This tenth anniversary of the largest documentary film showcase in the country offered up such a rich and diverse quantity of first rate films that it was quite frustrating to not be possible to see more of them. This year honored a pioneer in the field, D.A. Pennebaker who died this year. Sadly, missing this year, as well, were Albert Maysles, Jonathan Demme and Agnès Varda. Full reviews have been published in the last few weeks on this site of The Recorder: The Marion Stokes Project and The Apollo. The following are brief summaries of some of the other worthy ones I was able to see.

Shooting the Mafia

Directed by Kim Longinotto Letizia Battaglia, at 84, sports a pinkish-orange hairdo that feels a lot like the late great Agnès Varda. A bold and courageous, boundary-pushing photographer, who eschewed the traditional role of the women of her time in Sicily in the 1970s to document the realities of daily life under the grip of the Cosa Nostra in Palermo.

The bloody violence perpetrated on their enemies with seeming impunity provided images as grisly as anything shot by the American, Weegee. Her goal, which was to expose the unbridled viciousness and power of the mob to the world with a view to bring about change, put her in constant mortal danger herself. She appears to be missing the fearful gene. She refused to be intimidated.

She talks frankly and intimately with a wry sense of humor into the camera about her life and her many lovers who she continues to attract even until today. As she gets older, the lovers seem to stay young. Her current one was born when she was 38. The body of work which she has created represents a social and political history of Palermo during its most corrupt and dangerous twenty years, until finally the populace rose up, rioting and protesting, demanding that the police and politicians clean up their acts. The work is beautiful and terrible in the story it tells.

Letizia was featured in Issue 18: Humanity. Read it here.

DESERT ONE

Directed by Barbara Kopple If you thought you knew all there was to know about the Iran hostage debacle, this will definitely fill in blanks, add context and massive amounts of up-close granular detail. Academy Award winner, Barbara Kopple has acquired previously unseen archival materials allowing us to see exactly how, in spite of meticulous planning under huge duress and extraordinary secrecy, an unimaginable cascade of unforeseen small glitches, minor miscalculations, and bad luck brought the bold rescue plan to its tragic and humiliating end.

It would be hard to watch if it were not so riveting. One gets a real sense of the pressure on Jimmy Carter to do something - while being harshly criticized even as he is hatching this audacious plan in deepest secrecy. One feels intensely how deeply Carter’s sense of responsibility weighs upon his decision. The humiliation and disappointment of it all is expressed by the men on the mission as well, who we have seen as they have prepared with complete commitment, undercover even from their wives and families. It is extraordinary to be able to see this much actual footage. It is a paean to heroic bravery as well as an indictment of war.

CORY IN BRICK CITY

Directed by Mark Benjamin and Mark Levin This is a timely look at the back story of one of our outstanding citizens, politicians, and candidates for president. After completing a first-class education, it was a peculiar and unexpected choice for this promising young man to task himself with taking on one of the worst, most violent crime-ridden cities in our country.

But, it is safe to say, that very little that Cory Booker has done is predictable. But it is also true that everything that he takes on is done with absolute passion and faith. He seems driven by a fervent need to help people, whether they want it or not. Often at great personal risk to his own safety and needs. It is fascinating to watch him juggling the warring factions among the politicians, the police, and the gangs.

Even more inspiring is to watch him gin-up the folks who work with him to encourage them to take on the hard tasks and do the impossible. He really gets down and dirty on the mean streets of Newark at night, playing basketball with the kids. He is walking the walk as he talks the talk. He has the charisma and intensity of an evangelical pastor and has chosen to harness it to very real-world actions. He is the embodiment of positive empowerment in action. We could use more Cory Bookers

ANBESSA

Directed by Mo Scarpelli Anbessa is the name of a mythic ferocious lion in Ethiopian legends. Anbessa is the avatar that young Asalif assumes when the desolation of his impoverishment and the hopelessness of his future become more than he can comprehend. He and his kind and hardworking mother live in some kind of limbo having been forcibly moved off of their farm to make room for a government-sponsored scheme at urban renewal which has begun building large condominiums on the farmlands to house the large population of urban poor. Asalif and his mother are too poor to qualify and have therefore been deprived of their livelihood as well as their home.

Forced to live in a makeshift shack on a hill overlooking the burgeoning development, Asalif, an extremely bright and enterprising boy has made many improvements by virtue of being able to cobble together electricity to light the shack and run fans, out of debris that he finds in the rubbish left by the builders. He can repair cell phones, make radios and toy helicopters that fly. As his future closes in on him he reverts to his Anbessa identity as escape and empowerment. It is so moving and inspiring to see this level of resilience, but I must say it left me feeling overwhelmed by the realities of life for so many displaced people all over the world.

There is so much for us to be grateful for and it is so important not to be blind to those who should not be ignored.

QUEEN OF HEARTS: AUDREY FLACK

Directed by Deborah Shaffer Audrey Flack is a woman I would dearly love to meet. At 86, she is still as creative, productive and opinionated as she has been her whole life. Early on she knew she was destined to be an artist. She enrolled in High School of Music and Art and then was awarded a scholarship at Cooper Union. That was the hotbed of all of the great art being made in New York at the time. She worked and played with abstract expressionists, DeKooning, Lee Krasner, Pollack, et al. And she was one of them, working in that form. She was spotted by Albers, then the dean of Yale’s art department and given a scholarship there. She has a few choice things to say about Albers (not all flattering).

All the while she was harboring her inner figurative painter (not at all in fashion at the time). Once out of Yale she succumbs to her attraction to old master forms and techniques and begins working in her version of figurative painting - photorealism. She begins associating with Phillip Pearlstein and Chuck Close. Her work is taken seriously and she is prolific, in spite of raising two daughters, one of whom is autistic. It is an amazing accomplishment. At one point she stops painting for some years. When she begins again it is in sculpture. Not just any sculpture – monumental sculpture. She receives commissions to create large outdoor pieces. She seems not to have met a challenge that she has not overcome. She is one of the few women to be included in Jansen History of Art, the bible of the art world. She deserves a fuller review which I will do later.