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Archive for May, 2008



Fahrenheit 9/11 Part Two

Tuesday, May 27th, 2008

Michael Moore is at work on a follow-up to his hugely successful film about the U.S. government response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, according to Variety.

“Fahrenheit 9/11,” released in 2004, is the highest grossing documentary of all-time. It earned $119 million at the U.S. box office and another $100 million worldwide.

By comparison, “SiCKO,” his most recent documentary about the abysmal state of healthcare in the U.S., earned a paltry $24 million at home and $11 million abroad, according boxofficemojo.com.

Overture Films and Paramount Vantage will co-finance and co-produce the new Moore film, which, according to Variety, “will pickup where ‘Fahrenheit 9/11′ left off.”



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The Festival Goes On (Even Though It’s Over)

Tuesday, May 27th, 2008

For those of you like me, which is to say, voracious consumers of all things film and documentary, the folks at the Tribeca Film Festival, in conjunction with the iTunes store, have given us a gift in the form of in-depth podcasts featuring a number of folks Doc fans are sure to want to check out. That includes this week’s Featured Doc Maker subject, Errol Morris. Morris’ newest effort, “Standard Operating Procedure,” will soon be playing at an art house theatre near you. In the podcasts, it’s interesting to hear Morris talk about the craft of documentary filmmaking in such intimate and candid detail. For me, Morris has long been one of the undisputed masters of the doc making craft, and his new film and the Tribeca podcast are each not to be missed. Also, of note is an hour-long Tribeca cast featuring an indepth interview with trailblazing eccentric filmmaker Guy Maddin, who like Orson Welles’ with his infamous “F For Fake” before him, tests the boundaries of the documentary medium with his newest effort and follow-up to his bizarre (and wonderful “Brand Upon the Brain) “My Winnipeg”. So go forth and check out the Tribeca Film Fest offerings under the Podcast section of the iTunes store. I can’t imagine a serious film fan being sorry they did.



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Rolling Stones: Still Gathering No Moss

Friday, May 9th, 2008

We got some nice feedback from our recent package of stories about the new Rolling Stones documentary, “Shine a Light,” and its creator, the great Martin Scorsese. It’s refreshing in today’s throwaway world to know that some grizzled veterans like the Stones and Marty are still doing their thing and getting their just due for it.
For those of you who, like us, dig the Stones, surely you’re aware that their long and storied career has been well documented on film. If you didn’t know that, well then, let us enlighten you.
Taking nothing away from Scorsese and “Shine a Light,” our favorite Stones doc is “Gimme Shelter,” directed by the brother tandem of Albert and David Maysles. The film is a time capsule that documents the end of an era, literally and figuratively.
“Gimme Shelter” trails Mick, Keef and the boys on their 1969 U.S. tour. In December of that year, the Stones gave a free concert at the Altamont Speedway near San Francisco, and more than 300,000 fans showed up. In one of the all-time great “what-were-they-thinking” moments in rock and roll, the show’s organizers hired the Hell’s Angels to provide security. That resulted in the murder of a fan that was captured on film by the Maysles.
The horrifying act put a grim capper on the idealism of the sixties.
The good folks at Criterion have put out an excellent edition of “Gimme Shelter” (I know, it’s in my collection), so check it out.
Another Stones film in my collection is the “Rock and Roll Circus,” which isn’t notable so much for the Stones’ performances as it is for their special guests, especially the thrown-together super group Dirty Mac (John Lennon, Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Mitch Mitchell) playing “Yer Blues” and the Who, with an incendiary reading of “A Quick One While He’s Away.”
Two more Stones films to check out, if you can: Well, I can’t print the first word of the title of the first one, this being a family website and all. The second word is “Blues.” Anyone who knows their way around Google or YouTube can figure out the rest.
The film has never been released, and in fact is only shown when director Robert Frank, who’s now in his 80s, can be present at the screening. The doc follows the Stones on yet another tour, this one in 1972, and shows the accompanying sex, drugs and rock and roll in detail too rich to allow the Stones to give it a proper release, even though they’d commissioned it.
Not quite as obscure (it’s on DVD) is “Sympathy for the Devil,” shot by French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard. The film is compelling if only for its fly-on-the-studio wall look at the Stones taking the song “Sympathy For the Devil,” from a loose outline to the classic it became.



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