Top 10 Favorite Documentaries, Part III
A continuation of a list I started in March.
Go here for Part I & Part II. Go here for Part IV & Part V.
7. Bush Family Fortunes: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, (2004)
The Boston Chronicle best sums up Greg Palast's documentary with this quote: "No one has uncovered more about the Bush Dynasty than Greg Palast . . . and lived to write about it." He did uncover a lot and treaded onto some dangerous territory to do it. Unlike Michael Moore, Palast doesn't rely on antics to make a point, he dug for evidence and proved his points. While Moore merely pointed out connections between the Saudi royal family and the Bush family in Fahrenheit 9/11, Palast shows clear evidence of those connections.
We already know most of the information presented here already, so you won't find anything new; but, you'll have a better understanding of how Bush managed to pull off his political scams. I think Palast did a pretty good job at showing how Bush I got Bush II out of the draft, along with his ties to the Enron scandal. He also showed how Bush, with help from Jeb, Katherine Harris, and others, won the 2000 election. What the Bush Camp did to Democrat-registered Black voters in Florida districts is astonishing. I read about it before, but this was the first time I learned the details of how they pulled it off. They didn't just steal votes, they prevented Democrats, mostly Blacks, from voting at all.
For instance, in White voting districts, there were instructors on hand to show people how to use the computers, but there weren't any in Black districts. Computers malfunctioned and broke down in Black districts, but not in White districts. There are many more examples of tactics used, but the most compelling evidence that Bush stole the election came from the computer database that Palast illegally hacked. It shows a list of Black registered voters (non-criminals) beside a list of convicted felons with the same name. For example, John Smith, a White man in Ohio and convicted felon, is listed beside John Smith, a Black man with no criminal history and registered voter in Florida. John from Florida is now registered as the convicted felon. You'll have to watch it for the full explanation and details of how it was accomplished.
I've read some reviews, mostly by Conservatives, who complain that this documentary is typical anti-Bush, liberal-slanted, propaganda (despite the fact that Palast interviewed people in Bush's camp too). As far as calling it Anti-Bush, yes. Liberal-slanted, yes. Propaganda, no...not when he's backing it up with evidence such as contracts, military records, and other documents (not to mention the hacked database). I call those facts, not propaganda.
I gave it a rating of 8/10.
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8. The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till, (2005)
I learned of Emmett Till while watching Deadline, an anti-death penalty documentary that I reviewed in Part I. It featured Emmett's mother, Mamie Till Mobley, a Civil Rights activist and founder of Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation. I was fascinated with this woman because her child had been lynched in the 1950's, yet she still stood against the death penalty. I wanted to find out more about Mamie and Emmett so I rented this DVD. I apologize for my ignorance on this subject, but I thought the definition of lynching meant White people who captured Blacks and hung them from trees. I also (for some unknown reason) thought the men who murdered Emmett were convicted. So, before watching this I had a basic assumption of what the documentary was going to focus on.
Instead, what I learned was so disturbing and brutal, that at one point I had to pause the DVD and leave the room because I felt physically ill. The two White men who murdered Emmett didn't hang him from a tree, they tortured him in ways that I won't (can't) write about here. The descriptions and photos are graphic, but no matter how horrible it makes you feel, watch it anyway. There's a reason why this documentary doesn't leave anything out and it's the same reason why Mamie Till ordered an open casket of her son's body at his funeral. She wanted the world to see the brutality of what happened to her 14-year boy; and that by putting it in your face, not allowing you to turn away from it, her son's death would not have been meaningless. She hoped it would change the way Blacks were treated in the South and she hoped it would save the lives of other Black men and women.
So what horrible crime did little Emmett Till commit to bring on the wrath of these two men? He whistled at a White woman, and for that he was taken from his bed at gunpoint and tortured in unspeakable ways that make me sick again thinking about it. I don't want to think about it. I don't want to believe this could have ever happened, because these "normal, average men" did things so inhuman that it's just inconceivable.
The two men, and the woman who Emmett whistled at, were brought to trial for kidnapping and murder in 1950's Mississippi. Keep in mind that this was about 10 years after the U.S. learned of the atrocities committed against Jews in Nazi Germany, yet Black lynching parties - and yes, they were parties...food, drink, music, all of it - were common in the South. There were no anti-lynching laws at that time and not many White people saw anything wrong with it. So for all those people who complain about the violence in today's world and wish we could go back to the simpler times of the 50's...well, this is the kind of shit that was going on outside of Leave it to Beaver land.
Despite the evidence and witnesses (the witnesses were Black so their testimonies didn't count anyway), the men and woman were tried by a jury of Whites and found not-guilty. The men even confessed to the killing during an interview with a magazine journalist, but the Double Jeopardy rule protected them from being tried twice for the same crime. During the trial, Mamie and her family had also received death threats, as if they were the ones who committed a crime.
I'm still fascinated with Mamie Till Mobley. I don't understand her anymore than I understand the two White men. They did things that aren't even human; yet, Mamie found goodness and strength that seems above and beyond human.
The documentary has renewed interest in this case and if you click on the title above you can find updates on it. I give it a 10/10 because of that. Justice was never served for Emmett and Mamie (who recently passed away), but maybe in some small way, it can be now.
NOTE: I've now read about 10 different versions of the Emmett Till story on the internet (all reputable sources) and not one is exactly the same. So there are still questions about the details of the case. For instance, there are different accounts of what happened when Emmett was in the store, the number of people involved in the murder, the number of people who viewed the body (anywhere between 50,000 to 250,000 depending on the source). I noticed that no website went into detail of the beating and torture of Emmett like the documentary did, so I wonder if that has been downplayed on purpose because of its disturbing nature.
