The Best Old Movies on a Big Screen This Week: NYC Repertory Cinema Picks, May 10-16
From the Other Side (2002)
Directed by Chantal Akerman
Throughout her career, Akerman carved out a niche (among other pursuits) making documentaries surveying the ethnography of various world regions, particularly those less seen in Western areas. Among these is From the Other Side, which consists mostly of a series of long interviews with both Mexicans and Americans, all of whom live in close proximity to the border. Akerman conveys through her filmmaking that all-important feeling of empathy and total understanding, as she observes in her signature extended shots the shifting and deeply conflicted emotions of her subjects. The film is nothing less than a clarion call for the divide to be bridged and for tolerance to become the norm, but it never feels like an overtly polemical statement: it bears witness, and this act is more than powerful enough on its own to those who are willing to see. Ryan Swen (May 12-14, 11am at the IFC Center’s “Border Crossings”)
