Author Archives: basiltsiokos

Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens tonight, Monday, January 7:
MY COUNTRY NO MORE

Directors:
Rita Baghdadi and Jeremiah Hammerling

Premiere:
Big Sky Doc 2018

Select Festivals:
SF DocFest, Docutah, Chagrin Doc, AmDocs

About:
A North Dakota family and their community fight plans to develop an oil refinery in their backyard.

Fracking has become a largely accepted part of life and a boon to North Dakota’s economy since the discovery of a massive oil field in 2006, but it comes with consequences. Baghdadi and Hammerling examines the impact of the oil boom on the small community of Trenton, where local ranchers face the choice between giving up long-held family farms and land, or cashing in for the short-term financial benefits. At the core of the film is Kalie Rider and her family, who emerges as an unlikely leader in the fight to stop the construction of an oil processing plant, spearheaded by North Dakota Processing’s Mel Falcon, who has made headway in rezoning requests and in convincing others in the community to sell their land. While the film struggles at times to enliven what amounts to numerous scenes of public hearings and meetings, the conflict facing Trenton serves as a thoughtful microcosm for larger national questions around energy, economic growth, and land use.

Coming to theatres today, Friday, January 4:
THE VENERABLE W

Director:
Barbet Schroeder

Premiere:
Cannes 2017

Select Festivals:
Locarno, Telluride, New York, London, IDFA, CPH:DOX, Docslisboa, Jihlava, Docs Against Gravity, Jerusalem, Melbourne, New Zealand, Helsinki, Moscow, Vancouver, Rio, Mill Valley, Mar del Plata, Singapore

About:
A portrait of a Buddhist monk who has fomented Islamophobia in Burma.

The third in Schroeder’s so-called “Trilogy of Evil” – following 1974’s GENERAL IDI AMIN DADA: A SELF PORTRAIT and 2007’s TERROR’S ADVOCATE on attorney to terrorists Jacques Vergès – profiles Ashin Wirathu, a Buddhist monk long linked to anti-Muslim movements in Myanmar – so much so that Time referred to him as “The Face of Buddhist Terror” in a 2013 cover story. While claiming to be a peaceful preacher, he publicly denounces the nation’s Muslim population, the Rohingya, and spreads inflammatory messages about Islam and the need to purify the nation – rhetoric that has resulted in violence, as chillingly captured on cell phone and You Tube videos. Schroeder lays out the history of Rohingya persecution in Burma, but largely allows Wirathu to demonstrate his hateful beliefs via interviews and footage of public preaching. Save for the strange contrivance of utilizing a Western actress to serve as a whispery voice of Buddhism being drowned out by Wirathu’s opportunistic fear-mongering, the film’s construction is fairly straightforward – almost too staid – but succeeds in conveying another example of the disturbing rise of nationalist xenophobia and division in the world today.