The Counterfeiters is about surviving and adaptation—interestingly, two elements found in Darwin’s theory of evolution, and two elements that can make for a dastardly way of living. This movie depicts surviving as meaningful only when there is a purposed existence in the end. These men resort to their base animal nature when purpose and dignity are taken from them, and then resort back to civility when they are given dignity and a job. As Braveheart’s William Wallace reminds us, “Every man dies; not every man really lives.” Life is more than existence, and human life is more than the will to survive and adapt. But those are much needed aspects when life has meaning.

This movie is about the sins of the fathers passed on to generations of boys who can’t see life beyond the barrel of their AK47s. In City of Men, the gang war is a weird background effect for two boys trying to become men by searching for the missing fathers in their lives. It ends with a sense of redemption that City of God failed to leave us with. It gives us a softer story, not nearly as violent or as dark as City of God. Personally, I believe that everyone should see both. They are movies that remind us of the violence that lie at the heart of everyone of us pushed up against the wall of despair.

The tag line for The Band’s Visitmovie is, “Once, not long ago, a small Egyptian police band arrived in Israel. Not many remember this… it wasn’t that important.” That pretty much sums up this movie. Its humdrum pace moves a slow story along very slowly. That certainly may seem to put quite a negative spin on this witty and important movie, but that’s not my intent. Kolirin does a fantastic job of communicating a cross-cultural and political message without preaching at us or making us hold hands and sing “We Are the World.” Instead, he takes his time demonstrating the point, and allowing us to feel what it’s like for tension to be relieved through hospitality, mutual sharing, and love.

“The animal we fear the most is the one we can’t live without”—so the movie begins. Right away we enter into Rob Stewart’s world of sharks, and his obvious love affair with the species. It is actually hard to be critical of the film in the sense that you feel you are treading on Stewart’s very sacred ground. This project has clearly been a focused passion since he was eight years old, and his telling of this story is infused with his intensity and his obvious love for the animal. This well-done and thoughtful 90-minute film is filled with incredible footage.

I would agree with Blame It On Fidel’s premise that you cannot control the world around you, and that all of our political and religious ideologies do not give us answers. Finally, this movie makes me think about our kids, and the way they process the world we force them into. I guess this is what we have all gone through; but is there a way to help them process these grand events in their lives in ways that are less confusing? Have we forced our children to be what we want them to be, without shaping them in a way that gives them the ability to choose well?

Outsourced is a romantic, cross-cultural comedy about Todd Anderson, a manager at a Seattle-based customer call center until his job—and the entire office—is outsourced to Mumbai, India. When he is manipulated by his insensitive, greedy boss to go to India to train his replacement, the movie does a wonderful job of presenting the beauty of India, and the cultural faux pas of many Americans traveling to such different and exotic cultures. While it is a movie about outsourcing and its consequences, the issue is presented in a way that made me reconsider the practice, forcing me to look behind the symptom to the root of the issue: contentment.

The Hip Hop Project reminds us that “the criminal mind is a creative mind. It all depends where you put your energies.” As much as this movie is about music, and the power of art in broken communities, it is also about reconciliation as former street kid Kazi Rolle travels back to the Bahamas to meet up with his foster mom, and finally with his biological mom who abandoned him at birth. This is one of those movies to think about and dialogue with—let its ethos penetrate an often lugubrious existence. And by the way—100% of the net profits from this film are being donated to organizations working with youth.

On April 11th, I sat down to talk with Christopher “Kazi” Rolle and Matt Ruskin to talk about Ruskin’s new documentary, The Hip Hop Project, which documents Rolle’s efforts to better himself—and others. Says Rolle, “Basically, Hip Hop is a culture [that combines] expressions found all over the world, and is quite universal and influential. It is a form of expression that communicates feeling and story well. It gives youth the chance to express in dance and music what they are thinking and experiencing. There is no doubt that it is not the cause of our ills, but a mirror of them. Our culture is saturated with violence and sexuality, and Hip Hop expresses that reality.”