Senna

Saturday, 9pmFor fans of Formula One, May 1, 1994 is a date forever etched into their hearts and minds as the day the great Ayrton Senna died.The death of three-time F1 World Champion occurred as a result of his Williams-Renault hurtling into a concrete barrier while he was leading the San Marino Grand Prix.That's where Asif Kapadia's brilliant ‘Senna' documentary reaches its inevitably tragic and undeniably emotional climax.The rest of film chronologically charts Senna's wonderkid F1 arrival; his compelling fierce battle with arch-rival Alain Prost and his emergence as the dominant force within the sport he had come to transcend.But it isn't just Senna's jaw-dropping ability to go for gaps that might or might not have been there that leaves you in awe; beneath the helmet Senna is equally fascinating as his on-the-track exploits.Through unearthed treasures of previously unseen footage including revealing snapshots of his life in Brazil and the behind closed-doors driver briefings at grands prix Senna's magnetic personality and charisma is resuscitated.That his boyish charm and reckless determination in the pursuit of the chequered flag seem to contradict his deeply religious beliefs only make Senna, the man and the movie, all more fascinating.And the absence of any modern interpretations from talking heads allows for Senna to be almost resurrected from the grave to tell his own story through archive footage and interviews.This one-sided view of events sometimes paints him in too saintly a light in comparison to his antithesis and arch enemy, Prost because Senna was certainly no angel.It's a shame the film chooses to gloss over his aggressive driving tactics towards Prost in favour of keeping within the framework of its little guy against the establishment storyline.But this is Senna's story, from Senna's point of view which makes ‘Senna' all the more beautiful and poignant.

Fire in Babylon

Sunday, 9pmThe days of batsmen considering whether or not to pack an extra pair of underpants or take out life insurance ahead of a Test match against the West Indies may be long gone.But that certainly wasn't the case in the 1970s and the 1980s when the Windies reigned supreme under the inspirational captaincy of Clive Lloyd and his fearsome fast bowlers.Shell-shocked batsmen hopping about their crease defending their lives as well as their wickets; it was not so much a time of leather of willow but leather on limbs, as the image of a bruised Mike Gatting after ducking into a devilish Michael Holding delivery surely testifies.Those who sought refuge in the field fared only slightly better when faced with the unenviable task of containing gum-chewing, big-hitting Viv Richards or the equally devastating Gordon Greenidge.That was life against the great West Indies side during their golden period and that's the story told by the film ‘Fire in Babylon'.You don't really need to know your silly mid off from your googly to be able to enjoy ‘Fire in Babylon', which is far more than just a sport documentary.Set to a pulsating sound track courtesy of Robert Nesta Marley, director Stevan Riley's uses Lloyd's side's meteoric rise to examine its implications for black politics and culture.Listening to insights from ‘Master Blaster' Richards and the softly-spoken Lloyd, you soon realise the extent of prejudice and racism the team had to overcome.Whether it be from foul-mouthed spectators in Australia or the prevailing ignorance in an England struggling to come to terms with the first influx of Caribbean immigrants.In truth, it's unlikely the racially charged political climate of that era made the Windies players any better cricketers.Although then-England skipper Tony Greig's unfortunate ‘grovel' comment on the eve the 1976, which the Windies triumphed 3-0, certainly made them even more determined to win.So much so, they become unbeatable anywhere in the world for 15 years and 29 Test series.

The Interruptors

Friday, 8pm‘The Interrupters' is a well-made, moving and sometimes disturbing documentary that should have deep resonance in the Bermuda community.Anyone concerned about the growing violence on the Island should see the film, which offers up an alternative and radical solution.The film is about CeaseFire: The Chicago Violence Prevention Project, a unique programme that uses highly trained “violence interrupters” to intervene in community crisis and provide mediations.The interrupters often jump right between two parties in conflict and try to “interrupt” things.If they hear of a shooting in the community, they try to prevent retaliatory shootings by talking with the parties involved and neighbours.They are usually from the communities they work in, and have a past connection with the gangs in the area.Violence interrupters encourage the people involved to leave the scene, sometimes taking individuals off in their own car to think it over.Like Bermuda, Chicago has a community violence problem, often centring around young people.For example during one weekend in June of last year, 52 people were shot in Chicago, seven of them fatally.And yet, Chicago does not have the worst violence problem in the United States.In fact, in Neighbourhood Scout's survey of the top 100 most dangerous places to live in the United States, Chicago rated 77.Orlando, Florida, the home of Walt Disney World, rated more dangerous at 26. (See http://www.neighborhoodscout.com/neighborhoods/crime-rates/top100dangerous/).Between 2000 and 2004 CeaseFire was implemented in six of the most violent communities in Chicago.Research suggests that in 2000 violence decreased generally in Chicago, but it decreased at a 26 percent greater rate in all communities that had a CeaseFire programme.‘The Interrupters' was made by Steve James and Alex Kotlowitz.Mr James decided to make the film after one of the subjects of his previous award-winning film, ‘Hoop Dreams', was killed by community violence.He read an article about CeaseFire written by Mr Kotlowitz, author of ‘There Are No Children Here'.Mr James was so inspired he contacted Mr Kotlowitz and together they made ‘The Interrupters'.Since it was released it has reaped accolades the film was an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival, it won a special jury prize from the Full Frame festival, and it also won a special jury prize from the Sheffield Documentary Film Festival.Although the film looks at several different violence interrupters, as it moves along it begins to focus more heavily on interrupters Ameena Matthews and Cobe Richards.Ameena is an ex-gang enforcer and daughter of a well known gang leader.She described the work as “looking at the devil, face to face”; Mr Richards also had a troubled past.Some might see their virtual takeover of the film as distracting from the actual organisation, CeaseFire.And yet, focusing on these two very charismatic individuals serves to humanise the film, and makes it easier to watch.And, one might argue, they are deserving of the attention Chicago honoured Ms Matthews and Mr Richards as heroes this month for their work.Mr Richards will be in Bermuda for Friday's screening of ‘The Interruptors' and will answer questions from the audience.The movie serves to humanise the interrupters and also the people they deal with.Often people who commit acts of violence are portrayed as monster maniacs by the media.The film portrays them as people who are very lost, often economically destitute, poorly educated and perhaps lacking in basic communication skills.“It is a myth that most of it [the violence] is gang-related,” said one interrupter. “Most of it is interpersonal conflict. Guys get into it for the pettiest reasons.”CeaseFire is unique in that it doesn't tackle the violence as a “moral” issue, but as a disease.“Violence is one of the great infectious diseases of all history,” Gary Slutkin, an epidemiologist and founder of CeaseFire, says in the film.“What perpetuates violence can be as invisible today as the micro organisms of the past were.”And it's true that many of the people helped by CeaseFire in the film, some of whom are ready to kill someone for looking at them wrong, seem profoundly emotionally ill.However, one has to wonder if CeaseFire isn't a Band-Aid approach to the problem.It's as if the little Dutch boy who put his finger in the dyke to stop a leak, simply got a whole bunch of friends to help him do it. But in the end, the dyke is still flawed and cracked.CeaseFire may stop individual acts of violence, but doesn't necessarily solve root causes such as unemployment, poor education, and lack of opportunities for personal growth.The interrupters see themselves as disease control workers. Their role is to do an initial interruption of transmission.They tackle violence using disease control methods including identification and detection, intervention and changing behaviour and norms.“Most infectious diseases are not treated with antibiotics, they are mostly treated with changing the behaviour,” said violence interrupter Tio Hardiman, a former street hustler and director for CeaseFire Illinois.The filmmakers have to be commended for their bravery as they wade right into the thick of things, sometimes filming an out-of-control dispute between neighbours up close.At times during filming their presence upset the neighbourhood they were filming in, and they were asked to step back, least they themselves became the target of violence.One possible criticism of the film is the high level of bad language.It's obvious that this is the way people in this community speak, and this is a very realistic, no-holds barred, film.However, the language involved, combined with the violent imagery gives the film an A rating with the festival, meaning no admittance of anyone under 14 unless accompanied by a parent or guardian.Many parents with children over 14 years old would (wisely) steer clear of the film because of its graphic nature.However, the reality is that many of our young people are witnesses to this kind of violent behaviour in their everyday lives.It would be great if the filmmaker could produce a similar film accessible and appropriate for young people.

Tabloid

Saturday, 7pmIt was beyond a tabloid editor's wildest dreams a young American beauty queen follows her fiancé, a Mormon missionary, to England, where, according to him, she imprisoned him against his will in an isolated Devon cottage, chained him spread-eagled to a bed and endeavoured to rape him.The tale, which took place in the late 1970s and subsequently burst into the public domain, was undoubtedly a watershed moment in the world of journalism, moving that quarter of the industry deeply into a scurrilous, sensational and highly competitive genre, and that so spectacularly crashed with the sudden shut-down of The News of the World earlier this year.So, it was with a sense of real anticipation that I slid filmmaker Errol Morris' recounting of these events in his documentary ‘Tabloid' into the DVD player.Joyce McKinney, the former Miss Wyoming is the main source for the story. Her erstwhile fiancé Kirk Anderson did not participate in the making of it. As a result, watching this film essentially sits you in a living room with her, at best a mildly interesting raconteur, as she recalls the events.Morris found other sources: a newspaper man of the time, a Mormon insider, among others, to provide some balance and to flesh out the story. There are cutaways to some photographs and other illustrative aspects of the story, but from a visual perspective much more should have been possible.Nonetheless, even today, the questions this story excites are still relevant: What constitutes rape, exactly? Can a man be raped? To what extent does the Mormon Church mould their member's sex lives?What role did the Mormon Church play in the decisions that Kirk Anderson made, particularly in respect to his relationship with Joyce McKinney? And if the church does indeed have that sort of power, how and why do they wield it?From the journalistic perspective, the interest lies in claims of doctored photographs of a naked Joyce McKinney and investigations throwing up unsavory aspects of the beauty queen's past.Tabloid certainly takes on a new level of significance in the aftermath of the News of the World affair, shedding light on the early days of this type of journalism and the story that fueled its trajectory towards the precipice that led to the demise of that newspaper, a publication that is still a byword for tabloid journalism.

You've Been Trumped

Sunday, 7pmThis documentary left me enraged and heartbroken, yet with a renewed belief in the power and goodness of ordinary people.I'd certainly describe it as a must-see.It follows the journey of a small, isolated and fiercely proud Scottish community to the North of the “Granite City” of Aberdeen.Life had carried on pretty much unchanged for centuries, until billionaire American property developer Donald Trump bought up hundreds of acres of local land.This is no ordinary landscape, but an impeccable, unblemished and supremely beautiful stretch of coastline with a sand-dune system so unique that one scientist describes it as “our equivalent of the Amazon rainforest”.It's a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest and was supposedly protected by law that is until the Scottish Government overturned the rules and gave Trump the green light to build a massive golf resort right on top of it.The documentary follows the shocked and infuriated local residents as they battle against his efforts to buy up and destroy their homes, which he deems to be a blot on the landscape.They describe their heartache with blunt Scots understatement as they watch their heritage being destroyed by the bulldozers that roll in to change this unique landscape forever.There is no narration on the film; simply the voices of those involved in the drama and an ethereal score by Jónsi, the front-man of Icelandic band Sigur Rós. There is no doubt the film sets out to vilify Trump. But he is not the only villain of the piece. Shadowy security men drive around in their SUVs spooking-out the local residents, the authorities fail to act when electricity and water supplies fall into the path of the diggers, and filmmaker Anthony Baxter even gets arrested as he attempts to document the process.Is this the price of progress or a shameful account of greed triumphing over morals, and money triumphing over principles?I'll leave it to you to decide. Whatever your views, you'd have to be made of Aberdeen granite not to be moved as you watch this brilliant film.

Buck

Friday, 6pmGripping from start to finish, the documentary ‘Buck' tells the story of the complex relationship between horses and humans.The film focuses on Buck Brannaman, coined the real life Horse Whisperer.He has the ability to tame even the wildest of stallions; those who have been hurt, abandoned, neglected or mistreated and, as a result, aren't obedient and lack trust.Buck breaks these bad habits by using compassion and reinforcement, rather than punishment, to train horses from across the US.But this is not just a movie about horses. The visually stunning documentary by Cindy Meehl depicts Buck's own personal story of tragedy and triumph, told through interviews with close family and friends.Raised with an abusive, alcoholic father, Buck was beaten so often as a child he felt like an animal fearing for its life.The aspiring cowboy learned rope tricks at the age of three and reached a professional level by age six, but never performed well enough in his father's eyes.He was eventually placed in a loving foster home and, as he grew up, chose not to repeat that cycle of abuse. Instead he uses sensitivity and compassion to build a rapport with the large creatures and has developed a strong relationship with people from around the US.Buck believes the way a horse behaves can tell you a lot about its owner. He doesn't change the horses, but alters the way their owners treat them, which causes the animals to perform better.He breaks the stereotypical macho, tobacco-spitting cowboy image and at times is funny, compassionate, sensitive and kind.He is one of the inspirations behind the Nicholas Evans' novel ‘The Horse Whisperer' and was eventually hired by actor Robert Redford as the key consultant for the Hollywood film.But the documentary is more emotionally stirring than any big screen version. If you look close enough you can often see the emotional scars Buck wears from his turbulent past.Still, he rose above his circumstances to become one of the best in the equestrian field.He travels nine months of the year to host horse training clinics across America. In the process he turns scores of sceptics in the equestrian world into believers.He teaches wayward horses to walk front ways, backwards and sideways in little more than five minutes. More importantly, he shows owners how to use sugar rather than spice to get the most out of their animals and themselves.