Documentaries continue to bring me so much joy. They can be the visual equivalent of a memoir, I think, in the sense of bringing order to real-life events. Here are a few I've watched recently.
"Found," about three young women adopted from China as babies. They find each other through 23andme, and eventually travel to China to meet a genealogy researcher and even a family who'd thought one of the girls was theirs. None of the three find their birth parents, and there's a kind of tacked-on scene at the end where a different girl does, but I don't think the movie needs it. There's already so much insight and feeling and beautiful warmth. Here's a review. I need to watch director Amanda Lipitz's earlier movie, "Step."
I also watched "Finding Kendrick Johnson." This was an infuriating one to watch. I remember reading about this story when the young man first died, and thinking how could this possibly be accidental? The filmmaker, Jason Pollock, smartly weaves this story into the broader history of racism and white supremacy in America, and the American South. And, the young man is still gone, and there are no real answers for this grieving family.
The last movie I want to mention is fiction (I think): "Carmen y Lola." I've been waiting to see this, since it first appeared on HBO but in Spanish only. Finally, English subtitles are available. It's not breaking a lot of new ground but the film is shot beautifully and lovingly and I enjoyed learning more about Roma culture.
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