Black Kold Madina

Today I went to see two films at the Bangkok International Film Festival.

The first, The Juche Idea, was a "mockumentary" or a "docufantasy." Really, it was a spoof on Kim Jong Il, the Great Leader of North Korea, as a film theoretician, which he claims to be.

The heroine is a South Korean filmmaker, raised in Japan, who escapes that capitalist hell to an artists' retreat in North Korea, where she is studying and producing artful movies inspired by the theories of the Great Leader. At one point, her Russian mentor says,

"In socialism, we must consider the workers as the audience, but capitalist society has never considered the workers as the audience; in capitalist society they make films only for a small elite of art-lovers."

"Uh-oh," I thought, "that's me!" Then I realized: "wait a minute! In capitalist society they think of the audience only as consumers, which is why Hollywood churns out such trash that will be mass-consumed by idiots willing to spend ten dollars!"

The movie was weird, but of course I loved it, because I'm weird.

The second movie, Trouble the Water, was really good. The heroine, a rapper named Black Kold Madina, lives in the 9th Ward of New Orleans, and she stayed through Hurricane Katrina, filmed it with her hand-held camera, and barely survived. Then she explains it, using poetry, Jesus and soul. I recommend the movie to everybody, even if you're not weird.