Tribeca Dispatch: Saturday, May 3 (I Am)

It was my third consecutive double-feature dip and my second double-documentary day. This time, I had company in my madness: my friend and former boss Michelle and my sister-in-law, Elizabeth. Michelle saw three movies Saturday, something I couldn’t bring myself to do on any day of the festival. Meanwhile, I don’t think Liz ever has seen two movies back to back.

First movie seen: I Am Because We Are
What it is (description from TFF Web site): Executive producer Madonna exposes the tragic stories of the millions of Malawi children orphaned by AIDS, offering both a call to action and a revelatory personal journey. Featuring interviews with Bill Clinton and Desmond Tutu, the film is a testament to survival, change, and hope.
Viewing partners: Liz and Michelle
General festival notes: 1) While waiting for Michelle – at the wrong theater, as it turns out – Liz and I saw Michael Moore (again, in my case). 2) My beloved Tribeca really ought to think about scheduling its volunteers better, as many were fried and snippy at the Village East. I did my four days of volunteering in the middle of the festival, and I thought it was just right: I could refresh the staff without burning out myself. 3) People with rush tickets for I Am Because We Are began coming into the theater much too late. The film has a lot of subtitles, which we could not read because folks were streaming in as much as 20 minutes after the movie started. 4) Michelle and Liz debated the documentary over our halftime dining. Their discussion prompted the direction of my first review, and it’s given me something else to ponder – box-office viability – for a later post.

I Am Review: As a call to awareness, I Am Because We Are offers devastating scenes of poverty, suffering and orphaned children. (Malawi’s population of 12 million includes 1 million orphans.) It also features a much-needed reminder that AIDS remains a problem: The image of a 75-pound mother so gaunt a wheelchair overwhelms her will linger in my memory for a long time.

While I admire the sentiment behind the Madonna-narrated documentary, I am not here to evaluate its social merits. I am here to examine its cinematic ones, and those credentials are somewhat shakier.

The biggest problem, ironically, is with the narrator herself. Madonna’s writing borders on clichéd – “I didn’t (choose Malawi). It chose me” - and in her attempt t0 sound dispassionate, she can come across as clipped. Watching Madonna play with the children more effectively conveys her emotions than much of what she says, although I like when she makes the connection between the death of her mother and her identification with the orphans. While Madonna (thankfully) doesn’t turn I Am into the story of her son’s adoption, it’s surprising she and director Nathan Rissman don’t delve into the issues with international adoption from Malawi.

The other hang-up comes with the overreliance of talking heads. The roster, while impressive – Jeffrey Sachs, Desmond Tutu, Bill Clinton – overwhelms after a time. I would have preferred to hear more from the people of Malawi. It’s their spirit and hope we’re supposed to admire, so let’s give them more air time.