This isn't a film blog, is it?

I'm lucky to have seen two great films this week.

The first, a showing of The Judge and The General, thanks to the Institute for Policy Studies and their obsessed Latin American issues staff. It was at The Avalon, not far from the Friendship Heights metro. Patricio Guzman, who is the famous documentalist of Chile (especially on the topic of the dictator Pinochet), was a coproducer. After the film, the judge himself sat in front of the audience to provide some lengthy answers to some heavy questions. I was mostly basking in the glow, but what the story is compelling: a priveleged judge awakens to the horrors inflicted on the people of Chile by Pinochet, and becomes the very first in Chile to indict him for the murder of los desaparecidos (the disappeared ones).

Tonight it was Into the Wild, which I watched with my parents while home for some birthdays. Great, great cinematography (half of that was thanks to nature for being so abundant) for a really beautiful, and ultimately tragic, story of a troubled guy who sets out to live on shoestrings, on a circuitous journey into Alaskan wilderness, in order to cope with his childhood and "society" that plagues him. Instead, he ends up finding out what true happiness is.. while leaving behind a trail of acquaintances he touched. This one hit a little close to home for me and probably my parents too. Africa is a wilderness to us here in the states, and I certainly don't appreciate how harsh I can be on my parents with my decisions.. but I know I won't truly be alone where I am going. This film will stay with me for a good long while.