Wisconsin Death Trip (DVD)
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Wisconsin Death Trip (DVD)
Based on Michael Lesy's 1973 book of the same name, WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP is a strikingly original nonfiction film that tells the strange story of one cursed American community. In the late 1890s, the small rural town of Black River Falls, Wisconsin, suffered through an incredibly bizarre crisis. Economically depressed and battling a diphtheria epidemic, in addition to relentlessly bleak weather conditions, the residents of Black River Falls began to collectively lose their minds. Through recreations, old photographs, and newspaper clippings culled from the era (read by Ian Holm), James Marsh's film shows just how bizarre a time in history this actually was.DVD Features:Region 1Keep CaseWidescreen - 1.78Audio: Dolby Stereo 2.0 - EnglishAdditional Release Material: Audio Commentary - 1. James Marsh - Director, Eigil Bryld - Director of Photography Featurette - 1.The Making of WISCONSIN DEATH TRIP Deleted ScenesText/Image Galleries: Essay by Writer Greil Marcus
Documentary
Man of Aran (DVD)
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Man of Aran (DVD)
An Academy Award-winning documentary of the fisherman's fight for survival in a remote Irish coastal community.
The forces of nature are magnificently and dramatically photographed.DVD Features:Region 1Keep CaseFull Frame - 1.33Additional Release Material: Featurettes - 1. MAKING OF MAN OF ARAN
2. HIDDEN AND SEEKING Interview - 1. Archival Interview with Robert Flaherty - Director Additional Footage - 1. Excerpt fromFlaherty and FilmText/Galleries: Stills/Photos - 1. Behind the Scenes Galleries
Documentary
Light Keeps Me Company (DVD)
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Light Keeps Me Company (DVD)
Sven Nykvist is one of the most respected cinematographers in the history of world cinema. Among his 123 film credits, Nykvist is known primarily as the man who photographed many of Ingmar Bergman's stark Swedish film classics including PERSONA and WINTER LIGHT. Nykvist's Bergman films demonstrated a style based more in naturalistic lighting than the slick standard that was heavily influenced by Hollywood. His pencil sketch approached allowed not only for the realism defined by the lighting, but also framed characters with the distance required for Bergman's deep psychological portraits. Nykvist would go on to shoot films of that are among the most visually complex, subtle, and beautiful with many of the world's first rate directors including PRETTY BABY (Louis Malle), THE SACRIFICE (Andrei Tarkovsky), THE TENANT (Roman Polanski), and CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS (Woody Allen). He also branched out into directing with a work of stunning visuals, THE OX. This portrait of the cinematographer and his images is a labor of love, directed by his son Carl-Gustav Nykvist, who has followed in his father's footsteps. Many of Nykvist's collaborators are interviewed, including Polanski, Allen, Susan Sarandon, Liv Ullman, and Gena Rowlands.DVD Features:Region 1Keep CaseAnamorphic Widescreen - 1.85Single Side - Dual LayerAdditional Release Material: TrailersText/Galleries: Director's Notes Filmography - 1. Sven NykvistInteractive Features: Interactive Menus Scene Access
Documentary
42 Up (DVD)
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42 Up (DVD)
Director Michael Apted's evolving film, the longest-running documentary project in history, began as a study of the influence of class on schoolchildren in England. In SEVEN UP (1963), Apted interviewed 14 seven-year-old children from vastly different backgrounds. He visited the same group of children every seven years, charting the changes in their lives. In 42 UP, the sixth film in the series, the subjects have grown up, entered the middle of their lives, and experienced dramatic reversals of fortune. Although three of the participants have removed themselves from the spotlight, the remaining voices paint an enlightening, honest picture of love, life, death, success, and failure. Going beyond the notion of merely recording history, the documentary is unusual in the effect that it has had on the participants' lives. In some cases, friendships have formed between the subjects; in most other cases, the documentary has forced them to be more reflective and aggressive as they anticipate the seven-year ritual. A simple but powerful portrait of 14 lives, the SEVEN UP series is Apted's most groundbreaking work; the documentary has already inspired similar projects in many other countries.DVD Fetaures:Region 1Keep CaseAudio: Stereo - EnglishAdditional Release Material: Introduction - 1. Michael Apted - DirectorInteractive Features: Scene Access Interactive MenusText/Photo Galleries: Birector Biography
Documentary
Homo Sapiens 1900 (DVD)
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Homo Sapiens 1900 (DVD)
A stunning documentary which shows the evolution of the early 20th century pseudo-science eugenics, and how its initially optimistic aim--adapting humanity to a social idea through biology--was adopted by Nazi Germany and pre-Stalinist Russia to further their bigoted, racist ideologies. The film effectively points out the implausibilities and ridiculousness of eugenics as an actual practice, through a mixture of interviews with doctors, factual narration by Jan Holmquist, and a broad range of clips and stills from various sources.DVD Features:Region (unknown)Keep CaseFull Frame - 1.33Additional Release Material: TrailersText/Photo Gallery: Archival Photo Gallery
Documentary
Deadline (DVD)
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Deadline (DVD)
After discovering that 13 of 167 death row inmates were innocent, Republican Illinois governor George Ryan lessened sentences of them all at a 2003 press conference. This gripping documentary delves into both Ryan's struggle to come to grips with the moral questions inherent in the death penalty as well as a judicial system which allows criminals--many of whom are minorities--to be condemned to die, even when there is a lack of sufficient evidence. Fascinating and uncompromising, DEADLINE received great acclaim after screenings at the 2003 Sundance film festival. Katy Chevigny and Kirsten Johnson's film was purchased by NBC-TV for airing on the network's Dateline program in July of 2004 after chief executive Robert Wright was impressed by a screening of the film--an almost unheard-of occurrence for an independent documentary.DVD Features:Region (unknown)Keep CaseWidescreen - 1.78Audio: Stereo 2.0 - EnglishAdditional Release Material: Interview - 1. Katy Chevigny - Director, Kristen Johnson - Director Additional ScenesText/Photo Galleries: Biographies Glossary Of Terms
Documentary
We Were So Beloved (DVD)
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We Were So Beloved (DVD)
Harrowing conversations with German Jews who fled Nazi Germany and settled in the Washington Heights section of New York.
Documentary
Genesis (DVD)
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Genesis (DVD)
IN THEATRES: TBA 2005 (LIMITED)MICROCOSMOS directors Claude Nuridsany and Marie Perennou present this filmic explanation of the history of the universe, all told in a colorful storytelling fashion, as seen through the eyes of an African griot.
Documentary
Mad Hot Ballroom (DVD)
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Mad Hot Ballroom (DVD)
Tango, foxtrot, swing, rumba, and meringue may seem to represent the last vestiges of a dying art to some, but director Marilyn Agrelo proves this is far from true in MAD HOT BALLROOM. Agrelo reveals that the New York City public school system runs a ballroom dance program for fifth graders, in which these former preserves of the adult world are given a new lease on life by some enthusiastic little characters. The film follows students at three schools in the neighborhoods of Tribeca, Bensonhurst, and Washington Heights, with Agrelo training her cameras on the kids` lives both inside and outside of the classroom. The students are united by a zeal for the ballroom dancing lessons, which builds over a 10-week period and culminates in a competition to find the school that has produced the best dancers in the city. As the teachers gently cajole their students to learn the intricacies of the various disciplines, Agrelo intersperses classroom footage with the students` musings on life; many of these reveal a remarkable maturity. Gender and race boundaries disappear as focus on the competition consumes the students` energy, and the teachers are brought to tears as they see their prodigies turning into what one teacher touchingly terms
little ladies and gentlemen.
As the pitter-patter of tiny toes scuttles across the ballroom floor in the competition`s final stages, it`s impossible not to get swept up in the action. One of Agrelo`s cameramen is caught grinning in an affectionate, almost paternal manner as he accidentally wanders into the frame while filming. One of 2005`s most uplifting slices of cinema, MAD HOT BALLROOM is a joyous, life-affirming experience.
Documentary
Murderball (DVD)
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Murderball (DVD)
Henry Alex Rubin and Dana Adam Shapiro's MURDERBALL is an inspiring documentary, which proves that physical limitations are no match for the human spirit. For the determined quadriplegic men who participate in the dangerous sport of quad rugby, it's more than just a game: it's a chance to prove themselves in a much bigger way. With armored wheelchairs and enough macho energy to overcome any challenge, the players engage in a violently physical game. The charming but intimidating Mark Zupan was angry and suicidal after a car accident relegated him to a wheelchair. He regained his confidence and spirit by becoming both a player and the spokesman for quad rugby's Team USA. Zupan's militaresque rival, Joe Soares, is a former star for Team USA who headed north to coach Team Canada when he was cut from the US team in 2000. Concentrating on the buildup to the 2004 Paralympics in Athens, the film introduces other awe-striking figures--young men who have risen to the challenge of the game time and time again. As the days build to the inevitable showdown between Team USA and Team Canada, Rubin and Shapiro fill the screen with story after story, prodding the audience to swallow their own individual stereotypes and appreciate the efforts of these extraordinary men. The magic of MURDERBALL is that it never feels preachy. Rather, it entertains as much as it enlightens.
Documentary
The Untold Story of Emmet Louis Till (DVD)
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The Untold Story of Emmet Louis Till (DVD)
Social filmmaking at its most effective, Keith Beauchamp`s documentary THE UNTOLD STORY OF EMMET LOUIS TILL reconstructs the infamously brutal murder of the eponymous 14-year-old African-American boy, which helped to marshal the American Civil Rights Movement. When the mischievous Till, on a visit to relatives in Mississippi, dared to whistle at a local white woman, it was only a matter of hours before he met with inhuman torture and a watery deathbed at the bottom of the Tallahatchie River. Though authorities tried to shush up the atrocious crime as quickly as possible, hurrying Till`s mutilated body into a coffin with the intent of burying it immediately, Till`s remarkably strong mother, Mamie Till Mobley, insisted on displaying the hideous face of racism for all the world to see. This horrific image became an iconic symbol of one of the most shameful eras in American history.
Told chronologically, the film unravels its narrative thread through eyewitness accounts and archival footage. Though it is short and economical, a heart beats through every frame--the heart of Emmet`s remarkable and magnetic mother, who tells the story of her son`s murder and her own mobilization of the tragedy in the service of the Civil Rights Movement. Delving into the trial and its deplorable outcome--the exoneration of the two admitted killers was shocking in the very fact that it shocked no one at all--Beauchamp opens up a web of unanswered questions about the case. The product of more than a decade of research, Beauchamp`s film managed to get the 50-year-old murder case reopened.
Documentary
Mondovino (DVD)
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Mondovino (DVD)
Jonathan Nossiter, whose 2000 drama SIGNS& WONDERS was nominated for the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and whose 1997 fiction film SUNDAY won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, returns to the documentary format with MONDOVINO. Nossiter, who previously explored cinema verite in'90s RESIDENT ALIEN, about the iconoclastic Quentin Crisp, this time focuses his camera on the international wine trade, traveling to France, California, Italy, and New York, speaking with winemakers both great and small. While old-timer Aime Guibert, of tiny Mas de Daumas-Gassac, pronounces that wine must be made by a poet, high-powered consultant Michel Rolland circles the globe ensuring that wineries make lots of money. Nossiter meets the Mondavi family, one of the wine world's largest conglomerates; the de Montille family of Burgundy, in which a daughter has chosen not to work with her father and brother but instead with a competitor; the Staglins, who financed their own high-priced vineyard in the Napa Valley; and critics James Suckling and Robert Parker, whose words can make or break a vintage. Nossiter also visits with New York wine importer Neal Rosenthal, Christie's wine director Michael Broadbent, and Chateau Mouton-Rothschild CEOs Patrick Leon and Xavier de Eizaguirre to get even further perspectives. Although Nossiter set out merely to find the characters behind the wine industry, he ended up with a poignant look at some important issues, including deforestation, the corporation versus the independent company, and even communism. His bouncy handheld camera captured more than he had ever imagined. The result is an entertaining inside examination of a world very few people see, a fascinating exploration of wine and the families who produce it.
Documentary