39th Annual October 3-8, 2017 aspenfilm.org “The White Helmets” has been short-listed for the Academy Award for Best Documentary Short. It screens today at Aspen Film’s Academy Screenings in Paepcke Auditorium. Denzel Washington and Stephen Henderson in “Fences.” ‘The White Helmets’ anchors MARK ROGERS/COURTESY PHOTO Dev Patel as Saroo Brierly in “Lion.” The drama plays at Aspen Film’s Academy Screenings Taking August Wilson’stoday at 8:15 p.m. in the Wheeler Opera House. play new shorts program at Aspen ‘LION’ of being entrusted to tell their story, but From page A1 any fears about their reaction to it were assuaged in an early screening. Davis orphanage, through his adoption by the recalled showing a cut of the film to the Hobart, Australia, couple Sue (Nicole Kid- Brierlys in Sydney. As the closing credits man) and John (David Wenham). rolled, he looked down from the projec- Film’s Academy Screenings “Lion” then jumps forward 20 years, as tion room to see if they were done. the adult Saroo (Dev Patel) prepares to “They were all in this embrace, all hug- leave his adoptive home. When he sets ging each other, deeply moved by the film,” ‘Fences’ from stage forto college to study hotel managementscreen he recalled. “I don’t think any of them with an international crop of students, he could speak for a half hour. So I think they Andrew Travers who risk their lives every day, who have begins pining to find out his roots. Talking found it moving and respectful of their Andrew Travers play “Fences,” Stephen Hender- about his hazy origins with his new friends story.” The Aspen Times decided not to pick up a gun, and instead for the first time, he breaks down and ad- Coming into India as an outsider — and The Aspen Times mits, “I’m not from Calcutta. I’m lost.” making a film that takes an unvarnished son reprises the role in a new film From there, he sets off on his quixotic look at some of the poverty there — cer- to risk their life to save strangers. We found online journey to find his family. tainly has its potential pitfalls. “Slumdog adaptation. Patel’s performance is entrancing. The Millionaire,” for instance, brought on a The searing and inspiring documentary that very inspiring.” wide-eyed kid from “Slumdog Millionaire” backlash and protests in India over its Six years after playing Bono in the Director Denzel Washington got and the “Exotic Marigold Hotel” movies depiction of Mumbai slums. Davis said he “The White Helmets” profiles a band of The three main characters in the film are has transformed himself into a strapping simply did his best to stay true to Saroo’s Tony-winning Broadway revival of most of the cast back together for Aussie bro for “Lion.” Yet that exterior be- experiences. As long as he did that, he felt, real-life superheroes risking their lives to seemingly ordinary men — a tailor, a black lies an inner torment that only slowly boils he couldn’t go wrong. over. For much of the film, he is keeping “I was just focused on Saroo’s story and save others amid the bloody wreckage and smith, a former rebel fighter. Like most of August Wilson’s Pulitzer-winning the film, in which he also stars as the his search for his blood family secret — trying to represent that in the most honest rubble in the ongoing Syrian civil war. the 2,000 White Helments, they’re not pro An urgent James Baldwin These rescue workers and first respond- fessional EMTs. Yet we see them rushing ers, officially known as the Syrian Civil into the rubble left from barrel bombings doc at Academy Screenings Defense, organized themselves in 2013. by President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and Andrew Travers IF YOU GO … Not Your Negro” is his unfinished The Aspen Times What: “I Am Not Your Negro” at book project, “Remember This They’ve since saved more than 60,000 from Russian airstrikes. Academy Screenings House,” which is read in the film by Entrusted with an unfinished Where: Paepcke Auditorium the actor Samuel L. Jackson. The “The idea that you manuscript by the great American When: Thursday, noon book, written in the 1980s, was writer James Baldwin, documentari- How much: $20/general admission; framed as a memoir about the civil an Raoul Peck knew he had to make $15/Aspen Film members rights struggle and Baldwin’s rela- would volunteer to do an extraordinary film worthy of the Tickets: Wheeler Opera House box tionship with three of its slain lead- The story of the White Helmets literary titan. ers: Malcolm X, Martin Luther King office; www.aspenshowtix.com “When I got the rights and I got and Medgar Evars. Baldwin complet- this incredibly dangerous access to anything, everything, from Your Negro,” which screens Thursday ed about 30 pages of the book before is a human story that cuts Baldwin, it was a huge responsibili- at Aspen Film’s Academy Screenings. his death in 1987. work is hard to compre ty,” Peck said in a recent phone inter- It’s an urgent and gripping film essay It’s not a traditional documenta- view. “I felt like I cannot just make about race in America through Bald- ry about Baldwin’s life, but instead through the politics. It’s a story about a film, it has to be a special film. It win’s eyes. Peck considered countless about his understanding of America hend,” Natasegara said. needed to be the whole Baldwin, the ways into the story — even working as fundamentally based on racism ultimate Baldwin vision. So I took for a time on a narrative film — be- and white supremacy. heroes. And you can’t argue with men “And they do it with such time to find the right approach.” fore settling on this unconventional At one point in the film, Baldwin “ He took about a decade to com- docu-essay meditation. COURTESY PHOTO plete what would become “I Am Not The jumping-off point of “I Am BALDWIN, A7 generosity and levity that ABOVE: Mike Carlsen in “11:55.” and women who risk their lives every RIGHT: “11:55” will screen Saturday afternoon at Aspen it’s humbling to witness.” Filmfest. Writer-actor Victor Almanzar and writer-director Ari Issler will be on hand for a post-screening Q&A. day, who have decided not to pick up For a portion of the Wetlands a gun, and instead to risk their life to film, the White Helmets save strangers. We found that very leave Aleppo for training in Turkey. Rather than enjoying a respite from Orlando von Einsiedel the warzone, the men Producer-director make phone calls home, closely monitor the bombings and yearn to get back to help. ’ROUND COMMITTED TO TELLING This remarkable 40-minute documenta ry was released by Netflix in the fall. “The Directors Ben Snyder and Ari Issler THE ASPEN FILM STORY White Helmets” has been short-listed for on making ‘11:55’ ara and Orlando von Einsiedel — previously the Oscar for Best Documentary Short. It MIDNIGHT nominated for an Oscar for 2014’s “Virunga” plays, along with two short fictional films, at Aspen Film Academy Screenings this Andrew Travers like a Western in the “High Noon” tradition, but it tweaks He worked with Snyder in the theater early in both of The Aspen Times the genre’s notions of masculinity, violence and pride and their careers, and the two have collaborated often over the sets it in the Puerto Rican and Dominican community of past 12 years. The actor also starred in Snyder’s and Issler’s afternoon at Paepcke Auditorium. The A Marine returns from the warfront in Afghanistan and Newburgh. 2012 short film “Nobody’s Nobody.” quickly learns peace is hard to find at home in the tense “We were inspired by Westerns but wanted to create The development of “11:55” began with a conversation scending the debate over the refugee crisis or shorts program is a new addition to the crime drama “11:55.” almost an anti-Western,” said co-director Ari Issler. “We between Snyder and the actor, when Almanzar pitched an The film, which screens Saturday afternoon at the As- were very aware of a lot of the traditions we wanted to idea for what Snyder calls an “elaborate cops-and-robbers, ANDREW TRAVERS film series, now celebrating its 25th year in pen Filmfest, follows Nelson Sanchez’s uneasy return to break with, as far as how those films treated and used peo- double-crossing gangster action movie.” As they talked the cruel reality of his burnt-out, violent neighborhood in ple of color and women.” about what interested Almanzar about that story, however, Newburgh, New York, over the course of a single day. The “11:55” is the first feature film from Issler and co-director a different and more autobiographical one emerged. Aspen. Dominican-American vet is looking to settle down. But his Ben Snyder. They wrote the film with star Victor Alman- “He started talking about all the things he experienced ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR past in the local underworld and the shooting that led him zar, based in part on his experience in the military and in personally: what it was like coming home from the mili human story that cuts through the politics,” The film blends material from the docu to join the military won’t let him go. the street life. tary and what it was like when he used to be involved in A rival looking for vengeance is on a bus to Newburgh, Almanzar is an acclaimed theater actor, with work in- gangs in his neighborhood,” Snyder recalled.