As many of you who keep up with the current news (and we know most of our Doc viewers out there indeed keep an ear to the ground on current events) probably already know, the woman accused of being “Tokyo Rose”, Iva Toguri D’Aquino, died this past?Ǭ† Wednesday at the age of 90.?Ǭ† D’Aquino was charged and later acquitted of being the infamous Rose, a radio host that blasted the airwaves with anti-American propaganda for the Japanese during WWII.

The USA vs. Tokyo Rose, a Documentary Channel exclusive, tells the little-known story of the Justice Department’s postwar pursuit and conviction of D’Aquino.?Ǭ† Utilizing court records, FBI documents, and rare archival footage, the film chronicles the anti-Japanese sentiment which prevailed in postwar America and the injustice it often wrought.?Ǭ† You can catch The USA vs. Tokyo Rose on October 1st at 7:20pm ET, and again on October 2nd at 12:20 am ET for you night owls out there.

Many of you have asked how you can help The Documentary Channel (DOC); here?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s how. We are on a mission to have DOC broadcast on DIRECTV. This campaign will double our subscribers which will in turn strengthen our catalog and greatly increase the amount of quality programming. Please do your part and contact DIRECTV asking them to add us to their roster of channels. DIRECTV?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s customer service stated that they DO respond to such requests. This is VERY important. This campaign MUST be completed within 2 weeks. Here?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s how you can help:

1) Email a request from their link. http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/customer/howToReachUs.jsp.

The form only requires your name and email address. From the dropdown ?¢‚Ǩ?ìquestion/comment topic?¢‚Ǩ¬ù, insert A Comment or Suggestion and ?¢‚Ǩ?ìsubject?¢‚Ǩ¬ù should be The Documentary Channel. You can cut and paste the following into the ?¢‚Ǩ?ìdetails?¢‚Ǩ¬ù section:

Dear DIRECTV,

I would like to request that you add The Documentary Channel to your programming. I am currently on another service and would change if you offered The Documentary Channel.

2) If you have DIRECTV you can call this number: 1-800-494-4388,

3) If you DON?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢T have DIRECTV, you can call this number: 1-888-238-7177.

Email is fastest. Phone calls require menus, patience and waiting.

This will be the only time you will receive this request from us. According to DIRECTV?¢‚Ǩ‚Ñ¢s Customer Service Rep, Patty from Idaho, ?¢‚Ǩ?ìThe more requests?¢‚Ǩ¬¶the better.?¢‚Ǩ¬ù

Thank you for your time in contacting DIRCTV.

Hi there follow doc-freaks and huge thanks to the kind people at the Documentary Channel for not only their hard work and dedication to this art form, but also for the opportunity to allow me to post stuff on their blog as a representative of the Belcourt Theatre here in Nashville. I plan on posting relevant stuff in the world of documentary but allow me first to post about a few things that we have in the hopper over here at the Belcourt for October, which really is right around the corner.

OCTOBER 6-12:?Ǭ†?Ǭ† First is Aaron Russo’s AMERICA: FREEDOM TO FASCISM, an exercise that began as a simple question: What law states that we are required to pay the federal income tax? Of course, one thinks that there MUST be a law somewhere or we wouldn’t have folks like sweet old Willie Nelson finding themselves largely indebted to the IRS and facing certain jail time while other less famous folk still serve sentences for tax evasion. Ah, but the revelation that many states in the union never actually RATIFIED that law is only where this thing starts. The message seems to be striking a nerve:?Ǭ† We’re getting calls for tickets from such rampant tax havens as Brevard, NC and Decatur, AL.

OCTOBER 13-19:?Ǭ† Up next is one of the most entertaining films to come out of the ‘06 Sundance Film Festival, and I’m glad to have made it part of our series. THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED is two films. One part interviews and clip comparisons of NC-17 films and their R-rated counterparts as so deemed by the shadowy organization known as the MPAA. It asks why violence is given so much more leniency in the rating system then…hold your breath…SEX!?Ǭ† Not just sex, but things that we all have, like…pubic hair!?Ǭ† Is a brief glimpse of Maria Bello’s pubes so much more offensive then the unbelievable violence inherent in recent films like Sin City??Ǭ† The other part of the film is pure muck-raking journalism. Who are these people that make these decisions and why does the head of the MPAA keep their identities secret??Ǭ† The answers combine these two films into one riotous conclusion. DO NOT MISS this.

Same week, but three days only!!: October 15-17: BLACK GOLD, also part of our Sundance series, was supported by the Sundance Institute’s Documentary Lab. Filmed over 3 years, the film follows Tadesse Maskela, the General Manager of a coffee grower’s union in Ethiopia who travels the world’s coffee conventions promoting fair trade coffee. The film poses many questions about the processes whereby a sale tantamount to pennies turns into a $3 cup of coffee at Starbucks. But there’s an added treat: Nashville’s Bob Bernstein, better known as the owner of Bongo Java Roasting Company and its tentacle coffee shops Bongo Java, Bongo East, and Belcourt neighbor Fido, is flying in Mr. Maskela for a Q&A on Sunday night, October 15 after the 7:00 show. I slid Bob a copy of the film to check out, knowing that he’s a supporter of fair trade coffee. Imagine my surprise when he said that he visited Ethiopia in 2002 and traveled for 2 weeks with the subject of the film!!

So there’s something to chew on for the next few weeks. We’re planning a panel night for THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED, but nothing is solid. I’ll post when I know more.

Thanks again for the soapbox, DC folks…Toby Leonard, Belcourt Theatre

Greetings gentle readers,

Chris here riding high on the buzz of my third cup of coffee. This is no regular coffee mind you it’s Bongo Java (one of our favorite Nashville coffee houses) Mystic Brew generously provided by our own contributing writer Greg Crofton. Greg wisely assumed that they way to our collective hearts was through caffinated beverages and has consequently solidified his status on my Christmas card list. I will say though that according to the label on our stash of Mystic Brew that it’s reportedly made with the use of Voodoo and i’m afraid I smell shenanigans. But Voodoo or no it’s a mighty fine cup of coffee sure to fuel many a future blog based rant from our crack journalism staff. All coffee related thoughts aside i’m writing to make sure you folks know that even though the original content at www.documentarychannel.com is always changing that you need not live in fear of missing the fun. You can always check out www.documentarychannel.com/archive for access to all our past articles that you may have missed. In other news I have been bombarded recently with quite a bit of viewer mail concerning where you can see us. Well if you are lucky enough to be a DISHNET subscriber you can tune in to channel 197 and catch us there but if you don’t have DISH then clearly it’s about time you spoke out to whoever your local cable provider is and let them know how cheesed you are about all the great docs you are missing. Think of all the good Karma you’ll build up and keep in mind that I have a few slots left on the aforementioned Christmas card list. Before I leave you I’d also like to call your attention to the blog below this one which is a new contribution to one of my personal favorite Nashville filmmakers Stephen Lackey. Stephen and his wife Suzie have a new film called a “Cheaper Way To Go” which I for one am mighty excited about but they also run www.cinegeek.com a wonderful source for all manner of film geekery and if you’re like me that’s the stuff that dreams are made of. So enough outta me, I hope you are all well and I hope we can count on you to help us bring DOC to the widest possible audience. Cheers.

It never fails that I manage to get us involved in way too many things all at once. We recently finished our latest short documentary “A Cheaper Way to Go” and have begun the promotion and film festival process. It’s a tedious and exciting time. On top of that we are auditioning hosts for a new television series pitch we are working on and finally we just made our annual trip to Atlanta for a screening of our feature documentary “Fans and Freaks The Culture of Comics and Conventions,” The film shows every year as part of the huge Dragon Con event. If you?¢‚Ǩ?°re unfamiliar Dragon Con let me explain:

Dragon Con is the largest multi-genre convention in the south. Imagine San Diego Comic Con with more late night debauchery and bare skin. There are tons of costumes including super heroes, monsters, and nearly naked chicks. There are panels from actors, directors, and others in the entertainment industry. There are all night parties, Klingon Karaoke, one of the best Rocky Horror shows out there, and metal bands. Sound like fun, well it is. I had one goal for this convention other than screening our film and that was to meet one of the greatest filmmakers ever and the true creator of the zombie subgenre, Mr. George Romero. He came to the convention to promote his films and basically shake hands with the fans. He did a great panel discussion on his films and then signed autographs. I was able to spend 15 minutes chatting film with him, getting an autograph, and even giving him a copy of my film and the horror novel I wrote last year. Nothing will of course come of it but it?¢‚Ǩ?°s a great memory.

While I was at the con I was asked to pick up an autograph for my good friend, now co-producers, and influences Jeff Krulik. Jeff recently worked out a new distribution deal for his classic short documentary “Heavy Metal Parking Lot”. It’ll be available everywhere shortly with bonus features and an additional “Parking Lot” short.

We finally gave in and set up a My Space page for our production company Captain Pixel Productions. I haven’t gotten into the whole My Space thing. Honestly I just don’t care about it. The whole thing is full of girls trying to get you to pay for their webcams. I dunno, call me old fashion but I still like my socializing in person. Now, with that said, I see potential for filmmakers to get the word out about their work through this site. Some filmmakers are even making their films available to fans on their sites. We may even do that at some point too. This is a great way to keep a short film alive. After the film festival there?¢‚Ǩ?°s not much more that can be done with a short film. So sites like My Space and You Tube offer a longer life for these films. We will work hard soon to put updates on our My Space page soon. Bookmark us here:

http://www.myspace.com/captainpixel