By Herb Krohn, Special to JTNews
The Seattle International Film Festival is underway through Sunday, June 12, 2011. Information and tickets can be found at www.siff.net as well as the SIFF Box Office on the second floor of Pacific Place and SIFF Cinema at the Seattle Center on Mercer Street.
The Rescuers
Rating: Outstanding
Genre: Documentary
USA, Rwanda, and countries across Europe; Partially subtitled
Sun., May 29, 10 a.m. and Mon., May 30, 4 p.m. — Harvard Exit
What is the proper role of foreign diplomats who finds themselves in a country where genocide is taking place and they are besieged with pleas for help from those being persecuted? In this fact-based film we follow Sir Martin Gilbert and Stephanie Nyombayire (a Rwandan activist), who travel across Europe and through time to explore and profile the efforts of the handful of brave diplomats who dared to defy their own governments and risked their own careers and lives to engage in remarkable and heroic efforts to save Jews from Hitler’s death grip. Told through archival footage, graphics and moving maps, as well as contemporary interviews with relatives and co-workers — and the victims themselves and their descendents who were saved from certain death—makes this a gripping yet compelling story of how only a few brave people doing the right thing has a lasting impact for generations into the future.
Our two guides also attempt to uncover why genocide so often continues to take place across the world while they explore the role of diplomats and the nations they represent in such situations. This historical yet contemporary documentary examines the role of the individual, the loyalty of diplomats to their home country and to humanity, and the end result of those who were spared. Many of the diplomats profiled paid a huge personal price for their activity to save others from the Nazis’ genocide machine, often openly and defiantly violating their own governments’ policies (even a German diplomat and Nazi party member who acted to save Jews is profiled). This must-see 2011 SIFF film is a fascinating examination of individuals willing to brave the enormous consequences and risk everything to save the lives of others. The Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center and the American Jewish Committee Seattle Jewish Film Festival have both signed on as sponsors.
My So-Called Enemy
Rating: Excellent
Genre: Documentary
USA/Israel, Palestinian Territories; Partially subtitled
Sun., June 5, 6:30 p.m. and Mon., June 6, 4:30 p.m. — Harvard Exit
Building Bridges for Peace is a Denver-based organization that attempts to undermine hatred, violence and terrorism by promoting dialogue and understanding by warring factions. This documentary focuses on this effort when six Israeli and six Palestinian high school students, who are brought to a home in Bridgeton, N.J. to spend a week engaging in a mediation workshop.
It is amazing to watch these young women interact honestly and directly with each other far away from their home environment. While they could easily be mistaken for a class or a small group of friends, it is remarkable to see how similar they all are individually, yet a huge, almost unbridgeable gap exists in the midst of it all. The film follows up on many of the participants over the next several years. In some cases, true friendship does take hold, even across the dividing wall, yet in others the women head down their own paths as they mature into adulthood.
The heated discussions between these girls delve into the hatred shared by both sides, yet we are able to see even those with the strongest animosity for the other side are able to empathize with their enemy — at least on an individualized basis. They all leave with some lasting change within themselves: The inability, even over some of their deeply ingrained beliefs, to completely dehumanize the other side.
The production values in the making of this film are strong and the flow keeps the audience interest throughout.
Venice
Rating: Very Good
Genre: Family Drama
Poland; Subtitled
Tues., May 31, 9:30 p.m. — Pacific Place
Sun., June 5, 3:30 p.m. — Admiral Theatre
While not a Jewish film per se, this interesting drama centers on the life of a Polish family who flees to the family home in far Eastern Poland to try to avoid Hitler’s approaching onslaught. The plot centers on the 12-year-old son, residing at a Catholic boarding school, who at the beginning of the film desperately wants his parents to take him in their upcoming trip to Venice. The war intervenes, preventing the travel, so he soon finds himself at his grandmother’s country home with the rest of the family including his cousins and aunts. When the cavernous cellar of the spacious house floods, he creates a miniature Venice, which becomes a place of refuge for the entire family during the occupation. Several Jewish characters and families are central to the story, and resistance to Nazi oppression as well as graphic demonstrations of anti-Semitic brutality and murder are major turning points in the films plot. Everyone can understand and relate to the view of the world as seen through the youngster’s eyes and those of the other children in this story. This film sets the scene and time period with mastery.
How to Die in Oregon
Rating: Outstanding
Genre: Documentary
USA
Currently airing on the HBO network, check www.hbo.com for show times.
This 2011 SIFF standout documentary feature examines Oregon State’s Death with Dignity law, enacted in 1994, and how it is being utilized by those with terminal illnesses and short life expectancy. The film begins by showing a man taking the final dose of drugs to end his life and his proclamation of thanks “to the Oregon voters” as he lives out his final moments.
This documentary explores a very sensitive and difficult subject with tact and thoroughness, which this controversy deserves. The bulk of the film follows a terminally ill Oregon woman who plans to invoke her rights under this legislation when the time is right. It also profiles a Washington State woman who help lead Initiative 1000 at the behest of her deceased husband, who died a horribly painful death because Washington lacked such a law at the time. Initiative 1000 passed here in 2008.
The filmmakers also attempted to provide balance in profiling an Oregon man who, when facing a terminal illness, was told the state would only offer hospice care or aid in dying rather than treatment for his disease — a response which was quickly reversed due to the ensuing controversy; this exposed some of the realities of the fears of the opponents of this innovative law. This outstanding film explores the issues of end-of-life care, societal constructs around death, and the messages conveyed about suffering and dying.
This film is the winner of the top documentary prize at the Sundance Film festival and is a strong contender for the Best Documentary at 2011 SIFF.
Also showing:
Belle Epine
Sat., June 4, 8:30 p.m. — Admiral Theatre
Thurs., June 9, 4:30 p.m. — SIFF Cinema
Sat., June 11, 9:30 p.m. — SIFF Cinema
Gainsbourg: A Heroic Life
Wed., June 1, 9:30 p.m. — Egyptian Theatre
Fri., June 3, 4 p.m. — Admiral Theatre
Tues., June 7, 8:30 p.m. — Kirkland Performance Center
The Names of Love
Tues., May 31, 7 pm. — Egyptian Theatre
Fri., June 3, 1:30 p.m. — Pacific Place Theatre