In his documentary, “Shooting Michael Moore,” Kevin Leffler adopts the famous filmmaker’s guerilla interview tactics to harp on what he sees as inconsistencies and hypocrisies in Moore’s popular and high-grossing movies.
Leffler, a Davison native who attended high school with Moore, said he wants the public to “see the other side of Michael Moore and make their own decisions.”
The movie premiered a year ago at the Flint Film Festival and is being shown for the first time in commercial theaters — from Dec. 5-11 at AMC Great Lakes 25 in Auburn Hills, AMC Forum 30 in Sterling Heights and AMC Laurel Park 10 in Livonia[, Michigan]. Leffler says he is not a right-wing critic or even an indie filmmaker. He’s an accountant and Baker College professor who taught himself how to use a film camera and spent $250,000 of his own money to make the film.
When “Shooting Michael Moore” first premiered at the Flint Film Festival in 2007 — it won an audience choice award — Leffler said he was a registered Democrat with no political ax to grind.
Madonna’s documentary, “I Am Because We Are” will have its TV premiere on Sundance Channel at 9 p.m. EST Monday, December 1(World AIDS Day).
It is estimated that a twelfth of the population of Africa’s landlocked nation of Malawi are orphans. Passionately making the case that we are all globally connected and that our welfare depends upon responsibly realizing the importance of community, writer-producer Madonna and documentary director Nathan Rissman present an urgent, unsettling and very personal call to action on behalf of Malawi’s imperiled future. With Bill Clinton and Desmond Tutu. “Completely absorbing … shocking and incredibly moving” – The Times of London.
Posted by editor@vimooz.com on under Documentary, Television | Comments are off for this article
A documentary about pop-singer Britney Spears, called “Britney: For the Record” is scheduled to air on MTV, this Sunday night, at 10 p.m. ET/PT. The film chronicles Spears comeback Brit over a period of about three months.
During the 90 minute documentary, she speaks about her love life and her relationships with Justin Timberlake, and ex-husband Kevin Federline. Spears reveals that after having broken up with the former, she had felt lost and incapable of figuring out where to go from there, so she had become a party girl. As for her marriage with Federline, which lasted from 2004 to 2007, Britney stated she had taken the big step for the wrong reason and had failed to follow her heart and had simply gone through with it for the mere idea of being a married woman.
On December 2, when Britney Spears turns 27, her new album “Circus” is scheduled to be released.
The crisis in Mumbai which started Wednesday when gunmen attacked nine locations, entered its third day, and Indian commandos continue to fight with militants in the Taj Mahal Palace hotel (pictured above). CNN is reporting that the death toll from attacks in nine locations was 160, with a further 327 injured. Maharashtra state official Bhushan Gagrani said the death toll is expected to rise further and includes civilians, 16 police and two commandos. Eleven terrorists have also been killed.
Now even the local Bollywood film scene is affected. The local Maharashtra government on Thursday ordered cinema managements to suspend screening of films under further orders. The order directs managements of both single screen theatre and multiplexes to suspend the screening of movies until further orders as a security measure.
“We have decided to close the industry for a day as a mark of tribute to those innocent people who died due to indiscriminate firings by the terrorists and to the police officers and constables who fell to their bullets during the shootout. We condemn the heinous act,” a joint statement issued by all the associations of the film industry said. [via]
However, the International Film Festival of India shall continue. This was announced on Friday by Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat in the wake of the Mumbai hostage crisis and the passing away of the former Prime Minister, V.P. Singh. However, all the festivities, including daily music concerts and dance programmes have been cancelled. The film shows continue as usual along with film introductions. [via]
Posted by editor@vimooz.com on November 26, 2008 under Awards, Coming Soon | Comments are off for this article
October Films, one of the UK’s most successful independent production companies, has received its first commission from Nobel Media AB, the company responsible for producing the official Nobel TV programmes. October Films is to produce a 30 minute documentary portraying the 2008 Nobel Laureate in Literature, Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio (title TBD), the cross cultural citizen and writer.
The documentary will explore the career of Le Clezio, who has published more than thirty-six books, including short stories, novels, essays, prefaces and reviews and is the author of several children’s books. Using interviews with Le Clezio and his academic peers, the programme will discuss the various themes his work explores as well as offer an insight into the views of his literary world and the significance of his work. The documentary will be distributed internationally by November 30, 2008.
Posted by editor@vimooz.com on November 24, 2008 under Awards, Documentary | Comments are off for this article
Winners for the International Documentary Association’s 2008 IDA Documentary Awards competition were announced last week in several major categories, including Limited Series, Continuing Series, Music, and Student, leaving Feature, Short, and Audience Awards for the night of the program, to be held December 5th at the Directors Guild Theater in Los Angeles.
For the second consecutive year, Ira Glass’ THIS AMERICAN LIFE has nabbed the Continuing Series Award. Glass plans to attend IDA’s December 5th honors to accept his award in-person, as he memorably did in 2007. In the Limited Series category, the prize has gone to SIN CITY LAW, Denis Poncet, Jean Xavier De Lestrade, and Remy Burkel’s eight-part episodic chronicling the criminal justice system in Las Vegas.
Now in its second year, the IDA/Alan Ett Music Documentary Award, sponsored by the veteran music industry figure and composer, has honored Stephen Walker’s YOUNG@HEART. HEART also competes against KASSIM THE DREAM, STRANDED: I’VE COME FROM A PLANE THAT CRASHED IN THE MOUNTAINS, MAN ON WIRE and WALTZ WITH BASHIR for IDA’s top feature prize. Director Walker will make the trek from his native England to receive the Music Award.
The IDA/Pare Lorentz Award, in homage to the pioneering filmmaker’s legacy, was given to David Novack’s BURNING THE FUTURE: COAL IN AMERICA, a hard look at the coal industry and its efforts to promote “clean coal technology” in the face of true environmental hazards. Earning an Honorable Mention in the category is GARBAGE WARRIOR from filmmaker Oliver Hodge.
The IDA/ABCNEWS VideoSource Award, for best use of archival news footage, has gone to WAR CHILD, the story of a Sudanese child solider who emerges as an international rap star. C. Karim Chrobog’s film also participated in IDA’s DocuWeek Theatrical Showcase earlier this year.
IDA continues to recognize the next generation of documentary filmmakers with its prestigious David L. Wolper Student Filmmaker Award. This year’s prize has been awarded to AS WE FORGIVE, directed by American University student Laura Waters Hinson. The film documents two Rwandan women coming face-to-face with the men who slaughtered their families during the 1994 genocide.
Winning films from the event will be screened at DocuFest, held the day after the awards, on December 6th, from 10:00 AM to Midnight at the Eastman Kodak Screening Room, 6700 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles, California. Most filmmakers will be in attendance for Q&A’s following these films. Ticket information can also be found at www.documentary.org/docufest.
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Courting Condi which has become a huge hit on the film festival circuit, is also generating some controversy, which is always a good thing for an independent film, trying to gain some buzz.
A Dec. 2 screening of Courting Condi, the documentary about a man’s efforts to date Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, has been canceled at the Stanford Film Society, Condi’s alma mater.
“Given Condoleezza Rice’s past and eminent future connection with Stanford University, we were excited to bring your film to campus,” SFS co-president Kerry Mahuron informed Condi director Sebastian Doggart via email on Friday.
But!
“We have become increasingly alienated by the strong political and personal agenda associated with Courting Condi.”
After including a laundry list of on-campus “logistical issues,” Ms. Mahuron concludes, “we do not want to schedule competing events.”
Doggart believes, “This has all the hallmarks of Rice’s cronies scaring the Stanford Film Society into pulling the screening.”
A debate following the screening on “whether Stanford University should welcome [Miss Rice] back to its faculty when she leaves office in 2009″ has also been cancelled. [via]
Posted by editor@vimooz.com on November 22, 2008 under Academy award, Documentary | Comments are off for this article
Two public defenders featured in an Oscar-winning HBO documentary “Murder On A Sunday Morning,” say they were fired Friday by the newly hired head public defender. Pat McGuiness gained worldwide fame for representing Brenton Butler when his trial was featured in the HBO documentary. Newly-elected public defender Matt Shirk who ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility and saving tax dollars, notified McGuiness and nine others they were fired. [via]
Winner of a 2001 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, MURDER ON A SUNDAY MORNING is a compelling account of a reopened murder case, featuring a potentially incorrect suspect, and shocking tales of police corruption. Brenton Butler is the suspect, a 15 year old African-American accused of murdering Mary Ann Stephens in Jacksonville, Florida. Condemed by everyone involved with the case, his only lifeline is his lawyer, Patrick McGuiness, who reopens the case and uncovers some shocking revelations, and a distinct lack of concrete evidence against Butler. [via]
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AmericanLife TV (ALN), the cable network devoted to the Baby Boomer generation, announced today they will present an exclusive screening of a new documentary, “Moments That Changed Us: Steve Wozniak” — and the beginnings of the computer revolution, a revealing interview with co-founder Steve Wozniak (aka “The Woz”), the genius behind the design of Apple II. The exclusive screening will be hosted by acclaimed journalist Nick Clooney and held at the prestigious “Newseum” on Friday, November 28, 2008 (2:30p.m.-3:30p.m.). This special will premiere on ALN December 5th at 9p.m. Eastern with an encore at 11p.m. Eastern / 8p.m. Pacific.
“Moments That Changed Us” is a series of groundbreaking specials presented by AmericanLife TV that re-tells the defining times of the Baby Boom Generation. The series is hosted by Nick Clooney, veteran journalist and father of actor, George Clooney. Each special presents an in-depth interview with a leading figure in a signature moment that changed our lives, our culture and our history.
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak co-founded Apple Computers in 1976 and made an incredible creative team, inventing the first personal home computers. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was interviewed by Nick Clooney and speaks candidly in this rare interview on the show. This special will feature the story of Apple, and evolution and effects on the baby boomer generation, and the genius of Steve Wozniak as a computer engineer and designer and how he came to design the Apple II, which was one of the first practical desktop computers that could be used in businesses, schools and the home.
“Today we take computers for granted; in fact my kids can’t conceive of a world without them,” said Mark Ringwald, AmericanLife TV’s Vice President of Programming, “yet in reality the information age began just a few short years ago. Through Steve, this ‘Moments’ documentary lets us re-experience the sense of wonder and awe in discovering a machine that brought the future into our homes.”
Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak are among the most well-known revolutionaries of the computing age. Their invention of the first true personal computer changed baby boomers’ ideas of what a computer could look like and what it could do for them to make their lives easier and their work more efficient. Apple continues to be one of the best-known and most popular brands of personal computing devices in the world.
Both Wozniak and Jobs have been recognized with countless awards and honors, including National Medals of Technology, awarded in 1985 by then-President Ronald Reagan. Wozniak was inducted into the Inventors Hall of Fame in 2000 and is a past recipient of the Heinz Award for Technology, The Economy and Employment.
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Iranian filmmaker,Dariush Mehrjui, will be at the Cleveland Museum of Art this afternoon to speak about his latest work, “Santouri the Music Man.” The film, like several of Mehrjui’s, is banned in Iran.
Mehrjui, 68, who was born in Tehran, studied film and philosophy at UCLA. He has made more than 20 films, including “Hamoun” and “The Cycle.” The New York Times once called him “the most interesting and accomplished filmmaker the United States has never heard of.”
“Santouri the Music Man,” which follows a popular musician’s descent into drug-addiction, is in Farsi with subtitles. It screens today at 1:30 at the museum, at 11150 East Blvd. in University Circle. Mehrjui (pronounced Mair-ju-ee) will introduce the movie and speak afterward.
Tickets are $15 ($12 for CMA members; $10 for seniors and students). The film will also play on Friday, Dec. 5, at 7 p.m., and Saturday, Dec. 6, at 1:30 p.m. For more information, call 1-888-262-0033, or go to www.clevelandart.org.
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In his documentary, “Shooting Michael Moore,” Kevin Leffler adopts the famous filmmaker’s guerilla interview tactics to harp on what he sees as inconsistencies and hypocrisies in Moore’s popular and high-grossing movies.
Winners for the International Documentary Association’s 2008 IDA Documentary Awards competition were announced last week in several major categories, including Limited Series, Continuing Series, Music, and Student, leaving Feature, Short, and Audience Awards for the night of the program, to be held December 5th at the Directors Guild Theater in Los Angeles.
Two public defenders featured in an Oscar-winning HBO documentary “Murder On A Sunday Morning,” say they were fired Friday by the newly hired head public defender. Pat McGuiness gained worldwide fame for representing Brenton Butler when his trial was featured in the HBO documentary. Newly-elected public defender Matt Shirk who ran on a platform of fiscal responsibility and saving tax dollars, notified McGuiness and nine others they were fired. [
AmericanLife TV (ALN), the cable network devoted to the Baby Boomer generation, announced today they will present an exclusive screening of a new documentary, “Moments That Changed Us: Steve Wozniak” — and the beginnings of the computer revolution, a revealing interview with co-founder Steve Wozniak (aka “The Woz”), the genius behind the design of Apple II. The exclusive screening will be hosted by acclaimed journalist Nick Clooney and held at the prestigious “Newseum” on Friday, November 28, 2008 (2:30p.m.-3:30p.m.). This special will premiere on ALN December 5th at 9p.m. Eastern with an encore at 11p.m. Eastern / 8p.m. Pacific.
Iranian filmmaker,Dariush Mehrjui, will be at the