The Girls in the Band
The big jazz bands we remember were all male, except for female vocalists and an occasional pianist such as Mary Lou Williams. The documentary The Girls in the Band explores the forgotten all-women big bands that took the stage in an era when female musicians were frowned upon for playing brass instruments. Director Judy Chaikin interviews aged survivors of those bands and unearths vintage footage showing that women could swing just as well as men.
Je t’aime, je t’aime
In Alain Resnais’ jarringly surreal film, Je t’aime, je t’aime (1968), the survivor of a suicide attempt is whisked to a secret institute conducting research into time travel. After sending mice into the past, the scientists earmark him as the first human test case. Resnais scrambles the chronology of events, which emerge in bits and shards like lines of a story pulled from a hat. Krzysztof Penderecki’s score drenches the film in an eerie, unsettled mood.
A Tale of Two Thieves
“I don’t consider myself a gangster—I’m just an ordinary thief,” says Gordon Goody. The affable 84-year-old is reminiscing about his role in The Great Train Robbery—the 1963 million pound heist of the Glasgow-London mail train. Director Chris Long uses animation and reenactments to creatively infuse his documentary with the snappy feel of ’60s England as it started to swing. Goody reveals new facts, is unapologetic and apparently considers burglary an honorable trade.
A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps
Wisconsin Public Television’s special accompanying the latest book by the state’s beloved nature essayist, A Farm Winter with Jerry Apps, is now out on DVD. From a snowbound cabin, Apps recounts his farm childhood in the 1940s when winters were longer, colder and snowier than now. The takeaway is how far we have departed from life’s natural rhythm: Winter was once the season for which humanity spent the rest of the year laying up food and during which, took a rest.
