Travis: A Soldier’s Story
Posted on May 24, 2014 at 2:02 pm
For Memorial Day, take a look at this short film about the documentary, “Travis: A Soldier’s Story” and see if you can arrange a screening in your area.
AFI Docs Announces 2014 Schedule with Ebert’s “Life Itself” in the Spotlight
Posted on May 23, 2014 at 4:49 pm
I am a proud sponsor of Washington’s magnificent annual documentary festival and this year’s list of films is outstanding. I’m delighted that director Steve James will be there with his documentary about Roger Ebert, “Life Itself.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9ud1HUHgugAlso scheduled:
112 WEDDINGS: DIR Doug Block. USA. Filmmaker Doug Block (THE KIDS GROW UP) started filming people’s wedding videos 20 years ago as a way to make extra money. Whatever became of those hopeful brides and grooms? In this funny and often touching film, Block tracks down several of them to find out if marriage was everything they dreamed it would be.
1971: DIR Johanna Hamilton. USA. In March of 1971, a break-in occurred at an FBI field office outside of Philadelphia, PA, that resulted in the theft of every single document contained within it. The true nature of what was discovered within those files would soon prove to be more shocking than the crime itself.
ACTRESS: DIR Robert Greene. USA. After landing a part on THE WIRE, actress Brandy Burre’s career was rising fast, but she gave it up for the real life role of wife and mother in upstate New York. Now, Burre is eager to find her way back into acting, but at what cost to her family?
THE AGREEMENT: DIR Karen Stokkendal Poulsen. Denmark. Some international skirmishes happen far from battlefields; they take place in quiet negotiating rooms. Yet no matter how unassuming those spaces may be, the players can be just as immovable as their armed equivalents. THE AGREEMENT takes viewers into one such discussion – the high-stakes Serbia-Kosovo negotiations to make Serbia’s EU candidacy possible. East Coast Premiere.
ALFRED & JAKOBINE: DIRS Jonathan Howells, Tom Roberts. UK/Canada. In 1955, passionate newlyweds Alfred and Jakobine bought a beat-up old taxi cab and embarked on a memorable trip around the world. When Alfred abruptly left the marriage, it left Jakobine heartbroken. Forty years later, Alfred decides to restore their old taxi and deliver it to Jakobine as a surprise. U.S. Premiere.
ALIVE INSIDE: A STORY OF MUSIC & MEMORY: DIR Michael Rossato-Bennett. USA. Millions of elderly Americans suffer from the debilitating effects of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. In this moving film, social worker Dan Cohen experiments with a music-based program to help these patients unlock deeply buried memories and emotions that had long been forgotten. The results will astound you.
AN HONEST LIAR: DIRS Justin Weinstein, Tyler Measom. USA. James “The Amazing” Randi has been mastering the art of illusion and sleight of hand to entertain audiences for over half a century. When he sees magicians’ tricks of the trade being used by con artists like faith healers and psychics to bilk the masses, however, Randi dedicates himself to exposing them.
APOLLONIAN STORY: DIRS Ilan Moskovitch, Dan Bronfield. Israel. For over 40 years, Nissim has been chipping away at a seaside limestone cliff just north of Tel Aviv. Though continually under construction, the intricate home he has built for himself is truly incredible. When his son comes to help for the summer, eccentricities arise that surely predate his work of passion.
ART AND CRAFT: DIRS Sam Cullman, Jennifer Grausman; co-directed by Mark Becker. USA. For 30 years, Mark Landis, one of the most skilled art forgers in U.S. history, has used his astonishing talent to duplicate the work of famous artists and dupe museum curators nationwide. Diagnosed with schizophrenia, this eccentric forger isn’t in it for the money – he prefers to donate his work.
BACK ON BOARD: DIR Cheryl Furjanic. USA. In 1988, Greg Louganis became the first male athlete in history to sweep the diving events in consecutive Olympic games. Despite his success, Louganis’ real challenges were still to come. Director Cheryl Furjanic’s (SYNC OR SWIM) film gives us an intimate glimpse into the life of one of the world’s greatest champions. World Premiere.
BRONX OBAMA: DIR Ryan Murdock. USA. Louis Ortiz was an unemployed single father from the Bronx in 2008 when people noticed that he bore an uncanny resemblance to presidential hopeful Barack Obama. With Obama’s victory, Ortiz transformed himself into a professional lookalike, joined a motley group of political impersonators and began to chase an unlikely version of the American dream.
BUTTERFLY GIRL: DIR Cary Bell. USA. Abbie Evans’ coming-of-age struggle is complicated by a rare life-threatening skin disorder, epidermolysis bullosa, which makes her body as fragile as butterfly wings. Alternately snarky and self-deprecating, optimistic and reckless, Evans is ready to assert her independence and break free from her stalwart parents in this unsentimental yet moving portrait.
DANGEROUS ACTS STARRING THE UNSTABLE ELEMENTS OF BELARUS: DIR Madeleine Sackler. USA. Go behind the scenes of the Belarus Free Theatre, an award-winning troupe of underground performers who dare to tackle dangerous topics that can easily put them behind bars. In the midst of an unstable political climate, these brave performers are constantly torn between fighting artistic censorship and worrying about their families’ safety.
DINOSAUR 13: DIR Todd Miller. USA. In 1990, a team of scientists from South Dakota’s Black Hills Institute stumbled onto a spectacular discovery – the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus rex specimen ever found. Nicknamed “Sue,” the T. rex soon became the center of a messy custody battle involving landowners and the federal government. East Coast Premiere.
DIOR AND I: DIR Frédéric Tcheng. France. Much is afoot in the iconic House of Dior, as newly hired artistic director Raf Simons has only eight weeks to present his first haute couture collection. The unconventional Simons collaborates with Dior’s unflagging and enchanting veteran atelier seamstresses, marking the auspicious arrival of a formidable fashion persona.
THE DOG: DIRS Allison Berg, Frank Keraudren. USA. Based on true events, the classic film DOG DAY AFTERNOON tells the story of a bank robbery gone awry. Combining present-day interviews and archival footage, THE DOG introduces us to John Wojtowicz – the real-life inspiration for Al Pacino’s character – while presenting a fascinating snapshot of New York City’s LGBT liberation movement of the 1970s. East Coast Premiere.
THE FIX: DIR Laura Naylor. USA. After years of heroin addiction, a young father from the Bronx tries to turn his life around. With the support of former junkies in his community, he works towards creating effective solutions to help empower those fighting the deadly grasp of drug addiction.
THE HAND THAT FEEDS: DIRS Rachel Lears, Robin Blotnick. USA. This inspiring film focuses on a group of employees at a popular New York City eatery, many of whom are undocumented and vulnerable to being exploited. When they stand up to management to fight for better wages and working conditions, they learn how to empower themselves and emerge as leaders.
HAPPY VALLEY: DIR Amir Bar-Lev. USA. During the Penn State scandal, the media focused on the accused and the university. They missed the private tragedies – the community questioning its perceived identity, the Paternos watching their reputation slide and Jerry Sandusky’s adopted son losing his family. Bridging the public and private dramas, HAPPY VALLEY reexamines the scandal and its aftermath.
HEAVEN ADORES YOU: DIR Nickolas Rossi. USA. When singer/songwriter Elliott Smith died in 2003, it devastated the indie rock community. Smith, best known for the Academy Award®-nominated song, “Miss Misery,” was a trailblazer for Portland’s indie scene in the ’90s. Through interviews with friends and archival footage, Nickolas Rossi’s film proves a heartfelt tribute to Smith’s legacy and music. East Coast Premiere.
THE HOMESTRETCH: DIRS Anne de Mare, Kirsten Kelly. USA. High school can be tough under any circumstances, but what if there is the added burden of having no consistent place to call home? This powerful film follows three homeless teens – Kasey, Anthony and Roque – as they share their struggles and victories while navigating their way through the Chicago Public School system. U.S. Premiere. Catalyst Screening.
HOW I GOT OVER: DIR Nicole Boxer. USA. Fifteen formerly homeless women in the Washington, DC, area come together to share their harrowing life stories, bravely setting out on the path to addiction recovery. Collaborating on an original play that they will perform at the Kennedy Center, these strong and courageous women tap into artistic talents they never knew they had. World Premiere.
I AM BIG BIRD: THE CAROLL SPINNEY STORY: DIRS Chad Walker, Dave LaMattina. USA. Big Bird has been an iconic and beloved figure to all since SESAME STREET first aired in 1969. But who is the man in the Big Bird suit? This delightful film tells the story of Caroll Spinney, the amiable Muppeteer who has filled Big Bird’s huge orange feet for over 40 years. U.S. Premiere.
THE INTERNET’S OWN BOY: DIR Brian Knappenberger. USA. At 13, Aaron Swartz co-authored the Web’s RSS format. His passion to liberate information ended tragically when a disconsolate Swartz killed himself at 26 while facing federal charges regarding his attempt to replicate a proprietary database. Swartz’s inspiring life saga celebrates extraordinary accomplishment and laments the stinging absence of an unswerving visionary. East Coast Premiere. Catalyst Screening.
IVORY TOWER: DIR Andrew Rossi. USA. Over the past 30 years, the cost of higher education has increased at an alarming rate along with the mounting burden of student loan debt needed to fund a traditional college experience. Filmmaker Andrew Rossi (PAGE ONE: INSIDE THE NEW YORK TIMES) probes the future of higher education and investigates alternatives to the traditional four-year university. Catalyst Screening.
KEEP ON KEEPIN’ ON: DIR Alan Hicks. USA. Jazz trumpet legend Clark Terry has performed with such greats as Count Basie and Duke Ellington and acted as mentor to Miles Davis and Quincy Jones. When he meets blind piano prodigy Justin Kauflin, Terry works with him to pass on some of his musical gift and help Kauflin find his own voice.
LAST DAYS IN VIETNAM: DIR Rory Kennedy. USA. As the war in Vietnam draws to its inevitable close, the North Vietnamese army swiftly rolls toward Saigon. At the city’s U.S. Embassy, a small but dedicated crew of Americans must make some hard decisions in its attempts to protect the South Vietnamese allies it has been told to leave behind.
MISCONCEPTION: DIR Jessica Yu. USA. From Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Jessica Yu (BREATHING LESSON: THE LIFE AND WORK OF MARK O’BRIEN) comes this intriguing look at the attitudes surrounding population growth in different areas of the world. Tied together by the fascinating observations of statistics expert Hans Rosling, the film follows three individuals who have a personal stake in population growth within their homelands.
MUDBLOODS: DIR Farzad Sangari. USA. In the whimsical world of her wildly successful Harry Potter books, author J. K. Rowling invented the thrilling – but imaginary – sport of Quidditch. With Potter fans reaching adulthood, Quidditch has turned into a real sport that has taken college campuses by storm thanks to some creative minds and entrepreneurial spirit. World Premiere.
THE NEWBURGH STING: DIRS Kate Davis, David Heilbroner. USA. In 2009, the FBI uncovered a Muslim terror cell plotting to attack a synagogue and U.S. military aircraft. Closer analysis, including FBI hidden-camera footage, raises substantive doubts: Were these four men tenacious terrorists or merely hapless targets of entrapment caught up in a post-9/11 hunt for “red meat” to mollify a traumatized nation? Catalyst Screening.
THE OVERNIGHTERS: DIR Jesse Moss. USA. Each day busloads of men arrive in the towns of North Dakota in search of jobs. They find scarce housing, employment hassles and a hostile citizenry. Trying to practice the compassion he preaches, Jay Reinke uses his church as a home for these men while his parishioners and neighbors grow frustrated with him.
POINT AND SHOOT: DIR Marshall Curry. USA. Matthew VanDyke, a young man from the suburbs of Baltimore, dreamed about a life of adventure that seemed outside his grasp. When VanDyke decided to turn his fantasies into reality, he soon found his life heading toward a winding path that led to the front lines of the 2011 Libyan Revolution.
THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS: DIRS Edward Lovelace, James Hall. UK. In 2005, gifted Scottish musician Edwyn Collins suffered two devastating cerebral hemorrhages that left him with large gaps in his memory and trouble with the most basic language. This inventive film artfully puts the viewer inside Collins’ experience as he fights back from the brink of death. East Coast Premiere.
THE SEARCH FOR GENERAL TSO: DIR Ian Cheney. USA. One of the most popular dishes in Chinese restaurants in America is the deep fried, slightly spicy dish known as General Tso’s chicken. But who exactly is General Tso, and why is this menu item named after him? Filmmaker Ian Cheney (THE CITY DARK) takes us on a mouth-watering journey to the root of this amusing mystery.
SILENCED: DIR James Spione. USA. The term “whistleblower” is usually attached to controversy, and those who expose misconduct within an organization often stand to lose everything. This film looks at the post-9/11 crackdown on those who attempt to lift the veil on U.S. national security practices and the devastating costs that come with telling the truth.
SLAYING THE BADGER: DIR John Dower. USA. Greg LeMond was the first American to win the prestigious Tour de France. This engaging story looks back at the 1986 Tour in which LeMond went neck and neck with teammate, mentor and fierce competitor Bernard Hinault – nicknamed “The Badger” – whose promise to help LeMond win was abandoned in the heat of competition.
SLINGSHOT: DIR Paul Lazarus. USA. Dean Kamen invented the Segway and lives in a house with secret passages and a heliport. His latest passion is the SlingShot water purification system created to obliterate half of human illness. Kamen reminisces about accepting dyslexia, foregoing parenthood and losing his brother to cancer, while lamenting he has only one lifetime for inventing.
SOFT VENGEANCE: ALBIE SACHS AND THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA: DIR Abby Ginzberg. USA/ South Africa. In 1955, the People’s Congress declared, “South Africa belongs to all who live in it.” SOFT VENGEANCE focuses on Albie Sachs, a leading member of the National Conference in South Africa who was forced into exile for many years. The film recounts Sachs’ story through personal interviews and historical footage.
THE SPECIAL NEED: DIR Carlo Zoratti. Italy/Germany. Enea is in his late twenties and longs to experience the pleasures of a sexual relationship. However, the challenges of autism make finding the right mate difficult. In this sensitive and charming film, Enea enlists the help of his two closest friends and embarks on a road trip to seek help from sex workers. East Coast Premiere.
THE SUPREME PRICE: DIR Joanna Lipper. USA/Nigeria. In 1993, Nigeria elected MKO Abiola as president, ending the reign of military leadership. Shortly after the presidential election, Abiola was imprisoned and his wife, Kudirat, became the leader of the Nigerian pro-democracy movement. THE SUPREME PRICE weaves the past and the present of the Abiola family through the eyes of their daughter, Hafsat Abiola.
UKRAINE IS NOT A BROTHEL: DIR Kitty Green. Australia/Ukraine. Ukraine’s feminist group FEMEN creates quite a stir when the women demonstrate topless across European borders to protest against the patriarchal regime in their native country. As the protests gain international attention, however, questions grow as to who is the real driving force behind these outspoken women and their campaign for change.
VIRUNGA: DIR Orlando von Einsiedel. USA. In the DRC exists Africa’s oldest national park containing the last natural habitat for endangered mountain gorillas. As civil unrest grows within the Congo, a British oil company pursues efforts to drill within the park. VIRUNGA highlights the small number of dedicated individuals fighting to secure the park’s borders.
WE ARE THE GIANT: DIR Greg Barker. USA/UK. The recent Arab Spring uprisings were often organized by young people who embraced the tools of social media to communicate and call for lasting change within their governments. This powerful and inspiring film talks to some of these young activists to discover what drives them forward despite great personal risk. East Coast Premiere.
WHEN THE GARDEN WAS EDEN: DIR Michael Rapaport. USA. The time was the late 1960s and the “Garden” was Madison Square Garden in this fond look back at the New York Knicks basketball team, which meant little to New Yorkers at the time. But with new coaching and a band of talented players with personality, the team turned the sport around for the city.
WHITEY: UNITED STATES V. JAMES J. BULGER: DIR Joe Berlinger. USA. For decades, legendary gangster James “Whitey” Bulger ruled South Boston with seemingly free reign. After spending 16 years in hiding, however, Bulger is finally put on trial to answer for his crimes. AFI DOCS 2012 Guggenheim honoree and acclaimed filmmaker Joe Berlinger (PARADISE LOST Trilogy) sheds new light on Bulger’s notorious history amid allegations of deep corruption within law enforcement.
Interview: Carolyn Jones of “American Nurse”
Posted on May 19, 2014 at 8:00 am
“American Nurse” is a deeply moving documentary about the men and women who are, as the bumper sticker says, “patient people.” The film explores aging, war, poverty, and prisons through the work and lives of nurses. Jason Short drives up a rugged creek to reach a home-bound cancer patient in Appalachia. Tonia Faust runs a prison hospice program where inmates serving life sentences care for their fellow inmates as they’re dying. Naomi Cross coaches an ovarian cancer survivor through the Caesarean delivery of her son. Sister Stephen, a nun, runs a nursing home filled with goats, sheep, llamas and chickens, where the entire nursing staff comes together to sing for a dying resident. And Brian McMillion, an Army veteran and former medic, rehabilitates wounded soldiers returning from war. This film will touch, uplift, and inspire you. It was a great pleasure to speak with writer/director Carolyn Jones. I also spoke to Sister Stephen, and that interview will be published later this week.
Did this project start as a book?
Yes, it began as a book. I’ve actually published a number of books
They’re really dealing everyday with this critical balance between being very caring and compassionate and yet holding on to some kind of sense of themselves where they don’t get washed away in it.
And that’s a very, very fine line to walk. I had no idea what nurses do. I mean zip! I had gone through chemotherapy with breast cancer and my nurse really got me through that on a personal level so I knew what that kind of nurse does. But I really knew nothing about the diversity and the depths of knowledge that nurses have and all the different things that they deal with so when that lid got blown off I was really struck. My first feeling was “Oh good heavens they’re all saints!’ and I honestly would talk to someone and just think, “You are just from a different planet than I am.” And it got very interesting: “Are you born like this? Are you born to be caring for your fellow man and completely non-judgmental?” They seemed to me, to be people that were just on a higher plane than the rest of us.
And then I kind of got comfortable and caught my stride and I realized that a lot of the qualities that nurses have are qualities that I believe as human beings are innate within us. I believe we will care for our neighbor for the most part and I believe we will help one another given a certain set of circumstances. So I started to get a little bit comfortable with it. Maybe somewhere within me I had some of the qualities that let me inhabit the same earth that they do. And then by the end of the project I was convinced they were saints and decided that they have a completely different DNA structure than I do! And I will never be anything like them, they’re incredible. Everything I want to be, everything that I think matters during life and at the end of life are things they think about and act upon everyday and just to be in their presence makes you a better human being.
Do you think that we as a culture do enough to support them, particularly with regard to the way that we structure health care?
No! I mean, not even close.
We’re so far off from understanding what nurses do and how they can contribute. We haven’t even begun to scratch the surface. We have got this group of people in this country that are non-political, can’t be bought, they see us holistically, they know how we suffer, they know what makes us healthy, they know where we find joy, they know how to make the hospitals run smoother, they know the full effect of war on our young men and women coming back from fighting, they know what poverty looks like, they know what working in the coal mines look like, they know what end of life is. They should be a part of every conversation, there should be always a nurse sitting at the table to remind us whatever choice we’re making, whether it’s about health care, going to war, food stamps, closing down a school, I don’t care what it is, they can tell us what effect this is going to have on our health and ultimately on our children.
And it’s critical that we stop and listen to them because we don’t have another group of people with this incredible treasure chest of knowledge. We don’t have them; there isn’t anybody else that we can turn to that is as, dare I say, pure and straight forward and non-judgmental and non-political as this group. They are capable of great things because they do have something innate that they are born with that make them different than the rest of us. But they are educated constantly to be non-judgmental, to look at things at face value, to accept everybody and try to understand the cause of someone’s behavior rather than just react to it. And it’s absolutely invaluable and I think this country needs them desperately and doctors are great, this is not a project that is trying to say nurses are great and doctors aren’t. That’s not my message at all.
We don’t know many things about our nurses and “Nurse Jackie” just doesn’t cut it. I’m a huge fan of Edie Falco. She’s brilliant and I wish she had lent herself to something else because it did a great disservice to nurses. I haven’t met a nurse in the last three years that had anything good to say about that. It’s not who they are. And I was lucky enough to meet some of the finest in this country.
How did you find the nurses you followed in the film?
First we would settle on a topic like returning war veterans and what the military had to say about what those women and men were facing. And so we went to the place in America that had more returning war veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan than any other place in the country. That was the VA Hospital in San Diego. Then we went to that hospital and asked them to nominate a few nurses that not only can speak to this issue but also represent the hospital really well, that are like the finest nurses in the industry. So that’s the way we functioned all across the country. We were able to meet nurses that were nominated by their peers and by their supervisors, and all of them are kind of the best of the nurses in that particular facility or place where we were. And so I say that because I’m not trying to say that all nurses are without fault either, they’re human just like the rest of us. But there are more great nurses than any other pocket of a profession that I have certainly encountered in my life and I’ve been interviewing and meeting people for over 25 years. This is an extraordinary group.
It reminds me a little bit of documentaries like “Twenty Feet from Stardom” or “Only The Strong Survive,” where we turn our focus to the people at the side and not the ones that usually get the leading role. Their job is to help other people.
I happen to love stories like that because you find the richness in life there. And you can do a deep dive in and find out makes things work and I love that. But I think in this case in the process of uncovering that I discovered that there is a reason that they don’t have a loud enough voice right now. We don’t know what they do, we have this preconceived notion of what nurses do and it involves holding hands and taking your temperature, and caring for people and being empathetic and all of those things.
We don’t realize how smart they are; we don’t realize the kind of education it takes to become a nurse and we don’t realize how they continue to educate themselves. I heard this so many times, they’ll get a patient who…it could be anything, a burn victim that is hurt in a different way that they didn’t encounter before. They dig in and find out how to help that person. And they get more certifications to be able to help the next person who is dealing with the same thing. That’s just the way their minds work. That’s why there are so many darn letters after all of their names. They have like this long list of number of letters, all of them. Half the time I couldn’t keep straight to who have what but that’s because they are so well educated and they continue to educate themselves because they’re driven by taking the knowledge that they had from the person that they just cared for and using it for the next person. And it’s remarkable.
And what do they do to keep from not falling apart over the tragedies they see around them all the time?
I was thinking, “Do you all get in your cars and drive for 45 minutes and sing Dionne Warwick songs or something to let it go?” But they all do different things. So for some of them there are groups of their colleagues in the hospitals, so there might be something that happens and they’re able to meet right after someone has died, and they can talk about it and kind of get beyond the moment by finding strength in others. Some of them actually do get in their cars and cry or sing or just try very hard to leave that moment behind them and drive home and then walk in the front door, take of their scrubs and make dinner for their families. That just blows my mind on so many levels, it’s incredible! And some of them aren’t able to cope, frankly. Some of them have a difficult time having personal relationships because it’s so hard to talk. Nobody wants to hear that stuff. Nobody wants to know what your day was like.
Naomi Cross is a Labor and Delivery nurse at John Hopkins and is also a Bereavement Counselor. So she’s the one helping moms when their babies don’t live. She’s married to this guy named Jason Cross. We should clone him because he’s so supportive and so aware of how important the work that Naomi does is. And he cooks and he’s there and that’s the way they solve it. They have a young boy who is just adorable, he’s in the film as well, and they kind of have found this balance in life so that she can get in the car and go home and walk through the door and leave it outside most of the time and just enjoy and build herself back up with the love of her family.
But it’s not easy and it takes a very, very special person to be married to a nurse because of what they go through in a day. The film takes us over the threshold into the patient’s room so that we can see them caring for other people. You actually see a baby come into this world and you see a prison nurse attending to a nasty wound on a man’s leg and you get a little glimpse, a little understanding of how dramatic and profound these moments can be that nurses go through. And a lot of the nurses who have seen the film have said things like: “I can’t wait to show my sister and my mother and my cousin or even my husband or my wife because now they’ll get it. Because there isn’t any way for us to understand. They put their hands inside our bodies, they deal with gruesome things and they’re fearless.
I’m going to speak to one of the nurses in the film, Sister Stephen.
Oh my gosh! Sister Stephen transformed me, I want to you to know. There is more life at Villa Lerado than any place I’ve been. I live in Manhattan and I think we very often spend time in the here and now. Oh come on…we all do right? We are very focus on right now and one of the things I think is wrong with the way we live, we’re so trying to hang on to our youth we’ve forgotten that there is a cycle to life, that we’re born and we die. And we try to stay young for so long.
Sister Stephen has the full cycle of life at Villa Laretto. She’s got all these animals that she uses as animal therapy. I’m not just talking about a couple of ducks. She’s got llamas and woodpeckers and monkeys and these animals all give birth and she brings those baby animals either into the facility herself and puts those little babies into the laps of the elderly or she puts the elderly in wheelchairs and takes them out to witness all those baby animals on the farm. And then on top of that this woman is a genius, she also brings in respite kids from the town, kids that have all kinds of different problems either developmental problems or problems at home. She brings them in and they help her care for the animals. And those young people relate to the elderly in such an extraordinarily beautiful way.
We need to be reminded that our time here is so precious. She reminded me of that. I think of her every day. She’s reminded me that we are born, it beautiful here, we are lucky to be here. We need to cherish it, we need to make the most of our time and then we leave. And that can either be a beautiful moment or a difficult moment but that’s the way it’s going to be for all of us. And I think she lives that every day. She taught me more in the amount of time that I have known her probably than anyone else in my life and she’s a very, very special human being.
Interview: “Fed Up’s” Laurie David and Stephanie Soechtig
Posted on May 12, 2014 at 3:59 pm
Oscar-winning producer Laurie David is back with an even more inconvenient truth: our food is killing us and the government is powerless to stop food companies from making it worse. I spoke to David and director Stephanie Soechtig about the film.
I want to start with the end — to me the most interesting part of the movie was what I call the Citizens United problem,orporate involvement in making policy decisions about health and nutrition and disclosure. One of the most devastating revelations of the film was the story about the way the industry softened findings of a World Health Organization report on the impact of sugar on health.
SS: What’s interesting about the WHO report was just how hard it was to actually find that story. Peter Jennings, who appears in a clip, was the only American newscaster who covered that. I found it initially, in a paper from the UK, and I contacted the head of the World Health Organization at the time and asked him more of the story but I couldn’t find anything in the press on this other than that one Peter Jennings clip. We really had to dig hard to unearth that and it really didn’t get any mainstream press attention in the US. And the headline in the UK paper was “George Bush is beholden to sugar barons and he is jeopardizing the future of American children.” It was an incredibly damning letter the WHO had sent to Tommy Thompson at the time. I’m a journalist by trade and had I seen that, it would have been my lead story. It was a really damning letter and it got no coverage. So it was just interesting to see just how the media was a bit complacent in what happened as well.
And what do you think is the reason for that? Do you think it’s because of their advertisers? Do you think that they sensed that there isn’t an interest in this as an issue?
SS: Yeah, a hundred percent. Look at the recent effort of the voluntary guideline to stop marketing to kids. Some of the people that were up there lobbying against it were some of the major networks and you saw Viacom and Nickelodeon and all of them up there because they are reliant on the advertising dollars. So everyone has a dog in this fight it seems.
LD: No one cares about the health of the American public.
Another area where that came up was the lack of transparency around sugar on labeling of food. What went into the decision not to have a percentage displayed?
LD: I think that the industry has been fighting that from day one. I don’t think that anybody even tries to do it anymore. It’s all part of the conventional labeling, completely accepted. That’s got to be some serious under the table stuff that’s gone on to keep that off the label. But you know what’s funny about it? What the truthful daily recommended amount of sugar that you need per day is? It is zero, zero! You can imagine how damning that number would be for all these products!
That chart that you show about the amount of sugar in our food is really shocking. Every morning I take calcium vitamins and because of the movie I looked at the sugar content and I was shocked! As soon as I’m done with this jar I am going to try to find some calcium that doesn’t have sugar in it.
SS: Exactly! And that is the whole point of the movie. We want to level the playing field for people. It’s heartbreaking that families think they are doing the right thing, think they are making the healthier choice and what they are eating is making them sick. It’s not right! And just look at yogurt as a great example right now. Yogurt is marketed to death as a healthy choice for breakfast and if you look at the sugar content of most of these fruit filled yogurts, honestly it’s a dessert.
The other thing that surprised me was about the takeover of full lunchrooms by fast food companies. Is that based on lobbying at the local level or is that a purely economic decision — where did that come from?
SS: We met with a principal and she was just as distraught as anyone that her student body was able to buy diet soda and candy bars for breakfast. And she felt that her hands were tied as well too. She said, “There’s nothing I can do about it.” And I think everyone just feels a little hogtied about the policies. What is missing is a common sense approach. We all know that tomato paste isn’t a vegetable and that french fries aren’t vegetables. And I think that we were all really shocked when we saw the footage that these kids were sending us back that they had slushy machines and McDonalds in their cafeteria.
How did you find the kids that struggling with obesity and their and the families?
SS: We spent a little over a half a year just calling schools, churches, synagogues, different hospitals, doctors that specialized in diabetes and obesity and we’d say, “We’re looking for some families that could give us sort of a look into their world. What was making it so hard to make good food choices?” And it was incredibly difficult to find people. It was incredibly labor-intensive. But it’s incredibly courageous of the families. You saw how candid they were with. It all just kind of fell into place I think the way it was supposed to because we found these incredible families who really opened our eyes to things that we had no idea were happening.
And yet they didn’t really make much progress.
SS: We weren’t making a reality show. This wasn’t “The Biggest Loser.” We didn’t send trainers to them. This was asking them to show us what was happening in their lives. They were our field reporters on the ground showing us life on the front lines. So how could they make progress? What they showed us is how much misinformation is out there. And the answers to what is happening is this film. So I think the real story now is to see what happens once they’ve seen the film, what progress they make then.
LD: You saw the end of the movie that Tina and Brady started cooking real food and they changed their lifestyle. Tina has lost 100 pounds. Of course, Brady has had a tougher time. It’s the entire food carnival environment we are living in. So Brady went on to get a job at Bojangles and his school asked him to sell candy bars to raise money. Te second he left his house, this is what he is dealing with so it is not a big surprise he gained the weight back.
SS: I don’t know why are so shocked that his school asked him to sell candy bars. I mean, there are Girl Scouts selling cookies right on every corner. It’s crazy.
And the ads for these foods are always saying, “You deserve this,” or “This is going to help you get your energy back.”
LD: “Open happiness.”
SS: And happiness is used as a marketing tool for everything! I mean it’s really outrageous, it’s outrageous!
What kind of research material are you developing for people to have to follow up and learn more?
SS: We have a great website. We have some school curriculum on there already and a discussion guide. And one of the goals of the movie to get our 60 minute version of it into every school in the country. We made the movie with kids in mind, we want kids to see movie and be empowered by it. Another thing we are doing and it’s never been done before, we have dubbed a Spanish language version of the movie which is going to be released on May 16th in certain markets. So I think we’re doing as much as we can and we are hoping that the single most important thing is for people to come out to the theaters and see this film.
And I have to say, the things I think we put out are so powerful. I mean, look at our poster. I think the poster really breaks through the haze of media stuff out there. I think it is iconic. It was one of the most popular Instagrams the week it came out. We have an incredibly powerful trailer which kids are posting on their Facebook page and helping us get the word out so I think that we’ve got lots of ambassadors and social media support so I hope we are getting the word out.
LD: I think the film really unfolds like a murder mystery thriller. It is not a dry educational documentary. It really plays like a film more than a typical documentary.
Contest: Win a DVD of “The Story of the Jews”
Posted on May 5, 2014 at 12:20 pm
I am delighted to have five copies of the outstanding PBS series The Story of the Jews with Simon Schama
Prize-winning author of 15 books and Emmy Award-winner Simon Schama brings to life Jewish history and experience in a new five-part documentary series follows Schama as he travels from Russia and the Ukraine to Egypt, Israel and Spain, exploring the imprint that Jewish culture has made on the world and the drama of suffering, resilience and rebirth that has gone with it.
The series is, at the same time, a personal journey for Schama, who has been immersed in Jewish history since his postwar childhood; a meditation on its dramatic trajectory; and a macro-history of a people whose mark on the world has been out of all proportion to its modest numbers.
“If you were to remove from our collective history,” said Schama, “the contribution Jews have made to human culture, our world would be almost unrecognizable. There would be no monotheism, no written Bible, and our sense of modernity would be completely different. So the history of the Jews is everyone’s history too and what I hope people will take away from the series is that sense of connection: a weave of cultural strands over the millennia, some brilliant, some dark, but resolving into a fabric of thrilling, sometimes tragic, often exalted creativity.”
The series draws on primary sources that include the Elephantine papyri, a collection of 5th-century BC manuscripts illuminating the life of a town of Jewish soldiers and their families in ancient Egypt; the astonishing trove of documents – the Cairo Geniza – recording the world of the medieval Jews of the Mediterranean and Near East; the records of disputations between Christians and Jews in Spain; correspondence between the leader of the Arab revolt during World War I, Emir Feisal, and the leader of the Zionist movement, Chaim Weizmann.
Schama talks about the turning points of the drama with living witnesses like Aviva Rahamim, who, as a 14-year-old, walked across the Sudanese desert to try and reach Israel; Yakub Odeh, the Palestinian whose village was destroyed in the war of 1948; and Levana Shamir, whose family members were imprisoned in Egypt at the same time. He debates the meaning of new archaeological discoveries of the Biblical period with Yosef Garfinkel of the Hebrew University; the Dead Sea Scrolls with their chief curator Pnina Shor; the character of the Talmud with Leon Wieseltier, literary editor of the New Republic; the photographic record of Israel’s history with Micha Bar Am; German cultural treasures from Enlightenment Germany and the music of Felix Mendelssohn with the critic Norman Lebrecht.
The series, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC in fall 2013, was acclaimed in the British press as “an astonishing achievement, a TV landmark, idiosyncratic, accessible but always authoritative.” It includes new archaeological research that is transforming our understanding of the earliest world of the Jews, and highlights evidence from the visual arts — synagogue mosaics, spectacularly illustrated Bibles, the brilliantly colorful decoration of synagogues (contrary to impressions of a monochrome religion), as well as the glorious music that carried Jewish traditions through the centuries.
Whether he’s amid the stones of 11th-century Judea, the exuberantly decorated cemeteries of Ukrainian hasidic rabbis, the parlors of Moses Mendelssohn’s Berlin or the streets of immigrant New York, Schama brings together memory and actuality, past and present, sorrows and celebrations, vindications and challenges and makes felt the beating pulse of an epic of endurance that has been like no other – a story that belongs to everyone.
To enter the contest, send an email to moviemom@moviemom.com with “Story of the Jews” in the subject line and tell me your favorite Jewish author, performer, musician, or holiday. Don’t forget your address! (US addresses only.) I will pick a winner at random on May 14. Good luck and mazel tov!