#there’s no time to wax poetic about the many failures of the us government

[pastelchad]

Annoying that people say that Leon’s entire character is police and military propaganda when his entire character arc revolves around how the greed of the few big bosses at Umbrella and the corruption of the US government ruined his life

[charyou-tree]

The far-right wants American politics to feel like having an abusive parent.

If you have an abusive Father lets say, you come to learn that you can't reason with him. You don't defy him or he hurts you, and trying to explain your point of view never works, so eventually you give up trying. Your only goal is to manage interactions with him so you don't get hurt.

So instead, when you need something, you go to your Mother instead, because you might actually have a chance of influencing her behavior. So, if she's not able to get you something, say, because Father controls the bank accounts, you might get angry with Mother instead because she chose not to listen to you this time! Father never listens, so you don't even consider that a failure, that's just "normal". That's just how Father is. Mother is usually nice, she just decided to be mean!

This is why republican controlled legislatures don't pass anything except tax cuts for themselves. The whole plan is to prove the idea of "Government Never Helps" by example. Why? To make the party who promised to use the government to help people look bad, so that the people who voted for that party blame them for betraying their voters, instead of blaming the wannabe oligarchs stonewalling progress for the last 40 years. The republican party follows the same playbook every time:

Cut taxes and dump money into your buddy's company

Companies get rich(er) and hire people to expand, unemployment temporarily goes down

Lack of government revenue makes budgets tight, and times seem good so we "have to" cut social services (because raising taxes makes you look like the bad guy, and the democrats already are a minority party)

Massive corporate power results in billions of dollars being taken from working people, resulting in increasing poverty, homelessness, social problems in general, made worse by the lack of social services

"Democrats never deliver on their promises, voting doesn't work, both sides are evil, there's no point in trying to change things"

Young people and leftists stay home, republican majority is elected

goto 1.

The democratic party has held a veto-proof majority exactly once in the last 40 years, for about 8 months during the Obama administration. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Party_divisions_of_United_States_Congresses) That was the last-best-chance we had at getting anything useful done, every other time has had one or more republican majorities blocking progress.

It pisses me off so much to see the short-sighted leftists on the internet talking about how "voting doesn't work" and waxing poetic about how we need a revolution that they know damn well isn't coming. You know why voting doesn't seem to work? Because you smug idiots decided you were too good for it and won't do it!

If any of you think that adding yourselves to the "Did Not Vote" category will somehow cause American political leadership to stop flirting with fascism please block me right now. I am disgusted with how many people who bitch and moan about how awful our government is can't be bothered to do the BARE FUCKING MINIMUM about it.

We have a government made of conservative old people because conservatives and old people ALWAYS VOTE.

If y'all don't even vote, you're not fighting a revolution. Grow up.

[sparklyjojos]

CARNIVAL recaps [5/13]

Today’s recap: Nemu in pursuit of brains, the Doctor (no, no that one), and the youngest detective possible.

--

NINE

21 Sept 1996 — 27 Sept 1996

MACHU PICCHU

--

After the Empire State Building is blown up, big newspapers of the world publish a long letter from RISE to the world. RISE claims they already control the governments. They encourage people to lose their common sense and morals, as only those following their instincts will survive in this “kill or get killed” world. People shouldn’t avert their eyes from how cruel and repulsive they inherently are, but instead contribute to the Crime Olympics—which isn’t just violence for violence’s sake, but a revolution to eradicate “the Beasts”. Every crime in the Olympics should have a proper motive. Criminals who are caught or give themselves up to the police shall be compensated for their trouble. Only those who “believe in their own sense of judgement” will be saved. The only criminals here are those who deny their own crimes. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Even since the JDC explosion, the world’s crime rate and death toll has soared high in what was dubbed the Crime Olympics Phenomenon. UN’s official numbers say that four million people die every single day.

--

On September 21st, exactly 401 people are found dead in the famous Machu Picchu. It looks like people in the vicinity suddenly stopped what they were doing, stripped naked where they stood, gathered in Machu Picchu, and dropped dead from unexplained heart failure. The seventh skull of the Billion Killer is found at the scene.

On September 24th, Tsukumo Nemu investigates the scene assisted by a translator Pacha Palermo [remember her for much, much later]. Pacha’s father who had been working closely with the president became one of the Billion Killer’s victims.

Nemu remembers the case of the poisoned waiter that she, Jounosuke and Hikimiya got tangled into in Paris. It turned out later that the man hadn’t actually died from poison, but from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Further investigation revealed the presence of several no-brand “corned beef” cans containing human brain tissue in the man’s apartment. The waiter had visited Peru about two weeks before death, so it was concluded that he could have gotten those cans there. Nemu was asked by Dokuson to investigate the matter, and coincidentally arrived in Peru on the same day that the Billion Killer just happened to attack Machu Picchu.

(Speaking of Dokuson, he sure changed things in JDC. First, he introduced a merit system of payment instead of a steady monthly paycheck and announced that whoever didn’t do their job would be kicked out. Second, the detectives now had more freedom in choosing cases and could count on JDC to cover all costs involved. Third, the entrance exam was replaced by a normal interview process, resulting in a flood of new detectives. Fourth, instead of using their old Blue ID Cards, everyone would be given a shiny new IDID (International Detective ID) issued by DOLL to allow swift entry and proceedings in foreign countries.)

Pacha Palermo says that her father’s secretary Luca, who vanished “after those four hundred people were killed in Machu Picchu”, had kept in contact with suspicious Russian men. Nemu’s fuzzy reasoning tells her that something’s off here. She calls Jounosuke (who’s currently bored out of his mind recuperating in his house in Japan), and by consulting his language proficiency learns that Pacha has been mistranslating things on purpose to hide a lot of things from Nemu.

Pacha admits that Luca manipulated her father into getting some highly suspicious corned beef cans and used this fact to blackmail Pacha. Nemu notices that Pacha always says that there were “four hundred” victims in Macchu Picchu instead of four hundred and one. While it’s a nitpick, it’s a bit weird for Pacha to leave out a person, considering her father was one of the victims—almost as if she doesn’t count him as a Billion Killer victim. Nemu theorizes that it was Pacha who killed her father, or perhaps just directed him to go to Machu Picchu while knowing that mass murder would happen, but there’s no clear proof.

Either way, Nemu learns what she came to Peru for: the cans had been sourced from Moscow. She decides to fly to Russia to investigate further.

On the plane she reads the recently released Cosmic by Seiryoin Ryusui, which feels a little strange considering she took part in the case described in it. (The “all characters are fictional” disclaimer at the end is just weird in that context.) JDC is concerned by the book mentioning the Geneijo case, which is considered an L-crime and therefore the public shouldn’t be able to know anything about it. What’s more, this Seiryoin guy already announced that his second novel Joker that would come out in January would describe the Geneijo case in detail. Nobody knows who Seiryoin is—the common theory about him being Minase Nagisa (Dakushoin Ryusui’s twin sister) based on writing style similarity is apparently wrong.

Before Nemu can resume her investigation, she gets surprising news from Dokuson: Yaiba Somahito, the First Group’s leader, has kidnapped a boy from the hospital, run away from Japan with him, and is now moving towards Moscow on the Trans-Siberian Express. Dokuson orders Nemu to meet Yaiba halfway through Russia and put a stop to his madness.

--

TEN

28 Sept 1996 — 04 Oct 1996

EIFFEL TOWER

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The Sanctuary docks at an invisible tower by the name of Tow Dreamer, a grand construction made of orichalcum just like the Billion Killer skulls. From there one can access the main headquarters of RISE, the Moonbow Palace.

White Rook, a.k.a. the Doctor, walks through the dark Moonbow Palace. As always he’s dressed in white and wears a mask—every other executive has a uniform in a different color and never shows their face, so they don’t know the others’ identities. White meets up with Black Rook—the Master—and together they ride the elevator to the top of Tow Dreamer to return to the Sanctuary.

White says that Alive is spreading nicely and it’ll be a while until someone finds an effective vaccine. RISE already has one, of course. They shouldn’t need it as long as they don’t come in contact with Godust, the substance containing the virus.

White and Black enter a place in the Sanctuary called the Cosmic Room to talk with “Mein Fuhrer”. [Seriously, you’re not very slick with the naming.]

The Cosmic Room is dark with many tiny lights spread throughout, so being in it feels like floating in starry space. On a magnetically levitating chair sits the leader Rudolf Strauss, dressed in silver, their face hidden under a realistic mask of a cow [or a bull or an ox, the Japanese word used can mean all these], which brings to mind the Minotaur of Greek mythos. RS speaks through a voice changer, so it’s impossible to guess their gender or age.

The three speak vaguely about “the genius pregnant woman”, wondering if she can become a threat to RISE. RS thinks they won’t have a problem. They already know the future will bring their victory, and now just have to patiently move the game pieces along. RS states that thanks to the Billion Killer, the Beasts shall be eradicated and the era of Gods will begin.

--

On September 28th, three Dots are sent to Paris to oversee the new Billion Killer case. They mention a case in Moscow in which a murderer thought to be the serial killer Amur Tiger replaced all mannequins in the GUM department store with headless bodies. One of the Dots gets heated and makes a bold comment about how the murderer may have aimed to find and kill a person who had a cow head [clearly taking a jab at RS here], and gets his head promptly blown up.

At exactly 1 PM, the top part of the Eiffel Tower is first cut off like with a knife, then sent flying by several explosions. Yet another skull of the Billion Killer is found at the scene.

--

Black Rook watches the show from Dragon’s Center, the control room where servants called Machines work with the Sanctuary’s computer and navigation system. Everything is going as planned. The Sanctuary moves towards the Billion Killer’s next target in Russia.

Black looks at another screen, which shows a secret live feed of Ryuuguu Jounosuke.

--

ELEVEN

19 Oct 1996 — 25 Oct 1996

NIAGARA FALLS

--

It’s been ten weeks into the Crime Olympics and the death toll has reached 280 million. We’re up to ten Billion Killer attacks with the latest ones in France, Russia, and Great Britain. Ten detective organizations have been blown up; at this point every remaining detective group just evacuates the entire staff near 1 PM on Saturdays, which lets them avoid casualties.

--

After the case in Russia, the Sanctuary headed to Japan to investigate the “genius pregnant woman”—Hanto Maimu, the former secretary of Ajiro Souji. It seems that the current leader of JDC Yuiga Dokuson is also interested in that certain ability of hers, as he came all the way to the hospital to visit her.

White Rook has been spying on Maimu by pretending to be her new doctor, “Shindou Masato” (this name of course being fake), so he was there when Dokuson visited. He seems impressed by the power of Dokuson’s presence and his ability to manipulate others with words (a bit reminiscent of Black Rook’s way with words), and thinks that if Dokuson joined RISE, he would have surely become the right hand of the leader, as they would certainly match in terms of charisma, blah blah blah, waxing poetics about Dokuson for two pages. [Well, now I know why I saw ship art of these two.]

From what White knows, Maimu has awakened a strange ability on August 10th, the day of the Billion Killer’s first case, that also happened to be her 28th birthday. Maimu was sad about the attack on JDC, but not at all surprised, since she had had a feeling that it happened, as if she subconsciously knew about the explosion as soon as it took place. Her strange feelings kept coming before every subsequent Billion Killer case, each time coming true. Since she always got these vague feelings at exactly 1 PM on Saturday in Japan time, in practice it meant she was predicting the future—1 PM didn’t happen for the majority of the world yet.

It’s estimated that Maimu will give birth around October 25th, in just a week. It’s strange that Maimu’s husband, a bank employee called Tanna Sazen and referred to simply as Danna (lit. “husband”), hasn’t shown up even once since last week, as if he vanished.

--

Before he was White Rook, the Doctor had been called Endou Naoto. Thinking about names, he remembers what Maimu wants to name her child: Hanto Kuraimu—Crime Hunt. [That’s the most metal name I’ve ever seen, but also means she wants to name her child Crime. Why. Also, there’s an entire part about how this pun doesn’t really work because in Japanese you put the family name first, though in modern times some families westernize their names and put family name last, see Christmas Mizuno as an example.]

White finds it strange that Maimu and Danna apparently thought of only one name, despite her being pregnant with two children. Are they going to call the second kid some variation of the first’s name? Are they going to split it in two somehow? Who knows.

Anyway, White contacts another RISE’s executive Yellow Bishop and learns that Danna’s whereabouts are still unknown, though he seems to be escaping towards Canada. Apparently Danna’s important to understanding just what Maimu’s newly awakened ability really is. Yellow has already mobilized his Dogs to chase him.

Dogs (not to be confused with Dots) are RISE’s spies who spend their entire lives undercover pretending to be normal members of society. (There are also Mice, human test subjects, and Machines, who work under Black to keep the Sanctuary moving, but we’re not going to talk about them now.) Danna is one of the Dogs. It’s not clear how, but he somehow learned about the Billion Killer’s plans and recently run away from his post.

White suspects there might be a secret connection between Yellow and Danna, but it’s hard to guess when he doesn’t even know what Yellow Bishop’s true identity is. Yellow always wears a mask and is quite talented in voice mimicry, so talking with him doesn’t help much.

--

Tanna Sazen / Danna married Maimu four years ago, technically on orders to try and pull information on JDC from her, but in a lucky turn of events he genuinely fell in love with her. Time passed. Maimu awoke her new ability of prediction. Danna suspected this ability was his fault, somehow originating from his knowledge of RISE’s secret plans, and so he fled.

Right now Danna is in Banff, Alberta, where he once cooperated with a fellow Dog, an Indigenous man living near the lake Minnewanka. Danna hopes his friend can help him hide from RISE. Unfortunately, this turns out not to be the case, and Danna has to flee from his should-be-friends trying to capture him and give him over to RISE. In the end Danna is forced to jump from a cliff into Bow Lake, a dangerous fall no ordinary person should survive.

The pursuers are only able to find Danna’s artificial eye and broken glasses in the lake, but when they report that they haven’t found the body to Yellow, he seems satisfied and orders them to stop the search.

--

Maimu makes a mistake in predicting the eleventh Billion Killer case. Her feelings tell her that people will vanish at the Victoria Lake in Canada, but something even stranger happens. A giant submarine suddenly surfaces on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls, completely empty save for yet another Billion Killer skull. It seems to be the same Robo-Ship that vanished inside the Bermuda Triangle six weeks prior, but without its crew.

--

Maimu is taking a walk around the hospital when she’s beckoned over by a man wearing a black suit and made to answer a phone. The one calling appears to be the long-missing Ajiro Souji, who assures her that he’s safe and sound, but can’t go around showing his face just yet. Ajiro hints as to where Maimu can find information about her new ability, and ends the call by asking her to wait patiently and believe in his return.

The hint turns out to be… a paragraph in Cosmic, in which the narration makes a stray remark about how one day Maimu’s child would be a “fetus detective” and later an “infant detective”. [So all those times when Seiryoin does what seems like horrendous writing, all those “they couldn’t yet know that X would happen years later”? INTENTIONAL. God, I love metafiction.]

In other words, the one with a strange predictive ability isn’t Maimu; it’s her yet unborn child. That’s why the latest prediction was off—it’s so close to term that little Kuraimu is their own independent person by now and their connection with Maimu has weakened.

Maimu is lost as to how this ability works exactly, but from what Ajiro said, the child had somehow, in some way, inherited the knowledge about RISE’s plans in the form of genetic information from their father Danna, and was instinctively able to tap into it.

Maimu gives birth on October 31st, but contrary to what White said earlier, only one child is born—a baby girl detective already on a “crime hunt”—as if the other has simply vanished.

--

[>>>NEXT PART>>>]

[big-horrible-the-northside--blog]

But they’re two men how can they raise children “right”?

So this is my attempt to start blogging on a regular basis and its also PRIDE month and for my meat head MMA fans we’re not talking about the old organization from Japan but rather our fellow American’s of the LGBTQ persuasion. So I wanted to touch on that. My comments aren’t really intended to upset folks but rather create dialogue and extended thought. At the end of my day my whole purpose is to try to get people to think. Here we go. So I was in prison the other day, not as an inmate but rather as a facilitator of the 24/7 curriculum and to be honest I don’t know how we got there. Many times conversations go places that I had zero intention of them traveling to do. That being said this was one of those cases.

I consider myself to be one of the lucky ones. I’m the stereotypical rap song or movie about the kid from the hood about a kid who escaped and all the blah blah blah....that comes with being from the hood. While that defines me just as much as being a Navy veteran, a dirtbag, a Muslim, black, a husband, and a father who lives to help people reach their Growth and Development. So teaching in prison is something I love and cherish. Most of my folks who escaped the trap left and understandably so. Many of us, most of us see it as being turned into salt after being a get away free card never to return. I apologize for being so verbose my first blog, and I’ll try not to be from this point on but this is the set up for everything else I plan to write from this point on. I feel those of us who have escaped owe a debt, and that debt is only paid through going back and helping anyone else wanting to get out with the direction needed to do so. But what in my own personal view I got from the Navy, I got in the hood. Leadership, but hood leadership vs military leadership are two different things and I promise I’m getting there just jam with me. The thing is we qualify leadership and skill sets honed in uniform as being worthy of respect and worthwhile. But I learned the same lessons hanging out with my Folks over on ol’ Trans Mountain. The only difference is how we ply our trades. My time in uniform is well respected and applauded by strangers who cross the street when encountering kids who have the same songs in their phones or mp3 players that I jam too. My time in the hood, isn’t as revered, and often met with how could you ever be friends with “people” who live like that. That being said the two types of work took me two different places. The hood took me to a funeral home to say goodbye to a friend. Which woke me up and led me to the Navy. The lessons and time I spent there also led me to funeral homes since 9/11 but it also gave me access to a new type of understand which was college. It was the trade off. Eight years in uniform turned into a Master’s degree. One that I used to teach in prison. Many of the men I get to sit and talk to in an intimate setting are products of hood leadership. We wax poetically from everything from Kanye’s bitch bad but what the fuck is wrong with homeboy? To the sixth session in the 24/7 AM book which is titled “The Father’s Role” which is where the I guess you can say how we got “there”. That’s when a man asked me Lee what do you think about all that transgendered stuff and two men raising children, especially young boys. You think they can teach them how to be men? I sat and went back to my personal mantra, which is there are only two types of people on this planet. Good and bad, people who suck and people who don’t. Black or white, Republican or Democrat, Gangsta or Vice lord, Muslim or Christian for me personally they all fall into that box for me, I judge them all based on my interaction with them even if your a Sigma or a Zeta. “There is no right or wrong only a song”, like Cole said.

So I asked him, you’re a two time felon, most of your adult life spent incarcerated; meaning you’ve shirked your duties as a father. Do you believe you’re built better than two men or two women rooted in what I hope to be love to raise a child because you prefer pussy over another penis? (It’s prison, we have real conversations and use real language. Sorry not sorry.) He took a second, looked me dead in my eyes and simply said yes. I said I don’t have all the answers and this is only my opinion. My opinion led me to believe just as much as I feel he is redeemable as a man regardless of the crimes the government said he has committed and put him in this prison to atone for he is able to be a better man, Christian, brother, husband, and father simply because he loves. He loves his wife. He loves his sons and daughters. He loves. While that love is different based on who he dotes his affection on and their gender I have to believe that love is love. I have to believe that the love of a father locked away far from his kids who aren’t able to visit in person is still strong. I have to believe that the love of this man for his woman even though he hasn’t laid in the same bed as his wife in years. I don’t see that love any different than the love I express to my daughters or wife. My students I’ve attempted to teach and counsel through their young lives over the years. I can’t allow myself to believe that love is different because it is shared by two people of the same gender, or one is trans and the other is whatever label they choose or refuse to label themselves with.

Wherever you are, whoever you are, welcome to Horrible tries to blog. I’m not pro gay rights, I’m not a straight person apologist. I’m just a man trying to find his way in this world where I didn’t get to write the rules. But know this love. Don’t be scared to show it. Don’t be scared to live your truth. Tell that person you love who you’re terrified of their response you love them. Just love. You get one legit shot at this life. Max out. Leave nothing unsaid or did.

I have to believe that love is the most important aspect in any relationship. I refuse to feel it is any lessor because it is practiced by people who only by some rule I didn’t write are admonished for living their truth and not a lie. I don’t know how many more of these I will write. I plan to do it weekly with the hope that a writing bug infects me and makes me spill my soul on Tumblr, because I love writing.

The majority of what this blog will be about is to be rooted in fatherhood issues. Triumphs, difficulties, failures, struggles the everything's and the nothings in between.

[mrmichaelchadler]

True/False 2019: Over the Rainbow, Midnight Traveler, Treasure Island, Let It Burn, A Wild Stream

My third trip to Columbia, Missouri to attend the True/False film festival confirms that the setting has become a source of comfort in these trying times. Each year, talented filmmakers, artists, writers, and journalists convene to witness the year’s best crop of non-fiction filmmaking. In between films, they soak up great food, cheap drinks, and smart talk. The festival’s precise, specific programming identity has always been its greatest asset, and this year was no exception. Programmers Chris Boeckmann, Abby Sun, and Amir George put together a lineup that challenges instead of placates and embodies diversity rather than merely paying it lip service. Its lack of cynicism and its commitment to promoting/exhibiting capital-A Art never fails to overwhelm me, especially considering it exists adjacent to an industry defined by slick, commercial interests. I’m eminently grateful to take a minor part in such a joyous excursion each year.

Over the course of five days, I saw many films that raised provocative questions, shined a light on unseen corners of the world, and remained in my head long after I left the theater. Here is the first of two dispatches from the festival.

“Over the Rainbow”

Popular documentaries like Alex Gibney’s “Going Clear” and the A&E series “Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath” might have exhausted new information about the controversial religion, not to mention sated audiences’ appetites for disturbing scoops about cult-like brainwashing. However, director Jeffrey Peixoto doesn’t adopt an exposé angle with his experiential feature “Over the Rainbow,” which has no fresh revelations about Scientology. Instead, he takes an observational tact by interviewing current and former Scientology members about the origins of their New Age faith. Peixoto spent almost a decade gaining the trust of his subjects and, subsequently, their confidence in his project shines through the film. In turn, “Over the Rainbow” becomes a compassionate, nuanced discourse on faith as an operating principle in one’s life, especially when the religion in question is in its most nascent stage.

Given what we already know about L. Ron Hubbard, David Miscavige, and the organization’s history of abuse, it’s tempting to think that Peixoto takes a naïve, even immoral, stance with “Over the Rainbow.” Does giving documentary subjects the space to wax poetic about their history with Scientology amount to a tacit endorsement of the religion itself? That might be the case if Peixoto’s formal approach didn’t systematically defamiliarize the vast majority of “Over the Rainbow’s” participants. Aided by an unnerving score from Australian electronic group HTRK, Peixoto films the Scientology members in lingering long takes that render their visages alien and unknowable. (It’s no coincidence that “Over the Rainbow” opens with a discussion of the psychology of UFO abductees.) In between the interviews, Peixoto fills the frame with ominous B-roll footage of Scientology retreats that compliments equally ominous footage of anonymous strangers walking in an urban metropolis or abandoned country roads. All life becomes a series of abstract, alienating enigmas when viewed through a narrow worldview. 

“Over the Rainbow” doesn’t unsettle because of what its subjects explain or disclose but rather how Peixoto presents them, i.e. people who have gotten so in touch with themselves that their relationship with the rest of the world has been corrupted. The gap between the subjects’ comfort on camera and their non-fiction staging creates a nerve-wracking liminal expanse for the viewer. “Over the Rainbow” might run the risk of confirming pre-conceived biases from those within or adjacent of the organization, but to claim there’s no moral dimension to the film would be abjectly false.

“Midnight Traveler”

Hassan Fazili’s “Midnight Traveler” might be the most compelling argument for the iPhone (and, presumably, Cloud storage) as the best available vehicle for vérité filmmaking. Fazili brings gripping immediacy to his three-year, 3,500-mile asylum journey from Afghanistan to Germany after he and his family are targeted by the Taliban. Three different iPhones capture the danger and uncertainty inherent in such a voyage: Fazili and his family are often forced to sleep in the woods or in abject housing conditions while facing prejudice because of their refugee status. Yet, Fazili, a sentimentalist as well as a staunchly political filmmaker, also includes plenty of warm scenes with his family as they try to carve out something that resembles a normal life amidst the global chaos. (It helps that his two young daughters, Nargis and Zahra, are adorable testaments to the resiliency of children.) An existential road film with life-or-death stakes, “Midnight Traveler” presents a ground-floor portrayal of the refugee crisis that smartly privileges experience over solutions.

Screenwriter and editor Emelie Coleman Mahdavian deserves credit for shaping a lucid narrative from hundreds of hours of footage, even if, as a result, “Midnight Traveler” occasionally suffers from a neat storytelling sensibility. It’s not difficult to imagine a fiction adaptation of Fazili’s film, considering that all the A-to-B, three-act elements are already present. However, Mahdavian finds sideways approaches to Fazili’s story that impress, e.g. close-ups of Zahra’s bedbug bites that cover her arms and face communicates the dehumanizing condition of refugee camps better than standard B-roll footage. Interestingly, “Midnight Traveler” introduces but never resolves the tension between Fazili’s filmmaking impulses and the responsibility he feels towards his family. Whenever Fazili’s wife, Fatima, implores him to stop filming, he almost always refuses. Later, when Zahra goes missing for an hour, Fazili chastises himself for even considering how he might film her safe return. It’s an overwhelming concern, but one that’s dwarfed by the myriad practical complications Fazili and his family face as they try to find safekeeping.

Similarly, the way “Midnight Traveler” touches upon, but doesn’t directly analyze, a litany of political issues—xenophobic bigotry towards global migrants, the hijab as a symbol of oppression and/or cultural pride, broad institutional failures to protect marginalized communities fleeing state violence—only amplifies their resonance. These topics are the fabric of Fazili’s life, not abstract notions primed for TV pundit debate. It’s a feature not a bug that Fazili and Mahdavian allow these ideas to pulsate in the background rather than touting them front-and-center for easy liberal digestion. Sometimes the best tactic is to let the footage speak for itself.

“Treasure Island”

One of the more whimsical entries at True/False this year, “Treasure Island” offers a broad portrait of a suburban Parisian water park. Director Guillaume Brac exploits his unfettered access to capture multiple groups that flow amongst each other: jubilant swimmers itching for a good time, exhausted security guards who try to keep kids from sneaking inside the park without paying, and administrators making decisions behind closed doors that keep the lights on and people safe. The park’s recreational modus operandi connects them all even if their intentions are at cross-purposes.

Brac crafts a hazy, semi-utopian landscape in “Treasure Island”; it’s a place where multiculturalism exists without much consequence and life’s nasty realities are elided for fun under the sun. Splashes and joyous screams dominate the sound mix. Teens and twentysomethings eagerly flirt with each other in between awe-inspiring water stunts. In this regard, “Treasure Island” embraces its liberated French core: a sequence featuring a hunky lifeguard and two young women culminates with his arms around both of them, smirking up a storm, and repeating the mantra, “Life is great.” Brac contrasts the park’s charged adult energy with scenes of children embarking on their own carefree parallel journeys, as if to suggest that the space exists to be consumed from multiple vantage points. Frederick Wiseman’s institutional approach meets a pop sensibility in “Treasure Island,” which is content to privilege leisure over sharp insight.

“Let It Burn”

Maíra Bühler makes the admirable choice to resist almost all exposition for her film “Let It Burn,” a profile of São Paulo’s Parque Dom Pedro hostel that houses and employs drug addicts, until the very end. It’s only then that she explains that Brazil’s newly elected conservative government plans to shutter the harm reduction program that keeps this community off the streets. This choice retroactively provides weight to the purely observational film that otherwise offers dignity to people written off by society at large. 

Culled together from four years of footage, “Let It Burn” carves room for strung-out citizens to exist outside of a punitive system, illustrating how their addictions operate while refusing to let it wholly define them. Men and women frequently break out into song, cannily performing for the camera and themselves. Violence permeates the environment but it’s presented as an unfortunate byproduct of a program designed to support instead of punish. Idealistic activists who run the hostel strive to keep the order while maintaining empathy for their charges. Lovers quarrel and make up. Tenants ride the elevator for amusement as much as they use it for transportation. Even as “Let It Burn” occasionally gets mired in repetitive rhythms, or too frequently loiters in overly familiar footage, Bühler’s generous eye keeps the whole project afloat. Judgment isn’t in Bühler’s vocabulary. Instead, “care” is the operative emotional framework.

“A Wild Stream”

Two men bonded by circumstance on the coast of Sea of Cortez, Omar and Chilo spend their days fishing and their nights drinking in a shack. Though not fast friends, they eventually reach an appreciably understanding of each other, partially because their isolation from larger society necessitates a relationship of some sort. 

Their chemistry grounds Nuria Ibáñez Castañeda’s “A Wild Stream,” which splits its time between character study and regional portraiture. She captures the sea as a prideful entity, one that will exist long after Omar and Chilo have gone, but emphasizes the loneliness of the men who dedicate their lives to its upkeep. Castañeda strips away the rest of the world from her frame and only hints at a larger world outside of Omar and Chilo’s eye line. Thus, the coast becomes a confessional space for Omar and Chilo; they’re cautiously vulnerable with each other while maintaining enough emotional distance so that neither gets too uncomfortable. Suggestions of past lives, lost children, and scummy citizenry are bandied about, but Castañeda never pushes for explication. This approach might render “A Wild Stream” an opaque work for some, but any time the film threatens to get into the weeds, Castañeda returns to fishing and the mundane joys of working with ones hands. It turns out that nature and friendship are still sustainable resources.

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