POWFest 2012: THE SILENT TRUTH & SISTERS IN ARMS

Regardless of what your political views are on the military and military service, there are two must-see documentaries dealing with women in the military at POWFest this year.

First up is The Silent Truth; a look at the death of LaVena Johnson, a young female soldier whose demise while serving in Iraq was ruled a suicide by the U.S. Army.  Director Joan Brooker-Marks (Larry Flynt: The Right to Be Left Alone) gives Johnson's father and mother, John and Linda Johnson, the opportunity to tell the story of their struggle to get to the bottom of what they feel are a suspicious set of circumstances surrounding their daughter's death; their own investigation leading them to a horrifying truth about systemic mistreatment of women in combat situations.

A still from The Silent Truth

Brooker-Marks was clearly operating on a relatively small budget here but, very much to her credit, she's quite well-versed in laying out a compelling story, regardless of any economic restraints.  Her technique here includes the use of rough but very effective animation, emotionally compelling interviews with the Johnson family and the film's military consultant Colonel Ann Wright, and a well-rounded argument aided by ample research.  The Silent Truth is a heartbreaking documentary of great importance and it needs to be viewed by as many people as possible.

A still from The Silent Truth

A still from Sisters in Arms

Beth Freeman's Sisters in Arms explores the participation of women in combat situations via the stories of three Canadian soldiers.  The documentary doesn't spend any time quibbling over the issue of these women's right to be in combat.  Instead, the film proves the worthiness of its subjects through a balanced examination of their domestic and occupational lives, peppering in an appropriate amount of context related to the history of women in the Canadian army.  It's a very successful piece that reveals much about the kind of women rarely seen in film.  What more could you ask for from a documentary?

A still from Sisters in Arms

A still from Sisters in Arms

Sisters In Arms Trailer from Beth Freeman on Vimeo.

Festival passes can be acquired at this link and tickets for individual screenings can be purchased here.

The Silent Truth and Sisters in Arms will screen together at POWFest on Sun., March 11th at noon at the Hollywood Theatre.

Related links:

POWFest 2012 is nearly upon us

Breaking News: Guest Director at POWFest 2012 is...

POWFest 2012: Opening night is all about local talent

POWFest 2012: Ei Voor Later (Eggs for Later) & Angel for Hire 

POWFest 2012: 10,000 Trees, An Ordinary Life & Marion Stoddart: The Work of 1000 

POWFest 2012: The 90th Minute, Nerves of Steel: A Year With the Portland Ballet & The Eighth Parallel 

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THAT GUM YOU LIKE IS GOING TO COME BACK IN STYLE @THE HOLLYWOOD THEATRE

David Lynch and Mark Frost's early 90s series Twin Peaks certainly qualified as event television during its first season.  It's a phenomenon that rarely occurs nowadays; a mass audience gathering around a single show, now that seemingly endless options on cable, audience time-shifting (via dvr, streaming options, etc.), tv on dvd and video-on-demand (VOD) have significantly fractured the way in which we view content, thereby reducing a given show's possibilities for the level of water-cooler potential (keep in mind that even something as critically celebrated as a Mad Men or Breaking Bad is, as far as Nielsen ratings are concerned, more of a cult-hit than a commercial success) that 20th century shows enjoyed.

But back to Twin Peaks; a show that, when it premiered in April of 1990, seemed to possess limitless potential for expanding notions of what television could do but, by the time of its cancellation just over a year later, ended up frustrating the majority of its initial fan base.  Plenty has been written about the mishandling of the show by ABC, so I won't waste time or energy detailing how both the creative and marketing teams behind the series failed to fulfill audience expectation.

Far more interesting is the show's continued influence on how television operates as a medium.  There's a phrase that's invoked quite often in critical circles to describe the current state of the tv landscape: a new golden age of television.  What's usually being referred to here is not the countless permutations of reality shows being hocked by the networks but the popular movement away from episodically-driven series to a more serialized form of scripted content.  Shows like The Sopranos and Lost (as well as the aforementioned Mad Men) are regularly cited as high water marks within this revolution in televisual storytelling.

 

It's difficult to imagine the current climate existing without the groundwork laid by Twin Peaks.  The show effectively showed how a series could break out of the self-contained episode trap that plagued much of tv before it.  Lynch and Frost also taught creatives like J.J. Abrams/Jeffrey Lieber/Damon Lindelof (Lost), David Chase (The Sopranos) the value of injecting soap opera tropes into prime-time dramatic fare.  But, beyond that, Twin Peaks helped usher in the notion that television could strive to be as good (and sometimes better) than cinema.  After all, what are the best shows of today other than extended films that just happen to be exhibited via television?

Watching Peaks now it's possible to appreciate the struggle between the creative, the commercial and the audience reception during its short run.  Lynch has stated on numerous occasions that he never intended for central mystery of the show ("Who Killed Laura Palmer?") to be resolved; a question for which, quite understandably, the average viewer wanted an answer.  Despite never really returning the heights of the initial 10 or so episodes, there are only a few truly awful missteps (this episode is a particularly stinky one) once that struggle was in play.

I'd even argue that the series finale is a brilliant slice of surrealist cinema smuggled into the average joe's living room; I can't personally think of a more subversive hour in broadcast television history (outside of, maybe, The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour).

The pilot episode of Twin Peaks will be screened at the Hollywood Theatre tonight (3/7) at 9:30.  Beginning next Wednesday (3/14), the Hollywood will screen two episodes on Wednesday nights until "we find out 'who killed Laura Palmer.'"  More info available here. 

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