Amazing Documentaries: The Take

We crossed paths with Avi Lewis in Perth, Australia when Wet Gate was there for some concerts as part of the Revelations Film Festival, July of '05. Lewis was showing his recently completed The Take, a documentary of worker takeovers of factories abandoned by bankrupt owners in Argentina. I didn't have a chance to see The Take back then nor speak much with Lewis, but finally saw this impressive piece of independent documentary work and must recommend it to anyone interested in social change and true progress. Indymedia activists Lewis and Naomi Klein went to Buenos Aires during the chaotic period after 2001, when the country saw 5 different presidents fail to right a series of financial collapses in the country. Carlos Menem was the last and worst of these, actively selling out the country's resources to foreign interests and allowing a huge flight of existing capital from the country. This is summarized in The Take as background to a series of worker take-overs of factories in the country, whereby working people sought to take control of their labor. A great team of activist filmmakers worked under exceedingly difficult conditions in a country under financial seige by its moneyed class and haunted by living specters of dictatorship when activists were disappeared. A tremendous testament to the seemingly endless abuse of power in another country forced to its knees by the "loans" of the International Monetary Fund. Required viewing.

Amazing Documentaries: Henri Langlois, Phantom of The Cinematheque

Another wonderful history lesson in a can: this portrait of the life of Henri Langlois, founder of the Cinematheque Francais in Paris. Contains wonderful historic footage of Langlois through periods of his life: during the German Occupation, how films were acquired, stored and preserved(?), building a huge national treasure of a film library and providing screenings of essential cinema which taught generations of young filmmakers where to start. Great footage of turbulent 1968 Paris, when Langlois was under seige by more conservative social forces and demonstrations mounted in support of him featuring Godard, Truffaut and academic-revolutionary Daniel Cohn-Bendit. A great slice of French cultural history and necessary viewing for film collectors and preservationists.

Amazing Documentaries: The Agronomist

Finally had the chance to view this tremendous piece of history by Jonathan Demme, who I don't tend to think of as a political filmmaker, but this is great work. The heart breaking life story of radio activist Jean Dominique, who played a large role in the democratic uprising in Haiti through his radio commentaries at Radio Haiti, the station he founded and which acted as a voice for the people. The film serves as a succinct history of Haiti in the 20th century, with summaries of the years under dictators Papa Doc Duvalier and son, Baby Doc, and how the US has meddled in the affairs of this poor country for so long. Also chronicles the rise and fall of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, the country priest who became Haiti's first democratically elected president. But the center of the film remains Dominique, a uniquely firey personality who you'd expect might be an actor or theate director, just so much life in his eyes and his speech. A beautiful portrait of a life stopped short by the thuggish repression that has paralyzed Haitian society for too long.