CAT Tracks for February 25, 2012

CAT Tracks for February 25, 2012

Got away from Cairo yesterday...

...in a manner of speaking.

Drove to Carbondale and visited the SIU museum...

...where they were screening "Between Two Rivers", the new documentary about, yep, Cairo.

Talk about sad...

...no, not the movie, but the fact that it takes a movie about Cairo to get me to leave Cairo. (I do think I deserve props for not simply waiting until Wednesday night and driving a half-mile to CJSHS and watching it there!)

Anyway...

Talk about sad...

Now, I'm talking about the movie.

It is a fact of life that different people like different things...the old slang/idiom about "different strokes for different folks."

Let me offer a few warnings advising view discretion:

If you are of the seeing the world through rose-colored glasses type, a don't bring me no bad news type...do NOT go to this movie. (Former President of the First National Bank of Cairo gives an in-depth, graphic description of the lynching of Will "Froggy" James in 1909.)

If you are a "mature" Cairoite( like myself) - whether departed for greener pastures or left behind (like myself) - and you fondly remember the "good old days"...the "Mayberry Years" of your youth in Cairo (an analogy that the movie actually uses) - do NOT go to this movie.

If Stace England's CD "Greetings from Cairo, Illinois" offended you for its "unkind" musical rendering of the history of Cairo...do NOT go to this movie.

Are three warnings enough?

On the other hand...
If you are into no-holds-barred, tell-it-like-it-was, unvarnished truth, this movie is for you. As editor of CAT Tracks, I give "Between Two Rivers" the coveted "Two Paws Up" rating.

I won't say that the movie was enjoyable...popcorn and soda never crossed my mind. I mean...DAMN, it captured the reality of what I see everyday when I drive around Cairo.
I won't say that the movie was uplifting...there were more abandoned, collapsing buildings per minute of video footage than ever previously recorded in the history of film-making. (Attention Guinness Book of World Records!)
I won't say that the movie had any redeeming social value...it did NOT offer a flicker of hope for a happy ending.
It bears repeating:
...no-holds-barred, tell-it-like-it-was, unvarnished truth.

Nuff said!

I may venture forth on Wednesday night and watch it again. I have already e-mailed the film-makers at their website and inquired into purchasing the DVD...which I shall as soon as it becomes available.
As you have gleaned from the pages of CAT Tracks, I am NOT into putting lipstick on a pig. You do ugly, I'll write about ugly. You do right, I'll report that too.
The makers of "Between Two Rivers" found an ugly story at the Confluence of America...and reported it.
Having been white and passively prejudiced in late 1967 when the Cairo "civil rights fight" began and having "gone black and never gone back" in the 1970s when the devil in the blue dress led me astray of my roots...I claim a fairly "balanced" view of the past.
According to my "world view", the makers of "Between Two Rivers" got it right.
For that, I shall put my money where my mouth is and buy DVDs for me and mine.

So...
The rest is up to you!
Avoid the "Cairo Movie" like the plague...
...or watch it at the Maiden Alley Cinema in downtown Paducah on February 28th at 6:30 pm. or at Cairo Junior/Senior High School on February 29th at 4:30 p.m.
If you are not "local", I will publish the "purchase information" as soon as I receive it.

By the way...
The Friday afternoon screening of "Between Two Rivers" was literally an SRO event!
The SIU Museum theater is tiny...I counted seven rows of eight on the side where I was sitting. Assuming apparent symmetry, that would be seating for 112. Every seat was filled. Chairs were brought in to line both sides of the theater and people sat on the steps in the center aisle. And, yes, a handful of attendees did stand.

And, unlike next Wednesday's "Cairo Showing", we were all paying customers...the price of admission being $4 at the gate.