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NatGeo

City So Real: A World Within a World

October 29, 2020 by J. Alan Sharrer Leave a Comment

A woman talks to a police officer during a protest. (Chicago Story Film, LLC)

The city of Chicago has always received less than top billing in the United States.  Its blue-collar, earthy mentality is quite unique when compared to Houston, Los Angeles, or New York City. However, it truly is a world all its own with over 75 separate sections comprising its makeup, each showcasing some of the best (and worst) parts of who we are as a people.  With his five-part drama City So Real (NatGeo, 10.29 and Hulu starting 10.30), director Steve James (Hoop Dreams, America to Me) has provided an opportunity for the city as a whole to give voice on behalf of the entire country – and this is accomplished in remarkable fashion.

I lived and attended school in the Western Suburbs of Chicago, so I’ve seen a thing or two about the town—or so I thought.  Instead, I discovered that I was quite sheltered from the richness and color Chicago has as a whole.  In order to get that, I had to jump on the freeway and drive 25 or so miles east.  But even then, I only spent time in the popular areas (Downtown; Navy Pier; Lakeshore Drive).  Rarely did I ever step foot into the other parts of town.

James, in his over five hour documentary (and I recommend you watch the whole thing), brings to light two portions of life from these 75+ perspectives. The first involves the weeks and months after mayor Rahm Emmanuel decided not to run for reelection.  With the city swimming in financial woes and uncertainty (such as a potentially huge housing project called Lincoln Yards), you might think two or three individuals would come out and run to take over that position.  Wrong! Twenty-one people throw their hat into the fray – from computer coder Neal Sáles-Griffin to Nigerian born Amara Enyia (getting cred from Chace the Rapper and Kanye West) to Richard Daley (whose relatives ran the city for 43 years), the documentary showed off not only the convoluted process Chicago has for its elections, but how each candidate campaigned—and more importantly, how each section of the city responded.  The Sideline Studios, a predominantly African-American haircut place on the South Side, is allowed to let its owner Dionell Hill and his customers air their thoughts a la Coming to America—and they pull no punches. That business is later contrasted with another haircut location that features all Caucasian clientele.  It was refreshing perspective to see and hear the tonal color of these sections of town—and see them firsthand.

The race also coincides with the murder trial of a Chicago cop who killed Laquan McDonald by shooting him 16 times.  Chicago has always been known for corruption—and a large part of the town thinks the office will get off free. They think in mainly binary tones, but when justice is finally reached, it’s a breath of fresh air one part of the city has rarely seen.

The mayoral race gets dirty and competitive – and in the end the winner is a former prosecutor named Lori Lightfoot, a lady who’s willing to walk door to door and meet people to get a vote.  She exhibits a new way of looking things, being both African-American and lesbian.  In the end, she wins in a landslide.

Yard signs display a variety of candidates running in the 2019 Mayor’s race in Chicago. (Chicago Story Film, LLC)

If James were to have stopped here, it would’ve been enough.  However, the last part of the documentary brings the now into perspective – starting in March when Covid-19 began to ransack the country and led to Chicago shutting down, killing many of the mom-and-pop businesses in the process (one resorted to selling jigsaw puzzles and even printing its own money).  Lightfoot’s non-nonsense, don’t-mess-with-me demeanor was one that worked effectively—until people started getting tired of being inside and George Floyd’s death ripped the bandage off racial tensions.  Of course, the story isn’t over—it plays out every day, making Chicago . . .  well . . .  that place Carl Sandburg immortalized in his poem of the same name.

I found the documentary to be cutting, relevant, and well-executed. James has a knack for getting into the minds of people and asking questions that allow them to share who they are and how they’re feeling.  People are definitely willing to talk if you allow them a method to share their voice! I was also impressed about how James allowed each section of town to speak for itself, a unique yet important aspect.  It reminds me of some of the areas mentioned in the Bible—Jerusalem, Nazareth, and Bethlehem are just three.  Each are part of the overall picture of history and yet each has its own unique flavor.  Jerusalem saw its share of violence and destruction for thousands of years – not only inside but outside the city walls.  Nazareth was a place where people asked if anything good could come from it (in this case, it certainly did). Bethlehem was extremely small and yet is now known as the birthplace of Jesus.  All the pieces, when put together, make up a picture that’s greater than the sum of its parts.  City So Real reveals that in a compelling and gripping way—one you won’t soon forget.

City So Real airs on NatGeo on October 29 and Hulu starting October 30

Filed Under: Film, Reviews Tagged With: Chicago, covid, documentary, Mayor, NatGeo, Steve James

Cosmos: Multiple Worlds – Are We Ready for This?

March 9, 2020 by J. Alan Sharrer Leave a Comment

An imagined human settlement on an exoplanet moon is offered as a reminder that we are capable of greatness. COSMOS: POSSIBLE WORLDS premieres March 9, 2020 on National Geographic. (Cosmos Studios)

A number of years ago, my family took a trip to Crater Lake in Oregon for vacation.  The most memorable part of the visit wasn’t my first view of the massively deep late located in the caldera of a formerly active volcano. It wasn’t the waterfalls that dotted the landscape around the park (although I do enjoy waterfalls). Instead, it was when our family decided to find a location free of lights and wait for the stars to appear over the lake.  It took a little while, but we were incredibly rewarded with a sky that increasingly filled with stars and galaxies, the likes of which we had never seen. 

I think at some point in everyone’s life, one’s head turns to the skies and wonders what is beyond the stars. In the case of Carl Sagan, his drawings as a kid paved the way to a lifetime of exploration and study of the future and what it might be like.  The original Cosmos came out in 1980 and immediately tapped into the hearts and minds of people desiring, like Sagan, to make some sense of what might be.  Since then, the ideas of life outside Earth have not waned—in fact, they have increased dramatically. 

Into this massive desire steps a new series by National Geographic and Sagan’s wife Ann Druyan—Cosmos: Possible Worlds (Mondays, 9 PM [2 episodes]).  Hosted by well-known scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson, it offers captivating graphics and a storyline that seeks to bring the curiosity and intrigue to a new generation of viewers.  Does it succeed?  I think that will depend on the viewer, but I also think it requires a specific belief system to truly resonate.  In this case, it’s one of the most debated questions in science—how did the universe begin?  

Tyson explains early on in the first episode about the cosmic calendar and how it shows where we in the grand scheme of time.  Basically, we are but a few blinks of an eye from the clock striking midnight on New Year’s Eve.  It doesn’t, however, stop people from looking skyward and considering what can potentially be.  We have to start somewhere—so why not do so by looking forward, not backward?  Tyson says science is good, but “without imagination, we go nowhere.” Dreaming plus action equals such things as Perseverance, the new Mars rover scheduled to be launched this year.  But even that is puny when looking at other locales for future life, such as Neptune’s moon Triton or using a cosmic telescope, powered by the sun, to find the next Earth that could be multiple light years away.  Perhaps that timeframe can even be sped up . . .

The first two episodes are slick, with extremely high production value and a capsule Tyson rides in that is reminiscent of something from the Disney film, Flight of the Navigator.  The material is intriguing and will encourage viewers to come back for more.  The big question is how Sagan’s concepts will be viewed in 2020.  Tyson uses a good portion of the first episode to discuss Baruch Spinoza, a Dutch philosopher who threw out biblical concepts and focus on rationality. In fact, the fictional spaceship in the first two episodes bears his name.  I think this is where the concept goes awry. With there being so much chance and so much time between the formation of the universe (14 billion years) and now, it leads to intense speculation that one little mistake would throw off all we know.  God’s plan is perfect, just as He is (Matthew 5:48) and requires much less faith to follow in consideration.  I’m all for looking at the future—even finding myself daydreaming about the things my oldest will discover as she looks at rocks from other planets in college.  I know they will bring us to greater discoveries that push us to Sagan’s endgame.  The question is if we’re ready to go there.  We’ll have to make those decisions at some point, so let’s spare the past and look forward instead, pressing on day by day to a future that will carry us to greater things.

Filed Under: Reviews, SmallFish Tagged With: Cosmos, NatGeo, Neil Degrasse Tyson

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