Documentary Film Program

Ask Not Premiering at San Francisco International Film Festival

Anthony Falzone — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:04:56 -0700

Johnny Symon's compelling critique of the military's "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy, Ask Not, is premiering at the San Francisco International Film Festival. It provides a thoughtful and poignant look at both the origins and consequences of this policy that institutionalizes discrimination against the very people who fight so bravely to defend our freedom and the rights of others. See below for showtimes.

Ask Not Examines "Don't Ask Don't Tell"

Anthony Falzone — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 09:49:02 -0700

Synopsis:

Ask Not is a rare and compelling exploration of the U.S. military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. The film exposes the tangled political battles that led to the discriminatory law, and profiles charismatic young activists determined to abolish it. As wars in the Middle East rage on, Ask Not reveals personal stories of gay Americans who serve in combat under a veil of secrecy.

Related Links:

Click Here For More

The Life Penalty

Brandy Karl — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 08:42:34 -0800

Synopsis:

How did a rebel public defender from Boulder, Colorado, throw a monkey wrench into America’s "death machine"? Slip into a juror’s seat as David Wymore and other nationally recognized criminal defense attorneys bring their fight against the death penalty to the front line: the courtroom.

Casting a revelatory and often uncomfortable light on our justice system, The Life Penalty shakes the ethical and moral foundations of capital punishment in the contemporary United States. Featuring two Bob Dylan songs including the never before released "Ballad of Donald White".

Related Links:

Film Website & Trailer

The Powder & The Glory

Brandy Karl — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 14:56:27 -0800

Synopsis:

The Powder & the Glory tells the story of two of the first highly successful women entrepreneurs in America, Elizabeth Arden and Helena Rubinstein. One hundred years ago these women immigrated to the United States and, starting with next to nothing, created what is today the $150 billion global health and beauty industry. They lived and worked only blocks apart but by design they never met. They were fierce rivals.

Related Links:

Film Website

Recut, Reframe, Recycle

Anthony Falzone — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 11:04:51 -0800

Pat Aufderheide, Peter Jaszi and their colleagues at American University's Center for Social Media have released a fantastic new study on creativity on the web -- and the threat that overly-aggressive copyright enforcement and so-called "anti-piracy" software pose to free speech.

Read the full study here, and view a slew of videos that represent the creativity that digital media has unleashed.

The Story of Stuff: The Power of Simple Web Graphics

Bruce B. Cahan — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 11:32:00 -0800

The power of simple graphics on the Web is hard to beat.

Annie Leonard's The Story of Stuff lays out what's at stake for consumers if they choose wisely, poorly or let others choose for them.

Henry Jenkins on Moral Kombat

Anthony Falzone — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 22:17:06 -0800

Henry Jenkins at M.I.T. put up an excellent post about Moral Kombat, one of the first films we reviewed as part of our then-new (now not-so-new but significantly bigger) Documentary Film Program. Read the post. See the film, which is going into previews now.

SPLIT: A Divided America

Amanda Smith — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 09:08:39 -0800

Synopsis:

Shocking and informative, SPLIT: A DIVIDED AMERICA takes a behind the scenes look at the partisanship dominating our politics. Balancing candid discussions with citizens coast to coast and commentary from some of the sharpest minds analyzing government and society today, it’s a cross country investigation of democracy in America.

Related Links:

SPLIT website

Beyond Belief

Brandy Karl — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 13:56:33 -0800

Synopsis:

Susan Retik and Patti Quigley are two ordinary soccer moms living in the affluent suburbs of Boston until tragedy strikes. Rather than turning inwards, grief compels these women to focus on the country where the terrorists who took their husbands’ lives were trained: Afghanistan. Over the course of two years, as they cope with loss and struggle to raise their families as single mothers, these extraordinary women dedicate themselves to empowering Afghan widows whose lives have been ravaged by decades of war, poverty and oppression – factors they consider to be the root causes of terrorism.

Read the New York Magazine review

Read the Variety Magazine review

Read the ABC News review

Read the Cape Cod Times review

Read the All Movie Guide/NYTimes.com review

Read the Flick Filosopher review

Read the Boston Globe review

Related Links:

Beyond Belief website

Trailer or Clip:

Debate Team

Brandy Karl — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 13:44:21 -0800

Synopsis:

Debate Team is a documentary exploring the weird subculture of competitive college debate. Competitors battle at 360 words per minute, hauling around mountains of evidence called “cards” and nearly every debate ends in global nuclear annihilation.

In 2005, nearly 200 teams converged on San Francisco State to compete in the National Championship. The documentary follows four teams, from Michigan State, Harvard, West Georgia, and Berkeley in their quest for the national title.

What emerges is not simply a chronicle of the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, but a more disturbing examination into the nature of competition itself and the American fetish with championships and champions.

Debate Team is sponsored by Film Arts.

Related Links:

Debate Team website

Trailer or Clip: