Moved at the movies

Every once in a while, I am pleasantly surprised by a movie. Of late, there have been several which have just made me feel good, gave me something to think about and/or touched my heart in a way that I had not anticipated.

The Soloist was a delightful surprise. Learning the premise of the movie...journalist finds homeless man and helps him out...I had my doubts that this was going to really touch on the issues behind homelessness. I was wrong, it gave an honest portrayal of homelessness as well as mental illness.

In addition, if you get the DVD of this movie, I recommend watching the "Extras." There are several interviews with the actual people that inspired the movie. It is well worth the time taken to view these, also.





As many of you may have already guessed, I am a hopeless romantic. That being said, I find it hard to get excited about most of the "love stories" out there in movie land. However, on occasion, I am left grinning from ear to ear in romantic bliss.

Recently, Roger and I saw Vodka Lemon. It is the story of a penniless couple in Armenia (post-Soviet Union) and the events that lead to their finding each other.

This movie is shot on location in the most barren landscape I have seen in a long time. Landlocked by mountains, the location of this film resembles a desert, only instead of sand, there is snow. Sounds bleak, yet, the joy...the bliss of this little tale will make you smile and lighten your soul.





The last gem of a film I would like to recommend is Blackboards. This movie should be a "must see" for every teacher and every one thinking of becoming a teacher.

We are constantly being deluged with stories of how difficult it is to teach, how awful schools are, how we need to test teachers, test students and test anyone else related to schools. We have seen and heard of schools losing accreditation because students cannot pass the standardized testing put into place by the past administration. We tisk, tisk and scratch our heads wondering what will become of the world, wondering what to do with all the children that have been left behind in a country that could easily educate all their students on the profits made by big business and through endowments.

Meanwhile, in a land where people still live daily in conditions of abject poverty, where homes and roads and towns appear to have been frozen in time some thousand years or more, and where bombs, war, and greed have taken what little life exists, teachers literally walk hundreds of miles to teach with their blackboards on their backs.

Blackboards is a testament to the tenacious spirit of educators who see it as their life to teach. It is a movie about hope.