En route to Italy, I got to watch a lot of interesting films.  Here’s what I recommend.

An NFB short film from ’72 was worth watching.  Part of the Challenge for Change series (which made famous Fogo Island, NF) is a 14 min. film, A Bus- For Us about a bus service in Ottawa. Residents of the then suburb, Beaconsfield,  had no public transit. So they banded together and hired several school buses with drivers to ferry residents to downtown Ottawa and back for slightly more than the price of a public transit ticket — 50 cent in those days.  This was a community action to get transportation from OC Transpo and you see people power– in action in the ’70s.

“My mom says High school is where you go to get shot, high or pregnant,” says Starr, the protagonist in the film The Hate You Give.  In this film, made from the best selling book of the same name, Starr, is a black girl from a middle class black suburb in a US city whose parents send her to a  a pricey private mostly white school, rather than the local high school.  Starr  becomes an unwilling witness to a police shooting. Her best friend is shot by police when he  gives the police some attitude in a stop check.  The film moves fast and is clever and of course — wholly believable.  Worth watching.

I also watched Lemonade.  This feature film is about a Rumanian immigrant mother to the US and her 9 year old son.  Sensitive and deftly done — it shows what happens to immigrants who come with money and a bit of professional status.  Shocking and well worth watching. Here is the Trailer.