Now, please give a warm welcome to documentary film lover extraordinaire, Ben Huffman, who reviewed Incident at Oglala in his first contribution to Fresh Cut.

Incident at Oglala (1992) is an account of the tragedy that occurred at the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota in 1975. [The entire film can be viewed on Google Video: part 1 and part 2.]

Two FBI agents and one Native American associated with the American Indian Movement (which was then considered a radical and subversive organization) were killed during an unexplained firefight. The film addresses the arrest and double life sentence of Leonard Peltier, a decision that has been widely disputed and protested because of the conflicting evidence that was presented during his trial (The band Rage Against The Machine was a strong supporter of the Peltier cause, devoting the song “Freedom” to the tragedy).

If nothing else, the film offers insight into Native American culture of the 1970’s, and Peltier’s story serves as a metaphor for the wider injustice suffered by Indian people during that time.

As a side note, pay attention to the way the news of the tragedy is delivered over the airwaves and through television broadcasts. I find it to be unsettling how the news was not only delivered, but how the majority of the United States most likely sided with our government almost immediately.–Ben Huffman

It’s been four days since HBO debuted its critically acclaimed mini-series, John Adams, but only after watching it again last night did I notice some curious parallels to a certain Illinois senator running for President.

I’m not really going to review Sunday night’s episodes; for that, check out the New Yorker’s and New York Times’ thorough recaps and reviews.

Although it wasn’t really the talk of the town (thanks a lot, Ashley Dupré!), the series did draw about 2.5 million viewers for each of its two premier episodes, making it the best mini-series debut for HBO since 2004, according to Broadcasting & Cable.

But as one of those 2.5 million viewers, I hope I’m not the only one who felt a peculiar connection between John Adams (as portrayed in the script) and Barack Obama.

First, there’s the series tagline: “He United the States of America.” Read into it what you will, but I could just as easily see that slogan on an Obama ‘08 bumper sticker. Continue Reading…

The long-awaited follow-up to Fernando Meirelles’s 2002 Brazilian crime thriller, City of God, opens in about 75 theaters nationwide today. Cinematical has a full review of the film,” which is mostly positive.

A few excerpts: “Though City of Men is far less violent and shocking than City of God, it does feature its share of action…However, City of Men is neither as stylistically fresh nor as powerfully raw as City of God.”

The trailer is below.

In 2006, the French nature doc March of the Penguins won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. The film tracked the breeding habits of a flock of emperor penguins in the extremely harsh conditions of the Antarctic winter and was narrated by Morgan Freeman. Last summer, another nature movie, Arctic Tale was released, but it’s unlikely to ever become a household name like March of the Penguins.

When directors Adam Ravetch and Sarah Robertson came out with this family-friendly arctic nature film that tracked the lives of a walrus named “Seela” and a polar bear named “Nanu,” it had all the makings of a slam-dunk, but it never quite took off. That the subjects of the film are given names should be the first indication that this isn’t your typical nature documentary; it makes them seem like pets. The second tip-off is the poster, which shows some cartoony polar bears in the foreground that resemble the bears from those ubiquitous Coca-Cola commercials of the 1990s. Continue Reading…

Roger Ebert is making his Oscar night predictions, and it comes as little surprise that he selected No End in Sight, a film that examines the political miscalculations and consequences of the Iraq war, to take the Best Documentary award. [The whole film is available on Google Video]. Although the title is pessimistic and seems polemical, the film searches for answers instead of forcing them down our throats, beginning with a few basic questions: How did the war in Iraq get to how it is today? Who effectively “lost” the war? And who could have “won” it? Continue Reading…