The Look of Freedom
Alonzo (Cameron Zeigler), Solomon (Chiwetel Ejiofor), Margaret (Quvanzhané Wallis), and Anne (Kelsey Scott) Northup in New York

Freedom. It never is given without a fight. Even if you were born as a free person of color moving and having your being in the United States of America, that birthright could be ripped from you at a moment’s notice, and from thenceforth, you had to work to take it back. 12 Years A Slave delves into this very real fact of life during antebellum slavery. Directed by British filmmaker Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave is a poignant quest. The film is based on the slave narrative of the same name written by Solomon Northup in 1853.

Bondage

Needless to say, the story is brutal as it courses through the vein of the innocuous plantation regime. The film exposes the time wherein people salivated over the ownership of African flesh not only for labor and economic gain; also, McQueen draws out the psychological and emotional pleasure plantation owners enjoyed in having full possession of and the rights and title to the African body. Some easily judge this as insanity; but I strongly maintain that this practice is a part of sanity no human being should ever want to touch […] again.

Chiwetel Ejiofor stars, and his portrayal of Northup marks clearly his burden of representation. Yes, Northup is front-and-center but it is quite obvious in Ejiofor’s furrowed brow that he is telling the story of thousands who labored within that plantation system—some for life.

Patsey (Lupita Nyong’o) pleads with Northup to end her life.

All of the usual suspects are dramatized to the fullest extent: capture and kidnap; rape of slave women; slave chains; the slave ship; the auction block; the separation of families; the ubiquitous crack of the overseer’s whip, and death. In each instance, McQueen dares us to look away.

12 Years a Slave plays through November 28 at the Ross in Lincoln.

Listen to review of 12 Years a Slave on NET’s Friday Live! @ 45:56

http://netnebraska.org/interactive-multimedia/none/friday-live-emery-blagdon-and-his-healing-machine

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K2, The Summit

K2. The Summit. We all know of the majesty of Mount Everest. It is the highest mountain on earth. K2, its sibling is the second highest mountain on earth. It is located in the Baltistan region of Gilgit–Baltistan, Pakistan and the Taxkorgan Tajik Autonomous County of Xinjiang, China. It is a jagged, steep slope with a wall of ice called a serac, that would make you beg for its mercy as you climb. Yes, K2 demands respect, even reverence, but this mountain claims one in four mountain climbers who attempt to scale its walls. On August 1, 2008, K2 claimed the lives of eleven ambitious and experienced mountain climbers when an avalanche up rooted the fixed ropes installed to lead climbers as they descended the summit. Documentary filmmaker Nick Ryan explores the cause of these deaths in The Summit, his documentary about what is called the “deadliest day on the world’s most dangerous mountain.” The Summit is a terrifying reenactment of this expedition.

Gerard McDonnell, one of the casualties of The Summit

Ryan evokes a harrowing vulnerability within a frigid universe that is out there in the white of snow that hugs tightly to black mountains. Mountaineers whose bodies are packed into down parkas and other gear sleep—sleep?–in tents as a snow storm rages against the mountain; and it is night. Someone’s tent and all of his gear have been swept down the slope. He is open to the elements. Who will take him in? The rule is to “walk on by” climbers who are injured or on the brink of death. To help means not only a missed opportunity to reach the summit or the next camp base in time; to reach out and touch anybody on the trek could mean your own death.

The Summit is an excellent re-telling of events, and it is heartbreaking as each bio-sketch unfolds about the 11 courageous men who did not make it.

The Summit plays through November 7 at the Ross Media Arts Center in Lincoln.

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