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We Are Together, a review by Danae Cassandra

Where We Are: South Africa
wikipedia

What We Watched:


We Are Together
Year of Release: 2007
Starring: The Children of Agape
Directed By: Paul Taylor
Genre: Documentary

Overview:
WE ARE TOGETHER tells the remarkable and moving story of a group of children who use music to overcome hardship and loss.  Filmed over a period of three years, it is the story of an orphanage unlike any you've ever seen, where the young singers of the Agape Choir lift their voices to create the home and family they so very much need.

Life has not been easy for 12-year-old Slindile and her siblings living at the Agape Orphanage in South Africa, where most of the children have lost their parents to AIDS.  These toddlers and teenagers squabble and stumble just like other youths, discovering themselves, and craving stability.  Having already borne great hardships, Slindile along with her sisters and baby brother must endure the fact that their elder brother Sifiso has been diagnosed with AIDS and is slowly wasting away due to lack of medical care.  And yet, when they lift their voices in song, something extraordinary happens they overcome their fears, band together as a family, and find opportunities for hope.

My Thoughts:
We've all heard about the epidemic of AIDS in Africa.  Here we have a look at the children left behind.  This is a heart-wrenching story of a family broken up by AIDS but still holding together, still loving and supporting each other.  It's also a story of hope and giving and what people can do for one another.  Worth watching if you don't mind sentiment.

Bechdel Test: Pass

Overall:  3.5/5

(From Around the World in 86 Movies on March 12th, 2013)

The Road Warrior, a review by Antares

The Road Warrior





Year: 1981
Film Studio: Warner Bros. Pictures, Kennedy Miller Entertainment
Genre: Action, Science-Fiction, Adventure
Length: 95 Min.

Director
George Miller (1945)

Writing
Terry Hayes (1951)...Written By
George Miller (1945)...Written By
Brian Hannant (1940)...Written By

Producer
Byron Kennedy (1952)

Cinematographer
Dean Semler (1943)

Music
Brian May (1934)...Composer

Stars
Mel Gibson (1956) as Max
Bruce Spence (1945) as The Gyro Captain
Michael Preston (1938) as Pappagallo
Max Phipps (1939) as The Toadie
Vernon Wells (1945) as Wez
Kjell Nilsson (1949) as The Humungus
Emil Minty (1972) as The Feral Kid
Virginia Hey (1952) as Warrior Woman

Review
       Thanks to the advent of Cable television and pay movie channels like HBO, obscure films from around the world would be given an audience that most movies of previous years could never attain. As the quantity of channels increased, so too did the demand for quality programming to fill the schedules of these new networks. At the time, the Big three networks had a strangle hold on the American viewing public, and also on the second run broadcasts of the hit movies of the time. But the Walls of Jericho would soon start to crumble, as HBO, Showtime and Cinemax would offer Americans something that CBS, NBC and ABC could only dream of; Uncut and un-censored films. American television audiences would follow the dangling carrot of nudity, profanity and non-commercial interruptions, which had been removed for their welfare and well being, to the new promised land of pay-per-view programming.
   
       One obscure Australian film would set the path for many other foreign and independent films to follow, as repeated telecasts on these pay services would launch it into cult status and make a star out of Mel Gibson. The Road Warrior was the sequel to a small successful film in Australia called Mad Max, about a cop in the Australian outback whose family is murdered by a roving band of belligerent bikers, and whom he subsequently seeks revenge upon. While Mad MaxAliens, The Terminator I & II and Die HardThe Road Warrior and see how a great action film is made.


Review Criterion4 Stars - Historically important film, considered a classic.

(From The Road Warrior (1981) on May 12th, 2010)

"Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Marathon, a review by DJ Doena

Synopsis: After being expelled from school, thrown out by her mother and having to kill Angel, Buffy has left Sunnydale and lives now in L.A. under her middle name "Anne". She's not the Slayer anymore, she's just a waitress in a diner. Meanwhile her friends try to fill her shoes and hunt Vampires at night. And Giles is looking in any place where rumours about a girl fighting Vampires exist.

My Opinion: What I really liked about this episode was that the decision was not forced upon her. She decided to help Lily and return to the fight she was born to fight. She had no contact with any kind of (obvious) demon until she decided to make it her business which then ultimately led to the decision to return home. But it was also funny to watch the attempts of the others to hunt Vampires on their own.

Synopsis: Buffy has returned to Sunnydale and while her mother and her friends are glad to have her back, nobody really wants to touch the subject of what happened in the last three months and in the final fight against Angelus. Additionally Buffy is still expelled from school. But everything (mostly) returns to "normal" when Joyce invites Buffy's friend to a Welcome Back party and a lot of (uninvited) Zombies also show up.

My Opinion: While I didn't care much for the "death mask" storyline I liked how the tension between all parties involved was building up during the course of the episode and how it erupted during the party. This air-cleaning storm was necessary and was nicely concluded by the fight against the invading Zombies. And I loved Xander's quote "Generally speaking, when scary things get scared, not good.".

Synopsis: There's a new Bad in town: Kakistos, a Vampire so old that his hands have formed into cloven and his associate Mr. Trick. There's also a new Slayer in town: Faith, successor of Kendra. But Faith is nothing like Kendra or Buffy. She's a free spirit, untamable. And she seems to take over Buffy's life. But she's also the reason why Kakistos is here and he wants her dead.

My Opinion: When I watched the show for the first time, I didn't really like or care for Faith. I can't really put a finger on the time when that has changed. Maybe when I watched her in Angel, maybe when I watched Eliza Dushku in Dollhouse. Anyway, when she appeared this time on screen I was delighted to see her again. And I liked it how Mr. Trick walked out on Kakistos with a comment on his lips that guys like Kakistos don't fit in this time anymore.

Synopsis: It's full moon again but Xander who was supposed to guard Oz slept the whole night and someone has let the window in Oz's "cell" open. As it so happens, a fellow student was mauled in the woods in that very night and Oz naturally fears that he might have done it. But something else happened, too: Someone rescued Angel from whatever hell dimension he was trapped in. But he's not really Angel, he's merely a wild animal.

My Opinion: While I don't mind that Angel is back I am a bit uncertain about this plot twist in general. It makes the concept of "death" a bit less irreversible. Many of the deaths in this show are great emotional moments and some of the dead remain that way but it gets a bit cheapened when you know that everyone can be brought back if the writers want it badly enough.
But still, I am glad that Angel is back because his return will make this season a lot more interesting.

(From "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Marathon on June 20th, 2009)