To quote the Floyd (which J-school taught me is the first step toward responsible journalism), “Some stagger and fall, after all it’s not easy/ Banging your heart against some mad bugger’s wall.” It ain’t easy, but director Ricardo Martinez is doing exactly that with documentaryThe Wall</strong, a film chronicling the U.S. guv-ment’s attempts to construct a fence along the Mexican border (and immigrants’ far more successful attempts at scaling that fence). Hidalgo County State Rep. Aaron Peña raves, “I recommend it to all taxpayers.” But judge for yourself at 8 p.m. this Friday, September 25, when The Wall screens at theSantikos Bijou</strong(4522 Fredericksburg). A Q&A with Martinez follows, and students at UTSA and Trinity will also get their own screenings on September 28 and 29, respectively. Check out The Wall’s Facebook page for more info: facebook.com/pages/The-Wall-Documentary/79446782983.
But first, see just how damaging the politics of division can be, at least to the relationship between Barbara Streisand and Robert Redford (’cause they’d totally make sense as a couple otherwise) in Sydney Pollack’s strong>The Way We Were, screening at sundown Thursday, September 24, at HemisFair Park (200 S. Alamo) as part of the city’s free Movies by Moonlight series.
This article appears in Sep 23-29, 2009.