I don’t think I would change a thing about Last Train Home.  Of course, I have a predilection for observational documentaries, but even given that bias, this is an illuminating and touching film.  Life and labor, rural and urban, East and (at the interstices) West, youth and aging, and ideas about freedom, what it means and how to get it – this film covers a lot of fertile ground with a narrative focused a troubled family.

Over 130 million Chinese migrant workers return to their home villages for Chinese New Year celebrations.  Last Train Home uses that annual trip as a framing device to explore the sacrifices and tensions facing one such family.  Changhua and Sugin Zhang return to her mother’s home once a year to visit the children they left there in the care of  grandparents.  High expectations lead to wrenching disappointments for people living hard lives.  Watching these stories unfold over time raises important questions about our humanity and reminds us of things most of us take for granted daily while creating an awareness of the human cost of cheap jeans.

I recommend Last Train Home without qualification.

Screenings April 17, 18, and 23 at RiverRun.  See the website (http://www.riverrunfilm.com) for details.

Robert Person’s directorial debut is stunning visually.  Some of these images featured prominently in the first half of the film are as familiar to me as the farms in Cleveland County where my parents grew up.  The film looks at place and history with a narration that is poetic but loaded with (too much?) gravitas.

(Some of the images remind me of the exhibition of William Christenberry’s photographs at Reynolda House now through June 27 – more on that to come after the film festival but note that it’s definitely worth seeing.)

Experimental documentaries push me in useful ways, and at the end of the day, some of the images comprising this film will stay with me.  Structurally, General Orders No. 9 does not work for me quite so well.  Call me old-fashioned, but I like a story.  Yes, I know that we can take the constituent parts of this film and construct a story in the broad sense, but I prefer something that flows a bit more organically.

Screenings April 16, 17, 18, and 19 at RiverRun.  See the website (http://www.riverrunfilm.com) for details.

A must-see for art-lovers, filmmaker Tamra Davis uses an interview she taped of her friend years ago as the spine of this documentary about Jean-Michel Basquiat.  The film focuses on the time period from his move to Manhattan as a teenager and rise to fame in the art world to his death at age 27.  Images of his art, archival stills, and period video complement that primary interview with Basquiat.  Interviews with other friends, artists, and critics fill in the gaps.

This is a blunt instrument.  The music can be intrusive (as often as it is illuminating), and the sound mix leaves a lot to be desired (the quality of the sound in the interviews varies greatly, which is surprising for the recent footage), but the portrait provides insights into the life and work of an artist who was an indelible part of the New York art scene of the late 1970s and 1980s.

The Radiant Child evokes the energy of that scene but also explores darker themes as Basquiat becomes more famous as an artist and begins to use drugs.  The film is engaging, but I kept wishing it had more nuance, a better sound mix, and about fifteen minutes trimmed from the running time.

Screenings April 16, 17, 18, and 24 at RiverRun.  See the website (http://www.riverrunfilm.com) for details.

Order your tickets now – The Topp Twins:  Untouchable Girls is terrific.  You’ve never seen anything like Jools and Linda Topp, lesbian twins whose country music and variety act characters have made them cultural icons in New Zealand.  They love the farm life and the limelight, and I don’t think political activism has ever seemed like this much fun before.  Nice production values and great archival elements make this documentary as polished as it is entertaining.

Screenings April 17, 18, 20, and 23 at RiverRun.  See the website (http://www.riverrunfilm.com) for details.