Two remarkable biographies premiered on the screens of SXSW this year. ‘The Last Man on the Moon,’ profiling Astronaut Gene Cernan, and ‘Love and Mercy,’ which brings us into the life of Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson.
Documentary
The Price of Following Your Dreams
(Originally published on Blogcritics.org) Two films debuting this spring explore the challenge and cost of following your dreams. Documentary My Way (theatrical release on Febrary 20) follows rock musician Rebekah Starr as she leaves her Pennsylvania home for Los Angeles to make a music video. Narrative drama Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter (U.S. release in March) […]
CITIZENFOUR
Have you ever wanted to be a fly on the wall when history was made? CITIZENFOUR gives you that opportunity. Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Laura Poitras has created a truly unique documentary in her film about Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency (NSA) employee who felt morally obligated to expose surveillance being done on Americans. The film is special in several ways: how it came about, its structure, and its subject.
Anthem Film Fest: Countryside vs. City – Two Wars
An attack on Vietnam veterans – I suddenly felt like I was back at UCLA in 1971. Beyond Courage: Surviving Vietnam as a POW brought back questions, controversies, and anger from a war which was the model for the Chinese Communist vision of the peasants in the countryside rising up and overcoming the city. Empire State Divide brought viewers into the world of today and a war by the city on the countryside.
Anthem Film Fest: Mind Reboot
Two of the documentaries at the Anthem Film Festival caused my brain to do a reboot.
Anthem Film Fest – ‘America: Imagine the World Without Her’
It is a rare experience to have a documentary film move you emotionally as narrative films often do. New York Times bestselling author Dinesh D’Souza’s defense of America did just that.
Anthem Film Festival – Yes, the NSA is Listening
If you thought Edward Snowden was the first NSA whistle blower, you need to see this film.
Academy Award Winner Dan Lindsay Shares His Story
Undefeated takes viewers on a journey with the 2009 Manassas High School Tigers football team from North Memphis, Tennessee, as they struggle to win the first playoff game in the school’s 110 year existence.
Anthem Film Fest: ‘Sick and Sicker’
(First published on blogcritics.org) Since l was old enough to comprehend such things, sometime in the 1960s, I’ve heard stories of how bad things can be in countries with socialized medicine. Until Saturday, July 13, 2013, at the Anthem Film Festival, I had no idea just how bad it could be. Logan Clements in his […]
Anthem Film Fest – ‘The Conversation’ in the Bag
(First published on blogcritics.org) This is my second year at the Anthem Film Festival; when I registered I received the typical conference bag of goodies. To my delight, this bag include a DVD of The Conversation, the film that stood out most in my mind from year one. The Conversation, by Korchula Productions, does what most people might […]
Anthem Film Festival – Gutsy Truth and Economic Truth
(First published on blogcritics.org) Two approaches to serving up the truth were offered on Thursday, July 11, at the Anthem Film Festival: the gutsy, gritty, in-your-face truth of main stream media vitriol in Hating Breitbart, and the complex, subtle and intellectual economic truth of I, Pencil. Hating Breitbart Filmmaker Andrew Marcus began filming Andrew Breitbart’s life two days […]
Anthem Film Festival – ‘The Last Week’ on the First Day
(First published on blogcritics.org) You don’t have to do anything wrong to be destroyed by litigation. That is the message of The Last Week, a documentary which screened the first day of the Anthem Film Festival, in Las Vegas. It chronicles the last week of Blitz USA, a company that manufactured gas cans and provided jobs […]
LA Film Fest: ‘My Stolen Revolution’
Originally published on blogcritics.org “My brother refused to tell the authorities where I was hiding, and because of that he was executed,” explained Nahid Persson Sarvestani, creator of the documentary My Stolen Revolution, which held its North American premiere at the LA Film Fest. Sarvestani was a member of the resistance to the Shah of Iran, participating in the […]
DocU: The Intersection of Documentary and Journalism
(First published on blogcritics.org) Are you a filmmaker or a journalist? If the script you’re working on is titled Zombie Princesses vs. Sharkzilla, this is probably not an issue. But if you are using your filmmaking skills to document the reality of social issues such as unjust imprisonment or the AIDS epidemic, you’d better put on your […]
Until They are Home
(Originally published on Blogcritics.org) “I realized that the remains of hundreds of U.S. Marines were buried under thousands of garbage filled trash bags,” recalls 93-year-old Leon Cooper. At that moment, Cooper, one of the last remaining survivors of the WWII Battle of Tarawa, redirected his life to rectifying this outrageous situation. Steven C. Barber’s new documentary, Until They are Home, […]
‘Runaway Slave’ – 2012 Style
(Originally published on Blogcritics.org) Pastor C.L. Bryant got in big trouble. His church fired him as pastor. The NAACP stripped him of his position as Chapter President. Did he steal funds? Engage in immoral behavior? Run naked down Main Street? Worse! He joined the Tea Party. His story is told in the new film “Runaway Slave”, directed by Pritchett […]
Fools on the Hill
(Originally published on Blogcritics.org) “Finally, something liberals and conservatives can agree on.” No such thing, you might be thinking, especially in the current hyper-volatile pre-election atmosphere. You might be even more skeptical when you find out this claim comes from a Hollywood script entrepreneur. But you’d be wrong. My initial contact with Jerrol LeBaron was […]
Hell and Back Again
(Originally published on blogcritics.org) I put off viewing Hell and Back Again because I was expecting a heavy-handed anti-war diatribe. What I found, however, was a creative and intimate portrait of one of our nation’s warriors. The documentary takes us along with 25-year-old Sergeant Nathan Harris on two journeys. The first journey places us with Harris’ Marine […]
‘This Time’ – Getting it Right
(Originally published on blogcritics.org) The creative process – with its joy and disappointments, its triumphs and tragedies – is for many artists an intensely private experience. The writer in front of a computer or the artist alone in a studio has the privilege of privacy. This is not the case for those who express their […]