Canadian heavy metal band Anvil (recently spotlighted in hit doc Anvil! The Story of Anvil) is set to launch their first major tour in more than a decade.
Read more about the rocking doc in the Documentary magazine article "This Is Anvil: Heavy Metal Doc Follows Band's 30-Year Quest for Fame."
"The Anvil Experience" will be a 30-date North American trek in support of both the September 15 release of their most recent CD, This is Thirteen and the October 6 DVD release of Anvil! The Story of Anvil. The tour kicks off on January 7, 2010 and includes dates in New York and Los Angeles..
Audience members will be treated to a screening of Anvil! The Story of Anvil, before the group (singer/guitarist Steve "Lips" Kudlow, drummer Robb Reiner, and bassist Glenn Five) takes the stage for a set of heavy Anvil classics.
For the hardcore fans, a limited number of 50 "VIP Anvil Experience" packages will be made available for each show. Those include a ticket to the concert, a copy of the This is Thirteen CD, a copy of the Anvil! The Story of Anvil DVD, a fanny pack (a constant fashion companion of Reiner's as seen in the film), and a meet 'n' greet with the band.
VH1 Fan Club Pre-Sale tickets go on sale Tuesday, October 6, with the regular on-sale starting Friday, October 9.
For more info, check out the band's website.
The case involves Robert Stevens of Pittsville, Va., a dog-fighting expert whose videography includes such titles as Japan Pit Fights, Pick a Winna and what is now his best-known effort, the hour-long, Catch Dogs and Country Living, reports The Wrap.
For his work, he became the first person ever prosecuted under a 1999 statute called the Depiction of Animal Cruelty Law due to a dog-fight clip in his film, Catch Dog, even though those actions are legal in Japan, where the footage was filmed and he didn't take part in the dogfight.
The law applies to any recording (audio or video) of “conduct in which a living animal is intentionally maimed, mutilated, tortured, wounded or killed” even if it is legal where it occurred and was filmed. Lawyer and former IDA President, Michael C. Donaldson points out, "The threat to the documentary community is obvious when one considers films such as The Cove and Food, Inc., to name two recent ones or Roger and Me, to go back just a little ways. Certainly videos concerning hunting could fall within this statute, even though, as in Stevens case, the hunting was legal where the video was shot."
Read a lengthier explanation of the issue and the IDA's involvement below by lawyer and former IDA President, Michael C. Donaldson.
A district court convicted Stevens of animal abuse and cruelty and sentenced him to 37 months in prison (more than NFL quarterback Michael Vick served for running a dogfights).
His conviction was overturned when a divided appeals court refused to create an exception to the First Amendment that applied to cruelty to animals, striking down the law as unconstitutional, The Wrap story continues.
Today, the government is asking the Supreme Court to overturn the appeals court ruling and treat depictions of cruelty to animals the same as child pornography.
The conclusion of this Hollywood cliffhanger are still developing. In the meantime, read the following issued by Michael C. Donaldson regarding the case and the IDA's involvement:
The US Supreme Court case in which IDA filed an Amicus brief is set to be heard on October 6, 2009. The case has been called “the next great First Amendment battle” by the New York Times. It involves a documentary filmmaker--Robert Stevens--who made a film that concerns the history and status of pit bulls. The film included a clip (not taken by Stevens) of a Japanese dog fight. In Japan, dog fights are legal and the dogs are not killed. They are different from American style dog fights. Stevens was sentenced to over three years in federal prison under a 1999 federal statute that makes it a crime to show any cruelty to animals in a film with certain limited exceptions.
An Amicus Brief means that IDA--acting as a friend of the court instead of a party in the action – is telling the high court why the case being heard is important to the membership of IDA and urging the court to rule in favor of the filmmaker. Attending the hearing for IDA will be former President, Michael C. Donaldson. Donaldson is a lawyer in private practice and arranged for IDA to a part of the Amicus filings in this case.
The threat to the documentary community is obvious when one considers films such as The Cove and Food, Inc., to name two recent ones or Roger and Me, to go back just a little ways. Certainly videos concerning hunting could fall within this statute, even though, as in Stevens case, the hunting was legal where the video was shot.
A federal appeals court struck down the statute last year on first amendment grounds. The government appealed to the Supreme Court. The court will have to decide whether the depiction of animal cruelty is so vile and so harmful that it must be banned across the board.
The origins of the law are, in themselves, a bit bizarre. The motivation for its enactment was a House report about people who are sexually aroused by watching videos of small animals being crushed. President Bill Clinton signed the bill with an instruction to the Justice Department to limit prosecution to “wanton cruelty to animals designed to appeal to a prurient interest in sex.” Nevertheless, the Bush administration prosecuted three cases under the law that didn’t have the “prurient interest in sex.”
The law applies to any recording--audio or video--of “conduct in which a living animal is intentionally maimed, mutilated, tortured, wounded or killed” even if it is legal where it occurred and was filmed. It is only important that it be illegal where the video is sold or exhibited. It would be illegal to possess, sell, or exhibit a travel documentary containing footage of a bull fight in Spain or Mexico in the US or a hunting video in Washington DC, where all hunting is illegal. There is an exception for films that have “serious religious, political, scientific, educational, journalistic, historical or artistic value” but that, of course, is in the eye of the beholder.
In addition to IDA, Film Independent and IFP signed the Amicus brief. The New York Times and several other news gathering organizations also filed briefs. It is interesting that courts have already struck down statutes involving cruelty to humans. And Mr. Stevens sentence was 14 months longer than the sentence imposed on Michael Vick, the football player who organized dog fights and was very harsh on the dogs who did not perform well.
The Dusking of the 'Golden Age'? A Look Back and Forward
By Tom White
In a year that saw a significant downturn in box office performance for documentaries, one might speculate on the ebbing of the so-called Golden Age of Documentary, a period which arguably began with Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine in 2002, crested with Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 911 in 2004 and declined with Michael Moore's SiCKO this year. It was a dramatic decline, indeed from the dizzying heights of 2004, which saw 11 films top the $1 million mark, seven of which grossed over $2 million. With Fahrenheit 911 earning a gargantuan $119.5 million, one would think that in a volatile year, and one of most divided politically in recent US history, that the Moore effect would touch primarily issue-driven, get-out-the-vote films, but with films like Touching the Void, Born Into Brothels, Riding Giants and The Story of the Weeping Camel all faring well, the overall picture reflected the breadth and depth of the genre.
In three short years, and many great films later, what can one attribute to a year in which only three films--SiCKO, No End in Sight and In the Shadow of the Moon--made $1 million, and that In the Shadow of the Moon, having earned $1.1 million, was considered a disappointment? So many films, freighted with acclaim, festival honors, publicity and, in a couple of cases, impressive distribution deals, failed to live up to expectations--in some instances, earning just four or five figures.
One bright spot was Into Great Silence, Philip Groning's a stunning, three-hour film about Carthusian monks, which defied expectations, quietly earning nearly $800,000 in a carefully strategized marketing and roll-out plan by Zeitgeist Films and positive word-of-mouth, primarily from New York's Film Forum audience. The film opened in February and was still showing up on IndieWIRE's Box Office Table in December.
Panelists at festivals and markets speculated about a glut of films, as well as a glut of festivals and markets. Theatrical distribution is an expensive endeavor, whether for a major studio like Sony Pictures Classics, which paid $2 million for Amir Bar-Lev's My Kid Could Paint That, which in turn underperformed; to mid-sizers like THINKFilm, which fell short with the aforementioned In the Shadow of the Moon, as well as with festival hits War/Dance, Lake of Fire and Nanking.
With these festival favorites tanking at the box office, perhaps the festival audience is the main audience for these films. With festivals of every stripe--high-profile, genre-specific, regional, community-specific--continuing to proliferate across the country, can over-exposure on the festival circuit, despite audience awards and jury prizes, actually hurt a documentary's crossover potential to a more mainstream audience in the less forgiving world of the multiplexes? Is an award at Sundance, whose audiences are primarily made up of journalists, distributors and filmmakers, a true indicator of how the film will fare with audiences made up of doctors, lawyers and teachers on a night off? Filmmakers I've spoken to at Sundance over the years have always enjoyed the screenings in Salt Lake City--in some instances, more than those at Park City--since the Salt Lake audiences are more representative of the end-users. But then, if a doc also generates heat at regional fests like Seattle or Fort Lauderdale, both of which run for several weeks, what becomes of these docs when they come around again to those regions? While the festival circuit can be a vital means to test-drive an audience, plug into a community of fellow docmakers, and, it is hoped, score a distribution deal, one might run the risk of saturating your potential market while running up a fairly significant festival circuit tab in the process.
Perhaps cases like Into Great Silence, or, in previous years, Rivers and Tides and The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, were those rare exceptions of documentaries that found and sustained their audiences over long periods of time.
But another encouraging note of 2007 was the introduction of the word "filmanthropy" into the lexicon, thanks to AOL mogul Ted Leonsis, who bankrolled Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturnam's Nanking, as well as Susan Koch's upcoming Sundance premiere Kicking It, about a South Africa-based tournament for homeless soccer players. Other filmanthropists who were there before Leonsis include Microsoft billionaire Paul Allen of Vulcan Productions, and Jeff Skoll, who cashed in on his eBay largesse to found Participant Productions. Leonsis delivered a PowerPoint keynote address about filmanthropy at Silverdocs this past year; here's the link: ted.aol.com/docs/Silverdocs_Presentation_files/v3_document.htm.
Over the past decade of the digital revolution, we have seen many innovative models for films trying to reach their core audiences--day-and-date releasing from Red Envelope, IFC First Look and Mark Cuban's companies; Four Eyed Monsters, the fiction film from Susan Bruice and Arin Crumley; Film Movement--and we'll undoubtedly see more. With all the choices out there to see documentaries--from theaters to cell phones--it may be that the audiences are simply staying home, but still watching. Witness Robert Greenwald's model from a few years back of encouraging neighborhood viewings and discussions of his films, thus balkanizing the mass audience into smaller, living-room sized communities.
In the cusp of year's end and year's beginning, we find ourselves in the middle of awards season, and the critics are weighing in overwhelmingly for Charles Ferguson's No End in Sight, with scattered plaudits as well for Seth Gordon's The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters and Michael Moore's SiCKO. The Academy Awards, ever the crescendo to this drumroll, will see a significant change in the rules for qualifying one's doc for consideration in 2008, with the 14-city theatrical roll-out being eliminated, while sustaining a two-screening-a-day/one-week run in both the County of Los Angeles and the Borough of Manhattan.
But the real big news and note on which to end this reflection is the launching of a new award for nonfiction--the brainchild of filmmaker AJ Schnack and Toronto Film Festival programmer Thom Powers, with the assistance of distributor IndiePix. Schnack hatched this idea in response to the Short List for the Academy Awards, which prompted a heated viral conversation about how the Academy had overlooked many worthy, groundbreaking docs. And so, with the help of a committee of festival programmers who see these innovative films before the rest of us do, this new award, to celebrate the craft and breadth of nonfiction filmmaking, has a time and place--March 18, at the IFC Center in New York City, a few weeks after the Oscars telecast, and perhaps, the true curtain closer on the 2007-2008 Awards Season.
Thomas White is editor of Documentary and content editor of www.documentary.org.
The screening of Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired at UCLA last Thursday was not the Katie-bar-the-door turnout one would have expected, but the James Bridges Theater was a respectable 85 percent full. Director/producer/writer Marina Zenovoch wasn't there; she had been in Switzerland since Tuesday, with plans to shoot there as well as in Paris and Warsaw in the coming weeks.
But it wasn't Polanski's arrest that spurred this sequel; Zenovich had been thinking about it over the past six months, according to P.G. Morgan, one of the writers and co-producers on the film, who presided over the Q&A with researcher/associate producer Michelle Sullivan. As reported in The New York Times last February, Zenovoch was on hand earlier this year to film at the Criminal Courts Building in downtown LA, site of a series of hearings about the case.
At the October 1st screening, Morgan said that HBO, which had acquired the film at Sundance 08 and aired it later that summer, had recently put the film back into rotation, and the film itself had been subpoenaed as evidence by both the Los Angeles District Attorney's Office and Polanski's defense team. With the report last week that former Assistant District Attorney David Wells had lied on camera about coaching Judge Laurence Rittenbrand about sentencing guidelines, this sequel has potential as a post-postmodern, mobius strip kind of work: It was born as a documentary about a famous, still-open case, about which the filmmaker unveils questionable legal wranglings; her film then spurs the defense team to call for hearings about the case, which compels the prosecution team to step up its pursuit of the fugitive defendant, which then calls for a sequel about, in part, a film's impact on its subject. The film takes on a new life as evidence, some of which itself turns out to be tainted.
Sequels about legal cases are not unprecedented--and often necessary: witness Nick Broomfield's films about convicted and executed serial killer Aileen Wuornos, and Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's Paradise Lost and Paradise Lost 2; in both instances, the filmmakers become part of the story in Act II. Given the breach of trust by one of her subjects, and the role her film has played over the past year in the Polanski case, Zenovich may well become a character she never intended to be.
Photo: Los Angeles Times/UCLA Library Department of Special Collections
Capitalism: A Love Story, Michael Moore's latest, ka-chinged into the number two spot on the top ten grossers of 2009, zeroing in on the $5 million mark in just its second week of release. Capitalism is already among the top 20 grossing docs of all-time, joining most of the Moore canon-Fahrenheit 911, Sicko and Bowling for Columbine.
R. J. Cutler's The September Issue is flirting with $3 million after over a month in the theaters, while other titles like Food, Inc. and Every Little Step continue to fare well amid their lengthy runs. Also showing promise is Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg, Aviva Kempner's first feature doc since The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg, which itself was one of the better performing docs of 2000.
Here is the latest list of the top-ten grossing docs of 2009:
1) Earth $32,011,576
2) Capitalism: A Love Story $ 4,849,067
3) Food, Inc. $ 4,361,985
4) The September Issue $ 2,908,192
5) Waltz with Bashir $ 2,283,849
6) Valentino: The Last Emperor: $ 1,755,134
7) Every Little Step $ 1,724,351
8) It Might Get Loud $ 1,234,300
9) Tyson $ 887,918
10) Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg $ 815,273
Source: www.boxofficemojo.com (as of October 5, 2009)
THE DOC SHOT Q AND A: Kristopher Belman, Director, 'More Than a Game'
The DOC SHOT Q&A is an exclusive online feature by Documentary
magazine associate editor Tamara Krinsky. Through this mix of questions
(some serious, some sassy), each DOC SHOT provides a glimpse into the work and
lives of those creating and supporting nonfiction film.
YOUR FILM
Brief description of your film.
More Than A Game is about five boys from the inner city who use the sport of basketball to form a family, become men and accomplish their dreams--all under the guidance of their coach/father figure.
I directed and produced the film.
How did you find your subject or become involved in the film?
I was born and raised in Akron, Ohio. While attending Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, I signed up for an “Introduction to Documentary” class. I decided I wanted to shoot my class project in my hometown and had read about a group of boys who played together for several years before entering high school. I found this friendship to be unique, and decided it would be a good basis for my ten-minute class film. After spending a few practices with the team, I felt that the relationships that the boys was something very inspiring, and that the scope of the project was far beyond ten minutes. I spent the next seven and a half years with the boys, making sure their story was told the right way.
Was there a moment in this film that went a different way than you expected?
The best player on the team I was chronicling was suspended for the rest of his high school career. It was something that caught the entire team by surprise, and provided a large moment of drama as the team had to win without him. It was a prime example of how nonfiction can usually be more interesting than the scripted world.
If you had had an extra $10,000 to spend on your film, what would you have used it for?
I would use it to do something nice for my crew—they really went above and beyond for years as we worked to finish this film. I can honestly say that the hard work they put in inspired me when I went through struggles. Together we were able to produce something really special. I’m not sure what—maybe take a group trip to Hawaii? The In-and-Out truck at the very least…
YOUR WORK
What's the first film you remember seeing as a child?
Back to the Future. After watching that, all I wanted was a DeLorean.
Tell us about a film that affected your profoundly or changed/inspired the way you do your own work.
Ferris Bueller’s Day Off—John Hughes was so incredible at creating characters, and Ferris was my idol as a kid. The serendipitous way in which he approached life was something I wanted to do, and I really try to approach filmmaking with that kind of attitude. It’s such an inherently stressful job, I think every once in a while you have to ask yourself “What Would Ferris Do?”
What would surprise people the most about your job or the way you execute it?
I think the world of nonfiction is extremely rewarding on a personal level. Spending seven years working with the subjects of my film, I really felt like I became a part of their worlds. That kind of experience really allows you to grow as a person, and that was one of the most incredible aspects of making this film.
When you are feeling creatively stumped or burnt out, what do you do to get the creativity flowing again?
A good run always clears the mind!
Exclusive photo of Kristopher Belman at a screening of More Than a Game hosted by Nike
YOUR LIFE
Daily essential reads (online or off)?
Akron Beacon Journal
Cleveland Plain Dealer
Galleyboy.net
New York Times
LA Times
What's on your TIVO or iPod right now?
TIVO: The new season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, True Blood, Californication, and all things Food Network. Bobby Flay is the man!
What do you want more of in your life?
Time--specifically to spend with family and friends. Oh, and salsa. I love salsa.
What do you want less of in your life?
Phone calls, texts and e-mails. Oh, and paper cuts. Those hurt so freaking bad.
If you could add an extra hour to every day, how would you spend it?
I’d love to get a little more sleep.
What do you want for your birthday?
Hmmm. I never did get my DeLorean…
[IDA's suggestion: check out the BTTF.com's DeLorean Time Machine Rentals!]
More Than a Game opens in select theaters around the country on October 2nd, expanding to additional cities throughout the month. For play dates, click here.
Film: More Than A Game
Dir./Prod: Kristopher Belman
Prods.: Harvey Mason Jr., Matthew Perniciaro, Kevin Mann
Distributor: LionsGate
http://www.nike.com/nikeos/p/nikebasketball/en_US/mtag_ms
Five talented young basketball players from Akron, Ohio, star in this remarkable true-life, coming-of-age story about uncommon friendship in the face of unprecedented fame. Their coach is a hard-driving, charismatic, but inexperienced, player's father. Their leader: future NBA superstar Lebron James. This is the "Fab Five"'s story: an improbable nine-year journey that takes them from a decrepit inner-city gym to the doorstep of a national high school championship. Along the way, the close-knit team is repeatedly tested-both on and off the court-as James' unparalleled talent explodes into worldwide celebrity, threatening to destroy everything they've set out to achieve together. More Than a Game combines a series of unforgettable one-on-one interviews with rare news footage, never-before-seen home videos and personal family photographs to bring this heartwarming and wholly American story to life.
Opening: October 7
Venue: Film Forum/New York City
Film: The Yes Men Fix the World
Dirs./Prods.: Andy Bichibaum, Mike Bonanno
Co-Dir.: Kurt Engfehr
Distributor: Shadow Distribution
http://theyesmenfixtheworld.com/
The Yes Men Fix the World is a screwball true story about two gonzo political activists who, posing as top executives of giant corporations, lie their way into big business conferences and pull off the world's most outrageous pranks.
From New Orleans to India to New York City, armed with little more than cheap thrift-store suits, the Yes Men squeeze raucous comedy out of all the ways that corporate greed is destroying the planet.
Brüno meets Michael Moore in this gut-busting wake-up call that proves a little imagination can go a long way towards vanquishing the Cult of Greed.
Who knew fixing the world could be so much fun?
Opening: October 9
Film: Good Hair
Dir.: Jeff Stilson
Prods.: Chris Rock, Kevin O'Donnell, Nelson George
Distributors: Liddell Entertainment, Roadside Attractions, HBO Films
http://www.goodhairmovie.net/site/
An exposé of comic proportions that only Chris Rock could pull off, Good Hair visits beauty salons and hairstyling battles, scientific laboratories and Indian temples to explore the way hairstyles impact the activities, pocketbooks, sexual relationships and self-esteem of the black community.
Director Jeff Stilson follows Chris Rock on this raucous adventure prompted by Rock's daughter approaching him and asking, "Daddy, how come I don't have good hair?" Haircare professionals, beautyshop and barbershop patrons, as well as celebrities including Ice-T, Nia Long, Paul Mooney, Raven Symoné, Dr. Maya Angelou, Salt n Pepa, Eve and Reverend Al Sharpton all candidly offer their stories and observations to Rock while he struggles with the task of figuring out how to respond to his daughter's question.
Good Hair marks a reunion of the team behind Rock's acclaimed and Emmy Award-winning HBO series The Chris Rock Show, including producer Nelson George, writer-director Jeff Stilson, writers Lance Crouther and Chuck Sklar.
Opening: October 9
Venue: Cinema Village/New York City
Film: Visual Acoustics
Dir.: Eric Bricker
Distributor: Arthouse Films
http://www.juliusshulmanfilm.com/
Narrated by Dustin Hoffman, Visual Acoustics celebrates the life and career of Julius Shulman, the world's greatest architectural photographer, whose images brought modern architecture to the American mainstream. Shulman, who passed away this year, captured the work of nearly every modern and progressive architect since the 1930s including Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra, John Lautner and Frank Gehry. His images epitomized the singular beauty of Southern California's modernist movement and brought its iconic structures to the attention of the general public. This unique film is both a testament to the evolution of modern architecture and a joyful portrait of the magnetic, whip-smart gentleman who chronicled it with his unforgettable images.
Opening: October 16
Venue: Quad Cinema/New York City
Film: Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
Dir.: Jean-Paul Jaud
Distributor: First Run Features
http://firstrunfeatures.co /foodbeware_press.html
For the first time ever, our children are growing up less healthy than their parents. As the rate of cancer and childhood obesity climbs ever upward each year, we must ask ourselves, why is this happening? What can we do to save our children's health--and our own?
Food Beware takes a look at a small village in the mountains of France, where, in opposition to powerful economic interests, the town's mayor has declared that the school lunchroom will serve mostly local food, grown by organic methods.
Featuring interviews with children, parents, teachers, health care workers, journalists, farmers, elected officials, scientists and researchers, we learn about challenges and rewards of their stand--the abuses of industry as well as the practical solutions at hand. What will it take to save our food supply? This moving testament to one community's answer is food for thought, and a case study of a growing revolution.
Opening: October 16
Venue: Facets Cinematheque/Chicago
Film: In Search of Memory
Dir.: Petra Seeger
Distributor: Icarus Films
http://icarusfilms.com/new200 /mem.html
"Memory is everything. Without it we are nothing," says neuroscientist Eric Kandel, winner of the Nobel Prize for his groundbreaking research on the physiology of the brain's storage of memories. As he explains, memory is the glue that binds our mental life together and provides a sense of continuity in our lives.
In Search of Memory is a compelling blend of autobiography and history that recounts the life of one of the most important neuroscientists of the 20th century and illuminates scientific developments in our understanding of the brain's role in recording and preserving memory. In addition to archival footage and dramatic re-creations of Kandel's childhood experiences in Nazi-occupied Vienna and his formative years as an emigrant in New York, the film features discussions with Kandel, friends and family, as well as his public lectures in Vienna and New York, which explore both his professional and personal life, especially his emotional ties to Judaism.
Both through its personal journey into the memory of this amazingly spry and witty 79-year old, especially his traumatic experiences during the Holocaust, and a visit to his Columbia University laboratory, where Kandel and his colleagues demonstrate their experimental research, In Search of Memory examines how the brain stores memories, the difference between short-term and long-term memory, Alzheimer's and age-related memory loss, and structural modifications to the brain that enhance memory.
In revisiting the people, places and objects of Kandel's lifetime experiences, In Search of Memory reveals how everything we undergo changes the brain, even our genetic make-up, and can determine the focus of a life's work.
Opening: October 21
Venue: Film Forum/New York City
Film: Rembrandt's J'Accuse
Dir.: Peter Greenaway
Prods.: Femke Wolting, Bruno Felix
http://www.petergreenaway.info/content/view/136/64/; http://rembrandt.submarine.nl/
Rembrandt's J'Accuse is an essayistic documentary in which Peter Greenaway's fierce criticism of today's visual illiteracy is argued by means of a forensic search of Rembrandt's Nightwatch. Greenaway explains the background, the context, the conspiracy, the murder and the motives of all its 34 painted characters who have conspired to kill for their combined self-advantage. Greenaway leads us through Rembrandt's paintings into 17th century Amsterdam. He paints a world that is democratic in principle, but is almost entirely ruled by twelve families. The notion exists of these regents as charitable and compassionate beings. But reality was different.
Greenaway points out to the viewer all sorts of "evidence" that can be found in the Nightwatch, but which no one ever noticed before. Just as in the acclaimed American show CSI, Greenaway knows how to make the evidence for the murder credible by basing his line of questioning on the facts: historical sources, comparisons with other works of art that contain a secret message and mainly by highlighting numerous details in the painting that were never noticed before or that were simply not correctly interpreted.
The documentary explains how and why The Nightwatch, Rembrandt's J'Accuse, is a criticism of Amsterdam's oligarchy and plutocracy of the Golden Age, a demonstration of the manipulative power of the visual image, and an indictment, which puts all the characters involved in a complex and devious conspiracy to murder. Greenaway himself plays the part of the public prosecutor, but is at the same time himself. In his 21st Century clothes, he will interrogate characters from the movie Nightwatching, dressed in historical costumes on their part in the murder conspiracy.
Opening: October 22--One Night Only
Venue: Cineplex Theaters in Canada
Film: Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer's Cut)
Dir.: Alan Parker
Distributor: Cineplex Entertainment, Eage Rock Entertainment
www.cineplex.com/events; http://www.ifc.com/blogs/ifc-now/2009/04/monty-python-almost-the-truth.php
The Monty Python troupe includes (as if you don't know) John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin and Graham Chapman. The film will feature interviews with surviving Python members, along with archive representation for the late, great Chapman. The Pythons will tell their life story and reveal deeper truths alongside the more tried and tested Python history lessons. The film will also study the Pythons up close and in some cases against their contemporaries: rock stars, comedians, actors, politicians, writers, broadcasters, religious groups and Python-haters. Every opinion on Monty Python will be brought to life on-screen for the first time with never-before-seen material. Dozens of featured guest interviews will include Jimmy Fallon, Lorne Michaels, Hugh Hefner, Eddie Izzard, Olivia Harrison, Steven Merchant, Dan Akroyd, Tim Roth and Seth Green among many others.
This theatrical version is drawn from a six-hour series that airs on IFC October 18-22.
Opening: October 23
Venue: Cinema Village/New York City
Film: Killing Kasztner: The Jew Who Dealt with Nazis
Dir./Prod.: Gaylen Ross
Prod.: Andrew Cohen
http://www.killingkasztner.com/
How much should you negotiate with the enemy? In Israel, the debate over that question evoked fury to the point of assassination. Such was the case of Reszo Kasztner, a Hungarian Jew who tried to rescue the last million Jews of Europe by negotiating face-to-face with Nazi leader Adolph Eichmann. Some people considered Kasztner a hero for his heart-stopping rescue of nearly 1,700 Jews on a train to safety in Switzerland, in what became known as "Kasztner's train." Yet later this extraordinary act was cast as one of betrayal.
After Kasztner moved to Israel, many of his new countrymen accused him of collaborating with the enemy. He fought a vicious libel battle in a trial that portrayed him as "The Man Who Sold his Soul to the Devil," and was ultimately assassinated in Tel Aviv in 1957. His only daughter, Zsuzsi, grew up after her father's murder, a child isolated and despised for his alleged crimes. In the world's disavowal of the man, his daughter cries, "They murder him over and over again."
The film follows Kasztner's family and survivors, plagued by a legacy they are determined to change. And after 50 years, the assassin Ze'ev Eckstein breaks his silence, revealing step by step the events and passions that transformed a young man into an agent of politics and revenge.
Part real-time investigation, part historical journey, Killing Kasztner unearths the Kasztner story and its ramifications for the survivors, his family and his country, exploring the very nature of history itself: who writes it, how it is remembered, and what is at stake for the present, and future.
Opening: October 28
Film: Act of God
Dir./Prod.: Jennifer Baichwal
Prods.: Nick de Pencier, Daniel Iron
Distributor: Zeitgeist Films
http://www.zeitgeistfilms.com/actofgod/
Is being hit by lightning a random natural occurrence or a predestined event? Accidents, chance, fate and the elusive quest to make sense out of tragedy underpin director Jennifer Baichwal's (Manufactured Landscapes) captivating new work, an elegant cinematic meditation on the metaphysical effects of being struck by lightning. To explore these profound questions, Baichwal sought out riveting personal stories from around the world--from a former CIA assassin and a French storm-chaser, to writer Paul Auster and improvisational musician Fred Frith. The philosophical anchor of the film, Auster was caught in a terrifying and deadly storm as a teenager, and it has deeply affected both his life and art: "It opened up a whole realm of speculation that I've continued to live with ever since." In his doctor brother's laboratory, Frith experiments with his guitar to demonstrate the ubiquity of electricity in our bodies and the universe. Visually dazzling and aurally seductive, Act of God singularly captures the harsh beauty of the skies and the lives of those who have been forever touched by their fury.
Opening: October 28
Film: Michael Jackson's This Is It
Dir./Prod.: Kenny Ortega
Prods.: Randy Phillips, Paul Gongaware
Distributor: Sony Pictures
http://www.thisisit-movie.com/
Michael Jackson's This Is It will offer Jackson fans and music lovers worldwide a rare, behind-the-scenes look at the performer as he developed, created and rehearsed for his sold-out concerts that would have taken place this past summer in London's O2 Arena. Chronicling the months from April through June 2009, the film is produced with the full support of the Estate of Michael Jackson and drawn from more than 100 hours of behind-the-scenes footage, featuring Jackson rehearsing a number of songs for the show. Audiences will be given a privileged and private look at Jackson as he has never been seen before. In raw and candid detail, Michael Jackson's This Is It captures the singer, dancer, filmmaker, architect, creative genius and great artist at work as he creates and perfects his final show.
Today Marina Zenovich, director and producer of the Emmy® Award-winning HBO Documentary Film Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, released a statement about her reaction to David Wells' admission to the press that he lied to her during the making of the film. Here it is in its entirety:
“I am perplexed by the timing of David Wells’ statement to the press that he lied in his interview with me for the documentary ROMAN POLANSKI: WANTED AND DESIRED. Since June of 2008, the film has been quite visible on U.S. television via HBO, in theaters and on DVD, so it is odd that David Wells has not brought this issue to my attention before.
“For the record, on the day I filmed Mr. Wells at the Malibu Courthouse, February 11, 2005, he gave me a one-hour interview. He signed a release like all my other interviewees, giving me permission to use his interview in the documentary worldwide. At no time did I tell him that the film would not air in the United States.
“Mr. Wells was always friendly and open with me. At no point in the four years since our interview has he ever raised any issues about its content. In fact, in a July 2008 story in The New York Times, Mr. Wells corroborated the account of events that he gave in my film.
“I am astonished that he has now changed his story. It is a sad day for documentary filmmakers when something like this happens.”
Stay tuned for more Roman Report as events continue to unfold. On Friday, documentary.org will be heading to the screening and Q&A at UCLA. If you've missed recent developments about Polanski's recent arrest and how Wanted and Desired has potentially affected the case, you can catch up with these previous posts & articles:
-The Roman Report
-Polanski Arrested in Switzerland (9/27)
-Documentary
magazine's article on the film
The International Documentary Association (IDA) invites you and a guest to another great mixer. Meet professional filmmakers and network.
IDA staff and board members will help you get connected to the documentary community, share your projects, meet new friends and build your professional network.
When:
Wednesady, October 7, 2009
7:00pm - 9:30pm
Where:
e3rd Steakhouse & Lounge
734 E. 3rd. Street
Los Angeles, CA
No Host Bar
Photos from Past IDA Mixers:
IDA Mixer August, 28, 2009 Post
IDA Mixer July, 15, 2009 Photos
Sponsors and Affiliates:
The International Documentary Association (IDA) invites you and a guest to another great mixer. Meet professional filmmakers and network.
IDA staff & board members will help you get connected to the documentary community, share your projects, meet new friends and build your professional network.
Wednesady, October 7, 2009
7:00pm - 9:30pm