Following high-profile premieres in Venice and Toronto and a flurry of special screenings across the country, Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story hits Los Angeles and New York City theaters September 23 through Overture Films and Paramount Vantage.
Here's the opener of a Documentary online article by Michael Rose that includes thoughts and musings from Moore and from Overture Films CEO Chris McGurk:
Michael Moore is in love. It's an aching, make-you-do-crazy-things kind of love, including borrowing a Brinks truck and wrapping Wall Street in crime scene tape, attempting to make citizen's arrests of bankers, criss-crossing the country to woo his intended and even soliciting the advice of several priests and a bishop. He's got it bad.
For the rest of the article, click here.
PBS took six News & Documentary Emmy Awards at the ceremony in New York City last night, with honors going to FRONTLINE, P.O.V., NOVA and Bill Moyers Journal. HBO added to its trophy case of Creative Arts and Primetime Emmys, with four, including two to the Academy Award-winning Taxi to the Dark Side. The leading multi-award winning program was Travel Channel's Wild China, with three awards.
For the complete list of winners, click here.
OUTSTANDING CONTINUING COVERAGE OF A NEWS STORY‑‑LONG FORM
FRONTLINE: Bush's War (PBS)
Executive Producer: David Fanning
Producer/Director: Michael Kirk
Producer/Reporter: Jim Gilmore
Co‑Producer: Mike Wiser
OUTSTANDING INFORMATIONAL PROGRAMMING ‑- LONG FORM
NOVA: A Walk to Beautiful(PBS)
Executive Producer / Producer: Steve Engel
Senior Executive Producer: Paula Apsell
Senior Series Producer: Melanie Wallace Producer/Director: Mary Olive Smith
Co‑Producer: Allison Shigo
Director: Amy Bucher
OUTSTANDING HISTORICAL PROGRAMMING ‑-LONG FORM
Cinemax Reel Life: Nanking(HBO)
Producer/Director: Bill Guttentag
Producers: Michael Jacobs, Ted Leonsis
Co‑Producer: Violet Du Feng
Director: Dan Sturman
OUTSTANDING INTERVIEW
P.O.V.: Inheritance (PBS)
Producer/Director: James Moll
Producer: Christopher Pavlick
Executive Producers: Chris Malachowsky, Ryan Malachowsky, Simon Kilmurry
OUTSTANDING ARTS & CULTURE PROGRAMMING
HBO Documentary Films: The Art of Failure: Chuck Connelly Not For Sale (HBO)
Executive Producers: Diana Holtzberg, Sheila Nevins
Supervising Producer: Sara Bernstein
Producer/Director: Jeff Stimmel
OUTSTANDING SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND NATURE PROGRAMMING
National Geographic Channel Presents: Five Years on Mars
Executive Producer: Howard Swartz
Producer/Director: Mark Davis
Senior Vice President, Production: Michael Cascio
BEST DOCUMENTARY
HBO Documentary Films: Taxi to the Dark Side (HBO
Executive Producers: Sidney Blumenthal, Don Glascoff, Robert Johnson, Jedd Wider, Todd Wider
Producer/Director: Alex Gibney
Producers: Eva Orner, Susannah Shipman
Co‑Producers: Blair Foster, Sloane Klevin
NEW APPROACHES TO NEWS & DOCUMENTARY PROGRAMMING: DOCUMENTARIES
The Boys of Christ Child House (Freep.com/Detroit Free Press)
Producer/Senior Videographer: Brian Kaufman
Lead Photojournalist: Kathleen Galligan
Photojournalist: Regina Boone
Executive Producer: Kathy Kieliszewski
Reporter: Robin Erb
Video Executive Producer: Craig Porter
Managing Editor, Digital Media: Nancy Andrews
Web Producer: James Thomas
NEW APPROACHES TO NEWS & DOCUMENTARY PROGRAMMING: ARTS, LIFESTYLE & CULTURE
Hope: Living and Loving with HIV in Jamaica (Livehopelove.com)
Executive Producer: Jon Sawyer
Co‑Producers: Nathalie Applewhite, Stephen Sapienza
Correspondent: Kwame Dawes
Videojournalist: Doug Gritzmacher
Photojournalist: Joshua Cogan
Interactive Producer: Josh Goldblum
OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: WRITING
Bill Moyers Journal: Essays ‑ Gilded Age, It Was Oil, Memorial Day (PBS)
Writers: Bill Moyers, Michael Winship
OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: RESEARCH
HBO Documentary Films: Taxi to the Dark Side (HBO
Researchers: Salimah El Amin, Blair Foster
OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: CINEMATOGRAPHY‑‑NATURE DOCUMENTARIES
Wild China: Heart of the Dragon (Travel Channel)
Camerapersons: John Aitchison, Mike Lemmon, Justin Maguire, Gavin Newman
OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: CINEMATOGRAPHY
FRONTLINE: The War Briefing
Cameraperson: Timothy Grucza
OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: EDITING
Wild China: Shangri-La (Travel Channel)
Editors: Andy Netley, Steve Olive
OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: GRAPHIC DESIGN & ART DIRECTION
Illicit: The Dark Trade (PBS)
Art Director: Ricardo Andrade
Visual Effects Supervisor: Elizabeth Andrade
Animators: Wen Zhong Yuan, James Nidel
3D Animator: Chris Jennings
OUTSTANDING INDIVIDUAL ACHIEVEMENT IN A CRAFT: MUSIC & SOUND
Wild China: Heart of the Dragon (Travel Channel)
Composer: Barnaby Taylor
James Longley, the Academy Award-nominated director of Iraq in Fragments and Sari's Mother, was named one of 24 MacArthur Fellows by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation yesterday. The Fellows will each receive a unrestricted grant of $500,000, amortized over the next five years. What's more, the grant requires no proposal, no application, no reporting, no stipulations--just the freedom and opportunity to continue to make a difference. The rest of us can keep on dreaming--and fundraising...
"For nearly three decades, the MacArthur Fellows Program has highlighted the importance of creativity and risk-taking in addressing pressing needs and challenges around the globe," said MacArthur President Robert Gallucci in a statement "Through these Fellowships, we celebrate and support exceptional men and women of all ages and in all fields who dream, explore, take risks, invent, and build in new and unexpected ways in the interest of shaping a better future for us all."
Longley, who had been in Iran the past couple of years making a film about a junior high school in the village of Pul, witnessed the post-election uprisings in June (for more, click here.). For both Iraq in Fragments and Sari's Mother, Longley directed, produced, shot, edited and composed the score. His previous film, Gaza Strip (2001) captures life in that occupied Israeli territory, five months after the 2000 Intifada and around the election of Prime Minster Ariel Sharon. Of that film, he wrote, "My idea of a good documentary is a film that captures the most essential aspects of its subject, a film that shows rather than tells. I wanted to make a film that would convey not only the hard facts of life inside the Gaza Strip, but also the emotions, sensations and driving desires of the people I filmed. I made the film to fill a gap in our knowledge and a blind spot in our thinking about this conflict, but more than anything this film is an attempt to record the humanity of the people I met there, the thing that is impossible to tell in words."
Longley studied film at both Wesleyan University and All-Russian Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) in Moscow. His student documentary, Portrait of Boy with Dog, about a boy in a Moscow orphanage, earned a Student Academy Award in 1994. For more information about the filmmaker, click here.
Longley is the eighth documentary filmmaker to earn a MacArthur Genius Grant. The others include Edet Belzberg, Jon Else, Louis Massiah, Errol Morris, Stanley Nelson, Marcel Ophuls and Frederick Wiseman. For more information about the Fellows Program, click here.
Bowing to international pressure, the Tokyo International Film Festival announced it will screen The Cove, a documentary about the annual dolphin hunt in Taij, at the nine-day event in October The Japan Times reported.
The film was initially rejected by TIFF and had inspired Taij's sister city of Broome in Australia to severe its relationship with the Japanese town. The controversy led to festival organizers to take special consideration when adding the film.
From The Japan Times:
When organizers on Wednesday announced the lineup for the 22nd annual film festival, TIFF Chairman Tom Yoda singled out The Cove, explaining the decision to include the documentary was made after the festival had reached an agreement with the movie's producers to take full responsibility should any problems arise from the screening.
"We had initially decided not to include this movie out of concern that it may bring controversy, but we have received a lot of international criticism," Yoda said.
"It's a really good day for dolphins and Japanese people," [The Cove] director Louie Psihoyos told The Japan Times by phone from Sweden. "Japanese people for the most part do not know about the high levels of mercury in dolphin meat. This film will hopefully once and for all settle the argument these animals shouldn't be eaten for food because of extremely high levels of mercury."
Get more information about TIFF here and The Cove here.
As part of our 2009 Doc U Seminar Series, the IDA is proud to present an Evening with Ondi Timoner on Thursday, Sept. 24 in Los Angeles.
Join us for a special evening with the two-time Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner. Filmmaker who will discuss her latest film and share the story of her unprecedented success at the prestigious Sundance Film Festival. This is your chance to ask one of our community's most celebrated artists your questions about production and the art and business of documentary filmmaking! You won't want to miss this fantastic opportunity.
Ondi Timoner is the only filmmaker to ever win the Sundance Grand Jury Prize twice--first for the critically-acclaimed DiG! (2004) and more recently in 2009 for We Live In Public that the New York Times called "riveting" and "a compelling cautionary tale." Timoner graduated from Yale University cum laude and founded Interloper Films in 1994. Her short film, Recycle (2005), was a winner at the ICG Awards, and screened at both Sundance and Cannes. She is currently directing and producing Cool It, a documentary which explores the issues of global warming from a socio-economic perspective as it relates to the immediate needs of the developing world.
We Live in Public opens at the NuArt Theater on September 24.
Visit www.weliveinpublicthemovie.com for more information.
Eddie Schmidt (moderator) is an Oscar-nominated filmmaker, writer/producer, and commentator, as well as the Board President of the International Documentary Association (IDA). Feature credits include producing & co-writing the acclaimed IFC documentary This Film Is Not Yet Rated, producing and shooting HBO's powerful Twist Of Faith (for which he was nominated for an Academy Award), and producing the groundbreaking teenage mosaic Chain Camera. All three films were released theatrically and premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.
*** Space is VERY limited, so be sure to reserve a seat soon!
A clip from the Doc U seminar with Robert Greenwald is available on our website:
http://www.documentary.org/content/video/7623
And on the IDA YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmR4pVM7HUw
IDA members: $35 advance
purchase; $45 at the door
Non-members: $45 advance
purchase; $55 at the door
Join IDA now! For discounted ticket prices and more!
While promoting Capitalism: A Love Story at the Toronto International Film Festival today Moore said that "Newspapers have slit their own throats. Good riddance."
Moore accused newspapers of following profits over what the readers want. He also had a zinger or two for the Republicans, saying that newspaper organizations supported GOP candidates who have discouraged reading and education with their policies. He predicted that daily newspapers would be a thing of the past in a coupe of years.
See the whole conference below. What do you think about Moore's comments? Sound off now!
Get the latest updates, news and reactions coming out of TIFF in our News on the Doc section here.
R. J. Cutler's The September Issue, which captures both the process of producing the September 2007 issue of Vogue magazine and the intramural tension between Editor-in-Chief Anna Wintour and Creative Director Grace Coddington, exceeded $1 million at the box office in its third week of release. Following aan opening two-week run in New York City,. The film rolled out wide across the country-and pulled in over $700,000 over the weekend, for a cumulative gross total of $1,283,000, according to BoxOfficeMojo.com. The September Issue is the sixth million dollar-grosser of 09, and with It Might Get Loud showing potential and Capitalism: A Love Story destined to join Michael Moore's trophy case of commercial successes, docs are looking to close out the decade relatively strongly--albeit in a platform of steadily declining promise.
Here's a list of the top grossing docs of 2009 to date:
1) Earth $32,011,576
2) Food, Inc. $ 4,205,402
3) Waltz With Bashir $ 2,283,849
4) Valentino: The Last Emperor $ 1,755,134
5) Every Little Step $ 1,709,679
6) The September Issue $1,283,000
7) Tyson $ 887,918
8) It Might Get Loud $ 802,000
9) The Wonder of It All $ 744,298
10) The Cross: The Arthur Blessit Story $ 741,557
HBO continued to de facto ownership of the Emmys, taking five in the nonfiction categories at the Creative Arts Emmys ceremony last Saturday in Los Angeles, including the prestigious Governors Award for the indefatigable Sheila Nevins; and two each for The Alzheimer's Project and Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, for which Marina Zenovich took the Outstanding Directing and, with Joe Bini and P.G. Morgan, Outstanding Writer honors.
The other multiple winner in nonfiction was HISTORY's 102 Minutes that Shaped America, which was honored for Outstanding Nonfiction Special, Sound Editing and Sound Mixing.
The Creative Arts Emmys, the edited telecast of which airs September 18 on E!, is a forerunner to the Primetime Emmys, which airs September 20 on CBS. The News and Documentary Emmy Awards, presented by the New York-based National Academy of Television Arts & Science, happens September 21 at the Frederick P. Rose Hall at Lincoln Center.
Governors Award
Sheila Nevins, President, HBO Documentary Films
Outstanding Children's Nonfiction Program
Grandpa, Do You Know Who I Am? with Maria Shriver (HBO; HBO Documentary Films and
the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health in association with the Alzheimer's Association, Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, Geoffrey Beene Gives Back Alzheimer's Initiative, and Planet Grande Pictures)
Executive Producers: Sheila Nevins, Maria Shriver
Supervising Producer: Veronica Brady
Producers: Eamon Harrington, John Watkin
Series Producer: John Hoffman
Nick News With Linda Ellerbee Coming Home: When Parents Return from War (Nickelodeon ; Nickelodeon in association with Lucky Duck Productions)
Executive Producers: Linda Ellerbee, Rolfe Tessem
Supervising Producer: Wally Berger
Producers: Mark Lyons, Martin Toub
Outstanding Cinematography for Nonfiction Programming
Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations-- Laos (Travel Channel; Zero Point Zero Production, Inc.
Cameras: Todd Liebler, Zach Zamboni
Outstanding Directing for Nonfiction Programming
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (HBO; Milwood Pictures, Graceful Pictures, BBC, Antidote Films in association with HBO Documentary Films and ThinkFilm)
Director: Marina Zenovich
Exceptional Merit in Nonfiction Filmmaking
The Memory Loss Tapes (HBO; HBO Documentary Films and the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health in association with the Alzheimer's Association, Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, Geoffrey Beene Gives Back Alzheimer's Initiative, and Sceneworks)
Executive Producers: Sheila Nevins, Maria Shriver
Series Producer: John Hoffman
Producers: Shari Cookson, Nick Doob
Outstanding Nonfiction Series
American Masters (PBS; Thirteen/WNET American Masters)
Executive Producer: Susan Lacy
Series Producer: Prudence Glass
Supervising Producer: Julie Sacks
Producer: Judy Kinberg
Outstanding Nonfiction Special
102 Minutes That Changed America (HISTORY; Produced by Siskel/Jacobs Productions for History)
Executive Producers: Greg Jacobs, Jon Siskel, Susan Werbe
Producer: Nicole Rittenmeyer
Outstanding Picture Editing for Nonfiction Programming
This American Life: John Smith (Showtime; Showtime Presents in association with Chicago Public Radio, Killer Films, Inc., Left/Right, Inc)
Editor: Joe Beshenkovsky
Outstanding Picture Editing-Short Form
Stand Up to Cancer (ABC, CBS, NBC; Rock Paper Scissors)
Editors: David Brodie, Andy Grieve
Outstanding Reality Program
Intervention (A&E)
Executive Producers: Gary Benz, Michael Brandon, Sam Mettler, Dan Partland, Robert Sharenow, Colleeen Conway; Supervising Producer: Jeff Grogan; Producers: Trisha Kirk Redding, Sarah Skibitzke, Kurth Schemper.
Outstanding Sound Editing for Nonfiction Programming (Single Or Multi-Camera)
102 Minutes That Changed America (HISTORY; Produced by Siskel/Jacobs Productions for History)
Sound Designer: Seth Skundrick
Outstanding Sound Mixing for Nonfiction Programming (Single Or Multi-Camera)
102 Minutes That Changed America (HISTORY; Produced by Siskel/Jacobs Productions for History)
Re-Recording Mixer: Damon Trotta
Outstanding Special Class--Short-format Nonfiction Programs
Writer's Draft (Fox Movie Channel; A Fox Movie Channel production in association with Polaris Productions, Inc.)
Producer: Kenny Rhodes ;
Outstanding Writing for Nonfiction Programming
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (HBO; Milwood Pictures, Graceful Pictures, BBC, Antidote Films in association with HBO Documentary Films and ThinkFilm)
Writers: Joe Bini, P.G. Morgan, Marina Zenovich
The annual dolphin slaughter in Taiji was suspended due to publicity from the film, The Cove. But, sadly, it was only temporary. (via Eco Worldly)
First Run Features has acquired Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein's feature documentary Bulletproof Salesman, a look at war profiteer Fidelis Cloer. An early 2010 theatrical release is planned, with home video and broadcast releases to follow. (via The Hollywood Reporter)
1997 doc Hands on a Hardbody is about to have an exclamation point added to it's name. According to Variety, the film about a Texas endurance contest is going to be turned into a Broadway musical with the assistance of High Fidelity lyricist Amanda Green and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Doug Wright. If lucky, it'll follow in the footsteps of Wright's previous doc-turned-musical effort, Grey Gardens, (read our Documentary Magazine article about that right here) which proved a hit with both audiences and critics. No matter how it fares, hopefully at the very least we'll get a catchy car tune out of it like Greased Lightin'... (Variety via A.V. Club)
The Paley Center for Media announced a diverse lineup of documentaries to be screened at its tenth annual documentary festival, PaleyDocFest09, in New York throughout the month of October. Is starts Oct. 8 with The Way We Get By, which explores how different generations of war veterans come to terms with what one's service to country means. The Festival then continues with the world premiere of the American Masters Joan Baez: How Sweet the Sound on October 9; Rise and Fall of the Berlin Wall on October 20;The Glass House, which is about empowering abused young women in Tehran on October 21 and more. Get all info at the Paley Center's website.
Discovery Communications has unveiled a landmark 60-episode, five-year documentary series exploring life's big questions, to be overseen by the company's founder and chairman, John Hendricks, for launch in 2011. Curiosity: The Questions of Our Life will tackle "fundamental questions and underlying mysteries of our time," the company said. (via WorldScreen.com)
Opening: September 2
Venue: Film Forum/New York City
Film: American Casino
Dir./Prod: Leslie Cockburn
Prod.: Andrew Cockburn
http://www.americancasinothemovie.com/
"I don't think most people really understood that they were in a casino" says award-winning financial reporter Mark Pittman. "When you're in the Street's casino, you've got to play by their rules." This film finally explains how and why over $12 trillion of our money vanished into the American Casino.
For chips, the casino used real people, like the ones we meet in Baltimore. These are not the heedless spendthrifts of Wall Street legend, but a high school teacher, a therapist, a minister of the church. They were sold on the American Dream as a safe investment. Too late, they discovered the truth. Cruelly, as African-Americans, they and other minorities were the prime targets for the subprime loans that powered the casino. According to the Federal Reserve, African-Americans were four times more likely than whites to be sold subprime loans.
We meet the players. A banker explains that the complex securities he designed were "fourth dimensional" and sold to "idiots." A senior Wall Street ratings agency executive describes being ordered to "guess" the worth of billion dollar securities. A mortgage loan salesman explains how borrowers' incomes were inflated to justify a loan. A billionaire describes how he made a massive bet that people would lose their homes and has won $500 million, so far.
Finally, as the global financial system crumbles and outraged but impotent lawmakers fume at Wall Street titans, we see the casino's endgame: Riverside, California, a foreclosure wasteland given over to colonies of rats and methamphetamine labs, where disease-bearing mosquitoes breed in their millions on the stagnant swimming pools of yesterday's dreams.
Filmed over twelve months in 2008, American Casino takes you inside a game that our grandchildren never wanted to play.
Opening: September 9
Film: Crude
Dir./Prod: Joe Berlinger
Prods.: Michael Bonfiglio, J.R. DeLeon, Richard Stratton
Distributor: First Run Features
http://www.crudethemovie.com/
Three years in the making, this cinéma-vérité feature from acclaimed filmmaker Joe Berlinger (Brother's Keeper, Paradise Lost, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster) is the epic story of one of the largest and most controversial environmental lawsuits on the planet. The inside story of the infamous "Amazon Chernobyl" case, Crude is a real-life high stakes legal drama, set against a backdrop of the environmental movement, global politics, celebrity activism, human rights advocacy, the media, multinational corporate power, and rapidly-disappearing indigenous cultures. Presenting a complex situation from multiple viewpoints, the film subverts the conventions of advocacy filmmaking, exploring a complicated situation from all angles while bringing an important story of environmental peril and human suffering into focus.
Opening: September 11
Venue: Cinema Village/NYC
Film: Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
Dir./Prod: Margarita Jimeno
Prod.: Darya Zhuk
Distributor: Lorber Films
http://www.lorberfilms.com/gogol-bordello-non-stop/
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop is a lo-fi, high-energy documentary about New York City's most notoriously entertaining band, led by frontman Eugene Hütz. Filmmaker and fan Margarita Jimeno follows the band on a five-year journey from underground legend to international phenomenon, taking in the reckless, raucous sights and sounds of a band whom Hütz describes as "dedicated to creating an insane party atmosphere to deliver messages of social and political commentary." A wildly entertaining celebration of the definitive fun-de-siècle band,
Opening: September 11
Film: No Impact Man
Dir./Prod: Laura Gabbert
Dir.: Justin Schein
Prod.: Eden Wurmfeld
Distributor: Oscilloscope Pictures
http://www.noimpactdoc.com/index_m.php
Colin Beavan decides to completely eliminate his personal impact on the environment for the next year. It means eating vegetarian, buying only local food and turning off the refrigerator. It also means no elevators, no television, no cars, busses or airplanes, no toxic cleaning products, no electricity, no material consumption and no garbage.
No problem--at least for Colin. But he and his family live in Manhattan. So when his espresso-guzzling, retail-worshipping wife Michelle and their two-year-old daughter are dragged into the fray, the No Impact Project has an unforeseen impact of its own.
Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein's film provides an intriguing inside look into the experiment that became a national fascination and media sensation, while examining the familial strains and strengthened bonds that result from Colin and Michelle's struggle with their radical lifestyle change.
Opening: September 11
Venue: Landmark Magnolia Theater/Dallas, TX; Angelika Film Center, Houston, TX
Film: The Horse Boy
Dir.: Michel Orion Scott
Prod.: Rupert Isaacson
Distributor: Zeitgeist Films
http://www.horseboymovie.com/
How far would you travel to heal someone you love? An intensely personal yet an epic spiritual journey, The Horse Boy follows one Texas couple and their autistic son as they trek on horseback through Outer Mongolia in a desperate attempt to treat his condition with shamanic healing. When 2-year-old Rowan was diagnosed with autism, Rupert Isaacson, a writer and former horse trainer, and his wife, Kristin Neff, a psychology professor, sought the best possible medical care for their son--but traditional therapies had little effect. Then they discovered that Rowan has a profound affinity for animals--particularly horses--and the family set off on a quest for a possible cure.
The Horse Boy is part travel adventure, part insight into shamanic tradition and part intimate look at the autistic mind. In telling one family's extraordinary story, the film gives voice to the thousands who display amazing courage and creativity every day in the battle against the mysterious and heartbreaking epidemic.
Opening: September 11
Venue: Anthology Film Archives/New York City
Film: The Painter Sam Francis
Dir.: Jeffrey Perkins
http://www.thepaintersamfrancis.com/Site/Home.html
Forty years in the making, The Painter Sam Francis is Mr. Perkins's lyrical and intimate portrait of a friend, mentor and leading light of American abstract art.
The film retraces Francis' life and career from his childhood in California to his artistic maturation in post-World War II Paris, his time spent in Japan, and his return to the United States. Hinging on an interview that Perkins conducted with Francis in 1973, as well as extended scenes of the artist at work in the studio, the film provides deep insight into a man for whom creativity was a powerful life-sustaining force.
Interviews with friends, family, and fellow artists--including Ed Ruscha, James Turrell, Bruce Conner, Alfred Leslie and others--illuminate a mysterious and complex personality, and its reflection in a body of work that is simultaneously diverse and singular.
Opening: September 11
Film: Walt & El Grupo
Dir.: Theodore Thomas
Prod.: Kuniko Okubo
Distributor: Walt Disney Family Foundation Films
http://www.waltandelgrupo.com/
For ten weeks in 1941, Walt Disney, his wife Lilly, and sixteen colleagues from his studio visited nations in Latin America to gather story material for a series of films with South American themes. The feature documentary film Walt & El Grupo uses this framing device to explore inter-American relations, provide a rare glimpse into the artists who were part of the magic of Disney's "golden age", and give an unprecedented look at the 39 year-old Walt Disney during one of the most challenging times of his entire life.
Opening: September 16
Venue: Film Forum/New York City
Film: The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Dirs./Prods.: Judith Ehrlich, Rick Goldsmith
http://www.mostdangerousman.org/
1971: America is embroiled in a dirty war based on lies. A president is abusing the power of his office, ignoring the will of the people, Congress and the courts. He promises peace while planning a war without end.
One man, at the center of power, armed with a safe full of secret documents, leaks the truth about the Vietnam War to The New York Times. He risks life in prison to end the war he helped plan. His act of conscience and desperation triggers a Constitutional crisis, Watergate, the only Presidential resignation in history--and finally helps end the war.
Henry Kissinger called Daniel Ellsberg, "the most dangerous man in America"
And three decades later, he's still at it.
This documentary tells a story we need now.
Opening: September 18
Film: FUEL
Dir./Prod.: Josh Tickell
Prod.: Rebecca Harrell
www.thefuelfilm.com
FUEL is a comprehensive and entertaining look at energy in America: a history of where we have been, our present predicament and a solution to our dependence on foreign oil.
Rousing and reactionary, FUEL is an amazing, in-depth, personal journey of oil use and abuse as it examines wide-ranging energy solutions other than oil, the faltering US auto and petroleum industries, and the latest stirrings of the American mindset toward alternative energy.
Opening: September 19
Venue: On the pier at Solar One; 23rd Street @ the East River/New York City
Film: Burning in the Sun
Dirs./Prods.: Cambria Matlow, Morgan Robinson
www.birdgirlproductions.com; http //rooftopfilms.bside.com/2009/films/burninginthesun_rooftopfilms2009
Twenty-six-year-old charmer Daniel Dembele is equal parts West African and European, and looking to make his mark on the world. A chance encounter while managing a café in Europe convinces him to return to his homeland in Mali and start a local business building solar panels--the first of its kind in the sun-drenched nation. Daniel's goal is to electrify the households of rural communities, 99 percent of which live without power. Burning in the Sun tells the story of Daniel's journey growing the shaky startup into a viable company, and of the business' impact on Daniel's first customers in the tiny village of Banko. Taking controversial stances on climate change, poverty and African self-sufficiency, the film explores what it means to grow up as a man, and what it takes to prosper as a nation.
Opening: September 21-"Global Premiere"
Film: The Age of Stupid
Dir.: Franny Armstrong
Prod.: Lizzie Gillett
http://www.ageofstupid.net/
The Age of Stupid is the new cinema documentary from Franny Armstrong, director of McLibel. This enormously ambitious drama-documentary-animation hybrid stars Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite as an old man living in the devastated world of 2055, watching "archive" footage from 2008 and asking: Why didn't we stop climate change while we had the chance?
On September 21, the eve of the UN General Assembly's climate session, The Age of Stupid will be launched internationally at the biggest and greenest live film event the world has ever seen. A-list celebrities will walk the green carpet to a solar-powered cinema tent in downtown New York, linked by satellite to 700 cinemas in 50+ countries.*
As an INclusive, rather than EXclusive event, everyone is invited to go to their local theatre to watch the VIPs arrive in Manhattan by bike, rickshaw, electric car and sailing boat, before braving the paparazzi on the green carpet (made from recycled soda bottles). Following the screening of The Age of Stupid, there will be a further 40-minute event featuring Kofi Annan, Gillian Anderson, Mary Robinson, the film's director Franny Armstrong, the star of the film Pete Postlethwaite and other leading thinkers, celebrities and political figures from around the world. There will be live music from Radiohead's Thom Yorke and satellite links to scientists working in the Indonesian Rainforest and at the melting glaciers in the Himalayas. A group of children will speak from the very room in Copenhagen in which all our futures will be decided at the UN climate summit in December.
Opening: September 23
Film: Capitalism: A Love Story
Dir./Prod.: Michael Moore
Distributor: Paramount Vantage/Overture
http://www.capitalismalovestory.com/
In the 20-year anniversary of his groundbreaking masterpiece Roger & Me, Michael Moore's Capitalism: A Love Story comes home to the issue he's been examining throughout his career: the disastrous impact of corporate dominance on the everyday lives of Americans (and, by default, the rest of the world). But this time the culprit is much bigger than General Motors, and the crime scene is wider than Flint, Michigan. From Middle America to the halls of power in Washington, to the global financial epicenter in Manhattan, Michael Moore once again takes filmgoers into uncharted territory.
Opening: September 23
Venue: Cinema Village/New York City
Film: In Search of Beethoven
Dir.: Phil Grabsky
http://www.insearchofbeethoven.com/
In Search of Beethoven has brought together the world's leading performers and experts on Beethoven to reveal new insights into this legendary composer. As with director Phil Grabsky's previous film, In Search of Mozart, In Search of Beethoven takes a comprehensive look at the composer's life through his musical output, documenting each piece of music in concert with Beethoven's biography and letters. Grabsky traveled across Europe and North America to interview historians and musicians between rehearsals and performances, and filmed a remarkable 55 performances as well.
Above all, In Search of Beethoven addresses the romantic myth that Beethoven was a heroic, tormented figure battling to overcome his tragic fate, struck down by deafness, who searched for his "immortal beloved," but remained unmarried. It delves beyond the image of the tortured, cantankerous, unhinged personality, to reveal someone quite different and far more interesting.
Opening: September 25
Film: Lord, Save Us From Your Followers
Dir.: Dan Merchant
http://lordsaveusthemovie.com/
If you were to meet ten average Americans on the street, nine of them would say they believe in God. So why is the Gospel of Love dividing America?
Dan Merchant put on his bumper-sticker-clad jumpsuit and decided to find the reason. After talking with scores of men and women on streets all across the nation, and also interviewing many well-known activists in today's "Culture Wars," Merchant realized that the public discussion of faith doesn't have to be contentious.
From its opening Talking Heads sequence through its touching look at faith in action, Lord, Save Us From Your Followers is a fast-paced, highly engaging documentary that explores the collision of faith and culture in America while opening up this important conversation to all of us.
Opening: September 25
Film: The Providence Effect
Dir./Prod.: Rollin Binzer
Distributor: Slowhand Cinema Releasing
http://www.theprovidenceeffect.com/
Paul J. Adams III, an African-American man with activist roots in the 1960s civil rights movement, came from a family of teachers. After being black-listed himself as a teacher in Alabama because of his civil rights activities, he moved to Chicago, received a master's degree in psychology, and then landed a job as guidance counselor at Providence St. Mel, an all-black parochial school on Chicago's notorious drug-ridden, gang-ruled West Side.
A year after his arrival, Adams became principal, only to be told the following year that Chicago's archdiocese was going to close the school. After orchestrating a fundraising campaign that received national and local media attention, funds poured in and enabled Adams to buy the school from the Sisters of Providence and convert it to a nonprofit independent school. To ward off thieves and vandals, he literally moved into the empty nuns' quarters of the convent inside the school.
He then set about achieving a new goal: To turn Providence St. Mel into a first rank college preparatory school, and its African-American student body into a corps of driven, disciplined, high-achieving students.
That was over 30 years ago. Since then, 100 percent of Providence St. Mel graduates have been accepted to college--half of them, during the last seven years, to first tier and Ivy League colleges and universities.
The road from failing inner city school to a pre-K-through-12 educational system that produces graduates who attend Ivy League colleges and universities was not a smooth one. The Providence Effect traces the school's development from a struggling shoe-string budget dream into a school and a method of teaching that produces not only inspired students, but parents, teachers and administrators dedicated to settling for nothing less than the highest expectations.
Opening: September 30
Venue: Film Forum/New York City
Film: An American Journey
Dir.: Philippe Séclier
Distributor: Lorber Films
http //www.unvoyageamericain.com/pages/en_lefilm.html
In contemporary photography, everybody agrees there is a "before" and an "after" The Americans, Robert Frank's 1958 photographic manifesto.
Half a century later, French director Philippe Séclier decided to follow in Frank's footsteps to explore the spirit of the "Beat Generation" and the impact of his book, The Americans, not only on the art of photography, but also on American culture.
From Texas to Montana, Nebraska to Louisiana, New York to San Francisco, An American Journey is a 15,000 miles odyssey through contemporary America, moving between past and present, photography and cinema, and two Americas, separated by time.