travel. Kayser founded his
company in 1975 as an alterna-
tive to national space organiza-
tions, thinking he could do it bet-
ter and more cheaply. Maybe so,
but there were some flaws in the
execution; since rocket-building
was prohibited in Germany after
World War II, Kayser moved his
operation to Zaire and cobbled
together an ill-conceived pro-
cess enlisting local folks in pro-
tecting the operation, and after
much chaos and a tragic accident,
the experiment was shut down.
The film is weirdly interest, but
also not wholly successful. It
serves up a lot of questions about
what Kayser was doing without
shedding much insight into why
things broken down and whether
there was another way to make
them work. No American release
has been set as of yet.
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.