[my comments assume that you’ve already read the AFF description that I link to in each movie title]
The Blood of Yingzhou District — AIDS orphans scraping out lives for themselves in huts; orphaned toddlers ostracized by their own extended family and wandering outside with the farm animals; a total lack of AIDS education means that people are afraid to even attempt to care for the orphans. An astonishing local practice that led to this problem: blood brokers would come to a village, buy blood donations from the villagers and then collect it in a single vessel, extract the plasma and then reinject the blood back into the villagers so that they could donate again more quickly. Oh my god.
Sari’s Mother — by James Longley. Long, beautiful, meditative shots of the poor in rural Iraq, dealing with a completely non-functional health system. I really need to see his Iraq In Fragments.
The Paper — Even though it’s “just” a newsroom for a college paper, it’s still a real pressure cooker environment; they have the same pressures and constant debating of ethical issues, what to print, circulation concerns. Fast paced, well edited, energetic soundtrack, fast moving like the newsroom itself. Single-man crew allowed him to really get in there in the middle of the newsroom situations.
Third Monday of October — There are few things as painful as listening to 8th graders talk about national politics. That itself nearly drove me from the theater (well, that and the lady next to me who delighted at length in every little kernel of humor tossed out). Fortunately both let up after 15 minutes or so. These are the kids that will, later in college, assume the form of what I call “resume stuffing SGA goons”. Also reminded me of the great TNR article about College Republicans and how their abuse of each other in CR campaigns (Rove, Norquist, Reed, etc.) gives them the balls to pull off the dirty tricks in the big campaigns when they grow up. Anyway, I could have lived without seeing this doc.
Dante’s Inferno — a bit sillier than I expected; dragged a bit; lots of current partisan political satire integrated in; it’s certainly entertaining to see Cheney embedded in the ice of Dante’s lowest level of Hell, various figures of history being subjected to various tortures for eternity. Cheney’s soul was already in hell because he’s undead or something like that … A unique and brisk treatment of the 700-year-old classic.
Murder Party — an entertaining diversion. I generally couldn’t care less about this gorefest stuff (e.g. Shaun of the Dead and all that) and this didn’t change that opinion much. It was fun enough to watch and I didn’t walk out … The quiet sodium amytal scene at the center of the movie was pretty funny. I just see a lot of this stuff as endlessly derivative, and at the indie level it just feels like all of these kids are making this garbage as their calling card just so that they can get into the Hollywood machine and make proper big budget gore crap. Seems like kind of a waste to me, but it was definitely entertaining and well put together. This was directed by Jeremy Saulnier, the same guy who shot Hamilton, which was a completely different movie but also beautifully shot.