Revert "Revert "Add python bindings for the event log reader API. #4071""

This reverts commit bfd8e519632dfdd9a98f306a6acd26215d5ddf2f, restoring
the API added for #4071; a follow-up will fix NMI build failures.
Fix compilation issues on Fedora and Mac OS X.  #4071.

This code now passes its own tests and a test run on NMI.