Jonas Brothers 3D
Posted on February 26, 2009 at 9:30 pm
No review because they didn’t show it to critics, but here’s a shot from the new Jonas Brothers concert film.
Posted on February 26, 2009 at 9:30 pm
No review because they didn’t show it to critics, but here’s a shot from the new Jonas Brothers concert film.
Posted on February 25, 2009 at 2:00 pm
New York Noir is a documentary about the experience and influence of African-Americans in the history and culture of New York City. It will be shown on the Documentary Channel this week and it is available for purchase online. I spoke to director Marino Amoruso and his colleague from Little Dizzy Home Video, Michael Sutton.
After Barack Obama was elected, some people said there was no longer any need to make a special effort to study black history.
Marino Amoruso: It actually has helped to get a better look at black history. Since Obama was elected and even through the campaign, articles in the newspaper compared him to other firsts in African-American history. Even in the sports section they wrote that without Jackie Robinson Obama’s candidacy would not have been possible. There are black firsts in American history that wouldn’t be written about if he had not been running. The good thing about it is that we’re getting exposed to a whole segment of African-American history beyond Martin Luther King Day.
Michael Sutton: A whole other generation will be re-introduced to this history because of this election. Obama’s story is everyone’s story. Growing up, we always saw the picture of the white Jesus hanging next to the white President. He provides a whole new image of life.
I was glad to hear more in your film about a woman who has always fascinated me, Madame C.J. Walker, who is significant in women’s history as well as black history.
MA: Talk about having two strikes against you — the prospects at that time for black women were domestic help. This woman saw a need, fulfilled a need, and also she had an impact on the self-esteem of black women at that time. They were portrayed as ugly but she told them, “You are beautiful; you’re different but beautiful.” She did not just see a need market-wise and fill; she did a lot for them.
MS: She was the first African-American woman millionaire in the United States. Her hair care products care paved the way for African-American companies and items specially designed for those customers. What she did was important because she cared about making products that were good for the hair and skin, not harsh.
Mr. Amoruso, what brought you to this project?
MA: I did a film on the pride and passion of Italians in America, just to say, “Hey look, we’re not all in the mob.” When I was researching that I found out that some of the most prominent black musicians got their start in speakeasies. Gangsters didn’t care what color you were, they were not intending to make a statement about civil rights. They just wanted to get the music. That led me to do a show about the Harlem renaissance, and that led to finding out more about the African-American community in NY. This is almost like the third in a series.
The research is there if you look for it. It is not in every social studies book but you can find it. I have a very large newsreel archive that I have been gathering over the years to make these films, 1200 hours of newsreel footage. I had all the footage of the World War I outfit; I didn’t even realize I had it. Not just in this film but in a lot of stuff I do, across the board, any ethnicities, you’re always finding material that counters stereotypes, the naïveté at different times of people about different ethnic groups. It is even more pronounced in the African-American culture because they had no defense; they could be shot or hung for standing up for themselves. And there is so much people do not know. They think of slavery as being a Southern thing. People will be surprised to know that Broadway was physically broadened by slave labor and there were more slave traders in New York than any other city except for Charleston.
MS: The piece on Malcolm X in our film is very extensive and many people have said it is one of the best depictions they have seen. Malcolm started out militant and angry but came to understand that the country has to live up to the idea it was based on that all men are created equal. He understood that the best way to get good jobs is to get educated and become VP of a company, that’s what Martin Luther King always stood for.
MA: I look at it as American history. It’s all American history. My favorite quote from Martin Luther King was, “We all came over in different boats but we’re all in the same boat now.” We all face stereotypes You can’t shove things down people’s throats, and that’s how King was smart. One step leads to the next.
One of my heroes has always been Jackie Robinson. My grandfather had the racial views of his time but he was a Dodger fan, and he might not have wanted Robinson to marry his daughter but he respected the man. Step 2, my father went farther toward equality and Step 3 — I grew up thinking, “I’m going to be like Jackie Robinson” — I didn’t see a difference, I just wanted to play like him.
Posted on February 19, 2009 at 6:00 pm
A-Lowest Recommended Age: | Adult |
MPAA Rating: | Not Rated |
Profanity: | Some strong language |
Alcohol/ Drugs: | References to drinking and drugs |
Violence/ Scariness: | References to emotional abuse, sad death |
Diversity Issues: | A theme of the movie |
Date Released to Theaters: | February 20, 2009 |
A generation ago the technology first became widely available to allow families to document their lives with home movies and audio recordings. The use of these artifacts has transcended the “can you believe I used to look like that” and “remember that trip” family viewings and provided the materials for extraordinary films like Capturing the Friedmans, Tarnation, exploring the chasm between the sunny footage of birthdays and beach visits and the longing, failure, betrayal, and loss that was going on inside.
Film-maker Morgan Dews is the grand-son of a woman named Allis, who left behind a suitcase of home movies, ten hours of dictaphone letters sent to her husband on his annual four-month business trips to Australia, and tapes recorded for herself or for therapists consulted by the family. And there was a file of tape transcripts and notes labeled Must Read After My Death.
That became the title of a film assembled from these recordings, opening today in New York and Los Angeles and available everywhere via Gigantic Digital. The haunting images of Allis, her husband Charley, and their children, Chuck, Doug, Bruce, and Anne flicker on screen as we hear the recordings. The juxtaposition is artfully done and utterly heart-rending, the cheery footage of children playing as we hear the family fall apart.
At first, the words fit the “Leave it to Beaver” images of life in the tony Connecticut suburbs of the 1950’s and 60’s as Allis and the children make records tell Charley how much they miss him and he responds by telling them he loves them. But then, so matter-of-factly we wonder if we hear it correctly, Charley tells Allis about his involvement with other women and even asks for her help. And by the time the recording device has switched to reel-to-reel magnetic tape, the kids are beginning to reflect the anguish at home. Halfway between a time capsule and a Cheever story, we see the particularly of this family’s dysfunction and disintegration but it is the elements of its era make it so powerful. The suffocating restrictions on Allis as she tries to find a way to hold onto a sense of herself at a time when therapists were handing out tranquilizers and telling her to let her husband be the boss. In one tape we hear her decide that while she would like to work it would be better for her son for her to stay home — for another ten years.
Movies like “Revolutionary Road” and “American Beauty” cannot come close to the art and authenticity of this one in portraying the tragedy behind the manicured lawns and shiny appliances of the suburbs. The urgency of Allis’ message to us — not “please” but “must read” — is most honorably discharged by her grandson and the story she left behind lets us hear the voice that was almost silenced.
If you like this, try: Capturing the Friedmans, Tarnation, Five Wives, Three Secretaries and Me, Tell Them Who You Are, and This American Life’s superb episode of found audio, including tapes found in a thrift store that were recorded by parents to send to their son in medical school. And this interview with Morgan Daws has more information about the film and the family and how they feel about using Allis’ recordings.
Posted on February 4, 2009 at 8:00 am
Alex Charwick sits down at a table with two microphones and a sign that says “Interviews 50 Cents” and talks to everyday Americans about their lives. The results are enthralling. In this interview, he talks to an Algerian-American man who spent five and a half months walking across the United States and speaks very movingly about the generosity and hospitality of the people he met along the way.
Posted on January 26, 2009 at 8:00 am
B+Lowest Recommended Age: | 4th - 6th Grades |
MPAA Rating: | PG for thematic elements and language |
Profanity: | Some schoolyard language |
Alcohol/ Drugs: | None |
Violence/ Scariness: | None |
Diversity Issues: | A theme of the movie |
Date Released to Theaters: | March 7, 2008 |
Date Released to DVD: | January 27, 2009 |
Amazon.com ASIN: | B000FKO3US |
As Jack Black explains in School of Rock, rock music is about sticking it to The Man. That takes on a wider meaning when the sticking is coming from young girls. In this documentary about a music camp in Portland, Oregon, where, according to the New York Times’ Jeannette Catsoulis,
100 delirious 8-to-18-year-olds — many of whom have never touched an instrument — are encouraged to make noise and “take up space.” For one earsplitting, consciousness-raising week, they form bands and write songs while watchful counselors — volunteer musicians from bands like Sleater-Kinney and Gossip — provide expertise, mediate meltdowns and reassure the strugglers.
The movie shows how rock music can help girls tell their own stories and discover who they are, free of cultural expectations and limitations. And that they really can rock out!