Film festival's documentaries explore varied worlds

Film festivals are for exploring, learning and taking chances that the next 90 minutes will provide an adventure and peak experience. There were many at October’s 7th annual Friday Harbor Film Festival.

Fresh off the boat, I squeezed into a full theater for Peter Jackson’s “They Shall Not Grow Old,” bringing Britain’s version of World War I to the screen in living color and with the soldiers own words, from their letters and journals.

Jackson, the “Lord of the Rings” saga director, oversaw a highly skilled crew with the technical proficiency to colorize and almost literally bring to life and to the present moment the men, women, animals, landscape and carnage of the war.

The film starts with black and white stills, propaganda posters and the herky jerky movement of 1914 film footage. About 10 minutes in, the screen fills with color, the same footage brought to 21st century life. Amazing.

And all the words are the soldiers’, a tale traveling from the optimism of first summer training camps to war weary veterans arriving back home in November 1918.

The best film I saw, for its cinematography, narrative, theme and current issue of immigration presented, was “The River and the Wall,” following five environmentalists as they followed the Rio Grande River from El Paso, Texas to the Gulf of Mexico, by bike, foot, horseback and canoe. The scenery was panoramic, varied and breathtaking.

The travelers paddled into the Gulf of Mexico 75 days and 1,200 miles later. The trip itself is a difficult journey and an incredible adventure.

The issue at hand is President Trump’s wall along the Mexican border. There were many talking head interviews, including U.S. Reps. Will Hurd (R-Tex) and Beto O’Rourke (D-Tex) whose districts straddle the border. More revealing were the words of river guide Austin Alvarado, brought to the U.S. undocumented from Mexico as a child. Alvarado paddles Texas rivers; he reflects on the complexities of becoming an American citizen and the sacrifices his parents have made.

In 30 hours I viewed six full length films and another six shorts. The films allow reflection on current events and history, around the corner and around the world. Present moment realities, included salmon, orcas and the drastic solution of breaching Snake River dams (“Dammed to Extinction”) and, very differently, the life of Ruth Bader Ginsberg (“RBG”) and Easter Island residents (“Eating up Easter”).

Around the world, in Europe, world war in 1914 changed everything for everyone. In a very different way, the decade long effort to put men on the moon in the 1960s changed everything (“Mission Control: The Unsung Heroes of Apollo”).

That is the beauty of film, beyond the cinematography, technical mastery, the story telling and the subject matter.

Well-crafted documentaries take us outside ourselves, not only to the Rio Grande, but into the lives of Mexican villagers and to hear the views of U.S. Congressman, Democrats and Republicans, both. Film makers allow us to learn of the personal struggle of young adults residing in the States but born in foreign countries. They help us understand the interest and commitment Peter Jackson has in history and to film making and Ken Balcomb’s defiant dedication to orcas, salmon and our regional ecosystem.

A good film festival will share the journey of NASA engineers aiming for the moon and a Supreme Court justice reaching for equality and keep the viewer equally engaged and looking forward to the next film.

They is what the Friday Harbor Film Festival accomplishes.

The 2020 festival starts Oct. 23. Plan to go and be challenged by “Stories of the Pacific Rim and Beyond.”