Mel Brooks Makes a Noise on American Masters Tonight

Posted on May 20, 2013 by
AM-Mel-Brooks_keyart_cMichael-Grecco

PBS-TV’s AMERICAN MASTERS corners a comedy legend in MEL BROOKS: MAKE A NOISE. Photo: Michael Grecco.

On June 6, the American Film Institute will bestow their 41st Life Achievement Award on Brooklyn’s own Melvin J. Kaminsky.  Melvin joins a stellar list of previous AFI recipients with such notable monikers as Bette Davis, James Stewart, Henry Fonda, Fred Astaire and Alfred Hitchcock, to name a few.  

Melvin, the childhood hambone, itinerant drummer and Catskill Borscht Belt entertainer-cum-screenwriter, playwright, producer, director, tunesmith, actor, comedian and raconteur is only one of 14 individuals on the planet to have won Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony Awards.  He’s well-known to diehard comedy fans as “The 2000 Year Old Man.”  In short (and he’s proud to be vertically challenged), he’s known in the trade as Mel Brooks. 

Whether or not you catch Mel’s truncated AFI tribute special on TNT in late June (date and time tba), be sure not to miss American Masters—Mel Brooks: Make a Noise premiering nationally on PBS tonight, Monday, May 20, at 9:00 p.m. EDT/PT (Check local listings).

Unlike the annual AFI tributes which have deteriorated into tiresome lovefests, Mel Brooks: Make a Noise gives Mel just enough leg room (casually dressed and seated at a table on a barebones soundstage) to tell his remarkable life story without the temptation to rearrange the furniture or rewrite the script. Filmmaker Robert Trachtenberg keeps Mel on track by lobbing sharp questions his way from just out of camera range and embellishes the comedy legend’s career trajectory with well-chosen film and TV clips, archival  footage and photos, and current and vintage commentary from colleagues and friends.  

MEL_CARL_REINER_2001

Old friends and co-conspirators Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner share a moment. Photo: Robert Trachtenberg.

Nathan Lane, Matthew Broderick, Susan Stroman (The Producers); Carl Reiner (writing partner and co-creator of The 2000 Year Old Man); the Young Frankenstein crew (Gene Wilder, Cloris Leachman and the late Marty Feldman and Madeline Kahn); directors Rob Reiner, Barry Levinson and Richard Benjamin; and fellow comedy performers Joan Rivers, Tracey Ullman and Richard Lewis, among others, examine the serious and not-so-serious side of Mel’s quixotic mind and workplace.

Kudos go to writer, director, producer, interviewer Robert Trachtenberg, who also serves as a masterful co-editor here (with Asako Ushio) and to the Award-winning PBS executive production team at American Masters (Series Creator and Executive Producer Susan Lacy, Series Producer Prudence Glass and Supervising Producer Julie Sacks) for backing this fine film. The clips from Mel’s early TV work on Your Show of Shows and such film classics as The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Spaceballs, History of the World: Part 1 and To Be or Not To Be are carefully chosen, hilarious and seamlessly integrated into this artful, often touching bio.  

The rewinds of Mel’s clever Tony and Oscar acceptance speeches are also included; but the film and TV clips are mere backdrops to his own colorful anecdotes about the high and low points of his career, his reflections on the early loss of his father and enduring love for his mother, his respectful acknowledgement of legends Sid Caesar and Alfred Hitchcock and, most especially, first wife Florence and second wife Anne Bancroft, to whom Mel was married for 41 years until her death in 2005.  There are numerous surprising revelations in this film; for example, it will come as a surprise to some and reminder to others that writer/director/producer Mel Brooks not only broke comedy barriers in film with once controversial, now legendary shtick but also championed  (as executive producer) such serious-minded arthouse dramas as The Elephant Man, Frances and 84 Charing Cross Road. 

American Masters—Mel Brooks: Make a Noise chronicles the life, work, passions and high anxieties of a multi-talented, complicated comedy legend and will have you laughing out loud every five minutes.  Evergreen, engrossing and extremely entertaining, the film is sure to have a long shelf life and garner some awards of its own down the road.  Enjoy its premiere tonight at 9 p.m. EDT/PT on PBS (and check local listings for repeat airdates).  A DVD with bonus material promises to be available from Shout Factory on Tuesday, May 21.—Judith Trojan

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The Invisible War Debuts Monday Night on PBS

Posted on May 12, 2013 by
Lieut. Elle Helmer, U.S. Marine Corps., visits the Vietnam War Memorial in THE INVISIBLE WAR, a Cinedigm/Docurama Films release.

Lieut. Elle Helmer, U.S. Marine Corps., visits the Vietnam War Memorial in THE INVISIBLE WAR, a Cinedigm/Docurama Films release.

Tomorrow night, the PBS series Independent Lens will host the broadcast premiere of a documentary I first covered during its theatrical release last summer (FrontRowCenter, July 2012).  

Given the horrifying jump in sexual assaults in the military (current statistics were released by the Pentagon last week and published on the front page of The New York Times, May 8, 2013), I feel compelled to rerun my review and encourage everyone to watch.  (PBS, Monday, May 13, at 10:00 p.m. EDT, Check local listings.)  The film was subsequently nominated for a 2012 Academy Award.

Filmmakers Kirby Dick and Amy Ziering give new meaning to the dictum, “don’t ask, don’t tell,” as they expose the epidemic of rape within the U.S. military in their new investigative documentary, The Invisible War.  The statistics put forth in this film are staggering:  “20% of all active-duty female soldiers are sexually assaulted. Female soldiers aged 18 to 21 accounted for more than half of the victims” in 2011. 

The young women and one man profiled in The Invisible War, representing all four branches of the armed forces, were sexually harassed prior to their brutal rapes while on the job in their chosen profession, by male colleagues and, in some cases, by their superiors.  With careers and lives forever derailed, as much from the ongoing military cover-ups as from their assaults, the soldiers struggle to regain their balance and dignity in the aftermath.  

Yet, despite the fact that their dreams to serve this country have been irrevocably shattered, they never let go of the idealism, patriotism and purpose that led them to pursue careers in the military in the first place.  This makes their current struggles for acknowledgement and restitution all the more painful and poignant. 

Their victimizers, meanwhile, continue to thrive and rise through the ranks.  It’s no surprise that, with prosecution rates for sexual predators in the U.S. military shockingly low, only 191 perpetrators were convicted at courts-martial out of the 3,192 assaults reported in 2011.  Department of Defense statistics also estimate that “in 2011 alone, over 19,000 sexual assaults occurred in the military” and that “less than 14%” were reported.  (Since this film was produced, the Pentagon now estimates “that 26,000 people in the armed forces were sexually assaulted” in 2012.)

The Invisible War is an eye-opener for those of us who believed that sexual harassment and assault in the workplace–and, specifically, in the U.S. military–are history. The dedicated soldiers who courageously agreed to come out of the shadows and tell their painful stories, after exhausting every avenue for justice through military channels, deserve our commendation and support.—Judith Trojan 

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The Central Park Five Debuts on PBS Tonight

Posted on April 16, 2013 by
Central Park Jogger Headline

The April 21, 1989 front page of the New York Daily News. Courtesy Daily News/Getty Images

Tonight, I encourage you to DVR the latest installment of Ready for Love, Dancing with the Stars or NCIS and turn your attention instead to The Central Park Five which debuts on PBS at 9:00 p.m. EDT (Check local listings).

The Central Park Five is a significant departure for filmmaker Ken Burns, who partnered with his daughter, Sarah Burns, and her husband, David McMahon, to explore the botched investigation and wrongful convictions of five young black and Hispanic youths for the brutal rape and beating of a 28-year-old Wall Street investment banker found near death in New York City’s Central Park in the early morning hours of April 20, 1989. 

The film was directly inspired by Sarah Burns’ studies at Yale and her thesis that was later published in book form in 2011 as The Central Park Five: The Untold Story Behind One of New York City’s Most Infamous Crimes. When I spoke with her dad, Ken Burns, at that time during an interview about his upcoming film, Prohibition (PBS, Fall 2011), we also discussed the women who have directly impacted his life’s work and choice of film subjects.  He was eager then to discuss his first collaboration with his daughter, Sarah, and her filmmaker husband David, on a film that would transcend his signature historical focus to involve investigative reporting.  Here is a bit of that conversation with Ken Burns from 2011:

“The professional decisions are completely separate, but one ignores the role of women at one’s peril,” said Burns to me during a conversation in March 2011.  “And I’m sure that’s in some ways born from my experience living with lots and lots of women who helped me and influenced me in lots and lots of ways.  My daughter is publishing a book this spring (2011) on the Central Park jogger case, focusing on the five black and Hispanic boys who were convicted and sent to jail and served out their full terms without parole for a crime they didn’t commit.  And that’s the little-known side of it.  We were all, of course, holding our breaths witnessing the heroic survival of the victim herself.  But there were five other victims that night, and a kind of over-eager police justice and media that were very quick to convict these boys who were children.  One was 16, and he served the longest sentence; the rest were 14 or 15. 

“My daughter was interested in this when she was at Yale in 2003,” Burns continued. “She graduated in 2004; and she put off transforming a thesis which a professor advised her was of book quality, and finally she did.  And we were so compelled by the story that she was struggling to tell in her book, which I think she’s told very well, that we agreed to do a film.  It is really wonderful to work with not only your son-in-law, as I have since the late 1990s, but also with one’s daughter.”

The Central Park Five opened theatrically in New York in November 2012, and tonight will debut on PBS.  As an examination of the deeply ingrained effects of racism in America, it stands hands above The House I Live In, the bloated film covered in my previous post (April 8, 2013) that lacked a strong narrative focus implicating racism in the failure of America’s war on drugs. The Central Park Five, in contrast, is a riveting and eye-opening look at how five Harlem teenagers who were in the wrong place at the wrong time lost their childhoods, their innocence and subsequent years of their lives when they were demonized in the press, humiliated in the cogs of the criminal justice system, and incarcerated with juvenile offenders (and, in one case, hard-core adult offenders) for a crime they didn’t commit. 

Central Park Five courtroom proceedingsThe back story of this case of racial profiling and a failed criminal justice system, fueled at the time by what could only be called arrogance on the part of the media and detectives assigned to the case, follows Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Korey Wise, and Yusef Salaam from their arrests through their muddied confessions via relentless interrogation by seasoned homicide detectives. The boys’original videotaped confessions are included in the film and are shocking examples of how their words were literally orchestrated by detectives and a high-profile Assistant D.A.

Today, after they have managed to piece together their lives, the five young men quietly, articulately and without visible rancor relate their life stories before, during and after their convictions, incarcerations (six to 13 years) and exoneration.  Significant family members also remember the confusion, disbelief and shame that decimated their families at the time. Tears are shed on screen, and you will surely share the pain and relief that they felt after they recall the confession (replayed here) of serial rapist Matias Reyes to the crime and its support by DNA evidence from the scene.

The Central Park Five is a remarkable segue into investigative journalism by Ken Burns with Sarah Burns and David McMahon that underscores how prejudice, racial profiling, sloppy detective work and the miscarriage of justice destroyed many innocent lives. And how, through the perspective and example of these young men, we can learn, heal and grow from those mistakes.   

You also have the opportunity to tap into a TimesTalks conversation with Ken and Sarah Burns and the Central Park Five tomorrow evening (Wednesday, April 17).  The New York Times will be hosting the TimesTalks conversation to be streamed live on the Web at 6:30 p.m. EDT at http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/ 

To join in the continuing discussion, visit http://www.facebook.com/TheCentralParkFive and use #CP5 on Twitter.   You can read my interview with Ken Burns @  http://www.edgemagonline.com/interview_ken_burns.htm  —Judith Trojan 

 

 

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The House I Live In Needs Repair

Posted on April 8, 2013 by
house_i_live_in-01-press

The African-American community is particularly hard hit by the war on drugs as documented in THE HOUSE I LIVE IN (Independent Lens/PBS)

There are no easy answers to why America’s so-called “war on drugs” has been a failure, but filmmaker Eugene Jarecki’s new documentary, The House I Live In, raises enough pertinent questions and points enough fingers to fill half-a-dozen films. As a result, this bloated effort unfortunately compromises its mission and threatens to diffuse its impact on general audiences. The celebrity-endorsed Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize winner may have better luck in university, political and judicial circles, where it hopefully will spur discussion and positive change. The film debuts on the PBS series Independent Lens tonight (Monday, April 8, @ 10:00 p.m. in NY). Check local listings.

Jarecki’s jumping off point is a good one:  his own back story. This singular focus could have been a powerful indictment of the racism inherent in the business of drug trafficking, addiction and incarceration if Jarecki had stuck with what he knows best. His extended family was all too familiar with oppression overseas; but in the States, his immediate family lived the American dream. Their beloved, long-time housekeeper, Nannie Jeter, opens the film as an articulate witness to the ravages of racism and drug abuse on her own African-American family.  

Employed by Jarecki’s family since his birth, Nannie maintained close ties with her employer throughout the years. Unlike the polarized depictions in The Help, the Jeter and Jarecki families apparently socialized together and their youngsters bonded. Nannie subsequently lost a son to AIDS, an all-too-common consequence of heroin addiction. Jarecki uses this tragedy to explore the history of America’s “war on drugs” (first “declared” by President Richard M. Nixon) and, most especially, the role of racism in fueling its corruption and collateral damage. 

Jarecki makes a valiant effort to interview those on the front lines of the drug war throughout the country—from investigative reporters, criminal justice professors and judges to local law enforcers, drug dealers, prison guards and inmates—and underscores the self–perpetuating cycle that renders progress a joke. In short, the message here is that the war on drugs is essentially “a holocaust in slow motion” as it continues to target, incarcerate and/or kill African-Americans by virtue of their race, broken families and position on the lowest rung of the inner city pecking order.

Despite its good intentions, award-winning filmmaker and roster of celebrity producers, The House I Live In would be more on track to effect change had it skipped its endless catalog of woe and finger-pointing and scattershot history of racism in America and zeroed in on one individual, inner city community or family (e.g., Nannie Jeter) impacted by drug use, trafficking and judicial inequities.

I encourage readers to check out my recent profile of Award-winning documentarian Bill Jersey @ http://www.edgemagonline.com/home15.htm for an up close and personal look at the legendary filmmaker who effectively addressed issues of class, racism and crime and punishment in America throughout his career in such films as A Time for Burning, The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow and Children of Violence.  

The House I Live In premieres on Independent Lens on PBS tonight, Monday, April 8, at 10 p.m. (Check local listings.)—Judith Trojan

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The Following Takes the Low Road

Posted on March 1, 2013 by
Former F.B.I. agent Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon) has a cult on his hands. (FOX)

Former FBI agent Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon) has a cult on his hands. (Fox)

Call me crazy, but in light of the “dialogue on mental illness” that is supposedly sweeping the country incited by the Newtown school shootings and the fractured family depicted in Silver Linings Playbook, how can FOX justify its new serial killer-cum-cult drama, The Following?  Do the producers deserve a pass for this ill-timed, graphically violent show if they bookend every commercial with “Viewer discretion is advised”?  I think not. 

The Following is a virtual “playbook” for any social misfit, sociopath or psychopath looking for validation, a niche or empowerment. 

Why did I tune in to begin with?  I’m a Kevin Bacon fan and jump at the chance to see him perform in anything.  And I’m no prude.  If you’ve followed my blog, you won’t be surprised to learn that I’m eagerly awaiting Season 3 of The Killing.  I miss the creepy 666 Park Avenue, and never miss my nightly fix of The Sopranos, currently re-airing weeknights on HBO.  For me, the latter still stands as the most outstanding series ever conceived, cast, written, directed, scored and acted in cable or broadcast TV history.  Its exploration of dysfunctional family life, marriage, women’s roles, mental illness, drug and alcohol abuse, and, of course, crime and punishment transcends its professed focus on Jersey Goodfellas.  If you think The Sopranos is passé, try following an episode of The Sopranos with an hour of Revenge, Elementary or Deception, and see what that gets you.  Pass the Pepto.

But back to The Following.  Unlike The Sopranos, where violence and revenge played out (i.e., conflict resolution?) within the mob subculture, and The Killing explored the psychological fall-out from one young woman’s murder, The Following knows no such bounds. Its psychology is sophomoric and its violence is inspired by the life and work of Edgar Allen Poe, at least that’s the line espoused by charismatic lit professor/serial killer Joe Carroll (James Purefoy) to the cult building up around him.  Professor Carroll not only talks the talk but also continues to walk the walk from his prison cell via the Internet by encouraging his “followers” to slaughter innocent victims (i.e., especially beautiful young women) as a pathway to artistic nirvana. 

Knives are their weapons of choice and victims’ eyes are favorite targets, again with a nod to Poe.  Unfortunately for humankind, Joe’s brief escape from prison—he was incarcerated for the brutal killing and evisceration of campus coeds—simply fanned the fires in the bellies of his acolytes.  It should come as no surprise that Joe attracts young, disenfranchised loners marginalized by their families, society and mental illness. 

Add to this mix former FBI agent Ryan Hardy (Kevin Bacon) who was instrumental in capturing Joe eight years before the dawn of this series.  In the process, Ryan fell for Joe’s wife and probably fathered the son Joe believed to be his own.  After the collar, Ryan spun into a tailspin with booze and a pacemaker to patch his wounded (Tell-Tale?) heart.  He’s a train wreck whom Joe targets and casts within a Poe and revenge-fueled drama orchestrated from prison.   

Aside from dragging Edgar Allen Poe’s good name and work into the gutter, this series is especially irresponsible coming so soon after the carnage in Newtown and Aurora, Colorado, and the numerous other mass shootings by young, psychopathic loners.  So far, The Following has explicitly showcased a particularly gruesome array of murders that include torture, evisceration, eye-gouging and, unfortunately for Ryan’s pacemaker, stun-gunning.

Despite healing her physical and psychic wounds, Joe’s only surviving victim eventually meets a gory end as do the stolen pet dogs that are cut up alive for practice by an ardent follower.  Isolated and confused, Joe’s young son is encouraged to smother a mouse in an airtight jar.  And another young acolyte is bullied and humiliated by fellow followers into tackling his first knifing.  Luckily for the victim—who has been kidnapped, beaten and held hostage for sport in the basement of their hide-out—the first-timer chickens out.

This faux Edgar Allen Poe has a secret weapon and it's a shocker. (FOX)

This faux Poe has a secret weapon and it’s a shocker. (Fox)

One of Joe’s most disturbed followers dons an Edgar Allen Poe costume and entertains passersby as a street poet. He ends his “act” by dousing an unsuspecting book critic (he panned Joe’s book!) with a large can of flammable liquid, setting him ablaze in front of a horrified crowd of onlookers. The victim was simply waiting in line to buy a hot dog from a street vendor.  And if you failed to catch this disgusting act the first time around, fear not… this bone-chilling sequence has been repeated (a visual feast for potential copycats?) from several angles in flashbacks and episode updates.  

In short, “the brains” behind The Following have shown incredibly poor judgment and timing.  Aside from lacking any discernible empathy for the cult’s victims, the producers seem oblivious to the show’s real-time parallels and potential appeal to copycats. While evidence pinpointing the actual effect of violent media on troubled youth is inconclusive, wouldn’t common sense dictate that The Following, such as it is, has no place on broadcast TV during primetime now or forever more. 

It’s one thing to pay to get your periodic slice-and-dice film fix in a movie theatre, on DVD or Netflix; but to find it so uncomfortably accessible week in and week out at a disturbingly early hour?  Shame on you, FOX!  Kevin Bacon and his “followers” deserve better.  

The Following unfortunately airs on Monday nights at 9:00 p.m. on FOX.  It is definitely not child friendly; nor is it animal friendly, family friendly, coed friendly or Edgar Allen Poe friendly.—Judith Trojan

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Perry Miller Adato Remembers Paris The Luminous Years

Posted on January 17, 2013 by
James Joyce and Sylvia Beach

Literary giants Sylvia Beach and James Joyce ponder the fate of Joyce’s controversial oeuvre in Beach’s iconic Parisian bookstore, Shakespeare and Company, circa 1922. From PARIS THE LUMINOUS YEARS (PBS/Princeton University Library)

Back in the day when I was a young graduate film student at New York University, I by chance caught Gertrude Stein: When This You See, Remember Me (1970) on NET/Channel 13.  To say that the film changed my life is an understatement.  More than anything I had yet to learn at NYU, Gertrude Stein instantaneously toppled my perception of what a documentary film could, should and would be going forward into the final decades of the 20th century.  It had nothing in common with the tired, formulaic “educational films” that I was raised on—those snooze-inducing films that held audiences captive in schools and libraries and on public TV.   

For me as a budding film and art historian and journalist and for a whole generation of my peers—the young social issue filmmakers about to jumpstart their careers—that film opened a door to a whole new way of presenting and preserving artistic vision and visionaries.   Through the skillful weaving together of rare interviews, archival clips, photographs and letters—the fruits of dogged research—with exquisite rendering of artwork and text, the filmmaker, Perry Miller Adato, succeeded in bringing to life, in riveting fashion, a community of artists and writers who many of us could only hope to “meet” on the printed page, on museum walls or in concert halls. 

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Perry Miller Adato

Adato went on to produce and direct many award-winning films on individual artists throughout the years and, in the process, influenced the evolution of such young filmmakers as Ken Burns and a host of women filmmakers who gained courage by following her lead.   Adato’s life’s work came full circle with her most brilliant, beautifully conceived and thoughtfully researched film of all, Paris the Luminous Years: Toward the Making of the Modern, a welcome rebroadcast on PBS at the start of the new year.

Of all the new and classic films I’ve seen in recent months, this encore airdate triggered my first epiphany of 2013… it was a happy reminder of why and how my love affair with documentaries and their makers came to be.  If you care about the arts (fine art, music, dance, theatre, literature and documentary filmmaking at its best), I urge you not to miss this film (it’s currently available from PBS, Amazon, Netflix et al).

In the context of Adato’s previous work, this film makes perfect sense.  It seamlessly pulls together all the distinctive elements in her toolbox into a film that is nothing short of a masterpiece   One not only gains an overall sense of the historical period within which her subjects, the trailblazing European and American expatriates, lived and worked.  But we are also privy to their position in the artistic subculture and hierarchy of the time, as well as the cultural and social influences on their work and the groundbreaking artistic, literary and musical movements that germinated in this very special place and time. 

In short, Paris the Luminous Years not only stands as an epic achievement in documentary filmmaking, but also serves as an evergreen educational resource that should be mandatory viewing for all serious students of the history of 20th century art, literature, music and dance.  

There are no false or irrelevant moments in this film.  Especially invaluable are the crisp, spot-on shots of the artwork, one of  Adato’s specialties, as well as her liberal use of fascinating and undoubtedly rare archival film footage, particularly the glorious period film clips of Parisian street life and café society and the content-rich clips of noted artists, writers and musicians who share personal anecdotes.  Adato’s intelligent script manages to integrate, in novelistic fashion, a massive amount of research without seeming pedantic or compromising the integrity of the material. 

Paris may represent the Shangri-La of romance and fantasy for many viewers today (e.g., Woody Allen’s wistful romantic comedy, Midnight in Paris), but the City of Light best be remembered for the more important role it played in the lives of artistic visionaries (circa 1900-30) who needed Paris to create a body of work that ultimately reshaped the landscape of the arts forever.   Perry Miller Adato delivers that message loud and clear in Paris the Luminous Years, and with her rich and incomparable body of work secures her place in the cinematic pantheon.  Bravo, Perry! —Judith Trojan

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Solar Mamas Light the Way on Independent Lens

Posted on November 5, 2012 by

Women from impoverished rural communities around the world are featured in SOLAR MAMAS as they travel to India to study solar engineering at Barefoot College. (Independent Lens/PBS)

As we approach the pivotal outcome of a Presidential election that could dramatically alter the future of women’s rights in this country, especially with regard to abortion, contraception and general health care, please take the time to revisit the candidates’ platforms on these issues, as well as their stance on empowerment through education and the importance of utilizing new technologies and energy resources. 

It’s of vital importance to understand the damaging effect of curtailing educational initiatives in low income and inner city communities and impeding the rights of women (healthcare and otherwise). If you think these issues do not and will not seriously impact the lives and rights of women and men, of all ages, on all levels of the socio-economic spectrum, think again. 

Solar Mamas, a timely new film directed by Jehane Noujaim and Mona Eldaief debuting tonight on Independent Lens, follows 30-year-old Rafea, a Jordanian mother of four, who is recruited by India’s Barefoot College to train to be a solar engineer. To accomplish her goals, she and another local recruit must leave their families and village for the first time and study how to use technology to harness solar energy to make themselves self-reliant and their communities sustainable. 

Since their culture forbids the education of girls beyond the age of 10, women in Rafea’s village have no other purpose than to bear and raise children, cook and clean (Rafea and her children live in a tent and barely survive) and serve their husbands who apparently are allowed to procreate at will with more than one woman. Rafea’s husband lives with his first wife and family and rarely stops by. He’s unemployed, aimless and balks at her ambition to better herself and their community by attending college. He ignores their four children for the most part which forces her to return home from India prematurely to care for an ailing child.

Angry and unfulfilled, Rafea argues her case in front of village elders and her parents (her mom advises her to stay home with her children, while her dad seems to support her desire to travel and learn new things). With the intervention of a supportive local environmental Minister, she concedes “control” to her husband by accepting his threats to leave her and take their children. Although she remains fearful that he will do so, she returns to India and Barefoot College where she is warmly welcomed and reintegrated with fellow classmates from Guatemala, Kenya, Burkina Faso and Colombia.  

When their six-month training ends, Rafea returns home again, this time revitalized with the skills and passion to develop a solar power training program in her village. Her beaming face quickly darkens as male villagers attempt to marginalize her and run the program themselves. But she prevails; and in the end, despite a new pregnancy, she is employed, empowered and living with her children in their very first house.

Solar Mamas is part of the international WHY POVERTY? Project, a cross media event reaching more than 500 million people around the world via more than 60 international TV broadcasters, as well as radio, internet and live events in November 2012. To learn more about Solar Mamas, visit the companion Website at http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/solar-mamas 

Solar Mamas is scheduled to premiere on Independent Lens tonight, Monday, November 5, on PBS at 10:00 p.m. EST (Check local listings.)—Judith Trojan

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