The River

Dir. Pare Lorentz, 1938, 32 min.

Written and directed by Pare Lorentz for the U.S. Farm Security Administration, The River is a follow-up to Lorentz's groundbreaking documentary of the previous year, The Plow That Broke the Plains. The River was fully funded and promoted by the Roosevelt administration, and it achieved wide distribution through Paramount. Striking photography and rhythmically insistent editing tell the story of the Mississippi River and its tributaries, their tendency to flood their banks regularly and with great destructive force, and the American grit and ingenuity that tamed the river valley and turned it into a productive, power-generating landscape. The River suffers from a weak, if hopeful, finale—as with all such stories, the problem is more dramatic and visually arresting than the solution. But at its best, Lorentz's film became a model for the new documentary cinema of social advocacy.

The Plow That Broke the Plains

Dir. Pare Lorentz, 1936, 25 min.

A Government-sponsored documentary, Pare Lorentz won praise and wide recognition for using sensitive photography, dramatic editing and a beautiful score by composer Virgil Thomson to illuminate a local problem of national importance – the challenges faced by wheat farmers and cattle ranchers in the Great Plains. As the film climaxes in a vivid portrait of the record drought that produced the dust bowl and the plight of the "blown out, baked and broke" people who felt its impact, it becomes clear that a new master of the documentary form has found his voice.

An Injury to One

Dir. Travis Wilkerson, 2003, 53 min.

AN INJURY TO ONE provides a corrective—and absolutely compelling—glimpse of a particularly volatile moment in early 20th century American labor history: the rise and fall of Butte, Montana. Specifically, it chronicles the mysterious death of Wobbly organizer Frank Little, a story whose grisly details have taken on a legendary status in the state. Much of the extant evidence is inscribed upon the landscape of Butte and its surroundings. Thus, a connection is drawn between the unsolved murder of Little, and the attempted murder of the town itself.

 Panel Discussion

God is My Safest Bunker

The "New" New Deal Curated by Jason Fox

Dir. Lee Wang, 2008, 58 min.

More than 30,000 low-wage workers from Southeast Asia work for American military contractors in Iraq, cleaning toilets, serving food and building barracks. Through the stories of three Filipino workers and their families, Wang's probing documentary investigates the conditions - both domestic and global - which have forced economic migration into the Iraqi war zone, and how they are understood as lived experience.

 Panel Discussion. Speakers tba.

My Dinner With Andre

Film Club Presents: Curated by Mariah Balaban

Dir. Louis Malle, 1981, 110 min.

A bold experiment in film narrative that paid off in critical raves and cult status, Louis Malle’s drama consists almost entirely of the dinner conversation of two real-life friends. More or less playing themselves, Andre Gregory and Wallace Shawn wrote their own dialogue, which ranges in subject from the New York theater world to rain forests, and in tone from hilarious to heartbreaking.

 Followed by a conversation with Andre Gregory, Wallace Shawn,  and Bob Balaban and a cocktail reception

Good Hair

Filmmakers in Bloom with Livia Bloom

Dir. Jeff Stilson, 2009, 95 min.

Good Hair seeks to explore some of the aspects of African American hair and hair care. According to Chris Rock, he was prompted to produce the movie after his 5-year old daughter, Lola, asked him, "Daddy, how come I don't have good hair?" During his quest for knowledge, Chris Rock delves into the $9 billion black hair industry, and visits such places as beauty salons, barbershops, conventions, scientific laboratories (to learn the science behind chemical relaxers that straighten hair and India, where many of the hair weaves worn by African American women are from.

*Ran two days

 

F.R.E.E. Presents: In Prison My Whole Life

Dir. Mark Evans, 90 min, 2008

In Prison My Whole Life is about a man: a father, a son, an inspiration and a pariah - who currently faces his twenty-fifth year on Death Row. His name is Mumia Abu-Jamal, a Black Panther and radical journalist who was arrested for the murder of a police officer in Philadelphia in 1981. He claimed he was innocent but was sentenced to death and has been awaiting execution ever since. 

Panel discussion to follow. Speakers tba. 

Pray the Devil Back To Hell

Dirs. Abigal E. Disney and Gini Reticker, 2008, 72 min.

PRAY THE DEVIL BACK TO HELL is the gripping account of a group of brave and visionary women who demanded peace for Liberia, a nation torn to shreds by a decades old civil war. Combining contemporary interviews, archival images, and scenes of present-day Liberia the film recounts the experiences and memories of the women who stood up to their country's tyrannical leader and brutal warlords, in order to bring peace to their tormented country.

In Our Hands

Dir. Robert Richter and Stanley Warnow, 1984, 90 min.

A chronicle focusing in on the largest peace demonstration in the history of the world, which took place on June 12, 1982. One million people were in New York on what's been described as a magical day, speaking in one voice to "stop the nuclear arms race." There were forty-three volunteer camera teams to shoot the large-scale event; even the cops were on the side of the demonstrators. (and 5 days to change the world).

Origins of Aggression: The Other Story

Dir. Jean-Pierre Maher, 2005, 50 min.

Is human aggression a result of nature or nurture? Interviews with researchers from various fields--including a Nobel prize winner--shed light on the question. Startling footage of children acting out their aggressive impulses adds to this compelling documentary that examines the complex factors that affect the socialization of aggressive behaviour among humans. Biological, environmental and psychological components are addressed, and guidelines for the prevention of human violence are also provided.

 

 

 

The Day After Peace

Dir. Jeremy Gilley (2008) 82 min

Can one person make the world stop all war for one day? Jeremy Gilley, a British former child actor thinks to himself, what if the world stopped fighting for just one day? A day of peace! Then he starts to make a film about himself and his mission - global ceasefire. The result is an international action/adventure documentary (for peace) made with a budget like Indiana Jones (non-profit money and product placement is big business). His movie is his life as it unfolds for 10 years. Takes his idea all the way to the UN and gets every country to agree that September 21st will be a day without war. September 11th, 2001, Kofi Annan is getting ready to ring the bell of peace at the UN building . . . This movie is wild. Angelina Jolie is in it, the real Angelina Jolie. This movie is like Peace itself - you're skeptical but you know you want to see it.

Discussion led by Albert and Philip Maysles

The World Is Watching

Dir. Jim Munro and Peter Raymont, 1987, 59 min

Who decides what's news? And how do they decide? Are foreign correspondents allowed to tell all that they see? This production focuses on several journalists working in Nicaragua during the negotiations surrounding the Arias Peace Plan in November 1987. It examines how the news business works, revealing the inevitable distortions that become part of the process. ABC TV's Peter Jennings and John Quinones;Newsweek, photographer Bill Gentile; The Boston Globe's Randolph Ryan; Edith Coron; reporter for the Paris newspaper,Libération; and John Snow, correspondent for Britain's ITN TV News.

What We Want Is Peace!: The Fight For Peace

Presented by Al Maysles

Hendrik Willem Van Loon (1938), 70 min.

This film presents a simple historical account of the First World War and introduces the major players in the Second. The dramatic voiceover and “storybook” format make this seem a little ridiculous for modern viewers. However, it is valuable because it demonstrates the sort of bias that is present during the 1930s due to the fear of Stalinist communism. This documentary does not provide any new information for anyone who has studied the two wars, but what it does give is a sense of what was considered a documentary during this time of fear.

What We Want Is Peace!: All Quiet on the Western Front

Presented by Al Maysles

Dir. Lewis Milestone, 1930, 133 min.

Based on the novel by German author Erich Maria Remarque, the film follows a group of German schoolboys, talked into enlisting at the beginning of World War 1 by their jingoistic teacher. The story is told entirely through the experiences of the young German recruits and highlights the tragedy of war through the eyes of individuals. As the boys witness death and mutilation all around them, any preconceptions about "the enemy" and the "rights and wrongs" of the conflict disappear, leaving them angry and bewildered. This is highlighted in the scene where Paul mortally wounds a French soldier and then weeps bitterly as he fights to save his life while trapped in a shell crater with the body. The film is not about heroism but about drudgery and futility and the gulf between the concept of war and the actuality.

Docwatchers Presents: Unnatural Causes

Is Inequality Making Us Sick?

"Place Matters", 29 min.

Why is your address such a predictor of your health?

"Collateral Damage", 29 min.

How do Marshall Islanders pay for globalization and U.S. military policy with their health?

"Not Just A Paycheck", 30 min.

Why do layoffs take such a huge toll in Michigan but cause hardly a ripple in Sweden?

Portraits of Jamaican Music

Pierre Marc Simonin, 2003, 52 min.

Limiting Jamaican music to just reggae would be most unfair. Within a forty year period jamaicans have invented mento, ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub music, dancehall, and hardcore dancehall (sometimes known in the west as ragga). Take a visual trip down memory lane and relive several great episodes with Johnny Moore and The Skatalites, Toots and the Maytals, and Bunny Wailer.

*Ran for 5 nights

 

Pressure

Horace Ove, 1975, 120 min.

Hailed as Britain's first black feature film, Pressure is a hard-hitting and honest document of the struggle and disenchantment faced by British-born black youths. Set in 1970s London, it tells the story of Tony, son of West Indian immigrants who find himself torn between his parent's church-going conformity and his brother's Black Power militancy. In his own un-heroic, honest way Tony goes along with his families aspirations for him.

*Ran for 5 nights