Ken Burns' Central Park Five and Ava DuVernay's When They See Us

Five boys happened to be in some corner of an 843 acre park when a white woman got raped in the same park. The five teens who had nothing to do with the crime are charged with it. Black kids. White women. We know it is an explosive combo, or else Emmett Till would have lived, right? Thankfully the white lady lived.

A blonde millionaire business man takes out ads in major newspapers calling for the return of death penalty to punish the kids. He must have been thinking that it should be obvious to (white) people that black teens get off by raping white women. It was the universal truth first discovered by KKK in the South. But this was not the South, this was the North, the promised land to which the slaves took the underground railway to escape persecution and lynching. This was New York City. The year was 1989. This happened after Michael Jackson had turned the world on its head with Thriller. Thurgood Marshall, the first black American Supreme court judge was already in the office for almost quarter century and there had already been four African American astronauts in space.

But more things change, more they stay the same. Your biases and prejudices just grow old with you. Maybe they fade out from public view, maybe they are less pronounced, but make no mistake they are still there. What happened to group of five kids christened Central Park Five was a catastrophic failure of the American justice system. No other case in the recent history highlights how the biases and prejudices of the U.S legal system works against the young people of color.

I watched Sarah (daughter of Ken Burns) and Ken Burns' documentary on Amazon Prime called The Central Park Five after I tried watching Ava DuVernay's Netflix biopic series based on the same event, When They See Us. Ken Burns' documentary is faster and it delivers justice to the boys in about 100 minutes. It has media footage and the film makers made the film after the ultimate exoneration of the five in 2002, wanting to make the miscarriage of justice public and to help the wrongful conviction case the Five filed against New York City.

When They See Us on the other hand is incredibly more

traumatic to see, especially the first few episodes. I cannot imagine what those innocent kids went through - first prosecuted for a crime they didn't commit and then charged and incarcerated for a major part of their young lives. The biopic delves in the lives of the kids before the event that turned their lives upside down, their time in the prison or juvie and their lives as adults after they come out of prison. No one but Ava Duvarney could direct such a powerful series.

In this era of Black Lives Matter, it is all the more important to watch these accounts of black people (or people of color, one of the five was a Latino kid), to understand how they are treated differently by the law and order machinery. While being at the wrong place at the wrong time does not work in favor of anyone, but if you are the wrong color too - that seals your fate, for the worse. 

These are the Exonerated Five - Antron McCray, Raymond Santana Jr, Kevin Washington, Yusef Salaam and Korey Wise. All the men have contributed and assist the Innocence Project whose mission is to help exonerate individuals wrongfully convicted through DNA testing. Here below are the Exonerated Five, at the screening of When They See Us, in 2019.

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Two Sisters by Asne Seierstad

 I picked up Two Sisters from a suggestion list in the Overdrive library catalog when I was searching for another book. I had always wondered how kids who grew up in Western societies get radicalized, threw away their privileges to the wind and went to wage jihad in an unknown country. This documented true story by Norwegian journalist-author Asne Seierstad is a window to the world of radicalization.

Somali-Norwegian teens Ayan and Leila are sisters, brought up in a Muslim refugee family in Oslo. They are Norwegian citizens and regular teenagers at the start of the book. As the story progresses, we see them getting interested, immersed and finally fully transforming into radical Islamists who leave the security and future of their home in Norway to the unpredictable war zone of Syria as potential brides for the jihadists. 

There is an entire section at the end of the book where the author lists her sources. The book is based on extensive interviews with the parents of the girls – Sadiq and Sara and their friends and with other detailed research into organizations, people, and related media material. Asne Sieerstad does state that she is relating her findings, but it up to each reader to draw their own conclusions. Unlike some of the books written by journalists I did not find the narration dry or technical, it was well written, paced well and was well-researched. 

A large part of the material came from the girls’ father, Sadiq, who made several excursions to the Syrian warzone to rescue the girls, but never succeeded. In stunning contrast to the decision made Ayan and Leila, Ismael, the girls’ brother (younger to Ayan, older than Leila) who had the same kind of upbringing chooses the exact opposite path. He distances himself from religion when he is old enough to stand his ground and at every opportunity tries to question his sisters and ask them to explain their deeds on the basis of Quran and tries to explain to them folly of their actions.  

The book didn’t give me the answers I was looking for – how on earth do these kids get radicalized? How could two kids in the same family with the same parents and upbringing choose radically different paths? But one thing it is helpful for, which was what the girl’s father and the author intended was for other parents to recognize the signs of radicalization in youngsters and nip it in the bud.

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JL 50 - A TV series starring Abhay Deol

 JL 50 is a commendable first attempt. This is the first time an Indian TV series have tried hands at the material that is usually found on The Twilight Zone. I am a fan of the Rod Serling's original series from the 50s and the 60s, not so much its new avatars. There are several The Twilight Zone episodes which could have served as inspiration to JL 50 like The Odyssey of Flight 33, The Arrival and The Last Flight.

Time travel, worm holes, parallel universes are not something Indian movies have handled well. One of the reasons could be the money required for creating believable VFX. Another could be, even when Indian movies tackle science fiction it ends up being a masala musical, like the time travel Tamil movie starring Suriya Sivakumar - 24. JL 50 used the excuse of being a TV series for not including any songs which would have been mandatory had it been a movie. At slightly longer that two hours total, this TV series is only as long as a typical Indian movie.

The best things about JL 50 are, the cast and the location. Calcutta/Kolkata, the first capital city of British India is a location tailor-made for time travel stories. With its yellow Ambassador taxi cabs, rickety trams and narrow inner city streets, it is a city still caught in its past. Paused at the edge of disintegration back to an older age, it is easy to recreate Calcutta from thirty-forty years ago in the current Kolkata. The makers of JL 50 make use of this chameleonic aspect of Calcutta to their advantage.

The cast led by Abhay Deol as CBI officer Shantanu and Pankaj Kapur as physics professor Das are outstanding. Ritika Anand, one of the producers of the series has a pivotal role as Capt. Bihu Ghosh, the pilot of the ill-fated JL 50. I see it as a nod to the female commercial pilots in India, especially Durba Banerjee (first woman commercial pilot to fly Indian Airlines in 1956) who is also from the state of West Bengal. (Calcutta is the capital of West Bengal.) India had female commercial pilots (Prem Mathur in 1947 was the first commercial woman pilot in India) and Women Pilots Association long before United States had its first female commercial pilot - Bonnie Tiburzi in 1973 for American Airlines.

Returning back from the aviation history tangent to JL 50, the story and direction of the TV series is by Shailender Vyas. While there are some plot holes and goofs in the story line, as a viewer who had always wanted to see a desi take (or more) on The Twilight Zone, I appreciate Mr.Vyas taking up the challenge of making an Indian sci-fi series. With an open-ended ending, I hope he will be back with more and please make sure to include Abhay Deol - he is more than half the reason I enjoyed this series as much as I did.

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Kilometers and Kilometers

The title of this 2020 movie comes from Mohanlal's famous dialog in the 1980s film Mazha Peyyunnu Madhalam Kottunnu. It is his answer to the general knowledge test question posed by the U.S returnee character played by Sreenivasan, "how many kilometers from Washington DC to Miami beach?" Ans: "Kilometers and Kilometers"

The concept of Kilometers and Kilometers, I suspect, comes from an idea originally propagated by the former chief minister (of Kerala) E.K.Nayanar that rape is as common in the U.S of A as drinking a cup of tea. ROFL. Indians' general perception of the West is, it is a society with loose morals, non-existent familial relationships and wayward lifestyle. Indians consider themselves the polar opposite, the ultimate moral righteous and the defenders of family relationships. 

In the U.S we see a different flavor of this cultural superiority complex in God Bless USA and other populist takes on American exceptionalism. Either way if you have not traveled and been to other countries or exposed to their cultures, you end up thinking your culture is the gold standard.  Kms & Kms was created faithfully adhering to that standard.

The overwhelming theme of this road movie, where the lead pair (Josemon played by Tovino Thomas and the U.S tourist Cathy played by India Jarvis) travel on a motor-bike from Kerala in the south to Rajasthan in the north western part of India, is cultural chauvinism. 

The development of characters was easy-peasy for the story/script writers - Deepu Pradeep and Jeo Baby(who is also the director.) They just dipped into the brimming vat of stereotypes and pulled out a few - there's the unemployed do-gooder and the older son who carries the burden of his entire family Josemon (aka new-age Vatsalayam Mammootty), the clueless American tourist Cathy, the Malayali with a heart of gold who has been banished to a harsh northern territory, Veer bhai (aka Sunny Joseph) ready to help any Malayali with some Malayalam and a shoulder to lean on. And then there is Basil Joseph as Kuttan. Basil is a relief (to me, love his self-deprecating, comedic presence) although he is barely there after the first quarter of the movie.

Tovino and India are believable. While this is not a film that calls for hard hitting performances, it is easy to believe Tovino as Josemon, as someone with broken English trying to turn a quick dime chauffeuring the gullible tourist. It is a light watch, long as you have the remote in your hands, I would say, go for it - you can always fast forward the bits you don't like.

 

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The Frozen Ground : Anchorage's own Hollywood movie

Years ago when I was working in downtown Anchorage, most days after my lunch I used to take a walk from downtown to the water's edge (Cook Inlet.) The year was 2011 and I remember it was not summer. Every other season in Anchorage kind of felt the same - cold and grey, it had to be one of those indeterminable seasons. 

3rd Ave leading to Hilton was closed to traffic on that particular day. There were a lot of old and vintage cars parked curbside. We knew there was a Hollywood movie being shot in our city. This was the first time I was this up close and personal to a Hollywood movie location. Along with my friend who was with me on that afternoon we skirted around block and tried to get a better view from another side. Unfortunately we didn't catch any glimpse of Nicholas Cage or any other actors who were purported to be in the movie. Yet we were excited, a Hollywood movie in our city, that was a first. The movie is The Frozen Ground. I happened upon it on Netflix yesterday and watched it in one go.

 In the background of the title is the hazy urban sprawl of Anchorage

Ever since reality TV series took off, Alaska has been a reality TV hot-spot. The only true last frontier state remaining in the United States has provided ample fodder for the escapist lifestyle fantasies promoted by reality TV. From series like Alaska State Troopers and Ice Road Truckers to Palin clan's reality series (Sarah Palin's Alaska, Bristol Palin: Life's A Tripp) to homesteading families in Alaskan Bush People and many more, there has been no dearth of reality TV material from Alaska. 

But it is a different reality when it comes to feature films. Most of the Hollywood films with stories based in Alaska are shot in Canada, mainly in British Columbia. Thanks to Film Incentive BC Tax Credit. Why can't Alaska institute something like this, you know you can't always rely on oil.(Oh just found that there is one , and The Frozen Ground utilized it) These so-called Alaskan feature films will have few aerial shots of the real Alaska and maybe a few scenes filmed at landmark locations, other than that they are all Canada. I am  looking at you, Insomnia. The Hollywood remake of the famous Norwegian movie of the same name supposedly takes place in small town Alaska and starred Hilary Swank, Robin Williams and Al Pacino. It was entirely shot in BC except for a few frames shot at Bridal Veil Falls in Valdez,AK.

The other Hollywood movie, based in Alaska and shot in Alaska that I can think of is Into The Wild. Adapted from Jon Krakeur's book of the same name documenting the real life story of Alexander McCandless who hiked across N.America and finally found a home in an abandoned school bus in the wilderness outside Fairbanks,AK, Into The Wild's Alaskan parts were shot in Cantwell, about 50 miles south of Fairbanks. Oh yes, there was also Big Miracle - the Drew Barrymore movie about a whale rescue in Point Barrow. For this movie Anchorage and Seward stood in for small towns on the North Slope. It was imminently forgettable.

Back to The Frozen Ground. It tells the story of the real life serial killer, Bob Hansen (played by John Cusack), who terrorized the ladies of the night, walking the streets of Anchorage from the 1970s to the early eighties. I had a colleague who worked in my team who used to frequent Hansen's bakery for donuts (in 1970s.) She said the man gave off no signs of being a serial killer and was just another ordinary looking guy. 

A faraway shot of the Anchorage skyline, a bit more close and you would see it is 2010s Anchorage and not the 1980s.

Despite its 300K+ population, Anchorage is still very much a small town. Anchorage operates at a maximum of about 2 degrees of separation, six degrees is too much when half of the State's population lives in the city and its suburbs. Even serial killers can be just an acquaintance of an acquaintance like you can see in the example above. Some people even claim to be able to see foreign shores like Russia from their backyard.

Alaska Public Lands Building on 4th Ave serves as the APD HQ in the movie, which is less than half a block East of the current APD headquarters in the LIO building.

 

 A considerable amount of shooting took place on the 4th and 5th Ave, west of the Sheraton building. The shot below is at the intersection of Barrow St and 4th Ave looking east, where Bob Hansen is seen picking up one of his victims in the movie.

The film crew converted the store fronts on 5th Ave into strip clubs and other night-life enterprises. A lot of action in the movie happens on a couple of blocks on 5th Ave. In most of these scenes, the sidewalk outside seemed more crowded with people than you would expect on a night-out in Anchorage. But I am not complaining.

The Frozen Ground : Shooting Location on 5th Ave

I am immensely grateful that the makers of The Frozen Ground decided to shoot the movie on location, remaining truthful to the places and people, especially all the victims like Eklutna Annie whose remains are shown to recover from the sandy banks of Eklutna river, near the Knik Arm. This was the same place her remains were recovered in 1980.

          Aerial shot of Hansen (John Cusack) on Knik River bridge , Old Glenn Highway

Nic Cage plays Jack Halcombe the Alaska State trooper in charge of the investigation. His character is modeled on the real life investigator,Glenn Flothe. The movie also has Vanessa Hudgens, 50 Cent (he is one of the producers) and Dean Morris (aka Hank Schrader from Breaking Bad)

Hansen is an avid outdoors man and a pilot, which is not uncommon for Alaskans. Alaska probably has the most pilots per capita for any U.S state. He is often seen in the movie taking off from Merrill Field in his little bush plane, sometimes taking his victims along, probably before letting them escape in the wilderness and hunting them down with his gun like game.

All the actors have given solid performances. It is not your typical Hollywood movie, maybe reflecting the director Scott Walker's New Zealand roots. The script (also by Walker) and the movie are taut. There are no frills or cheap thrills which is probably why it failed at the box office recovering only $5.6 million of the $20 million production cost. It reminds me a lot of the Icelandic and Norwegian police procedural series like Trapped or The Valhalla Murders, set in a similar snowy grey landscape.

The film is dedicated to all the victims of Robert Hansen - he had attacked and raped 30+ women in Anchorage and killed at least 17 of them. At under two hours, it is a quick watch. Give it a try, just the amazing performances by all the actors will be worth your time. If you are from Alaska or have ever lived in Anchorage, you should watch it, no excuses.

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Irakal (The Victims)

 Another K.G.George gem from the early eighties, Irakal is the debut film of Ganesh Kumar. I didn't have much of an impression of Ganesh Kumar as an actor till I saw this movie. He makes a pretty decent debut as Baby Matthews the youngest son of a wealthy Christian business family and a closet psychopath - as in he has not come out to the family yet about his psychotic tendencies.

L to R Gopi as the Bishop and Ganesh Kumar as Baby Matthews

I remember a K.G.George interview where he mentions he had modeled Baby's character on Sanjay Gandhi, the younger son and heir apparent (before he died in an untimely air crash) of India's former Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. Irakal came out, eight years after Emergency - which was a period of almost two years starting from 1975 when the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi placed the entire country under a state of emergency. It was alleged that Sanjay Gandhi who had no political position ran a police state terrorizing the administration and the people using his mother's position and influence.

L to R  Ganesh Kumar and Ashokan in Irakal

All the characters in the movie are perfectly fleshed out and the script is taut. Actor Sukumaran who produced the movie also plays the role of the alcoholic middle son - Sunny Matthews. Thilakan plays the big daddy rubber baron and family stalwart, Matthews or Mathukkutty. Srividya is the oldest sister and the only girl in the family, and Radha plays Baby's love interest. Venu Nagavalli as usual loses the girl and meets a gory end. Ashokan also gets to play a small part as Baby's local acquaintance.

Irakal was awarded the best ever original Malayalam screenplay thirty years after its release. But the movie was not a commercial success when it hit the theaters in 1985.  It is said that Sukumaran had to make a couple of commercially successful films to recoup the losses he suffered in producing Irakal. It is a very mature film for a discerning audience, probably not the regular movie-goer's cup of tea. 

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