NANKING, WHITE LIGHT/BLACK RAIN: Contemporary Documentaries
War is marvelous adventure, turning men into men and women into Veronica Lake, carrying a grenade in her bosom so as to blow up the Japanese (in So Proudly We Hail). It’s all about glory and friendship and courage and god (pick the deity/ies of your choice) and country (once again, take your pick) and some Great Ideal or other (you have millions — no matter how honorable and/or inane — to choose from).
Now, check those out:
Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman’s Nanking (above, lower photo) and Steven Okazaki’s White Light/Black Rain will screen as part of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences‘ “Contemporary Documentaries” series at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, November 5, at the Linwood Dunn Theater in Hollywood. Admission is free.
Nanking is a depiction of the Japanese invasion of that city during the early days of World War II, with the Academy’s press release describing the film as "a powerful, emotional and relevant reminder of the toll war takes on the innocent." Mariel Hemingway, who reads American missionary Minnie Vautrin’s written records in the film, will be present to take questions from the audience following the screening. Among the other Nanking "readers" are Woody Harrelson, Rosalind Chao, Jürgen Prochnow, and Stephen Dorff, among others.
"I can’t quite explain why it works, but by God, it does," writes Andrew O’Hehir in Salon. "Although Harrelson, Hemingway and the other actors are not doing full-on performances — they’re sitting in chairs, wearing neutral, formal clothes that suggest the period without quite being costumes — they make the horrified witnesses come alive as people who decided for personal or spiritual reasons to take their chances in what was about to become the worst place on the planet."
White Light/Black Rain "provides a graphic, unflinching look at the reality of nuclear warfare through firsthand accounts of Japanese citizens who survived the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and of Americans who carried out those missions."
"Of the fourteen atomic bomb survivors interviewed in White Light, Black Rain," writes C.W. Rogers at the World Socialist Website, "most are speaking publicly about their recollections for the first time. Many were left severely disfigured. The filmmaker, in a very effective approach, introduces the survivors holding photographs of themselves before the bombing. The pictures, mainly portraits of beautiful and innocent children alone or with family members, or class pictures with young classmates, seem to transcend national and ethnic identity."
Why does the cynic in me believe that there won’t be any warmongering imbeciles at the Linwood Dunn next November 5?
Part One of the 27th annual Contemporary Documentaries series continues through December 3. The series showcases feature-length and short documentaries drawn from the 2007 Academy Award nominations, including the winners, as well as "other important and innovative films" considered by the Academy that year.
All films, with the exception of those scheduled for December 3, will screen at the Linwood Dunn Theater at the Academy’s Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. Doors open at 6 p.m. All seating is unreserved.
The Linwood Dunn Theater is located at 1313 Vine Street in Hollywood. Free parking is available through the entrance on Homewood Avenue (one block north of Fountain Avenue). For additional information, visit www.oscars.org or call (310) 247-3600.
THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA at Oakland’s Paramount Theatre
I AM A PROMISE, DEFENDING OUR LIVES: Oscar’s Docs
DAYS OF HEAVEN Academy Screening
THE PANAMA DECEPTION, EDUCATING PETER: Oscar’s Docs
THE 11TH HOUR, PETE SEEGER: THE POWER OF SONG: Contemporary Documentaries
SENATOR OBAMA GOES TO AFRICA Screening in the Bay Area
National Film Board of Canada Salute
DEADLY DECEPTION, IN THE SHADOW OF THE STARS: Oscar’s Docs
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