Hot Docs - One Fine Day

 

Rating: ***

At the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City, two African American athletes placed in the medal categories for the 200 meter dash. As the “Star-Spangled Banner” played, gold medalist Tommie Smith and bronze medalist John Carlos raised their fists in the air. In the midst of the social upheaval of the 60s, 1968 being the pinnacle of it, Smith and Carlos couldn’t have made a gesture more incendiary than what became the “Black Power salute” heard ‘round the world.

Of course to Carlos, now a track coach at Palm Springs High School in California, it was more a symbol of solidarity, but that didn’t matter to the U.S. Olympic officials who recalled him and Smith to American soil immediately after the medal ceremony. It also didn’t matter to the people that hired Carlos years later and fired him when they found out he was that “John Carlos.” And apparently it still matters to those retractable few who still send Carlos hate mail more than 40 years after the Mexico City games.

Carlos is one of the six people profiled by Dutch director Klaas Bense in One Fine Day. Each of the people profiled, in one way, shape or form, have inspired change through simple acts of non-violence. There’s María Jesús Sanhueza, who led a student protest in Chile to get better and more affordable access to education; there’s Christian Führer, a Protestant pastor who opened his East Berlin church as a free speech zone, which played no small part in the eventual fall of the Berlin Wall; and Kovida, a Burmese monk who stood up to his country’s military might only to end up expelled from his home country.

These are all incredible stories, and I admire the very steady and hands off way that Bense collects their stories and gets their insights. But there’s no real context and I’m not sure why these people were singled out. Bense’ definition of achievement too seems rather all over the map; Sanhueza changed the way Chile’s educational system works, but Carlos fist seems to have just gotten him into one instance of hot water after another for life. I think the message is very, very good, the idea that one person can make a world of difference is as apropos now as it’s ever been, but I am still stuck as to the more specific idea that connects them. But I suppose as a source of inspiration, One Fine Day is fine enough.