Monday, December 10, 2007

Ethiopians in a Strange Land


Journey to Lasta is probably the first and only film most of us will ever see about expatriate Ethiopian musicians in Los Angeles. And there is always room at the buffet for these kinds of unique efforts. The fact that the film exists and tries to tell a story of three folks "trying to get over" (as Mayfield wailed in Superfly) with their music to some kind of world beat festival was worth a try. I want to embrace any film that has the promise of showing me a subculture and/or turn me on to a musical experience I never had before. I loved the way that the characters seamlessly between English and (probably) Amharic it made me question if it was even set in the US. But I never felt I knew much about these folks.

The issue I think in part is the fundamental problem of how to illustrate emotions like alienation and ennui on the screen. The nature of cinema is to engage, not disenfranchise. I sensed the same problem in an independent film, Police Beat by Seattlites Robinson Devor and Charles Mudede. The lead character, also an African immigrant, became more and more disconnected from reenactments of actual police incidents and more the outsider as he was unable to connect with his out of town lover leaving the audience feeling ???

This was the same kind of reaction in Journey to Lasta I received when watching the bass player non-communicating with his girlfriend, the drummer suffering through baby sitting, or the bands manager manipulating the group out of the last bit of dignities they had left.

Of course, there are usually upbeat endings about musicians following their dreams. But this one took a long time to get to leaving the viewer with respect for their convoluted journey, and a sense of relief that they finally got there. But I didn't feel I watched them do this on their own, it took all kinds of script conventions. As audience, I wasn't as an engaged component of their quest as should be the case in these kinds of tales.

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posted by well-executed buffet at 7:02 AM
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