“Paris has got the Eiffel Tower and a few other things.”

When I asked filmmaker Brian Standing for a list of his favorite documentaries, I knew it would be a welcome addition to the Phoenix Cinema site. But beyond that, I had a selfish motive. I was hoping that I’d pick up tips for films I’d never seen. And so that brings me to This Is Nowhere–an excellent documentary that made Brian Standing’s list, and a film I tracked down and watched.

Concentrating on motor home campers who park their behemoth vehicles in Wal-Mart parking lots across the U.S., in This is Nowhere director Doug Hawes-Davis turns a sharp eye on one of the more bizarre aspects of American culture through his interviewees who are camped out on the cement in the Wal-Mart in Missoula, Montana.

I don’t understand the allure of motor homes, and to me, setting out driving one of these things across the U.S. would be a special kind of hell–a sort of No Exit scenario. So when I heard about the premise of This is Nowhere–well…I knew I had to see the film.

On one level This is Nowhere records the ruminations of an assortment of Americans who have taken to the road in various gigantic motor homes. For some of the interviewees who’ve sold their homes, this is a permanent way of life, and one camper rather whimsically refers to himself as a “gypsy.” Another man compares his travels to the expeditions of Lewis and Clark. These American travelers wax forth about what it means to be “free” on the road–driving from one destination to another.

On another level, the film captures some intriguing observations about American culture–a culture in which the modern pioneer spirit, and the pursuit of travel and adventure are distilled down to the predictability of selecting Wal-Mart as an ultimate travel destination. These intrepid campers pursue the familiarity and comfort of Wal-Mart stores to the farthest reaches of this corporate chain. An interviewee admits that shopping in Wal-Mart consumes a large amount of their free time, and the first thing the travelers do upon arrival is park and hit the Wal-Mart. One traveler marvels at the “freedom” the motor home offers by granting a change of views–while admiring the hills, she tends to overlook the fact that she’s parked on the tarmac in front of a Wal-Mart. Right next to that view of those beautiful hills is a brightly lit sign on the horizon blazing away the name ‘Wal-Mart.’ But apparently Wal-Mart–and the comfort to be rediscovered in its variations of the familiar–offers a seemingly safe predictability to the travelers in this documentary. So why not just drive around in circles and keep visiting your hometown Wal-Mart?

Naturally all of those interviewed are Wal-Mart customers and fans. One interviewee finds the fact that his Wal-Mart shoes fell apart in a month a miracle in customer satisfaction. My reaction would be to feel annoyed at the low quality, but this optimistic fellow has the perseverance to acquire a series of ten pairs of free shoes from Wal-Mart as each subsequent pair falls apart. On another note, one traveler buried his cat in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Mexico.

With satellite dishes (in one case, a traveler has no less than four satellite dishes–just in case), multiple televisions and large comfy chairs, the motor home creates an ambulatory, easeful, yet oddly passive travel experience. The travelers (who often seem confused as to which state they are in) jumble memories of trips as images of numerous Wal-Marts merge. Sitting in their plastic chairs on the concrete Wal-Mart parking lot, life passes by, offering a kaleidoscope of images, and theoretically a change in accents. But isn’t travel about seeing and experiencing new things? Silly me, I thought those were some of the goals. But This is Nowhere subtly argues that travel has become a end in itself and by extension that the American travel experience is eroded and replaced by the predictability of urban design. These travelers express how the memories of the towns converge–one town looks pretty much like another with the obligatory shopping center layout and predictable corporate businesses. And of course this is where Wal-Mart comes in. Armed with their special Wal-Mart Rand McNally maps, these motor home owners travel the US from one Wal-Mart to another in the cocoon worlds created by their ambulatory residences.

Director Brian Standing (War is Sell, Pedalphiles), and founder of Prolefeed Studios kindly sent a list of his 12 favorite documentaries. And here they are–along with Brian’s comments on the films:

1. Gap-Toothed Women (Les Blank, 1987)
www.lesblank.com/more/gap.html
Les Blank is a huge influence for me, not just for his
joyous documentary style, but also for the way he has
successfully remained completely independent of the
Hollywood/television system. I love all of his films,
but this curious exploration of the nature of beauty
is the one that sticks with me the most.

2. Fast, Cheap and Out of Control (Errol Morris, 1997)
www.errolmorris.com/film/fcooc.html
Another huge influence on my work. Morris is best
known for the Thin Blue Line, and of course for The
Fog of War, which won an Academy Award. This film,
however, for me completely redefines how a documentary
can look. Masterful storytelling that starts simply
and gradually ventures into more and more metaphysical
territory.

3. Lessons of Darkness (Werner Herzog, 1992)
www.wernerherzog.com/main/index.htm
Together with Blank and Morris, Herzog completes my
holy trinity of documentary filmmakers. (The three of
them, by the way, are close friends. Their film lives
intersect in Les Blank’s Werner Herzog Eats His
Shoe, in which Herzog settles a bet that Morris would
never complete his first film, Gates of Heaven.) In
Lessons of Darkness, Herzog recasts the Kuwait oil
fires left behind by the retreating Iraqi army as a
science fiction movie. Hypnotic, disturbing and
occasionally very funny.

4. Six O’ Clock News (Ross McElwee, 1994)
www.rossmcelwee.com/sixoclocknews.html
I usually don’t care for the “video diary” school of
filmmaking. I prefer filmmakers to stay in the
background. I make an exception for Ross McElwee,
because he’s such a weird, obsessive personality. 6
O’Clock News finds McElwee trying to discover what
happened to people after their 15 minutes of fame.

5. Salesman (Albert & David Maysles, 196
Together with Primary, this film cemented the
Maysles brothers as the American masters of
documentary cinema. Brilliant editing, intimate
cinematography and a deeply cynical worldview make
this one of the few acknowledged “classics” that
really deserve the term.

http://www.mayslesfilms.com/companypages/films/films/salesman.htm

6. Rainbow Man/John 3:16 (Sam Green, 1997)
www.samgreen.to/trm.htm
Sam Green was nominated for an Academy Award for The
Weather Underground, but for my money, this is his
masterpiece. Rollen Stewart, the omnipresent Rainbow
Man who showed up in the stands in nearly every
sporting event was eventually arrested on federal
kidnapping charges. His rise, decline and fall serves
as a cautionary tale for anyone who’s ever watched too
much T.V.

7. This is Nowhere (Douglas Hawes-Davies, 2002)
www.highplainsfilms.org/fp_nowhere.html
Doug Hawes-Davies’ High Plain Films has established a
reputation for lyric, beautifully photographed odes to
the natural environment. In This is Nowhere, Davies
breaks with his usual subject matter to interview the
drivers of recreational vehicles (A.K.A. “land
yachts”) who travel the country, from WalMart to
WalMart, to sleep in the parking lots of Sam Walton’s
retail empire.

8. Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey (Steven M. Martin,
One 1995)
www.mgm.com/title_title.php?title_star=THEREMIN
The great appeal of documentaries for me is the
process of discovery. You never know where the story
is going to take you. In Theremin, it’s easy to
imagine the filmmakers nudging each other, saying “Can
you believe this?” as the story unfolds before their
camera. It starts out as a simple historical
documentary about the creation of the world’s first
electronic instrument, but quickly turns into a
first-class cold-war thriller.

9. Harlan County, USA (Barbara Koppel, 1976)
www.cabincreekfilms.com/films_harlancounty.html
Another direct-cinema “classic” that deserves all the
praise that has been heaped upon it. Koppel’s
fly-on-the-wall view of a 1974 West Virginia coal
miner’s strike set the vocabulary for activist movies,
but still manages to surprise.

10. Time and Tides (Julie Bayer & Josh Salzman, 2006)
www.wavecrestfilms.com//#/timetide/
I saw this film when I served as a juror for the 28th
Big Muddy Film Festival, where we unanimously voted it
the best documentary feature. Lyrical cinematography,
themes of globalization, cultural preservation, the
internet economy and global warming, all wrapped up in
a multi-layered, well-told story, with rich
compassionate characters. Absolutely stunning.

11. The Last Cowboy (John Alpert, 2005)
www.dctvny.org/productions/last_cowboy.html
This was the runner-up for best documentary at the
28th Big Muddy Film Festival. Alpert, an
award-winning war correspondent, spent 24 years
turning his camera on Vern Sager, one of the last to
make a living herding cattle in the American West.

12. Through the Wire (Pip Starr, 2002)
http://web.mac.com/pipstarr/starr.tv/Misc/Entries/2002/3/28_Through_the_Wire.html

Pip’s a filmmaker from Melbourne Australia, whom I met
several years ago when he was filming a documentary
about coffee. Through the Wire is a short piece
that had its North American premiere at my now-defunct
monthly film screening Electric Eye Cinema (also one
of the first practical uses of video on demand over
the internet, many years before YouTube). Through
the Wire is the best example of an activist film I’ve
ever seen, a brilliant use of imagery and voiceover.

One other thought on the topic of documentaries.  My
favorite book on the topic is “Documentary” by Eric
Barnouw. A great summary.

http://www.amazon.com/Documentary-History-Non-Fiction-Erik-Barnouw/dp/0195078985

“Shoot, Shovel and Shut up.”

The lively, thought-provoking documentary film Here, Kitty, Kitty from director Andy Beversdorf examines a 2005 proposal to deny feral cats in Wisconsin legal protection and instead allow them to be shot on sight. This is one of those things you hear about and wonder if people have taken leave of their senses. The proposed law can most certainly be filed under the heading what the HELL were they thinking?

In April 2005, in Wisconsin, Mark Smith proposed redefining free roaming feral domestic cats as an unprotected species. This proposition, with its accompanying argument that feral cats were responsible for decimating the bird population in rural Wisconsin, would permit the shooting of cats who appeared outdoors without the direct supervision of owners or without collars. The highly controversial proposition attracted worldwide attention and was known as Question 62. Obviously, the proposed law was fraught with problems and potential abuse, but some saw Q 62 as “doing the state of Wisconsin a favour.”

Question 62: “Do you favour the DNR (Dept. of Natural Resources) take steps to define free roaming feral domestic cats as an unprotected species?” appeared before the Wisconsin Conservation Congress. Although the measure passed by 6,830 to 5,201, the Executive Board of the Conservation Congress did NOT recommend Q62 to the Wisconsin legislature. Some of those involved noted (and rightly so) that to adopt a law stating that it was ok to shoot cats would make Wisconsin a laughing stock.

In spite of the fact that Here, Kitty, Kitty is ostensibly about the fate of cats, the film which examines both sides of the emotionally charged Q62 debate, surprisingly is about people, and by extension the varied ways in which we view animals. Here, Kitty, Kitty captures the high drama of the public hearings and owes a great deal to its engaging interviewees. Some of those interviewed care passionately about cats; others regard them as vermin. And when these attitudes collide, naturally, it gets ugly….

Pet shop owner and cat lover Ted O’Donnell appears throughout the film as a spokesperson for the grassroots movement created to fight Q 62. Articulate and sincere, O’Donnell argues against the proposed change stating that the law lacks “common sense” and is fraught with “isolated logic.” While O’Donnell rips into Q 62, Professor Stanley Temple, an avian ecologist, and former professor of Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, thoughtfully explains how he had “nothing to do with the proposal” but that when his research was used as a “justification” for Q62, he began to receive death threats.

Retired farmer Gordon King from Lincoln County stoked the controversy when it was discovered that he captured and subsequently drowned a mother cat and her kittens who wandered onto his property. Arguing that he was a follower of environmentalist Aldo Leopold, King justifies cat killings with an illogical argument: “How many people know enough about the life of animals to even be able to make any kind of a decision as to how to put them down?”

In spite of that statement, King evidently felt that he DID know enough to make that decision, and stating, “It doesn’t take any experience to drown things,” he admits that he drowned the cats. With the volatile and emotional debate raging in Wisconsin, King’s case received a great deal of attention, but amazingly, the DA’s office chose not to pursue charges against King. And this, of course, may lead one to the logical conclusion that it’s perfectly ok in Wisconsin to drown cats….

Curious, I did a google search of cat drownings, and discovered many cases across the country in which people were successfully prosecuted for the same action. I don’t live in Wisconsin, so call me crazy, but the drowning of cats is not acceptable. Period.

There’s a great deal of information packed here in 62 minutes–an interview with a hobby farmer who owns a number of plump well-fed and neutered cats, Stanley Temple’s fascinating research on feral cats (”an exotic non-native predator”) and the decimation of the bird population in rural Wisconsin, and also coverage of a Trap, Neuter, Return (TNR) programme which attempts to help control the stray cat population. The film’s strongest section is the juxtaposition of clips of Ted O’Donnell and Stanley Temple as they present their opposing arguments.

All fascinating stuff. As of 3/08, Here, Kitty, Kitty is not available for commercial release. As for me, I love cats, but I don’t expect my neighbours to, so my cats stay inside safe and sound. Watching the film reinforces the idea that not everyone loves cats and reminds me exactly why I decided to keep my cats inside in the first place.

For more information on Here, Kitty, Kitty go to www.prolefeedstudios.com

“This ain’t no democracy.”

The documentary Tupac Shakur: Thug Angel takes a deconstructionist approach to analyzing the Rap superstar. Was Tupac a thug whose life ended in an uncanny replication of his lyrics, or was Tupac Shakur, a revolutionary with anarchistic beliefs? With these two diametrically opposed images, the filmmaker deconstructs Tupac’s life while exploring both possibilities. As a result, this thought-provoking documentary offers a great deal of insight into a life that so often hit the front page.

Tupac, named after a Bolivian revolutionary, was born into a troubled family–his mother was a Black Panther, and other relatives served jail time. One relative even received political asylum from Cuba. By the time Tupac was a teenager, he was no stranger to poverty, and frequent moves across country finally left him living in Marin County. The film includes an interview with a 17-year old Tupac, and it’s clear from the statements he makes that he’s intelligent, idealistic, respectful towards women and very socially conscious. It is difficult to align these early statements of Tupac with some of the film’s later interviews. Within a few years, now famous, Tupac’s world view is much harder. There’s one scene of him toting a weapon in a shooting range, and one senses he is preparing for the big showdown he is sure is in his future. It is at this point that Tupac makes several dramatic statements: “The police ain’t nothing but a gang. The National Guard ain’t nothing but a gang. The army ain’t nothing but a gang.” But it’s also quite clear from the documentary’s investigation of Tupac’s past why he felt this way. Tupac noted that even Dan Quayle took the time at the Republican Convention to lob a verbal attack against the rapper, and as his acquaintances realised, Tupac interpreted this attention to be devastatingly significant.

The documentary includes many interviews with those who knew Tupac best–relatives, former manager Leila Steinberg, Quincy Jones, and fellow rappers. The film touches on Tupac’s Death Row Records contract, and the feud with Biggie. He is described by those who loved him as “the hardest working man in hip hop.” Tupac Shakur: Thug Angel is a fascinating account of the rapper’s brief and brilliant life, and as an attempt to unravel the mystery of Tupac’s two sides, I think the film succeeds quite well. The DVD also contains a booklet that highlights key points in Tupac’s personal life and his career.

Walking on the wild side

The documentary Devil’s Playground examines the phenomenon of the Rumspringa–the 5 year period beginning at age 16 when every Amish teenager is given the opportunity to consider joining the Amish church. The documentary follows the Rumspringa period of Amish teens–male and female–and interviews several as they make their decisions. Amish children only attend school (an Amish one-room school) until the eighth grade, and then leave school behind and begin working–usually in a family-owned business.

The Amish live without electricity, and cars. This means they have no television, and no video games. During the Rumspringa period, Amish youth are free to drive, drink, take drugs, have sex, etc. According to the documentary, male Amish teens typically leave the traditional Amish clothing behind while girls usually do not.

I’d never heard of Rumspringa before this documentary, and quite frankly, I was amazed by this film. I knew the Amish withdrew from society, and I just assumed that the teenagers either joined or wandered off, but I was not prepared to see a trailer full of Amish teens drugged up to their eyeballs right on Amish land. The Amish Rumspringa teens careen around and throw such wild parties that people come from all over America to attend. Apparently, it is well known (except by me) that “Amish kids have the best parties.” And the documentary makers questioned partygoers at one event, and, yes, there was indeed a fair representation of the various states in attendance.

The son of an Amish preacher, Faron, is one of the teens at the centre of this documentary. He lives in a trailer with his friends and tries to support his $100 a day Meth habit. Most of the teens interviewed are vastly enjoying their Rumspringa period, and accept the fact that they will go back to the Amish way of life in time. Several try to break away entirely, but one Amish girl who says she won’t join just moves to yet another Amish community. With little education, these teens are ill-prepared for the world, and it seems just a matter of time before they give up and accept baptism. According to the documentary, 90% of Amish teens return to the fold. I’m going to make special mention here of Velda–she came across a remarkably strong young girl who honestly has me cheering for her.

On the negative side, I wish the film had included a few more details. Given that Amish live such a strict life, how do they tolerate the Rumspringa period? How do they tolerate teens drinking, smoking, having sex, taking drugs etc while living under their roofs? In one scene, Faron drags a battery into the house to hook up a video game–how does the religious, rule-abiding part of the family cope with this? Where do the cars come from? How did the Amish kids in the trailer afford to live? Also, how has Rumspringa changed from, let’s say the 17th Century? Overall, the fascinating film directed by Lucy Walker was well-worth watching.

“The pimp game is a lonely one.”

There is a lot to offend in the documentary “American Pimp.” As the title suggests, pimps are the subjects of this documentary. Before watching this film, ask yourself if you want to watch pimps talking about how they find and train girls. Pimps are not exactly exalted in society (although apparently there is a Pimp of the Year contest), and most people probably will find this film distasteful to some degree or another. Pimps with names such as Bishop Don Juan Magic, C-Note, Charm, Payroll, Rosebudd, and Sir Captain hold interviews explaining pimping. The film is broken down into sections which including the definition of a pimp, how they got into the business, the origins of the pimp, pimp style, rules of the game and ‘knocking’ (when a pimp lures a girl away from a rival pimp), etc. The documentary also includes clips from many pimp films. It seems that the trend in documentaries is to move away from the heavy-handed directorial style of the past, and to present interviews that loosely flow, so that the film acts as a mirror of the documentary topic. This is the method followed by the Hughes Brothers in “American Pimp.” Unfortunately, critics of the film seem to interpret the documentary’s style as glorification of pimps. This is simply not so. The directors placed a mirror is front of the pimps, and stuck a microphone in front of their mouths, and then the actions and the words of the pimps were recorded. This is not glorification–this is documentation. It is for the viewer to make moral judgments on what they see and hear.

Pimps are asked whether or not they consider giving their girls (and I have to use the word ‘girls’ here, but that is not the word used in the documentary) a percentage of the money they make. The pimps uniformly found the idea so ludicrous that some actually laughed. Also pimps declared that some girls ended up in ‘the crazy house’ as if this is a bizarre phenomenon for which there was no logical explanation. Pimps also remembered the girls who were murdered–one was commemorated by a very large diamond necklace, but at no point did a pimp say that he quit the business because of this or that girl’s death. Life goes on apparently…

I wish the documentary had included some additional interviews with the girls. Some of the most upsetting footage (for me) showed one girl being yanked out of a phone booth and ordered back to work. Indeed the pimps appear at their most unpleasant when they describe how they get girls and the treatment they apparently think the girls need. Some of the girls spoke in the presence of their pimp, and two were interviewed alone. Some data would have been interesting too. The DVD includes an interview with the Hughes brothers, and in the interview they explain their interest in the topic. There were spots in the documentary in which various pimps felt compelled, apparently, to pass on handy tips, and this did give the impression of training–or Pimpology 101 for the entrepreneur, but overall, the documentary was a chilling reflection of the sort of lives these girls lead.

“An attempt by a group of people to run this country under fascist standards.”

Ballot Measure 9 is a documentary about the Oregon Citizens Alliance’s (OCA) attempts to place Measure 9 on the Oregon ballot in 1992. Measure 9 stated that all government agencies and schools would recognise that homosexuality was “abnormal, wrong, unnatural, and perverse.” The proponents of the measure touted the fact that Measure 9 would stop “special rights” to gays, but in reality, Measure 9 ensured that civil rights of gays would be stripped away by prohibiting and revoking laws that protected gays from discrimination.

The documentary is an excellent example of “politics of confusion” in action. The so-called facts flung out by the OCA regarding the typical gay lifestyle are so shocking, it’s almost laughable. But there’s not much humour to be found in the wave of anti-gay violence that swept through Oregon as Measure 9 came closer to a vote. Vandalism, hate mail, threatening behaviour, vicious attacks, and even murder reigned as a result. The Portland police chief had to set up a special task force to deal with the growing wave of hate crimes directed towards the gay community (and their supporters).

The Christian leadership of the OCA argues that “legitimate moral criteria” establishes that homosexuality is wrong, and that being gay is a choice (”being gay is a valid choice of evil doing”). Some Measure 9 supporters express fears that since gays can’t “breed” they find it necessary to recruit children to their beliefs, and one young man interviewed for the film even suggested the unique plan that all gays should be kept off the streets and shipped off to Illinois.

The film shows the grassroots organisations of both sides in action–the protests, the marches, the rallies, and the headquarters. Also included in the film are clips from activists, lawyers, high school students, and religious leaders. Community activist Kathleen Saadat is a particularly potent speaker throughout the film. Those interested in gay rights will find Ballot Measure 9 an incredibly powerful film. “In an atmosphere of bigotry that facilitates violence” this is human nature at its worst and at its best. From director Heather MacDonald.

“The loss of civil rights may be imposed.”

The documentary film’s title Paragraph 175 refers to the passage in German law forbidding homosexuality. Paragraph 175 was first introduced into law in 1871, and as a result, homosexuals were subject to criminal prosecution and blackmail. Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, a German Jewish doctor, and a pioneer in the study of Human Sexuality, formed the Scientific-Humanitarian Committee with the goal of repealing Paragraph 175. In Weimar Germany of the 1920s, an enhanced feeling of social and sexual freedom augured well for homosexuals, and Berlin became a “homosexual Eden.” But once the Nazis took power, they enforced anti-gay laws with a vengeance. According to historian Klaus Muller, in Nazi Germany 100,000 men were arrested for homosexuality, and approximately 10,000-15,000 were sent to concentration camps. Of that number, less than 10 remained alive at the time the film was made. The film, gently and non-intrusively narrated by Rupert Everett, is built around interviews with a handful of homosexuals who survived the concentration camps.

Once the Nazis took power, they moved swiftly and systematically against the homosexual community. Survivors detail how they clung to vain hope–one man, for example believed that with known homosexual, Ernst Rohm controlling the Sturmabteilung (SA) other homosexuals would be safe. Another survivor noted the homosexual clubs remained open after the Nazis came to power, and he took this as a positive sign before he realized that “they let us keep our meeting places, so we could be snatched up.”

The survivors tell their painful stories. One man looks through a photo album in which most of the photos have now been removed; another looks at a photo of a large family gathering and is able to pick out the faces of the two relatives who survived. One remembers the screams of those hung from poles. One man spent years in Buchenwald–only to be snatched up and thrown in Dachau. While most of the survivors are unable or unwilling to describe their experiences in the concentration camps, the grief, the anger, and the outrage are just below the surface.

Paragraph 175, directed by Jeffrey Friedman and Rob Epstein is an important, gripping, powerful film–those incarcerated, tortured and murdered for their sexual orientation should not be forgotten. The anti-homosexual movement began as a loss of Civil Rights and devolved into one of the most shameful episodes in history. To quote one of the survivors, “I am ashamed for humanity.” If you are interested in learning more about Magnus Hirschfeld, then seek out a copy of Rosa von Praunheim’s film, The Einstein of Sex (Der Einstein des Sex)–a less-than-perfect film, but worth catching if you want to watch more on that period. Incidentally, if you remember ever seeing any famous book burning scene in Nazi Germany with a bunch of fascists torching a bonfire of books, well that footage was from Hirschfeld’s library.

 “The papers are a load of shit.”

Punk: The Early Years is a short documentary that takes a superficial, disappointing look at its subject matter. The footage was shot in 1977 and 1978 and includes interviews with the heads of EMI and Virgin Records, Glam rocker Marc Bolan and various bands–including The Slits, X Ray Spex, Generation X, Siouxsie, and the Adverts. If you are looking for an extensive history of Punk, this is not it.

There’s a little info about a few of the clubs in the Punk scene, and many brief interviews with various Punk fans. The film also spends some time discussing fanzines and a larger amount of time discussing punk fashion. There’s even a trip to McLaren and Vivienne Westwood’s shop. There is very little mention of the political side of Punk (zero on Anarcho-Punk), there is no tracing of protopunk, no mention of the American Punk scene–apart from a brief allusion to the Ramones, and no analysis of the spread of Punk from America to England (where it soon found a thriving breeding ground–and that this was largely due to the social and political discontentment of the times). If you are interested in the roots and development of Punk, then I highly recommend the book, Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain.

I don’t really care that the footage was a bit ratty looking in places. What bothered me more was the shallow treatment of the subject matter. While it’s nice to get various opinions from fans, there’s not enough substance here. There are a few clips of a very young Billy Idol, and those portions were great and worth watching. But as it is, the film’s title, Punk: The Early Years is a bit grandiose. A more accurate title would be British Punk: Early Clips. Less time should have been spent on the fashion use of safety pins, and more on the serious side of Punk. This is not a history, and it’s not even an overview.

“Before we got democracy, Andy was totally forbidden.”

Polish Filmmaker Stanislaw Mucha had a great idea–to travel to a remote area of Slovakia and discover Andy Warhol’s roots. Both of Warhol’s parents came from the village of Mikova and immigrated to America. In the bizarre documentary “Absolut Warhola”, Mucha travels to Mikova and uncovers several of Warhol’s aunts and cousins. One cousin in particular looks uncannily like Warhol, and another relative replicates Warhol’s art in needlework.

Andy Warhol (Andrijko Varchola) is something of a legend to the people of Mikova–even though most of them really have no idea exactly what he’s famous for. As one person says, “we knew he was a painter” but for a long time they didn’t know if he “painted rooms or houses.” Everyone interviewed has theories about Warhol. They all seem to be in agreement that it just wasn’t possible that Warhol was homosexual because no homosexuals ever came from Mikova. Along with this belief, come several other incorrect theories that Warhol’s wife shot him, she made him turn to men, etc. These interviews take on a surreal quality–especially when the filmmaker doggedly and valiantly tries to present the facts.

There’s also a trip to the Warhol museum in Medzilaborce–with its leaky roof, its rock singer curator, and its unwritten ban on gypsies. It doesn’t take long to realize that:

1)”Absolut Warhola” is as peculiar as its subject.
2) Warhol’s Slovakian background influenced his style. Mikova is an amazingly bleak and poverty-stricken area, but one cannot help noticing the gorgeous icons and their uncanny similarities to Warhol’s art.

While based on an extraordinarily original idea, the filmmaker’s deft handling of the material cannot cover the lack of substance here. A lot of the merriment comes from the bizarre characters trouped out for entertainment–the amateur trumpet player, the hostile shopkeeper, and the Andy Warhol Doppelganger who plays an accordion on the shell of a Soviet tank. There must be normal people in Mikova, but for the purposes of this film, they do not appear. And here’s a final thought–whatever would Warhol have thought of Mikova if he’d lived long enough to travel there, and what would the residents of the village have thought of him? For those interested in Warhol, or for anyone who wants to just watch something really odd, then “Absolut Warhola” is for you. In Slovak with English subtitles