Change Your Image
JohnJr63
Reviews
The Inner Tour (2001)
Palestinian Arab families tour Israel. An unfiltered, average, Palestinian perspective.
It's about 5-10 Palestinian/families taking a tour of Israel. Apparently it is the only way that they can enter Israel proper. The whole of it is in Arabic or Hebrew and it is all sub-titled. It is broken into seven chapters, of which the titles are things like "I never would have believed I would walk next to a Jew."
At one point they take a tour of an Israeli museum with of course an Israeli host, speaking Hebrew, and I loved how the documentarist re-visited the tour with the Palestinian Arabs reflections on what they had seen and been told.
The most poignant part of the documentary to me was when this single Palestinian Arab whom had taken the tour, was able to see his Mother for the first time in years, and how they exchanged photographs by throwing them over the border between Israel and Lebanon.
That's right, his family (Mother & siblings, Dad's dead by Israeli forces, I think) live in Lebanon, and since the West Bank where he lives does not border Lebanon, and because Lebanon will not let him into their country either, this bus tour of Israel was the only way for him to see his family.
Anyway. For us Westerners, I more or less thought I knew the feelings that the Palestinians had, but it was very enlightening to me to see and hear the average Palestinian first hand. It hasn't changed any of my opinions of the mess in the Middle East, but it has given me a personal, new perspective.
Silverlake Life: The View from Here (1993)
Honest and revealing view on gay life, issues, and AIDS
This is a complex documentary that shows many things about early Gay life. To put it in perspective it was when Gay was the word used for the homo-sexual revolution, and not just Gay as a descriptor. Or is it still used that way today? I believe most of the film comes from circa 1968 to 1989. It was released in 1993, so it's been around.
I was touched by the documentaries capturing of one man's love for another over a 20 some odd year period. A love expressed in ways that only true love can be. There are many scenes of incredible empathy and pain, along with scenes of joy and pleasure. There are scenes of life as a homo-sexual and life as a gay. The film itself was a work of love, and I believe it to be a diamond.
At the very least one will get out of this film an understanding of the devastating impact of AIDS. As I write this, I am thinking how much earlier this film seems to me to have been set. The advances in medical, political, and social sciences and culture that have taken place since this film was set (some 15 years ago) are amazing. However, obviously, in the case of the disease of AIDS itself, we are not done yet. Heck I guess we aren't done on all fronts.
Anyway, it's just a pretty darn good documentary. I'd encourage anyone that feels that they don't quite understand gay life, gay issues, or the devastation of AIDS to watch this film.