‘Requiem’ tackles wealth and power – Diagnosis not quite terminal, but not good

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LOS ANGELES, March 29, (RTRS): “Requiem for the American Dream” offers a crisp encapsulation of Noam Chomsky’s thoughts on where corporate political influence and expanding economic equality are taking our nation as a whole — in a handbasket or otherwise. Needless to say, the diagnosis is not good, if not quite terminal yet, either. This illustrative lecture of sorts, smartly packaged by the “Spirit: A Divided America” directing/producing trio of Peter Hutchinson, Kelly Nyks and Jared P. Scott, would be a very useful addition to public discourse at any time. But it’s particularly so during this election year, and the pic has indeed been quietly accessing a significant viewership in variably limited bookings around the country since late January. Expect continued play expanding to non-commercial educational outlets and overseas, as campaign season plows onward.

The renowned linguist and political critic-activist has appeared and even been the subject of numerous documentaries over the last 20-plus years, starting with 1993’s “Manufacturing Consent.” Though there’s a brief digressive interlude here presenting an overview of his career (and there are clips incorporated from his TV and other appearances over the decades), “Requiem” assumes Chomsky requires no introduction. The opening text informs that the primary materials to follow were shot over four years’ course, and that they constitute the now 87-year-old’s “final long-form interviews.” You’d hardly guess the process was so stretched out (or that Chomsky isn’t up for more), however, as the address he delivers in closeup against a blank background seems as though it might have been shot continuously in a day.

It’s hardly free-ranging in content, either, as he outlines the “Ten Principals of Concentration of Wealth and Power” that have created rapidly growing income inequality and myriad related problems in the US today. Each new section is heralded by imagery based on “currency collage art” by Mark Wagner, with the Uncle Sam of greenbacks animated, cutout style.

Informed by Chomsky’s deep understanding of history (and illustrated by appropriate archival materials), these chapters build a damning case against entrenched forces among the nation’s economic elite as having deliberately sowed a “vicious cycle” that increases wealth at the top while shrinking opportunity for everyone else in American society. While such efforts have been present from the time of the Founding Fathers (and farther afield, well into antiquity), he argues that there’s been a concentrated, well-orchestrated if largely stealth pushback in their direction since the successful social-justice movements of the 1960s greatly alarmed keepers of the status quo.

His 10 principles include reducing broad democratic participation in governance; shifting the nation’s economic base from manufacture (which employs/benefits all) to the finance games of stock market and credit; shifting the tax burden to relieve the well-off; deregulation; election engineering (crowned by Citizens United, the masterstroke in empowering corporate influence on and within government); eroding the power of organized labor; promoting the mass distraction of frivolous consumerism; and “marginalizing the population” by splitting them into impotent factions angry at each other (rather than those at the top), a tactic spectacularly evident in our current presidential race. All these concepts are rendered relatable by vivid examples the subject cites, and/or clips from myriad archival sources (old newsreels, advertising, government documents, et al.) woven in as illustration.

Radical

Those inclined to dismiss Chomsky as a wild-eyed radical leftist will be frustrated (not that they’ll actually see this film, of course) by his dry, calm demeanor in laying out these arguments with cogency and ample factual evidence. It’s also notable that he does not exempt Presidents Obama, Clinton and even Carter from sharp criticism — nor neglect to credit Nixon with some significant progressive moves (such as establishing the Environmental Protection Agency). The systemic warping trends he cites cross party lines, even if its most avid proponents have generally come from the conservative end of the political spectrum.

After summing up a vision of an increasingly “ugly” US society and an imploding global economy that is “headed toward massive destruction,” Chomsky offers a note of hope. Free speech, he says, remains a shining American value, and as organized citizen activism has turned the tide before, so it can again. Still, “Requiem” makes clear how difficult that fight, and how mighty the opposition, would be. Only his (and the film’s) brisk, informative, rancor-free tenor prevents this docu-screed from leaving a wrist-slittingly downbeat impression.

That palatability — not to mention the extraordinary amount of intel cleanly packed into a very short running time — owes much to the filmmakers’ inventiveness, which keeps the visual additions to Chomsky’s talking-head input endlessly diverse and interesting without ever distracting from that pointed, chiding voice. In addition to Alan Canant’s superb editing, a significant plus is the almost continuous backing of Malcolm Francis’ score, with its modified Philip Glass-like sense of rhythmic, repetitious motifs constantly pushing forward.

What if something terrible happened and the authorities were unable or unwilling to provide recourse? The beautifully crafted and creative documentary “Tempestad” traces the stories of two women whose lives, through no fault of their own, became utter, incomprehensible nightmares. As in her previous documentary, the prizewinning “The Tiniest Place,” Mexican-Salvadorean helmer Tatiana Huezo superimposes her subjects’ recollections over lyrical images that complement the emotions conveyed by their voices. Starting out slow but accumulating power as the intercutting comes into focus, the pic is a sure bet for human-rights-themed and femme-centered festivals, and should have a long shelf life in home formats.

Young mother Miriam Carbajal’s nightmare begins on March 2, 2010, when she and some equally bewildered colleagues are taken from their airport jobs in Cancun, brought to Mexico City, and accused of organized crime and human trafficking. A cynical prosecutor tells her that the political situation demands that the authorities show that they have dealt a blow to organized crime. Carbajal and her colleagues are “pagadores,” literally people who pay for the crimes of others. After placing her in a holding cell for 80 days, the Federal Investigation Agency hands her off to a privately run prison in Matamoros, near the border with Central America.

The Gulf cartel runs the prison in Matamoros. They intimidate and torture the incoming prisoners, telling them they need to pay an arrival fee of $5,000 and then $500 a week to stay alive. Carbajal’s family is not rich, but they manage to make payments. She remains haunted by the fate of those who lack financial support, such as Martin, the young Central American immigrant whom she saw beaten to death with a heavy board.

Shares

At about the 30-minute mark, without any preamble, Huezo begins intercutting Carbajal’s account with that of Adela Alvarado, a sad-eyed, middle-aged woman who works as a clown in a family-run circus. While Carbajal launched immediately into her tale, we observe Alvarado and her extended family at work and in their trailers over several segments before she shares the story of her daughter Monica, a naive, studious girl who was kidnapped from her university at the age of 20, possibly by the sons of corrupt police officers. Hearing what Alvarado and her family went through is like encountering the mirror image to David Pablos’s fact-based fiction narrative “The Chosen Ones.” Instead of seeing what happened to the missing girl, we experience what it’s like for her anguished family: The authorities hinder more than they help (including extorting them for money), and the perpetrators threaten to kill Monica if they don’t abandon their search.

The oral (and aural, thanks to Lena Esquenazi’s tense sound design) takes primacy over the visual in Carbajal’s story. We never see her, unless it really is her floating in water in a final overhead shot. Her tone of voice allows us to enter the very core of her character, particularly when she reflects on the various ways the prison instilled fear — a fear that poisons her even after her unconditional release on Aug 31, 2010, for lack of evidence. Since the film is structured around Carbajal’s 2,000-kilometer bus trip from Matamaros to Cancun after her release, the striking compositions of ace lenser Ernesto Pardo (who also shot “The Tiniest Place”) capture the faces of tired passengers; the bleak, storm-ridden country seen outside the windows; and the armed men questioning travelers at bus stations and checkpoints.

In contrast, we get to see Alvarado, but she is never a talking head. Except for one highly emotional scene in which she is joking around with her nieces, her account of her life and its central tragedy play out over visuals of her present. As she divulges, it is a clandestine life without a house or a permanent address, and one in which she refuses to give up her quest to find Monica, now missing for 10 years.

The literal translation of the Spanish-language title is “Storm.”

Also:

LOS ANGELES: From the cobblestone alleyways to the snow-capped roofs, fans of “Harry Potter” will be able to immerse themselves into a new “Wizarding World” attraction at Universal Studios Hollywood, and the theme park is betting on their purchasing power.

“The Wizarding World of Harry Potter,” opening April 7, brings to life the quaint town of Hogsmeade from author J.K. Rowling’s seven-part “Harry Potter” books and subsequent films, and it caps off a five-year revamp across the park.

Comcast Corp-owned Universal Studios Hollywood has introduced new rides capitalizing on the box office success of franchises “Transformers,” “Despicable Me” and “Fast & Furious,” as well as expanding “The Simpsons” attraction.

But the “Wizarding World” is what the theme park is banking on. Comcast reported a revenue increase of 27 percent to $3.3 billion from its Orlando, Florida, and Hollywood, California locations in its 2015 year-end report.

The company said revenues were bolstered by Orlando’s new “Harry Potter” world, which features two lands, Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley, connected by the Hogwarts Express train. An additional ticket is required to visit both lands in one day.

Hollywood’s “Wizarding World” features two rides, one within the castle-like structure of the Hogwarts school and the other an outdoors rollercoaster, alongside intricately detailed shops and restaurants such as Honeydukes sweets, Ollivanders wands and The Three Broomsticks.

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