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.

Ava DuVernay

The “Selma” Interview

with Kam Williams

Retracing the Road to Justice!

Ava DuVernay is a writer, producer, director and distributor of independent film. Winner of the Best Director Award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, Ava was honored with the 2013 John Cassavetes Independent Spirit Award and the Tribeca Film Institute 2013 Affinity Award for her second feature film, Middle of Nowhere.

She made her directorial debut with the critically-acclaimed 2008 hip hop documentary, This is The Life. A couple years later, she wrote, produced and directed her first narrative feature, I Will Follow, starring Salli Richardson-Whitfield.

Prior to directing, Ava founded DVA Media + Marketing in 1999, and worked as a film publicist for over a dozen years. Her award-winning firm provided strategy and execution for more than 120 film and television campaigns for such industry icons as Steven Spielberg, Clint Eastwood and Michael Mann.

The UCLA grad is the founder of AFFRM, the African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement. And she is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, as well as the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, as well as a board member of both Film Independent and the Sundance Institute.

Here, she talks about her new film, Selma, which has been nominated for four Golden Globes, including Best Director.

Kam Williams: Hey, Ava, long time-no speak.

Ava DuVernay: It sure has been awhile, Kam. How are you?

KW: I’m great. How about you? Congrats on the Golden Globe nominations, and with the Oscars just over the horizon!

AD: I don’t know about that, but it’s been a nice ride so far.

KW: I was surprised to see you in Life Itself, the documentary about Roger Ebert, and to learn that an encouraging encounter with him as an adolescent had been such a big influence on your life. 

AD: He was such a champion of underrepresented filmmakers. He was a very big deal to me. It shows the power of critics. People who write about film, like you, can really affect the confidence of a young filmmaker. He did that for me, so it was such a pleasure to have an opportunity to talk about Roger in the movie.

KW: Editor/Legist Patricia Turnier asks: Why was it important for you to bring this story about Selma to the big screen?  

AD: Because there’s never been a film with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the center released in theaters. Ever! One does not exist. You’ve only seen tele-films and stage plays about him. Yet, we have big screens biopics about all kinds of people. So, I think it’s only right that there be a full-length feature about Dr. King. I don’t think there could be enough of them, but there should be at least one. So, here it is! 

KW: Patricia also says: The contributions of many black women to the movement, including Coretta Scott King, haven’t been credited enough. Will the audience learn more about this aspect of history in your picture? In other words, did you bring your perspective as a black female to directing Selma?

AD: Yes, Patricia, it was vital to me to include woman characters, and Coretta Scott King [played by Carmen Ejogo] is a prominent one. There’s a full arc where she’s painted, and you get to see behind the veil of her quiet dignity. Another character is Amelia Boynton [played by Lorraine Toussaint], a freedom-fighter who’s still alive and 104 years-old. She’s the woman who invited Dr. King to Selma. Oprah Winfrey plays Annie Lee Cooper, a woman who tried to register to vote five times, but was rejected and humiliated every time, and had a very infamous tussle with the local sheriff in Selma that landed on President Johnson’s desk through the newspaper accounts. Richie Jean Jackson [played by Niecy Nash] and Diane Nash [played by Tessa Thompson] are also in the film. There are a lot of sisters there who contributed to the fabric of the Civil Rights Movement.

KW: Lastly, Patricia says: The interview you did in the past with Kam Williams was translated into Spanish on my trilingual webmag. Will Selma be available in movie theaters in French and/or Spanish? I have a friend, a beautiful sister who is deaf and mute, who would like to see Selma. Will it be shown in theaters with special glasses so the deaf can watch it with subtitles?

AD: Yes, the film will be subtitled in some French and Spanish-speaking countries around the world, but I don’t know whether it will be subtitled for the deaf.

KW: Environmental activist Grace Sinden says: Congratulations on the Golden Globes nomination for directing Selma. I cannot wait to see it. We know that it is difficult for women to move up in many fields but this issue has recently received much focus, especially in terms of Hollywood directors. What advice do you have for women trying to break the glass ceiling? Can you share your thoughts on this issue? Was it any more difficult for you personally?

AD: Ignore the glass ceiling and do your work. If you’re focusing on the glass ceiling, focusing on what you don’t have, focusing on the limitations, then you will be limited. My way was to work, make my short… make my documentary… make my small films… use my own money… raise money myself… and stay shooting and focused on each project.  

KW: Editor Lisa Loving says there have been thousands of people marching in cities all across the country since the Missouri police officer who killed Michael Brown was not charged in his death. In our town, Portland, we see a whole new generation of community leaders stepping forward, right now. As you made this film did you have any idea it would be released at a time in history when thousands and thousands of young black people would again be marching in the streets for civil rights?

AD: I had no idea. It’s very poignant and it moves me beyond words that this film that we’ve made, that this piece of art would be released in such a robust way during this cultural moment rife with energy for change, with people taking to the streets, the power of the people being heard, and their voices being amplified. It’s an honor to have something that speaks to that right now. It certainly wasn’t anything that we knew was going to happen. But I find it thrilling that people are standing up, and I’m hopeful that it will really move the needle this time around. And it’s a little eerie that some of the events in our film are so similar to some of the things you’re actually seeing on cable news today.     

KW: Lisa also says: I feel that many people – people of all kinds – really do not know what Dr. King did in leading street protests against racist laws even as the FBI, at the highest levels, was breaking privacy laws and even laws of basic human decency to stop him. Do you think learning that about the FBI might surprise people?

AD: If you don’t know your history, I think you’ll be surprised to learn it. But it’s very prominent in the public records that there had been this counterintelligence program called COINTELPRO, for short that during the Fifties and Sixties placed leaders of progressive movements in the United States under surveillance. It was created by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, and was signed off on by every president in office during those decades. It’s disturbing… it certainly served to dismantle a lot of the progressive movements that existed back then. If you don’t know about it, it’s in the film, and you can Google it and learn more about it.

KW: Sangeetha Subramanian says: There are so many lessons to take away from this film and story. Is there one lesson you would like to hear discussed more that may not be getting enough attention?

AD: No, I think the film is getting plenty of attention right now. I’m just excited about January 9th when the film will be opening everywhere, and people in the real heart of the country will be able to see it. That’s the day I’m really hopeful about. That’s the day I’ll be on Twitter wanting to listen to what people have to say about the picture, good or bad, as they come out of the theater.

KW: Cinema Professor Mia Mask asks: Will you come to Vassar? We'd like you to be a guest of the film department as a visiting artist. We’ve asked you in the past, but your shooting schedule prevented it. 

AD: Thanks for the invite, Mia. You’d have to put the request in to the office. But I’m pretty booked up right now.

KW: David Roth asks:Did you have any hesitation about casting British actors in the iconic roles of Coretta Scott King and Dr. Martin Luther King?

AD: Not at all, I just wanted to cast the best actor for the job and, without a doubt, David Oyelowo and Carmen Ejogo are transformative in these roles. And I knew that they would be. David was the first black man to play a King of England on the stage of the Royal Shakespeare Theater. His chops, his acting abilities are exceptional. He gave all of himself to the part, so I hope people will come check it out.

KW: Children’s book author Irene Smalls asks: How will you judge the success of Selma, and what movie would you like to make next, if you could do anything you wanted?

AD: I will judge the success, not on any awards or on the box-office, but on how people feel and what they say after seeing it. That’s what really matters to me. The film has something to say, and in a very specific way, about freedom and dignity in this country, and about some of the great leaders who worked hard and lost their lives in the pursuit of justice.

KW: Well, I loved the film, Ava, and all the best during awards season.

AD: Thank you, Kam. I’m so glad I got to talk to you, and I look forward to talking to you again.

To see a trailer for Selma, visit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPgs2zshD9Y