Blood Brothers: A Most Powerful Documentary

I watched this film last night and was overwhelmed, having to hit "pause" on more than one occasion before being able to continue.

Blood Brother is a 90 minute documentary about Rocky Braat, a young man from the U.S. who was a poor student, from a very broken home who suddenly decides to move to India.

Openly admitting a dislike children, he nonetheless visits an orphanage for women and children affected by or afflicted with HIV. The orphanage becomes his home and his mission in life. Several years in, he's forced to return to the States for visa renewal, and stays with his best friend, STeve. During this period, Steve, decides to accompany Rocky to India to see (and film) his friend's life and witness first hand how that life has changed. Needless to say, he's overwhelmed and so is the viewer.

The impact this young man makes in the lives of these abandoned, outcast children is nothing short of inspiring, but also heartbreaking. The film has an honesty about it and unflinchingly shows Rocky's anger, his struggles to go on in the face of such hopelessness amidst the frightening living conditions. More than once the work of Mother Theresa came to mind.

I so wanted to see this when it aired on PBS' Independent Lens earlier this year, but missed the opportunity. I'm happy to say Netflix has just added it to its latest streaming programming. I cannot recommend this highly enough.

Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould

I just returned from a showing at the Portland Museum of Art of Michele Hozer and Peter Raymont's film: "GENIUS WITHIN: THE INNER LIFE OF GLENN GOULD."

Though I've been obsessed with Mr. Gould since childhood (he was one of my earliest inspirations for attempting a career in music), the film opens up areas I had not previously known about him. Through numerous interviews with his first girlfriend, his best friend, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Lukas and Cornelia Foss (and both their children), clips of Leonard Bernstein (including his now rather hilarious pre-performance speech before they performed the Brahms D minor Concerto - about their enormous differences on the work), the film is rich in both talk and music.

The biggest revelation to me was the affair between Gould and Mrs. Foss which lasted several years, and for which she left her husband, moving herself and the children to Montreal, and the slow disintegration of that relationship as Gould's eccentricities became more and more pronounced. It was touching and poignant in a way that almost seemed invasive.

I'd almost forgotten how devastatingly handsome was Gould in his youth, like a 50's movie star, really. There is, naturally, a good deal centered around his early years and the beginning of his performing career, with some wonderful clips of his tour of the Soviet Union.

There are also some generous clips of Gould's own movies, including one particularly hilarious short with Gould appearing on the beach, coat, gloves, the works, sitting in a director's chair, then having some gorgeous black woman in a bikini doing an exotic combination that recalled the Watusi and the Girl from Imponema, the last shot of which finds Gould pants legs rolled up and sort of half "directing" her and dancing a bit in the ocean himself. (The audience went into hysterics - and it was truly funny stuff!)

The film deals openly (and fairly in depth) about Gould's departure from the concert stage at only 31 years of age, and his drug addictions, hypocondria, and difficulties in his relationships, never in a gossipy manner, but with a rather matter-of-fact honesty that does not in the least diminish one's respect for Gould's genius.

At just under two hours, this is one of the most satisfying documentary portraits of a 20th century classical musician I believe I've ever seen - and yet, upon the closing credits, I found I wanted even more. The audience reacted loudly throughout (several people even clapping along with Petula Clark during her rendition of "Downtown."

If this is showing anywhere near you, I urge you to see this. It's a beautiful peaen to one of the most iconic performers of the last century, done with extraordinary care, and not just a little love for its subject. Highly
recommended.

Jessye Norman: A Portrait

For fans of Jessye Norman this is a must have. While it's a "documentary" - it's not quite the in-depth, probing, revelation or examination of the singer I was hoping for, but rather a series of conversations on topics ranging from childhood, spiritual beliefs, politics, dedication to her art, early career dealing with loneliness, and the like. Little of it plumbs the depth of the woman or of her art, (how could 90 minutes do that?) but once I settled in, I found myself smiling, happy to have this force of nature sitting in my living room and talking casually about a thousand things.

Jessye speaks mostly in English - but since this was a German production, she moves back and forth between German and English - sometimes in the middle of a sentence, or thought. The film is broken up by a dozen music videos with Norman lip-synching to some of her more remarkable recordings. While I know some shall be put off by this sort of thing, I adored it. Each video is performed as part of an art installation, the singer gowned and jeweled, in headdresses, turbans, wild wigs and haute couture, moving, expressing herself physically to her own recordings. Some will dismiss this as artifice, but - and I mean this as a compliment - few in history (and no one I can think of) does artifice come so naturally to as it does Jessye Norman. She makes me believe every breath, every moment - she creates a world that seems, somehow, better than it is - or maybe, just maybe, it really is as great as she makes it, if even for only the brief moments that she's in it with me, making me forget the rest.

There are touching, moving reminisces of her childhood. One in particular, where as a child, her mother worked for the Democratic party registering voters, and young Jessye assisted her. At certain times, Mrs. Norman would ask her daughter to leave the table they were working at. It wasn't until after college Jessye asked her mother why. It was because certain members of their congregation and community could neither read nor write and had to sign only with an "x" and her mother didn't want her daugther to see or know that about these friends. It was one of those "lump in my throat" moments.

Norman talks about wanting to understand why racisim exists; why governments are more interested in the sexuality of its citizens, than more important matters, why can't we live and let live? "I want to know. It could be that only God can answer such a question." "A society is responsible for helping people to pull themselves up by their bootstraps - but's let's make sure that they are wearing boots!" The music, coming as it does from some of her legendary recordings - is breathtaking - sometimes literally!

A video of "Erlkoenig" opens the "recital" portions and it is stunning mini film in and of itself. I can probably list a dozen favorite recordings of this song: Jessye's is at the top of that list. I can think of few better ways to relax and escape "the real world" for 90 minutes than to bask in the glow of Jessye Norman.

Brava, Jessye!

p.