My Current Interest

              This documentary film is such a sad, sweet love story.   In so many ways it’s absolutely heartbreaking, but it is not a film to miss.   If anything, you must see this film to see that great loves truly do exist.                 Jo Byeong-man and Kang Kye-yeol are a South Korean couple who have been married for over seventy-five years.   They live alone in a somewhat rural area, and are madly in love.   Arranged in marriage when Kye-yeol was only fourteen and Byeong-man was about nineteen, this couple has lived the ups and downs of life side by side.   Six of their twelve children died at a young age, and they worked hard to have the possessions they have now.                 Even though they are in their nineties, this couple still acts like a young cou...

               Before the start of World War II, a man helped save hundreds of Jewish children from what was then Czechoslovakia.   For fifty years this story remained untold until the man’s wife found a scrapbook in their attic.   It was because of this scrapbook that the world came to discover the great thing this man did.   People were inspired and became determined to do great things themselves all because of the action of one man.   This man was Nicholas Winton, and Nicky’s Family is his story.                     Nicholas Winton was supposed to go on a ski trip.   It was his friend who changed the plans.   His friend wanted to go to Czechoslovakia to help the children, and Mr. Winton agreed to go with him.   While there, the parents of Jewish children recognized Mr. Winton’s interest in ...

               I don’t know how many people would see ballroom dancing as a way to bring peace to the world, but world renowned ballroom dancer Pierre Dulaine does.   He believes that teaching people to dance with one another will break barriers.   This is especially true with children.   Mr. Dulaine proved this with his work in New York City schools.   In the documentary Dancing in Jaffa , Mr. Dulaine takes the same principals he used in the United States to his birthplace in Jaffa.                       In Jaffa, Israel there is a big divide between the Jewish-Israelis and the Palestinian-Israelis.   There is years of animosity between the two groups and Mr. Dulaine is determined to bring it to an end.   He decides to teach five different groups of children at five different school...

              Backup singers are often overlooked, if they are thought of at all.   This probably sounds like a terrible thing to say, but it is the truth.   When people go to concerts or listen to albums, how often do they talk about the background vocals?   Quite possibly never.   This is a shame since sometimes the backup singers are better than the lead artists.   Which is why it should not come as a surprise that some backup singers try to move forward and become the lead.   I know at least one has been a contestant on American Idol and I believe there was another on The Voice .   It has been quite awhile since I have watched either show so there may have been far more than one on each.   In any case, it is not easy to move from backup to lead.   This is just one of the things discussed in the documentary 20 Feet from Stardom .        ...

                     Nearly the entire time I watched Two Brothers , I was certain I was not going to write about it.   The movie was just too sad.   I am a huge animal lover, and there were some parts of the movie that were too painful to watch.   It was not until the last few minutes that I decided that even though this movie was hard to watch, I had to write about it.                           The main characters in this film are two tiger cubs.   They live a happy, playful life until men descend upon the deserted temple where the tiger cubs and their parents live.   The men, led by hunter Aidan McRory (Guy Pearce), are there to strip the temple of its art and beauty.   They do not know tigers live in the temple as well.   Once one o...

               It took me a little while to watch this movie.   There it sat with the rest of the mail waiting for me to pick it up.   Most movies I watch pretty quickly, but for some reason I thought Paper Clips was going to be a dreary fictional piece.   Right now I am not up for dreary.   When I finally put the film in I realized I had been quite wrong.   Not only was this not dreary, but it was a documentary.   Where I got the idea it was fiction, I do not know.   The point is, instead of dreary I got a positive and uplifting documentary.                    A middle school in a small town in Tennessee is the focus of this film.   With such little diversity in the school, the administration and faculty became concerned and decided to start a program about differences in people.   They...