Kew Gardens ’17: Voices from Kaw Thoo Lei (short)

Burma’s Mainland China-aligned military junta loved to rename things, starting with the nation itself. Similarly, the region known as Kaw Thoo Lei by its ethnic Karen population became the Karen state. In this case, you might credit the government with some degree of honesty, since Kaw Thoo Lei means “peaceful land.” Tragically, state-sponsored terrorism and ethnic cleansing have made the region anything but peaceful. Survivors of the genocidal crimes tell their stories in Martha Gorzycki’s experimental short documentary, Voices from Kaw Thoo Lei (trailer here), which screens during the first ever Kew Gardens Festival of Cinema.

Gorzycki insists we focus on their testimony, so she strips away distractions that come from talking head interviews. We will only hear audio of the speakers, superimposed over eerie animated images generated from over ten thousand black-and-white photos. They are mostly impressionistic rather than representational, but they express a deeper truth about the state of human rights in Burma.

As you would expect, the stories are chilling and heartbreaking. At regular intervals, the Burmese military would descend on Kaw Thaw Lei like locusts, burning all the huts and food stores in sight. Women were raped and orphaned children were left to fend for themselves in the rain forest.

You cannot accuse Gorzycki of using cheap tactics to gin up sympathy. There are no manipulative images of bloody corpses or crying children. Yet, we understand in no uncertain terms such suffering frequently resulted from the government-sponsored rampages.

Voices is one of several recent avant-garde-ish short documentaries that use unconventional means to chronicle crimes against humanity. Some enterprising festival ought to program it together with Alexandre Liebert’s Scars of Cambodia and Alisi Telengut’s Nutag – Homeland. They are all challenging films, not because they are hard to watch, but rather because they are hard to face. Very highly recommended, Vocies from Kaw Thoo Lei screens this afternoon (8/10) at the Queens Museum, as part of the inaugural Kew Gardens Festival of Cinema.

Kew Gardens ’17: Jammin’ Shanghai (short)

In 2006, the government of Chaoyang Park in suburban Beijing demolished the Big Easy jazz club to erect a “Peace Plaza.” Then, in May of last year, the Mayor of Shanghai closed the city’s beloved JZ Club, by banning all clubs and bars on its street. That is a pretty sorry record of harassing a certain style of music. If you do not think two cases constitutes a trend, then how many other Chinese jazz clubs can you name? Filmmaker Song Jiayi came to document the vital scene that had coalesced around the club, but she stayed to record their out chorus in the short documentary Jammin’ Shanghai, which screens during the first ever Kew Gardens Festival of Cinema.

Club owner-founder-house electric bassist Ren Yuqing had already been forced out of one space when he sat down with Song. Yet, he persevered, not only relaunching JZ Club, but also establishing a music school and a jazz festival. He was often out of pocket for his trouble, but fostered a genuine community of local musicians and American expats, such as tenor player Alec Haavik, who will be our guide through the Shanghai/JZ scene. As you would expect, he is thrown for a loop when the mayor shuts them down without hearings or due process of any sort.

It is a shame, because the musicians we hear in Song’s film all have a very groovy thing going on. Haavik sounds like he has synthesized influences from 1970s fusion and the Downtown 1990s Zorn and Knitting Factory scene. Ren brings the funk in the tradition of Victor Wooten. While for swing traditionalists, Teresa Lee interprets standards with verve and elegance. The house big band shares an affinity with all three styles, mixed with the aural colors of the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis progressive big bands. All that adds up to a heck of a good venue for music.

Watching Jammin’ will make viewers want to hear the various musicians perform live, which proves how effective it is. There is some seriously hard swinging and grooving going on in the film. Song also captures the passion and commitment of the musicians (especially Ren Yuqing), who are always true to the music, even if their governments are not always true to them. Very highly recommended, Jammin’ Shanghai screens this Friday (8/11) at the Queens Museum, as part of a short documentary block during the inaugural Kew Gardens Festival of Cinema.

Kew Gardens ’17: Persona Non Grata

Japanese diplomat Chiune “Sempo” Sugihara was forbidden entry by the Soviets, expelled by the Germans, and demoted by his own foreign ministry. Those events certainly buttress a favorable judgement from history, but they did not do his career any favors. Sugihara was ill-advisedly principled throughout his diplomatic tenure, but his decision to issue travel visas to Jewish refugees while serving as the Japanese consul in Lithuania earned him recognition as one of the Righteous Among the Nations at Yad Vashem. Sugihara’s pre-war exploits and wartime heroics are chronicled in Cellin Gluck’s Persona Non Grata: The Chiune Sugihara Story (trailer here), which screens during the first ever Kew Gardens Festival of Cinema.

Fluent in Russian and well educated in Russian history, Sugihara aspired to a Russian posting. However, his intelligence gathering in Manchuria, with respect to the disposition of the Northern Manchuria Railroad, bitterly antagonized the Soviets. As a result, he was declared persona non grata before he was even posted to Russia. Instead, Sugihara was dispatched to Lithuania, a convenient vantage-point for watching the Soviets.

Initially, Kaunas is quite pleasant for Sugihara and his wife Yukiko. He quickly comes to an arrangement with Pesh, a maybe not-so-former Polish intelligence officer, who helps Sugihara keep tabs on the Russians and Germans, in exchange for the occasional travel document. By the time Jewish refugees, primarily but not exclusively from Poland start flooding Kaunas, Sugihara heads the only still functioning quasi-neutral consulate. Although the Tripartite Pact is an acknowledged inevitability, Sugihara starts issuing travel visas to the refugees, as quickly as he and his staff can stamp them.

Not surprisingly, the Foreign Ministry is less than ecstatic over his actions, but they transfer him to a sensitive posting in Germany anyway. Obviously, saving thousands of lives is a big deal, but there is even more to his story. In fact, the Prussian section is unexpectedly fascinating, because it offers up a very different perspective on the War.

Through Sugihara’s Cassandra-like warnings to his superiors, Gluck and co-screenwriters Tetsuro Kamata and Hiromichi Matsuo suggest Japan always considered Russia their natural enemy, which made the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression pact awkward, but ironically desirable. According to the film, they were counting on Germany’s help against the Americans and British in the Pacific, but when Hitler attacked Russia, it consigned them to facing the Yanks (and Brits) alone, thereby sealing their fate. Apparently, his analysis of German intentions did not sit well with the National Socialists, who also declared Sugihara persona non grata.

Admittedly, a figure like Sugihara would be intimidating to portray, but Toshiaki Karasawa largely plays it safe (and rather stiffly). However, Koyuki is terrific as Yukiko, Sugihara’s wife and his conscience when he needs it. She perfectly delivers a pivotal exchange—too quiet and humanistic to be called a big speech—that could earn her award consideration if anyone picks up Gluck’s film. Borys Szyc is also compulsively watchable as the slightly roguish but deeply earnest Pesh.

The fact that Persona Non Grata has not screened more widely at festivals is absolutely baffling. After all, it addresses the Holocaust, as well as a past refugee crisis, which offers the appeal of contemporary relevancy. It also happens to be a good film. Unfortunately, it might be too smart for its own good. Highly recommended for the heart and mind, Persona Non Grata screens this Wednesday afternoon (8/9) as part of the inaugural Kew Gardens Festival of Cinema.

Kew Gardens ’17: Dark Meridian

In New Orleans, the city is loyal to the Saints, neighborhoods are loyal to their local brass bands, and cops are loyal to the gangsters who first bribed them—at least the semi-honest ones are. Det. Spencer Soleno is one of them. When Old Man Marek asked him to hang around in case of trouble, Soleno faithful obliged. However, neither of them expected this much trouble in Rankin Hickman’s Dark Meridian (trailer here), which screens during the first ever Kew Gardens Festival of Cinema.

At Mr. Marek’s request, Soleno is staking out a warehouse, just in case. In case of what, he asks Marek’s youngest son Tevi when he steps out for a cigarette. The recent college graduate will not say, but the shots fired from inside are answer enough. Much to both men’s shock and regret, they find Tevi’s older brother and a trusted lieutenant dead inside. Soleno and the junior Marek will chase the elusive killer all through the city, because neither wants to face his father without the hitman’s scalp.

Of course, it would help Soreno if he knew why the Mareks had brought the killer to their warehouse in the first place. That story will unfold in flashbacks, but it might take a while, considering the Mareks originally had their doubts whether they were holding the right guy.

Hickman earns a gold star and a trumpet fanfare, because he actually uses flashbacks quite deftly to enhance the mystery of his narrative. Even though he is constantly revealing, he keeps the audience frequently second-guessing their assumptions. There are about a thousand indie crime dramas that completely bungle their timeline hopping for each one like Meridian that gets it right, but when they work, they work.

James Moses Black is another glaringly obvious reason why Meridian works as well as it does. As Soreno, he is all kinds of intense, yet acutely, clay-footedly human. It is a terrific portrayal of a problematic but charismatic lawman that could keep company with Bill Paxton in One False Move and Denzel Washington in Training Day. The deceptively everyday looking Billy Slaughter also helps keep the audience off-balance as Patrick Fox, whoever he might be.

Hickman’s execution is lean and mean and tight and tense. Cinematographer Jerry M. Jacob gives it all an appropriately noir look. The only frustrating thing about Meridian is there is no jazz to be heard, despite its New Orleans setting. There are a lot of great Old School NOLA musicians who are still struggling to get by, nearly twelve years after Katrina. A little soundtrack work would have been a nice gig for them, especially if the film takes off. Oh well, a lost opportunity. Regardless, Dark Meridian is still highly recommended for thriller fans when it screens this Wednesday (8/9) as part of the inaugural Kew Gardens Festival of Cinema.

Kew Gardens ’17: The Hua Mei Orchestra (short)

Among Chinese opera forms, Yue Opera is considered second only to Peking Opera in popularity throughout the Chinese diaspora. It also has a reputation for being the most demanding. Yet, a group of Chinese-American immigrants, mostly of retirement age, banded together to form a Yue orchestra and opera troupe. It had been decades since many had played their instruments with serious intent, but they still allowed Adam Engel to document their rehearsals and preparations leading up to their grand debut in the short documentary, The Hua Mei Orchestra (trailer here), which screens during the first ever Kew Gardens Festival of Cinema.

In some ways, Engel’s film is also a love letter to Flushing, Queens, a majority-Asian neighborhood that is fast eclipsing Chinatown as the epicenter of the New York Chinese-American immigrant community. It is there where many orchestra members live and where they rehearse in the senior center owned by their benefactor.

However, those rehearsals appear perilously close to breaking down entirely in the film’s opening scenes. Eventually, a professional Yue conductor is recruited to firmly instill a sense of order (and consistent rhythms and tempos). Yet, tensions remain. In contrast, the opera performers seem to be better prepared.

Not to be spoilery, but you can rest assured, the music will stay true to those who honor it, no matter how much time they stayed away. Often, it was hardly a voluntary decision. Many members of the Hua Mei were persecuted during the Cultural Revolution or the post-Tiananmen crackdown. Frankly, we wish Engel had more time to let them tell their stories.

Nevertheless, his twenty-nine-minute film is a respectful and affection portrait of senior musicians finally experiencing their moment as professionals. Hopefully, it will also create interest and awareness for Yue Opera and other Chinese cultural happenings in New York City. Recommended for all Opera patrons (Yue, Peking, Western Classical) and World music fans, The Hua Mei Orchestra fittingly screens this Saturday (8/5) as part of KGC Block 2: Shorts from Around the World at the inaugural Kew Gardens Festival of Cinema.