Category: Documentary

While undoubtedly dated, especially in some of the terminology used, there is also a lot in this documentary about trans individuals in the early 1980s that feels contemporary. The focus of the film is an intimate view through video footage and interviews of the various individuals’ lifelong experiences living trans and for most of them, happily living their authentic lives. I appreciated that a variety of experiences (for example, cross-dressing individuals and the poor gentleman who realized too late that he was fighting against his own sexuality) were included to provide context to how different expressions of gender and sexuality can be experienced and that even when there are similarities no one fits in a box. I also liked that, while not the focus, medical information was also presented in a frank and honest way for those in the pre-Internet age to learn from.

After the suppression of Let There Be Light, the Army decided it still needed a film that covered the subject of PTSD. If that other film didn’t exist, this may seem forward thinking on the part of the Army to recognize that PTSD actually exists among its soldiers. But that other film does and did exist as a fairly honest testament to a diverse group of real men suffering from the very real problem and the resources that were available at the time to hopefully help them go on to a mental healthier life. This film on the other hand consists of trite reenactments with an almost entirely white cast where the blame for mental health issues lays solely at the foundation that good old Mom laid out, that she helped you when the local bully took away your toy instead of encouraging you to just punch his lights out. Mental health is described as a scale where the most mentally healthy are white and the most unwell are black; in between are those shades of grey. It even goes as far as to suggest that for at least one troubled soul is better off for being in the Army because they were able to talk to through his problems so that he could go back and join the troops and fight another day.

Somewhat of an interesting pairing with my recent viewing of The Times of Harvey Milk, this is another gay-themed documentary about the persecution and murder of gay men during the Nazi regime. The narration by Rupert Everett is a bit droning and slow, but it only mildly distracts from the power of the stories being told. Only 4,000 of the 100,000 men persecuted under Paragraph 175 survived and only 10 were known to be living at the time of this film. That makes the telling of these five stories and the history they represent so important. While it doesn’t shy from talking of the atrocities these people faced, it also allows them to tell their full stories, including moments of love and tenderness both before and during the war. It’s heartbreaking that even after the fall of the Reich, Paragraph 175 existed in some form in both countries until German reunification.

On one hand, this movie does encourage me to seek out more of Pryor’s work that I haven’t yet seen, which is a good thing. On the other hand, it doesn’t really offer any new insight or much new footage regarding the man’s life. It spends too much time on his widow’s biased viewpoint and the views of people who never even met the guy. It focuses its scope almost entirely on the traumas he suffered during his less than ideal childhood, bits that were delved in greater detail by the man himself in his stand-up and Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling.

Iris Apfel is a style icon. This documentary by Albert Maysles gives a glimpse into her life as a nonagenarian living her best life. There are little touches on the story of her past as a entrepreneur running a textiles firm with her husband and how the travelling and cultural inspirations from that history influences her current style. Mostly the film is just a reflection of Iris’s colorful spirit and how she creatively inspires those who find themselves in her orbit just by being herself.

This is like watching the real life version of Nightcrawler. The Turs, a couple who ran a news service agency in Los Angeles, aggressively searched out stories using whatever means they could (eventually even buying a helicopter) and in doing so managed to be at the forefront of many of the largest news stories from the 1990s, such as OJ Simpson’s police chase and the beating of Reginald Denny. The documentary is slow at times, but it does offer the chance to see what is required in getting the story and what that does to a person, their relationships, and their family. It ignores discussing the negative influences that the relentless pursuit for The Story has on the news and the general public.

It’s incredibly brave of Sasha Joseph Neulinger to be willing to document the horrific abuse he suffered as a child in this way. Using family childhood movies, that probably don’t look much different from any of thousands of home movies that have been filmed since the advent of the home video camera, it’s a severe juxtaposition seeing the various individuals in light moments knowing the horrors that were going on behind closed doors. There probably isn’t a clearer picture of the perpetuation of sexual abuse that gets passed through generations than the story as it is shown here. There’s great courage that his sister and father were also willing to bear witness to their own experiences.