Course:Hist105/MovieReviews

Prom Night in Mississippi

    “Prom Night in Mississippi” was a Canadian-American documentary made in 2009 and directed by Paul Saltzman. This film followed Morgan Freeman’s attempt to end segregated proms in the Charleston high school. Morgan Freeman, a previous resident of the town, was shocked to hear (as was I) that even after the abolishment of the Jim Crowe laws in 1954 and the Civil Rights Movement, segregation and racism was still very prominent in this town. After his second attempt to fund an integrated prom for the school, the first attempt being rejected in 1997, his offer was accepted by the school board. It was interesting to see, in the film, that most children were excited with the prospect of an integrated prom because most of their friends were of both races. Only some of the children (the film depicted them as the white) and most parents were not happy with this change. A committee of white parents got together and even held a separate “whites-only” prom and didn’t allow the film crew to come to the event. One of the things that stood out to me in the film was the use of religion to justify both the anti-integration people’s and the pro-integration people’s actions. While an anti-integration parent said if god wanted us to be together, then he would have made us the same colour, a student who was going to the integrated prom said that God wanted us to love each other. It was also interesting to see the other issues, besides segregated proms, that were race centred. Like how a student stated that she was robbed of being a valedictorian because of her colour, how interracial couples were disapproved of, and how a black student was so easily ignored of her side of the story when in a fight. This goes to show, even though the integrated prom was a success, Charleston high school has a long process of eliminating racism in their town. One critique that I had about them film was that even though some of the black students stated that their parents were discriminatory to whites, the film only concentrated on showcasing the white parents that were being racist. I think that if they interviewed some black parents that were wary of the whites, then that would’ve added to the viewer’s perspective of Charleston.

"The Murder of Emmett Till"

     The movie “The Murder of Emmett Till” is an American documentary film produced in 2004 by Firelight Media and aired on PBS.  What made this film difficult to watch was because of its emotional intensity which affects one’s focus on the chain of events. The movie stirs your heart and mind as it puts you at the center of America’s horrible past. It makes you appreciate what we enjoy today and never take our rights and freedom for granted.   Sure there is still prejudice and discrimination in  today’s world, but nothing compared to back then.  Segregation of the Deep South brought prejudice, discrimination, fear, violence, and injustice in the lives of black people.  They could not have any social contact with the Whites and if they did they would have been severely punished.   A young black innocent teenager, Emmett Till who was from the North made a serious judgment-call when he whistled to a White female storeowner. What he thought was a joke turned into brutal violence resulting in his death.  He was beaten and shot for an innocent act.   The trial for his death was so one-sided that it screamed injustice.  The all-white jury naturally acquitted the white killers and set them free to laugh about it.  The mother of the deceased was very traumatized but she stayed courageous and strong.  She fought back by shaming the killers and the racist American society by displaying her mutilated son body to the public eye.  The anger and sadness galvanized and jump-started the Civil Rights movement that would bring great changes to American society.

Status Quo? The Unfinished Business of Feminism in Canada

Status Quo? is a 2012 Canadian documentary directed by Karen Cho. It uses the 1967 Royal Commission on the Status of Women as a reference point to show how and if feminism has evolved Canada’s society, where the 2nd Pan-Canadian Young Feminist Gathering is held in 2011. The documentary mostly focuses on issues like violence against women, access to abortion and universal childcare. It showcases personal stories of women being physically abused and how hard it was for them to leave their husbands once they were ready to, because accessing a shelter was difficult. The movie helped the viewer get a firm grasp of the dilemmas young women were put in, in regards to abortion. Many of the stories showed women who weren’t in situations to be raising children (due to alcoholism, low money, no support, etc.) and had to choose whether to have an abortion. Even when they made their decision, there were limited amount of clinics which were very expensive, and they had to jump through hoops to finally finish the process. There were scenes of anti-choice conservative and/or religious groups protesting outside these clinics and calling these women murderers. The movie also showed that it is almost impossible to find child-care programs that had available spots and were affordable. Many women wanted to keep their careers so they could have a decent lifestyle in order to support their families, and so they had to send off their children to costly childcare programs. If they couldn’t afford that, they sometimes hired stay at home nannies from oversees. They were also put in hard conditions; leaving their families so they can financially support them by raising a stranger’s kids. Then, we flash forward to the “present” time of the movie, where the 2011 second Pan-Canadian Young Feminist Gathering is happening in in Winnipeg, formed by the rebELLEs movement. Overall, I liked the documentary because it showed a bit of the history of feminism, personal stories of women, organizations and grassroots that helped along the way, as well as the laws and regulations that are fixed at present times. It included all women of different classes, nationalities, and sexualities. However, It would have been better if they included non-straight women in the sections of personal stories so we get a wider spectrum.

'"Mandela: A Long Walk To Freedom"'''''Bold text'

Personally, I enjoyed "Mandela: a Long Walk to Freedom" better than other Nelson Mandela movies like Invictus. It was a very powerful and insightful portrayal of Mandela. Although the movies are quite similar as they show Mandela's past showing how he was a lawyer and how he got into the ANC, they both also differ as A Long Walk of Freedom shows more insight on what actually went on in the Mandela household as well. Unlike Invictus, it focused on the experiences of both Winnie and Nelson. The treatment and brutality shown by the officers and guards in the prison were horrific. While Nelson was in prison, it showed how involved his wife Winnie got into the burden of politics and activism as it toughened and made her even more fierce. This film was extremely emotional as you face sadness, happiness, and hatred as the film shows Mandela's flashbacks from his childhood in his village, the brutality and isolation he faced during his imprisonment, the transition/ development of WInnie, and finally him becoming the first democratically elected president of South Africa.

"The Battle of Algiers", 1966.

When I saw the film “The Battle of Algiers”, 1966, I found it interesting to observe the difference between violence from colonizing country and the colonized country in this case France and Algeria. The violence that Algerians carried out may be seen as an act of liberating Algeria from France, but France may not see it that way. For France, that kind of violence is an act of terrorism and needed to be suppressed immediately. Although France invaded Algeria long time ago, the violence from France such as planting bombs in Arab residence was justified, which was not the case for Algerians. They got arrested and sent to a prison. The violence escalated in the film and Algerians started to shoot French police officers and planted bombs in restaurants. France declared it terrorism and must be suppressed in order to ensure public safety. The suppression from France involved series of violence such as torturing people, which was not concerned at all but regarded as the necessary action. Algerians could not obviously win against France face to face for not having a modern weapon, but they attempted to fight by guerrilla warfare. In sum, the violence carried out by both side, France and Algeria, each had a purpose but because France was the ruler, their action was justified as suppression and actions done by Algerians were considered as terrorism and rebellion.

Erin Brockovich (2000) This movie was under the "environmental movement" section but at the same time can be classified as a somewhat "feminist" movie. The movie is based on a true story. Erin Brockovich is a twice-divorced single mum with three young children who is desperately looking for a job to support her family as the fathers do not support her financially. Because she has decided to be a mum she did not attend any post-secondary education or has any major work experiences and now faces enormous difficulties even finding a secretary job. With a lot of assertiveness she ends up working for a lawyer and starts investigating further in a case that seems suspicious to her. In fact, a large power company is intoxicating the ground water that a whole village uses and which citizens' are getting sick. Almost on her own, being apart from her children for almost all day she finds enough evidence to get the company for trial. With a lot of struggles but empathy she, in the end, gains victory. One main theme in the movie is the issue that large companies often can afford hurting other people and paying a very low price for it or even stay undetected. Even then, they often can afford much better lawyers and can put off cases for years until the opposing party runs out of money. The other issue that is visible throughout the movie is the discrimination against women. Although Erin is very intelligent and good with people almost everyone looks down on her and makes mean or sexists comments, mostly men. Her case shows that sometimes the impossible is indeed possible and that we should not judge people only on their appearance or education.

"The Wall: A World Divided (2010)" This documentary entails the events following the creation on the Berlin wall and how it finally came to an end. After World War Two Germany was divided into east and west, east belonging to the Soviets and the West belonging to the Americans, British, and French. Berlin was in between the two and was therefore also divided in half with the soviets controlling the east. People, in hopes to escape the communist government in east Berlin began moving to the west which created a huge decline in labor force employees in the east. This is when the wall was built to divide east and west on August 13th 1961. The horrendous effects of the wall grew stronger and stronger and as concerns grew, the wall also grew in length and height. Many people had tried to escape from the east but it became a very difficult task and very few people made It over without being killed or imprisoned. The Soviets believed the wall would keep out socialist influences and help promote communism, yet in reality all it did was turn the east into a prison. The secret police in east Germany controlled every part of people lives and even had secret influences on their personal lives such as marriage. Documentation was kept on nearly everyone and the secret police had some odd 90,000 agents and 200,000 informants. Everyone was constantly being watched and freedom of speech was absolutely forbidden. The church became a safe place for not only religious people but for anyone who wanted reform. It gave them a safe place to express their thoughts and the police were not allowed to intervene in church matters. Its interesting to me that church and religion is what was thought of as a safe place even for non Christians, because unfortunately, in my opinion, now a days religion can in some ways be the cause of a lot of war and separation between humanity. Eventually the new Soviet leader Gorbachev began to promise reform to the people of east Germany. excited about this, US president Reagan goes to Berlin and calls upon the government to take down the wall. In a press conference in 1989 the government announced it would allow travelling across the boarder, but accidentally this information got out sooner than expected and taken out of context the guards opened the boarders and everyone flooded the boarders and celebrated the end to the Berlin Wall. I think it is interesting that the communist government created so much chaos in east Germany when during world war two the Germans had been living in a dictatorship. I think the Germans displeasures with the wall and the communism really showed that after World War Two it was time for a change in Germany. Overall the Berlin wall is an extremely significant symbol of silencing communism and its eventual take down was the start of a sovereign nation in Germany. The German people were able to untie with one another and the blood shed and forced silence was finally broken.

Grizzly Man (2005)

The documentary “Grizzly Man,” which was released in 2005, is directly related to the ongoing environmental movement that is taking place worldwide. Grizzly bear activist Timothy Treadwell was living in Alaska for large portions of time from 1993-2003 promoting animal protection. Throughout his time in Alaska, he kept video logs in hopes of making a film about his experiences someday. Unfortunately, he passed away after being eaten by a hungry grizzly bear just before he was about to head back into civilization. Treadwell was a unique man who had an incredible passion for animals, and grizzly bears in particular. He was able to connect with animals in such a way that many people cannot. For example, he was able to pet grizzly bears and foxes, amongst other animals too. He was truly a grizzly bear at heart and emphasized throughout the film that he would do anything for them. “I will die for these animals,” he repeated several times in one of his video logs. He struggled with drug and alcohol abuse for a number of years but was able to overcome it when he connected with the grizzly bears. Overall, I don’t think Timothy Treadwell’s approach to this issue was the most proactive. By gaining the trust of the wild animals, the animals could potentially trust all humans, some of who could be a threat to the animals. Animals are meant to be wild, and that shouldn’t change. Eliminating animal cruelty should be conquered in such a way that doesn’t involve direct interaction with the animals. Despite this, it is a very fascinating documentary that I highly recommend watching.

"'What Happened, Miss Simone? (2015)'"

For my movie review I watched “What Happened, Miss Simone?”, a Netflix documentary about the singer and activist Nina Simone. Nina Simone was a black women who wanted to be the first black female classical pianist but was denied entrance to an esteemed school of music because of the colour of her skin. To pay bills and rent she began to play in bars and thus began to sing, which launched a career that spanned decades. Her life was very difficult; her husband and manager had her working all the time to further the career he had planned for her. Nina found the civil rights movement and started to write and perform political songs, one especially worth noting is “Mississippi Goddam” which was one of the first songs to contain swear words and became an anthem within the movement. Nina and her husband Andy were at odds and he beat her often. She became very depressed and erratic and by the end of her life she was diagnosed with maniac depression and bipolar disorder. After the civil rights movement she went to spend time in Liberia and eventually brought her then 14 year old daughter over too. Nina’s mental issues made life hard for her daughter, Lisa, and so Lisa moved back to the United States to live with her father. Nina moved to different places in Europe and was destitute for a while until a friend assisted her and got her the help she needed. She was able to continue performing and two days before she died she received an honorary diploma from the same music school that rejected her in her youth. In the documentary it says how happy she was when she was working within the civil rights movement and that she had found a purpose for herself.

Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993)

Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance is a 1993 feature length documentary by Alanis Obomsawin following the Oka Crisis of 1990 with special attention given to the 30 or so Mohawk warriors besieged in the Pine Forest. The film begins with the blockade of a small dirt road by the Mohawk residents of Kenehsatake near the town of Oka, Quebec. They’re protesting the mayor’s decision to build a gold course and residential area on traditional Mohawk land, land which the Mohawk community had tried to claim many times in the past but was constantly refused due to the obtuse and lengthy legal procedures. The situation escalates when Corporal Marcel Lemay is shot during a botched intervention by the Sureté du Québec (who shot him is still unknown) and the Mohawk of Kanehsatake and the nearby community of Kahnawake blockade several major highways including the Mercier Bridge leading into Montréal itself. The blockade of Mercier Bridge is eventually resolved after the army gets involved but the Mohawks of Kanehsatake hold out until late September despite constant harassment from the armed forces. Although no shots are fired several people are injured and Mohawk residents in Oka as well as aboriginal and non-aboriginal supporters are harassed by the Sureté du Québec. The 78 day confrontation ended with the remaining Mohawk warriors as well as several women and children leaving Kanehsatake and being promptly arrested and beaten by the army and the SQ. 3 of the protestors were convicted and the mainstream media portrayed the army and SQ as bravely confronting aboriginal criminals. Alanis Obomsawin’s documentary was immensely important in bringing the native version of the events to the mainstream, something which First Nations had long been denied. The silencing of native voices has been perpetuated by the authorities and mainstream media whenever there was a land dispute such as the one at Oka and unsurprisingly CBC initially refused to air Obomsawin’s documentary. While the building of the golf course has been indefinitely suspended the dispute over the land claim still hasn't been resolved. What struck me the most in this documentary was the ridiculous lengths the army, the SQ and many white residents of Oka would go to to intimidate, hurt and humiliate the Mohawk. The pointless cruelty and complete lack of empathy towards a small community trying to protect its land was shocking and infuriating.

"What Happened, Miss Simone" Nina Simone, a singer and activist, starts off the documentary by declaring that freedom means having no fear. She explains how she felt isolated from obviously the whites but also the blacks. She was discriminated against when she applied for a music scholarship, and then later found out she was only denied it because she was black. She finally married a Police officer, Andy, who later quit to become her manager. At this time she finally felt like someone cared, therefore less isolated. Her life was turing around for the better gradually when she played at Carnegie Hall which was a big accomplishment. Nina and Andy also had a child named Lisa. Her life suddenly changed after her husband started beating her badly. She started being a civil rights activist by writing controversial songs including, “Mississippi Goddamn”. She started to meet the likes of MLK and Malcolm X who were also leaders of the American Civil Rights movement. Because of her music she was described as a “rebel”, and she was a rebel because she was sick of the establishment of the American Society. she described it as a disease in which she could expand and educate through songs, however she herself could not cure it. She eventually divorced Andy and went to Liberia, and it was the place which was founded by the American slaves so she felt at home there. She saw it as a perfect world. Nina Simone then unfortunately became the one doing the beating when she started beating her daughter, however this can be explained as she was diagnosed as bipolar. She eventually then moved to Switzerland. then to Paris and worked in a cafe in hopes to presume her career. In the end she does not regret participating in the civil rights movement howe regrets writing the controversial songs as their hurt her career. She eventually settled in the south of france, and received many music awards in her career.

The Square:

The Square is an Egyptian-American documentary about the Egyptian revolution started in 2011, part of the so called Arab Spring. It follows the revolution from the perspective mostly of young activists who fight for democracy and freedom first against the regime of Hosni Mubarak. The film shows how their peaceful protests in Tahrir Square, one of Cairo´s landmarks, put pressure on the then president who resigned after a 30 year rule, which is said to have been oppressive. The struggle however continues as power is given to the military, who do not meet the people’s demands, resulting in clashes between them and the protestors. The film also shows the important role played by the Muslim Brotherhood, a group considered terrorist by some countries, that supported the initial revolution but then betrays it and makes a deal with the military, resulting in one of its leaders, Mohammed Morsi, being elected president in the first democratic elections in the country, allegedly due to a lack of a better choice. His government too took a violent stance against the people who were still protesting as there was no improvement in Egypt. Morsi was also removed from power and replaced again by the military, which then targets members of the Muslim Brotherhood, showing the little progress the revolution has achieved as well as the partial division which has been created in the country.

I enjoyed the film because it follows the events as they were occurring thus showing how the life of protestors was. It also shows the movement from the perspective of the protestors hence depicting their struggle and their motivations for seeking change and makes the viewer feel compassionate with them. The movie also shows some tragic realities of the twenty first century particularly relating to the abuse of power and the inability or unwillingness of governors to rule for their people.

Occupation Nation - "An Occupy Wall Street Documentary" This documentary dealt with the Occupy Wall Street movement that took place in New York a few years ago. It provided a lot of historical context and showed how history inevitably repeats itself (referencing events such as the Industrial Revolution). It was filmed in an interesting way, as it did not focus on one particular person or follow a chronological order but was instead a bunch of snippets from news channels, interviews, etc. all put together. The film explored the various opinions on the movement (showing the negative and positive views people had), and the experiences of some of the protesters. It also showed how the movement grew from just being in New York to spreading across America, and later becoming a global phenomenon. Overall, I think the movie was very interesting to watch. At times, the lack of proper structure was a bit distracting, but it also engaged me. The black and white "classic style" slides with the writing were my favourite part, because they would provide some information about what was going to be shown and they used sarcasm. - Faria

Kinsey, 2004

Alfred Kinsey, best known for his "Kinsey Scale" (a spectrum that indicates the extent of someone's homosexuality), was a biologist-turned-sex scientist who infamously studied sexual behavior and reactions in humans in the 1940's and 50's. The movie Kinsey focuses on his transformation from a young, repressed Christian into a provocative scientist, following his struggles to gain public acceptance of sexual studies as well as to control and normalize his studies in his own life. Because of the nature of Kinsey's studies, as well as his life, this movie framed his life as a drama. Though I thoroughly enjoyed the movie's portrayal of sexuality as repressive, homophobic, and misogynistic, I thought that the dramatization of Kinsey's private life, as well as his assistants' private lives, was excessive and detracted from the importance of Kinsey's discoveries and the effects they had on society. Despite this over-dramatization of private affairs, I found that the movie displayed societal norms adequately; for example, the movie's portrayal of homophobia through character interactions showed how naturalized hate against homosexuals truly was in that time period. It also displayed the activeness of the homosexual community, on the other hand, which is sometimes neglected in movies that aim to highlight differences between modern day sexual culture and past sexual cultures. The theme of misogyny, especially through repression of female sexuality or the idea of women being "unclean", was particularly prevalent through the film's portrayal of women. In one scene, for example, Kinsey talks to a young couple that cannot comfortably have sexual relations. Kinsey, being accustomed to performing oral sex and other taboos on his wife, suggests that the husband performs more extensive foreplay on the wife, to which both the husband and wife are shocked and ignorant about the acts that Kinsey explains, though all of these acts would be considered normal in modern day sexual culture. In that same scene, the wife becomes upset because she feels that she is the one who is preventing the couple from enjoying sex, reinforcing the societal idea that women are to facilitate sex but they cannot receive or enjoy pleasure. Overall, Kinsey reflects the oppressive sexual cultural structures that society experienced before the sexual revolutions of the 60's and 70's, helping us understand what kind of issues lead to sexual revolution movements. -- Annika

"Occupation Nation", 2013

Occupation Nation is an absolute smattering of ideas ranging from every time period, culture, social group, genre, class, interest, media type and social movement to give an overview of the occupy movement from Wall Street to the world. The fast-paced documentary opens with a visual demonstration of despotism versus democracy taken from a 1950s-esque film set to electronic music. Without narration the documentary goes on to explain the collapse of the banking system and the origin of the occupy movement. It connects ideas to explain the movement an eclectic mix of clips from pop culture and music, media, interviews and really anything it can get its hands on. Monty Python, The O’Reiley Factor and factory workers all make an appearance. The movement spreads to the world and back in time with police brutality, capitalist hate, various solidarity movements, mis-representation from the media etc. It seemed by the end of the film that nearly everything had been occupied and every interest of anyone in the 99% reflected, and indeed the final silent film narration slide of the documentary explicitly states such. Watching this movie further confused me on the occupy movements intentions as it gave more random yet connected events. I also found it humorous, in the way that adults laugh at children with their strange misconceptions of abstract ideas. At the end I felt as though I had just come down from an hour and two minute long acid trip through a bunch of wibbly wobbly ninetyniney percenty stuff. The group is a large enough percent of the population to be outraged, but even larger are the number of backgrounds they come from and the goals and meanings they bring to the organizations and protests. The one thing that this conglomeration of people and ideas across the world and across time have in common is spite of the one percent. The greedy, controlling tyrants of the economy that may outweigh the ninety nine in money and power, but are outdone nearly one hundred to one in sheer human will. But it takes all of these people abandoning their ways of life and joining together to accomplish each of their individual reasons for protest. - Chris Barry

The movie “Grizzly Man” was produced in 2005 and based on the life of Timothy Treadwell. Timothy spent months at a time in a remote area of Alaska called the “Grizzly Maze”, an area where the bears spent their summer months. There was no denying the passion and care Timothy felt towards the bears. As the documentary proceeded I believe Timothy began to do more harm than good. His work with children was undeniably beneficial because of his first hand knowledge. The wildlife and civilization are two different worlds; however, are not meant to merge face to face. His interfering with the animal kingdom for many years possibly had numerous bears poached. Men are not supposed to be that close with animals and his close contact could of created trust barriers between the two species that aren’t meant to exist. Timothy’s failure to accept the ways of the animal kingdom showed the audience there was distress and complications in his personal life. The movie also suggests his failure to accept civilization and his own personal dislike for it, left his mind clouded and confused. Timothy was by no means a bad person but the heroic title he gave himself “Protector of the bears” could be debated. He never encountered any danger from poachers while in the Grizzly Maze. Not to degrade his passion for the bears but I perceive his dislike for civilization as a monumental reason for his unique personality and affection directed towards the grizzly bears. - Matt McPhedrian

The Wall: A World Divided and After The Wall – A World United I personally really enjoyed this Documentary about the Berlin Wall and realized how much history was really behind it that we may have all not been aware of. The documentary elaborates on how the Berlin wall finally fell and changed a course of modern history after 40 years of division and pain. After World War 2 Germany was left divided into the East(soviets) and West (French, U.SA and British) which left Berlin in the middle of both and also left them to be divided in half where 1 half was under Soviet control. With there being strong control in east due to the communist government people began migrating to the west which created more of an issue within itself. As people started migrating in order to get away from this control people began to build the wall to further divide these people. With all these changes going on it also included the creation of a freedom movement at the “Protestant Church” where everyone was accepted and welcome to join- very different than previous rules of separating East and West. George H. W. Bush received a phone call from the Chancellor of West Germany explaining how he felt of what had previously happened the night before in Berlin, where the wall coming down was actually a bureaucrat mistake. On Nov. 9th 1989 the world changed when the wall fell after 28 years of violence and separation, due to the mistake boarder guards were given no instruction, being unable to control the crowd as they crossed sides and it was the end of an era. - Alli Gallagher

“An Inconvenient Truth,” (2006).-Jason Brown

An Inconvenient Truth is a documentary style film made by a famous politician/environmentalist, Al Gore. I found it very interesting to watch this documentary and view the certain arguments Al Gore made now that 10 years have passed. Throughout the documentary he made many sweeping statements such as the ocean water level rising 20 feet due to melting ice caps and the strength of hurricanes increasing. He used an array of statistical data to back up his arguments that made anything he said very convincing. A few of his arguments i believed were over exaggerated but was intended to represent a broader message. There has been a notable change of the environment due to human contact that is evolving at a exponential rate. However, in all of his examples i was not completely sure if everything was directly correlated with climate change or he made it work to his advantage.

His general argument is that the temperature of the planet is changing due to human interactions with the earth. He introduces theories such as the greenhouse effect animated into a very cute cartoon that simplifies a scientific argument into something anyone can understand. The film reminded me of the discussion we had in class considering if their are certain credentials to become an environmentalist. We tend to believe it is a highly scientific discussion to be had but the documentary shows a politician giving very persuasive arguments about climate change. I think the movie helped to turn an eye on to man made climate change and hopefully made it a more talked about subject. As seen in class, climate change has been an argument building and evolving for a long period of time. The general incorporation of man being at the root of environmental change is evident in activists that we looked at such as Rachel Carson.

“The Gate of Heavenly Peace” (1995)

The main focus of this documentary is the democratic crisis taking place in China on the fourth of June in 1989 at Tiananmen Square. What I found amazing and fair about this doumentary is that it consists of plenty of detail and represents many differnet aspects or voices at the time, including the government, the student union, the parents, the soilders, even the outside citizens. Therefore, I conclude that this doumentary is able to give us a basic hint of what happened at that time.

However, since I was born in China and heard of some of this issue, I became more sensitive and cautious when I watched it. And what I found questionable about this documentary is the English translation. Since I also watched it in a original(Chinese) version a few months ago, I found a couple of key tanslation mistakes in this documentary, which I think kind of twisted some of the points of the original narratives, based on my own understanding. I have no idea whether those were deliberately mistaken or not, I am sure this kind of thing could result in some political basis or arguments among the audience.

Oveall, I think this is a fair conducted documentary. Though lengthy, it is able to provide fair video or audio evidene. But what can make it better is the translation I guess.