If you’re the PBS type—and if you live in the Valley, there’s a good chance you are—you’ll probably remember the mid-’90s phenomenon that was Hoop Dreams. Filmmaker Frederick Marx’s collaboration with director Steve James (Prefontaine), Hoop Dreams told the story of two young men from Chicago who hoped that their basketball skills would prove a golden ticket to a better life.
The three-hour documentary—filled with hope and heartache, and more suspense than any thriller—was a surprise smash, and is still a benchmark for others working in the genre. This week, Marx arrives in Amherst to present his latest film in its Pioneer Valley premiere.
Journey from Zanskar finds Marx a world away from Chicago’s asphalt playgrounds. The village of the title is the last remaining Tibetan Buddhist conclave with a continuous lineage, one whose religious practices and traditions have long developed in a rare isolation. But with a planned road soon to bring the outside world to Zanskar, the Dalai Lama charges local monks with preserving the roots of Zanskari culture—something the government schools will not do.
As they hurry to build a school of their own, a group of children are being placed in other monasteries in the city of Manali. The journey there—a five-day trek on foot over a 17,500-foot mountain pass—is the heart of Marx’s remarkable film. The one-night-only screening takes place Monday at 7 pm at Amherst Cinema.
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The next night, a different kind of documentary screens down the road at Flavin Auditorium on the UMass campus, when a three-day visit from author Harvey Pekar gets underway with a free 6:30 p.m. showing of American Splendor, the 2003 film based on his long-running comic series. (More specifically, it draws on Our Cancer Year, a series offshoot that dealt with Pekar’s struggle with the disease.) That comic is largely autobiographical, but the film takes it all one step further, with actor Paul Giamatti playing “Harvey Pekar” while the real-life Pekar offers his own commentary as the film plays out. (His wife Joyce gets similar treatment.)
In the end, though—like its creator—American Splendor is one of a kind. Organizers will follow the film with a Wednesday night book signing at Modern Myths in Northampton and a Thursday afternoon interview and discussion back at Flavin Auditorium.
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This week of documentaries wraps up with Les Plages d’Agnes, a kind of autobiographical scrapbook of a film from director Agnes Varda, the grande dame of the French New Wave and the creator of such cinematic gems as Cleo from 5 to 7, Vagabond, and The Gleaners and I.
Varda has stated that Les Plages will likely be her last film; catch it at the Isenberg School of Management for this free screening. The lights go down at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday.
Jack Brown can be reached at cinemadope@gmail.com.
