This documentary is scary.
It deals with the issue of water, who owns it and who controls it in different parts of the world.
Should water be considered public for everyone to enjoy, like air? Or should it be held in private hands, like oil?
It is obvious where Irena Salina, the film’s director, stands: she believes water is a shared resource that should first and foremost serve the public.

Salina takes the viewer to Latin American and African countries to show the disparity between the haves and the have-nots. She shows places where as many as 10 percent of children die due to waterborne illnesses.
There is even an interview with a chicken farmer who, once he uses potable water to feed his chickens, is able to stop supplementing their food with medication to offset the effects of contaminated water.
“FLOW” also shows how profitable the water business is, particularly in the advanced industrial countries.
The irony is that bottled water is not as closely inspected as tap water is. However, because it comes in a sealed clear bottle, the water appears to be more beneficial to the consumer than tap water.

As mentioned, it is clear where Salina stands, and she does a fine job of showing the water corporate executives as fundamentally evil beings consumed with greed.
At the film’s end, the director spends a little time with people organizing around the globe to bring about safe water for all people. While encouraging, that part of the film is too short and should have been given more air time.
“FLOW: For Love of Water,” which runs 93 minutes, is available on DVD.

Murphy can be reached at Lojano@comcast.net

The world should never forget.
This documentary tells the tales of several Hungarian Jews who survived the camps in World War II.
Their stories are heartbreaking and still fresh in their minds more than 50 years later.

One woman tells of how she wore her favorite swimsuit under her clothes when she was forced out of her home. Such a simple thing yet it resonates with the audience.
Another survivor talks about how she took great pains to hide diamonds he mother gave her in order to somehow buy bread with them.
The people being interviewed also travel back to Hungary (parts of which are now Ukraine) to see where they lived. They also return to Auschwitz and recall what it was like during the war.
Their travels are so emotionally charged it is hard for the viewer to remain neutral.
Produced by Steven Spielberg, “The Last Days” is part of a larger project: survivors of the Shoah (Hebrew word for holocaust) Visual History Foundation. The foundation seeks to educate the world about the Holocaust by recording the remembrances of the victims.

 

Some of the images are difficult to look at – especially the color films of people who are like walking skeletons.
The film is rounded out by interviews with a doctor who conducted experiments on the captives in the camps, US Congressman Tom Lantos (himself a survivor), a sonderkommando who helped kill Jews in Birkenau and US soldiers who liberated the camps.
While a testament to man’s inhumanity to man, “The Last Days” is about survival.
“The Last Days” is available on DVD.

Murphy can be reached at Lojano@comcast.net

“The United States doesn’t have friends; it has interests.”
That from a US official speaking to a Rwandan human rights activist.
That was the line most governments used while sitting idly by during one of the worst genocides of the 20th century.

 

 “Ghosts of Rwanda” is a Frontline documentary created by PBS to assess the situation in Rwanda 10 years after 800,000 ethnic Tutsis were massacred by Hutu extremists. And the manner of death (usually by machete) was gruesome.
The film shows then-US President Bill Clinton explaining why the US shied away from getting involved in Rwanda, noting it was too soon after the debacle in Somalia for the US to go adventuring in other parts of Africa.
And then-Ambassador to the United Nations Madeleine Albright also is quoted saying she was not aware of the severity of the situation on the ground in Rwanda.
The head of the Red Cross in Rwanda, however, asserts everyone knew what was happening but chose to turn away.
And the UN commander on the ground gives testimony to how he felt with his attempts to help thwarted by the Security Council at every turn.
So he had to improvise with a few soldiers and did his best to protect those who were being slaughtered.

It may have been that politics could not catch up with events because they happened so quickly in Rwanda.
Maybe so. Or maybe that’s what those who did nothing will say to convince themselves there was nothing they could do.
“Ghosts of Rwanda” is now available on DVD.

Murphy can be reached at Lojano@comcast.net

This is half a documentary.
It focuses on the lives of teen and preteen Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip in 2003.
This film captures the rage felt by many youth regarding Israel.
Two of the children, Ahmed and Mohammed, are close friends and both say they would rather die together as martyrs than to die alone.
Strong words for two so young.
Also, the filmmakers take the time to talk to a 16 year-old girl, Najla, who lives in a precarious area because Israel suspects there are tunnels nearby that supply militants with weapons from Egypt. Najla has lost as many as eight family members to the conflict.
“Death in Gaza” shows how children throw stones at Israeli vehicles and how they play games like “Jews and Arabs” much like children play “Cowboys and Indians” or “Cops and Robbers” in the United States.
Even a little girl, not much more than a toddler, calls the Jews “sons of dogs.”

 

The documentary does not show the Israeli side at all. Most of the time Israelis are shown in approaching tanks, bulldozers and armored personnel carriers.
It is easy to hate the Israelis because they are faceless and menacing in their equipment versus children with rocks.
Director James Miller had planned to document the lives of Israeli children to see how they address the conflict and to balance the perspectives. The reason why he did not do that is evident once you see the end of the film.
“Death in Gaza,” 80 minutes long, is now available on DVD.

Murphy can be reached at Lojano@comcast.net