As an antidote for the State of the Union speech, I watched two political docs:
Cocalero follows the campaign for Bolivian president, of Evo Morales – who, in looks and demeanor, is the exact opposite of what we think of when we hear the word "politician." Evo wears soccer jerseys, jeans and beat-up sneakers, gets the Bolivian equivalent of the $6 haircut and happily jumps in his underwear into a river while the camera rolls. He embraces the legacy of Che and Fidel and ends speeches with "Death to the Yankees!" (that means all of us, not just the baseball players). By the end of the film, he's become the first indigenous leader of Bolivia. Seeing Evo and Hugo Chavez address an ginormous, rowdy and completely engaged crowd of newly empowered citizens is one the most rousing scenes of my Sundance to date. Cocalero peters off a bit by the end, but as a power-to-the-people doc provides an excellent counterpoint to last year's Our Brand Is Crisis, in which slick Americans create a slick Bolivian presidential candidate.
With No End in Sight, Silicon Valley exec Charles Ferguson (who cashed out his software company Vermeer Technologies in for $100+million and then wrote about it) puts his PhD in foreign affairs to good use. His first film traces the disastrous arc of America's War in Iraq, from our (non)planning to invasion to the current full-scale civil war. There's none of the Zinn-Chomsky-Goodman crowd here – Ferguson interviews mostly players in the Republican party and disgusted former members of the Bush team: General Jay Garner, who headed up Bush's reconstruction plans in Iraq; Barbara Bodine; coordinator for central Iraq in charge of Baghdad; and Richard Armitage, Deputy Secretary of State during the invasion. All speak frankly about the missteps and incompetence of the Bush administration; some treat their testimony before Ferguson's camera as an act of atonement. The most devastating testimony comes from Colonel Paul Hughes, who details how the Bushies disbanded the Iraqi Army – essentially filling the country with angry, well-armed Saddam loyalists – without even asking U.S. military leaders their opinion. Devastating.
