A Day
Without a Mexican California awakens one day to
discover that one third of its population has vanished. A
peculiar pink fog surrounds the state and communication
outside its boundaries has completely shut down. As the
day progresses, it becomes apparent that the sole
characteristic linking the missing 14 million is their
Hispanic heritage. R Rated 2004. 
Blue
Gold: World Water Wars We can't live without
water. You may have thought it was a human right. But
certain corporations have been plotting to control the
water supply on this planet for a while now, and have
been moving into place around the globe. Now the World
Bank has required certain governments to privatize their
precious water supply -- make it a corporate commodity
answerable only to stockholders -- as a condition to
getting a loan. In some places it is now illegal to catch
rainwater, because rain is being considered private
property, including the United States. The evil of this
worldwide corporate grab for control of your most
precious resource is practically inconceivable, but it is
happening. This is a landmark documentary that every
school, library and church should own and show. Do you
want the cost of your water to be controlled by private
corporations and stockholders only interested in their
bottom line? Do you want to give up your right to the
water around you, including rain? NR 2009
Capitalism: A love
story. In presenting a “fireball of a movie that
might change your life” (Peter Travers, Rolling
Stone), Moore “skewers both major political
parties” (Claudia Puig, USA Today) for selling out
the millions of people devastated by loss of homes and
jobs to the interests of fat cat capitalists. Moore has
“dug up some astonishing dirt” (Brian D.
Johnson, Macleans), stories told in the faces of the
foreclosed and evicted, in the food stamps received by
hungry airline pilots, and in the courage of fired
factory workers who refuse to go quietly. But more than a
cry of despair, Moore’s film raises the possibility
of hope. Capitalism: A Love Story is “The most
American of films since the populist cinema of Frank
Capra (It’s a Wonderful Life)” (Dan Siegel,
Huffington Post ), “a movie that manages shrewdly,
even brilliantly, to capitalize on the populist anger
that has been sweeping the nation” (Joe Morgenstern,
Wall Street Journal ). R rated. 2010
Collapse.
Can this man predict when your world will crumble? It s
the shattering documentary that has been called superb
(Entertainment Weekly), hypnotic and haunting (Time
Magazine) and so masterfully made it s impossible to look
away (AllMovie.com). It is the story of Michael Ruppert,
former Los Angeles police officer turned rogue reporter
whose eerie prediction of the current financial crisis
shocked millions. Now Ruppert is warning of a new
meltdown, one rooted in oil, economics, and covert U.S.
policies that are leading us all towards unprecedented
global disaster. Is he a prophet who can clearly see
America s terrifying future, or a conspiracy theorist
fueled by fear and paranoia? And if Ruppert is right, can
this slide into catastrophe be stopped? Experience this
sometimes harrowing, often poignant and always riveting
look into the mind of the ultimate outsider from
filmmaker Chris Smith, the award-winning director of
American Movie and The Yes Men. NR 2010
Corporation,
The An epic in length and breadth, this documentary
aims at nothing less than a full-scale portrait of the
most dominant institution on the planet Earth in our
lifetime--a phenomenon all the more remarkable, if not
downright frightening, when you consider that the
corporation as we know it has been around for only about
150 years. It used to be that corporations were, by
definition, short-lived and finite in agenda. If a town
needed a bridge built, a corporation was set up to
finance and complete the project; when the bridge was an
accomplished fact, the corporation ceased to be. Then
came the 19th-century robber barons, and the courts were
prevailed upon to define corporations not as
get-the-job-done mechanisms but as persons under the 14th
Amendment with full civil rights to life, liberty, and
the pursuit of happiness (i.e., power and profit)--ad
infinitum. The Corporation defines this endlessly
mutating life-form in exhaustive detail, measuring the
many ways it has not only come to dominate but to deform
our reality. The movie performs a running psychoanalysis
of this entity with the characteristics of a prototypical
psychopath: a callous unconcern for the feelings and
safety of others, an incapacity to experience guilt, an
ingrained habit of lying for profit, etc. We are swept
away on a demented odyssey through an altered cosmos, in
which artificial chemicals are created for profit and
incidentally contribute to a cancer epidemic; in which
the folks who brought us Agent Orange devise a
milk-increasing drug for a world in which there is
already a glut of milk; in which an American computer
company leased its systems to the Nazis--and serviced
them on a monthly basis--so that the Holocaust could go
forward as an orderly process. It maps the new reality.
This is our world--welcome to it. NR 2004.
Crude Awakening,
A: The Oil Crash. Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack's
nonfiction treatise Crude Awakening joins Maxed Out, An
Inconvenient Truth, and other recent documentaries
devoted to unearthing and exploring forces that are
untying the connective threads of contemporary society.
The subject at hand is crude oil - specifically, the
depletion of petroleum from the Earth, in an era when
consumption threatens to exceed supply. The overtone of
the film is speculative but admonitory; Gelpke and
McCormack suggest that if western society fails to
reinvent itself altogether (via such innovations as
hydrogen-powered autos, and a decreased reliance on
fiscally unsound Middle Eastern nations), economic
cataclysm is not simply likely but inevitable. To
underscore this point, the filmmakers contrast obscenely
naïve shorts from the 1950s that promise depthless
oil supplies, with contemporary warnings from geologists
who suggest that the bottom of the well is close at hand.
McCormack and Gelpke also interview such subjects as
former OPEC secretary general Fadhil Chalabi and Bush
advisor Roger E. Ebel. NR 2007
11th Hour
Co-directors Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners
conduct interviews with some of the world's leading
scientists and creative thinkers in a film that asks
whether or not it's too late to avoid the ecological
disaster that looms ominously on the horizon. In addition
to exploring how the human race has arrived at this
crucial point in history, conversations with 50 leading
thinkers, scientists, and leaders including former Soviet
prime minister Mikhail Gorbachev, world-renowned
scientist Stephen Hawking, and sustainable design experts
Bruce Mau and William McDonough to find out just what
humankind can do about the most pressing issues of our
time. PG 2008
End of Poverty,
The aphorism "The poor are always with us" dates back
to the New Testament, but while the phrase is still sadly
apt in the 21st century, few seem to be able to explain
why poverty is so widespread. Activist filmmaker Philippe
Diaz examines the history and impact of economic
inequality in the third world in the documentary The End
of Poverty?, and makes the compelling argument that it's
not an accident or simple bad luck that has created a
growing underclass around the world. Diaz traces the
growth of global poverty back to colonization in the 15th
century, and features interviews with a number of
economists, sociologists, and historians who explain how
poverty is the clear consequence of free-market economic
policies that allow powerful nations to exploit poorer
countries for their assets and keep money in the hands of
the wealthy rather than distributing it more equitably to
the people who have helped them gain their fortunes. Diaz
also explores how wealthy nations (especially the United
States) seize a disproportionate share of the world's
natural resources, and how this imbalance is having a
dire impact on the environment as well as the economy. NR
2010
Enron:
The Smartest Guys in the Room One of the greatest
scandals in American corporate history is chronicled in
the riveting documentary Enron: The Smartest Guys in the
Room. Based on the best-selling book by Fortune
magazine reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkin, and
directed by Alex Gibney (who also produced The Trials of
Henry Kissinger), the film is an epic morality tale,
drawing upon a wealth of insider interviews and archival
material to show how Enron, once the nation's seventh
largest corporate entity, essentially faked its
bookkeeping to report profits that never existed. The
corrupt and closely guarded mismanagement by Enron
executives (including Kenneth Lay and Jeffrey Skilling,
later placed on criminal trial) is revealed through such
heinous concepts as "Hypothetical Future Value" (a way of
reaping fortunes based on false profit projections) and
the use of offshore "shell" companies to hide the massive
losses that eventually toppled the company (along with
the venerable Arthur Anderson accounting firm) and left
20,000 employees jobless. As a maddening portrait of
hubris and white-collar crime, Enron transcends political
and corporate boundaries by showing how smart and
powerful men grew blinded by greed and brought ruin upon
themselves, along with thousands of otherwise innocent
victims. R-rated. 2005
Fahrenheit 9/11
To anyone who truly understands what it means to be
an American, Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 should be
seen as a triumph of patriotic freedom. Rarely has the
First Amendment been exercised with such fervor and
forthrightness of purpose: After subjecting himself to
charges of factual errors in his gun-lobby exposé
Bowling for Columbine, Moore armed himself with a
platoon of reputable fact-checkers, an abundance of
indisputable film and video footage, and his own
ironically comedic sense of righteous indignation, with
the singular intention of toppling the war-ravaged
administration of President George W. Bush. It's the Bush
presidency that Moore, with his provocative array of
facts and figures, blames for corporate corruption,
senseless death, unnecessary war, and political
favoritism toward Osama Bin Laden's family and Saudi oil
partners following the terrorist attacks of September 11,
2001. Do yourself a favor: Ignore those who condemn the
film without seeing it, and let the facts speak for
themselves. By honoring American soldiers and the victims
of 9/11 while condemning Bush's rationale for war in
Iraq, Fahrenheit 9/11 may actually succeed in turning the
tides of history. R-rated. 2004.
Fast Food
Nation Inspired by the incendiary New York
Times bestseller that exposed the hidden facts behind
America's fast food industry, Fast Food Nation combines
an all-star ensemble cast lead by Greg Kinnear, Wilmer
Valderrama and Avril Lavigne with riveting, interlocked
human stories to serve up "a firecracker of a movie that
jumps off the screen" (Rolling Stone). When a marketing
executive (Kinnear) for the Mickey's burger chain is told
there's a nasty secret ingredient in his latest culinary
creation?"The Big One"? he heads for the ranches and
slaughterhouses of Colorado to investigate...but
discovers the truth a bit difficult to swallow. R-rated
2006
Fat, Sick and
Nearly Dead Overweight Australian filmmaker Joe Cross
attempts to wrestle back control of his failing health
during a cross-country trek in which he engages everyday
Americans in discussions about food and obesity in this
lighthearted documentary addressing a deadly serious
subject. Clocking in at 310 pounds and pumped full of
steroids to battle a debilitating autoimmune disorder,
Cross realized that he would soon be dead if he didn't
make some major lifestyle changes. But pharmaceuticals
were only treating his symptoms, and no doctor seemed
capable of providing the long-term care and support it
would take to turn his life around. Desperate, Cross
loads up his car with a juicer and a generator, and
pledges to survive on nothing but fresh fruit and
vegetable juice for 60 days. Not long after his journey
begins, Cross quickly realizes that he's well on his way
to ending his growing dependence on prescription drugs.
His body has begun to heal itself, and as the process
continues, Cross attempts to prove just how empowering it
can be to take responsibility for our own health.
NR 2011
Fog of War, The
- Eleven Lessons from the life of Robert S. McNamara,
the movie that finally won Errol Morris the best
documentary Oscar, is a spellbinder. Morris interviews
Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy and
Johnson administrations, and finds a uniquely unsettling
viewpoint on much of 20th-century American history.
Employing a ton of archival material, including LBJ's
fascinating taped conversations from the Oval Office,
Morris probes the reasons behind the U.S. commitment to
the Vietnam War--and finds a depressingly inconsistent
policy. McNamara himself emerges as--well, not exactly
apologetic, but clearly haunted by the what-ifs of
Vietnam. He also mulls the bombing of Japan in World War
II and the Cuban Missile Crisis, raising more questions
than he answers. This movie provides a glimpse inside
government. It also encourages skepticism about same.
PG-13 2008
Food Inc It
lifts the veil on our nation's food industry, exposing
how our nation's food supply is now controlled by a
handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of
consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer,
the safety of workers and our own environment. It reveals
surprising and often shocking truths about what we eat,
how it's produced and who we have become as a nation. PG
2008
Foodmatters
This documentary examines the current state of
America's food supply, and suggests that the
over-industrialization of food production is making the
nation sicker by the moment. The documentary analyzes the
proliferation of chemical additives in "natural" foods,
looks at the relationship between the lack of nutrients
in the American diet and the nation's rising health care
costs, and offers tips for system detoxification.
This is what the
mainstream schools miss and don't teach, even though
after the movie you'll feel like you've just seen
something that makes such plain sense, but is not widely
held as truth. Why else is cancer affecting 1 in every 2
people, neurological diseases going through the roof and
diabetes out of control for our children and adults. It's
good common sense information that can make you stop and
realize that what you eat is much more important vs. how
much you eat. NR 2009
Freakonomics
is the highly anticipated film version of the
phenomenally best-selling book about incentives-based
thinking by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner. Like the
book, the film examines human behavior with provocative
and sometimes hilarious case studies, bringing together a
dream team of filmmakers responsible for some of the most
acclaimed and entertaining documentaries in recent years:
Academy Award® winner Alex Gibney (Enron:
The Smartest Guys in the Room, Casino Jack and the United
States of Money), Academy Award® nominees Rachel
Grady and Heidi Ewing (Jesus
Camp),
Academy Award® nominee Morgan Spurlock
(Super
Size Me),
Eugene Jarecki (Why
We Fight)
and Seth Gordon (The King of Kong) PG-13 2010.
.
Fuel In this
feature-length documentary, filmmaker and biofuel
advocate Josh Tickell explores the origins of America's
dependence on fossil fuels, eventually detailing the
cross-country road trip that he took in his
biodiesel-converted van, campaigning for the more
sustainable, environmentally friendly fuel. Tickell
interviews people in his film from all over the spectrum
of fuel use, from oil company executives to those
devastated by water contamination stemming from oil
companies to Midwestern families considering buying
Hummers. Hoping to paint as complete a picture as
possible of American fuel use, Tickell explores how we
fuel our lifestyle in the present and how we can hope to
in the future. 2010
Future of Food,
The Informative documentary about our food supply.
Includes information about the Genetically Modified food
industry, and farmers who try to resist GMO and get sued
by corporations. A different DVD which shows the
destructive nature of GMO/chemical farming on both the
farmers and the soil, ...and shows an active solution
taking place in India is "How to Save the World" for a
incredible real world solution that is happening now. NR
2005
Gashole.
Filmmakers Jeremy Wagener and Scott D. Roberts join
forces to bring the history of oil prices and future of
alternative fuels into focus in this documentary narrated
by Peter Gallagher. Concerned with American dependence on
foreign oil and curious as to how America could go from
the largest exporter of oil to the largest importer,
Wagener and Roberts seek out the opinions of such experts
as U.S. Department of Energy officials, Alternative Fuel
Producers, Alternative Fuel Consumers, Professors of
Economics, and congressional leaders from both the
Democratic and Republican parties. In addition to asking
some truly challenging questions, GasHole also examines a
variety of potential solutions to America's oil
dependence. Could it be that greedy oil companies have
buried existing technology designed to dramatically
improve gas mileage, and why is the typical American
consumer so reluctant to embrace alternative energy
forms? For anyone who fills up their tank and scoffs at
the rolling numbers on the gas pump display, this film
may just have the answers to your most pressing
questions. NR 2011
Gasland: Can
you light your water on fire? In 2009, filmmaker Josh
Fox learned his home in the Delaware River Basin was on
top of the Marcellus Shale, a rock formation containing
natural gas that stretches across New York, Pennsylvania
and huge stretches of the Northeast. He was offered
$100,000 to lease his land for a new method of drilling
developed by Halliburton and soon discovered this was
only a part of a 34-state drilling campaign, the largest
domestic natural gas drilling boom in history. Part
mystery, part travelogue, and part banjo showdown,
Gasland documents Josh's cross-country odyssey to find
out if the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing
- or fracking - is actually safe. As he interviews people
who live on or around current fracking sites, Josh learns
of things gone horribly wrong, from illness to hair loss
to flammable water, and his inquiries lead him ever
deeper into a web of secrets, lies, conspiracy, and
contamination - a web that potentially stretches to
threaten the New York Watershed. Unearthing a shocking
story about a practice that is understudied and
inadequately regulated, Gasland races to find answer
about fracking before it's far too late. NR 2010.
Global Warming:
What's Up with the Weather? Deadly flooding in
Africa. Catastrophic hurricanes in the U.S. Record-high
temperatures worldwide. Are these natural, temporary
glitches in our global climate, or is the devastation the
result of global warming? The weather is different now --
but why? Find out when NOVA and FRONTLINE join forces to
determine What’s Up with the Weather? Man-made
carbon dioxide has overloaded the earth’s
atmosphere. With demand for fossil fuels increasing
daily, experts predict emission levels will triple in the
next 100 years. But the greenhouse effect remains the
subject of heated debate among scientists,
climatologists, and futurists. Some believe the
earth’s temperature will rise by nearly 10 degrees,
melting arctic ice caps and, paradoxically, bringing
about a new Ice Age. Others believe the weather will stay
relatively normal. Who’s right? Decide for yourself
as this riveting two-hour special gives you the
fascinating -- and occasionally frightening -- forecast
for the future. NR 2000.
Grave of the
Fireflies In his list entitled "Great Movies: The
First 100," film critic Roger Ebert saw fit to name only
two anime titles. The first was Hayao Miyazaki's
family-friendly fantasy film My Neighbor Totoro. The
second was Grave of the Fireflies, an altogether more
serious and perhaps ultimately more meaningful affair.
This 1988 film, based on a partially autobiographical
novel by Akiyuki Nosaka, follows the heartbreaking story
of a prideful teenage boy and his four-year-old sister
during World War II, when massive firebombing of the
Japanese mainland was a regular occurrence. After both
their parents die, the now-homeless pair struggle for
basic amenities such as food and shelter during Japan's
bleakest era. Quiet, intense, and never emotionally
manipulative, Fireflies is a great film for reasons both
artistic and otherwise, not the least of which is
director Isao Takahata's ability to graft genuine human
drama onto a grim chapter of history that is often
overshadowed by the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. NR 2012
Inconvenient
Truth, An Director Davis Guggenheim eloquently weaves
the science of global warming with Al Gore's personal
history and lifelong commitment to reversing the effects
of global climate change. It makes the compelling case
that global warming is real, man-made, and its effects
will be cataclysmic if we don’t act now. Gore
presents a wide array of facts and information in a
thoughtful and compelling way: often humorous, frequently
emotional, always fascinating. In the end, the movie
accomplishes what all great films should: it leaves the
viewer shaken, involved and inspired. PG 2006.
Inside Job
From Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker, Charles
Ferguson (No End in Sight), this is the first film to
expose the shocking truth behind the economic crisis of
2008. The global financial meltdown, at a cost of over
$20 trillion, resulted in millions of people losing their
homes and jobs. Through extensive research and interviews
with major financial insiders, politicians and
journalists, this film traces the rise of a rogue
industry and unveils the corrosive relationships which
have corrupted politics, regulation and academia. PG-13
2010.
Jesus
Camp The feverish spectacle of a summer camp for
evangelical Christian kids is the focus of Jesus Camp, a
fascinating if sometimes alarming documentary. (Shortly
after its release, the movie gained a new notoriety when
Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of
Evangelicals, who appears near the end of the film,
resigned his post amid a male prostitute's allegations of
drug use and sexual misconduct.) For most of the film, we
follow a charismatic teacher, Becky Fischer, as she
trains young soldiers in "God's Army" at a camp in North
Dakota. Some of the kids emerge as likable and bright,
and eager to continue their work as pint-sized preachers;
elsewhere, the visions of children speaking in tongues
and falling to the floor in ecstasy are more troubling.
Even more arresting is the vision of a generation of
children home-schooled to believe that the Bible is
science, or Fischer's certainty that America's flawed
system of democracy will someday be replaced by a
theocracy. (In one scene, a cardboard cut-out of George
W. Bush is presented to the children, who react by laying
their hands on the figure as though in a religious
procession.) Filmmakers Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady
maintain neutrality about all this, maybe too much so
(they throw in some interviews with radio host Mike
Papantonio to provide a liberal-Christian viewpoint) and
one would like to know more about the grown-ups presented
here. Power broker Haggard is the creepiest person in the
film, an insincere smooth talker whose advice to one of
the young would-be campgoers comes across as entirely
cynical. Time will tell whether the film's Christian
soldiers will be marching onward. PG-13 2006
KIDS
Powerful and passionate, colorful and compelling, Larry
Clark's KIDS is 24 frenetic hours in the life of a group
of contemporary teenagers who, like all teenagers,
believe they are invincible. With breathtaking images
from one of the world's most renowned photographers, KIDS
is a deeply affecting, no-holds-barred landscape of words
and images, depicting with raw honesty the experiences,
attitudes and uncertainties of innocence lost. KIDS gets
under the skin and lingers, long after it is viewed. The
kids at the core of the story are just that: teenagers
living the urban melee of modern-day America. But while
these kids dwell in the big city, their story could,
quite possibly, happen anywhere, even in Brookings.
NR 1995.
King Corn.
Two friends with one year to spare and a deep curiosity
about the American food distribution system, set out to
grow an acre of corn and see what becomes of their crop
in director Aaron Woolf's agriculturally themed
documentary. Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis are best friends
from college who have decided to move from the East Coast
to the Midwest in hopes of getting a better idea where
the food they consume on a daily basis actually comes
from. Corn is America's most productive and subsidized
grain. Upon relocating to Iowa, the pair seeks out the
assistance of friends and neighbors in procuring the
land, seeds, fertilizers, and herbicides needed to grow a
one-acre bumper crop of this highly versatile commodity.
As their maize is harvested and the sometimes-troubling
realities of modern faming begin to emerge, the pair sets
off on a mission to track the progress of their product
and find out just how it is used to create a variety of
different food products. What emerges is an informative
and at times disturbing account of both the food
Americans so readily consume without so much as a second
thought, and the alarming state of the contemporary
agricultural industry. NR 2007
Kinsey: Let's
talk about sex Alfred C. Kinsey -- the eccentric,
pioneering, controversial researcher whose 1947 study on
human sexual behavior ignited a firestorm still not fully
extinguished -- is the focus of this engrossing film,
featuring Liam Neeson in one of his best performances to
date. He plays Kinsey as a dedicated, dispassionate
scientist whose apparent lack of guile (and tact) not
only made him some powerful enemies but also frustrated
and infuriated his supporters and co-workers. Laura
Linney is superb as his long-suffering wife, Clara, who
understands and encourages her husband even when his
behavior becomes intolerable. Writer-director Bill Condon
(Gods and Monsters) treats his subject with an
appropriate detachment, portraying the man as so focused
on his work that he actually encourages members of his
staff to have relations with one another and record their
“findings.” Kinsey’s bisexuality gets the
same direct, objective, non-prurient treatment, and
Neeson handles this aspect of the character with great
delicacy. Timothy Hutton, Chris O’Donnell, and Peter
Sarsgaard are excellent as the researcher’s
assistants, and John Lithgow offers a bravura turn as
Kinsey’s strict, sexually frustrated father. To
their credit, Condon and his actors generally eschew
sensationalism, approaching Kinsey and his work with
objectivity and clarity. (They go astray only in the
heavy-handed treatment of the alleged “witch
hunt” that targeted the scientist.) The team’s
findings, now almost universally accepted despite
continuing reservations about Kinsey’s sampling and
methodology, won’t shock today’s viewers, who
after seeing this movie may well regard this pioneering
figure with much more respect than his contemporaries
ever did. R-rated 2005
Last Mountain,
The is a spellbinding tour along the frontlines of
America's most spirited battle over the environment and
the economy. Set deep in the heart of Appalachian West
Virginia, this consciousness-raising film captures a
rowdy band of citizens as they try to stop a giant coal
company from blowing up a pristine mountain for its coal.
A tale of greed and courage, folly and forward-thinking.
The movie is brimming with the coal hard facts and vivid
testimony from the hardscrabble people whose lives are
intertwined with coal. It is informative, stirring, and
most importantly, inspiring (Hollywood Reporter). Not
only a searing indictment of America's energy policy,
this powerful film also points the way to a brighter,
greener future. PG 2010
Maxed Out.
Per its title, James D. Scurlock's virulently angry
muckraking documentary Maxed Out examines the many
problems associated with escalating U.S. consumer debt.
Scurlock places his weightiest emphasis on the ends of
the spectrum rooted in extreme evil (read: abuse) -- such
as the capital lenders who wheedle poor farm families
into assuming unmanageable loans and college students
into placing massive amounts on credit cards. He also
touches on the end rooted in extreme tragedy, such as the
debtors who sink so far in over their heads that suicide
represents the only conceivable out. The film's many
interviewees include Harvard University financial analyst
Elizabeth Warren (who pontificates on the lucrativeness
of high-interest mortgage banking) and born-again
Christian radio host Dave Ramsey, who offers difficult
on-air advice to the fiscally burdened by drawing on his
own experiences as a debtor. NR 2007
Overview of
America (JBS) This video gives you a big-picture
vision of why we enjoy so much personal freedom and
prosperity in America. It explains in a simple fashion
the different systems of government throughout the world
and the different economic principles underlying each
type of government — illustrating the great virtues
of our unique nation. NR 2007
Recount: The
Story of the 2000 Presidential Election The 2000
Presidential election was a nightmare, especially for
South Florida. Palm Beach County was held up to the rest
of the nation as some sort of black hole of ineptitude,
local TV and AM radio stations saturated the airwaves
with the tiniest detail of recount news while sun-starved
talking heads flocked here en masse during the first
month of tourist season, as if their very presence would
expedite vote counts or assure the totals' validity.
Mistakes were made not just in So. Fla. but statewide,
and more importantly by those political operatives of
both parties who tried as best they could to influence
counting procedures, ballot invalidations, and the
general "spin" of seemingly minute-by-minute
developments. A motion picture about this historic
election could potentially be a total bore or a chance
for still disgruntled Dems to exact a bit of payback.
RECOUNT is neither of these. With one exception, those 36
days of uncertainty and turmoil are presented in a
fashion as fair to both sides as possible. Partisans of
either candidate will not feel slighted or that their
position has been skewed or distorted. RECOUNT plays out
like a thriller, thanks to a top notch cast and script,
and a true story that's better than fiction. If you're a
political animal of any persuasion and/or are interested
in recent American history, you'll surely find this to be
a fascinating biopic. NR 2008.
Restrepo: One
platoon, one valley, one year is a feature-length
documentary that chronicles the deployment of a platoon
of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. The
movie focuses on a remote 15-man outpost, "Restrepo,"
named after a platoon medic who was killed in action. It
was considered one of the most dangerous postings in the
U.S. military. This is an entirely experiential film: the
cameras never leave the valley; there are no interviews
with generals or diplomats. The only goal is to make
viewers feel as if they have just been through a
90-minute deployment. This is war, full stop. The
conclusions are up to you. R-rated 2010
Revenge of the
Electric Car In 2006, filmmaker Chris Paine examined
the short and troubled history of General Motors' EV1, an
electric powered automobile that was fast, efficient and
taken off the market under mysterious circumstances. A
few years later, with the price of gas skyrocketing and
the environment an even greater issue for many Americans,
alternative vehicles are finally making their way into
the mass marketplace, and Paine takes a look at four
firms who are trying to put electric autos onto America's
highways in his follow-up The Revenge Of The Electric
Car. Bob Lutz of GM, after dropping the ball on the EV1,
spearheads an effort to launch the Chevy Volt, one of the
first plug-in hybrids from a major American automaker.
Carlos Ghosn of Nissan puts his firm's resources behind
an innovative fully electric auto, the Nissan Leaf. Elon
Musk, who made a killing in the dot-com boom, is gambling
his fortune on the Tesla, a sleek and high powered
electric sports car aimed at the luxury market with a
price tag of $100,000. And Greg "Gadget" Abbott is an
ambitious mechanic who has launched a business
transforming conventional autos into gas-free electric
vehicles, though not without problems. PG-13 2011
Sicko
Following on the heels of Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling
for Columbine, acclaimed filmmaker Michael Moore's new
documentary sets out to investigate the American
healthcare system. Sticking to his tried-and-true one-man
approach, Moore sheds light on the complicated medical
affairs of individuals and local communities. PG-13 2007
Six Degrees
Could Change the World In a special broadcast event,
National Geographic explores the startling theory that
Earth's average temperature could rise six degrees
Celsius by the year 2100. In this amazing and insightful
documentary, National Geographic illustrates, one
poignant degree at a time, the consequences of rising
temperatures on Earth. Also, learn how existing
technologies and remedies can help in the battle to dial
back the global thermometer. NR 2008.
Supersize
Me Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock makes
himself a test subject in this documentary about the
commercial food industry. After eating a diet of
McDonald's fast food three times a day for a month
straight Spurlock proves the physical and mental effects
of consuming fast food. Spurlock also provides a look at
the food culture in America through it's schools,
corporations and politics. "Super Size Me" is a movie
that sheds a new light on what has become one of our
nation's biggest health problems: obesity. PG-13 2004.
Tapped. Is
access to clean drinking water a basic human right, or a
commodity that should be bought and sold like any other
article of commerce? Stephanie Soechtig's debut feature
is an unflinching examination of the big business of
bottled water. From the producers of 'Who Killed the
Electric Car' and 'I.O.U.S.A.,' this timely documentary
is a behind-the-scenes look into the unregulated and
unseen world of an industry that aims to privatize and
sell back the one resource that ought never to become a
commodity: our water. From the plastic production to the
ocean in which so many of these bottles end up, this
inspiring documentary trails the path of the bottled
water industry and the communities which were the
unwitting chips on the table. NR 2010.
Vanishing of the
Bees, The As honeybees continue to disappear at an
alarming rate, filmmakers George Langworthy and Maryam
Henein probe the political, economic, and ecological
overtones of "Colony Collapse Disorder." In illustrating
the ancient connection between the human race and the
honeybee, Langworthy and Henein attempt not only to solve
this disturbing mystery, but to provide us with
suggestions for reversing it. Known as Colony Collapse
Disorder, this phenomenon has brought beekeepers to
crisis in an industry responsible for producing apples,
broccoli, watermelon, onions, cherries, almonds and a
hundred other fruits and vegetables. Commercial honeybee
operations pollinate crops that provide one out of every
three bites of food on our tables. As scientists puzzle
over the cause, organic beekeepers indicate alternative
reasons for this tragic loss. Conflicting opinions abound
and after years of research, a definitive answer has not
been found to this harrowing mystery. NR 2010
What the Bleep
do We Know is a new type of film. It is part
documentary, part story, and part elaborate and inspiring
visual effects and animations. The protagonist, Amanda,
played by Marlee Matlin, finds herself in a fantastic
Alice in Wonderland experience when her daily, uninspired
life literally begins to unravel, revealing the uncertain
world of the quantum field hidden behind what we consider
to be our normal, waking reality. She is literally
plunged into a swirl of chaotic occurrences, while the
characters she encounters on this odyssey reveal the
deeper, hidden knowledge she doesn't even realize she has
asked for. Like every hero, Amanda is thrown into crisis,
questioning the fundamental premises of her life - that
the reality she has believed in about how men are, how
relationships with others should be, and how her emotions
are affecting her work isn't reality at all! NR 2004
What the
Bleep!? Down the Rabbit Hole Proving once and
for all that life can be an amazing journey—and a
real trip—this all-new Quantum Edition release, Hole
utilizes cutting-edge technology to create a unique
version of the film with every viewing! The possibilities
are endless...and so is the fun! Academy Award®
winner Marlee Matlin is Amanda, a photographer suddenly
transported into a metaphysical world of quantum
mechanics, odd science and mind-bending phenomena. Guided
by the world’s top physicists, engineers, biologists
and mystics, she tumbles down the rabbit hole and gets a
first-hand look at the fascinating links between science
and spirituality in our everyday lives. NR 2004
Who Killed the
Electric Car? The big oil companies and their
political allies may hate the very idea of the electric
car, but writer-director Chris Paine remains an unabashed
fan of the technology. His informative and entertaining
documentary, which makes an explicit link between carbon
dioxide emissions and global warming, traces the
evolution and eventual marketplace failure of the
innovative vehicle. Laying the blame at the feet of
General Motors (which eventually reclaimed the first
models leased to consumers and crushed and buried them in
the Nevada desert), apathetic politicians, and an
unrepentant oil industry, Paine also gives voice to the
car’s staunch defenders. He may have a clearly
defined axe to grind but, in this war-ravaged and
environmentally distressed day and age, Paine’s
passion is worth attending to. PG 2006
Why
We Fight is the provocative documentary from
acclaimed filmmaker Eugene Jarecki (The Trials of Henry
Kissinger). Named
after the series of short films by legendary director
Frank Capra that explored America’s reasons for
entering World War II, Why We Fight surveys a
half-century of military conflicts, asking how – and
answering why – a nation of, by and for the people
has become the savings-and-loan of a government system
whose survival depends on an Orwellian state of constant
war. This movie features interviews and observations by a
"who’s who" of military and Washington insiders
including Senator John McCain, Gore Vidal, and Dan
Rather. Beginning with President Dwight D.
Eisenhower’s prescient 1961 speech warning of the
rise of the "military industrial complex," It moves far
beyond the headlines of various American military
operations to the deeper questions of why America
seemingly is always at war. What are the forces –
political, economic, and ideological – that drive us
to clash against an ever-changing enemy? Just why does
America fight? Unforgettable, powerful and at times
disturbing, this movie will challenge viewers long after
the last fade-out. PG-13 2006
You Can't be
Neutral on a Moving Train This is a marvelous film
about an amazing man. Depending, of course, on your point
of view. Which is Zinn's point. In any case, if you agree
with Zinn, you'll love the movie. If you don't, but have
an open mind, you might be interested in his
ideas. The film
follows Zinn from his experiences as a bomber pilot in
WWII, through the birth of modern American activism in
Atlanta (where he was fired from Spelman College for
encouraging students in non-violent activism), through
the Vietnam war, and up to more current activities and
ideas. It also contains a very nice section about his
book "The People's History of the United States," which
looks at American history from the point of view of the
victims. And, it is the only mention I have ever seen in
film or television of the tragic Ludlow, Colorado
massacre of the strikers by those staunch defenders of
American democracy: the Pinkertons. That's right, the
mine owners brought in their own private army of
Pinkertons who burned the strikers' tent city in the
middle of a Colorado winter and then shot the survivors.
This film reminds us of what moral indignation is all
about and the importance of taking a stand against
tyranny in all its forms. NR 2010
See
http://bit.ly/zFiRjc
for more.
"First
Friday Salon" is a free evening to see and talk about
documentaries that, most likely, wound never show in the
area. The series is sponsored by 