A MOST BEAUTIFUL THING (B+) - This moving documentary is full of heart and positivity as it revisits alums of Chicago high schools all-black rowing team from the late '90s and reunites them in the present day. This succeeds on the personality and relatability of its cast of men who survived the city's dangerous West Side and lived to tell the tale.
Director Mary Mazzio ("I Am Jane Doe") doesn't overreach but instead lets the men tell their story. She doesn't lean on any one of them in particular, but each develops a personality over the course of an hour and a half. Almost all of them tell tales of abuse, drug-addicted mothers or serious brushes with the law in the 20-year interim since their improbable emergence in the mostly white sport of rowing.
Mazzio, with writing help from Robert Fitzgerald and Alec Sokolow, has Common as narrator and a stable of producers that includes some NBA royalty and the Winklevoss twins from Facebook infamy. Visually, she is blessed with a slice of bucolic beauty on Chicago's West Side, with the iconic skyline as a backdrop.
The first half of the film is the strongest, because it focuses on the origin story. Things deflate a bit in the second half as the film turns into a reunion story wherein the men resume training for another go in the boat. While this feels like a forced premise, it pays off in the end, because we really get to know the men better, in spite of the gimmick. It all builds to an emotional ending featuring a round-robin reading of Maya Angelou's "And Still I Rise."
WHAT WE LEFT UNFINISHED (C+) - This is an obscure take on an obscure subject. Five lost/unfinished films from the communist era of Afghanistan between 1978 to 1991 get their day in the sun. Mariam Ghani curates the footage and puts it in perspective with the present-day help of some of the filmmakers and actors.
Ghani adds a bit of historical perspective of the time between the monarchy and the Taliban -- including the 10-year Soviet occupation -- but how can you fully convey the convoluted political structure of Afghanistan at the time? The old filmmaking seems impossibly crude, though the effort is somewhat impressive, considering the obstacles that were faced and the lack of a cinematic foundation. It is difficult to get excited about the lost films of Afghanistan's checkered past.
A few tidbits stand out. One filmmaker explains how live ammunition was used on the set of his film because blanks simply were not available; they simply relied on the skills of the marksmen to miss their target while looking like they hit it. No reports of accidental deaths are reported.
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