mmonsor-1

This movie brings front and center what, after clean air, water, and fertile soil, well may be the main issue facing humanity at this time. What role, if any, do our religions, traditions, mythology, tribal wisdom, family culture and relationships, play in modern life?

We're only fooling ourselves when we think we can escape the fundamental problem by imagining that our 'past' - our memories about our experiences and our reactions to them, is objective fact of some kind. But it's not, we don't have the hardware to capture anything like that - those experiences, and especially our judgments about them, are points of view that we've taken that cumulatively shape and color the atmosphere of our lives. They're a personal mythology that both guides us and limits us at the same time. There's a wonderful exchange in the movie where Atang asks his young companion something like - 'What happened to your parents?' The response - 'They were great Basotho warriors. They died defending the kingdom.' Atang mulls over it for a second, and decides, 'Mine went that way too.' We don't know how 'we' got here or really what we're supposed to do. We know our time is limited. We have memories and feelings about our experiences, but little in the way of anything that could be legitimately called objective fact. We decide to interpret our experience in a certain way and it then frames our relationships and forms our personalities.

The movie is one man's evolutionary journey toward personal truth, triggered by his father's death, and what a funny, surprising, heartfelt, and beautiful journey it is.

I had never heard of the performers, but have apparently enjoyed their contributions thousands of times. Praise to the producer and director for their headliner contributors. I saw the film at the Minneapolis - St Paul film festival. Merry Clayton came to the screening and sang for us after the showing. That girl still has the pipes. The story about her audition with the Rollings Stones was a hoot. The soundtrack is wonderful. Lisa Fischer has an amazing voice - blew my socks off. Hope the movie comes to a theater near me, so I can hear it again. I thought the director did a wonderful job of balancing the contributions of the headliners with the life stories of the singers. It was a treat to hear them do their thing out in the spotlight.

I saw this little picture down at Indie Memphis over the weekend. What a fun time it was. I missed the film that won the jury award for best short, but of the 30 or so films I did see, this was the cream of the crop. A couple of women, half a generation apart, share a drive in a car and come away grateful. I'm still marveling at the impression it left on me. Remy Nozik and Phalana Tiller were spellbinding. I can't wait to see them again. The staging, the car, the sound of the muffler, the dialog, spot on, all of it. I don't know how it could have been better. I dragged my 86 year old mom to the festival and she was riveted. Where do I go so I can see this one again? You go Amy!