Photography & Intermedia

Shot by actor/filmmaker Adrian Grenier (Vince in HBO’s Entourage), this 95-minute feature documentary is an exploration of the tenuous relationship between celebrities and the people who make a living selling their images. After a chance encounter with a 13-year-old paparazzo, Austin Visschedyk, Grenier takes a step back to think about the celebrity- obsessed culture that has produced the boy. Adrian starts hanging out with the young photographer, learning the tricks of the trade, as well as what made the precocious teen want to spend his free time running around looking for celebrities and trying to get that “perfect shot.”

Editorial Review – Amazon.com

In retrospect, it seems absurd that the United States government felt so threatened by the presence of John Lennon that they tried to have him deported. But that’s what happened, as chronicled in directors David Leaf and John Scheinfeld’s The U.S. vs. John Lennon. The film starts slowly, with a familiar look at the former Beatle’s troubled childhood, his outspokenness as one of the Fabs (“We’re more popular now than Jesus Christ,” etc.), and his eventual hookup with Yoko Ono, paralleled by the growth of political protest in ’60s America, particularly against the Vietnam War. John and Yoko went on to stage their own peaceful demonstrations, like the Canadian “bed-ins,” but these were largely harmless media stunts. It was when the Lennons moved to New York in the early ’70s and took a more active role in the anti-war movement, making friends with radicals like Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Black Panther Party founder Bobby Seale, that the government got interested–and paranoid–and men like President Richard Nixon, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, and right-wing Sen. Strom Thurmond began actively looking for ways to silence him (it was Thurmond who came up with the deportation idea). That’s also when the film picks up. An array of talking heads weighs in, ranging from Ono and others sympathetic to Lennon’s plight (Walter Cronkite, Sen. George McGovern, even Geraldo Rivera) to those on the other side, including Watergate conspirator G. Gordon Liddy. Though The U.S. vs. John Lennon is hardly impartial, it’s safe to say that although Lennon was more an idealist than an activist, he was an influential celebrity whom Nixon viewed as a potential nuisance in an election year. And even once Nixon had won the ’72 presidential race, the Immigration and Naturalization Service refused to drop its case. Why? “Anybody who sings about love, and harmony, and life, is dangerous to somebody who sings about death,” says author Gore Vidal. “Lennon… was a born enemy of the U.S. He was everything they hated.” For music fans, Lennon’s solo recordings provide the soundtrack. The DVD also contains considerable additional documentary footage. –Sam Graham

Next up: Incident at Oglala – The Leonard Peltier Story on 9/18

Based on a true story, Rabbit-Proof Fence moves with dignified grace from its joyful opening scenes to a conclusion that’s moving beyond words. The title refers to a 1,500-mile fence separating outback desert from the farmlands of Western Australia. It is here, in 1931, that three aboriginal girls are separated from their mothers and transported to a distant training school, where they are prepared for assimilation into white society by a racist government policy. Gracie, Daisy, and Molly belong to Australia’s “stolen generations,” and this riveting film (based on the book by Molly’s daughter, Doris Pilkington Garimara) follows their escape and tenacious journey homeward, while a stubborn policy enforcer (Kenneth Branagh) demands their recapture. Director Phillip Noyce chronicles their ordeal with gentle compassion, guiding his untrained, aboriginal child actors with a keen eye for meaningful expressions. Their performances evoke powerful emotions (subtly enhanced by Peter Gabriel’s excellent score), illuminating a shameful chapter of Australian history while conveying our universal need for a true and proper home. –Jeff Shannon

Chronicling the story of unlikely art collectors Herb Vogel and Dorothy Vogel, filmmaker Megumi Sasaki demonstrates that it’s not necessary to be wealthy in order to build a significant collection in this fascinating documentary. A postal clerk and a librarian, the Vogels share a passion for art, which they pursued over decades, becoming two of the most important collectors of minimalist and conceptual art with more than 4,000 pieces.

Doug Pray’s documentary delves into the often inspiring, sometimes shocking life of 85-year-old Dorian “Doc” Paskowitz, a renowned surfer, surf camp owner, doctor and sex guru who, together with his wife, brought up nine children. Paskowitz raised his family in a camper on the beach, home-schooling them and requiring them to follow a strict lifestyle regimen. Now, his grown children speak out about how their unique upbringing affected them.

Featuring photos taken by paparazzi and others who happened on the scene, this documentary examines the tragic 1997 car accident in which Princess Diana and Dodi Fayed died, and tells the story of the photographers who were arrested. Produced by the U.K.’s Channel 4, the program reveals a never-before-scene photographic record of the events that transpired in the hour following the crash in Paris’s Pont de l’Alma tunnel. Director: Janice Sutherland, Stuart Tanner (Netflix Description)

The American flea market is the star of this quirky documentary from filmmaker Rick Sebak, who journeys across the country to various noteworthy markets and interviews fellow bargain hunters along the way. The stops include Seattle’s Fremont Market, vintage clothing shops in New York City, Texas’s First Monday Trade Days and the staggering Highway 127 Sale, which stretches across four states for a record-breaking 450 miles. (Netflix Description)

Product Description
Welcome to the world of industrial food production and high-tech farming. To the rhythm of conveyor belts and immense machines, the film looks without commenting in the places where food is produced: monumental spaces, surreal landscapes and bizarre sounds a cool, industrial environment which leaves little space for individualism. People, animals, crops and machines play a supporting role in the logistics of this system which provides our society s standard of living. OUR DAILY BREAD is a wide-screen tableau of a feast which isn’t always easy to digest and in which we all take part. A pure, meticulous and high-end film experience that enables the audience to form their own ideas.

About the Director
Nikolaus Geyrhalter is an Austrian filmmaker born in Vienna in 1972. He has directed seven films since 1994, OUR DAILY BREAD (2005) is his fifth film. He is the recipient of numerous awards including the prestigious Joris Ivens Jury Award at Amsterdam International Documentary Festival and his work has been selected at the renowned Venice and Cannes film festivals among others.

From both local and global perspectives, this documentary examines the harsh realities behind the mounting water crisis. Learn how politics, pollution and human rights are intertwined in this important issue that affects every being on Earth. With water drying up around the world and the future of human lives at stake, the film urges a call to arms before more of our most precious natural resource evaporates. Director: Irena Salina (Netflix Description)

Documentarian Jennifer Baichwal tells the true stories behind the faces of the Kentucky Appalachian inhabitants — once labeled hillbillies — who were originally captured through the camera lens of photographer Shelby Lee Adams 30 years earlier. Baichwal tracks the lives of two families who have each endured their share of heartache throughout their struggle to resist the influence of American popular culture.

Amid ever-increasing gas prices, this documentary delves into the short life of the GM EV1 electric car — once all the rage in the mid-1990s and now fallen by the roadside. How could such an efficient, green-friendly vehicle fail to transform our garages and skies? Through interviews with government officials, former GM employees and concerned celebs (such as EV1 driver Mel Gibson), Chris Paine (former EV1 owner) seeks to answer the question.

Weaving together 70 exclusive interviews and rare archival footage, this exhaustive chronicle of the U.S. pro-life movement investigates the inner workings and deep pockets of the influential group. The filmmakers examine the movement’s icons, fundraising machines and inroads among college students. Documentarians Stephen Fell and Will Thompson traveled across 35 states in one year to capture this controversial story.

Acclaimed filmmaker Aaron Russo directs this thorough investigation into the creation of the Federal Reserve and the controversial legislation (or lack thereof) that requires all American citizens to pay income taxes. Through revelatory interviews with key members of Congress, a former IRS Commissioner, tax attorneys, agents from the IRS and FBI, and various authors, Russo demystifies federal income tax and the creation of money.

This penetrating and sometimes harrowing documentary from director Billy Corben pulls out all the stops to explore the many dimensions of Miami’s cocaine-trafficking boom of the 1980s, from how the drug was moved and the financial impact on the city to the havoc and violence that followed in its wake. Told by the smugglers, cops and average citizens who were there, this film is an unflinching study of Miami’s most notorious and lethal vice.

Director Arturo Perez Torres’s award-winning documentary about undocumented workers chronicles the life-and-death journeys of Central American and Mexican migrants as they try to gain entry to the United States without going through proper government immigration channels. The subjects’ first-person perspective sheds light on individual motivations for the trek and the hazards encountered on their way to the American dream.

Thousands of New Orleans residents were forced to evacuate when Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005; filmed a year later, this compelling documentary shows how some of the city’s poorest residents were still trying to find their way home. Investigative reporter Greg Palast interviews scores of storm victims, from separated families to people who lost everything, and finds that the common thread is that they all just want to return home.

It’s one of the English language’s most inflammatory pejoratives and has lingered like a smoldering fire in America’s collective consciousness for more than 100 years. This illuminating documentary looks at the “n” word’s history and ever-changing usage — which runs the gamut from a repugnant slur to a term of endearment. A slate of celebrities and other familiar figures are interviewed, including Quincy Jones, Samuel L. Jackson and Chris Rock.

This Oscar-winning documentary tells the story of the forced relocation of 12,000 Navajo Indians in Arizona that took place after Interior Secretary James Watts sold inexpensive leases to developers in 1983. Claiming the land rightfully belonged to the Hopi, the U.S. government moved the Navajo residents to tract homes in other areas. Both Navajo and Hopi Indians describe how a century of bureaucratic racism has affected their lives.

God Grew Tired of Us is as much about America as it is about Africa. The moving documentary begins in war-torn Sudan with the mid-1980s exodus of 27,000 Christian boys, most between five and ten. After their arrival in Kenya, the UN steps in with aid. Directors Christopher Quinn and Tommy Walker pick up the story a decade later, narrowing their focus to Panther, John, and Daniel, three of 3,800 given the opportunity to resettle in the US. Quinn and Walker are with them when they land in the States, where everything is new and exciting–electricity, running water, pre-packaged foodstuffs–all the things Americans take for granted. Through the assistance of various relief organizations, their expenses are covered for the next few months. After that, the trio is expected to provide for themselves (they’re older than the subjects in 2003′s The Lost Boys of Sudan). Divided between Pittsburgh, PA and Syracuse, NY, the young men are thrilled with their suburban lives. Over the next year, however, joy turns to sorrow. They miss their families and have trouble making connections beyond their social group. The directors document another two years, by which point things are finally starting to look up. Produced by Brad Pitt, God Grew Tired of Us won the Documentary Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at Sundance. Nicole Kidman provides a little narration, but for the most part, the Lost Boys speak for themselves, which is exactly as it should be. –Kathleen C. Fennessy (Amazon.com)

Tagline: America is being born again

Plot Outline A documentary on kids who attend a summer camp hoping to become the next Billy Graham.

Plot Synopsis: Jesus Camp follows several young children as they prepare to attend a summer camp where the kids will get their daily dose of evangelical Christianity. Becky Fischer works at the camp, which is named Kids on Fire. Through interviews with Fischer, the children, and others, Jesus Camp illustrates the unswerving belief of the faithful. A housewife and homeschooling mother tells her son that creationism has all the answers. Footage from inside the camp shows young children weeping and wailing as they promise to stop their sinning. Child after child is driven to tears. Juxtapose these scenes with clips from a more moderate Christian radio host (who is appalled by such tactics), and Jesus Camp seems to pose a clear question: are these children being brainwashed?

Next up: In Debt We Trust 11/13

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
The companion film to Before Stonewall, After Stonewall, narrated by Melissa Etheridge, explores gay history in the U.S. from the 1970s through the 1990s. Like its predecessor, After Stonewall attempts to cover much ground in a short amount of time; however, with only three decades to span, the assignment is more manageable.

The film covers the predictable highs and lows of the last 30 years of the 20th century. On the side of triumph, it explores the declassification of homosexuality as a disease; the growth of gay presses and writers; gay wins in political office (notably Harvey Milk and Elaine Noble); and the formation of a national gay lobbying presence in the Human Rights Fund. On the flip side, we witness the antigay hysteria evoked by Anita Bryant; the rise of AIDS, the blind eye of the federal government; and the growth of the Christian Coalition. Perhaps the most significant contribution of this film is its mapping of a gay presence within popular media. Through TV shows such as South Park and covers of Newsweek and Time, as well as “out” popular performers like k.d. lang and Ellen DeGeneres, the case is made that gay culture has “arrived” in America–a huge leap from the days before Stonewall when the common idea of a gay person was someone to snicker at or otherwise dismiss as a lunatic. –Katy Ankenman

Next up: Jesus Camp on 11/6

The investigation into Arnold Friedman’s life started after he was caught in a pedophile sting operation when he received a magazine of child pornography from the Netherlands by mail. In searching his house, investigators found a large collection of child pornography, which led them to expand their investigation. After learning that Friedman taught children computer classes from his home, the police began to suspect him of abusing his students.

Some of the children Friedman taught had alleged Friedman played bizarre sex games with them during their computer classes. Jarecki interviewed some of these children himself; some stated that they had been in the room with other children alleging abuse, and that nothing had happened. One of the “abused” children related a story full of contradictions, and admitted that he had remembered nothing until undergoing hypnosis. The film portrayed police investigative procedures as the genesis of a “witch-hunt” hysteria in the Friedman’s community.

The Friedmans took home videos while Arnold Friedman (and, later, his son Jesse) awaited trial. They were allowed to stay at home in order to prepare for court. The pictures were not made with publishing in mind, but as a way to record what was happening in their lives. The movie shows much of this footage; family dinners, conversations and arguments. Arnold’s wife eventually advised her husband to confess and protect their son.

Arnold Friedman pleaded guilty to multiple charges of sodomy and sexual abuse. According to the Friedman family, he confessed in the hopes that his son would be spared prison time. Jesse Friedman later confessed as well, but now claims he did so to avoid being sent to prison for life. He said in mitigation that his father had molested him. Arnold Friedman admitted to being a pedophile, and to molesting two boys, but not those who attended his computer classes. He is also quoted as admitting that, when he was 13, he molested his younger brother, Howard, who was eight years old. Howard Friedman has said he does not recall this. In addition the lawyer for Jesse Friedman, Peter Panaro stated that Jesse had admitted to him that he was sexually assaulted by his father as a child. He also stated that Jesse had in fact admitted to him that he had sodomized 14 boys. Jesse denies telling the lawyer this and states that the lawyer told him to plead guilty and blame his father.

Arnold Friedman committed suicide in 1995, leaving a $250,000 life insurance benefit to his son. Jesse Friedman was released from prison in 2001 after serving 13 years of his sentence and is currently preparing an appeal. (From Wikipedia)

Next up: After Stonewall on 10/30