Undocumented immigrants

Living on the border, we tend to focus on the undocumented immigrants from Mexico and

South America. Undocumented immigration is a problem throughout the world.

People of all ethnic groups living without jobs and in poverty are migrating to American and European countries as well as to the Middle East wealthy countries that need workers.

Ollli's fall film festival focuses on eight feature films that tell the story of these immigrants.

They are:

Frozen River

Sugar

Maria Full of Grace

Dirty Pretty Things

In America

Biutiful

The Visitor

Crossing Over

All these films are available

for rent and I recommend them.

"The Guard" - movie review

Every once in a while I see a movie that I just love but can't recommend to everyone. OK probably more often than that. I have a friend that will always go with me to these little indie treasures. "The Guard" is a confrontational Irish film staring Irish actor Brendan Gleeson and American Don Cheadel. Gleeson stars as a Sargent in the "Guard" or the local police in a small town in Northern Ireland. Cheadel is an uptight FBI man sent to help solve a major drug smuggling gang coming in by sea. It is billed as a comedy but has a lot of drama as these two very different law men work together. Is Gleeson really racist or just naive in his first encounter with a black man? There are no less that 4 subplots, all fully developed. Gleeson is great and Cheadel does an excellent job as his straight man.

Why is this film hard to recommend to everyone, which is my 5*****. If the f--- word freaks you out as does violence, this movie is not for you. However if you love the Irish personality and humor you will love this movie.

4****

Another point is that if one is hearing impaired it is best to wait for the video and watch it with subtitles. One can miss some of the rich Irish accent.

Olli Fall Film Festival

Osher Life Long Learning Institute - chapter in Green Valley.

Being in southern Arizona we tend to think that most undocumented immigrants come from Mexico or South America.

Our fall film festival will offer "Feature films about undocumented immigrants that are not from Mexico".

The following 8 films will be shown on a weekly basis. Some of these movies are better than others but they all portray the plight of immigrants desperately wanting to leave the poverty in their own countries. Therefore I recommend all of them. Available from Netflix.

Frozen River

Sugar

Maria Full

of Grace

Dirty Pretty Things

In America

Biutiful

The Visitor

Crossing Over

Am I worried about what Netflix might do about the availability of films for our festivals?

You bettcha.

California dogs

Californians love their dogs. They take them everywhere. The pier, the beach, the outside cafes. Interesting that when I have traveled with my dogs, California is the hardest place to find accommodations that take pets. And people love when you ask if you can take a photo of their pooch.

The Debt - Movie review

This was a very strange movie experience. While watching it, I liked it. I was so engrossed with the action that I liked it. However when the movie was over and I discussed it with friends and read other comments on the web, the problems became glaring. The story is told in 1966 with a trio of actors all very good. And then again in 1997 when the protagonists are 30 years older with another trio of actors. Here the acting looses. This is the first problem -the casting. The young shy man who is shorter becomes a tall man and poorly acted. The tall, the command man, becomes handicapped in a wheel chair looking nothing like the younger actor. The second problem is that the Moussad, the elite of the Israeli commandos really screws up. The "hunted" becomes the "hostage". The ending is really a mess. The title is never really explained. The father of the child is not agreed upon. Helen Mirren of course is good as is Tom Wilkinson.

Problems: casting, plot and particularly the ending.

What started out as a 4**** end up a 2**.

The Road Back Home

Driving home from Monterey takes one through central California. Far from the big cities of San Francisco and Los Angeles, Central California

is a vast area fields. Our first stop is Paso Robles, the center of flowers and vineyards.

We always breakfast at Margie's Diner before we head east through Bakersfield. In between are field's of vegetables and citrus. And the miles of miles of oil wells makes one wonder about the cost of gasoline along the way.

We were glad to get home to two inches of rain in the rain gauge and more in the days following.

Water was running north in the Santa Cruz river.

And I was ready to throw Mr. Garmin GPS in

Fisherman's Wharf

Fisherman's Wharf's, whether in San Francisco or Monterey are places to people watch, eat, drink and look for souvenir junk.

It is also a place to admire their boats and look at what may be our boats.

Sunday was more interesting in that

there was an Italian Fisherman Festival.

There was a band, a parade with

Mama and Papa and scowling princesses.