‘Current Events’: Lessons on Being a Mensch

Ralph Aryck’s “Current Events” is so engaging, provocative and original it deserves a regular run instead of the weekend matinees beginning Saturday at the Nuart. Rightly described as an essay rather than a documentary, “Current Events” succeeds on several levels.

First, it is a serious attempt to go beyond the evening news and provide a greater sense of what’s going on in such tragic locales as Nicaragua and Ethiopia. Second, Arlyck, in looking back over his 20 years as a filmmaker and activist, tries to discover what it means to be a caring person--a mensch-- which is what his beloved, late grandfather, a turn-of-the-century immigrant from Lithuania, taught him that was the most important thing a man could be.

Finally, Arlyck, in attempting to meet his grandfather’s challenge, has fashioned a primer for ex-hippie radicals on how to maneuver middle age gracefully, balancing responsibilities to family and to various causes while also trying to enjoy life.

The film shows how Arlyck has matured as both a filmmaker and an activist. Yet, as he reveals glimpses of the hardship and suffering he has recorded with his camera over the last two decades he also lets us see his very comfortable daily life in the lovely, large old home in Rhinebeck, N.Y., he shares with his attractive French-born wife and their two teen-age sons. He admits that in such a setting he cannot think about people getting their kneecaps smashed in Central America every single moment of his life.

However, in his travels with his camera, Arlyck comes across individuals who give him hope and who also ease his guilt. There’s the nice househusband in Poughkeepsie who finds time to act as a swimming coach to the retarded. Most important, for Arlyck, however, is his visit with an Amnesty International worker who lives with his wife and young children in the Colorado mountains.

For all the near-round-the-clock urgent work this man does at his remote communications nerve center he quietly declares that it is OK and even healthy to take a break from time to time and go sledding with the kids. Ralph Arlyck may always be plagued with doubts, but “Current Events” (Times rated Mature for adult themes) leaves us certain that his grandfather would surely consider him a mensch .