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White Savior: Racism in the American Church (2019)
Daring Deep Dive Into American Racism
After watching this "no holds barred" documentary the faces of the men and women participants and their heart felt stories keep flooding my mind with strong waves of unsettled emotion.
I attempted to listen and feel deeply what was being portrayed without jumping to judgement and blasting away with my bias. The movie provokes without attacking, asks questions without answering and allows silence to scream out for attention.
This excellent work dares to dive into the "treacherous waters" of race and religion which at time seems to mix as well as oil and water and at other times like water and concrete.
If you seek an emotional challenge to where you place yourself with religion and race then White Savior: Racism in the American Church is your saving grace.
The Mustang (2019)
Horse sense vs movie sense
Overall "The Mustang" is entertaining if you know little or nothing about how horses really behave. The movie is created to tug at our human hearts at the expense of humane horse management and training. For instance there is no way that the horse once released into the wild will every come close to that prison again, rather it will find a herd to join up with. In true movie making style each scene is created to "wrangle the heart" of the viewer, not realistically but with intensity and drama. Working with horses takes time and much patience, which understandably can't be squeezed into a feature film. So saddle up, enjoy the movie and then learn how to really work with and train horses.
Meru (2015)
Mesmerizing Meru By Movie Magician Jimmy Chin
I just finished watching Meru for the second time and type this with shaking hands after the cinematography left me emotionally dangling from those knife edge shots. This raw footage with NO reenactments obtained by Jimmy and Renan is unmatched with audio quality equally astounding. The night shot of Meru's shark fin back lighted by the Milky Way is lasered into my mind's eye forever.
The ridge lines of granite and ice mirror the emotional peaks and valleys that the climbers and their families experienced for over a decade including death, survivor guilt, brain trauma, and romance. Even more astounding is how these incredible athletes enjoyed smoking cigarettes at twenty thousand feet while strapped in their cliffhanging tent and filmed themselves at the same time. Mind blowing!
Meru is mountaineering magic and will remain a classic and standard by which future films will be judged.
Rock the Park: Death Valley: Destination Desert (2015)
Rock'n Death Valley's Funeral Mountains
This episode is different from the usual travelogue of Death Valley in that it highlights one adventure of seeking water in the Funeral Mountains rather than scenes from the just the most visited locations.
The scene selection is fun with a good segment of Titus Canyon and the hosts' enthusiasm for the park, old mining sites and rusting auto carcasses is contagious.
Anyone who has hiked across the alluvial fans in the park will relate to the hosts' challenges with tricky forks in the washes, finding water and not spraining an ankle.
The night sky shots above their campsite in the Funeral Mountains is spectacular. Their cautions about preparation for heat and then unexpected are timely as well.
Scenic Route (2013)
Scenic Route - Full of surprises
Just like Death Valley National Park where Scenic Route was filmed. I was actually in the park while Scenic Route was being filmed. I drove by the main scenes location several times and even stopped to watch the shoot for a few minutes. For people like me who love this national park, the movie is good for two reasons, the story is plausible and the locations are familiar. Not Oscar material here but still well worth watching. For anyone who has driven or explored the area between Beatty, Nevada and Furnace Creek inside the park, the movie will be entertaining due to the dialog, action and acting but also due to the scenery and backdrops that come into view. Once or twice the local cops stopped traffic for a few minutes while a scene was being shot. Fun to see the wardrobe, catering and support crew out in the middle of a lonely stretch of highway. This movie brings life to Death Valley!