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Elephant Path: Njaia Njoku[/caption]
Todd McGrain knows the importance of conservation. The artist turned filmmaker is best known for his
Lost Bird Project, a series of larger-than-life sculptures dedicated to five extinct North American bird species. While this endeavor was chronicled in the
2012 film of the same name by
Deborah Dickson, now McGrain himself has stepped behind the camera to bring us the story of another endangered species, one we might actually be able to save: the forest elephants of Bayanga, Central Africa.
Elephant Path (or “Njaia Njoku” in the Bayaka language) has a lot going for it: a heart-wrenching story, impressive scope, engaging characters, and above all a sense of showmanship. McGrain’s storytelling approach is stylish and highly cinematic to the point where, by the end of the film’s 79 minute run-time, it’s a shock to realize how little has actually happened.
The story of “Dzanga Bai” (“Elephant Village”) is presented through a quartet of characters. Andrea Turkalo, an American biologist, has spent three decades observing elephants in their natural habitat. Aiding her efforts in Bayanga is local tracker Sessely Bernard, a village elder named for the river from which he first drank. Keeping watch over the elephants is Zephirine Sosso Mbele, one of a handful of “Eco Guards” tasked with warding off poachers. Late in the film, the guards receive additional defense training from Nir Kalron, an Israeli ex-military security contractor with a soft spot for animals.
Why the additional training? Because Bayanga, in fact the entire Central African Republic, is under siege by Séléka rebels and embroiled in a civil war. To the rebels, elephants are prime targets; the sale of ivory from their priceless tusks is how they fund their arsenal. At the start of the film they have not arrived at Dzanga, but from Turkalo’s foreboding narration we quickly gather it’s only a matter of time. Meanwhile, she and Sessely enjoy their work, the bulk of which is done from an observation deck and conducted via sketch pads and telephoto lenses, with minimal conversation. There is a sublime peace to this process.
That peace, of course, does not last. Eventually the Séléka arrive, guns blazing, and the region is plunged into oppression and terror. Turkalo is forced to flee to America while Sessely and the Bayangan community retreat into the forest to avoid persecution. I won’t detail what follows from here on out, sufficeth to say the elephants do not fare well. In one particularly haunting scene set back in America, Turkalo and a colleague review audio recordings of the forest, where distant gunfire produces cries of animal distress. A short while later, rhythmic tapping is heard. “They’re chopping off the tusks,” Turkalo observes coldly.
The human cruelty of
Elephant Path is the film’s most striking element, despite the fact that none of it is ever shown happening. Early on, Sessely remarks to Turkalo how the behavior of elephants does not differ so much from that of humans; they flirt and fight, bathe each other, have children, play games. This salient observation returns with a vengeance when, in the aftermath of a Séléka poaching spree, Sessely inspects the demolished corpse of a slain elephant and angrily declares “This elephant was
me.”
One of the inherent dangers of documentary filmmaking is arriving at an anticlimax. For a film shot and edited with the gusto of a narrative film,
Elephant Path comes to an abrupt, somewhat underwhelming conclusion. Again I won’t spoil, but for all of Nir Kalron’s efforts in training up the Eco Guards to combat the bigger, better-armed Séléka poachers, the resolution of said problem feels like a non-ending, at least to the viewer. Little can be done about this, I know, but McGrain and crew (in particular cinematographer Scott Anger) set up such palpable villains in the occupying rebels that you can’t help but feel a little cheated out of a proper showdown. There is hope at the end of
Elephant Path, even if only a modest amount, and that must be our reward. The remaining elephants saunter into Dzanga Bai, as always, and hose themselves down. Life goes on. For the living, anyway.
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What Is Democracy?[/caption]
Coming at a moment of profound political and social crisis, What Is Democracy? is director Astra Taylor’s philosophical essay finding meaning in the word ‘democracy’ we too often take for granted.
Astra Taylor’s (Zizek! and Examined Life) idiosyncratic, philosophical journey spans millennia and continents: from ancient Athens’ groundbreaking experiment in self-government to capitalism’s roots in medieval Italy; from modern-day Greece grappling with financial collapse and a mounting refugee crisis to the United States reckoning with its racist past and the growing gap between rich and poor. The acclaimed documentary, which made its North American premiere at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, will enjoy a theatrical release via Zeitgeist Films in association with Kino Lorber starting Jan. 16, 2019, at IFC Center in New York followed by theatrical engagements nationwide.
Featuring a diverse cast—including celebrated theorists, trauma surgeons, activists, factory workers, asylum seekers, and former prime ministers—this urgent film connects the past and the present, the emotional and the intellectual, the personal and the political, in order to provoke and inspire. If we want to live in democracy, we must first ask what the word even means.
“More than anything else, What Is Democracy? is an invitation to think,” said Taylor. “We live in overwhelming, confounding times and are bombarded by information and bad news. My hope is that this film opens a contemplative space, allowing the viewer to consider the challenge of ruling ourselves from a variety of angles.”
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Cornel West in What is Democracy?[/caption]
Appearing in the film are: Cornel West, a prominent and provocative democratic intellectual and Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University; Angela Davis a political activist and professor emeritus at the Department of History of Consciousness at the University of California, Santa Cruz, regarded as one of the foremost figures in the struggle for human rights and against racial discrimination; Professor Wendy Brown (University of California, Berkeley), whose fields of interest include the history of political theory, 19th- and 20th- century Continental theory, critical theory and theories of contemporary capitalism; Silvia Federici, a researcher, activist, and educator and Emerita Professor at Hofstra University; Zoe Konstantopoulou, the leader of the Course to Freedom political party and a former President of the Greek Parliament, who is also a lawyer specializing in national, European and international criminal law, public international law and human rights; Henry M. “Mickey” Michaux, Jr., who in 1972 became Durham County’s first black representative in the North Carolina state legislature, and is also the longest-serving member of the North Carolina House of Representatives.
ASTRA TAYLOR (Director) is a filmmaker writer, and political organizer. She is the director of the philosophical documentaries What Is Democracy? (TIFF 2018), Examined Life (TIFF 2008), and Zizek! (TIFF 2005); the author of the American Book Award winner The People’s Platform: Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age; and a co-founder of the Debt Collective. She has written for The New York Times, The London Review of Books, The Guardian, The Walrus, The Baffler, n+1 and many other outlets. She is a Shuttleworth Foundation Fellow and a former touring member of the band Neutral Milk Hotel. Her new book, Democracy May Not Exist, but We’ll Miss It When It’s Gone, will be out from Metropolitan Books in early 2019.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OHxRj9JWQMs
DOGMAN[/caption]
The Eyes of Orson Welles[/caption]
How do you write a letter to someone who has been dead for over 30 years? Mark Cousins’ answer is to look at their sketches that date back from their teenage years all the way their last and create profile through their eyes. 
Who Will Write Our History[/caption]
Award-winning director Roberta Grossman’s latest film 
hillbilly[/caption]
The award winning documentary 
Back Roads[/caption]
Based on the Oprah’s Book Club selection and New York Times bestselling novel by Tawni O’Dell, 
North Pole, NY[/caption]
By the halfway point of 
Buffalo Boys[/caption]
Sandra Bland in Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland.[/caption]
On July 10, 2015, Sandra Bland, a politically engaged and vibrant 28-year-old African American from Chicago, was arrested for a traffic violation in a small Texas town. After three days in custody, she was found hanging from a noose in her jail cell. Bland’s death was quickly ruled a suicide, sparking allegations of a racially motivated police murder and cover-up, and turning her case and name into a rallying cry nationwide.
From the Oscar(R)-nominated, Emmy(R)- and Peabody Award-winning team of directors/producers Kate Davis and David Heilbroner (HBO’s “Traffic Stop,” “Southern Comfort,” “The Cheshire Murders” and “Jockey”), 
CALL HER GANDA[/caption]
Ganda [gʌn-daː] – meaning “beauty” in Tagalog
On October 11, 2014, Jennifer Laude was last seen with a United States Marine and later found dead in a motel bathroom. This and the identity of the suspect is known to both the Philippines and the United States Government, yet their imperialistic relationship and preponderant transphobia in both countries has rendered the case gridlocked. Filipino-American director PJ Raval seeks justice for trans woman Jeffery “Jennifer” Laude as her homicide evolves far beyond her death and echoes a long-pondered question: what is the United States’ role in the Philippines? Call her Ganda is a poignant exploration of LGBT+ relations in a time of social media saturation and in an environment dominated by lingering post-colonialism. Raval and journalist Meredith Talusan unravels the red herring media coverage and social delusion regarding Laude’s family and the trans community as they struggle for authentic visibility. This documentary intimately examines the resulting Filipino nationalism after Laude’s tragic death as well as the first indictment of a U.S. serviceman on Philippines soil.
Born Jeffery Laude, Jennifer was the breadwinner of her family and provided financial support to her mother. Though her main source of income was promiscuous, the viewer is asked to look beyond her sex-work, identity, and race to ultimately find humanity in someone that is most likely foreign to themselves. The film provides a glimpse into the misunderstood trans-culture of the Philippines and its relation to the nation’s prevailing poverty and corrupt political system. Testimony from her friends and family acquaints us with the bright and benevolent life Laude led while conversely probing us to question the immoral capabilities of United States servicemen. We feel her mother’s struggle for justice, recognize her fiancé’s pain as he tries to make sense of the tragedy, and understand the upheaval of the Filipino people in response U.S.’s intrusion in Filipino law. Raval inquires us to examine the relationship the Philippines has with its Western Subjugator and challenge documents such as the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) that allow the U.S. to interfere in Filipino judicial processes under certain circumstances.