Oscar-nominated documentaries gripping and revealing
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"The Barber of Birmingham" looks at civil rights battles.
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A Pakistani woman named Zakia, weary of a husband who was an abusive drug addict and alcoholic, went to court to divorce him.
"So you want to divorce me? I'll make a spectacle out of you for the world to see," he said, right before he threw battery acid in her face.
When we first see the 39-year-old in the Oscar-nominated documentary short "Saving Face," the left side of Zakia's face seems erased as if by a visual-effects expert. But this is real, and an eye is gone, her lips pulled to the side as the burned skin tightens and her nose disfigured.
She is not alone in suffering the ravages of an acid attack. More than 100 are reported in Pakistan each year, with many more unreported, the short film by Daniel Junge and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy reveals.
They examine the plight of victims, efforts to impose mandatory sentences for attackers, and the work of a Pakistani-born cosmetic surgeon who travels from Britain to operate on the women and return to them a measure of dignity, freedom and happiness.
The 40-minute short, harrowing and hopeful, premieres March 8 on HBO but will be shown at Pittsburgh Filmmakers' Melwood Screening Room in Oakland with other Oscar-nominated short documentaries. They will be screened today at 8 p.m., Saturday at 5 and 8 p.m. and Sunday at 3 p.m. and repeat next weekend. (See theaters.pittsburgharts.org.)
The program (3.5 stars, PG-13 in nature for subject matter) is 130 minutes long and also includes three of the four other nominees:
• "The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement" by Robin Fryday and Gail Dolgin.
• "Incident in New Baghdad" by James Spione.
• "The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom" by Lucy Walker and Kira Carstensen.
Licensing issues prevent inclusion of the fifth, "God Is the Bigger Elvis," about actress Dolores Hart, who walked away from Hollywood to become a Benedictine nun. However, to have the documentary shorts (along with the animated and live-action shorts) in town before the Academy Awards is a treat.
The shorts range from the 19 minutes of "The Barber of Birmingham" to the 40 minutes each of "Saving Face" and "The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom."
"The Barber" tells the story of the civil rights movement through an 85-year-old barber, a 97-year-old woman and others who remember efforts to disenfranchise African-Americans. They faced batons, beatings, repeated arrests, literacy and other tests (read a section of the Constitution and interpret it to the registrar's satisfaction) and roadblocks when they tried to register to vote.
First Published February 10, 2012 12:00 am
