The Singing Revolution
The Singing Revolution is a refreshing movie. When the oppressor believes his own lies and doesn't dare to kill anymore to preserve his power, it is only a matter of time until said power is overcome by... songs. The interpretation is mine, since the documentary only provides historical testimony, as reviewed by the many parties involved. The movie making technique is nothing fancy, and the archive footage is of varying quality, but the storytelling is relentless, and the subject has a power of its own. Thumb up! Note: 7.
Showing this week only at the Kendall Square Theater. Hurry to watch it! See the schedule for your city.
Reviews in The New York Times, and on CNSNews.com. More here, (Cám ơn, Amara).
Update (2008-06-08): I had missed the movie in NYC back in February, but I saw it in Boston this weekend. After the movie, the authors were there to answer questions. Apart from discussing the story of how they made the film amidst cronic financial difficulties, they mentionned that they had had to cut their original 4 hour movie down to 90 minutes, which is why they glossed over most of what happened in other baltic and communist countries at the time. They promised some extra material covering these topics as well as extending the Estonian story in an upcoming DVD release. And they have 80 hours of interviews that they seek to donate to some museum or memorial organization.
Now, what the movie and authors didn't try to discuss was why the commies lost the will to perform mass killings and why those who hadn't lost that will found themselves on the losing side when they finally attempted their coup. A peaceful singing revolution is all nice and well, but it didn't work in China, Tibet, Burma, and other countries where the regime hasn't lost the will to survive at the expense of the life and property of the oppressed.
The authors claimed that they tried to not give any interpretation, only in showing the raw events and letting them speak for themselves, and other people to interpret later. They had the major involved estonian parties review the various drafts of the movie in separate viewing sessions until they would all agree that it was a accurate and balanced account of the events. Of course that this partial presentation of the visible facts easily leads to skewed interpretations, by leaving out the less visible yet extremely important facts about the invisible history of the communist regime, its omnipotent yet incapable sclerotic power structure, its economic collapse versus the economic competition of "the west" (that otherwise had feckless diplomacy and incoherent military strategy), etc.
All in all, a very enjoyable movie, great for the feeling and the remembering, even though it doesn't contribute much to the understanding. At least, it doesn't spread the usual sources of misunderstanding, and instead brings a nice antidote. Sure, the movie can be construed as nationalist propaganda (though it's targeted at a foreign audience and is in no way offensive), and has a few tiny bits of democratic naivete, but really nothing too bad.