Ray Pride

Injustice to resist and a quest redemption are powerful components to make a documentary dramatic, memorable and necessary, and Ricki Stern and Anne Sundberg’s powerful, infuriating, ennobling advocacy doc, "The Trials of Darryl Hunt," about a North Carolina man who was wrongfully convicted of murder and rape, imprisoned for twenty years and was later freed through DNA testing, draws on two decades of footage during a succession of trials that speak devastatingly of institutional incompetence and racial and class bias. I could tell you how wrenching, how hateful, how hurtful, how heartbreaking, how ultimately moving this film is, but you should see for yourself rather than have to discount potential hyperbole. In the film, Hunt shows forgiveness and grace, and after seeing the film, I was deeply moved when I met him: who among us would be so gentle after being so wronged? Disclosure: I was part of a jury at the 2000 Bendfilm Festival in Bend, Oregon, which awarded "The Trials of Darryl Hunt" the $10,000 "Best of Show" prize. 106m.

"The Trials of Darryl Hunt" opens Friday at Facets.

(2007-07-31)

Also by Ray Pride

Somewhere Over the Rainbo
A reformed Rainbo Club regular visiting from out of town always calls this Ukrainian Village mainstay a "self-selecting slum-ocracy," but on his current visit he’s fixed on but one thing: "The ugly bus pulled up outside, and it’s got big wheels"
(2007-07-24)

The Odyssey
While almost all of the roaring eighty-eight minutes of "The Simpsons Movie" was fresh to me, the reason why is also the reason why some fast-moving bits and details were lost to me: I’ve seldom seen more than five minutes of the series in all its years on the air
(2007-07-24)

Tip of the Week
Canadian artists descend upon the fallen world: "Manufactured Landscapes," Deborah Baichwal’s memorable, stately, often-stunning documentary, follows Canadian fine arts landscape photographer Edward Burtynsky to China, where he captures beautiful, large-scale images in large format of the epic damage man wreaks on nature
(2007-07-24)

Space Odyssey
Scots-born director Danny Boyle’s protean imagination tends to the tactile, the immediate, the blood-rushing, the trippy: think "Trainspotting," "Miracles," "28 Days Later" and its sequel, "28 Weeks Later," which he supervised. His latest, "Sunshine," is no different, tending more toward the mind-expanding drift of "2001: A Space Odyssey" or the "Solaris" of Tarkovsky and of Soderbergh or the claustrophobia of "Das Boot" or "Wages of Fear" than to the pop-pow of "Armageddon."
(2007-07-17)

Tip of the Week
(2007-07-17)

Bombs Away
(2007-07-13)

iPhone Has a Home
(2007-07-10)

Tip of the Week
(2007-07-10)

Well Enough in the Margins
(2007-07-10)

Bay Watching
(2007-07-02)

Tip of the Week
(2007-07-02)

More Moore
(2007-06-26)

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