what (not) to doc

Coming to PBS’s America ReFramed tomorrow, Tuesday, April 3:
MILWAUKEE 53206

Director:
Keith McQuirter

Premiere:
Milwaukee Film (June 2016)

Select Festivals:
Urbanworld, Athens, Brooklyn, American Black, Milwaukee

About:
A portrait of the community with the country’s highest rate of incarcerated African-American men.

Inspired by the disturbing statistic that 62% of adult African American men in the 53206 zip code have been or are currently in the prison system, McQuirter set out to show some of the lives impacted and to expose the systemic biases that have resulted in such a sobering number. His film’s main subject is Beverly Walker, a tireless champion of her husband, Baron, who has been serving time for more than two decades. While Baron does not claim innocence, he has run afoul of legislation which has effectively prevented his parole from overly harsh sentencing and kept him away from his supportive family. Additional subjects in McQuirter’s sensitive if straightforward project are other Milwaukee men who have encountered the criminal justice but have worked hard to make change, becoming community organizers to promote family and community responsibility and stop recidivism.

©FLIP SCHULKE/CORBIS

Director:
Stephen Ives

Premiere:
American Experience (May 2010)

About:
Retracing the paths that brought Martin Luther King Jr and his killer, James Earl Ray, to Memphis in 1968.

Re-presented just before the 50th anniversary of King’s assassination at Memphis’ Lorraine Motel, Ives’ workmanlike retelling explores the stories of both the fallen civil rights leader and the man who took his life. The film recounts how King traveled to the southern city to support a strike by sanitation workers, and to right an earlier incident there that was marred by violence, part of a larger expansion of his activism to embrace not only racial justice but economic equality as well. His story is ably illustrated by archival footage and the testimony of his close friends and advisors. In contrast, the background on Ray unfortunately is largely limited to cheesy reenactment footage that demonstrates the fugitive’s escape from prison, involvement in the hateful rhetoric of segregationist George Wallace’s presidential campaign, and planning of King’s murder for the hope of a financial reward from some unclear source. While staying true to the PBS’s strands historical focus, Ives’ film nevertheless proves all too topical for those willing to apply its lessons about intolerance to the present day.

Coming to PBS’s Independent Lens this coming Monday, April 2:
WHEN GOD SLEEPS

Director:
Till Schauder

Premiere:
Tribeca 2017

Select Festivals:
IDFA, Berlin, Krakow, Guth Gafa, In-Edit Spain, Denver, Sound Unseen, Goteborg, !f Istanbul, One World, Cologne

About:
A portrait of an Iranian musician forced into exile after a fatwa is called for his death.

Schauder’s film focuses on Shahin Najafi, who left Iran for Germany in 2005 after his controversial music enraged religious leaders. The resulting fatwa against his life resulted in notoriety which he has used to sustain his career, but, of course, with a hefty downside. As he releases new, sacrilegious music that continues to be critical of Iran’s leadership, he faces new death threats and band members second guess whether they should continue to play with him, potentially at the risk of their own lives, not to mention those of the audience. With Najafi’s music likely not well known, or even particularly appreciated, by many viewers, Schauder wisely focuses beyond it to attempt to capture the reality of living under a death sentence. Unfortunately, however, the filmmaker pushes the paranoia and tension a bit too much in his storytelling, and ultimately never digs deep enough under the surface of his subject to allow the audience to better understand what truly drives him.