Three Documentaries!

Winter On Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom

I started watching this film and I thought I had a setting turned on for blind people. A narrator's voice starts during the production company logos, dispassionately describing what happens on the screen, as if I can't see it. I even check my settings quickly to be sure and then I proceed.

Winter on Fire is about the Ukrainian people occupying a square and parts of the city in protest of their leader's unwillingness to join the European Union as promised and the subsequent police state to which he subjects them. It is a very inspiring recounting of ordinary people taking a stand and facing down oppression despite the danger. At one point, their elected-leader-turned-dictator issues new laws that people cannot assemble wearing helmets. So all the older Ukrainian citizens come out with pots and pans on their heads. They had a sense of humor and absurdity in their demonstration! How much do you love them? I know I do!

I even ended up liking the weird choice they made of describing everything on screen! It really worked to keep you grounded during the violent bits of footage.

Later in the weekend I started watching Jessica Jones on Netflix and what do you know? Same stupid narrator explaining everything that happens on the screen! Not a choice at all. Just a service that Netflix began offering its vision impaired customers in April but just now decided to become the default on all my devices.

Oh well, I still liked the doc, I guess.


What Happened, Miss Simone?

I thought this documentary was fantastic. Some of the concert footage of Nina Simone is riveting. It's not huge and over the top, but that lady had a fire in her that was powerful and primal and dangerous.

You get to learn about her career, her relationships, her activism and her struggles. It's fascinating looking at a woman who has made a mess of her life in many ways and yet, you still understand that she did her best, and you still respect her. That's an awesome gift for a documentarian to impart to its subject!

I am a creative woman and I sometimes wonder how much that makes me skirt the line of mental illness. So imagine being a highly creative woman? Or a genius? What Happened, Miss Simone? shows it's not always easy to have that genius and also fit into some mold that society has planned for you.

I'm really glad I got to see this one.


Cartel Land

I'm not happy about the drug cartels and their rampant and horrific violence in Mexico.

I am happy that some civilian factions have risen up to fight back where the policia are either too corrupt or too overburdened to do the job themselves.

I'm not happy that the sort of vigilante groups have their own corruption to deal with. They have a charismatic and somewhat idealistic leader that is keeping them in line, but just barely. And he won't live forever.

I am happy that...

Nope that's it. There is not much to be happy about in this whole scenario. And I don't see a single thing I can do about it, except hope that the vigilantes can win even small battles in this terrible war.


Cartel Land is done well enough. I just don't have the energy to get involved in this battle, so that's on me.