I am because we are

http://iambecauseweare.com/

I just watched the documentary, "I am because we are" about the millions of children in Africa orphaned by AIDS. Madonna narrates it - but if you can get past that - it's a very powerful documentary. It pains me to see children suffering with sickness, poverty, and no parents to protect them and care for them. On every young child's face I saw my own child's sweet face. The documentary made me cry but even more than that, it makes me want to do something to help.

3 times a charm - the Roman Polanski documentary

U. alerted me about a new documentary about Roman Polanski that was going to be on HBO (which is now featured on On Demand). I just couldn't keep my eyes open and fell asleep 20 minutes into it. The next night I tried again thinking maybe I was just really tired - but no cigar - fell asleep again just a bit further into the film (with the help of fast forwarding).

So tonight on my 3rd attempt I got through the entire documentary. And I determined that although yes I was tired, the reason I kept falling asleep was because this documentary is just plain boring. I would have loved to have seen something about his relationship with his wife of 18 years and his 2 children. Instead you get 2 lines of text on the screen about it at the end. BORING.

It's got some cool vintage black and white photos in it, video of Sharon Tate, and Mia Farrow gives an interview, but other than that, it's not worthy of recommending. *Yawn*

I think I may have gotten my husband addicted to TLC

When I told him I was staying up late at night watching documentaries on TLC he called me crazy.

When he watched the TLC documentary series "John and Kate plus 8" about a couple that started with twins and wanted just one more child, but ended up having sextuplets; he said he found the couple to be annoying.

When we watched "Kids by the dozen" about families with 12 or more kids; he said those people were 'crazy' but admitted it had some entertainment value.

When we watched the series about a dwarf family "Little People, Big World", he said it was okay but he wouldn't go out of his way to watch it.

That all changed last night, while watching "Inside Brookhaven Obesity Clinic Cheats, Lies and Videotapes."

I think I had him at "man mountain". His eyes were as big as saucers when he saw the $7,000 custom wheelchair the size of a loveseat that had to be ordered for one patient with a 5 foot waist (since their extra wide wheelchairs were still too small for him). He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the man being wheeled down the hallway in a couch/wheelchair being pushed by two people; the same man who doesn't think he has a problem. But the kicker was when we saw a clip of someone having to literally pull up mounds of stomach rolls to show the doctor what was on their lap. I think the wine may have shot out of his nose at that point.

The clinic was full of a bunch of characters, and it was funny and heartbreaking to watch them either denying or acknowledging they have a problem.

Tonight we're watching "Crazy Sexy Cancer," an irreverent and uplifting documentary about a young woman diagnosed with a rare and incurable cancer who finds her life-in strength, humor, friendship, even love-while searching for a cure.

He's so in.

Jimmy Carter for President anyone?

This is a documentary I don't want to miss.

"Jimmy Carter Man from Plains" is an intimate portrait of a Jimmy Carter, 39th President of the United States of America (1977-1981), Nobel Peace Prize winner (2002), and great American statesman who continues to work to promote human rights and act as an international peace broker. The documentary film is scheduled to be released to movie theaters on October 26, 2007.

The film was directed by Oscar-winning filmmaker Jonathan Demme, whose documentary credits include "The Silence of the Lambs" (which he won an Academy Award for directing), "Philadelphia", "Neil Young: Heart of Gold" and the Talking Heads concert movie "Stop Making Sense."

"Every time I see this film, President Carter makes me believe that - as frightening and appalling as so many things are in the world today - that there is nevertheless a very real possibility for peace and better lives for future generations if we strive to somehow get along and if we aspire to defining the upside of being human." - Jonathan Demme

Thank you Mr. President.

View Trailer

Have you been watching TLC lately?

The TLC channel used to be known for their "baby stories", but now they've got a whole new slew of documentaries.

I heart documentaries. So when I found myself with no new documentaries to watch, (having seen every single documentary on "On Demand"), I happened to end up on TLC while channel flipping. Lo and behold documentaries galore!

So far I've seen the following documentaries on TLC:

• World's heaviest man (pictured above)
• World's tallest woman
• A family of dwarfs
• Families by the dozen (yes 12+ kids!)
• Morbidly obese people
• A woman born with only half a body who gave birth to a perfectly healthy baby.
• Bree Walker & her 2 children - (all born with ectrodactyly, a rare congenital deformity where your fingers and toes are fused together).

And then there's "LA Ink" (the reality series about an LA tattoo parlor) which I saw a couple episodes of.

I've been hooked ever since.

The Real Dirt On Farmer John

This documentary looks really interesting. Watch the movie trailer. It looks like a beautiful documentary.

What it's about
"It's the story about farmer John Peterson's astonishing journey from farm boy to counter-culture rebel to the son who almost lost the family farm to a beacon of today’s booming organic farming movement. The result is a tale that ebbs and flows with the fortunes of the soil and revealingly mirrors the changing American times."

How it was made
"THE REAL DIRT ON FARMER JOHN is directed by Taggart Siegel, who made the film in a most unusual way – shooting farmer John Peterson over 25-years of their evolving friendship, and using multiple media, from Super8 home movies to modern video -- allowing him to capture his alternately humorous, heartbreaking and spirited life with raw drama and intimacy."

Kudos
Winner of over 30 film festivals.

"This lovingly handmade, grassroots epic has garnered fans even in the corridors of power, with former Vice President Al Gore calling it “unbelievably special,” celebrity chef Alice Waters declaring it “a charming, wonderful and important movie” and master documentarian Albert Maysles describing the film as “genuinely beautiful . . . a cause for hope.” "

Crazy Love

The relationship between Burt and Linda Pugach (now married 33 years) is the focus of this documentary film, aptly named "Crazy Love" produced by filmmaker Dan Klores (who also made the documentary "Boys of 2nd Street Park").

Burt & Linda's story goes like this:
In 1959 Burt was a married man with a child dating Linda Riss, a 21 year old woman. When Linda discovered Burt was married, she broke off their relationship. Burt started to stalk her and do some crazy things. Then when he found out Linda was engaged to be married to another man, Burt hired some men to attack her, throwing lye in her face, blinding and disfiguring her. Burt went to jail for 14 years, during which time he corresponded with Linda. While he was in jail, although he was disbarred he still helped some murderers find loop holes in their cases and got them released from jail. He started charging for his services and sent the proceeds to Linda. When he was released in 1974, Burt and Linda resumed their relationship and married soon thereafter. They co-wrote a book in the 1970's "A Very Different Love Story".

Review
"Crazy Love" is the craziest love story I've ever heard of. What a bunch of characters! Burt even cheated on Linda while they were married, and his mistress claimed Burt threatened to kill her. This made the headlines and there was a media frenzy surrounding it. All the while, Linda defended him and was Burt's biggest supporter. I'm not sure if this is love or insanity. Whatever the case, it's another example of how life sometimes is stranger than fiction.

PBS Haight/Ashbury Documentary

I just finished watching the PBS documentary about Haight/Ashbury and the Summer of Love.
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It was a so-so documentary. Good video footage from that time period and interviews. However I would have liked to have learned more about the people who were interviewed and their personal experiences. (Who were they? What was it really like? What are they doing today?). On the website under "Special Features and "Looking back" there is a brief write up about some of the people, but even that is lacking (like the documentary).
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After having watched this documentary I'm left feeling like I only tasted the appetizer and missed the main entree. Unsatisfied is how I would describe my experience. It's disappointing because the documentary had the potential to be really great.

The Year of the Hippie
In the mid-1960s, young people who embraced a non-traditional lifestyle began moving into the Haight neighborhood of San Francisco. As had earlier groups like Beatniks and Hipsters, they rejected mainstream society, but their taste for rock music and wild colors was new. Some tagged this group as junior-grade Hipsters -- "hippies" for short. An underground newspaper, The San Francisco Oracle, chronicled the movement, often with psychedelic flair.

In October 1966, a group of San Francisco hippies staged a Love Pageant. As stories and images of hippies spread, thousands of young Americans flooded the city, wanting to witness or be part of the action. A year later -- after the 1967 "summer of love" -- San Francisco hippies performed a rite they called "The Death of the Hippie."

Discovery Channel - Planet Earth

Uwe asked for just one gift for your birthday and that was the Discovery Channel: Planet Earth DVD collection. It took 5 years to make, and has amazing video footage.

This is a male species of Bird of Paradise, never before caught on film, doing his mating dance for a female. It looks like Japanese animation, or a video game character doesn't it? (New Guinea has 42 species of Birds of Paradise, each more bizarre than the last.)

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If interested, you can check out the video clip on youtube here. After he cleans the floor of the jungle, he does a dance where he looks like a fairy. He's also able to mimic a number of sounds. You can hardly believe your eyes. It's strange, unbelievable, and wonderful to watch.

"Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel" documentary

In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked Gram Parsons #87 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. He died of a drug overdose in 1973, at the age of 26, in Joshua Tree, California. I haven't seen it yet, but per the reviews - the documentary provides a revealing account of Gram Parsons' life and features interviews by family and friends.

Click here to watch the trailer.

Click here to read more about Gram Parsons.

Happy Earth Day 2007!

"A great human revolution in just a single individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of a nation, and further, can even enable a change in the destiny of all humankind. "

~ Daisaku Ikeda

I was inspired this Earth Day to do something more than just the everyday recycling and energy conservation, so I joined Global Green USA (the US affiliate of Green Cross International) and became an e-Activist to stop global warming.

In addition to lending my voice to this important issue and becoming better informed, I'll receive special updates including Leonardo DiCaprio's new film The 11th Hour. The film's campaign motto is "Lighten your footstep." It has interviews with over 50 leading scientists, thinkers and leaders who discuss the state of the world and the state of humanity, including Stephen Hawking, and Mikhail Gorbachev. The film was selected for the Cannes Film Festival - Special Screening, scheduled to take place May 19th, and will be released to theaters later this year.

Leonardo DiCaprio: actor, activist, environmentalist, at the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon in southeast Iceland.
Photograph by Annie Leibovitz

The 11th Hour and Leonardo DiCaprio were featured on the cover of Vanity Fair's Green Issue.

The Man of the Hour - excerpt from Vanity Fair magazine, May 2007

If you go to leonardodicaprio.com, you will find that it is split down the middle. The left half is labeled "Leonardo," and will bring you up-to-date on his filmmaking career (doing rather nicely, with a recent Oscar nomination for his performance in Blood Diamond and, to some tastes, an even stronger performance in best-picture winner The Departed). The right half is labeled "Eco-Site"; it offers guides to various environmental concerns, tips on differences anyone can make, and links to dozens of green organizations and information.

Not many stars share their fan face time with gorillas and ferns, but this is the image DiCaprio puts forward to the world: a literal expression of twin passions. A longtime environmentalist—remember his interview in 2000 with then president Bill Clinton for an ABC Earth Day special?—DiCaprio is currently on the boards of both the Natural Resources Defense Council and Global Green USA and has been a tireless promoter of green causes and events.

Later this year will see the fusion of his two passions with the release of The 11th Hour, a feature documentary on environmental ills and possible cures, a kind of state-of-the-earth address with gorgeous pictures and eloquent experts, which DiCaprio is producing, co-writing, and narrating. As he says in this remarkable film, as hopeful as it is alarming, "So, we find ourselves on the brink." On the brink of what, it is made plain, is up to us.

Press Release - 2005 - Leonardo DiCaprio to Produce New Documentary on Global Environment
NEW YORK - Leonardo DiCaprio has begun production on 11th Hour, a feature length documentary that will examine the state of the global environment, and includes visionary and practical solutions for restoring the planet's beleaguered ecosystems. The documentary will tackle an issue that DiCaprio has championed for years as it takes on a renewed urgency in the wake of recent natural disasters, and as increasing global abuse brings the future of our environment into greater question.

The film will be co-directed and written by Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners, co-founders of Tree Media Group. DiCaprio will produce, co-write and narrate the project. The team has previously collaborated on Global Warning and Water Planet , short films that can be seen on DiCaprio's eco-site, http://www.leonardodicaprio.org/.

"Global warming is not only the number one environmental challenge we face today, but one of the most important issues facing all of humanity,"said DiCaprio. "We all have to do our part to raise awareness about global warming and the problems we as a people face in promoting a sustainable environmental future for our planet."