The Unmaking of a College

Hampshire College president Miriam Nelson is surrounded by disgruntled students.

(2022) Documentary (Zeitgeist) Ken Burns, Miriam “Mim” Nelson, Marlon Becerra, Margaret Cerullo, Nya Johnson Andrew Del Banco, Cheyenne Palacio-McCarthy, Moon West, Holden Tharp, Andrew Gordon, Rhys MacArthur, Joshua Berman, Adam Falk, Salman Hameed, Adele Simmons, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, Mingda Zhao, John Buckley, Lynda Pickbourn, Annie Wood. Directed by Amy Goldstein

 

College campuses have traditionally been a hotbed when it comes to demonstrations for causes. From civil rights, to antiwar demonstrations in the Sixties right up through now, when protests against climate change denial and racial injustice continue to pop up in colleges across the country, student protests have long been an instigator for social change.

Hampshire College is, located in the beautiful Pioneer Valley in Massachusetts, along with four other schools – Amherst College, Mt. Holyoke College, Smith College, Amherst College, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. It was founded in 1970 as an experimental school which offered no set majors and allowed students to select their own curriculum. As most private liberal arts colleges tend to be, the tuition is pricy.

In 2018, the school selected their eighth president – Dr. Miriam “Mim” Nelson, whose background was as the CEO of Newman’s Own Foundation. She has also been a policy advisor on health and nutrition under President Obama. However, during the winter break in 2019, she sent out a disturbing e-mail, indicating that the college was in severe financial difficulties and was in need of a “strategic partner” to help extricate them. She scheduled a meeting while students were out on break, which seemed odd. She also announced that the school would not be accepting a freshman class in Fall 2019. For a school that relies nearly completely on tuition and fees for their budget, this would be a devastating blow, and could easily lead to the closing of the school altogether. Certainly, it would mean significant layoffs at the conclusion of the 2018-19 academic year.

The more that students heard, the more disturbing it became. It turned out that Dr. Nelson had not only not consulted with students or faculty about any of this, but she also hadn’t consulted members of her own board. In the open meetings, she used a lot of corporate-speak to discuss the financial situation with the students, who began to suspect that something was amiss. Did Dr. Nelson have ulterior motives for these sudden and unprecedented moves?

It turned out that the lack of transparency hid some things that were less than savory. Students, furious that their education was being put at risk, decided to do something about it. They staged a massive sit-in in the President’s office, with a consistent presence for 74 days. The organization that the students displayed was admirable, scheduling people so that there was a round-the-clock presence but allowing students to still attend classes.

Hampshire alum Goldstein obviously feels a kinship with the students, and this is mostly their story. We hear almost nothing other than the public statements from Dr. Nelson, or from most of the trustees with the exception of those who were in opposition to the college president. If the narrative feels one-sided, well, that’s because it is.

Most of the voices we hear are those directly involved with the story, with the exception of Hampshire alumnus Ken Burns, the noted documentary filmmaker who waxes poetic about his time at the college. The students are for the most part, articulate and interesting; the faculty members and administrators are also equally passionate about their affection for the school.

Of course, the kids can be accused of having tunnel vision – that comes with the territory. Also, being young, they can be irritating and condescending at times; I found their habit of snapping their fingers instead of applauding to be pretentious, but that’s just one curmudgeon talking, I suppose. But the great failing here is that Goldstein really never manages to make this more than a local issue; although she attempts to connect this to alarming trends in higher education, she isn’t really successful at doing so, so the documentary may well fail to appeal to those outside of New England.

But the students themselves are certainly passionate and there is some comfort to be had from that. Change has, as I mentioned early, traditionally begun on college campuses and our nation is badly in need of some right about now. It’s good to know that there are students out there still that are willing to fight to make good changes happen.

REASONS TO SEE: Indicates that there are larger problems going on in higher education.
REASONS TO AVOID: Fails to really connect the dots to what those issues are, other than the regional one for this specific school.
FAMILY VALUES: There is some profanity.
TRIVIAL PURSUITS: The sit-in in Dr. Nelson’s office lasted 74 days, the longest on a college campus to date.
BEYOND THE THEATERS: Kino Marquee
CRITICAL MASS: As of 2/25/22: Rotten Tomatoes: 71% positive reviews; Metacritic: 50/100.
COMPARISON SHOPPING: American Teacher
FINAL RATING: 5/10
NEXT: Cyrano

Advertisement

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

Happy happy joy joy.

 (2019) Biographical Drama (Netflix) Chiwetel Ejiofor, Maxwell Simba, Felix Lemburo, Robert Agengo, Fiskan Makawa, Lily Banda, Aissa Maiga, Fredrick Lukhere, Hestingzi Phiri, Rophium Banda, Philbert Falakeza, Samson Kambalu, Raymond Ofula, Noma Dumezweni, Lemogang Tsipa, Joseph Marcell, Martin Githinji, Melvin Alusa, Amos Chimpokoser, Edwin Chonde, Hilda Phiri. Directed by Chiwetel Ejiofor

 

We Americans often romanticize Africa as a place of glorious vistas and wonderful animals. Or, we demonize it as a place of corrupt governments and tribal genocide. Both of those viewpoints are incomplete; Africa is so much more. It is modern cities, but it is also small villages of subsistence farmers that are literally like living in another century.

This true story is based on the life of William Kamkwamba (Simba), a young boy with a knack for mechanical things who lives in a rural village in Malawi in abject poverty. His father Trywell (Ejiofor) faces drought and flooding, brought on when a neighboring farm sells to a tobacco company who promptly cut down all the trees whose roots held back flooding in the village with predictable results. The family was already living on the edge; now with most of their food supply destroyed and with no income from selling what they didn’t consume, things get desperate – William’s intelligent sister (Banda) is forced to withdraw from college and face a life of marriage and child-rearing, a life her mom (Maiga) knew would be a waste of her daughter’s potential. They also can’t afford the tuition at William’s school; however, he arranges with a teacher – blackmails, more like – to get access to the school library.

But William has an idea – a windmill to draw water from the village well to irrigate their farms. William has little to work with and his father, beaten down by all the obstacles he has failed to overcome, has little confidence that William’s idea will work and is unwilling to give up the bicycle chain that is crucial to the success of the windmill. The stakes couldn’t be higher for William and his family; could his knowledge of science and engineering overcome his father’s prejudices?

This is the first feature as a writer and director for Ejiofor and it’s a pretty good one. He captures all the tribulations faced by tribal villages in Africa, from political turmoil to environmental challenges to their own superstitions and traditions. That the real William Kamkwamba was able to overcome these things as a middle school-aged boy is nothing short of miraculous (today he is in his early 30s as this is written and a college graduate who has appeared on The Daily Show as well as given TED talks). Ejiofor takes great care to develop the story, but at times is a bit too workmanlike; a good director knows the shorthand needed to keep their film from bogging down. Ejiofor will acquire this skill through practice, no doubt. There’s a lot good about the movie, and it is worth checking out if for no other reason for an educational standpoint but be aware that the film has some noticeable flaws.

REASONS TO SEE: Captures the honesty of African village life.
REASONS TO AVOID: Although the payoff is inspiring, the lead-up is frustratingly over-developed.
FAMILY VALUES: There are some thematic concerns regarding poverty and starvation, but otherwise perfectly suitable for the entire family.
TRIVIAL PURSUIT: Ejiofor filmed on location in Malawi; as he did not speak the native Chichewa language, he had to learn to speak it for his character.
BEYOND THE THEATER: Netflix
CRITICAL MASS: As of 8/7/20: Rotten Tomatoes: 86% positive reviews. Metacritic: 68/100.
COMPARISON SHOPPING: William and the Windmill
FINAL RATING: 6.5/10
NEXT: Nose to Tail

Pool Boys

George Takei wonders how he got into this movie.

(2011) Comedy (Cinedigm) Matthew Lillard, Brett Davern, Efren Ramirez, Rachelle Lefevre, Tom Arnold, Robert Davi, Jay Thomas, Rhoda Griffis, Patricia de Leon, Sheena Lee, Simona Fusco, Darla Haun, Janine Habeck, Monica Leigh, Jennifer Walcott, Heather Marsden, Rachel Rogers, A.J. Alexander, George Takei, John Billingsley, Stephanie Honore. Directed by J.B. Rogers

College these days is an expensive proposition and an Ivy League school like Harvard is nearly impossible unless your folks happen to have a spare million or two burning a hole in their pockets. For the rest of us, even if we have the grades and test scores to get in the very prospect of paying for a Harvard education is a daunting task.

That’s what Alex Sperling (Davern) is looking forward to. Fortunately, he has a summer internship set up that will help offset the cost but when that falls through, he looks to his fast-talking cousin Roger (Lillard) for help. Roger has been bragging about his successful aqua engineering business but as it turns out, Roger is a bit of a story teller – his business turns out to be pool maintenance in Los Angeles. As you might expect, Alex isn’t just disappointed – he’s furious.

Roger doesn’t want to let his cuz down however. A chance opportunity to housesit for a wealthy Beverly Hills client gives Roger a hare-brained idea – to turn the mansion into a brothel. He could – ‘scuse the pun – clean up and give Alex more than he needs for his tuition. Roger knows he can’t lose, particularly with Hollywood star Tom Arnold (himself) on his side.

If this kind of thing sounds familiar, it was old hat 30 years ago. Lillard is one of those character actors whose face you probably know well if not the name. He can do goofy but a little of it goes a long way and he’s a bit over-the-top here. So too is Efren Ramirez as an over-sexed gardener. However, they at least have some personality – Davern shows little here.

Like any raunchy sex comedy, there’s plenty of raunch – lots of women in various states of undress, the occasional boob, and I will say that the women in this film are as good looking as any as you’ll find in a single movie of this sort. For those looking for that sort of thing, you can’t go wrong here.

Unfortunately most of the rest of us want some comedy with our sex comedies and there is little of that to be found here. Most of the jokes are tired and/or fall flat. Some of that is performer-driven but much of it is that the jokes weren’t that funny to begin with. That’s not a good sign if you’re looking to laugh.

WHY RENT THIS: Plenty of gorgeous swimsuit-clad (and nude) bodies.

WHY RENT SOMETHING ELSE: Doesn’t add anything to the raunchy sex comedy genre. Not funny enough.

FAMILY VALUES: Plenty of raunchy humor, sexual content and nudity, some bad language and a bit of drug use.

TRIVIAL PURSUIT: The Braille studs on Lillard’s cap read “1969.”

NOTABLE DVD EXTRAS: There’s a virtual lapdance sequence (I kid you not).

BOX OFFICE PERFORMANCE: $2,269 on an unreported production budget.

COMPARISON SHOPPING: Risky Business

FINAL RATING: 4/10

NEXT: Ender’s Game