The elections last week proved a contentious affair, even in a Valley long used to left vs. right histrionics and vitriol. This time, somehow, it all felt just a bit more personal—where, in past years, tooting an angry horn at roadside picketers felt like enough, this year people tore into each other online, where Facebook friends realized that perhaps they didn’t know each other so well after all. Liberals and Tea Partiers alike were electrified, sharing a tsunami of online links that either supported their own cause or attempted to undermine an opponent’s.
What is often missing in that dialogue is depth. (Be honest: how many of those links did you follow to actually read an article?) But depth is exactly what’s needed in an era of sloganeering and signboard politics. How appropriate, then, that this weeks finds local theaters bringing in a slate of films that deal with social and political issues that range from a history of the gay rights movement to a meticulous examination of the economic crisis of 2008.
First up is Inside Job, which opens Friday at Amherst Cinema. Directed by Oscar-nominated Charles Ferguson (No End In Sight), Inside Job digs deep to discover how we ended up in such a financial crisis a few years ago. The $20 trillion price tag was only the start; the real damage, which came in the aftermath, is ongoing: the millions of people who have lost their homes, their jobs, or both could struggle for years to come.
Ferguson interviews financial insiders and politicians—the film’s website offers a compelling timeline that ties financial changes to presidential administrations—to get under the skin of what he calls a “rogue industry” that has wormed into almost every aspect of the public sphere.
On Sunday evening, the theater will host a talk by local author and activist David Bollier in conjunction with a screening of This Land Is Our Land, a new documentary about the vital tradition of “the commons,” those public resources tangible and intangible alike that are the building blocks of our democracy. The film, which Bollier co-wrote, shows us not only that history (which should shame those who constantly equate the idea of public resources with some hazy kind of socialism), but also how corporate takeovers—of airwaves, of public space, of intellectual property—threaten the tradition, and by extension what makes us the country we imagine ourselves to be.
The one-night-only screening of This Land is Our Land will benefit the Food Bank of Western Massachusetts; joining Bollier onstage is co-director Sut Jhally, whose Northampton-based Media Education Foundation produced the film. Advance tickets are recommended due to limited seating; visit amherstcinema.org for more information.
The following Wednesday, the Academy of Music gets Northampton into the game when it screens Stonewall Uprising, a look at the explosive event that launched a worldwide civil rights movement. Filmmakers Kate Davis and David Heilbroner interview the people who made it happen: the patrons, the drag queens, the cops and even a former mayor. Using a treasure chest of archival footage, the filmmakers return us to a time when homosexual acts were illegal, and homosexuality itself was classified as a form of mental illness—and to a day in June of 1969 when the courage and anger of a persecuted minority began to right that wrong.
Stonewall Uprising was produced as part of the PBS program American Experience, and local station WGBY is presenting this 7 p.m. advance screening with free admission. Executive Producer Mark Samels will also be in attendance to talk about the film.
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Also this week: If you enjoy your politics with a healthy dose of slapstick, check out the silent film double feature presented Saturday night by the Massachusetts International Festival of the Arts. Screening at Holyoke’s United Congregational Church with live organ accompaniment from Peter Krasinski, the double bill features the Buster Keaton classic Cops, in which an anarchist’s errant bomb gets a hapless Keaton into a load of trouble. For more information, visit mifafestival.org.
Jack Brown can be reached at cinemadope@gmail.com.
