Farewell, Herr Schwarz

Film Review by Kam Williams

Descendant of Holocaust Survivor Unearths Family Skeletons in Roots Documentary           

Although Yael Reuveny was born in Israel 35 years after the end of World War II, her formative years were nevertheless substantially shaped by events that had transpired half a world away during the Holocaust. For, she and her mother had both been raised around an embittered concentration camp survivor who had never been able to forgive the Nazis.

After all, her grandmother Michla’s entire family had perished in a death camp in Poland, or at least so she thought. However, there had been a rumor that her brother Feiv’ke might have survived; but Michla lost hope when he failed to materialize at a rendezvous at the Lodz train station that had been arranged by an intermediary.

So, Michla made her way to Tel Aviv where, despite being plagued by nightmares, she would marry and have three kids. Unfortunately, she was also widowed at a young age, and eventually went to her grave still harboring a grudge against Germany.

Meanwhile, her brother changed his name to Peter Schwarz, and married a German gentile with whom he had three children. And not only did he hide the fact that he was Jewish from his offspring, but he continued to live in Schlieben, the town where he’d been imprisoned in a Nazi death camp.

            When Ms. Reuveny caught wind of the existence of another branch of her family tree, she became obsessed with tracking down her long-lost relatives. That five-year quest is the focus of Farewell, Herr Schwarz, a bittersweet documentary detailing an attempt to reconcile a pair of siblings’ polar opposite response to the Holocaust.

After examining the divergent behavior of siblings Michla and Peter, director Reuveny devotes attention to how the pair’s second and third generations have adjusted to life. It is quite a surprise to learn that Peter’s grandson Stephan’s dream has been to move to Israel ever since learning that he is a quarter Jewish. And by contrast, filmmaker/narrator Reuveny opts to settle in Europe, feeling perfectly at home there upon completion of her labor of love.

            A fascinating, generations-spanning genealogical journey!

Excellent (4 stars)

Unrated

In Hebrew, German and English with subtitles

Running time: 101 minutes

Distributor: Kino Lorber

To see a trailer for Farewell, Herr Schwarz, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKZ1tPunFvw      

The Search for General Tso
Film Review by Kam Williams

General Tso‘s Chicken is the most popular takeout dish ordered by American diners. But who was General Tso? Was he actually a military hero, or was his title merely honorary, a la that of “Colonel” Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame?

Was he even the originator of the delectable entrée that bears his name, or was the ingenious recipe created by his wife or a cook? What are its ingredients? When was it introduced to the United States? Why has it proved so popular with the American palate? And are the Chinese as fond of the sweet and spicy fried fare?

These are among the intriguing questions posed by The Search for General Tso, a culinary documentary any Chinese food lover is likely to find fascinating. The picture was written and directed by its host/narrator, Ian Cheney, whose dogged, globe-spanning quest for answers led from Brooklyn to Asia and back around the U.S.

Along the way, we learn that there was, indeed, a General Tso, a legend who distinguished himself on the battlefield in the 19th Century towards the end of the Qing Dynasty. However, his clueless descendants have no idea how their esteemed ancestor came to be associated with the unfamiliar dish, since it is a very modern invention traceable to Taiwan in the 1960s. Without ever being introduced to mainland China, it crossed the Pacific Ocean a decade or so later, taking the States by storm, starting with San Francisco.  

Besides unearthing these and other intriguing tidbits, intrepid Cheney devotes his time to tracking down and interviewing chefs claiming to be the pioneer who first put General Tso’s on the menu. Of course, he also devours many mouth-watering morsels of the honey-glazed chicken chunks, too, which is exactly what you’ll be craving as the closing credits roll.  

The cinematic equivalent of an entertaining encyclopedic entry about the most irresistible offering on today’s Chinese takeout menu!

Excellent (4 stars)

Unrated

In English and Mandarin with subtitles

Running time: 72 minutes

Distributor: IFC Films / Sundance Selects

To see a trailer for The Search for General Tso, visit:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7z0hmBIR8BE   

Unbroken
Film Review by Kam Williams

Do you remember how, Infamous, a biopic about Truman Capote, was released right on the heels of the one entitled Capote? But because the latter had already received considerable critical acclaim, including an Oscar for the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, the Johnnie-come-lately had little chance of making more than a blip on the radar.

The same fate might befall Unbroken, a World War II saga directed by Angelina Jolie. The parallels between this picture and The Railway Man are impossible to ignore, since they both recall the real-life ordeal of a POW tortured by a sadistic, Japanese officer.

The Railway Man, which opened last April, was based on Eric Lomax’s autobiography, and starred the charismatic Colin Firth in the title role opposite Tanroh Ishida as the sick interrogator who seemed to take pleasure in beating him mercilessly. Although Lomax would survive Singapore, he was left traumatized by the grueling ordeal, and ultimately attempted to exorcise his demons by returning to Southeast Asia to track down his abuser.

The correspondingly-themed Unbroken was adapted from the Laura Hillenbrand’s (Seabiscuit) best-seller of the same name recounting bombardier Louie Lamperini’s (Jack O’Connell) struggle to survive a POW camp in Tokyo after his plane crashed in the Pacific during a rescue mission. Because he had represented the U.S. in the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, he was singled out for special mistreatment by a cruel prison guard (Takamasa Ishihara). And later in life, he would return to the Orient to try to confront that evil creep who’d singled him out for an extra measure of persecution.

Unbroken, like The Railway Man, even ends with a touching, closing credits photo montage featuring snapshots of both the hero and his tormentor which only added to this critic’s profound sense of déjà vu. An honorable, historical drama who’s primary flaw rests in its being released too soon after a more-compelling biopic revolving around similar subject-matter.

An uplifting tribute to the indomitability of the human spirit. 

Very Good (2.5 stars)

Rated PG-13 for brief profanity and intense brutality

In English, Italian and Japanese with subtitles

Running time: 137 minutes

Distributor: Universal Pictures

To see a trailer for Unbroken, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8mBzKLhL0U

The 10 Best, No, the 100 Best Films of 2014
by Kam Williams

Kam’s Annual Assessment of the Cream of the Cinematic Crop

2014 has produced a cornucopia of great films, at least a dozen of which has an excellent shot of taking home the Academy Award for Best Picture, including Boyhood, Birdman, The Imitation Game and Whiplash, to name a few. However, all the stars seemed to be aligned for my personal favorite, Selma, the searing civil rights saga, set in March of 1965, about the historic march led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Directed by Ava DuVernay, the film is arriving in theaters at a moment when race is once again an urgent issue threatening to rip asunder the fabric of the country. So, it might serve as a timely reminder about the effectiveness of adopting a philosophy of non-violence.

Furthermore, this is the first feature-length biopic about Dr. King, which is hard to believe since the revered national icon was assassinated way back in 1968. Thirdly, the picture’s wide release practically coincides with his birthday, which has been celebrated as a federal holiday since 1986.

With Black History Month following close on its heels in February, it’s easy to envision Selma building up a head of steam over the course of awards season, when momentum dictates the favorites and often determines the winners in the Oscar sweepstakes.

10 Best Big Budget Films

Selma
Nightcrawler
Birdman 
The Equalizer
The Imitation Game  
X-Men: Days of Future Past
Fury
Kill the Messenger
Jump Street
This Is Where I Leave You 


Big Budgets Honorable Mention

American Sniper 
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Edge of Tomorrow
The Theory of Everything
The Judge
A Most Violent Year
Godzilla
Top Five
Non-Stop
Earth to Echo
The Amazing Spider-Man 2
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
Noah
The Gambler  
Beyond the Lights


Best Independent Films


Whiplash
Boyhood
Wish I Was Here 
Calvary
Dear White People
Life's a Breeze
Two-Bit Waltz
Belle
The M Word
Begin Again 


Independent Films Honorable Mention


The Retrieval
Obvious Child
Chef
Half of a Yellow Sun
Snowpiercer
1,000 Times Good Night
The Two Faces of January
Coherence
St. Vincent
Happy Christmas
Believe Me
Alan Partridge
Hector and the Search for Happiness
The Machine
One Chance


Best Foreign Films

Web Junkie (China) 
The Way He Looks (Brazil) 
Ilo Ilo (Singapore)
Zero Motivation (Israel)
The Tale of Princess Kaguya (Japan)  
The Almost Man (Norway)
Metro Manila (The Philippines)
Abuse of Weakness (France)
Two Days, One Night (Belgium)
Wetlands (Germany)


Foreign Films Honorable Mention


Dancing in Jaffa (Israel)
Stranger by the Lake (France)
Pioneer (Norway)
The Circle (Switzerland)
The Missing Picture (Cambodia)
Demi-Soeur (France)
Fifi Howls from Happiness (Iran)
Grand Depart (France)
Jews of Egypt (Egypt)
Guilty of Romance (Japan)
Soul of a Banquet (China)
Big Bad Wolves (Israel)
Plot for Peace (South Africa)
Journey to the West (China)
We Are the Best (Sweden)


Best Documentaries

The Barefoot Artist
Life Itself
Ivory Tower
The Internet’s Own Boy
Mobilize
American Revolutionary: The Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs
Vanishing Pearls
America the Beautiful 3
Pump 
Second Opinion

Documentaries Honorable Mention

Citizen Four
Keep on Keepin’ On  
Little Hope Was Arson
Breastmilk
Tales of the Grim Sleeper
Kids for Ca$h  
I’ll Be Me
Spanish Lake
Altina
The Great Invisible
I Am Eleven
Tanzania: A Journey Within
Advanced Style
12 O’Clock Boys
Take Me to the River

Russell Simmons

The “Who Polices the Police?” Interview

with Kam Williams

"Rush" to Judgment:

Hip-Hop Icon Seeks Solution to Rash of Police Shootings

Russell Simmons has been very active as of late in the Black Lives Matter movement, and not merely as a participant on the picket lines. Whether extracting a promise from N.Y. State Governor Cuomo to appoint special prosecutors in cases of police brutality, or defending Bill de Blasio after NYPD President Pat Lynch suggested the Mayor has “blood on his hands,” Rush has been an outspoken advocate urgently lobbying for an overhaul of how the criminal justice system handles the prosecution of cops accused of police brutality.  

Kam Williams: Hi Russell, thanks for taking a break from your vacation to talk to me. Where are you calling me from?

Russell Simmons: I’m with my kids in St. Bart’s. I’ve come here every year for the past 27 years. Kam, I wouldn’t take the time to talk to anybody else. You’re the only one I trust to get out the word accurately.

KW: I appreciate the opportunity, brother. Let me start by asking how you feel about the cowardly ambush assassination of NYPD officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos in their patrol car?

RS: It breaks my heart that those two innocent police officers were killed. I am really very, very brokenhearted about it. But the best way to protect both the policemen and the community going forward is by creating a system that’s just, where everyone feels safe. Of course everyone feels terrible about what happened to the policemen, but it’s terrible what happened to Eric Garner, too.

KW: Why do you spend so much time on the streets marching nowadays and previously in the park with the Occupy Movement, when you have money?  

RS: Why not? Why can’t I occupy? Why can’t the rich help the poor? Why can’t I pay attention to systematic problems that disenfranchise my people?

KW: You’ve been working with the Justice League NYC, a progressive group that has gained a lot of traction as of late, and which issued a specific list of demands.

RS: I’m a little concerned about the group’s demands, all of which are legitimate, because as thoughtful as the list is, it’s still been easy for the New York Post and others to find ways to cherry pick and disparage it.  

KW: Well, what would you say is your most important goal?

RS: There’s one overriding issue, namely, that we live in a police state so long as the police get to police themselves. And that is why cops go unindicted. 

KW: Does it all boil down to whether or not black lives matter?

RS: I don’t like to racialize it, but it is a question of whether black lives matter. They do matter less. We know that from the news when one little white girl going missing in Brooklyn is considered more newsworthy than the fifty black kids who got shot in Chicago the same weekend. So, yes black lives matter less, but Global Grind [ www.globalgrind.com ] did follow the recent incident involving an African-American policeman who shot a white boy and didn’t get indicted. We’ll never know whether he’s guilty, because there won’t be a trial. So long as the local district attorney [D.A.] is responsible for indicting a cop, we live in a police state. I will not rest until that one flaw in the system is changed.  

KW: What happened in that meeting you and Jay-Z had with Governor Cuomo a couple of weeks ago? Afterwards, you held a press conference saying that the Governor had pledged to employ special prosecutors in the future, but he seemed to simply say that the system needs to be reformed.   

RS: Maybe I misunderstood him about an executive order, but he did promise to change the law. He said something to the effect of, “I promise you, I’m going to get a bill passed establishing a separate office and a separate prosecutor for the state that looks into police abuse.”

KW: You have your differences with NYPD Union President Pat Lynch, too.

RS: The police union can point all the fingers they want at everybody else, but they’re fighting to retain control. They know it’s the #1 issue. But people are avoiding it, and pushing it to the side. I don’t think anybody’s going to rest until we get a separation of the local D.A. in these cases. I’ve been in all of the meetings with [Attorney General] Eric Schneiderman. The Governor would have to issue an executive order that would land on Schneiderman‘s desk, or he’d have to introduce a bill in Albany to make that change. New York may be the first state to enact such an initiative, and then it could rollover all across the country. Regardless, we’re going to fix New York State. No one’s going to rest until New York has an independent prosecutor to look into these cases.

KW: As a lawyer, it’s painfully obvious to me that these cases are being thrown, since any prosecutor could, as they say, indict a ham sandwich if he or she wants to.

RS: All of these prosecutors have thrown the cases. Normally, everybody gets indicted and is put on trial. In the Eric Garner case, the only person the Staten Island grand jury did indict was the guy who filmed the tragic incident. 

KW: I didn’t know that, but I can’t say I’m surprised.

RS: I’ve spent a lot of time with Eric Garner’s son recently, and it breaks my heart to see his family grieving and to know that unless U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder steps in and brings some civil rights charges, they will never get justice. So, when I march, I’m thinking about that one issue everybody has to agree with. The Police Association is the only one that doesn’t. It’s been horrible, between all the attacks on the Mayor and the peaceful protestors.  

KW: What needs to be done to reduce the tension between the rank-and-file police officers and the community?

RS: It’s the job of the head of the police union to create a dialogue and a comfort level with the community. Mayor de Blasio’s doing his best to understand the dynamic and to work out a fair plan, but it’s like Lynch doesn’t want to give an inch. It’s in his power to determine whether a cop is indicted. If a local D.A. indicts a cop, he may as well kiss his ass goodbye. That conflict of interest can’t exist anymore. If Lynch doesn’t change, then blood could be on his hands, because he has the power to support the appointment of special prosecutors, so that any inappropriate behavior and excessive force can be investigated in a reasonable way. 

KW: How well attended were the marches? Did the police play down the head count?

RS: When we marched down Fifth Avenue, there weren’t just 30,000 people out there, but at least 150,000 people out there. It stretched for 35 crowded blocks full of people. I’ll send you the footage shot from a helicopter. It was a peaceful march, and if we don’t adjust system, we will march again. Last time, I had everybody from Khloe Kardashian to Miley Cyrus to Kanye to Puffy to Nas out there. They all Instagrammed and Tweeted and used other social media to let folks know that they were going to be there. Tyrese has 20 million followers on Facebook alone. These people are all waiting for word of when we launch. So, the issue is not going away, until the state is no longer a police state where the policemen police themselves. 

KW: New York sure looked like a police state when a long gauntlet of cops turned their backs on the Mayor as he walked down the hall of the hospital after paying his respects to the two officers who had just been assassinated. I realized, if they don’t feel that they have to show any respect to the Mayor, just think of the contempt they must have for the Average Joe.

RS: I would blame [Police Commissioner] Bratton. I’m not sure he’s the right person to bridge the gap. Bratton says, “It’ll go away.” He’s wrong. If he thinks it’s going away, he’s crazy. We’re not going anywhere. We’re just getting started. If we don’t get a special prosecutor in New York State, we’re going to march.

KW: What about the possibility of it inciting violence?

RS: I’ve never seen so many smart and thoughtful kids as at that 150,000+ march. The only incident involved a white, City College professor. Black people are used to the injustice, but this white professor probably got riled up because he’s white and wasn’t used to it. That was the only incident at a very diverse march. 

KW: Well thanks again for the time, Rush, recharge your batteries, so you can return from vacation ready to resume fighting the good fight. We need you. 

RS: Will do, my brother. God bless you.