R N EEL

REEL NEWS
The Quarterly Newsletter of
MACON FILM GUILD
VOLUME 5 ISSUE 3
PLEASE VISIT OUR NEWLY
for October 11…
UPGRADED WEBSITE TODAY:
AMERICAN VIOLET (2008) Tim Disney
maconfilmguild.org
U.S. THEATRICAL RELEASE: 4/17/09 (LIMITED)
THE SAMUEL GOLDWYN COMPANY (2009) (USA) (103 minutes)
YOU MAY RECALL the story from
the news in 2000. The cops in a small
Texas town arrested 40 black people
on drug charges in a sweep of a
public housing complex. They were
working on a tip from a single informant, a former mental patient who
had good reason to cooperate with
them.
Dee, a young mother of four, who
was not found with drugs and had no
history of drug use, was arrested
primarily because she went outside
to drag her little girl to safety. She,
along with the others, is offered a
plea bargain: If she pleads guilty, she
gets probation. She refuses to plead
guilty.
AMERICAN VIOLET is clear about
the motivation for such raids with
little or no evidence. A guilty plea
helps the district attorney build up a
record as a crime fighter, even
though he is the one who has committed the crime. A defendant who
pleads guilty cannot continue to live
in public housing and will always have
a felony on the record.
But if Dee caves in, she goes free
and is reunited with her children.
Her snaky ex-husband has snatched
his kids and moved them in with his
new girlfriend, who has a history of
child abuse.
This is all based on an actual case
(the names have been changed). This
stuff happens all the time, and is far
from rare in Texas, a state with a
shameful record of law enforcement
practices. Remember that as Texas
governor, Bush commuted the sentence of only one of the 152 people
put on Death Row under his reign,
even though public defenders presented no defense at all for 41 of
them and a third of their defense
attorneys were later disbarred or
sanctioned.
AMERICAN VIOLET stars Nicole
Beharie, a recent Juilliard graduate in
her second role, as Dee Roberts. It
is a stunning performance: She is
small, vulnerable, fearful for her
children, but damned if she will plead
guilty to a crime she did not commit.
She stands firm even as her mother,
Alma (Alfre Woodard), begs her to
take the plea; Alma argues the harsh
racial realities of their town.
When Alma vows to stay in jail,
she attracts the attention of the
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REEL NEWS
Say what? Dee is innocent, her lawyers are putting themselves at risk
because of their outrage, and the
D.A. is a heartless scofflaw. If the
movie tries to have fun concealing
that, it's jerking our chain.
What works for me was the
strength
of the performances, beginACLU, which sends a lawyer named
ning with Nicole Beharie as the conDavid Cohen (Tim Blake Nelson)
vincing heroine. Alfre Woodard in
down to defend her. Because he
attack mode is formidable; Tim Blake
needs a local partner, he persuades
the lawyer Sam Conroy (Will Patton), Nelson underplays as a determined,
methodical lawyer, not a showboat,
a former D.A., to join him; Sam reand Will Patton in some ways steals
fuses at first, but agrees out of guilt
the show as a good man who has
because he knows full well how the
done bad in the past, knows it and is
system works.
The D.A. is Calvin Beckett (Michael trying to make up. As Beckett,
O'Keefe), a man of whom it can fairly Michael O'Keefe is rock solid as a
man who has more important things
be said that he has no interest at all
on his mind than justice.
in whether the people he has arAMERICAN VIOLET, it's true, is not
rested are guilty. How would it look
in an election year if he went around blazingly original cinema. Tim Disdropping drug charges? And now the ney's direction and the screenplay by
stage is set for a docudrama that may Bill Haney are meat and potatoes,
making this story clear, direct and
have an outcome we already know,
righteous. But consider the story.
but is a loud lesson about truth,
How would you feel if this happened
justice and the Texas Way.
to you? What if cases like this were
Some critics have found AMERICAN to lead to disregard of due process
VIOLET to be too mainstream, too
of law at even the highest levels, and
agenda-driven, too much like made- that district attorney? Still in office.
for-TV, with not enough "suspense."
Roger Ebert — CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED
NON-PROFIT
U.S. POSTAGE
PAID MACON, GA
PERMIT NO. 507
VIEW FROM THE DIRECTOR’S CHAIR CAMP BACON president
The film was gently mind-bending,
with actors John Diehl and Michelle
is managed – yes
Williams making the most of the
managed by a board
fascinating screenplay. The supportcomposed of an
ing cast included an old favorite of
eclectic mix of folks
mine, Richard Edson (SUNSHINE
whose “day jobs”
STATE (‘02), STRANGE DAYS (‘95),
range from lawyers,
GOOD MORNING VIETNAM (’87),
professors of law,
mathematics, history, linguistics, and PLATOON (’86), DOWN BY LAW (’86)
acting arts, elementary teacher, engi- and 86 other films and TV shows).
neers, photographers, and human
Richard has been doing “bit parts”
services specialists.
for 25-years, as a character actor,
The common thread is the love of those actors who are the seasoning
in the salad – seldom remembered
good film. In addition to selecting
but are somehow essential to the
films for the monthly showing, our
crew also handles the nuts and bolts viewer’s experience of the film. His
of the organization. The point being, roles suggest a person whose life’s
fortunes have been eclipsed mostly
when together it is to work.
by his huge nose, sad-sack face, and
Except the quarterly pot-luck
scraggly mustache.
dinner and film, kind-of our own
In LAND OF PLENTY, Richard plays
director’s choice, with the host seJimmy, a fellow Vietnam vet and
lecting the after-dinner film. Last
man-Friday to Paul (Diehl). When
Sunday we met at Robert and Jan’s
both Robert and Blaine remarked
home in the woods north of town
they had a nodding aquaintance with
for sausage (4-kinds), salads, beer,
Richard through mutual friends in
and bread - and Betsy’s delicious
the New York and L.A. film scenes,
crème brulee. Needless to say we
were all at our culinary best, and Jan I mentioned I had met Richard at a
reunion held by our Marine Corp
and Robert at their hosting best.
fathers, at Quantico. Our fathers had
Robert presented several possibiligraduated in same officers calls (Feb
ties from which we voted LAND OF
1942).
PLENTY (’04), directed by Wim
YOUR FILM GUILD
As usual I emailed Richard that I
Wenders (BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB
enjoyed his performance in LAND OF
(’99), WINGS OF DESIRE (’87), PARIS,
TEXAS (’84), KINGS OF THE ROAD
PLENTY, and what folows was his
(‘76), THE AMERICAN FRIEND ('77),
reply:
and THE GOALIE’S ANXIETY AT THE
PENALTY KICK (’72), to name a few).
AS YOUR MACON FILM GUILD
American and foreign directors typically not available to Middle GA audiences. MACON FILM GUILD is a non-profit organization of
volunteers, who research new films, develop the program schedule, then produce and distribute publicity materials.
VOLUME 5 ISSUE 3
DOG DAZE ISSUE
Hi Camp,
Very interesting movie, LAND OF
PLENTY, no? It was shot in 14 days
with hand held digital hi def cameras.
State of the art back then - four years
- but outmoded now. Very fun shoot.
Very quick and deft and small crew. I
love working like that. Wim Wender's
is a great guy, but very quiet and
private. Does not give the actors
much direction at all. Some actors
need more than others.
John Diehl, the lead, was feeling
lost, and Wim couldn't help him. Still,
a great performance, I think.
Wim is also a serious Christian
now. I'm not sure for how long. He
never talks about it but I think it
informs his recent movies, especially
LAND OF PLENTY.
My best, Richard
enters a 10th year of existence this
upcoming Jan, it should be noted that
although the milestone of 100 film
screenings was recently surpassed
without any fanfare, a well deserved
sense pride should be taken in this
significant achievement; one that
without the enthusiastic and loyal
support of our membership surely
could not have happened.
Throughout the last decade, the
Selection Committee has chosen a
number of films, which both not only
reflect the MFG mission statement,
but also resonate within the current
social mood. This is certainly true for
the upcoming schedule.
In these times of US economic
uncertainty, TOKYO SONATA on Aug
9 reveals how globally pervasive the
problem truly is by describing how
struggles of a typical Japanese middleclass family, clearly reflect a universal
condition. For our Sept 13 screening,
THE CLASS, is undoubtedly an effective display of challenges public
school systems face everywhere, and
UPCOMING SCREENINGS:
EACH SECOND SUNDAY
2:00 PM 4:30 PM 7:00 PM
for August 9 …
TOKYO SONOTA
Kiyoshi Kurosawa — pg. 3
for September 13 ...
THE CLASS
(ENTRE LES MURS)
Laurent Cantet — pg 4
for October 11 ...
AMERICAN VIOLET
Tim Disney — pg 4
on deck subject to change:
for November 8 …
SERAPHINE
SPECIAL HORROR SCREENINGS
“Jimmy” — a.k.a Richard Edson
LAND OF PLENTY (’04)
Directed by Wim Wenders
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR BLAINE WHITTLE editor
The MISSION OF THE GUILD is to screen recently released, critically acclaimed and award winning Independently-produced films, by both
The Quarterly Newsletter of
MACON FILM GUILD
HALLOWEEN 2009
7:00 PM & 9:30 PM
FRIDAY OCT 30
LET
THE
RIGHT
ONE IN
has many awards to prove it; including the 2008 CANNES PALM D’OR. But
the Oct 11 screening of AMERICAN
VIOLET (see review pg 4) possibly may
represent an ultimate example of
how a particular film might most
effectively anticipate the Zeitgeist.
AMERICAN VIOLET which is based
on a true incident, confronted headon the social issue of police profiling
well before society was reminded
sorely of the problem through a
misguided arrest in his own home of
editor, continued on pg. 2 —
Tomas Alfredson
see Letter from Editor for info
for MFG considered films
worth seeking out consult
NOTES FROM THE
SELECTION COMMITTEE
by Robert Fieldsteel
see pg. — 3
REEL NEWS
Page 2
SELECTION COMMITTEE
ROBERT FIELDSTEEL, chairman
for August 9 ...
TOKYO SONATA (2008) Kiyoshi Kurosawa
TYPICALLY, FILM CHOICES THAT
MFG screens are only a handful
U.S. THEATRICAL RELEASE: 10/09/08 (NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL)
REGENT RELEASING (2009) (USA) (120 minutes)
Takashi (Yu Koyanagi) announces
he has enlisted in the U.S. Army as a
way to gain citizenship, as he sees
no future for himself in Japan. His
father forbids him.
Unable to lose face by admitting
his job loss, Ryuhei leaves "for the
office" every day and lingers in a
cheerless concrete oasis with other
jobless men. There is a soup
kitchen. His wife sees him there,
It opens on a note of routine, of a
knows everything, stays quiet.
family so locked into their lives that
Young Kenji (Kai Inowaki), no longer
they scarcely know one another.
attending school, spends his money
Ryuhei is a salaryman in a manageon piano lessons with the beautiful
ment job. His wife, Megumi, is a
Kaneko (Haruka Igawa). His father,
source of predictable domesticity,
breaking with the Japanese tradition
centering on cleaning, sewing and
of encouraging children to study,
the preparation of meals. His older
has already forbidden piano lessons.
son, Takashi, and younger son,
Why? Perhaps he feels so inadeKenji, are filled with unhappiness
quate he's threatened by any sucbut seemingly well-disciplined, alcess involving his family.
though Kenji gets in trouble at
What we seem to have are the
school: The teacher unfairly blames
outlines of a traditional family
him for passing along a manga, or
drama, in which tensions are bottled
graphic novel, and Kenji defiantly
up, revelations will occur and a
says he saw the teacher reading a
crisis will result in either tragedy or
porno manga on the train. Many
resolution. But that's not what
men in Japan do the same, no big
we're given by director Kiyoshi
deal, but hypocrisy is the point.
Kurosawa, best known for upscale
In the opening scene, Ryuhei
horror films. He almost misleads us
(Teruyuki Kagawa) is fired. He comes
in the early scenes, by framing the
home, hands over his week's wages,
family dinners in sedate and orderly
says nothing. He is an autocratic
compositions.
father, filled with anger.
sourcing will be a historical turning
point.) Ryuhei joins hopeless queues
at an employment office. He finds
work cleaning toilets in a shopping
mall. His humiliation is underlined
when all maintenance workers must
change into one-piece coveralls at
lockers in full view of passing cusUnemployment is the catalyst -tomers. He has an encounter at
an unspoken reality that makes
work that is bizarre.
everyone in the family angrier than
And then the film finds a form of
they already are. All of the perform- release in another unexpected
ances have perfect pitch; the young scene. Watch it play out. We are
son engages us in the same way as
blindsided by its beauty. An exthe hero of Truffaut's THE 400
tended passage is held in a mediumBLOWS (’59).
long shot in which nobody moves,
Dramatic events occur that dem- and the effect is uncanny. Is there a
onstrate how a routine, once brohappy ending? Nothing as simple as
ken, cannot easily be repaired. The that. Simply a beginning. Debris has
entrance of a completely unexbeen cleared. Old tapes have been
pected character results in an indestroyed. Freedom has been asstinctive acceptance of the new
serted. Nothing is for sure.
situation, providing a sad payoff to
The "themes" in this movie are
what at first seems merely arbitrary. the father and his family. At the end,
At the same time, Kurosawa obthey feel the same tensions as at the
serves the agony of unemployment beginning, but the facade has been
in Japan, which, like the United
destroyed, and they will have to
States, has been beset by outsourcproceed unprotected.
ing to cheaper labor pools. (The day
when China and India begin outRoger Ebert — CHICAGO SUN-TIMES
to locate and make peace with their
own, personal moral center.
By the time in Oct MFG screens
AMERICAN VIOLET, it should be
informative to see just where inside
the national discussion radar this
topic will be found; especially when
considering the “beer summit”
solution hosted last week at the
White House.
Published reviews consistently
give more compelling reasons to
attend our Oct selection, as well;
one being a critically praised lead
performance debut of protagonist
Dee Roberts realized by Atlanta
native, Nicole Beharie.
Another is the film’s ensemble of
seasoned character actors, including
Alfre Woodard, Michael O’Keefe,
Charles S. Dutton and Tim Blake
(LÅT DEN RÄTTE KOMMA IN)
Nelson in the supporting cast.
In this all-Danish production,
ON FRI OCT 30 @ 7:00 & 9:30 PM, author John Ajvide Lindqvist has
MFG will celebrate HALLOWEEN ’09 adapted the screenplay version of
with Special Screenings of this year’s his popular novel, helping director
Tomas Alfredson’s project win an
impressive 56 awards with 11 other
nominations in multiple film festivals.
Oscar (Kåre Hedebrant), an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love
and revenge through Eli, a beautiful
but peculiar girl who turns out to be
a vampire. Eli (Lina Leandersson) is
12 years old. She's been 12 for over
200 years and, she just moved in
next door.
most critically acclaimed horror
Due to an overwhelming popular
film, hailed as both a masterpiece of
response, this film has had extended
suspense and cinematic beauty:
runs in virtually every art house and
LET THE RIGHT ONE IN independent cinema where it’s been
JUST AS THE ECONOMIC CRISIS has
jolted everyday life, so it shakes up
TOKYO SONATA, which begins as a
well-behaved story and takes detours into the comic, the macabre
and the sublime. All you know about
three-act structure is going to be
useless in watching this film, even
though, like many sonatas, it has
three movements.
highly respected Harvard professor
Henry Louis Gates, by Cambridge
Police Sgt James Crowley, and then
later inexplicably amplified due to
disparaging comments uttered,
during a rare unguarded moment,
by President Obama no less.
Yet again, the American psyche
was forced to look in a mirror and
assess what it saw there. Reaction
from all sides of the incident was
swift, passionate and relentless.
Suddenly, rather than weighing the
pros and cons offered in politicallydriven solutions for our broken
national economy or the decaying
educational and healthcare systems,
now every individual was required
Page 3
NOTES FROM THE
Synopses of Upcoming Screenings...
editor, continued from pg. 1 —
VOLUME 5 ISSUE 3
REEL NEWS
We
believe
we
know
where
TOKYO SONATA is going. We are
wrong.
No, it doesn't turn into another
horror film or a murder-suicide. It
simply shows how lives torn apart
by financial emergencies can be
revealed as being damaged all along.
ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE
chosen from many worthy candiWORLD (USA) Werner Herzog
dates. As we to try provide variety
in programming, and occasionally a
desired film isn’t available, a number
of excellent films inevitably get left
behind. The MFG board has decided
to periodically recommend some of
those films in this column.
Here is a sampling of films released
in the past two years that MFG is
unlikely to show, but believes to be MY BROTHER IS AN ONLY CHILD
well worth a look.
(ITALY) Daniele Luchetti
THE COUNTERFEITERS (AUSTRIA/
GERMANY) Stefan Ruzowitzky
THE VISITOR (USA) Tom McCarthy
All titles listed are available on DVD.
THE EDGE OF HEAVEN (GERMANY/
TURKEY) Fatih Akin
JOIN MFG TODAY AND HELP
for September 13 ...
BY VOLUNTEERING SOME OF
THE CLASS (ENTRE LES MURS) (2008) Laurent Cantet
YOUR VALUABLE TIME:
U.S. THEATRICAL RELEASE: 9/26/08 (NEW YORK FILM FESTIVAL)
maconfilmguild.org
SONY PICTURES CLASSICS (2008) (USA) (128 minutes)
THE POWER OF THE CLASS will
sneak up on you. It did that to the
audience at the film's Cannes premiere, and it did it to the Sean Pennled festival jury, which startled itself
by unanimously awarding this picture
the Palme d'Or. It is that surprising,
and that good.
That quality of surprise was very
much on the mind of French director Laurent Cantet. "We did not
want our narrative thread to be
obvious immediately," he's said. "We
wanted the characters to develop
progressively without really seeing
them coming."
THE CLASS ‘s original title is
"ENTRE LES MURS" (Between the
Walls), and Cantet's film doesn't
stray from the confines of a Paris
junior high as it details a year in the
life of teacher François and his two
dozen students in a language class
where the subjects include vocabulary and the bewildering thickets of
French grammar. The drama, however, comes not from the imperfect
subjunctive but from the unexpected
results of engaged interaction between one instructor and one class.
François is played by François
Bégaudeau, himself a teacher whose
bestselling book on his experiences
at another school was the basis of
the screenplay he co-wrote with
Cantet and Robin Campillo.
The students in the film are not
Bégaudeau's former pupils. They are
YOUNG @ HEART (UK/USA)
Stephen Walker
instead kids from another school,
Francoise Dolto Junior High in the
20th arrondissement, one of Paris'
poorest and most
multicultural
neighborhoods, who
were recruited by
Cantet to take part
in acting workshops
that led to their
roles in the film.
These kids' ability to
create real characters, sometimes
reflecting their own
personalities, sometimes not, is part of what makes THE
CLASS the success that it is.
The key factor in that success, as
those who've seen his earlier films
can attest, is director Cantet, whose
interest in how work factors into
individual lives is squarely in the
French humanistic tradition and led
to such potent films as HUMAN
RESOURCES (‘99) and 2001's exceptional TIME OUT, about a man who
spends his days pretending to be
employed.
What is immediately apparent
about THE CLASS is how effortlessly
it locates us in the authenticity of
this French classroom. Shot in highdefinition with three cameras, this
group of 14- and 15-year-olds are
both completely real and exactly
observed as they fuss and dispute
with each other and their teacher
over issues that by their nature mix
the personal, the cultural and the
political.
As in any classroom, some students immediately stand out from
the group. We get to know Wei
(Wey Huang), loquacious despite his
imperfect French; Carl (Carl Nanor),
the brooding transfer student from
the Caribbean; Souleymane (Franck
Keita), the tough guy from Mali;
Arthur the Goth (Arthur Fogel); and
combat- ive Esméralda (Esméralda
Ouertani), always ready to give
teacher François a hard time.
As played by Bégaudeau, François
is not at all the self-consciously heroic teacher we may have been
expecting. Intense, edgy, not necessarily likable, given to saying things
like "Austria could vanish, no one
would notice," he is not afraid to
push back hard when his students
push at him. As a result, his class can
seem barely under control as his
sharp, rambunctious students challenge him at every turn.
Though his students don't always
understand this, François is passionately on their side, yet his teaching
style runs risks. There is a danger of
getting on too much of an even
footing with your students and little
room for recovery if you lose your
balance.
The reality of François' classroom
is so intense that it holds our interest even while the film's dramatic
focus is building so quietly under the
surface that we don't notice it at
first. Then, when you least expect it,
the drama is there and suddenly
things are deadly serious for some of
these students, a chain of events that
takes us and them by surprise, and
we see how fragile the opportunity
for learning is, and how inflexible an
education system can be when
things threaten to spiral out of control.
"What I am interested in is individuals facing a complex world,"
director Cantet said at his Cannes
news conference. "I take an interest
in what's happening around me."
It's an interest, THE CLASS proves
once again, that can lead to unforgettable cinema.
Kenneth Turan — LA TIMES