crucial

Most everybody on the internets seems to be raving about how great Avatar is. I agree. A splendid moviegoing experience. Except for the plot and the script. And the racial pre-suppositions (us vs. them). And the self-congratulatory viewpoint of a liberal white audience condemning an obvious and uncomplicated evil.

The real world is not simple. People tend to choose an enemy and blame that enemy. Corporate Capitalist Empire or Global Jihad ? Neither thank you.

In some cases the enemy is obvious. That's why film makers go back to the Nazis over and over again. Safe target. I thought Inglorious Basterds had the political intelligence of a 3 year old, but then again Quentin Tarantino protrays the Jews as psychopathic (but justified) basterds and the Germans are in general stylish, polite and they keep their word. But there is only one side you can root for. In a way this is funny, but I'm not sure if I want to give Tarentino credit for it. OK, I'll cut him some slack.

Anyway, in case you haven't seen Avatar, its about a white (American!) dude that goes native and becomes their most awesome leader and achieves an improbable, lo-tech victory (but with soul power! and the animals help them!). Awesome battle sequence ! Good vs. Evil, get it ?

In the real world you live in a complicated global capital network that sometimes deliberately but mostly inadvertiantly leverages injustices so that your locality can exist with the wealth and convienience it enjoys. You cannot opt out. You can't just choose the right items on the Health Food store shelf.

You can use your influence to convince specific companies to change behavior and you can make the best decision when you personally have a decision to make. Don't just say "fuck it".

That's the resources issue. The other issue is racial and cultural understanding. Most of the people who see Avatar will not be White Americans. But we get it, its supposed to be a character you can relate to.

Here's an amazing film I watched the other day. Available, for the moment, in HQ in full on YouTube. Nirgendwo in Afrika (Nowhere in Africa, 2001 German/Swahili/English) is a true story, the auto-biography of a young Jewish girl who fled Nazi Germany in 1938 with her family and went to Kenya to manage a farm.

Regina, the girl, takes to it immediately. She learns Kiswahili, makes friends easily and has the genuine wonderment of a child. Her mother is in denial about what is happening in Germany. "We were as German as anybody, we weren't religious Jews". She has lived an upper middle class life. In Nairobi there is colonial splendour, but the family is poor and rural life is hard.

She think's she is tolerant. In an argument her husband tells her that the way she speaks to their cook and closest friend Owuor reminds him of "certain people in Germany that I don't think you wish to be compared to".

Its primarily her that grows throughout the film.

Other parts I liked: Owuor is very big hearted and wise, but he's real. Its a classic "native" role but its not simplistic. On the second farm there is a new helper and he has a gruff suspicous look. He says he's lived on the farm for 40 years and demands to be hired. It takes a while to get his trust. In one small scene he says that if somebody steals your cow then you can just forget about it. The cow will be eaten and then it's gone. If somebody steals your land then its still there. You have to look at it every day of your life.

Real characters with real relationships. As the viewer you really put yourself into what they are going through.

Click to pop it up, watch it on YouTube in HQ.