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r VOLUME 15, ISSUE 26
APRIL 3, 2014
Full Frame returns for 17th year Over 90 films screening in downtown Durham
Machinal Theater Studies brings the drama to life, pg. 3
Shakira Recess reviews Shakira’s latest, pg. 6
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editor’s note ss recess r
R recess editors old duke fantasies...
The moment that changed Dr. Jerome Motto forever came in the 1970s, when he was a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco. “I went to this guy’s apartment,” he told Tad Friend for The New Yorker. “In his thirties, lived alone, pretty bare apartment. He’d written a note and left it on his bureau. It said, ‘I’m going to walk to the bridge. If one person smiles at me on the way, I will not jump.’” Friend recalls spending three full hours talking about the Golden Gate Bridge with Motto—who’d since become a campaigner to build a suicide barrier—during their interview in 2003. It’s a moving story, a heartbreaking pair of arcs. Touched by the barren isolation of another human being, someone else’s crippling loneliness, an observer took it upon himself to change the conditions of the other’s misery. But the bridge was never what produced it. Friend acknowledges this in his piece, writing that though a barrier would prevent suicides, “to build one would be to acknowledge that we do not understand each other.” He responds to the famous boast by the Golden Gate’s chief engineer, that the bridge would demonstrate man’s domination of nature: “…and so it did. No engineer, however, has discovered a way to control the wildness within.” Since then that wildness has taken too many. Last month, The New Yorker ran an-
Lauren Feilich [editor]................................................................................. #etg or fob Eliza Strong [managing]............................................................................... yellowcard MC Bousquette.[music]........................................................................................ haim Megan Rise [film]......................................................................................... boyz2men Kathy Zhou [arts]........................................................................................ hoobastank Eliza Bray.[photo]..................................................................................... smashmouth Prashanth Kamalakanthan [online]......................................................................... yg
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other story called “The Neglected Suicide Epidemic,” highlighting trends reported in various other publications. The picture is alarming: between 1999 and 2010, the number of Americans aged 35 through 64 who took their own lives jumped by nearly a third. Suicide has surpassed car accidents as the leading cause of injury-related death in America. In one French study, one out of five 15-year-old girls reported trying to kill themselves in the past year. Across the developed world, in fact, “self-harm is now the leading cause of death for people 15 to 49, surpassing all cancers and heart disease,” as Newsweek reported in 2013. Why, though? Reading these numbers, it’s tempting to ask what’s happening to the people around us. But it’s not exactly everyone. Over the same decade that saw a surge in suicides among middle-aged whites, rates among black and Hispanic people of the same age grew less than a point. Although they’re more likely to be poor, members of these communities seem “more enduringly tied by the bonds of faith and family,” observes Tony Dokoupil. And research suggests that while it’s true that poor people report being less happy than the wealthy, they also seem to find their lives more meaningful. Where, amid poverty and oppression, do the underprivileged find meaning? Recently in The Guardian, David Graeber summarized a spate of new studies describing the psychological differences between rich and poor. The findings show how, on multiple counts, working class people are just more empathetic creatures. “They care more about their friends, families and communities,” writes Graeber. “In aggregate, at least, they’re fundamentally nicer.” I think about these stories in my final year at a prestigious research university, an institution increasingly resembling a stamp of access to a decent standard of living. I wonder: at what cost? Beginning with the admissions essay, fledg-
ling undergraduates are expected to forge a distinct narrative for themselves. They must be unique, outstanding, able to overcome adversity with wit and hustle. They plunge down that solitary road, customizing everything from their balance of work (school-, home-, extracurricular, social media) to their lattes at campus coffee shops. Those that continue on to graduate programs enter an even lonelier world, one known for encouraging social detachment and fostering depression at as much as seven times the normal rate. And when students look up from their books, their cellphones, their Facebook profiles—what do they see then? A sea of alien faces? Has college become an education in isolation? The beauty of fiction, George Saunders once told The New York Times Magazine, is that it “softens the border between you and me.” So much of creating compelling characters, he reflected during his recent visit to Duke, has to do with learning to “meld yourself with them,” asking how—put in the same set of circumstances—you might react. It’s a useful exercise for any human being, not just those interested in fiction writing. The story of the star youth is surely a seductive one, and probably a tool that works wonders in teasing out alumni contributions. But how many cosmic coincidences—beginning with the location of your birth—have landed you in this place about to hand you a certificate of difference? How many poor friends do you have, exactly? As we leave this institution so devoted to the production of individuals (much better consumers when alone), it may be hard to see the human in others. But you and I and the children of East Durham all share something irreducibly the same. Acknowledging this truth may unsettle our notions of the world, but in obscuring it, we risk disappearing into the darkness. -Prashanth Kamalakanthan
DUKE PERFORMANCES IN DURHAM, AT DUKE, THE WORLD, JUST OUTSIDE YOUR DOOR.
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Archibald Motley Jazz Age Modernist On view through May 11, 2014
Master colorist and radical interpreter of urban culture
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Archibald J. Motley, Jr., Hot Rhythm (detail), 1961. Oil on canvas, 40 x 48.375 inches (101.6 x 122.9 cm). Collection of Mara Motley, MD, and Valerie Gerrard Browne. Image courtesy of the Chicago History Museum. © Valerie Gerrard Browne. This exhibition is made possible by the Terra Foundation for American Art; the National Endowment for the Humanities: Exploring the human endeavor; and the Henry Luce Foundation. Major support is provided by the Wyeth Foundation for American Art; Drs. Victor and Lenore Behar; the North Carolina Arts Council, a division of the Department of Cultural Resources; and Deborah DeMott. This project is made possible in part by funding from the North Carolina Humanities Council, a statewide nonprofit and affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this bookmark do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
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Production questions freedom in “a world of money, men and machines” By Stepahnie Wu THE CHRONICLE
“Machinal,” by American playwright Sophie Treadwell, debuted in 1928 but was recently revived on the Broadway stage and, tonight, will premiere at Duke’s Sheafer Theater. The play is loosely based on the wellknown case of Ruth Snyder, whose 1928 execution by electric chair for murdering her husband was captured on film and published on the front page of the New York Times. In the subsequent controversy that embroiled both the journalistic world and public sphere, this case became the one of the most significant of the century. In “Machinal,” however, the focus is not on the young woman’s act of murder. Rather, the play is a witness to her struggle with life as she marries her boss, has his child, has an affair, murders her husband and is electrocuted. “What drives the play is her struggle, her desire to be free,” said Jules OdendahlJames, resident dramaturg and “Machinal” director. The young woman, nameless for most of the play, is eventually revealed as Helen Jones. Her character is just as archetypal and universal as her name—or lack of a name—suggests. “She is meant to represent any woman, any identity,” said Madeleine Pron, the Trinity sophomore who plays the young woman. Stuck within the patriarchal society of the 1920s, the young woman is a mismatched gear in the machine of society, an unwilling participant in the mechanized nature of daily life. Within this structure, she is forced into the rigidity of female constraints and expectations: work, marriage and family.
The play is defined by its disconnected, hammered dialogue, which itself seems to have been mass-produced by the all-encompassing societal machine. “It’s about a life machine, so the title is the French word for life and machine, together,” Odendahl-James said. “The way that the story is told is a very heavily sensory experience. Machine sounds, the external world…all the sounds are layering in…because she can’t shut off her brain and her senses.” The implicit perception of women as mere gears within a literally man-made machine is brought to the fore by the young woman’s interactions with men. “The husband, George H. Jones, is the named character…his title defines him and his position. He treats his interactions with the young woman as a business transaction and thinks of her as a piece of property to acquire,” said junior Thomas Kavanagh, who plays the husband. The young woman’s inability to close off the outside world and thus escape her oppressors forces her to seek an unviable freedom. The consequences she ultimately faces suggest that perhaps there is no possibility of freedom within the structure of society—perhaps freedom can only be obtained in its absence. “I hope the audience comes away wondering what other muddy, unclear social structures are designed to keep people down in their lives, what machines are running their lives and what machines they are a part of,” Kavanagh said. To this day, the message of “Machinal” is still relevant. The play’s pertinence to the present encompasses far more than issues of gender. Whether it be in our interactions with the machines of society or in our
Duke Theater Studies presents
MACHINAL April 3-5 & 10-12 at 8 pm April 6 & 13 at 2 pm Sheafer Theater Bryan Center The story of “a young woman, any woman” struggling in a world where alienation, commodification, and automation reign supreme—a world that is past, present, and future. By Sophie Treadwell Directed by Jules Odendahl-James Theater Studies faculty Photo credit: Alex Maness
tickets.duke.edu
relationships with one another, issues of oppression and constraint still prevail. “I hope that in some way, in some scene, the audience can relate to the young woman character, understand what about her situation makes her who she is and see how she relates to their life,” said stage manager Kara Post. “Machinal” questions the meaning of freedom and its potential to exist. It shines a light on a machine-like society that con-
tinues to thrive as the young woman’s story continues and repeats in the life of any woman both now and in the future. As Odendahl-James put it, “These are conversations we are still having.” “Machinal” will show in the Sheafer Lab Theater in the Bryan Center. The play opens today, April 3, at 8 p.m. and will run through April 13. Tickets are available online or at the box office. For more information, visit the Duke Theater Studies website.
VICTOR YE/THE CHRONICLE
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17th Full Frame festival to feature n
MARK SCHUELER/THE CHRONICLE
By Kathy Zhou THE CHRONICLE
More than 90 different films, new and old, were meticulously selected for the 17th annual Full Frame Documentary Film Festival. The downtown Durhambased festival, a program of Duke’s Center for Documentary Studies, begins this Thursday, April 3, and ends Sunday, April 6. The opening night film, held in the grand Fletcher Hall at the Carolina Theatre, is the world premiere of “112 Weddings” by Doug Block (“51 Birch Street,” “The Kids Grow Up”). Block, who is known for his extremely personal and autobiographical documentaries, began filming weddings on the side, and “112 Weddings” is the meeting point of his work. Combining idyllic wedding footage with recent interviews, Block speaks with nine couples who candidly and poignantly discuss their marriages, describing how
things have changed, how things have ended or how things have worked. The new documentaries vary enormously in scope, ranging from Frank Zappa’s 1982 concert in Palermo, Sicily to a Scottish family trying to raise American bison to a Barack Obama lookalike. In “Ana Ana” (Arabic for “I am me”), four women living in Cairo record their lives as artists, dancers and writers, connecting personal narratives to women’s footage to post-revolutionary Egypt. “The Hip-Hop Fellow” features Grammy Award-winning producer and Duke professor, 9th Wonder, as he develops his own artistry, incorporates hip-hop music studies into academia and preserves an entire culture. In the tragic and touching “Where is My Son?” JunKyo Lee returns home to his mother, Giseon Kwon, to care for her as her memories fade, and the two provide an intimate depiction of life, family and a child’s love.
Highlights from other film festivals include Sundance Directing Award winners Ben Cotner and Duke alum Ryan White’s “The Case Against 8,” a behind-the-scenes look into the trial that overturned the constitutional amendment to repeal the right of same-sex couples to marry. Specially trained members of Human Rights Watch fearlessly investigate war crimes in Syria and Libya in “E-Team,” and in “Alive Inside,” a social worker discovers the transformative power of playing music for elderly people with dementia. “Freedom Summer” takes its audiences back to Mississippi in 1964, when 1000 students were sent to help register voters and catalyze political participation. “Soft Vengeance” focuses on Albie Sachs, a lawyer and member of the African National Conference, and his journey to abolish apartheid and rebuild South Africa. Finally, “Visitors” is a black-and-white and wordless feature, capturing faces and landscapes in a vis-
MARK SCHUELER/THE CHRONICLE
ceral portrait of modern life. This year is Full Frame’s tribute to director Steve James who, in 2009, helped compose a sports documentary lineup for the 2009 festival and will this year join some of his subjects for Q&As after the screenings of his films. The six screenings will include such seminal and award-winning films as the difficult “Stevie” (2000). After 10 years, the filmmaker returns to rural Illinois to reconnect with the troubled Stevie Fielding, for whom he had been a Big Brother. James finds that Stevie had been charged with molesting his eight-year-old cousin. As we watch him attempt to help Stevie, James and his interactions become an important part of the film as he struggles to define the role he plays as a Big Brother and as a documentarian. In “Hoop Dreams” (1994), a moving, five-year exploration of race, class and privilege, James chronicles Arthur Agee, Jr. and William Gates. The two black, inner-city Chicago teenagers are recruited for a mostly white suburban prep school’s basketball team, and we watch as they are forced to overcome obstacles to live out their dreams. Along with this film is Hoop Dreams at 20, a panel discussion celebrating the 20th anniversary of the documentary with Steve James, producer/cinematographer Peter Gilbert and subjects Arthur Agee, Jr. and Sheila Agee. Two-time Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Lucy Walker (“David Hockney IN THE NOW (in six minutes),” “Waste Land”) curated this year’s 12-film Thematic Program “Approaches to Character.” Walker has selected a series of films that showcases several filmmakers employing a variety of techniques to intimately portray their subjects. These follow Fini Straubinger in Werner Herzog’s “Land of Silence and Darkness” (1971), who after years of being confined by deafness and blindness, decides to find ways to communicate with others like herself. Then there is Lars von Trier and Jørgen Leth’s “The Five Obstructions” (2003), in which von Trier challenges Leth to remake Leth’s 12-minute film, “The Perfect Human,” five times, each with a new obstruction. For more information on lineup and tickets, visit the Full Frame website.
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new and classic documentary films Here comes Mac SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
MARK SCHUELER/THE CHRONICLE
MARK SCHUELER/THE CHRONICLE
Canadian crooner Mac DeMarco brings his self-described “jizz-jazz” to the Duke Coffeehouse April 10. Juan Wauters of The Beets will open, and the show is $7 general admission or free with a Duke ID. Look out next week for an exclusive interview with the scoundrel!
Full Frame pays tribute to director Steve James By Brad Lenz THE CHRONICLE
This year, the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival is honoring Steve James with the Full Frame Tribute. Over the years, James has directed many popular documentaries, including “Hoop Dreams,” “Stevie” and “The Interrupters.” His work is often challenging but ultimately rewarding. James is personally a big fan of Full Frame; he claims that it is “one of the best documentary film festivals out there” and that he has attended “it numerous times over the years.” He specifically praised its smaller size, which makes it “filmmaker friendly.” Like many, my first experience with the works of Steve James was his first film, “Hoop Dreams.” When I talked with Steve James this past week, he mentioned that he believes “Hoop Dreams” is the best place to start for those who have not seen any of his films. He claimed that the film is “the most representative of what I aspire to do in documentary: following stories of people who are not relatively well known,...capturing life as it unfolds” and creating an “intimate story with larger implications.” Hoop Dreams focuses on two teenagers who come from poor neighborhoods in Chicago and dream of becoming professional basketball players. The
movie chronicles the surprising twists of each boy’s basketball career but also follows their daily lives and the lives of their families. In his review of the film, Roger Ebert stated, “A film like ‘Hoop Dreams’ is what the movies are made for. It takes us, shakes us, and make us think in new ways about the world around us. It gives us the impression of having touched life itself.” Before watching the movie I was skeptical of these grandiose claims, but after three hours of laughing, crying, etc., I was sold. By the end of the film, it’s clear that while mostly the high school basketball careers of the two main characters drove the plot (and the seemingly unbelievable plot twists), they were simply a vehicle to expose much deeper and poignant truths about poverty, family and sports complexes. In “Hoop Dreams” and other James films, chance and coincidence play crucial roles. James mentioned that “we feel we have been very fortunate to have things just happen when we were there” and claimed that those moments where the unexpected happen are “the best moments in documentary filmmaking.” James stated that the key to being able to get these remarkable moments on film is “just putting in the time”—and that’s exactly what he does. “Hoop Dreams” was meant to be a quickly made 30 minute program, but slowly expanded to a three-
hour-long feature that took five years to film. Another one of James’s documentaries, “Stevie,” took over four years to film and is cited by James as the most challenging film he has made. The difficulty came not only from the amount of time the film took to make but also from the personal relationships the film featured; James had been a Big Brother to Stevie earlier in his life. Stevie was abused as a child and, soon after filming, gets into serious trouble with the law, leading to a complex documentary that forces the viewer to consider how to address individuals who are negative influences to society due to the fault of others. What with the length of many of his documentaries, James develops close ties with his subjects. He claimed that he has often been able to “maintain good relations with the subjects” but that “there are some difficult moments,” which James mentioned often comes from the fact that “sometimes subjects have a different point of view than I do.” In his films, James hopes to “come to some point of view” that is present and not created or manipulated. In order to do so, he focuses on the complexity of situations and carefully follows and puts in the time to properly understand a situation. James mentioned that in his films, expressing that point of view is sometimes more important than complete
objectivity. In the case of “Stevie,” where James has a personal connection and the situation is very emotional, there was “no way to be objective about it.” His more recent film, “The Interrupters,” tracks the missions of individuals to stop violence in brutality-prone areas of Chicago. While documenting their work might put him in potentially dangerous situations, James mentioned that he never felt any real danger due to the fact that he was with “highly-regarded, highly-respected interrupters.” Because he was focused on shooting, it pushed away “any concerns that might crop up.” The Full Frame Documentary Film Festival will also be screening a double feature of “At The Death House Door,” about an executioner and the death penalty, and “A Place Called Pluto,” which deals with a man’s experience with Alzheimers. Also screening is “Reel Paradise,” about a couple who took an opportunity to program films for the world’s most remote movie theater. Commemorating the 20th anniversary of “Hoop Dreams” is the appropriatelytitled special event, “Hoop Dreams at 20.” Many screenings of James’s films will have a Q&A afterward with the director and some of his subjects. At Full Frame, James recommends “Happy Valley,” “The Great Invisible” and “The ETeam.
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6 | thursDAY, April 3, 2014 SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
MUSIC Dan Croll Sweet Disarray Capitol Records, Universal Music
by Eliza Strong THE CHRONICLE
There’s something intensely, enchantingly likeable about Dan Croll’s debut, “Sweet Disarray,” probably not least because rarely has something so polished and professional emerged from an abandoned gym-turnedrecording studio, self-produced with the help of friends. The British singer-songwriter burst onto the music scene in 2013 as a rising star to watch, according to iTunes, Vevo, Spotify, XFM and many others. He has opened for the likes of CHVRCHES, Bombay Bicycle Club, Haim and Bastille, and has appeared at a number of summer music festivals. With this track record, it’s no surprise that his career has skyrocketed and made “Sweet Disarray” one of 2014’s most anticipated albums. But does “Sweet Disarray” live up to the hype? Croll draws from such a wide variety of influences that each song is both unique and unexpected, yet the album manages to find a coherent flow. It’s extraordinarily difficult to categorize, falling generally in the alt-pop genre, but doesn’t comfortably rest there. Elements of experimental African orchestra are interwoven with 1960s psychedelic groove and overlaid with synthy vocals and impressive instrumental variety. Croll’s work falls within the same vein as acts like Volcano Choir, Beirut and Bon Iver, or maybe even an extremely
chilled-out Beck, at the intersection between dreamy vocals and synth beats. ‘From Nowhere’ opens the record as a perfectly representative sample of Croll’s style, a synth-pop masterpiece of undulating rhythm and soothing vocals. He is Alt-J turned down a few notches and smoothed over, or Hey Marseilles with more effects and sans violin. This is followed by the uplifting, unassuming ‘Thinking About You’ that highlights beautiful vocal layering, particularly at the bridge, and is emotionally padded with lyrics like, “Slow down, I want you to come round/To thinkin about me.” His instrumentation is executed and mixed with such flawless ease that at first the listener may hardly notice just how many different elements Croll weaves into each song. ‘Can You Hear Me’ and ‘Compliment Your Soul’ demonstrate this in cascades of soft keys and clean percussion sprinkled over strings, brass and split harmonies. His songs are graceful and infectious, seeming to echo inside even after they finish, like shimmering ‘Only Ghost’ and thoughtful ‘Maway.’ ‘In/Out’ has a warm, accessible catchiness characteristic of bouncing alt-pop, simultaneously reminiscent of Paul Simonesque world music influences. The title track is buried eighth but stands out with gorgeously arranged harmonic precision and Croll’s troubadour emotional gravitas. His lyrics may tend towards sentimentality at times, as in ‘Home,’ but the melody is so entrancingly beautiful that this detracts little. The track is a sweet ending to Croll’s captivating debut record. Effervescent and consistently pleasant, Croll doesn’t exactly challenge the listener with songs as slopingly caressing as ‘Wanna Know,’ but his aim is clearly not to be challenging. “Sweet Disarray” is all about craftsmanship and finding harmony between disparate musical elements, and at this it resoundingly succeeds.
Meet AwArd-winning nAture PhotogrAPher FeAtured in docuMentAry Chasing iCe
James Balog 2014 Duke LeAF™ AwArD recipient griFFith theAter bryAn center, Duke cAmpus A reception and open house will follow the event in the new Duke environment hall (circuit Drive)
photo by Jeff Orlowski/Extreme Ice Survey
2 PM sat., aPril 12
Photo by Mary Cybulski
Free and oPen to the PubliC, but tiCkets to the leaF CereMony are required.
tickets.duke.edu • 919.684.4444
niCholas.duke.edu/leaF
MUSIC
SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE
Shakira Shakira Sony Latin, RCA
by Drew Haskins THE CHRONICLE
Colombian superstar Shakira’s selftitled new album is a bit of an oddity. On the one hand, it boasts the catchy singles and prodigious vocal talent that has made her the world’s most famous Spanish-speaking singer, yet it is somewhat difficult to discern where “Shakira” will ultimately place in her artistic legacy. Lyrically, the album is the happiest one of her career as it deals with themes of parenthood, love and stability. Instrumentally, it all too often sounds boring and indistinguishable. The record finds Shakira largely moving back to the folk rock of her early career, with the exception of a few tracks that digress in genre and yield mixed results. The best of these is the lead single ‘Can’t Remember to Forget You,’
on which she teams up with Rihanna for a ska rock track that sounds like the best No Doubt song Gwen Stefani never wrote. It’s the catchiest track on the album. Shakira and Rihanna have great duet chemistry and their idiosyncratic vocals blend well. The two other duets on the album—‘Medicine’ with Shakira’s fellow “The Voice” judge Blake Shelton and ‘Cut Me Deep’ with Canadian band Magic!—are more problematic. Shelton and Shakira also prove to have good chemistry yet are mired in a generic and playedout country rock sound. ‘Cut Me Deep’ is just a wan attempt at reggae that fails to showcase Shakira’s knack for lyricism. Much of “Shakira” is filled with adult contemporary pop rock, which generally runs the gamut from pleasant to bland. The album’s best song is ‘Empire,’ a rock anthem that highlights all of her skills in the best way possible. There’s her delightfully strange voice, which, on this track, sounds like her take on a Tori Amos song. Also present is Shakira’s penchant for odd lyrics like “And my heart beats/Like the empires of the world unite.” Above all, there’s an absolutely perfect hook. The chorus is essentially wordless, with Shakira whooping over a parade-like beat. It’s an excellent expression of unadulterated joy and love, and deserves to be included in her pantheon of great singles along with ‘Hips Don’t Lie’ and ‘She Wolf.’ Quite frankly, the often staid “Shakira” could have used more songs like ‘Empire’ to give it more of a pulse.
This week in the Recess blog, Playground, check out an interview with comedian W. Kamau Bell w w w. d u k e c h r o n i c l e. c o m / b l o g s / p l a y g r o u n d / p o s t s