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| Movie Review: Moving Midway Alternate Title: Roots
Story: Guess what? When you
decide to relocate, not only yourself, but your actual, physical, ancestral
home, lots of stuff you did not know was packed in that attic will start
to pour out. This is a fascinating documentary by former NY Press film
critic, Godfrey Cheshire (who both wrote and directed).
Cheshire discovers that his ancestral home, Midway
Plantation, in Raleigh, North Carolina has been slated for
relocation by his cousin, the present owner, because progress (and traffic)
has reached its doorsteps. He decides to investigate. What he discovers
is that his family's memory and oral history is not quite as it happened.
He discovers over 100 African American cousins, whose roots in the United
States started at Midway Plantation as slaves. This is not a Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemming's
story, but it has many of the same elements that both bring pride, hate
and shame to succeeding generations. Cheshire weaves his own family
history alongside the history of the South as it has been presented
to the American people through film and literature. Very interesting
passages include the influence of Birth of a Nation, Uncle Tom's
Cabin, Gone With the Wind and of course - Roots. If you do see this film, make sure to sit through
the credits. The postscript is worth the price of admission. Watch the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_I0yIGggvPI Acting: Does not apply in a documentary.
Trivia: Birth of a Nation (also known
as The Clansman), a silent film directed by D. W. Griffith and released
in 1915, is one of the most influential and controversial of American
motion pictures. Set during and after the American Civil War, the film
was based on Thomas Dixon's The Clansman, a novel and play. The Birth
of a Nation is noted for its innovative technical and narrative achievements,
and its status as the first Hollywood "blockbuster." It has
provoked great controversy for its treatment of white supremacy and
sympathetic account of the rise of the Ku Klux Klan. Gone with
the Wind is a 1936 American novel by Margaret Mitchell set
in the Old South during the American Civil War and Reconstruction.The
novel won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize and was adapted into an Academy Award-winning
1939 film of the same name.
Predilection: I like documentaries.
Soundtrack: Terrific music by Ahrin Mishan
and songs by Algia Mae Hinton
Visual Art: The details of the southern ancestral
home were fascinating.
Theater Audience: Five other people
Weather: Lovely
Sappy Factor: 0
Quirky Meter: 0
Squirm Scale: Slavery is very squirmy.
Drift Factor: I paid attention throughout and was
particularly interested in the actual engineering feat of moving that
house.
Tissue Usage: 0
Oscar Worthy: no
Soap Box: What can you say about slavery that has
not been written before. shameful, shameful, shameful.
Big Screen or Rental: Rental would be fine. There
are many Civil War films that you could rent to get a taste of invented
history.
Length: Under two hours.
LOBO HOWLS: 7.5
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