New Docs: IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON and MANDA BALA

[oscar jubis]

You can tell Manda Bala director Jason Kohn apprenticed under Errol Morris by the way he develops disparate threads or subjects separately before showing their interconnection. Kohn also shares a droll sense of humor with the acclaimed director of Mr. Death and Fast, Cheap & Out of Control.

In Manda Bala (Send a Bullet), a kidnapping victim, a frog farmer, a surgeon who specializes in aural reconstructions, a gangster and father of ten from the Sao Paulo ghettos, a man who's made a fortune making the cars of the wealthy bulletproof, an attorney general, and the corrupt former senator and governor of a northern province help the half-Brazilian Kohn make the point that those who steal with a pen facilitate and encourage the epidemic violence characteristic of urban Brazil. But the link between institutional corruption and violent crime could be made more forcefully, and the idea that the culture that sustains them dates back to the early years of Portuguese colonization is treated as a mere afterthought.

What cheapens Manda Bala is the banality of its editing choices and its exploitative bent: graphic footage of surgeries and torture ordeals is prominently featured. The practice of using a translator to repeat in English what we've already heard in Portuguese (rather than simply subtitle the latter) is an added annoyance. I'm convinced there were better choices for the documentary Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival than Kohn's entertaining but lurid and amateurish debut.

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There have been many documentaries and fictionalized accounts of America's space program. The new In the Shadow of the Moon deals specifically with the Apollo missions. It pays most attention to Apollo 11, the first to land on the moon's surface, and Apollo 13, which ran into trouble before it was ingeniously saved from catastrophe.

Two reasons why In the Shadow of the Moon is a must-see even if you've seen many films about man's conquest of the moon: 1) The footage of the training of the astronauts, their voyages and landing on the moon has been restored visually and aurally. It is stunning, and some of it has not been previously available. 2) The astronauts have never been this disarmingly candid and revealing. They are remarkable men, most now in their 70s, sharp as ever, and perhaps wiser. Feeling down after watching the latest Iraq doc? Check out In the Shadow of the Moon for a "pick me up".

[cinemabon]

I understand your criticisms of the director, but can you better explain the plot/purpose of the documentary... is it to explain the violence behind of the corruption of certain Brazilian officials, or the roots of Portuguese influence; or am I simply being naive?

[oscar jubis]

Thanks for your interest. The underlying theme is, as I put it: "those who steal with a pen facilitate and encourage the epidemic violence" or there's a "link between institutional corruption and violent crime".
To answer your question, I'll develop the specifics as presented in the film as follows:
The Federal government recognizing the need to develop the poorest northern provinces created a special fund for that purpose. There's conclusive evidence that powerful senators and governors from those provinces, who are in charge of administering billions in development funds, have embezzled most of it. Among them, charismatic tycoon Jader Barbalho, who uses a variety of fake and real commercial enterprises (including the biggest frog farm in the world!) to launder the money. Why does he get away with it? A law dating back centuries, when Brazil was a Portuguese colony, that exempts elected officials from being prosecuted by civilian courts. So the uneducated, unskilled residents of the poor provinces bordering the Amazon come to the huge urban centers like Sao Paulo and Rio and become criminals. According to the film, most gangsters are immigrants or sons of immigrants from those underdeveloped provinces. They are responsible for a wave of kidnappings of wealthy Brazilians and most of the drug trafficking.
Feel free to ask more questions if you have them.

[cinemabon]

One of those strange events happened between Laserdisc and DVD concerning NASA. The techno friendly folks at NASA produced a huge quantity of product (which I used to own plenty) on Laserdisc regarding the Apollo program and the STS system (Space Transport System otherwise known as the Space Shuttle). None of that stuff made it to DVD, and has been subsequently lost to time. I had an entire disc devoted to the last Apollo mission to the moon, 17. The detailed disc even provided maps with locations, times spent, data collected... the disc included hundreds of stills. It was great!

No one seems interested any more. That is a pity. We think nothing of funding a war in Iraq with hundreds of billions of dollars a year and balk at NASA's meager budget in comparison (or even the National Endowment for the Arts!). Our priorities are so far askew... with Fox beating some ultraconservative drum, an administration that turns nonsense into wisdom, and a world bent less on scientific advancement and more on self implosion. Fall of the Roman Empire? Nothing can stop capitalism from rotting now, the decay is widespread. Democracy is not only dead, it's decomposing.

[oscar jubis]

Very well said, cinemabon. "Our priorities are so far askew". Like her husband, the next president of the United States will come in intending to right some wrongs and her hands will be tied by the mess left behind by Mr. Bush. I heard it on NPR today: national debt at 9 trillion! I hope you get to watch IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON because we all need something to feel good about, even if it's in our past, even if it's only for a coupla hours.