Defiance

Last night I finally watched Defiance, it has been sitting on my shelf for several months. The history geek in my was bubbling, I wanted to see it when it was in the movies, two years ago, but never got around to it. I was assembling my race track and I settled in for the journey. The movie stars, Liev Schreiber and Daniel Craig, some pretty nice eye candy, oh wait I digress. Anywho the story is about these three brothers in Eastern Europe who survive a Nazi attack and retreat into the Belarussian forrest. They partner with the Russians and create a community that saves the lives of thousands of Jews during WWII.  I thought about the fact that this movie came out at the same time as Valkyrie starring Tom Cruise, which I did see in the movies. Two very different stories about the Nazi's in WWII Europe. And of course I began to think about the number of movies about the holocaust, my favorite, if I can have a favorite in this genre is Schindler's List. And what I noticed is how these stories detail the atrocities of the Holocaust, but the stories are so moving and uplifting because they are about survival and faith. And I reflect on the number of fiction films that I have seen about Africans and African-Americans and slavery. Roots (a TV miniseries, not a film) and Amistad are the two that come to mind. Roots as a child was incredibly ground breaking, Roots as seen by my adult eyes this summer was terribly insulting. Those are the happiest most leisurely slaves ever. Amistad was a phenomenal film, but definitely told from the perspective of the white lawyer. So I discussed this with my girlfriend and she said, that slavery was depressing and we never left the land we were enslaved on so who wants to revisit that. Which I agree, but on the other hand, I worry that our history is not being told. We our losing our tradition of passing on oral history from generation to generation, because of the stigma and shame of slavery. But there are some many tales of triumph and love and survival within the horrific institution of slavery. Now as a film maker, passion is one thing, but marketability is another. I want people to see my films, not sit on a library shelf if I'm lucky enough to get an educational distributor.  But I feel this overpowering need to preserve our history and that includes our enslavement on American soil. I get to touch on this in my thesis documentary, but there are still so many stories left untold.