An Honest Liar (7/10): The legacy of James "The Amazing" Randi

“Magicians are the most honest people in the world. They tell you they're going to fool you, and then they do it.”

A great title for a film that revolves around a magician who is devoted to uncovering the lies told by faith healers and psychics around the globe. The subject of this documentary is James “The Amazing” Randi, who was once a brilliant magician and escape artist, but has now decided to put his talents into use to unmask those people (the con artists) who are making money out of false claims and trickery. The documentary begins with an interview where Randi explains how a magician’s job is to tell its audience he or she is going to fool them and make them wonder how he or she pulled it off. That is a very different thing from a person who claims to have special psychic powers or a special communication with God and use those abilities to lie and deceive people. Randi’s passion for magic and his humanity led him to use his abilities to show others how they are being deceived without ever revealing the trick. The way he went about uncovering these people is what makes this documentary compelling as he creates fictional characters or personas to fool audiences, the media, and even scientists before revealing to them that it was all a scam and proving therefor how easy it is to deceive others when you have abilities to perform these tricks.  Randi himself is a charismatic man and we see it through some old TV archives in interviews with Johnny Carson, Larry King, and Regis Philbin. 

The documentary is pretty standard as it goes back and forth between interviews and TV footage, but what makes it stand out is the story it is telling which I wasn’t familiar with. I was so completely unaware of what this film was about that I didn’t even know it was a documentary until it began. In the beginning we are introduced to this great escape artist who marveled audiences with his stunning tricks. He explains he dropped out of High School at the age of 17 to join a circus and that is where his adventures began. Once we are introduced to the man himself, the documentary begins to explore some of the psychics he began to unmask. The first thing Randi decided to do was get his good friend Jose Alvarez to pose as a psychic who is traveling to Australia. They invent several media clips about his accomplishments in the US and once he arrives in Australia he immediately fools everyone because the media never even bothered to check the reliability of the sources they were providing them with. After exposing how easy it is to fool the media, he continues to do so with the scientists as well. There is one great clip about how they unmasked a faith healer named Peter Popoff by proving that his wife was telling him what to say through an earpiece from some prayer requests cards that they had asked the people to fill out prior to the service. 

Despite the great amount of footage shown of how Randi unmasked these psychics they still continued to fool a lot of people. Randi couldn’t understand why so many people failed to acknowledge that they were being fooled and clung on to their beliefs. Then as we were approaching the end of the documentary we were exposed to a surprising and ironic twist that allowed us to view this in a different light. Without giving away any spoilers, Randi himself was being deceived and after the deception he too decided to cling on to his love and accept it. Perhaps the lesson we might learn here as ironic as it sounds is that we choose to see what we want to see and accept the deceptions we want to accept. The twist kind of took everyone by surprise so it wasn’t explored all that much, but it still seemed to make an interesting point to what was being said. Rand’s personal life wasn’t as interesting as his work, but the end justifies why it was introduced in the first place. This was a good watch but it didn’t do anything groundbreaking for the genre.  

Virunga (8/10): Two contrasting sides of humanity's attitude towards nature

“Consider this: Only 880 Mountain Gorillas Remain in the World.”

Orlando von Einsiedel, a former professional snowboarder, began making short documentaries in 2010 skating through the streets of Kabul, Afghanistan. He then continued working in Africa directing several shorts across the continent, and that is when a photograph of a group of rangers at Virunga National Park caught his attention. The story was far too compelling for a short, so he decided to direct his first feature documentary centering on the current situation in Congo. The Park rangers are completely committed to protecting the wild life where the world’s remaining Mountain Gorillas live, but as in most of the African continent the unstable government situation has made their survival difficult. With rebel groups trying to fund their armies, the rich minerals present in the park are their means to it. But these dangerous rebel groups aren’t the only enemy that the rangers face. SOCO, a British gas company, was given permission by the Congolese government to explore the territory for oil reserves. The contradiction is that Virunga is a protected park due to the endangered species living their. Through a series of interesting investigative work, a reporter named Melanie Gouby manages to befriend SOCO employees and discovers a link between them and the rebel groups. She also exposes the corruption behind some of the officials. What results is a fascinating documentary that gets more and more exciting as the story develops. 

What Virunga does best is combine astonishing shots of the beautiful landscape of the park with the chaos that the country has been experiencing due to the rebel groups and corrupt government officials. The innocence of the baby gorillas playing with some of the rangers who are willing to sacrifice their lives for these animals is juxtaposed with the racial and distasteful comments of some of the employees trying to exploit the park. If this were a feature film, I’d say the villains were stereotypically played because their comments and actions are simply cringeworthy. But this is the real deal and it is a shame that these people think this way. Our lack of humanity is brilliantly portrayed and it easily contradicts the beauty of the park. While rebel groups create chaos and shoot innocent kids, gorilla caretakers like André Bauma are willing to risk their lives for the gorillas. In a touching scene he says “You must justify why you are on this Earth. Gorillas justify why I am here. They are my life.” This takes place as the rebel groups close in on the park spreading fear through gunshots and explosions. So we get both sides of humanity in this touching documentary and that contradiction is what makes this such an exciting and upsetting film at the same time.  

Being in the line of fire probably wasn’t easy for von Einsiedel, but his bravery pays off because he has managed to direct a fascinating documentary which received a nomination at this year’s Academy Awards. The way he allows his camera to capture the beauty of the park reminds us of what a great tourist attraction this place could be if it weren’t for the danger that lurks in the area. The reason it hasn’t become one of the world’s main attractions is because of the constant war and instability of the region, but if there could be some way of reaching peace I’m sure their could be much more wealth found in tourism than in the minerals everyone’s trying to exploit there. Virunga reminded me a lot of the universal theme found in films like Avatar dealing with corporate greed and corruption versus the beauty of nature and how our greed is destroying it. Virunga is a compelling watch and a documentary you won’t regret experiencing.   

Citizenfour (9/10): A groundbreaking documentary that feels more like a spy thriller

“We are building the biggest weapon for oppression in the history of mankind.”

I’m afraid that as I write down this quote from Laura Poitras thrilling documentary I will be added to the NSA’s surveillance list. That is how paranoid this documentary may make you feel after the two hour nail biting experience. Citizenfour feels more like a spy thriller than an actual documentary because it was being documented in real time as history was being made. I’m no computer wiz and my knowledge is rather limited, but the way things are explained in this documentary makes it easier to follow the story. There are several things that stand out here and despite that slow opening 15 minutes, once Edward Snowden shows up for the first time the documentary begins to take form and the thrills kick in as we realize that we are becoming a witness to the events that occurred in 2013 surrounding the US government involvement in surveillance. Whatever personal opinion we may have about Edward Snowden’s actions, this film gives us the opportunity to understand why he did them. 

Perhaps the greatest thing about Citizenfour is that it ends up being a rather interesting and fascinating character study of a man who we’ve read a lot about over the past year and a half despite not really knowing who he was. As opposed to Assange, Snowden really didn’t want to take center stage and he believed the story was more important for the public than his personal life. This inner conflict is captured during the intense Hong Kong meetings between himself, Poitras, and reporter Glenn Greenwald who was the man responsible for breaking the story in The Guardian. I found this documentary fascinating despite not really having cared much for the story when it first broke out. I guess I simply didn’t care about being under surveillance considering there isn’t anything I have to hide, but I understand now the importance of Snowden’s actions and its implications. The risk that he along with Poitras and Greenwald took is heightened in this documentary with the eerie underlying score. Citizenfour is a groundbreaking and thrilling documentary that is worth checking out no matter how you feel about the matter.

What stands out in Citizenfour is the sense of immediacy surrounding the events that have taken place over the past year. We also get a sense of who and why Snowden did what he did. Snowden, Greenwald, and Poitras aren’t just concerned about the loss of privacy, but the loss of freedom it implicates because the public will be fearful of sharing their personal opinions. The documentary works like an authentic spy thriller because you get a sense of the persecution and secrecy surrounding their actions while filming and developing the story. Citizenfour is the frontrunner to win Best Documentary in the Academy Awards and deservedly so because it is an intense and gripping documentary that is relevant in today’s world. People who were obsessed with their private information being divulged in Facebook will have a lot more to worry about after this (cellphone, emails, google searches, and so on).

My Review: Blackfish (9/10)

“There is no record of an orca doing any harm to a human in the wild.”

Despite not being the world’s greatest animal lover, I remember being fascinated by the gorgeous killer whale during my childhood. I recall one of the incidents that a trainer had with these animals when I was young, but I thought it was just part of the perks of working with wild animals. Ever since, I believed these were dangerous animals. I also found myself on SeaWorld’s side believing that they were offering us an amazing opportunity to see these animals up close, while at the same time domesticating them. I never believed these animals were suffering from captivity or anything of the sort. I was just as blind as the former trainers who are in this wonderful documentary sharing their experiences. Gabriela Cowperthwaite delivers a carefully constructed case in Blackfish by giving evidence that these animals are not only intelligent beings, but highly emotional and social as well. She convinced me with her forensic and detailed evidence that the attacks like the one in SeaWorld weren’t simply part of a working hazard, but provoked by the inhumane treatment these orcas receive in captivity. There is no doubt in my mind now that these attacks are a direct result of their captivity. Gabriela sort of ruined my childhood memories, but she accomplishes her purpose and convinced me not to support SeaWorld. Blackfish succeeds in that regard because it accomplished its purpose and was effective in my case. 

Most of the time documentaries can be interesting although dull, but Blackfish is just as entertaining as it is informative. I was hooked from the very opening scene and I never felt bored during the interviews or the footage. Cowperthwaite’s case might be one sided and biased, but it isn’t her fault that SeaWorld didn’t want to participate in the making of this film. Having these former whale trainers share their experience, while watching their footage with the whales was effective as well. They’ve all had a change of heart because you can tell they actually love these animals and most of them established an emotional connection with them. I wonder what present day trainers will think of this after watching all the compelling evidence presented here. Not only does Gabriela point out that these animals are highly emotional and social, but she also reminds us that these animals have never attacked anyone in the wild, they live much longer lives in the wild than in captivity, and that it isn’t normal that their fins drag to their sides like most of the whales in SeaWorld. The only evidence she introduces which I would debate was when she mentions that Tilikum’s (one of Seaworld’s biggest whales) offspring could acquire that learned aggression towards humans, but scientists have proven it’s not the case. The documentary is very aggressive and it is effective in sending out the message and provoking a reaction in the audience. I will admit that there are also some tearful moments in this documentary as well. Blackfish makes its case and does so effectively.

My Review: The Invisible War (9/10)

¨There is a right way, a wrong way, and the Army way.¨

Kirby Dick (This Film Is Not Yet Rated and Twist of Faith) directs yet another powerful and instrumental documentary that we hope will serve to change the policies towards the way the military is dealing with its sexual harassment and rape cases. This is something that requires immediate change and Dick does a terrific job of channeling that emotional anger through his interviews. He interviews several male and female ex military members who share their testimony of how they were sexually harassed and in many cases raped during their service. There are some very emotional and horrifying testimonies of what these people had to go through. They didn’t get the battle scars from fighting abroad and protecting their country, they got them from within, from one of their own, and from the very people they considered their brothers and sisters. What is even worse wasn’t that these people were simply raped, but that they were completely ignored by the officials who were in charge of overseeing their cases. The repercussions over rape reports are even worse than the act itself. The testimonies aren’t just emotional; they are completely infuriating because these people still have to undergo through the pain and injuries suffered during that time without receiving any help from the people in charge. It´s like they want to sweep everything under the rug, ignore their complaints, and protect the sexual predators that will (and probably have already) strike again. The testimonies aren’t all recent, we have some that took place several decades ago which proves that no one is really dealing with the situation or taking them seriously. This documentary left me sad, angry, and horrified at the way these people are being treated. This is one of those documentaries that you hope produce immediate change and hopefully the government will begin taking action.    

The documentary begins with footage of some cheesy military propaganda searching for new recruits. We then begin to hear several testimonies from ex military members ranging from the Army, to the Navy, to the Coast Guard, to the Marine Corps. They each share how excited they were to enter the military and serve their country, but what began with such high idealism ended up being a nightmare. Their hard work and high hopes were crashed when they were sexually assaulted and raped by other officers and in some cases officials. These people found it difficult to file a report because the people in charge of prosecuting them were usually friends of the assailant. No action was taken to defend the victims, on the other hand they were encouraged to cover it up and forget anything ever happened. They tried to blame them instead of finding fault in the predator. One of the most powerful testimonies comes from Kori and her husband Rob McDonald whose life we follow over a course of several months. Kori shares her testimony of how she was abused and raped. She was also hit in the face so hard that her jaw was broken. She is denied any military assistance and her sex offender continues to work in the military as if nothing ever happened. Kirby then shares some astonishing statistics by claiming that over 20% of female veterans were sexually assaulted while serving. This represents about half a million female veterans. How is this possible? The answer is pretty simple considering these sex offenders get away with their crime easily working in enclosed and controlled areas. The number of veterans who suffer PTSD due to sexual abuse is even higher than those who suffer that disorder from being in combat. All this information was really eye-opening and astonishing.

This documentary will leave you infuriated at the way these veterans are being treated simply because they have decided to share their experience and are trying to make their voice heard so some change comes in the way the military handles these cases and prosecutions. There are several emotional testimonies and in most cases these people have not found justice as no assistance has been given to them. There seems to be this wall of silence which only protects the guilty. We see several claims of military officials over the years claiming that they will take action and have zero tolerance, but nothing changes and the sexual harassment cases continue to pile up and investigations close. There is just too much compliance and covering up going on. The victims can’t be punished anymore. There seems to be some abuse of power going on from the very people who are supposed to serve and protect. For those interested in more information about this documentary you can visit their website Notinvisible.com. I hope this documentary serves to open our eyes and force a change in the way prosecutions are being handled. This is a documentary we all need to see and share with others, especially if you or a loved one is thinking of joining the military.

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My Review: How to Survive a Plague (7/10)

¨Act Up. Fight Back. Fight AIDS.¨

Director David France does an impressive job of gathering information, data, news footage, and home videos during the decade long fight of the activist group known as ACT UP to find a way to stop the AIDS epidemic in this well constructed documentary. The film succeeds in showing us the anger and outrage that these men went through to stop government inaction on such a widespread plague that was killing off millions of people in the world. I was impressed with this chronological history that David France was able to put together in a brilliant way. My only complaint is that some things were repetitive as we see one rally after another in protest against the government. ACT UP assembled to fight and protest against the little support given by the Reagan and Bush administration, against the FDA which was taking too long to approve drugs that several patients needed, and the Catholic Church which condemned them. The documentary is full of anger, and there are several emotional moments as we see what some of these men had to go through in their struggle with the disease. During the 80´s having AIDS meant you had almost a 100% chance of dying; it was practically a death sentence. This made the homophobic atmosphere grow in communities where several hospitals neglected to give these patients health care. France follows the activist group, ACT UP, from its forming moments to its divisive ones, and finally to the goals they accomplished through some breakthroughs. It was not an easy fight, but their voice was heard. This is the story of how some of these men were able to survive the plague.

The story begins six years after the AIDS epidemic has begun to spread. It´s 1987 and a group of activists known as ACT UP decide to get together in New York City to protest against the way the AIDS epidemic has been treated. They form a coalition for healthcare after over half a million people had died of AIDS around the world. We follow the protests taking place against some government officials and the activists finally begin to get their voiced heard. David France isn’t afraid of sharing some strong images with the viewer as he shows everything in a very raw manner. Their next rallies take place over the country protesting against gay hate, and later we see them protest against the FDA for taking too much time to approve drugs. This leads some of the activists to begin receiving some underground drug treatments in order to try to expand their life as the sickness begins taking a toll on them. They begin to study and discover what the disease really was and fight for possible solutions as they form committees in order to understand AIDS better. They also form support groups for those people who had fear of coming out during that dangerous time. They studied several ways to slow down the virus, but as time passed more and more deaths were taking place. The film follows the decade long fight of ACT UP from 1987 to 1996 where they finally reached a breakthrough, although it came at a great cost.

Some of the important things the AIDS community accomplished were rising consciousness of what the disease really was, they made AIDS become an important issue during the 1992 presidential campaign, and they finally found drugs that helped slow down the effects of the virus. It wasn’t an easy fight as we feel the anger some of these men had towards the ineptness of the government of the time and the loss of some of their close friends and relatives. This was a very insightful story and part of American history that needed to be told. France did an excellent job at putting together all the footage and delivering a powerful and emotional documentary. It did drag a little, but it was a strong film.

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My Review: Searching for Sugar Man (10/10)

¨An obstacle is an inspiration.¨

Searching for Sugar Man is by far the best documentary I´ve seen this year and one of my all time favorites. Swedish director, Malik Bendjelloul, who has been known for producing musical documentaries brings us a fascinating story full of mystery and reminds us how easy it is for great talents to go unrecognized at times. I was completely hooked with this gripping story from the very beginning and wondered what had happened to this 70´s rocker that influenced South Africa in such a big way during the Apartheid. The documentary has some unexpected payoffs halfway through the film and some unbelievable twists. The soundtrack is also amazing and contributes even more to the mysterious factor as to how someone so talented was completely ignored in the United States. One of the producers claimed that in America he was zero, in South Africa a hero. The name of this mysterious man is Sixto Rodriguez, who in 1970 created an album that revolutionized South Africa during the oppressive regime. It was a soundtrack to their lives and millions identified with the powerful antiestablishment lyrics of his song, but no one knew anything about this man who was more famous than Elvis Presley in their country. As I listened to his songs in the soundtrack, I couldn’t even believe I hadn’t heard of this man before. Bendjelloul directed this wonderful film in a very gripping and mysterious way making Rodriguez even more mystical than he already was. This is one great detective story, or as they call it in the documentary musicologist detective story. The film was also beautifully shot, drifting from images of Detroit (Rodriguez´s hometown) to others in Cape Town where we see the contrast of this man´s fame. This documentary is worth checking out for the powerful and emotional story alone. It is better than most thrillers I´ve seen lately.

The documentary begins with the narration of a South African named Stephen Segerman, who has been nicknamed Sugar for a well known song in the 70´s known as Sugar Man. As he speaks and tells us the story of this mysterious musician who everyone in South Africa has heard about, we can hear the song playing in the background. Segerman explains the significance that his music had during the apartheid in South Africa where the government was controlling the information from the outside world. Somehow a bootleg from Rodriguez´s 1970 album, Cold Fact, made its way to Cape Town and became an instant success selling over half a million copies in that country. Rodriguez became a rebel icon and his music influenced the underground movement, but no one knew anything about this man. Unlike other successful rockers, nobody knew who this man really was and an air of mystery surrounded this man. Several tragic stories were told about his grotesque suicide, some claimed he set himself on fire in a concert and others that he shot himself in the head during another presentation. Rodriguez became a legend in South Africa, but no one really knew anything else about this man. That is where Segerman comes in as he begins to search for clues and information about his past. By listening closely to the lyrics he begins discovering some clues as to where this man might have lived, and so the detective story begins with some thrilling discoveries. Segerman finally discovers and interviews some of the producers of his two albums who all seem to agree that Rodriguez should have been a star because of his great lyrics, but somehow his albums never sold. Some even claimed he was better than Bob Dylan. Segerman shows the contrast of how affecting his music was in South Africa, and how nonexistent it was in America. His investigations will lead to some surprising discoveries along the way.

The way in which Segerman begins to solve the mystery of Rodriguez´s life is what makes this detective story so interesting and gripping. There are some great discoveries along the way as we listen in the background to several of his songs, which I absolutely enjoyed. It made me want to buy the album. The mystery surrounding this man´s grotesque death made this even more dramatic and thrilling to watch. Who would have ever thought that a musicologist detective story would be so interesting? What made this documentary even more dramatic was the fact that this man had never realized how his music impacted another country the way it did. But then what seemed to be the ending of one story ended up being the beginning of an even better one. I don’t want to go into too much detail because I don’t want to give anything away, but the payoff is incredible. The search and hunt for Rodriguez pays off in the end with some incredible discoveries. Searching for Sugar Man is a grandiose story and one worth seeing.

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My Review: Con Mi Corazón en Yambo (9/10)

¨The only battle you lose is the one you abandon. These kinds of battles are battles that will last all your life.¨

Mi Corazon en Yambo is a 140 minute long Ecuadorian documentary about the disappearance of two young brothers in 1988. That seems like a very long time to sit through a documentary, but in reality Maria Fernanda Restrepo has directed a fascinating film that will have you at the edge of your seat dealing with all sorts of emotions as your blood boils from all the injustice this family has gone through. This is a very personal project for Restrepo as she is the sister of the young boys, and she has made this film so that we never forget the atrocities that happened during that period in which human rights were violated, not only in Ecuador but across the entire continent. Chile suffered this sort of persecution under Pinochet`s regimen, while Uruguay and Argentina had to deal with similar problems during their dictatorships. In order to ¨protect and serve¨ their country, these governments used torture and ignored human rights in order to control the revolts. In Ecuador many disappearances occurred during those years under Leon Febres Cordero`s presidency, but the case almost every Ecuadorian remembers is the Restrepo one. Why? Simply because the family never stopped fighting or searching for the truth. They were not going to stand still and let time heal the wounds until the truth was discovered. And that is why Maria Fernanda`s father hasn’t stopped protesting after all these twenty years have gone by and he still goes to the Plaza every Wednesday and protests. He tells his daughter that ¨you always know when the battle begins, but you never know when it is going to end.¨ Restrepo ends up not just paying homage to her family, but making an extraordinary film as well.

The film is directed, written, and narrated by Maria Fernanda Restrepo, who begins introducing us to each member of her family. We see the little footage she has of her two older brothers, whom a few months later would disappear and be gone from her life forever. This raw footage of their lives shows us how happy everything seemed to be going for the Restrepo`s, but one day this would change. Maria Fernanda was ten years old when her brothers were taken away from them, and so the memory she has of everything prior to that moment is very vague. She remembers celebrating with her father when Leon Febres Cordero was elected President and we see some footage of that historic moment. She remembers that specific moment because she would soon discover how that ¨grandiose¨ event would change their lives forever. The Restrepo`s had been living in Quito for several years, but they were from Colombia. During the rise of Cordero to power, the drug cartels were growing and threatening the nation. These cartels came from Colombia so the government decided to fight hard against this crime and saw every Colombian in the street as a possible threat. One day in 1988 the Restrepo parents` had to leave so they left their kids, Carlos and Nene, in the house. When they returned a few days later they never found their children again. The kids were on their way to bid a friend farewell at the airport, but they never got there. What happened to them remained a mystery to the family for several years. They heard so many versions, but finally the truth was revealed that the kids had been taken away as hostages by the police because they were driving without a license. Since they were Colombian, they automatically assumed they were in the drug business and tortured the poor kids to death. The bodies were never found and the government hid all the evidence.

Mi Corazon en Yambo means My Heart in Yambo, and the reason for this is because one of the police officers testified that the children were brought in for question and tortured to death. Their bodies were put in trash bags and launched into the Yambo Lake. However, the bodies have never been found and the truth has never been revealed. No one else has shared any more information on the case and the government has failed to provide an answer. Jesus said ¨The truth will set you free, ¨ but despite that we are very far from discovering the truth and until that moment the Restrepo`s will never experience that freedom. That is why they continue to fight despite so many years of struggle and resistance. Their motto is to never forget or stop fighting for the truth until someone opens up and shares it with them. They will not be silenced until the bodies are found. The root of the problem here has always been the truth (or the lack of it from everyone involved in the case). This is a very powerful and emotional movie with some of the greatest villains you will ever see on film. Some of the people that Restrepo interviews are so guilty you can see it in their face, but despite all this they remain silent and claim they`re innocent. I can`t think of worse villains than the people involved in the case, not just because of what they did, but because they continue to refuse coming clean and try to ignore the issue all together. There are two women who perhaps didn`t have anything to do with the murder of the kids, but are just so evil in the way they behave towards the family that they are just as guilty as the perpetrators. This is a very powerful documentary and one you won`t want to miss. One of the best of the year!

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My Review: Project Nim (6/10)

¨I thought wouldn’t it be exciting to communicate with a chimp and find out what it was thinking.¨

Director James Marsh won an Oscar for his brilliant documentary, Man on Wire, which told the story of French tightrope walker Phillippe Petit who performed his routine across the Twin Towers in New York City. That film was very suspenseful and really hooked my attention. Project Nim, is also directed by Marsh, but it doesn’t have the same suspense that that film had. Man on Wire kept me interested in how Petit was able to achieve his goal, he was a very charismatic figure, and on the other hand Project Nim was kind of slow paced and didn’t have any interesting characters rather than the Chimp himself. Nim (the name of the chimp) is fun to watch on screen, but it didn`t work as a full length documentary for me. The story does raise several questions about how inhumane we can be at times and how our ¨scientific projects¨ have interfered in many animals lives. Questions which I already was familiar with, so this movie really didn’t surprise me one bit, like say The Cove did with the slaughtering of the dolphins in Japan. That was a much more effective and eye-opening documentary. Project Nim is a well made documentary, but it really falls short compared to last year`s great ones such as Inside Job, Restrepo, and Exit Through the Gift Shop. I haven’t been able to watch many documentaries this year, but I heard this was on many critics’ favorite lists so I went ahead and checked it out, but felt a bit disappointed with it. The bar has already been raised high for these movies (and Marsh himself is responsible for this after his excellent Man on Wire) so I really can`t recommend this one as highly as I would`ve like too.

Hebert Terrace was a professor at Columbia University during the 70`s when he came up with the idea of trying to teach a chimpanzee how to communicate like a human being. Considering human and chimp DNA is very similar he believed that it could be possible for a chimp to communicate what he was thinking if he was raised in a normal human environment. So Terrace chose a newborn chimp, separated it from his mother, named it Nim, and gave him to a human family which would be in charge of nurturing and taking care of it as if it were a normal human being. Terrace chose Stephanie Lafarge and her family to raise the animal. It was the seventies, the hippy movement, and her family was pretty much very liberal. They had no idea of how to raise the chimp and they practically let it run around everywhere. The monkey spend the first years with that family, until Terrace decided to move him to a bigger home with more experienced professors who could teach Nim how to communicate better. Nim learned several sign languages and was taught at first by Laura-Ann Petitto, but as the chimp grew up he became more dangerous. He never lost his animals instincts although he did make some progress in communication. After five years Terrace decided to end the project as he felt the research wasn’t going anywhere, and Nim was sent back to a chimp refugee where he spent most of the time locked up in cages although he felt most attached to Bob Ingersoll who continued the communication process with the animal and spent time playing with it in the wild. The documentary continues to track Nim`s life until his death.

The scientific project really resulted in being inhumane for the chimp because despite making some progress he never really adapted well when he was taken back with the rest of the chimps. He had been raised as a human for so long that after the project ended, Nim continued suffering the exploitations he went through. There were many people who helped Nim and really cared for him, but at the same time the entire experiment resulted in being a negative thing for the chimp. Project Nim never tries to be preachy or tell us what to do, it simply points out the facts. Marsh interviews everyone that was a part of Nim`s life and shows a lot of footage that was used during the investigation. The documentary is really interesting on paper, but I really felt it dragged for some while and wasn’t as entertaining as other recent documentaries. Marsh is a great director and he has great ideas, but I don’t think this film really deserves an Oscar nomination. It`s still a good film and if you`re interested in animal behavior you might enjoy this a little more than I did. I`m more into sports and preferred the Uruguayan documentary Manyas much more, which dealt with the soccer fanatics and the way they felt for their team.

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My Reviews: Manyas La Pelicula (10/10)

¨This is Peñarol¨

Manyas is a Uruguayan documentary directed by Andres Benvenuto that documents the testimonies of journalists, historians, psychologists, sociologist, and several fans of Peñarol, the local club that`s just been named the best football team of the Twentieth Century, and recently lost the final of the Copa Libertadores against Santos from Brazil. Peñarol has won five Libertadores and in 2011 was on its way to win their sixth Cup after 25 years under coach Diego Aguirre, who ironically in 1987 had scored the winning goal for Peñarol. Unfortunately the Manyas (nickname given by their fans) were one goal away from the achievement and came home empty handed. This film documents the events that occurred before and after that final match. It`s also a study of how football has become a religion for several people and how they worship their team every week. One fan says ¨Peñarol is my religion and the Centenario Stadium my Church.¨ Fanatics share their experiences and crazy stories about things they`ve done for their team. Uruguay is a small country, but people are united by this sport because it has a rich history. Despite only having a population of three million, Uruguay has won two Olympic gold medals for football, two World Cups, and 15 Copa America`s. They are South America Copa Kings and therefore its inhabitants get their sense of pride from football. Everyone in Uruguay loves football and knows the rich history the country has, therefore the sport isn`t taken lightly by its people. In Manyas we get to experience this deep fanatism the people have for their local team.

Throughout the documentary we get to hear several testimonies about fans who`ve traveled several kilometers to see their team play, who`ve escaped their home when their wives didn`t give them permission to leave, who`ve fought with their girlfriends over their love for team players, who have gotten strange tattoos of their team and some of their idols, who`ve sold their parents` motorcycles and told them someone stole them in order to have money to travel with the team, and so on. The camera catches these testimonies and we can see the passion in each of these individuals’ eyes. The camera also takes us to the stadium where we see this passion shown throughout the games with goal celebrations and hard to swallow losses. The documentary is intense and throughout these moments we also get to hear to testimony of several professionals who try to explain why the team awakens so much passion and emotion in their fans. We even spend time with a couple of old ladies who are just as fanatics as any other young person. Several ex players also share their testimony and experience with Peñarol fans. Another very emotional moment is when the camera documents the moment in which Peñarol fans make the biggest flag in the world and display it in one of the matches. It is gigantic and eye dropping (three hundred meters wide and 50 long). We also hear several testimonies from several fans around the globe showing that Peñarol is not just local fanatism, but something global.

One fan explains his passion and love for Peñarol by saying ¨We can lose from behind, we can suffer a humiliating defeat, lose a final or a semifinal, but you lose a football match, but the passion will always be there, it will never die, the passion never losses, because this is Peñarol!¨ No matter what the result is, the fans are always there supporting the team. Peñarol is one of the only teams in which their fans wear the jersey more when the team losses than when it actually wins. As a fan of Peñarol myself it`s a little hard to be unbiased with this documentary, and at times it was difficult to hold back the tears and emotions for a team that has been such a big part of my life. Peñarol fans will definitely be satisfied with this documentary, although I can`t say if other people unfamiliar with football or the team would be interested in this film. For me it worked really well and I was pleased with the 80 minute long documentary. There are several emotional moments during the film and 2011 has been quite a great year for us fans. One of my favorite films of the year and I`m sure almost every Peñarol fan will be pleased with this documentary: Manyas, this is Peñarol.