Three brave Colombian women fight for basic human rights in WE WOMEN WARRIORS
WE WOMEN WARRIORS (TEJIENDO SABIDURÍA) (Nicole Karsin, 2012)
IFC Center
323 Sixth Ave. at Third St.
August 10-16
Series continues through August 23
212-924-7771
www.ifccenter.com
www.wewomenwarriors.com
“If we don’t open our eyes, if we are afraid of challenges, then we won’t be cultivating life,” Flor Ilva Triochez says near the start of the compelling documentary We Women Warriors, continuing, “We will be cultivating death.” From 2002 to 2009, journalist Nicole Karsin covered the ongoing bloody battle in Colombia between the army, the paramilitary, and rebel guerrillas, a violent struggle whose collateral damage includes atrocities being suffered by the more than one hundred indigenous tribes caught in the middle, their very existence being threatened by the unending drug-related violence. Karsin picked up a camera to tell the story through the eyes of three three brave women who, independent of one another, decided to do what the government and others refused to and take matters into their own hands. Karsin follows Doris Puchana, an Awá governor who risks her life by speaking out publicly about a horrific massacre; Ludis Rodriguez, a Kankuamao mother who watched her husband get murdered and was then falsely accused of having killed fifteen policemen; and Flor Ilva, who, as the first female leader of the Nasa people in three hundred years, demands that the police take down their barracks and leave her community. Eventually the three amazing women come together to share details not only of their lives but of their organizational methods, unwilling to be silenced as they seek peace for their people. Part of the sixteenth annual DocuWeeks festival at the IFC Center, We Women Warriors is an inspiring tale filled with hope in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds, as three strong women overcome personal tragedy to fight for justice and freedom. We Women Warriors runs August 10-16, with the filmmakers on hand for one of the two daily screenings. The festival continues through August 23 with such other documentaries as Eugene Martin’s The Anderson Monarchs, about an African-American girls soccer team in an at-risk Philadelphia neighborhood, Dafna Yachin’s Digital Dharma: One Man’s Mission to Save a Culture, about Mormon E. Gene Smith’s determination to preserve ancient Sanskrit and Tibetan writings, and Thomas Riedelsheimer’s Garden in the Sea, in which Spanish artist Cristina Iglesias builds an underwater sculpture in the Mexican Sea of Cortez.
One of the most important figures in the creation of the State of Israel, Budapest-born writer and activist Theodor Herzl was surprisingly not a strong believer in the Jewish religion and tradition, as revealed in the staid, plodding documentary It Is No Dream: The Life of Theodor Herzl. Produced by the filmmaking wing of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the international human rights organization that promotes tolerance while focusing on the Holocaust, the well-meaning but overly reverential film clumsily begins with a look at the neo-Nazi movement before examining Herzl’s transformation from a journalist and wanna-be playwright into a zealot combating anti-Semitism as a result of his covering the trial of accused French traitor Alfred Dreyfus. Public cries of “Kill the Jews” led Herzl to write Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), a controversial plan for the creation of a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Director Richard Trank (Winston Churchill: Walking with Destiny) and cowriter Rabbi Marvin Hier, who previously teamed up on the Oscar-winning documentary The Long Way Home, gloss over Herzl’s personal life, which appears to have had many interesting facets, and instead relies on choppy narration by Sir Ben Kingsley and excerpts from Herzl’s diary dryly read by Christoph Waltz. Trank also includes only one talking-head expert, historian Dr. Robert S. Wistrich (although Israeli president Shimon Peres makes a brief appearance), making it feel incomplete, as if there is much more to tell. Although it does feature many intriguing details, It Is No Dream: The Life of Theodor Herzl never quite captures the fervor of the Zionist campaign, coming off more like the kind of documentary shown as part of a museum retrospective, where the surrounding materials are needed to help bring life to the story. The film opens Friday night at the Quad, with Trank on hand for Q&As and introductions at several weekend screenings.
“Beginnings are always difficult,” suave thief Gaston Monescu (Herbert Marshall) says at the beginning of Trouble in Paradise, but it’s not difficult at all to fall in love with the beginning, middle, and end of Ernst Lubitsch’s wonderful pre-Code romantic comedy. It’s love at first heist for Gaston and Lily (Miriam Hopkins) as they try to outsteal each other on a moonlit night in Venice. Soon they are teaming up to fleece perfume heir Madame Mariette Colet (Kay Francis) of money and jewels as the wealthy socialite takes a liking to Gaston despite her being relentlessly pursued by the hapless François Filiba (Edward Everett Horton) and the stiff Major (Charles Ruggles). Displaying what became known as the Lubitsch Touch, the Berlin-born director has a field day with risqué sexual innuendo, particularly in the early scene when Gaston and Lily first meet (oh, that garter!) and later as Madame Colet’s affection for Gaston grows, along with Lily’s jealousy. Loosely based on the 1931 play The Honest Finder by Aladár László, which was inspired by the true story of Romanian con man George Manolescu, the 1932 film remained out of circulation for decades during the Hays Code, and it’s easy to see why. Trouble in Paradise is screening August 10 in the BAMcinématek series “American Gagsters: Great Comedy Teams,” which runs through September 17 and consists of fifty films (all but one in 35mm), including such other classics as Some Like It Hot, Sullivan’s Travels, Born Yesterday, Blazing Saddles, Airplane! and multiple movies starring Cary Grant, Woody Allen, Peter Sellers, Steve Martin, and Bill Murray.
Liberally adapted from Scott Mitchell Rosenberg’s 2006 graphic novel, Cowboys & Aliens is a summer popcorn slice-and-dice mash-up of just about every Western and sci-fi flick you’ve ever seen. Boasting the producing talents of Ron Howard, Brian Grazer, Steven Spielberg, Jon Favreau (who also directed), and others, the film pays tribute to its match-made-in-heaven dueling genres with references to such classic tales as The Searchers, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Unforgiven, Aliens, Blazing Saddles, War of the Worlds, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Star Wars, Stagecoach, Star Trek, The Magnificent Seven, Avatar, High Plains Drifter, Blade Runner, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Predator, True Grit, The Poseidon Adventure, and many more. Heck, they even throw in some zombies for good measure. In the dry, hot desert shortly after the Civil War, a stranger (Daniel Craig) with amnesia arrives in the small town of Absolution, sporting a six-shooter and a weird bracelet manacled to his left arm. Soon identified as wanted outlaw Jake Lonergan, he gets himself into trouble with Percy (Paul Dano), the bully son of wealthy cattle baron Woodrow Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford). But before Sheriff Taggart (Keith Carradine) can turn over Jake and Percy to the federal marshals, a massive attack comes down from the sky as flying machines start blowing everything up and stealing many of the town’s residents, including María (Ana de la Reguera), wife of the weak-willed Doc (Sam Rockwell), and Percy. So sworn enemies are forced to band together, along with the mysterious Ella Swenson (Olivia Wilde), to figure out just how they can get their loved ones back. Sure, the meandering plot gets unhinged time and time again — it’s never a good sign when half a dozen writers are attached to the story and screenplay — and the film lacks any James Bond–like, Han Solo/Indiana Jones–esque catchphrases, but Favreau (Elf, Iron Man) manages to hold it all together just enough to make Cowboys & Aliens a fun, out-of-this-world oater, even if it should have been better. Cowboys & Aliens is screening August 8 at Hudson River Park’s Pier 63 as part of the free River Flicks for Grown-Ups series, which continues with Crazy, Stupid Love on August 15 before concluding with Horrible Bosses on August 22. For a day-by-day listing of free summer movie screenings in New York City, go 
New Jersey native Todd Solondz busted out of the gate with a trio of fascinating, dark films — Welcome to the Dollhouse (1995), Happiness (1998), and Storytelling (2001) — that explored childhood and adolescence in controversial yet captivating ways, examining such subjects as bullying, child abuse, and burgeoning sexuality. But the eclectic writer-director goes way too far with Palindromes, a complex tale that makes for an extremely painful cinematic experience. Opening with the funeral of Dawn Wiener (the lead character in Dollhouse), the film tells the tale of a thirteen-year-old girl who is desperate to have a baby so she can share the love she feels inside her. Her parents (Ellen Barkin, who could use some hand cream, and Richard Masur, from One Day at a Time) adore her, but they can’t prevent her from pursuing her needs. As young Aviva ventures out into the world, she is played by very different actors in every scene (including Emani Sledge, Valerie Shusterov, Hannah Freiman, Rachel Corr, Will Denton, Sharon Wilkins, Shayna Levine, and Jennifer Jason Leigh), a tactic that ranges from being cute and clever to manipulative and annoying. Aviva is so dispassionate about everything in her life except wanting a baby, you’ll want to shake her out of her malaise and yell at her to speak faster. Stephen Adly Guirgis costars as a truck driver with a thing for young girls, and Debra Monk plays a Bible-lovin’ woman who runs a halfway house for children with physical and mental disabilities that is disturbing to watch — and not in a good way. We’d love to think of a palindrome (words or sentences that are the same backward and forward) to further knock this film, but it’s not worth our time, or yours. Palindromes is screening August 9 as part of the MoMA film series “Unaccompanied Minors: Views of Youth in Films from the Collection,” being held in conjunction with the new exhibit “Century of the Child: Growing by Design, 1900-2000.” Running through August 14, the festival includes such other films about childhood as Irving Cummings’s Curly Top, Charles Laughton’s The Night of the Hunter, Maria João Ganga’s Hollow City, Laslo Benedek’s Sons, Mothers, and a General, and Peter Brook’s Lord of the Flies.