Hans-Christian Schmid
The Hague, the court, the events that lead to trial and beyond.
Women are the heroes in Storm.
They are the ones with the intelligence, the moral fiber, the strength to face life and fear and conquer the elements that hold people back from doing what is right. Women speak out, they cry quietly but scream when the moment becomes unbearable. it is the men who give up living(commit suicide) who suffer in this seemingly real court scene; the men who do the dirty compromises behind the scenes, the men who impede the quality of life from moving on rather than in the wrong direction for all the wrong reasons.
This is the story of what happens when rape became an official crime at the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague along with deportation and later killing of dozens of Bosnian-Muslim civilians.
From the moment the film begins there is one almost expected incident after another. Very little variance to this compelling story and yet the viewer is frozen in the moment because it feels so true, so real, so deeply upsetting.
The acting, the timing, the slow movement add to the atmosphere of real trauma, one after another.
Storm is a pensive film that creates for the viewer the life, the fears of people who live seemingly far from us and yet they are us; our mother, our child, our family.
Linda Z
WBAI Women's Collective
Friday, October 16, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
BAD Lieutenant Port of Call New Orleans
Werner Herzog
There is something about re-doing a successful film that allows the director to be more relaxed with his product. Knowing that the fundamentals of the film are firm, the director can play with the product, have fun rather than agonizing about details that might not matter in the fullness of the film experience.
Bad Lieutenant is just such a film. Werner Herzog seems to have seen the original film and thought, I can do this better. And he has
He is having fun with his actors, (Nicolas Cage in particular) with the plot, with the material and this emotional mind set results in a gem of a film
Can you be a man without a big black gun affixed to your body? Do fish dream, do sharks, do you? And who is to blame for the financial political malaise that plaque us today?
Laugh with this film; relax, enjoy and have fun as Bad Lieutenant Port of Call plays with you, with me, with the serious issues of our time (including Katrina post flood). Herzog creates for the viewer a moment of enjoyment while gruesome death, murder, destruction and utter mayhem reign.
The Bad Lieutenant Port of Call portrays neither the Bad nor the Good. What more do we need to know about survival in this downward quality of life that has no end in sight.
Linda Zises
WBAI Women's Collective
There is something about re-doing a successful film that allows the director to be more relaxed with his product. Knowing that the fundamentals of the film are firm, the director can play with the product, have fun rather than agonizing about details that might not matter in the fullness of the film experience.
Bad Lieutenant is just such a film. Werner Herzog seems to have seen the original film and thought, I can do this better. And he has
He is having fun with his actors, (Nicolas Cage in particular) with the plot, with the material and this emotional mind set results in a gem of a film
Can you be a man without a big black gun affixed to your body? Do fish dream, do sharks, do you? And who is to blame for the financial political malaise that plaque us today?
Laugh with this film; relax, enjoy and have fun as Bad Lieutenant Port of Call plays with you, with me, with the serious issues of our time (including Katrina post flood). Herzog creates for the viewer a moment of enjoyment while gruesome death, murder, destruction and utter mayhem reign.
The Bad Lieutenant Port of Call portrays neither the Bad nor the Good. What more do we need to know about survival in this downward quality of life that has no end in sight.
Linda Zises
WBAI Women's Collective
Sunday, October 11, 2009
New York Film Festival 2009
There are so many wonderful films being offered this year by the New York Film Festival, that rather than write an individual, long and too wordy review for each, I will list the films which I enjoyed and cherished and you can decide which one(s) to see when and where. (I was unable to see all films offered during the festival)
A particular note of praise:
This year the New York Film Festival seems to feature more films where the leading actor is a woman. And more women film directors than ever before. Woman are wonderful filmmakers, so why not let us be seen, be heard.
Thank you for allowing the best of our gender to come into prominence.
Mother
Bong Joon-Ho and Kim Hye-Ja and Won Bin South Korea
A mother and grown son bring home the meaning of who is a "murderer". Is it a special kind of person or is this a human trait with which we learn to live, hopefully, not always with a super abundance. of crippling guilt.
Lebanon: Samuel Maoz
Again the massacre in Lebanon by the Israeli Army. It you thought Waltz with Bashir was a compelling film, this film offers the voice of the stereotypical Jewish man within the confining Tank that protects them while they witness and partake in the murder of helpless civilians. Here guilt informs heavily on the film's narrative.
Antichrist: Lars von Trier
I am not religious which means that the meaning of the film, the intent that informed on the blood, the horror of how a man and woman relate to one another to emerge with the man triumphant was an experience I would not choose to have a second time. Was this a worth while film? I don't know.
Film already scheduled for public consumption. Check IFC listings
Life During Wartime: Todd Sokondz
I loved Todd Sokondz' film "Happiness" and I think this film is as good even though much of the impact of its theme is a redo.
The specific details differ from one film to the other, the father /son quasi sexual relationship so shocking in Happiness is brought back to life and the over all feeling of the son(s) remain intact ......I just want my father.
There is something beyond the labels we put on adults that resonates with children, our children: something so profoundly simply that in the confusion of becoming, we forget what is important.
Thankfully, our children don't
The Art of the Steal Don Argott's documentary
Takes a look at the controversial dealings over the Barnes Foundation's multi-billion dollar collection of rare artwork, which became the center of numerous litigations and questionable deals after his death in 1951.
A film worth seeing even though it seems to go on and on. What is missing is the human element, the view from the public who might now be robbed of the entire experience of "going to the Barnes", particularly if you herald from New York City.
What is offered instead is an overwhelming experience of ART as each frame has an artistic assemblage much as each of Dr. Barnes' works are put into a context that "makes sense" to the art viewer. Phillip Glass music added to this art/film experience of political, money hungry, art lovers struggle to survive intact.
White Material: Claire Denis
There is something magical with Claire Denis films. ... Chocolat / Chocolate (1988) was superb and this film is well worth seeing. The struggle of being a strong, independent woman is so tangibly depicted. One wonders if this is her personal struggle to survive and rise into fame and fortune as a woman film producer in a male dominated competitive endeavor.
Kanikosen a film by SABU
Japanese crab ship where the essence of revolution comes to the screen.
This film is at the top of my list.
It brings to life an underwater world where life is very intense and human interactions are funny, painful and profound.
Min Ye: Souleymane Casse, Mali/France
I don't have to understand every film to appreciate the effort, the experience of entering into an unfamiliar world where nothing makes sense to me. The questions that plagued me in this sand, stone world, the background of the film are such elementary concerns as
Where did their food come from, where did they sleep, defecate. Where was the water to drink with which to bath. The sound of the wind blowing was very effective and the clothes....now I understand the importance of the Hijab, or Veil (Burqah, Chador), to protect not from the sun as much as from the endless blowing sand. Sand hills and dales, sand slopes and tunnels. Sand without seeming definition but the actors knew where to go, what hill was where, what valley was within their reach.
The plot: the origins of Egyptian national identity. If I knew more about Egypt before I saw the film I would have had a different, a richer experience.
Many more films of note were offered at the New York Film Festival this year. they are all offered within a three week period and by the end of the festival fatigue triumphed.
Spread over time, the wealth of entertainment will keep New Yorkers rich with noteworthy films when they come to local theaters
The NY Film Festival 2009 runs through 10/11. More information about the NY Film Festival is online at: FilmLinc.com
Linda Zises
WBAI Women's Collective
A particular note of praise:
This year the New York Film Festival seems to feature more films where the leading actor is a woman. And more women film directors than ever before. Woman are wonderful filmmakers, so why not let us be seen, be heard.
Thank you for allowing the best of our gender to come into prominence.
Mother
Bong Joon-Ho and Kim Hye-Ja and Won Bin South Korea
A mother and grown son bring home the meaning of who is a "murderer". Is it a special kind of person or is this a human trait with which we learn to live, hopefully, not always with a super abundance. of crippling guilt.
Lebanon: Samuel Maoz
Again the massacre in Lebanon by the Israeli Army. It you thought Waltz with Bashir was a compelling film, this film offers the voice of the stereotypical Jewish man within the confining Tank that protects them while they witness and partake in the murder of helpless civilians. Here guilt informs heavily on the film's narrative.
Antichrist: Lars von Trier
I am not religious which means that the meaning of the film, the intent that informed on the blood, the horror of how a man and woman relate to one another to emerge with the man triumphant was an experience I would not choose to have a second time. Was this a worth while film? I don't know.
Film already scheduled for public consumption. Check IFC listings
Life During Wartime: Todd Sokondz
I loved Todd Sokondz' film "Happiness" and I think this film is as good even though much of the impact of its theme is a redo.
The specific details differ from one film to the other, the father /son quasi sexual relationship so shocking in Happiness is brought back to life and the over all feeling of the son(s) remain intact ......I just want my father.
There is something beyond the labels we put on adults that resonates with children, our children: something so profoundly simply that in the confusion of becoming, we forget what is important.
Thankfully, our children don't
The Art of the Steal Don Argott's documentary
Takes a look at the controversial dealings over the Barnes Foundation's multi-billion dollar collection of rare artwork, which became the center of numerous litigations and questionable deals after his death in 1951.
A film worth seeing even though it seems to go on and on. What is missing is the human element, the view from the public who might now be robbed of the entire experience of "going to the Barnes", particularly if you herald from New York City.
What is offered instead is an overwhelming experience of ART as each frame has an artistic assemblage much as each of Dr. Barnes' works are put into a context that "makes sense" to the art viewer. Phillip Glass music added to this art/film experience of political, money hungry, art lovers struggle to survive intact.
White Material: Claire Denis
There is something magical with Claire Denis films. ... Chocolat / Chocolate (1988) was superb and this film is well worth seeing. The struggle of being a strong, independent woman is so tangibly depicted. One wonders if this is her personal struggle to survive and rise into fame and fortune as a woman film producer in a male dominated competitive endeavor.
Kanikosen a film by SABU
Japanese crab ship where the essence of revolution comes to the screen.
This film is at the top of my list.
It brings to life an underwater world where life is very intense and human interactions are funny, painful and profound.
Min Ye: Souleymane Casse, Mali/France
I don't have to understand every film to appreciate the effort, the experience of entering into an unfamiliar world where nothing makes sense to me. The questions that plagued me in this sand, stone world, the background of the film are such elementary concerns as
Where did their food come from, where did they sleep, defecate. Where was the water to drink with which to bath. The sound of the wind blowing was very effective and the clothes....now I understand the importance of the Hijab, or Veil (Burqah, Chador), to protect not from the sun as much as from the endless blowing sand. Sand hills and dales, sand slopes and tunnels. Sand without seeming definition but the actors knew where to go, what hill was where, what valley was within their reach.
The plot: the origins of Egyptian national identity. If I knew more about Egypt before I saw the film I would have had a different, a richer experience.
Many more films of note were offered at the New York Film Festival this year. they are all offered within a three week period and by the end of the festival fatigue triumphed.
Spread over time, the wealth of entertainment will keep New Yorkers rich with noteworthy films when they come to local theaters
The NY Film Festival 2009 runs through 10/11. More information about the NY Film Festival is online at: FilmLinc.com
Linda Zises
WBAI Women's Collective
Rage Sally Potter DVD
RAGE
Sally Potter Director/Writer (Orlando, 1992)
A young blogger at a New York fashion house shoots behind-the-scenes interviews on his cell-phone. In viewing the footage the audience is confronted with the process of marketing products, the brutal rise to the top in a sucessful company, and the use of perfumes to hide us from ourselves.
Commentary:
From the moment the film started I knew it was written by a woman because I identified with the method of writing, the typing, going back and forth to correct what was put up on the screen. This process drew me into the film and its theme of public versus private; of being famous and being invisible was a profound message. This is such a woman's issue, wanting to be seen, to be sexy and attractive while simultaneously wanting to be Invisible, to be "safe".
I loved the peeling of the onion layers approach to the plot, the change in the characters to reveal not the "I" but the "me" as they confront a moment of trauma, of inevitable reality with the death of one of their own.
I felt drawn to the story, the frightening look at fashion, at manipulation of words to promote a scent. A scent, a perfume for children! Is there nothing sacred, nothing pure, nothing of worth left now that the Internet captures the moment formerly private and sends it out into the Universe of the unknown.
I am not a script writer nor a film director but if I were I would want to have created this film.
Rage: As a film it works. As a live drama on Broadway it will also be tauted as great.
Linda Zises
WBAI Women's Collective
Sally Potter Director/Writer (Orlando, 1992)
A young blogger at a New York fashion house shoots behind-the-scenes interviews on his cell-phone. In viewing the footage the audience is confronted with the process of marketing products, the brutal rise to the top in a sucessful company, and the use of perfumes to hide us from ourselves.
Commentary:
From the moment the film started I knew it was written by a woman because I identified with the method of writing, the typing, going back and forth to correct what was put up on the screen. This process drew me into the film and its theme of public versus private; of being famous and being invisible was a profound message. This is such a woman's issue, wanting to be seen, to be sexy and attractive while simultaneously wanting to be Invisible, to be "safe".
I loved the peeling of the onion layers approach to the plot, the change in the characters to reveal not the "I" but the "me" as they confront a moment of trauma, of inevitable reality with the death of one of their own.
I felt drawn to the story, the frightening look at fashion, at manipulation of words to promote a scent. A scent, a perfume for children! Is there nothing sacred, nothing pure, nothing of worth left now that the Internet captures the moment formerly private and sends it out into the Universe of the unknown.
I am not a script writer nor a film director but if I were I would want to have created this film.
Rage: As a film it works. As a live drama on Broadway it will also be tauted as great.
Linda Zises
WBAI Women's Collective
Saturday, August 22, 2009
THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX An Oscar 2009 winner!
Director: Uli Edel (Last Exit To Brooklyn, Christiane F)
A Cast of Stars:
Martina Gedeck (The Lives of Others, The Good Shepard), Moritz Bleibtreu (Run Lola Run), Johanna Wokalek (Aimee and Jaguar) and Bruno Ganz (The Reader, Downfall). The film is directed by Uli Edel (Last Exit To Brooklyn, Christiane F) and was written and produced by Bernd Eichinger (2005 Academy Award nominee Downfall), based on the book by and in consultation with Stefan Aust.
PLOT: A lengthy history of the far-left terrorist group that shocked Germany from 1968 onwards. Their search is for a life we can all embrace, their method is what we instinctively reject.
Guilt is not on the side of violation of law and order in this film. The guilty are those who make the laws, who enforce the law in this conflict ridden post WWII Germany. The war of the concerned courageous citizens, is unrelenting as the viewer watches the interactions of the group who go into banks to rob and into buildings to bomb, to steal, to plunder what they need to further their "cause".
Their cause is to bring to the attention their agenda of Stop the War in Vietnam, stop killing innocent citizens. But what do they embrace?
There is an invisible line between those who kill and those who don't. A gun is not requisite equipment in every one's wardrobe. This makes the free wielding of this object of murder, in a seemingly quiet domestic environment disturbing, not easy to understand. But then, that is the point of the film; To bring to our attention the thoughts, the ways of Revolutionaries who we might not know and can't understand. After the full experience of two and a half hours of The Beeder Meinhof Complex, one can not continue to think we are all knowing, all caring, all right.
This is not a summer evening's casual date flick. It is a provocative and brilliant creation that will remain in the viewers mind.
Whether or not we want to remember, we will.
LindaZises
WBAI Women's Collective
Director: Uli Edel (Last Exit To Brooklyn, Christiane F)
A Cast of Stars:
Martina Gedeck (The Lives of Others, The Good Shepard), Moritz Bleibtreu (Run Lola Run), Johanna Wokalek (Aimee and Jaguar) and Bruno Ganz (The Reader, Downfall). The film is directed by Uli Edel (Last Exit To Brooklyn, Christiane F) and was written and produced by Bernd Eichinger (2005 Academy Award nominee Downfall), based on the book by and in consultation with Stefan Aust.
PLOT: A lengthy history of the far-left terrorist group that shocked Germany from 1968 onwards. Their search is for a life we can all embrace, their method is what we instinctively reject.
Guilt is not on the side of violation of law and order in this film. The guilty are those who make the laws, who enforce the law in this conflict ridden post WWII Germany. The war of the concerned courageous citizens, is unrelenting as the viewer watches the interactions of the group who go into banks to rob and into buildings to bomb, to steal, to plunder what they need to further their "cause".
Their cause is to bring to the attention their agenda of Stop the War in Vietnam, stop killing innocent citizens. But what do they embrace?
There is an invisible line between those who kill and those who don't. A gun is not requisite equipment in every one's wardrobe. This makes the free wielding of this object of murder, in a seemingly quiet domestic environment disturbing, not easy to understand. But then, that is the point of the film; To bring to our attention the thoughts, the ways of Revolutionaries who we might not know and can't understand. After the full experience of two and a half hours of The Beeder Meinhof Complex, one can not continue to think we are all knowing, all caring, all right.
This is not a summer evening's casual date flick. It is a provocative and brilliant creation that will remain in the viewers mind.
Whether or not we want to remember, we will.
LindaZises
WBAI Women's Collective
AMERICAN CASINO: SUB-PRIME MORTGAGES MADE SIMPLE?
Leslie and Andrew Cockburn
I went to see American Casino with all the anticipatory urgency that this complicated subject of mortgages gone awry and left feeling even more confused. Only now I am certain I will never understand the world of finance that has seriously diminished the quality of my life and destroyed the lives of many I know and have heard about.
Why:
For starters, the film makers never defined the sub-prime mortgage. An entire film/documentary based on a term without defining it. Or maybe the definition was there, amid all those words and ideas and talking heads(no simple graphs) but I didn't get it. So I asked a knowledgeable friend. What is sub-prime because I can't find anything that is sub(meaning less) in the mortgages.
The words left out told the story. They are sub-prime interest rate mortgages meaning that if the prime or the set mortgage rate is 5% the borrower is offered a mortgage at 4% or one interest rate point less than the going rate.
Great. I now know that the variable rate mortgage and the sub-prime interest rate mortgage or not one and the same instrument.
A veritable rate mortgage is one that every few years gets reset dependent on..........well, that is not defined What factors do and what factors don't get counted. When the cost of living goes up does the veritable rate when calculated three years later go down or does it go up with the rest of the bills I have to pay? Is this the reason why I can't pay my mortgage or is it the hidden costs that the seller didn't tell me about when I bought the mortgage.
This is just some of the elementary definitions that the documentary assumed the viewer knows.
Then there is the problem of what happens to my money. For instance, if I buy a mortgage I am giving a set sum of money that is then bundled with other money and sold over and over again. This way I don't know who owes my mortgage. And neither does anyone else.
I understand, because of this film that each sale means someone makes money from my original purchase and I understand that many clever people, people who don't have to be told the difference between the sub-prime rate and the veritable rate mortgage, can and do bet on my inability to pay back my mortgage.
I am not without some knowledge of finance. I remember when my parents bought the car and paid car payments and if or when they failed to pay the car payments, the car was repossessed. This applied to furniture as well.
I remember thinking about this and realized that the "down payment" was usually sufficient to pay for the cost of the car or the dining room table and every payment made by my parents was profit for the seller. I understand that every payment I DO NOT make on my mortgage is profit to the seller and the buyer, neither of whom I know or ever will.
Is this what is still going on with mortgages today? Going on without laws to curb the practice?
When "the men" come with the foreclosure and I ask, where is the mortgage, the papers to verify who actually owns my house and they can't produce the owner, then how can they take back what they can't prove is theirs? Or when they auction my house, who are they auctioning it for? The bank? But the Bank doesn't have the mortgage papers. Or does it. And are the mortgage papers different from the ownership documents?
These are questions worth full exploration but unfortunately the authors of this film were so intent on exposing the key players that they forgot about you and me, the buyers of their product.
American Casino reinforces the now well understood reality that the power elite who are deemed crooks,(not in jail but free range in all the high places in Government) are operating American Financial Casino(s) without the American public or the world financial complex aware of what they are involved in.
I understand that the poor, the black, the upper striving people of color were for a single moment called "stupid"in the film because they got caught in this night-mere of fulfilling the "American dream" that they might never have had if it hadn't been for ex-president Bush calling the ownership of a home of one's own an American goal; a fantasy to strive towards. I understand that the makers of this film had no idea who their audience is and to put a group of people on the screen to show the devastating impact of this scandal without presenting the fundamentals borders on........... an act of intellectual snobbery.
That said, many will talk about American Casino. And if you should ask, what is it really all about, be prepared to feel once again how "stupid" you and I really are. But then again maybe there is something good to be said about being stupid. We are in good ethical, upstanding citizen company suffering from the fall out of financial giants.
Linda ZISES
WBAI Women's Collective
I went to see American Casino with all the anticipatory urgency that this complicated subject of mortgages gone awry and left feeling even more confused. Only now I am certain I will never understand the world of finance that has seriously diminished the quality of my life and destroyed the lives of many I know and have heard about.
Why:
For starters, the film makers never defined the sub-prime mortgage. An entire film/documentary based on a term without defining it. Or maybe the definition was there, amid all those words and ideas and talking heads(no simple graphs) but I didn't get it. So I asked a knowledgeable friend. What is sub-prime because I can't find anything that is sub(meaning less) in the mortgages.
The words left out told the story. They are sub-prime interest rate mortgages meaning that if the prime or the set mortgage rate is 5% the borrower is offered a mortgage at 4% or one interest rate point less than the going rate.
Great. I now know that the variable rate mortgage and the sub-prime interest rate mortgage or not one and the same instrument.
A veritable rate mortgage is one that every few years gets reset dependent on..........well, that is not defined What factors do and what factors don't get counted. When the cost of living goes up does the veritable rate when calculated three years later go down or does it go up with the rest of the bills I have to pay? Is this the reason why I can't pay my mortgage or is it the hidden costs that the seller didn't tell me about when I bought the mortgage.
This is just some of the elementary definitions that the documentary assumed the viewer knows.
Then there is the problem of what happens to my money. For instance, if I buy a mortgage I am giving a set sum of money that is then bundled with other money and sold over and over again. This way I don't know who owes my mortgage. And neither does anyone else.
I understand, because of this film that each sale means someone makes money from my original purchase and I understand that many clever people, people who don't have to be told the difference between the sub-prime rate and the veritable rate mortgage, can and do bet on my inability to pay back my mortgage.
I am not without some knowledge of finance. I remember when my parents bought the car and paid car payments and if or when they failed to pay the car payments, the car was repossessed. This applied to furniture as well.
I remember thinking about this and realized that the "down payment" was usually sufficient to pay for the cost of the car or the dining room table and every payment made by my parents was profit for the seller. I understand that every payment I DO NOT make on my mortgage is profit to the seller and the buyer, neither of whom I know or ever will.
Is this what is still going on with mortgages today? Going on without laws to curb the practice?
When "the men" come with the foreclosure and I ask, where is the mortgage, the papers to verify who actually owns my house and they can't produce the owner, then how can they take back what they can't prove is theirs? Or when they auction my house, who are they auctioning it for? The bank? But the Bank doesn't have the mortgage papers. Or does it. And are the mortgage papers different from the ownership documents?
These are questions worth full exploration but unfortunately the authors of this film were so intent on exposing the key players that they forgot about you and me, the buyers of their product.
American Casino reinforces the now well understood reality that the power elite who are deemed crooks,(not in jail but free range in all the high places in Government) are operating American Financial Casino(s) without the American public or the world financial complex aware of what they are involved in.
I understand that the poor, the black, the upper striving people of color were for a single moment called "stupid"in the film because they got caught in this night-mere of fulfilling the "American dream" that they might never have had if it hadn't been for ex-president Bush calling the ownership of a home of one's own an American goal; a fantasy to strive towards. I understand that the makers of this film had no idea who their audience is and to put a group of people on the screen to show the devastating impact of this scandal without presenting the fundamentals borders on........... an act of intellectual snobbery.
That said, many will talk about American Casino. And if you should ask, what is it really all about, be prepared to feel once again how "stupid" you and I really are. But then again maybe there is something good to be said about being stupid. We are in good ethical, upstanding citizen company suffering from the fall out of financial giants.
Linda ZISES
WBAI Women's Collective
Friday, August 7, 2009
What's The Matter With Kansas?
Joe Winston's
WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS is a documentary, (loosely based on the Thomas Frank book of the same name) on the verge of being released to an audience who may not know what is on the minds of the people who are forming a proto fascist movement in the United States.
We are afforded a close up view of the people's home life, their pains, failures and the source of what makes them smile involuntarily.
What drives the masses who stampeded upon the abortion doctor, the great courageous Dr. George Tiller and who is making the life of today's politicians a living night mere as they go to "the community" to be heard, to discuss the new health care reforms and are met with the Pacifica Radio WBAI style disruption by mobs of "loose canons" who question if in fact Obama is an American citizen. It isn't the American flag on the lapel that bothers the likes of the Kansas City denizens who are being pushed off of their land(still) and drowned in a flat, barren environment of the Mid West. It is the pressing issue of abortion,
God's will and Obama who is now their enemy, the Devil in our midst.
This is what we learn from the documentary What's the matter with Kansas. A lesson that will defy your ability to curb your sympathy but curb it we must or be consumed by the likes of violent vigilantes in all the wrong places.
See it when it comes out, be horrified, be informed.
Linda Z
WBAI Women's Collective
WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH KANSAS is a documentary, (loosely based on the Thomas Frank book of the same name) on the verge of being released to an audience who may not know what is on the minds of the people who are forming a proto fascist movement in the United States.
We are afforded a close up view of the people's home life, their pains, failures and the source of what makes them smile involuntarily.
What drives the masses who stampeded upon the abortion doctor, the great courageous Dr. George Tiller and who is making the life of today's politicians a living night mere as they go to "the community" to be heard, to discuss the new health care reforms and are met with the Pacifica Radio WBAI style disruption by mobs of "loose canons" who question if in fact Obama is an American citizen. It isn't the American flag on the lapel that bothers the likes of the Kansas City denizens who are being pushed off of their land(still) and drowned in a flat, barren environment of the Mid West. It is the pressing issue of abortion,
God's will and Obama who is now their enemy, the Devil in our midst.
This is what we learn from the documentary What's the matter with Kansas. A lesson that will defy your ability to curb your sympathy but curb it we must or be consumed by the likes of violent vigilantes in all the wrong places.
See it when it comes out, be horrified, be informed.
Linda Z
WBAI Women's Collective
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
ADAM: Max Meyer breaks with tradition.
stars:
Hugh Dancy, Rose Byre, Frankie Faison, Mark Linn-Baker with Amy Iring and Peter Gallagher.
Hold on to your hat, secure your seat belt, the film "Adam" breaks with tradition. Imagine a main stream film, Fox Searchlight films where the women are Not the essentially irrelevant characters who appear when a need to show the otherwise perfect man mess up because of Her, the Bad one , the woman otherwise kept out of the viewer's awareness.
In Adam the women are the driving message vehicles opposing the men who have so much trouble making it in this world.
The pivotal moment is encapsulated in the concept of "the lie": the big lie, the little lie. In this film "the lie" is one and the same. When untruth is celebrated all bets are off, is the unspoken message that cries out to the viewers loud and clear.
Lies of omission (secretive extra marital affairs) and lies of convenience and lies in business, financial irregularities seem to hold equal weight in this less than exciting film.
Adam is message driven, without benefit of a hint at character change. That is not to be confused with change of behavior. Behavior, the human ability to learn, is amply shown, is actually the overt message of the film. But in this day and age with all the technological advancement in film making, with all the great ways of telling a compelling story, Adam falls so short of interesting that the audience was restless and even I had trouble crying at the film's end.
The one outstanding moment was the on scream appearance of Amy Irving. Her professional achievement was on a par with the reigning Queen of film, Meryl Streep. Too bad she was given a minor role. Imagine if the film had used a "mature" woman rather than a young, lost soul to carry the message forward?
Adam, is a lesson in not to lie, not to omit, not to manipulate and to be emotionally honest. A lesson none of us in today's world will learn no matter how much we believe in its importance.
It just ain't real.
Linda Zises
Criticalwomen@blogspot.com
WBAI Women's Collective
Hugh Dancy, Rose Byre, Frankie Faison, Mark Linn-Baker with Amy Iring and Peter Gallagher.
Hold on to your hat, secure your seat belt, the film "Adam" breaks with tradition. Imagine a main stream film, Fox Searchlight films where the women are Not the essentially irrelevant characters who appear when a need to show the otherwise perfect man mess up because of Her, the Bad one , the woman otherwise kept out of the viewer's awareness.
In Adam the women are the driving message vehicles opposing the men who have so much trouble making it in this world.
The pivotal moment is encapsulated in the concept of "the lie": the big lie, the little lie. In this film "the lie" is one and the same. When untruth is celebrated all bets are off, is the unspoken message that cries out to the viewers loud and clear.
Lies of omission (secretive extra marital affairs) and lies of convenience and lies in business, financial irregularities seem to hold equal weight in this less than exciting film.
Adam is message driven, without benefit of a hint at character change. That is not to be confused with change of behavior. Behavior, the human ability to learn, is amply shown, is actually the overt message of the film. But in this day and age with all the technological advancement in film making, with all the great ways of telling a compelling story, Adam falls so short of interesting that the audience was restless and even I had trouble crying at the film's end.
The one outstanding moment was the on scream appearance of Amy Irving. Her professional achievement was on a par with the reigning Queen of film, Meryl Streep. Too bad she was given a minor role. Imagine if the film had used a "mature" woman rather than a young, lost soul to carry the message forward?
Adam, is a lesson in not to lie, not to omit, not to manipulate and to be emotionally honest. A lesson none of us in today's world will learn no matter how much we believe in its importance.
It just ain't real.
Linda Zises
Criticalwomen@blogspot.com
WBAI Women's Collective
Monday, July 6, 2009
A Memory Revisited:
Have we forgotten Raymond Velez from the Bronx, the politician the then New York City Mayor Ed Koch called "the poverty pimp". Have we forgotten that Espada Jr. has a history, a decade of being elected on the Democratic ticket because... that is where the votes are and once elected to the State Senate, switching to the Republican side because... that is where the money is?
I met Raymond Velez in early 1970's. He was a short, full breasted, wider than tall man, whose head sat on his shoulders without apparent need of a neck.
He presided with his arms wide perched on a dais awaiting the moment when his voice, his pearls of wisdom would be heard on air. Radio at its finest.
I was working for the City of New York and had, at his insistence, written a grant proposal. I was also pregnant, in my ninth month when Raymond sent his "boys " to my New York City office to learn the fate of our effort to get him more federal money.
I had my feet slightly raised as I sat in my desk chair His "boys" surrounded me. When the fatal piece of paper upon which a rejection of our request for money was plainly stated and read aloud by me, the assembled men erupted into fierce yelling, complaining, gesturing. I sat up, uncomfortably erect or as erect as I could given my physical state and said, ""It's not my fault". When that failed to calm the clamor in the room, I became more agitated. That's when i pulled rank. "Get out of my office"", I yelled "Out, Out!" and as I stood up with great difficulty the men dispersed. All except one. He was a slender man who stood quietly while his fellow travelers ran away.
"From where I come, men don't treat pregnant women this way" he said. Please, let me drive you home".
I did.
It was a quiet trip, no words seemed necessary in the wake of so many That was on a Friday. On Monday morning January 3, in the beginning moments of a fierce snow storm, I delivered my second son.
Linda Z(ises)
criticalwomen@blogspot.com
I met Raymond Velez in early 1970's. He was a short, full breasted, wider than tall man, whose head sat on his shoulders without apparent need of a neck.
He presided with his arms wide perched on a dais awaiting the moment when his voice, his pearls of wisdom would be heard on air. Radio at its finest.
I was working for the City of New York and had, at his insistence, written a grant proposal. I was also pregnant, in my ninth month when Raymond sent his "boys " to my New York City office to learn the fate of our effort to get him more federal money.
I had my feet slightly raised as I sat in my desk chair His "boys" surrounded me. When the fatal piece of paper upon which a rejection of our request for money was plainly stated and read aloud by me, the assembled men erupted into fierce yelling, complaining, gesturing. I sat up, uncomfortably erect or as erect as I could given my physical state and said, ""It's not my fault". When that failed to calm the clamor in the room, I became more agitated. That's when i pulled rank. "Get out of my office"", I yelled "Out, Out!" and as I stood up with great difficulty the men dispersed. All except one. He was a slender man who stood quietly while his fellow travelers ran away.
"From where I come, men don't treat pregnant women this way" he said. Please, let me drive you home".
I did.
It was a quiet trip, no words seemed necessary in the wake of so many That was on a Friday. On Monday morning January 3, in the beginning moments of a fierce snow storm, I delivered my second son.
Linda Z(ises)
criticalwomen@blogspot.com
Friday, June 26, 2009
A Walk to Beautiful: DVD
Director/Producer Mary Olive Smith
An Engel Entertainment production in association with NOVA
Filmed in Ethiopia
The setting is beautiful, breathtaking. the hardship endured by the native women excruciating to see, to learn about and their illness is unimaginable for those who have never seen it nor smelled an incontinent woman
Imagine being a five to ten year old girl, married. Imagine getting pregnant and giving birth at 13 or 14 years of age. Imagine being in labor not for 24 hours but for a week because the birthing canal is too small to enable the fetus passage. Imagine the damage to your body, the puncture of the thin wall between the birthing canal and the blather.
Imagine the reversal of all you know about and feel about being toilet trained, about being part of a civilized, loving nurturing community. Imagine being ostracized, having to live in a separate space from everyone, Imagine being totally alone, rejected, at thirteen, fourteen years of age. That is the plight ,the central premise of the film Walk to Beautiful:. a six mile or more lonely walk in search of help.
But it isn't only in Ethiopia. I was a social worker in Sunset Park Brooklyn when a young woman's 's brother brought her to my office. Everyone in the vicinity ran from where we sat, she by the side of my desk.
The brother said, everything in the house is ruined. Every chair, the sofa. she can't go outside and we can't live with her in the house. The smell coming from her person was overpowering.
But it wasn't the first time I had smelled the sustained odor of urine.
The hallway in the then poverty stricken Harlem were my training ground for walking up and down the long flight of stairs with that order filling my nostrils. But I learned, as did my fellow workers, to breath without smelling, without gaging or being overly repulsed. Even the smell of feces is a human order. We are not as clean nor sweet as we might like to think
As she sat by my desk one of the fellow workers started to wash the floor near us with strong smelling ammonia which i found more distasteful than her odor and i experienced the commotion that her very presence brought to the fore. with trepidation.
How could I help her? I racked my brain to find something to say, My task was to decathex the embarrassment of her condition to allow this distraught adult brother to take her to the hospital for help. She was convinced her condition was beyond medical intervention.
From the depth of my personal ignorance I looked at her and I thought, sex. Tell me about your sex life i said. Have you had sex, did you enjoy it. And her face lit up. We were two woman sitting next to each other, one the surviver of two normal child births , the other a long suffering victim of a sexual event beyond her control What we had in common was our state of being a woman. And in that moment of our shared essence she found the courage to seek help.
Brooklyn is an ugly industrialized city. We have so much civilized help available and so much knowledge of what to do, when, but the pathos that this woman instilled in me, albeit many many years ago is part of my knowledge base, my understanding of the travails of womanhood that I thankfully do not have to endure.
That doesn't mean that we should live in ignorance. This film must be seen, must be part of our experience our knowledge of the perils of being adults because there is such a compelling base for empathy that it enriches our consciousness, the core of our being.
I recommend this beautiful, compelling, documentary and encourage everyone to imagine the odor, the horror with which each afflicted woman and those close to her must endure.
Linda Z
WFCC
WBAIWomen's Collective
An Engel Entertainment production in association with NOVA
Filmed in Ethiopia
The setting is beautiful, breathtaking. the hardship endured by the native women excruciating to see, to learn about and their illness is unimaginable for those who have never seen it nor smelled an incontinent woman
Imagine being a five to ten year old girl, married. Imagine getting pregnant and giving birth at 13 or 14 years of age. Imagine being in labor not for 24 hours but for a week because the birthing canal is too small to enable the fetus passage. Imagine the damage to your body, the puncture of the thin wall between the birthing canal and the blather.
Imagine the reversal of all you know about and feel about being toilet trained, about being part of a civilized, loving nurturing community. Imagine being ostracized, having to live in a separate space from everyone, Imagine being totally alone, rejected, at thirteen, fourteen years of age. That is the plight ,the central premise of the film Walk to Beautiful:. a six mile or more lonely walk in search of help.
But it isn't only in Ethiopia. I was a social worker in Sunset Park Brooklyn when a young woman's 's brother brought her to my office. Everyone in the vicinity ran from where we sat, she by the side of my desk.
The brother said, everything in the house is ruined. Every chair, the sofa. she can't go outside and we can't live with her in the house. The smell coming from her person was overpowering.
But it wasn't the first time I had smelled the sustained odor of urine.
The hallway in the then poverty stricken Harlem were my training ground for walking up and down the long flight of stairs with that order filling my nostrils. But I learned, as did my fellow workers, to breath without smelling, without gaging or being overly repulsed. Even the smell of feces is a human order. We are not as clean nor sweet as we might like to think
As she sat by my desk one of the fellow workers started to wash the floor near us with strong smelling ammonia which i found more distasteful than her odor and i experienced the commotion that her very presence brought to the fore. with trepidation.
How could I help her? I racked my brain to find something to say, My task was to decathex the embarrassment of her condition to allow this distraught adult brother to take her to the hospital for help. She was convinced her condition was beyond medical intervention.
From the depth of my personal ignorance I looked at her and I thought, sex. Tell me about your sex life i said. Have you had sex, did you enjoy it. And her face lit up. We were two woman sitting next to each other, one the surviver of two normal child births , the other a long suffering victim of a sexual event beyond her control What we had in common was our state of being a woman. And in that moment of our shared essence she found the courage to seek help.
Brooklyn is an ugly industrialized city. We have so much civilized help available and so much knowledge of what to do, when, but the pathos that this woman instilled in me, albeit many many years ago is part of my knowledge base, my understanding of the travails of womanhood that I thankfully do not have to endure.
That doesn't mean that we should live in ignorance. This film must be seen, must be part of our experience our knowledge of the perils of being adults because there is such a compelling base for empathy that it enriches our consciousness, the core of our being.
I recommend this beautiful, compelling, documentary and encourage everyone to imagine the odor, the horror with which each afflicted woman and those close to her must endure.
Linda Z
WFCC
WBAIWomen's Collective
Monday, June 22, 2009
UPTOWN: a Brian Ackley film
Stars:
Chris Riquinha, Meissa Hampton, Derek MAllister, Deirdre Herlihy
This film feels like a conversation, a long drawn out story with an ending tacked on that is less than credible. The problem with the film is the role in which the woman finds herself, listening to a husband who has grown estranged within the short year and a half of their marriage. However, at the request of her husband, she puts on hold, or maybe ends her new friendship because...well, that is the unanswered question.
Uptown is about the preciousness of intimacy; how it is so difficult to establish, so hard to maintain. We are living in an overcrowded world where pleasure comes only occasionally directly from those we see, live with and talk to on a phone. With the internet, the tech messages, the music blasting while we try to connect, connecting is what we need most but are most likely to fail at.
True to the problems of today. True to life. This film goes on and on when maybe we want to turn away, look elsewhere but that is exactly what we do in life and shouldn't.
Watching Uptown might brings us all back to what it means to be human; to feel, to think, without props, without all that noise.
Linda zises
WBAI Women's Collective
Chris Riquinha, Meissa Hampton, Derek MAllister, Deirdre Herlihy
This film feels like a conversation, a long drawn out story with an ending tacked on that is less than credible. The problem with the film is the role in which the woman finds herself, listening to a husband who has grown estranged within the short year and a half of their marriage. However, at the request of her husband, she puts on hold, or maybe ends her new friendship because...well, that is the unanswered question.
Uptown is about the preciousness of intimacy; how it is so difficult to establish, so hard to maintain. We are living in an overcrowded world where pleasure comes only occasionally directly from those we see, live with and talk to on a phone. With the internet, the tech messages, the music blasting while we try to connect, connecting is what we need most but are most likely to fail at.
True to the problems of today. True to life. This film goes on and on when maybe we want to turn away, look elsewhere but that is exactly what we do in life and shouldn't.
Watching Uptown might brings us all back to what it means to be human; to feel, to think, without props, without all that noise.
Linda zises
WBAI Women's Collective
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Father's Day 2009
1
you stand as tall and straight as I remember
you sit hunched over the chess board
but you don't laugh anymore.
and your partners
the ones who'd line up watching, waiting their turn
you were the guru of the park, the chess player supreme. Have you lost your knack,
the brilliance of you calm mind.
Has the world around you changed because the world changes or are you the catalyst
I wonder as you approach, slowly, looking quietly at me, assessing the damage of a year's time
you approach wearing a cap, you never wore a cap, not all of last summer when you came home with me
and we laughed seemingly all night about nothing and everything
you stand in front of me, now, your head slightly bent to look at me eye to eye and I smell you
so loud, so clearly, so unmistakably.
Oh, I say the sound of shock or is it pity permeating the air around us.
You are homeless.
11
I don't want fame nor fortune
I want to fade into the background, of time, of life
I want to see, without being seen
I want to be invisible and I am
I am
until that light goes off
rage, anger come to the fore
and I explode
In a moment of uncontrollable essence, I am
who
I am
who I don't want to be
I am
the product of my parents; my mother who knew only anger/rage/discipline to a fault
my father with his sharp biting mind and withdrawn presence
I am no different
only modified
111
Barren
void of a vehicle to offer
my wealth/
my wisdom/
my stories
where do I place the knowledge of my
forefathers
the knowledge of my life
as it pulls me ever forward into
a bodiless entity
a whiff of wanton black smoke
ascending
1V
I've said it all before
I said
come play with me
but I didn't mean it
I said walk softly on tip toe
but i didn't know what tip toe meant
I said that I love you
but I didn't understand
that love is a feeling
indestructible
because
I don't
Linda Zises
WBAI Women's Collective
you stand as tall and straight as I remember
you sit hunched over the chess board
but you don't laugh anymore.
and your partners
the ones who'd line up watching, waiting their turn
you were the guru of the park, the chess player supreme. Have you lost your knack,
the brilliance of you calm mind.
Has the world around you changed because the world changes or are you the catalyst
I wonder as you approach, slowly, looking quietly at me, assessing the damage of a year's time
you approach wearing a cap, you never wore a cap, not all of last summer when you came home with me
and we laughed seemingly all night about nothing and everything
you stand in front of me, now, your head slightly bent to look at me eye to eye and I smell you
so loud, so clearly, so unmistakably.
Oh, I say the sound of shock or is it pity permeating the air around us.
You are homeless.
11
I don't want fame nor fortune
I want to fade into the background, of time, of life
I want to see, without being seen
I want to be invisible and I am
I am
until that light goes off
rage, anger come to the fore
and I explode
In a moment of uncontrollable essence, I am
who
I am
who I don't want to be
I am
the product of my parents; my mother who knew only anger/rage/discipline to a fault
my father with his sharp biting mind and withdrawn presence
I am no different
only modified
111
Barren
void of a vehicle to offer
my wealth/
my wisdom/
my stories
where do I place the knowledge of my
forefathers
the knowledge of my life
as it pulls me ever forward into
a bodiless entity
a whiff of wanton black smoke
ascending
1V
I've said it all before
I said
come play with me
but I didn't mean it
I said walk softly on tip toe
but i didn't know what tip toe meant
I said that I love you
but I didn't understand
that love is a feeling
indestructible
because
I don't
Linda Zises
WBAI Women's Collective
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
The Stoning of Soraya M
Cyrus Nowrasteh
Cyrus Nowrasteh’s film, “The Stoning of Soraya M,” is the story of the stoning of an innocent woman because her husband of twenty years wanted to have another wife, a child bride 14 years old.
Judging from the name of the film I would have turned away, and said, I know things are bad for women in the world where religious fundamentalism is the rule of the land. But something made me take the leap of faith and watch as Soraya M. is killed, murdered by the people she grew up with; her friends, her family, her neighbors. and her own children.
The landscape consisted of a barren view of a primitive town, all authentic. built on dirt and stones. Stones everywhere, all sizes, shapes, gathered by male children for use in the bloody execution.
Soraya M's her father was forced to join with the rule of the town's people, her father asked to throw the first stone. With stone like stoic expressions, her children were also told to throw the second, the third stone. Later they brought down in tears.
The lone voice of her Aunt as she tried to defy the powers of the town's governing body and failed was heard throughout the film. Her effort applauded, her failure to save her neice a sorriful but predictable outcome
Whenthe film ended, the tears were pouring uncontrollably from my eyes. My identification with Soraya more than I had expected.
Maybe we don't stone women to death in this country but we don't embrace the woman who tries to leave her husband, her marriage, when he doesn't agree to her demand for change.
This is an important film, a film to force us to re-evaluate from whence we came and how far we have or have not come in all these many years.
Linda Z
WBAI Women's Collective
Cyrus Nowrasteh’s film, “The Stoning of Soraya M,” is the story of the stoning of an innocent woman because her husband of twenty years wanted to have another wife, a child bride 14 years old.
Judging from the name of the film I would have turned away, and said, I know things are bad for women in the world where religious fundamentalism is the rule of the land. But something made me take the leap of faith and watch as Soraya M. is killed, murdered by the people she grew up with; her friends, her family, her neighbors. and her own children.
The landscape consisted of a barren view of a primitive town, all authentic. built on dirt and stones. Stones everywhere, all sizes, shapes, gathered by male children for use in the bloody execution.
Soraya M's her father was forced to join with the rule of the town's people, her father asked to throw the first stone. With stone like stoic expressions, her children were also told to throw the second, the third stone. Later they brought down in tears.
The lone voice of her Aunt as she tried to defy the powers of the town's governing body and failed was heard throughout the film. Her effort applauded, her failure to save her neice a sorriful but predictable outcome
Whenthe film ended, the tears were pouring uncontrollably from my eyes. My identification with Soraya more than I had expected.
Maybe we don't stone women to death in this country but we don't embrace the woman who tries to leave her husband, her marriage, when he doesn't agree to her demand for change.
This is an important film, a film to force us to re-evaluate from whence we came and how far we have or have not come in all these many years.
Linda Z
WBAI Women's Collective
Thursday, June 4, 2009
THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX An Oscar 2009 winner!
Director: Uli Edel (Last Exit To Brooklyn, Christiane F)
A Cast of Stars:
Martina Gedeck (The Lives of Others, The Good Shepard), Moritz Bleibtreu (Run Lola Run), Johanna Wokalek (Aimee and Jaguar) and Bruno Ganz (The Reader, Downfall). The film is directed by Uli Edel (Last Exit To Brooklyn, Christiane F) and was written and produced by Bernd Eichinger (2005 Academy Award nominee Downfall), based on the book by and in consultation with Stefan Aust.
PLOT: A lengthy history of the far-left terrorist group that shocked Germany from 1968 onwards. Their search is for a life we can all embrace, their method is what we instinctively reject.
Guilt is not on the side of violation of law and order in this film. The guilty are those who make the laws, who enforce the law in this conflict ridden post WWII Germany. The war of the concerned courageous citizens, is unrelenting as the viewer watches the interactions of the group who go into banks to rob and into buildings to bomb, to steal, to plunder what they need to further their "cause".
Their cause is to bring to the attention their agenda of Stop the War in Vietnam, stop killing innocent citizens. But what do they embrace?
There is an invisible line between those who kill and those who don't. A gun is not requisite equipment in every one's wardrobe. This makes the free wielding of this object of murder, in a seemingly quiet domestic environment disturbing, not easy to understand. But then, that is the point of the film; To bring to our attention the thoughts, the ways of Revolutionaries who we might not know and can't understand. After the full experience of two and a half hours of The Beeder Meinhof Complex, one can not continue to think we are all knowing, all caring, all right.
This is not a summer evening's casual date flick. It is a provocative and brilliant creation that will remain in the viewers mind.
Whether or not we want to remember, we will.
LindaZises
WBAI Women's Collective
Criticalwomen@blogspot.com
A Cast of Stars:
Martina Gedeck (The Lives of Others, The Good Shepard), Moritz Bleibtreu (Run Lola Run), Johanna Wokalek (Aimee and Jaguar) and Bruno Ganz (The Reader, Downfall). The film is directed by Uli Edel (Last Exit To Brooklyn, Christiane F) and was written and produced by Bernd Eichinger (2005 Academy Award nominee Downfall), based on the book by and in consultation with Stefan Aust.
PLOT: A lengthy history of the far-left terrorist group that shocked Germany from 1968 onwards. Their search is for a life we can all embrace, their method is what we instinctively reject.
Guilt is not on the side of violation of law and order in this film. The guilty are those who make the laws, who enforce the law in this conflict ridden post WWII Germany. The war of the concerned courageous citizens, is unrelenting as the viewer watches the interactions of the group who go into banks to rob and into buildings to bomb, to steal, to plunder what they need to further their "cause".
Their cause is to bring to the attention their agenda of Stop the War in Vietnam, stop killing innocent citizens. But what do they embrace?
There is an invisible line between those who kill and those who don't. A gun is not requisite equipment in every one's wardrobe. This makes the free wielding of this object of murder, in a seemingly quiet domestic environment disturbing, not easy to understand. But then, that is the point of the film; To bring to our attention the thoughts, the ways of Revolutionaries who we might not know and can't understand. After the full experience of two and a half hours of The Beeder Meinhof Complex, one can not continue to think we are all knowing, all caring, all right.
This is not a summer evening's casual date flick. It is a provocative and brilliant creation that will remain in the viewers mind.
Whether or not we want to remember, we will.
LindaZises
WBAI Women's Collective
Criticalwomen@blogspot.com
AWAY WE GO: Cast/crew of many and Commentary
At the Top of the Heap,
Directed by Sam Mendes.
With John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Carmen Ejogo.
Commentary: This is an-on-the road and in-the-air film;
the journey of an expectant couple as they travel the U.S. in search of the perfect place to put down roots and raise their family. Along the way, they have misadventures and find fresh connections with an assortment of relatives and old friends who just might help them discover "home" on their own terms for the first time.
For me the introduction of the main couple as being of "mixed" race was not very important. "The black women wasn't very black. Was she?"
(fuzzy wuzzy wasn't very fuzzy wuzzy, was he?)
Many asked pointed questions on content, on photo shoots, that seemed out of character and without apparent purpose, during the Sam Mendes's Q&A surprise appearance at last night's showing of Away We Go.
For me the most telling photo shot was of two women in a bathtub without benefit of a view of the tub nor the women's bodies. Just heads talking at a weird angle.
Sam Mendes answered with curt, unapologetic comments that spoke louder than what he said, more defensive than intelligent.
It isn't just that this film lacks clarity in detail as much as the disappointment in a film less than Great done by a Great film maker.
Sam Mendes is guilty of trying to multi-task, of doing Revolutionary Road and AwayWeGo in overlapping sequences and this doesn't work in life, nor in film.
His cast is competent, with noteworthy performance by the minor characters rather than the stars. Done by another director, this attempt at vacuous new age comedy wouldn't make it to the main screen audience.
What is pointedly missing is any reference to gay marriages, to gay couples who are getting married, or not: all who are fighting for the right to do so; This couple would have been appropriate since the new age couple on screen did not want to join the ranks of the married. The omission of gays on screen compromised the scope, the content of the film and suggested that maybe homophobia is not dead, not on the screen even with this rich army of workers/craft persons of note.
Maybe one film at a time is a better way to go even if you are the great Sam Mendes
When you know your film might not be a financial success, you repay the cast and crew with an appearance in the credits. Here goes. (as presented on screen)
Actors
John Krasinski Burt
Maya Rudolph Verona
Allison Janney Lily
Jim Gaffigan Lowell
Jeff Daniels Jerry
Catherine O'Hara Gloria
Carmen Ejogo Grace
Melanie Lynskey Munch
Chris Messina Tom
Paul Schneider Courtney
Maggie Gyllenhaal LN
Josh Hamilton Roderick
Tory Woody Carrie
PLOT
Writers
Dave Eggers Screenplay
Producers
Mari Jo Winkler-Ioffreda Executive Producer
Pippa Harris Executive Producer
Edward Saxon Producer
Sam Mendes Producer
Marc Turtletaub Producer
Peter Saraf Producer
Camera, Film & Tape
Carlos Omar Guerra 1st Assistant A-Camera
Sebastian Almeida 2nd Assistant A-Camera
Francois Duhamel Still Photographer
Edward Rodriguez 1st Assistant B-Camera
Debbie Stampfle 2nd Assistant B-Camera
Joe Gawler Digital Intermediate Colorist (New York) (Deluxe)
John Potter (III) Video Master Colorist (New York) (Deluxe)
Steven Bodner Jr Dailies Colorist (New York) (Deluxe)
Jeff Hocken Dailies Project Manager (New York) (Deluxe)
Kevin Krout Dailies Colorist Assist (New York) (Deluxe)
Tod Boyle 2nd Assistant Camera (Colorado)
Ed Nessen Additional 1st Assistant Camera (Arizona)
Meg Kettell Additional 2nd Assistant Camera (Arizona)
Stephen Whitcomb Camera Loader (Arizona)
Sarah Sher Twenty-four Frame Playback (Arizona)
April Ruane Crowley Camera Loader (Florida)
David Pultz Color Timer
Ellen Kuras Director of Photography
Patrick Capone 2nd Unit Director of Photography (Arizona) (Florida)
Peter Agliata B Camera Operator
Chris Norr Additional B Camera Operator (Arizona)
Josh Zientarski Additional Video Assist (Arizona)
Editors
Janet Gaynor (III) 1st Assistant Editor
Jen Choi Editorial Assistant
James Cohen (II) Assistant Editor (Film Dailies)
Andrew Buckland (II) Assistant Editor (Film Dailies)
Sarah Flack Editor
Casting
Ellen Lewis Casting
Debra Zane Casting
Megan Rafferty Casting Associate (Ellen Lewis Casting)
Geoffrey Miclat Casting Associate (Ellen Lewis Casting)
Tannis Vallely Casting Associate (Debra Zane Casting)
Shayna Markowitz Casting Assistant (Debra Zane Casting)
Grant Wilfley Extras Casting
Melissa Braun Extras Casting Associate
Helen McCready Extras Casting (Arizona) (Helen Wheels Productions)
Lori S. Wyman Extras Casting (Florida)
Executives
Matthew Plouffe Creative Executive
David Gerson Studio Executive (Focus Features)
Production Management
Jayne-Ann Tenggren Script Supervisor
David Bausch Production Supervisor
Jennifer Lane (IV) Post-Production Supervisor
Alexis Wiscomb Post-Production Supervisor
Pamela Bertini 1st Assistant Production Coordinator
Sarah Crofts Location Assistant
Justin Rosini Location Assistant
Demian Resnick Location Assistant
Kate Eisemann Location Assistant
Cathy Jeffries Production Manager (Visual Effects/Mr. X Inc.)
Jesh Krishna Murthy Project Manager (Visual Effects/Mr. X Inc.)
Brooke C. Johnson Production Supervisor (Colorado)
Kelly Helstrom Production Supervisor (Arizona)
Denton Hanna Location Scout (Arizona)
Elayne Schneiderman Production Supervisor (Florida)
Julie Ann Grasso Assistant Production Coordinator (Florida)
Chelsey Cary Assistant Production Coordinator (Florida)
Jeff Rollason Location Assistant (Florida)
Marcel Pinkowski Location Assistant (Florida)
Leah Sokolowsky Location Scout (Florida)
Mari Jo Winkler-Ioffreda Unit Production Manager
Anita Sum Production Coordinator
Lisa Matsukawa Production Coordinator (Arizona)
Lisa A. Martin Production Coordinator (Florida)
Bernie Cassar Production Coordinator (Leesburg)
Timothy Bird (II) 1st Assistant Director
Jennifer Truelove 2nd Assistant Director
matthew mason 2nd 2nd Assistant Director
Keith A. Jones Additional 1st Assistant Director (Arizona)
Tyson Bidner Location Manager
Kat Donahue Assistant Location Manager
Michael Grosky Assistant Location Manager
Jean Chien Location Manager (Colorado)
Jean Chien Location Manager (Arizona)
Jason Sallee Assistant Location Manager (Phoenix)
Jennifer Radzikowski Location Manager (Florida)
Sandra Woodward Assistant Location Manager (Florida)
Susanne Ragnarsson Assistant Location Manager (Florida)
John Garrett (III) Assistant Location Manager (Florida)
Art Department
Rachel Short Model Builder
Kelly Solomon Art Department Coordinator
Erica Torres Art Department Production Assistant
Katherine M. Szilagyi Assistant Set Decorator
Chris Vogt Lead Dresser
Ruth Deleon On Set Dresser
Robert Vogt Set Dresser
Kelly Canfield Set Dresser
Kevin Mahon Set Dresser
Richard Oeser Set Dresser
Alexander Gorodetsky Head Painter
Christopher Weiser Paint Foreman
Victor Morales Scenic Artist
Steve Rosenzweig Scenic Artist
George Kousoulides Scenic Artist
Quang Nguyen Scenic Artist
Jennifer Buturla Scenic Artist
Amy Safhay Head Greensman
Ginny Walsh Greens Foreman
Gregg Singer Leadman (Arizona)
Rosa Palomo Art Department (Florida)
Nicholas Scott Assistant Art Director (Florida)
Nel Hernandez Art Department Production Assistant (Florida)
Karen Virgin Buyer (Florida)
Elizabeth Boller Art Department Coordinator (Florida)
Frank A. Raffa Jr Lead Dresser (Florida)
Emilio Saez Set Dresser (Florida)
Orlando Castro Set Dresser (Florida)
Jeremy Read Set Dresser (Florida)
Michael Calabrese Set Dresser (Florida)
Michael D. Fitzgerald Set Dresser (Florida)
Chris Alicea Jr On-Set Dresser (Florida)
Julian Mercado Painter (Florida)
Jeffrey Harris (II) Painter (Florida)
Cary Whitaker Greensman (Florida)
Robert Welch (II) Greensman (Florida)
Ben F. Lowe III Greensman (Leesburg)
John Balling Head Scenic Artist (Florida)
Lucy Weber Scenic Painter (Florida)
Dean F. Janik Scenic Artist (Florida)
Henry Dunn Art Director
Charles E. McCarry Assistant Art Director
Miguel Lopez-Castillo Assistant Art Director
Lauren Fitzsimmons Assistant Art Director
Jess Gonchor Production Designer
Lydia Marks Set Decorator
Sarah Sprawls Assistant Set Decorator (Arizona)
Kevin Kropp Assistant Set Decorator (Florida)
Wardrobe, Hair & Makeup
Timothy R. McKelvey Set Costume Supervisor
Janna Notick Key Costumer
Sandi Figueroa Key Costumer
Askia Won-Ling Jacob Key Costumer
Trenee Clayton Set Costumer
Adam Watt Costume Production Assistant
Mary Aaron Key Makeup
Judi Cooper-Sealy Department Head Hair Stylist
Beatrice DeAlba Department Head Hair Stylist
Belinda Anderson Key Hair Stylist
Joseph Cigliano Set Costumer (Arizona)
Maggie McFarland Additional Costumer (Arizona)
Jeffrey Sacino Additional Hair Stylist (Arizona)
Dana Vargas Additional Hair Stylist (Arizona)
Lynette Bernay Key Costumer (Florida)
Heather Holmes Set Costumer (Florida)
Carolyn Finlayson Seamstress (Florida)
Sahar Halabi Costume Assistant (Florida)
Carol Raskin-Smalling Additional Hair Stylist (Florida)
Caridad Collazo Additional Hair Stylist (Florida)
Gunnar Swanson Additional Hair Stylist (Florida)
John Dunn Costume Designer
Sharon Globerson Assistant Costume Designer
Michele Paris Department Head Make-up Artist
Felice Diamond Makeup Artist (Florida)
Sound
Scott Millan Rerecording Mixer
Paul Hsu Rerecording Mixer
Brian Wittle Boom Operator
Branka Mrkic-Tana Dialogue Editor
Ruth Hernandez (II) ADR Editor
Marissa Littlefield ADR Editor
Jamie Baker Foley Editor
George A. Lara Foley Mixer (C5, Inc.)
Marko Costanzo Foley Artist (C5, Inc.)
Mark Desimone ADR Mixer (Soundtrack F/T)
Bobby Johanson ADR Mixer (Sound One Corp.)
David Boulton (III) ADR Mixer (Sound One Corp.)
Michael Miller (XIII) ADR Mixer (P.O.P. Sound)
Beauxregard Neylon ADR Recordist (Soundtrack F/T)
Mike Howells ADR Recordist (Sound One Corp.)
Brian Gallagher ADR Recordist (Sound One Corp.)
Courtney Bishop ADR Recordist (P.O.P. Sound)
Sondra James ADR Voice Casting (Soundtrack F/T)
Mike Poppleton Assistant Sound Editor
Dave Corcoran Apprentice Sound Editor
Paul Hsu Supervising Sound Editor
Benjamin Patrick Production Sound Mixer
Bret Johnson Mix Technician
Bob Chefalas Mix Technician
Paul Banks Tirone Mix Technician
Dan Wesson Sound Utility
Nicolas Carbone Additional Sound Utility
Music
Alexi Murdoch Music
Christine Bergren Music Legal and Clearances
Jim Dunbar Music Coordinator
Guy Fletcher Song ("The Good Times")
Alexi Murdoch Song ("All My Days")
Alexi Murdoch Song Performer ("All My Days")
Alexi Murdoch Song (“Blue Mind”)
Alexi Murdoch Song Performer (“Blue Mind”)
Roger Odell Song (“Night Birds”)
William Sharpe Song (“Night Birds”)
Shakatak Song Performer (“Night Birds”)
Endless Boogie Song (“Steak Rock”)
Endless Boogie Song Performer (“Steak Rock”)
Alexi Murdoch Song (“Song For You”)
Alexi Murdoch Song Performer (“Song for You”)
Antonio Vivaldi Song (“The Four Seasons Spring Violin Concerto In E. Allegro”)
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Song Performer (“The Four Seasons Spring Violin Concerto In E. Allegro”)
Gabriel Francisco Song (“Sin Tu Amor”)
Gabriel Francisco Song Performer (“Sin Tu Amor”)
Alexi Murdoch Song (“Towards The Sun”)
Alexi Murdoch Song Performer (“Towards The Sun”)
Alexi Murdoch Song (“Breathe”)
Alexi Murdoch Song Performer (“Breathe”)
Liquid Mind Song Performer (“Teach Me To Whisper")
Vashti Bunyan Song (“Diamond Day”)
The Stranglers Song Performer (“Golden Brown”)
Jean-Jaques Burnel Song (“Golden Brown”)
Hugh Cornwell Song (“Golden Brown”)
Jet Black Song (“Golden Brown”)
Dave Greenfield Song (“Golden Brown”)
George Harrison Song (“What Is Life”)
George Harrison Song Performer (“What Is Life”)
Richard Rodgers Song (“So Long, Farewell”)
Oscar Hammerstein II Song (“So Long, Farewell”)
Robert Brammer Song (“H.A.P.P.Y.”)
Winston Hislop Song (“H.A.P.P.Y.”)
Clint Eastwood Song Performer (“H.A.P.P.Y.”)
Winston Hislop Song Performer (“H.A.P.P.Y.”)
Shelton Brooks Song (“Some Of These Days”)
Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks Song Performer (“Some of These Days”)
Bob Dylan Song (“Meet Me In The Morning”)
Bob Dylan Song Performer (“Meet Me In The Morning”)
Noel Gonzales Song (“Hercules Theme”)
Song Performer (“Hercules Theme”)
Lou Reed Song (“Oh! Sweet Nuthin’ ”)
The Velvet Underground Song Performer (“Oh! Sweet Nuthin’ ”)
Sylvia Gordon Song (“Let’s Finish (Sinden remix)”)
Deantoni Parks Song (“Let’s Finish (Sinden remix)”)
Graeme Sinden Song (“Let’s Finish (Sinden remix)”)
Kudu Song Performer (“Let’s Finish (Sinden remix)”)
Bob Dylan Song (“Mr. Tambourine Man”)
Alexi Murdoch Song (“Wait”)
Alexi Murdoch Song Performer (“Wait”)
Alexi Murdoch Song (“The Ragged Sea”)
Alexi Murdoch Song Performer (“The Ragged Sea”)
Alexi Murdoch Song (“Orange Sky”)
Alexi Murdoch Song Performer (“Orange Sky”)
Randall Poster Music Supervisor
Annette Kudrak Music Editor (C5, Inc.)
Choreography
Cynthia Onrubia Choreographer
Harrison Beal Assistant Choreographer
Visual Effects & Animation
Robert J. Scupp Special Effects Coordinator
Edward A. Ioffreda Graphic Designer
Sarah McMurdo Visual Effects Producer (Mr. X Inc.)
Daniel Mizuguchi Sequence Lead (Mr. X Inc.)
Matt Glover Visual Effects Coordinator (Mr. X Inc.)
Aaron Weintraub Pipeline Supervisor (Mr. X Inc.)
Thai Son Doan Digital Compositor (Mr. X Inc.)
Mathieu Archambault Digital Compositor (Mr. X Inc.)
Barb Benoit Digital Compositor (Mr. X Inc.)
Danny Duchesneau Digital Compositor (Mr. X Inc.)
Dominik Bochenski Digital Compositor (Mr. X Inc.)
Andrew Nguyen Digital Compositor (Mr. X Inc.)
Wayne Brinton Digital Compositor (Mr. X Inc.)
Kevin Quatman Digital Compositor (Mr. X Inc.)
Rob Del Ciancio Digital Compositor (Mr. X Inc.)
Marco Polsinelli Digital Compositor (Mr. X Inc.)
Sebastien Veilleux Digital Compositor (Mr. X Inc.)
Hubert Chan 3-D Artist (Mr. X Inc.)
Chris De Souza 3-D Artist (Mr. X Inc.)
Jason Edwardh 3-D Artist (Mr. X Inc.)
Jason Gougeon 3-D Artist (Mr. X Inc.)
Jessica Nolet 3-D Artist (Mr. X Inc.)
Matt Ralph 3-D Artist (Mr. X Inc.)
Dominic Remane 3-D Artist (Mr. X Inc.)
Jim Su 3-D Artist (Mr. X Inc.)
Isabelle Langlois Digital Effects Producer (Mr. X Inc.)
Sarah Barber Visual Effects Coordinator (Mr. X Inc.)
cheyenne bloomfield Visual Effects Producer (Mr. X Inc.)
Glenn Allen Visual Effects Producer (Brainstorm Digital)
Richard Friedlander Visual Effects Producer (Brainstorm Digital)
Dan Cayer Digital Compositor (Brainstorm Digital)
Ella Boliver Digital Compositor (Brainstorm Digital)
Jacob Robinson Digital Intermediate Editor (New York) (Deluxe)
Darrell R. Smith Digital Intermediate Coordinator (New York) (Deluxe)
Jonathan Sanden Digital Intermediate Assistant (New York) (Deluxe)
Jack Lewars Digital Intermediate Assistant (New York) (Deluxe)
Chris Mackenzie Smoke Artist (New York) (Deluxe)
Markus Janner Scanner & Recorder (New York) (Deluxe)
Duck Grossberg Data Wrangler (New York) (Deluxe)
Molle DeBartolo QC Lead (New York) (Deluxe)
David Chai Engineer (New York) (Deluxe)
Tim Mullen Engineer (New York) (Deluxe)
Bruce E. Merlin Special Effects Coordinator (Florida)
Dennis Berardi Visual Effects Supervisor (Mr. X Inc.)
Eric J. Robertson Visual Effects Supervisor (Brainstorm Digital)
Matt Schofield Digital Matte Painter (Mr. X Inc.)
Physical Effects
Ricou Browning Stunt Coordinator (Water Safety)
Engineering, Electrical & Grips
John Nadeau Chief Lighting Technician
Tom Potoskie Best Boy Electric
Sean McCardell Rigging Best Boy Electric
Jim Ferris Genny Operator
John Gilgar Base Camp Genny Operator
Bruce Jordan Rigging Grip
Michael Gallart Shop Electric
Patrick Fontana (II) Shop Electric
David Knoblock Electric (Arizona)
Cory R. Starr Electric (Arizona)
Gary Ryan Best Boy Electric (Florida)
Gary Hirt Genny Operator (Florida)
Reynaldo Guimet Electric (Florida)
James Seckel Electric (Florida)
Nicolas Donadio Electric (Florida)
Scott L. Gordon (II) Rigging Electric (Florida)
Raymond Orraca Rigging Electric (Florida)
Earl Perque Jr Rigging Grip (Florida)
Todd E. Wood Rigging Grip (Florida)
Jorge Parra Rigging Grip (Florida)
William F. Boone III Rigging Grip (Leesburg)
Dennis Gamiello Key Grip
Matt Stelling Key Grip (Colorado)
Edward W. Lowry Dolly Grip
Ben Kanegson B Dolly Grip (Florida)
Brendan Quinlan Best Boy Grip
Anthony Gamiello (II) Best Boy Rigging Grip
Mitch Stelling Best Boy Grip (Colorado)
Marty Miller Best Boy Grip (Arizona)
Matthew J. Errico Best Boy Grip (Florida)
Danny Mallory Best Boy Grip (Leesburg)
Jamie Klein Best Boy Rigging Grip (Florida)
Glen Engels Grip
Christopher Gamiello Grip
Richard Dowgin Key Construction Grip
Alonso Parra Grip (Arizona)
Jay Coolidge Grip (Arizona)
Keith Karidis Grip (Arizona)
Michael P. Fredrickson Grip (Arizona)
Fred Gibson Grip (Arizona)
Chris Estrada Grip (Florida)
Chris Young (II) Grip (Florida)
Marvin J. Haven Grip (Leesburg)
Bill Losh Grip (Leesburg)
John E. Mulier Grip (Leesburg)
Chris Lombardozzi Rigging Gaffer
Kai Morbey Rigging Best Boy (Florida)
Construction
Martin Bernstein Construction Coordinator
Mike Melchiorre Construction Foreman
Isaac Cohen Shop Craftsman
David Hill (II) Shop Craftsman
James Harris (IV) Construction Coordinator (Florida)
James P. Crapser Construction Foreman (Florida)
Doug Winters Carpenter (Florida)
John R. Salemi Construction Electrician (Florida)
Paul A. Burnett Construction Production Assistant (Florida)
Publicity
Rob Harris Unit Publicist
Accounting
Ginny Reilly 1st Assistant Accountant
Kelly O Bier 2nd Assistant Accountant
Sara Gagliardi 2nd 2nd Assistant Accountant
Patricia Porter Payroll Accountant
Diana Ascher Post-Production Accountant
Trevanna Post Post-Production Accountant
Maureen Higgins 1st Assistant Accountant (Arizona)
Alonzo Nevarez Payroll Accountant (Arizona)
Marc Siegel Accounting Clerk (Arizona)
Jamie Horwitz 1st Assistant Accountant (Florida)
Vicki Pearlman 2nd Assistant Accountant (Florida)
Leena Ogle Payroll Accountant (Florida)
Alex Puma Accounting Clerk (Florida)
Mike Phillips (IX) Head Physical Production & Finance (Big Beach)
Richard Mancuso Production Accountant
Craft Services
Gregory Cuozzo Chef (Gourmet to U)
Anthony Torre Chef (Gourmet to U)
Peter Marschark Craft Services Chef (J&P Craft)
Jason Acevedo Craft Services Chef (J&P Craft)
Joseph Decongilio Craft Services Chef (J&P Craft)
Savanna Johnson Craft Service (Colorado)
Marie Randall Craft Service (Arizona)
Buddy Devingo Caterer (Florida)
Carmen Devingo Catering Assistant (Florida)
Marc H. Katz Craft Service (Florida)
Mack McKelvey Craft Service Assistant (Florida)
Derek Dion Craft Service Assistant (Florida)
Matthew Kelley Craft Service Assistant (Leesburg)
Props
Graylan Franklin Assistant Props (Florida)
Brian Luehring Gang Boss (Florida)
Daniel Stacy Prop Maker (Florida)
Dennis J. Harris Prop Maker (Florida)
William Bricker Prop Maker (Florida)
Michael Charboneau (II) Prop Maker (Florida)
Paul Damien Prop Maker (Florida)
Brian P. Harris Prop Maker (Florida)
Tom Allen (IV) Property Master
Eric Cheripka Assistant Property Master
Ann L. Edgeworth Assistant Property Master
Keith Mosca Assistant Property Master (Arizona)
Shawn W. Logue Assistant Property Master (Florida)
Kim Pierce Assistant Property Master (Florida)
Legal
Jackie Eckhouse Legal Services
Consultants & Advisors
Jerome Butler Dialect Coach
Andy Potvin Dolby Sound Consultant
Below The Line
Daniele Melia Assistant (to Mr Saraf)
Justin Bell Assistant (to Mr Saxon)
Eric Papa Assistant (Ms Winkler Ioffreda)
Julie Blumenthal Assistant (to Mr Mendes)
Scott Foster (II) Key Set Production Assistant
Dan Gloeckner Set Production Assistant
Nick Schepisi Set Production Assistant
Dana Zolli Set Production Assistant
Michelle Dianne Mehn Set Production Assistant
Jose Tejada (II) Parking Coordinator
David Laurentin Parking Coordinator
Kristopher Keefe Transportation Captain
Kevin Keefe Transportation Co-Captain
Dennis O'Grady Driver
Mark Whittaker Driver
Richard Presutti Driver
Douville Junot Driver
Robert Lansing Driver
Gary O Connell Driver
Chris Defeo Driver
Laurie Gershon Product Placement
Dennis Steele Transportation Captain (Colorado)
Stephen H. Davenport Picture Car Driver (Colorado)
Todd Helman Driver (Colorado)
Georgia Cox Film Runner (Colorado)
Dan Romero (II) Transportation Coordinator (Arizona)
Jim Alfonso Transportation Captain (Arizona)
Hal W. Gibson Driver Captain (Arizona)
Curtis Randoll Driver (Arizona)
Charlie Carpenter Driver (Arizona)
Leonard Suppes Driver (Arizona)
Wesley S. Bloom Driver (Arizona)
Rick Currens Driver (Arizona)
Steve Wagner Driver (Arizona)
Fred Davis Driver (Arizona)
Monty Lira Driver (Arizona)
Lee Nashold Driver (Arizona)
David Teasley Driver (Arizona)
Steven W. Polon Driver (Arizona)
Steve Buring Driver (Arizona)
Robert Chookhachian Driver (Arizona)
Rick Purdy Driver (Arizona)
Elmer Malits Driver (Arizona)
Sidney Highsmith Driver (Arizona)
Lynn Ashby Driver (Arizona)
John Schramm Driver (Arizona)
Pat Larkin Driver (Arizona)
Seville Michelle Anastos Key Office Production Assistant (Florida)
Benjamin Velez Production Intern (Florida)
Mario Xavier Set Production Assistant (Florida)
Daniel C. Garcia Set Production Assistant (Florida)
Justin Browning Marine Coordinator (Florida)
Jon Bergholz (II) Transportation Captain (Florida)
Danny P. Taylor Transportation Co-Captain (Florida)
Rodney Thorpe Driver (Florida)
Craig Hofstrand Driver (Florida)
Danny Dusch Driver (Florida)
David Hamilton (II) Driver (Florida)
David Bostic Driver (Florida)
Pirty Lee Jackson Driver (Florida)
Manuel Cuevas Driver (Florida)
Michael Ware Driver (Florida)
Vincent King Driver (Florida)
Richard Andresen Driver (Florida)
Robert R. Grandin Driver (Florida)
Adam Cincannon Driver (Florida)
Joe T. Griffin Driver (Florida)
Antonio M. Galindo Sr Driver (Florida)
Vickie Robison Driver (Florida)
Cara Sachse Driver (Florida)
Michael Cannestro Driver (Florida)
Ron Parsell Driver (Florida)
Patricia Mathis Driver (Florida)
Robert E. Byrd Driver (Florida)
Anthony Abbruzzese Driver (Florida)
Larry Craig Driver (Florida)
John H. Stephens Driver (Florida)
Jack Belcher Driver (Florida)
Garvin Adams Driver (Florida)
David Zydorski Driver (Florida)
Don Baer Driver (Florida)
Randy Warbritton Driver (Florida)
Leslie M. Hughes Driver (Florida)
Freddy Figueredo Set Medic (Florida)
Lisa Bullard Set Medic (Florida)
Frank Fernandez (II) Driver (Florida)
Vivian Enfinger Set Medic (Leesburg)
kamen velkovsky Location Production Assistant
Safia Siad Production Assistant (Mr. X Inc.)
Tommy Gervais Production Assistant (Mr. X Inc.)
Keith Price Set Production Assistant (Colorado)
Erica Mckee Production Assistant (Florida)
Adam Gonzales Production Assistant (Florida)
Brian Burger Location Production Assistant (Florida)
Benjamin Velez Location Production Assistant (Florida)
Mishelle Laborde Transportation Production Assistant (Florida)
Other Crew
Ashley Kravitz Clearance Services (Ashley, Inc.)
Emma Wiking Music Clearances
David Vodicka Music Clearances
Worldwide Distributors
Svensk Filmindustri (SF) Theatrical Distributor (Scandinavia)
Focus Features Theatrical Distributor
A-Film Distribution (Netherlands) Theatrical Distributor (Belgium and Netherlands)
Hollywood Classic Entertainment (Czech Republic) Theatrical Distributor (Czech Republic)
Odeon S.A. (Greece) Theatrical Distributor (Greece)
BIM Distribuzione Distribution Rights (Italy)
Senator Filmverleih Distribution Rights (Germany)
Mars Distribution Distribution Rights (France)
Paradise Film Distribution Company (Russia) Distribution Rights (Russia)
Serenity Entertainment International Distribution Rights (Taiwan)
Ascot Elite Entertainment Group Distribution Rights (Switzerland)
ProRom Distribution Rights (Romania)
Other Companies
C5, Inc. Post-Production Sound Editorial Facility
Pop Sound ADR Record Facility
Sound One ADR Recorder Facility
Soundtrack Group ADR Recording Facilities
AON/Albert G. Ruben Insurance Provider
Sloss Law Office Legal Services Provider
Ashley, Inc. Clearance Services Provider
Grant Wilfley Casting Extras Casting
Debra Zane Casting Casting Services
Gourmet To U Catering Services
J & P Craft Craft Services
Mr. X Inc. Digital Visual Effects Provider
Brainstorm Digital Additional Visual Effects Provider
Deluxe Digital Intermediate Provider
li
Pivotal Post
Wayno s Catering
Starr Pass Catering
Scarlet Letters
T
HD Avids Provider
Catering Services Provider (Phoenix)
Catering Services Provider (Tuscon)
Main and End Titles
Linda Zises
WBAI Women's Collective
Directed by Sam Mendes.
With John Krasinski, Maya Rudolph, Carmen Ejogo.
Commentary: This is an-on-the road and in-the-air film;
the journey of an expectant couple as they travel the U.S. in search of the perfect place to put down roots and raise their family. Along the way, they have misadventures and find fresh connections with an assortment of relatives and old friends who just might help them discover "home" on their own terms for the first time.
For me the introduction of the main couple as being of "mixed" race was not very important. "The black women wasn't very black. Was she?"
(fuzzy wuzzy wasn't very fuzzy wuzzy, was he?)
Many asked pointed questions on content, on photo shoots, that seemed out of character and without apparent purpose, during the Sam Mendes's Q&A surprise appearance at last night's showing of Away We Go.
For me the most telling photo shot was of two women in a bathtub without benefit of a view of the tub nor the women's bodies. Just heads talking at a weird angle.
Sam Mendes answered with curt, unapologetic comments that spoke louder than what he said, more defensive than intelligent.
It isn't just that this film lacks clarity in detail as much as the disappointment in a film less than Great done by a Great film maker.
Sam Mendes is guilty of trying to multi-task, of doing Revolutionary Road and AwayWeGo in overlapping sequences and this doesn't work in life, nor in film.
His cast is competent, with noteworthy performance by the minor characters rather than the stars. Done by another director, this attempt at vacuous new age comedy wouldn't make it to the main screen audience.
What is pointedly missing is any reference to gay marriages, to gay couples who are getting married, or not: all who are fighting for the right to do so; This couple would have been appropriate since the new age couple on screen did not want to join the ranks of the married. The omission of gays on screen compromised the scope, the content of the film and suggested that maybe homophobia is not dead, not on the screen even with this rich army of workers/craft persons of note.
Maybe one film at a time is a better way to go even if you are the great Sam Mendes
When you know your film might not be a financial success, you repay the cast and crew with an appearance in the credits. Here goes. (as presented on screen)
Actors
John Krasinski Burt
Maya Rudolph Verona
Allison Janney Lily
Jim Gaffigan Lowell
Jeff Daniels Jerry
Catherine O'Hara Gloria
Carmen Ejogo Grace
Melanie Lynskey Munch
Chris Messina Tom
Paul Schneider Courtney
Maggie Gyllenhaal LN
Josh Hamilton Roderick
Tory Woody Carrie
PLOT
Writers
Dave Eggers Screenplay
Producers
Mari Jo Winkler-Ioffreda Executive Producer
Pippa Harris Executive Producer
Edward Saxon Producer
Sam Mendes Producer
Marc Turtletaub Producer
Peter Saraf Producer
Camera, Film & Tape
Carlos Omar Guerra 1st Assistant A-Camera
Sebastian Almeida 2nd Assistant A-Camera
Francois Duhamel Still Photographer
Edward Rodriguez 1st Assistant B-Camera
Debbie Stampfle 2nd Assistant B-Camera
Joe Gawler Digital Intermediate Colorist (New York) (Deluxe)
John Potter (III) Video Master Colorist (New York) (Deluxe)
Steven Bodner Jr Dailies Colorist (New York) (Deluxe)
Jeff Hocken Dailies Project Manager (New York) (Deluxe)
Kevin Krout Dailies Colorist Assist (New York) (Deluxe)
Tod Boyle 2nd Assistant Camera (Colorado)
Ed Nessen Additional 1st Assistant Camera (Arizona)
Meg Kettell Additional 2nd Assistant Camera (Arizona)
Stephen Whitcomb Camera Loader (Arizona)
Sarah Sher Twenty-four Frame Playback (Arizona)
April Ruane Crowley Camera Loader (Florida)
David Pultz Color Timer
Ellen Kuras Director of Photography
Patrick Capone 2nd Unit Director of Photography (Arizona) (Florida)
Peter Agliata B Camera Operator
Chris Norr Additional B Camera Operator (Arizona)
Josh Zientarski Additional Video Assist (Arizona)
Editors
Janet Gaynor (III) 1st Assistant Editor
Jen Choi Editorial Assistant
James Cohen (II) Assistant Editor (Film Dailies)
Andrew Buckland (II) Assistant Editor (Film Dailies)
Sarah Flack Editor
Casting
Ellen Lewis Casting
Debra Zane Casting
Megan Rafferty Casting Associate (Ellen Lewis Casting)
Geoffrey Miclat Casting Associate (Ellen Lewis Casting)
Tannis Vallely Casting Associate (Debra Zane Casting)
Shayna Markowitz Casting Assistant (Debra Zane Casting)
Grant Wilfley Extras Casting
Melissa Braun Extras Casting Associate
Helen McCready Extras Casting (Arizona) (Helen Wheels Productions)
Lori S. Wyman Extras Casting (Florida)
Executives
Matthew Plouffe Creative Executive
David Gerson Studio Executive (Focus Features)
Production Management
Jayne-Ann Tenggren Script Supervisor
David Bausch Production Supervisor
Jennifer Lane (IV) Post-Production Supervisor
Alexis Wiscomb Post-Production Supervisor
Pamela Bertini 1st Assistant Production Coordinator
Sarah Crofts Location Assistant
Justin Rosini Location Assistant
Demian Resnick Location Assistant
Kate Eisemann Location Assistant
Cathy Jeffries Production Manager (Visual Effects/Mr. X Inc.)
Jesh Krishna Murthy Project Manager (Visual Effects/Mr. X Inc.)
Brooke C. Johnson Production Supervisor (Colorado)
Kelly Helstrom Production Supervisor (Arizona)
Denton Hanna Location Scout (Arizona)
Elayne Schneiderman Production Supervisor (Florida)
Julie Ann Grasso Assistant Production Coordinator (Florida)
Chelsey Cary Assistant Production Coordinator (Florida)
Jeff Rollason Location Assistant (Florida)
Marcel Pinkowski Location Assistant (Florida)
Leah Sokolowsky Location Scout (Florida)
Mari Jo Winkler-Ioffreda Unit Production Manager
Anita Sum Production Coordinator
Lisa Matsukawa Production Coordinator (Arizona)
Lisa A. Martin Production Coordinator (Florida)
Bernie Cassar Production Coordinator (Leesburg)
Timothy Bird (II) 1st Assistant Director
Jennifer Truelove 2nd Assistant Director
matthew mason 2nd 2nd Assistant Director
Keith A. Jones Additional 1st Assistant Director (Arizona)
Tyson Bidner Location Manager
Kat Donahue Assistant Location Manager
Michael Grosky Assistant Location Manager
Jean Chien Location Manager (Colorado)
Jean Chien Location Manager (Arizona)
Jason Sallee Assistant Location Manager (Phoenix)
Jennifer Radzikowski Location Manager (Florida)
Sandra Woodward Assistant Location Manager (Florida)
Susanne Ragnarsson Assistant Location Manager (Florida)
John Garrett (III) Assistant Location Manager (Florida)
Art Department
Rachel Short Model Builder
Kelly Solomon Art Department Coordinator
Erica Torres Art Department Production Assistant
Katherine M. Szilagyi Assistant Set Decorator
Chris Vogt Lead Dresser
Ruth Deleon On Set Dresser
Robert Vogt Set Dresser
Kelly Canfield Set Dresser
Kevin Mahon Set Dresser
Richard Oeser Set Dresser
Alexander Gorodetsky Head Painter
Christopher Weiser Paint Foreman
Victor Morales Scenic Artist
Steve Rosenzweig Scenic Artist
George Kousoulides Scenic Artist
Quang Nguyen Scenic Artist
Jennifer Buturla Scenic Artist
Amy Safhay Head Greensman
Ginny Walsh Greens Foreman
Gregg Singer Leadman (Arizona)
Rosa Palomo Art Department (Florida)
Nicholas Scott Assistant Art Director (Florida)
Nel Hernandez Art Department Production Assistant (Florida)
Karen Virgin Buyer (Florida)
Elizabeth Boller Art Department Coordinator (Florida)
Frank A. Raffa Jr Lead Dresser (Florida)
Emilio Saez Set Dresser (Florida)
Orlando Castro Set Dresser (Florida)
Jeremy Read Set Dresser (Florida)
Michael Calabrese Set Dresser (Florida)
Michael D. Fitzgerald Set Dresser (Florida)
Chris Alicea Jr On-Set Dresser (Florida)
Julian Mercado Painter (Florida)
Jeffrey Harris (II) Painter (Florida)
Cary Whitaker Greensman (Florida)
Robert Welch (II) Greensman (Florida)
Ben F. Lowe III Greensman (Leesburg)
John Balling Head Scenic Artist (Florida)
Lucy Weber Scenic Painter (Florida)
Dean F. Janik Scenic Artist (Florida)
Henry Dunn Art Director
Charles E. McCarry Assistant Art Director
Miguel Lopez-Castillo Assistant Art Director
Lauren Fitzsimmons Assistant Art Director
Jess Gonchor Production Designer
Lydia Marks Set Decorator
Sarah Sprawls Assistant Set Decorator (Arizona)
Kevin Kropp Assistant Set Decorator (Florida)
Wardrobe, Hair & Makeup
Timothy R. McKelvey Set Costume Supervisor
Janna Notick Key Costumer
Sandi Figueroa Key Costumer
Askia Won-Ling Jacob Key Costumer
Trenee Clayton Set Costumer
Adam Watt Costume Production Assistant
Mary Aaron Key Makeup
Judi Cooper-Sealy Department Head Hair Stylist
Beatrice DeAlba Department Head Hair Stylist
Belinda Anderson Key Hair Stylist
Joseph Cigliano Set Costumer (Arizona)
Maggie McFarland Additional Costumer (Arizona)
Jeffrey Sacino Additional Hair Stylist (Arizona)
Dana Vargas Additional Hair Stylist (Arizona)
Lynette Bernay Key Costumer (Florida)
Heather Holmes Set Costumer (Florida)
Carolyn Finlayson Seamstress (Florida)
Sahar Halabi Costume Assistant (Florida)
Carol Raskin-Smalling Additional Hair Stylist (Florida)
Caridad Collazo Additional Hair Stylist (Florida)
Gunnar Swanson Additional Hair Stylist (Florida)
John Dunn Costume Designer
Sharon Globerson Assistant Costume Designer
Michele Paris Department Head Make-up Artist
Felice Diamond Makeup Artist (Florida)
Sound
Scott Millan Rerecording Mixer
Paul Hsu Rerecording Mixer
Brian Wittle Boom Operator
Branka Mrkic-Tana Dialogue Editor
Ruth Hernandez (II) ADR Editor
Marissa Littlefield ADR Editor
Jamie Baker Foley Editor
George A. Lara Foley Mixer (C5, Inc.)
Marko Costanzo Foley Artist (C5, Inc.)
Mark Desimone ADR Mixer (Soundtrack F/T)
Bobby Johanson ADR Mixer (Sound One Corp.)
David Boulton (III) ADR Mixer (Sound One Corp.)
Michael Miller (XIII) ADR Mixer (P.O.P. Sound)
Beauxregard Neylon ADR Recordist (Soundtrack F/T)
Mike Howells ADR Recordist (Sound One Corp.)
Brian Gallagher ADR Recordist (Sound One Corp.)
Courtney Bishop ADR Recordist (P.O.P. Sound)
Sondra James ADR Voice Casting (Soundtrack F/T)
Mike Poppleton Assistant Sound Editor
Dave Corcoran Apprentice Sound Editor
Paul Hsu Supervising Sound Editor
Benjamin Patrick Production Sound Mixer
Bret Johnson Mix Technician
Bob Chefalas Mix Technician
Paul Banks Tirone Mix Technician
Dan Wesson Sound Utility
Nicolas Carbone Additional Sound Utility
Music
Alexi Murdoch Music
Christine Bergren Music Legal and Clearances
Jim Dunbar Music Coordinator
Guy Fletcher Song ("The Good Times")
Alexi Murdoch Song ("All My Days")
Alexi Murdoch Song Performer ("All My Days")
Alexi Murdoch Song (“Blue Mind”)
Alexi Murdoch Song Performer (“Blue Mind”)
Roger Odell Song (“Night Birds”)
William Sharpe Song (“Night Birds”)
Shakatak Song Performer (“Night Birds”)
Endless Boogie Song (“Steak Rock”)
Endless Boogie Song Performer (“Steak Rock”)
Alexi Murdoch Song (“Song For You”)
Alexi Murdoch Song Performer (“Song for You”)
Antonio Vivaldi Song (“The Four Seasons Spring Violin Concerto In E. Allegro”)
The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Song Performer (“The Four Seasons Spring Violin Concerto In E. Allegro”)
Gabriel Francisco Song (“Sin Tu Amor”)
Gabriel Francisco Song Performer (“Sin Tu Amor”)
Alexi Murdoch Song (“Towards The Sun”)
Alexi Murdoch Song Performer (“Towards The Sun”)
Alexi Murdoch Song (“Breathe”)
Alexi Murdoch Song Performer (“Breathe”)
Liquid Mind Song Performer (“Teach Me To Whisper")
Vashti Bunyan Song (“Diamond Day”)
The Stranglers Song Performer (“Golden Brown”)
Jean-Jaques Burnel Song (“Golden Brown”)
Hugh Cornwell Song (“Golden Brown”)
Jet Black Song (“Golden Brown”)
Dave Greenfield Song (“Golden Brown”)
George Harrison Song (“What Is Life”)
George Harrison Song Performer (“What Is Life”)
Richard Rodgers Song (“So Long, Farewell”)
Oscar Hammerstein II Song (“So Long, Farewell”)
Robert Brammer Song (“H.A.P.P.Y.”)
Winston Hislop Song (“H.A.P.P.Y.”)
Clint Eastwood Song Performer (“H.A.P.P.Y.”)
Winston Hislop Song Performer (“H.A.P.P.Y.”)
Shelton Brooks Song (“Some Of These Days”)
Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks Song Performer (“Some of These Days”)
Bob Dylan Song (“Meet Me In The Morning”)
Bob Dylan Song Performer (“Meet Me In The Morning”)
Noel Gonzales Song (“Hercules Theme”)
Song Performer (“Hercules Theme”)
Lou Reed Song (“Oh! Sweet Nuthin’ ”)
The Velvet Underground Song Performer (“Oh! Sweet Nuthin’ ”)
Sylvia Gordon Song (“Let’s Finish (Sinden remix)”)
Deantoni Parks Song (“Let’s Finish (Sinden remix)”)
Graeme Sinden Song (“Let’s Finish (Sinden remix)”)
Kudu Song Performer (“Let’s Finish (Sinden remix)”)
Bob Dylan Song (“Mr. Tambourine Man”)
Alexi Murdoch Song (“Wait”)
Alexi Murdoch Song Performer (“Wait”)
Alexi Murdoch Song (“The Ragged Sea”)
Alexi Murdoch Song Performer (“The Ragged Sea”)
Alexi Murdoch Song (“Orange Sky”)
Alexi Murdoch Song Performer (“Orange Sky”)
Randall Poster Music Supervisor
Annette Kudrak Music Editor (C5, Inc.)
Choreography
Cynthia Onrubia Choreographer
Harrison Beal Assistant Choreographer
Visual Effects & Animation
Robert J. Scupp Special Effects Coordinator
Edward A. Ioffreda Graphic Designer
Sarah McMurdo Visual Effects Producer (Mr. X Inc.)
Daniel Mizuguchi Sequence Lead (Mr. X Inc.)
Matt Glover Visual Effects Coordinator (Mr. X Inc.)
Aaron Weintraub Pipeline Supervisor (Mr. X Inc.)
Thai Son Doan Digital Compositor (Mr. X Inc.)
Mathieu Archambault Digital Compositor (Mr. X Inc.)
Barb Benoit Digital Compositor (Mr. X Inc.)
Danny Duchesneau Digital Compositor (Mr. X Inc.)
Dominik Bochenski Digital Compositor (Mr. X Inc.)
Andrew Nguyen Digital Compositor (Mr. X Inc.)
Wayne Brinton Digital Compositor (Mr. X Inc.)
Kevin Quatman Digital Compositor (Mr. X Inc.)
Rob Del Ciancio Digital Compositor (Mr. X Inc.)
Marco Polsinelli Digital Compositor (Mr. X Inc.)
Sebastien Veilleux Digital Compositor (Mr. X Inc.)
Hubert Chan 3-D Artist (Mr. X Inc.)
Chris De Souza 3-D Artist (Mr. X Inc.)
Jason Edwardh 3-D Artist (Mr. X Inc.)
Jason Gougeon 3-D Artist (Mr. X Inc.)
Jessica Nolet 3-D Artist (Mr. X Inc.)
Matt Ralph 3-D Artist (Mr. X Inc.)
Dominic Remane 3-D Artist (Mr. X Inc.)
Jim Su 3-D Artist (Mr. X Inc.)
Isabelle Langlois Digital Effects Producer (Mr. X Inc.)
Sarah Barber Visual Effects Coordinator (Mr. X Inc.)
cheyenne bloomfield Visual Effects Producer (Mr. X Inc.)
Glenn Allen Visual Effects Producer (Brainstorm Digital)
Richard Friedlander Visual Effects Producer (Brainstorm Digital)
Dan Cayer Digital Compositor (Brainstorm Digital)
Ella Boliver Digital Compositor (Brainstorm Digital)
Jacob Robinson Digital Intermediate Editor (New York) (Deluxe)
Darrell R. Smith Digital Intermediate Coordinator (New York) (Deluxe)
Jonathan Sanden Digital Intermediate Assistant (New York) (Deluxe)
Jack Lewars Digital Intermediate Assistant (New York) (Deluxe)
Chris Mackenzie Smoke Artist (New York) (Deluxe)
Markus Janner Scanner & Recorder (New York) (Deluxe)
Duck Grossberg Data Wrangler (New York) (Deluxe)
Molle DeBartolo QC Lead (New York) (Deluxe)
David Chai Engineer (New York) (Deluxe)
Tim Mullen Engineer (New York) (Deluxe)
Bruce E. Merlin Special Effects Coordinator (Florida)
Dennis Berardi Visual Effects Supervisor (Mr. X Inc.)
Eric J. Robertson Visual Effects Supervisor (Brainstorm Digital)
Matt Schofield Digital Matte Painter (Mr. X Inc.)
Physical Effects
Ricou Browning Stunt Coordinator (Water Safety)
Engineering, Electrical & Grips
John Nadeau Chief Lighting Technician
Tom Potoskie Best Boy Electric
Sean McCardell Rigging Best Boy Electric
Jim Ferris Genny Operator
John Gilgar Base Camp Genny Operator
Bruce Jordan Rigging Grip
Michael Gallart Shop Electric
Patrick Fontana (II) Shop Electric
David Knoblock Electric (Arizona)
Cory R. Starr Electric (Arizona)
Gary Ryan Best Boy Electric (Florida)
Gary Hirt Genny Operator (Florida)
Reynaldo Guimet Electric (Florida)
James Seckel Electric (Florida)
Nicolas Donadio Electric (Florida)
Scott L. Gordon (II) Rigging Electric (Florida)
Raymond Orraca Rigging Electric (Florida)
Earl Perque Jr Rigging Grip (Florida)
Todd E. Wood Rigging Grip (Florida)
Jorge Parra Rigging Grip (Florida)
William F. Boone III Rigging Grip (Leesburg)
Dennis Gamiello Key Grip
Matt Stelling Key Grip (Colorado)
Edward W. Lowry Dolly Grip
Ben Kanegson B Dolly Grip (Florida)
Brendan Quinlan Best Boy Grip
Anthony Gamiello (II) Best Boy Rigging Grip
Mitch Stelling Best Boy Grip (Colorado)
Marty Miller Best Boy Grip (Arizona)
Matthew J. Errico Best Boy Grip (Florida)
Danny Mallory Best Boy Grip (Leesburg)
Jamie Klein Best Boy Rigging Grip (Florida)
Glen Engels Grip
Christopher Gamiello Grip
Richard Dowgin Key Construction Grip
Alonso Parra Grip (Arizona)
Jay Coolidge Grip (Arizona)
Keith Karidis Grip (Arizona)
Michael P. Fredrickson Grip (Arizona)
Fred Gibson Grip (Arizona)
Chris Estrada Grip (Florida)
Chris Young (II) Grip (Florida)
Marvin J. Haven Grip (Leesburg)
Bill Losh Grip (Leesburg)
John E. Mulier Grip (Leesburg)
Chris Lombardozzi Rigging Gaffer
Kai Morbey Rigging Best Boy (Florida)
Construction
Martin Bernstein Construction Coordinator
Mike Melchiorre Construction Foreman
Isaac Cohen Shop Craftsman
David Hill (II) Shop Craftsman
James Harris (IV) Construction Coordinator (Florida)
James P. Crapser Construction Foreman (Florida)
Doug Winters Carpenter (Florida)
John R. Salemi Construction Electrician (Florida)
Paul A. Burnett Construction Production Assistant (Florida)
Publicity
Rob Harris Unit Publicist
Accounting
Ginny Reilly 1st Assistant Accountant
Kelly O Bier 2nd Assistant Accountant
Sara Gagliardi 2nd 2nd Assistant Accountant
Patricia Porter Payroll Accountant
Diana Ascher Post-Production Accountant
Trevanna Post Post-Production Accountant
Maureen Higgins 1st Assistant Accountant (Arizona)
Alonzo Nevarez Payroll Accountant (Arizona)
Marc Siegel Accounting Clerk (Arizona)
Jamie Horwitz 1st Assistant Accountant (Florida)
Vicki Pearlman 2nd Assistant Accountant (Florida)
Leena Ogle Payroll Accountant (Florida)
Alex Puma Accounting Clerk (Florida)
Mike Phillips (IX) Head Physical Production & Finance (Big Beach)
Richard Mancuso Production Accountant
Craft Services
Gregory Cuozzo Chef (Gourmet to U)
Anthony Torre Chef (Gourmet to U)
Peter Marschark Craft Services Chef (J&P Craft)
Jason Acevedo Craft Services Chef (J&P Craft)
Joseph Decongilio Craft Services Chef (J&P Craft)
Savanna Johnson Craft Service (Colorado)
Marie Randall Craft Service (Arizona)
Buddy Devingo Caterer (Florida)
Carmen Devingo Catering Assistant (Florida)
Marc H. Katz Craft Service (Florida)
Mack McKelvey Craft Service Assistant (Florida)
Derek Dion Craft Service Assistant (Florida)
Matthew Kelley Craft Service Assistant (Leesburg)
Props
Graylan Franklin Assistant Props (Florida)
Brian Luehring Gang Boss (Florida)
Daniel Stacy Prop Maker (Florida)
Dennis J. Harris Prop Maker (Florida)
William Bricker Prop Maker (Florida)
Michael Charboneau (II) Prop Maker (Florida)
Paul Damien Prop Maker (Florida)
Brian P. Harris Prop Maker (Florida)
Tom Allen (IV) Property Master
Eric Cheripka Assistant Property Master
Ann L. Edgeworth Assistant Property Master
Keith Mosca Assistant Property Master (Arizona)
Shawn W. Logue Assistant Property Master (Florida)
Kim Pierce Assistant Property Master (Florida)
Legal
Jackie Eckhouse Legal Services
Consultants & Advisors
Jerome Butler Dialect Coach
Andy Potvin Dolby Sound Consultant
Below The Line
Daniele Melia Assistant (to Mr Saraf)
Justin Bell Assistant (to Mr Saxon)
Eric Papa Assistant (Ms Winkler Ioffreda)
Julie Blumenthal Assistant (to Mr Mendes)
Scott Foster (II) Key Set Production Assistant
Dan Gloeckner Set Production Assistant
Nick Schepisi Set Production Assistant
Dana Zolli Set Production Assistant
Michelle Dianne Mehn Set Production Assistant
Jose Tejada (II) Parking Coordinator
David Laurentin Parking Coordinator
Kristopher Keefe Transportation Captain
Kevin Keefe Transportation Co-Captain
Dennis O'Grady Driver
Mark Whittaker Driver
Richard Presutti Driver
Douville Junot Driver
Robert Lansing Driver
Gary O Connell Driver
Chris Defeo Driver
Laurie Gershon Product Placement
Dennis Steele Transportation Captain (Colorado)
Stephen H. Davenport Picture Car Driver (Colorado)
Todd Helman Driver (Colorado)
Georgia Cox Film Runner (Colorado)
Dan Romero (II) Transportation Coordinator (Arizona)
Jim Alfonso Transportation Captain (Arizona)
Hal W. Gibson Driver Captain (Arizona)
Curtis Randoll Driver (Arizona)
Charlie Carpenter Driver (Arizona)
Leonard Suppes Driver (Arizona)
Wesley S. Bloom Driver (Arizona)
Rick Currens Driver (Arizona)
Steve Wagner Driver (Arizona)
Fred Davis Driver (Arizona)
Monty Lira Driver (Arizona)
Lee Nashold Driver (Arizona)
David Teasley Driver (Arizona)
Steven W. Polon Driver (Arizona)
Steve Buring Driver (Arizona)
Robert Chookhachian Driver (Arizona)
Rick Purdy Driver (Arizona)
Elmer Malits Driver (Arizona)
Sidney Highsmith Driver (Arizona)
Lynn Ashby Driver (Arizona)
John Schramm Driver (Arizona)
Pat Larkin Driver (Arizona)
Seville Michelle Anastos Key Office Production Assistant (Florida)
Benjamin Velez Production Intern (Florida)
Mario Xavier Set Production Assistant (Florida)
Daniel C. Garcia Set Production Assistant (Florida)
Justin Browning Marine Coordinator (Florida)
Jon Bergholz (II) Transportation Captain (Florida)
Danny P. Taylor Transportation Co-Captain (Florida)
Rodney Thorpe Driver (Florida)
Craig Hofstrand Driver (Florida)
Danny Dusch Driver (Florida)
David Hamilton (II) Driver (Florida)
David Bostic Driver (Florida)
Pirty Lee Jackson Driver (Florida)
Manuel Cuevas Driver (Florida)
Michael Ware Driver (Florida)
Vincent King Driver (Florida)
Richard Andresen Driver (Florida)
Robert R. Grandin Driver (Florida)
Adam Cincannon Driver (Florida)
Joe T. Griffin Driver (Florida)
Antonio M. Galindo Sr Driver (Florida)
Vickie Robison Driver (Florida)
Cara Sachse Driver (Florida)
Michael Cannestro Driver (Florida)
Ron Parsell Driver (Florida)
Patricia Mathis Driver (Florida)
Robert E. Byrd Driver (Florida)
Anthony Abbruzzese Driver (Florida)
Larry Craig Driver (Florida)
John H. Stephens Driver (Florida)
Jack Belcher Driver (Florida)
Garvin Adams Driver (Florida)
David Zydorski Driver (Florida)
Don Baer Driver (Florida)
Randy Warbritton Driver (Florida)
Leslie M. Hughes Driver (Florida)
Freddy Figueredo Set Medic (Florida)
Lisa Bullard Set Medic (Florida)
Frank Fernandez (II) Driver (Florida)
Vivian Enfinger Set Medic (Leesburg)
kamen velkovsky Location Production Assistant
Safia Siad Production Assistant (Mr. X Inc.)
Tommy Gervais Production Assistant (Mr. X Inc.)
Keith Price Set Production Assistant (Colorado)
Erica Mckee Production Assistant (Florida)
Adam Gonzales Production Assistant (Florida)
Brian Burger Location Production Assistant (Florida)
Benjamin Velez Location Production Assistant (Florida)
Mishelle Laborde Transportation Production Assistant (Florida)
Other Crew
Ashley Kravitz Clearance Services (Ashley, Inc.)
Emma Wiking Music Clearances
David Vodicka Music Clearances
Worldwide Distributors
Svensk Filmindustri (SF) Theatrical Distributor (Scandinavia)
Focus Features Theatrical Distributor
A-Film Distribution (Netherlands) Theatrical Distributor (Belgium and Netherlands)
Hollywood Classic Entertainment (Czech Republic) Theatrical Distributor (Czech Republic)
Odeon S.A. (Greece) Theatrical Distributor (Greece)
BIM Distribuzione Distribution Rights (Italy)
Senator Filmverleih Distribution Rights (Germany)
Mars Distribution Distribution Rights (France)
Paradise Film Distribution Company (Russia) Distribution Rights (Russia)
Serenity Entertainment International Distribution Rights (Taiwan)
Ascot Elite Entertainment Group Distribution Rights (Switzerland)
ProRom Distribution Rights (Romania)
Other Companies
C5, Inc. Post-Production Sound Editorial Facility
Pop Sound ADR Record Facility
Sound One ADR Recorder Facility
Soundtrack Group ADR Recording Facilities
AON/Albert G. Ruben Insurance Provider
Sloss Law Office Legal Services Provider
Ashley, Inc. Clearance Services Provider
Grant Wilfley Casting Extras Casting
Debra Zane Casting Casting Services
Gourmet To U Catering Services
J & P Craft Craft Services
Mr. X Inc. Digital Visual Effects Provider
Brainstorm Digital Additional Visual Effects Provider
Deluxe Digital Intermediate Provider
li
Pivotal Post
Wayno s Catering
Starr Pass Catering
Scarlet Letters
T
HD Avids Provider
Catering Services Provider (Phoenix)
Catering Services Provider (Tuscon)
Main and End Titles
Linda Zises
WBAI Women's Collective
The Baby Formula: Food for Thought
Director: Alison Reid
Writer Richard Beattie
starring:
Angela Vint, Megan Fahlenbock, Rosemary Dunsmore, Roger Dunn, Jessica Booker
Genre: Comedy
Plot: two women elect to have babies without insertion of a man's sperm. It is all "x" chromosomes.
Commentary: when men are not involved in the reproduction of the species, when sperm is artificial then the consequences remain unknown for years, generations to come.
What are we doing messing with the DNA and RNA, the foundation of human life.
This is the frightening question that looms quietly but intensely in this film, with the genre tag of "Comedy". All the love displayed, the personalities that support this abnormal construction of human life, is a sad commentary on our collective inability to think of consequences to seemingly banal events.
For me, these women, pregnant without benefit of a man's sperm exemplify science gone awry.
Is this a film worth seeing? You decide. It represents a slim line between the horror film of today and this award wining "comedic" entertainment.
Release date July 10, 2009
Linda Zises
WBAI Women's Collective
Writer Richard Beattie
starring:
Angela Vint, Megan Fahlenbock, Rosemary Dunsmore, Roger Dunn, Jessica Booker
Genre: Comedy
Plot: two women elect to have babies without insertion of a man's sperm. It is all "x" chromosomes.
Commentary: when men are not involved in the reproduction of the species, when sperm is artificial then the consequences remain unknown for years, generations to come.
What are we doing messing with the DNA and RNA, the foundation of human life.
This is the frightening question that looms quietly but intensely in this film, with the genre tag of "Comedy". All the love displayed, the personalities that support this abnormal construction of human life, is a sad commentary on our collective inability to think of consequences to seemingly banal events.
For me, these women, pregnant without benefit of a man's sperm exemplify science gone awry.
Is this a film worth seeing? You decide. It represents a slim line between the horror film of today and this award wining "comedic" entertainment.
Release date July 10, 2009
Linda Zises
WBAI Women's Collective
Thursday, May 28, 2009
UNDER OUR SKIN
a documentary film by Andy Abrahams Wilson
It takes more than a subject that begs to be known to create a documentary worth spending time and money to see.
This documentary, UNDER OUR SKIN is a case in point. The subject is riveting but it can be presented in a myriad ways given our present state of technological vehicles for comunication. So why pick the documentary with all the seemingly requisite ingredients, that in this case, do not bring to life the plight of human susceptibility to the ever growing incidence of Lyme disease.
There is a robotic nature to this film making it somewhat less than enjoyable. The narrator's voice is drone like, lulling the viewer into a quasi comatose state. The images of the afflicted people, the feature of this documentary appear inserted into the script without creativity, without regard to the artistry of documentary creation. This is a sorry state when the issue of Lyme disease, it's failure to attract national attention looms so large.
Perhaps the next go around for this inportant subject will produce more gripping results.
Opens July 10,2009
New YOrk City IFC Center
Linda Zises
WBAI Women's Collective
criticalwomen@blogspot.com
It takes more than a subject that begs to be known to create a documentary worth spending time and money to see.
This documentary, UNDER OUR SKIN is a case in point. The subject is riveting but it can be presented in a myriad ways given our present state of technological vehicles for comunication. So why pick the documentary with all the seemingly requisite ingredients, that in this case, do not bring to life the plight of human susceptibility to the ever growing incidence of Lyme disease.
There is a robotic nature to this film making it somewhat less than enjoyable. The narrator's voice is drone like, lulling the viewer into a quasi comatose state. The images of the afflicted people, the feature of this documentary appear inserted into the script without creativity, without regard to the artistry of documentary creation. This is a sorry state when the issue of Lyme disease, it's failure to attract national attention looms so large.
Perhaps the next go around for this inportant subject will produce more gripping results.
Opens July 10,2009
New YOrk City IFC Center
Linda Zises
WBAI Women's Collective
criticalwomen@blogspot.com
Friday, May 22, 2009
UNMISTAKEN CHILD: UNMITIGATED LOVE
A documentary film by Nati Baratz
WINNER - Special Jury Award at 2009 Full Frame Festival
WINNER - Best Documentary Feature - 2009 RiverRun Film Festival
This documentary is best viewed in a theater with a full screen to present to its best advantage the beauty of Napal, of India, of the world from whenst the Lama of India preside.
This is a film that shows the selection process of the child who is deemed the reincarnation of the recently departed Lama: how the child is found, taken from its parents to live in a monestery, the care, and love afforded him by his diciple-in-charge, his "Big Uncle"
What fascinated me is the evidence of such intense unmitigated love of this selected child; the process involved in taking him from a rural, unsophisticated limited world into the highest eschelons of Buddhism.
I fell instantly in love with the Big Uncle and you will too even though the religion makes no sense to me, a western woman raised in an atheist home
but then this interaction of cultures is confronted by us all almost daily when we call American Express, or Sprint or any of the American based companies in search of help. It is to India we are often directed to get assistance with our "sophisticated" way of life.
A beautiful, rich documentary to be cherished.
Linda Z
WBAI WOMEN'S COLLECTIVE
Film opens in New York at Film Forum on Wednesday JUNE 3
National Release will follow in June / July
WINNER - Special Jury Award at 2009 Full Frame Festival
WINNER - Best Documentary Feature - 2009 RiverRun Film Festival
This documentary is best viewed in a theater with a full screen to present to its best advantage the beauty of Napal, of India, of the world from whenst the Lama of India preside.
This is a film that shows the selection process of the child who is deemed the reincarnation of the recently departed Lama: how the child is found, taken from its parents to live in a monestery, the care, and love afforded him by his diciple-in-charge, his "Big Uncle"
What fascinated me is the evidence of such intense unmitigated love of this selected child; the process involved in taking him from a rural, unsophisticated limited world into the highest eschelons of Buddhism.
I fell instantly in love with the Big Uncle and you will too even though the religion makes no sense to me, a western woman raised in an atheist home
but then this interaction of cultures is confronted by us all almost daily when we call American Express, or Sprint or any of the American based companies in search of help. It is to India we are often directed to get assistance with our "sophisticated" way of life.
A beautiful, rich documentary to be cherished.
Linda Z
WBAI WOMEN'S COLLECTIVE
Film opens in New York at Film Forum on Wednesday JUNE 3
National Release will follow in June / July
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Seraphine: The discovery of a woman artist
Martin Provos: Director
This film forms the basis for rich discussion on the feminist movement and how we have failed to educate the general public on the ill treatment of Western women even or most obviously under the guise of being charitable.
The film illustrates state of the art in cinematic excellence, in the ability to present every frame as if it is a piece of fine art in itself.
But the subject matter is so distorted in favor of men, the prejudicial workings of a man's mind, and the harmful appeal of women's fantasy life that it detracts from the otherwise fine aspects of the film.
Seraphine is a middle age woman in her forties who has been living on her own, making money and painting in her free time. She calculates to a fraction of a franc how much money she needs for her maintenance, how much to charge per tasks. She sets about to make ends meet and she does just that. She has mastered the rudiments of her world.
Along comes a "famous " man, a man on a shining white horse and undermines her, makes her appear not just in the narrative of the film but the film Director continues this prejudicial impression by showing her "child like" visage above her work as if she is a child, a grown one, a super talented one but a child with an almost vacuous face, titled towards the sky because her only understanding of her world is that she is not entirely of this world.
But Seraphine is an adult. She lives intellectually alone, has little to do with other people. One can almost count the number of words she utters in her entire life time, if this rendition of her life is to be believed. Does this mean that no attempt need be made to uncover her strengths, her truths beyond the obvious?
The art dealer on the white horse takes away Seraphine's ability to determine without benefit of his help what art supplies she needs, how much money she needs to live on and whether or not she is to continue in her chosen line of work. In the process of thinking he is elevating her into a more dignified position in society he is taking away her personal dignity and substituting his notion of who and what she should be.
And then he fails. Without apology. He can not deliver on what he promised, assured her would be hers. He and his sister insinuate this is all beyond her comprehension because it involves world events of catastrophic capitalistic failures world wide and they respond to her by treating her even more like a child, "she simply can not understand it is deemed beyond her comprehension. But is financial difficulty of any type truly beyond Seraphine's comprehension or is it more accurately stated as being beyond the comprehension of this gentlemen of former "means".
What Seraphine can not understand, and what he is not saying, is how profoundly he has failed. That he took her dignity, her world, destroyed it to make her into something less than competent and then failed to provide the essentials for her to be sustained in his artificially constructed parasitic Paradise.
This film is a tragedy with all the underpinnings of appeal to the male dominated world and the middle upper class way of thinking of the poor, the menial domestic worker viewed yet again as inferior, rather than as intelligent; The lower class is seen as incapable of understanding anything beyond the immediate even if they are gifted artists.
To place this woman, who has so little substantive interaction with others, into an Asyllum, an institution overly crowded by people starved for interaction is a CRIME.
This film is a tragedy, a painful unfolding of how cruelly we treat one another not out of malice but from our arrogant ignorance.
I recommend it be seen as the basis of a discussion on who we are and how we can communicate better more charitably towards one another.
LindaZises
WBAI Women's Collective
CriticalWomen@blogspot.com
This film forms the basis for rich discussion on the feminist movement and how we have failed to educate the general public on the ill treatment of Western women even or most obviously under the guise of being charitable.
The film illustrates state of the art in cinematic excellence, in the ability to present every frame as if it is a piece of fine art in itself.
But the subject matter is so distorted in favor of men, the prejudicial workings of a man's mind, and the harmful appeal of women's fantasy life that it detracts from the otherwise fine aspects of the film.
Seraphine is a middle age woman in her forties who has been living on her own, making money and painting in her free time. She calculates to a fraction of a franc how much money she needs for her maintenance, how much to charge per tasks. She sets about to make ends meet and she does just that. She has mastered the rudiments of her world.
Along comes a "famous " man, a man on a shining white horse and undermines her, makes her appear not just in the narrative of the film but the film Director continues this prejudicial impression by showing her "child like" visage above her work as if she is a child, a grown one, a super talented one but a child with an almost vacuous face, titled towards the sky because her only understanding of her world is that she is not entirely of this world.
But Seraphine is an adult. She lives intellectually alone, has little to do with other people. One can almost count the number of words she utters in her entire life time, if this rendition of her life is to be believed. Does this mean that no attempt need be made to uncover her strengths, her truths beyond the obvious?
The art dealer on the white horse takes away Seraphine's ability to determine without benefit of his help what art supplies she needs, how much money she needs to live on and whether or not she is to continue in her chosen line of work. In the process of thinking he is elevating her into a more dignified position in society he is taking away her personal dignity and substituting his notion of who and what she should be.
And then he fails. Without apology. He can not deliver on what he promised, assured her would be hers. He and his sister insinuate this is all beyond her comprehension because it involves world events of catastrophic capitalistic failures world wide and they respond to her by treating her even more like a child, "she simply can not understand it is deemed beyond her comprehension. But is financial difficulty of any type truly beyond Seraphine's comprehension or is it more accurately stated as being beyond the comprehension of this gentlemen of former "means".
What Seraphine can not understand, and what he is not saying, is how profoundly he has failed. That he took her dignity, her world, destroyed it to make her into something less than competent and then failed to provide the essentials for her to be sustained in his artificially constructed parasitic Paradise.
This film is a tragedy with all the underpinnings of appeal to the male dominated world and the middle upper class way of thinking of the poor, the menial domestic worker viewed yet again as inferior, rather than as intelligent; The lower class is seen as incapable of understanding anything beyond the immediate even if they are gifted artists.
To place this woman, who has so little substantive interaction with others, into an Asyllum, an institution overly crowded by people starved for interaction is a CRIME.
This film is a tragedy, a painful unfolding of how cruelly we treat one another not out of malice but from our arrogant ignorance.
I recommend it be seen as the basis of a discussion on who we are and how we can communicate better more charitably towards one another.
LindaZises
WBAI Women's Collective
CriticalWomen@blogspot.com
Saturday, May 16, 2009
WHAT GOES UP: The Making of our Heroes
Jonathan Glatzer Director
Writers:
Jonathan Glatzer (writer)
Robert Lawson (writer)
Steve Coogan, Josh Peck, Hilary Duff and Molly Shannon
Set as a quiet background, a seemingly unobtrusive event, is the Space Shuttle Challenger tragedy. Add to that the images not discussed of the school teacher, Sam Calailucci's plummet to his death off a roof top. Then add the humor that only young "misfit" teenagers can muster juxtaposed against the too well established adult world and what do you have, WHATgoesUP
What stays down on earth is our creation of heroes in our midst.
WHATgoesUP is the story of the reported Babbitt(Steve Coogan) obsessed by the death(suicide) of a local hero. He is reassigned to the New Hampshire hometown of the doomed teacher Charitia McAuliffe(an old college buddy) and soon to be suicide victim.
Two suicides, one failed shuttle with resounding heroic effects and youth confronting the advent of life in the troubled adult world.
And this is a comedy, a seemingly light hearted film for those who see films for the pleasure rather than the message to be learned or understood
My hero is the film maker who dared to go beyond the Judeo-Christian ethics and morality with which we are too familiar and accept too readily its limitations on our ability to live our lives as we want. He replaces this time hononred guide to a "good life" with a discussion of Socrates, as the true hero in our midst.
Suicide victims do not go to hell and ABORTION is shown, (the first time I have seen it in a main stream film) without dire consequences. The teenage girl( Molly Shannon ) is accompanied not by her parents and not with their consent or knowledge but by a girlfriend ( Hilary Duff), someone with true compassion and understanding of the necessity of the procedure.
And Molly Shannon's character survives! She becomes a hero, a mature young adult whose wisdom is well worth listening to.
I recommend this film because of the quiet, amusing and convincing way it presents highly charged ideas. My only regret is that the film makers didn't have the abundance of finacial backing to make this film an exravaganza of robust detail. They seem to have spent their limited funds on quality acting rather than expensive and elaborate sets.
Who can fault that!
LindaZises
WBAI Women's Collective
Criticalwomen@blogspot.com
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Downloading Nancy : Self mutilation and more
Johan Renck: Director
Writer: Pamela Cuming, Lee Ross
Cast: Maria Bello, Jason Patric, Rufus Sewel, Amy Brenneman
This film is not for everyone. In all probability it will not make huge profit at the box office. However, it explores a subject of real dimension that promises to grow in proportion as the Internet continues to dominate our lives, our ability and means of interacting with one another.
This is a story told with exceptional acting and palatable insidious pain as the viewer is forced to see another way towards liberation from inner tormoil.
Nancy addresses her pyschological pain by inflicting physical pain of increasing intensity upon her body. She deems a sharp razor a requisite item to be thrown into her pocket book cosmetic bag when she leaves the house.
With grueling precision Downloading Nancy depicts Nancy's progress towards liberation in the execution of a plan established on the Internet with a man committed administering her pain and ultimate demise; this time without use of the computer. In the process they go beyond their 'plan' into the realm of 'normal' human interaction that we are all familiar with.
There is a pivotal moment captured in the image of the 'man in the bath tub'.
During the course of my viewing experience I have seen (as you probably have) well over one hundred scenes of an adult in a bathtub with or without benefit of bubble bath. But Christopher Doyle offers an aerial view of the man, the bathtub, the surrounding ceramic that takes the banal and elevates this familiar image into breathtaking visual moment.
For me this visual transformation captures the essence of the film: there is nothing shown that we do not know but to know this human process in search of easement of psychological pain through the eyes of Downloading Nancy's creators is an entirely new and awesome experience.
Downloading Nancy might be a first brutally honest film on self mutilation but I am confident it won't be the last.
Release Date: June 5, 2009 (Limited)
Linda Zises
WBAI Women's Colective
Writer: Pamela Cuming, Lee Ross
Cast: Maria Bello, Jason Patric, Rufus Sewel, Amy Brenneman
This film is not for everyone. In all probability it will not make huge profit at the box office. However, it explores a subject of real dimension that promises to grow in proportion as the Internet continues to dominate our lives, our ability and means of interacting with one another.
This is a story told with exceptional acting and palatable insidious pain as the viewer is forced to see another way towards liberation from inner tormoil.
Nancy addresses her pyschological pain by inflicting physical pain of increasing intensity upon her body. She deems a sharp razor a requisite item to be thrown into her pocket book cosmetic bag when she leaves the house.
With grueling precision Downloading Nancy depicts Nancy's progress towards liberation in the execution of a plan established on the Internet with a man committed administering her pain and ultimate demise; this time without use of the computer. In the process they go beyond their 'plan' into the realm of 'normal' human interaction that we are all familiar with.
There is a pivotal moment captured in the image of the 'man in the bath tub'.
During the course of my viewing experience I have seen (as you probably have) well over one hundred scenes of an adult in a bathtub with or without benefit of bubble bath. But Christopher Doyle offers an aerial view of the man, the bathtub, the surrounding ceramic that takes the banal and elevates this familiar image into breathtaking visual moment.
For me this visual transformation captures the essence of the film: there is nothing shown that we do not know but to know this human process in search of easement of psychological pain through the eyes of Downloading Nancy's creators is an entirely new and awesome experience.
Downloading Nancy might be a first brutally honest film on self mutilation but I am confident it won't be the last.
Release Date: June 5, 2009 (Limited)
Linda Zises
WBAI Women's Colective
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Jerichow: Black Cloud Rising
Director: Christian Petzold
Cast: Benno Fürmann ... Thomas
Nina Hoss ... Laura
Hilmi Sözer ... Ali Özkan
Although many Americans live with the guilt or jubilation from the dropping of the Hiroshima bomb that resulted in an en masse destruction of civilian life, Jerichow brings that event into clear focus with the use of three characters, (two men and a woman), moving slowly into the depth of their lives, fueled by the progressive almost predictable interactions.
At its core Jerichow is an achievement of the impossible: to bring world level events of War, of the ngredients of climate change into the human everyday experience of ordinary people. This film, like none I have ever seen, talks to me about the world of destruction, of the black cloud that is us and also hovers over us, whether we see it or not.
Jerichow isn't for everyone but everyone who sees it will applaud it as one of the great moments in film.
Opens May 15, 2009 in New York City: Fim Forum
German subtitles
Linda Zises
WBAI Women's Collective
Cast: Benno Fürmann ... Thomas
Nina Hoss ... Laura
Hilmi Sözer ... Ali Özkan
Although many Americans live with the guilt or jubilation from the dropping of the Hiroshima bomb that resulted in an en masse destruction of civilian life, Jerichow brings that event into clear focus with the use of three characters, (two men and a woman), moving slowly into the depth of their lives, fueled by the progressive almost predictable interactions.
At its core Jerichow is an achievement of the impossible: to bring world level events of War, of the ngredients of climate change into the human everyday experience of ordinary people. This film, like none I have ever seen, talks to me about the world of destruction, of the black cloud that is us and also hovers over us, whether we see it or not.
Jerichow isn't for everyone but everyone who sees it will applaud it as one of the great moments in film.
Opens May 15, 2009 in New York City: Fim Forum
German subtitles
Linda Zises
WBAI Women's Collective
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Jane Harmen, follow-up on my April 23,2009 blogspot.
U.S. to Drop Spy Case Against Pro-Israel Lobbyists
A New York Times follow up on the Jane Harmen article posted earlier
Although it was my intention to bring to light the misuse of an attractive Caucasian woman in politics, this New York Times May 2, 2009 article points to a lot more going on than the undisclosed wiretapping (seemingly without provocation) of one California politician of note
(this is a snipit of the whole)
By NEIL A. LEWIS and DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: May 1, 2009
WASHINGTON — A case that began four years ago with the tantalizing and volatile premise that officials of a major pro-Israel lobbying organization were illegally trafficking in sensitive national security information collapsed on Friday as prosecutors asked that all charges be withdrawn.
The investigation of Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman also surfaced recently in news reports that Representative Jane Harman, a California Democrat long involved in intelligence matters, was overheard on a government wiretap discussing the case. As reported by Congressional Quarterly, which covers Capitol Hill, and The New York Times, Ms. Harman was overheard agreeing with an Israeli intelligence operative to try to intercede with Bush administration officials to obtain leniency for Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman in exchange for help in persuading Democratic leaders to make her chairwoman of the House Intelligence Committee.
Ms. Harman has denied interceding for Mr. Rosen and Mr. Weissman, and has expressed anger that she was wiretapped. She is to be among the featured speakers at the Aipac conference next week.
Over government objections, Judge Ellis had also ruled that the defense could call as witnesses several senior Bush administration foreign policy officials to demonstrate that what occurred was part of the continuing process of information trading and did not involve anything nefarious. The defense lawyers were planning to call as witnesses former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice; Stephen J. Hadley, the former national security adviser; and several others. Government policy makers indicated they were clearly uncomfortable with senior officials’ testifying in open court over policy deliberations.
The government’s motion to dismiss said the government was obliged take a final review of the case to consider “the likelihood that classified information will be revealed at trial, any damage to the national security that might result from a disclosure of classified information and the likelihood the government would prevail at trial.”
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Goodbye Solo: Suicide Revisited
Director: Ramin Bahrani
Winner: Venice Film Festival International Critics' Prize
A slow-moving, seemingly uneventful film that tackles the issue of suicide: not from the victim's prospective but from the point of view of the survivor who sees the end of life as we know it within clear sight. What to do?
This film is the struggle between life and death, portrayed through the encounter of two very different people, a Senegal immigrant man and an American man who was once a full blooded motor cycle, beer drinking, tattooed man of the world who is now "over the hill".
There is a tedium in watching the slow motions that pass as events between the two men, the Senegalese is the taxi driver "Solo" and William the passenger about to end his life.
So many head shots, so little motion. Only the car seems to move. Although the film director is enamored with the car, the motion, the confining of the space allowed, i am more claustrophobic and the endless car trips did not ease the tension I feel within a moving car.
But the message, the process of being able to let go, to stop trying to save a man's life particularly when he doesn't want to be saved is a forceful one, a compelling moment to think about when or if such a moment is put in our way.
Suicide is always a difficult subject to discuss. Whether it is because of the religious taboo against it or the fear that it is a contagious event, there is rarely the question of why not. But, why not? We may not have a choice about being born but certainly there is nothing fundamentally wrong, nor impossible in our ability to end our own life for whatever reason.
Let go. That is the powerful message that informs on Goodbye Solo.
Linda Zises
WBAI Women's Collective
Criticalwomen.net
Winner: Venice Film Festival International Critics' Prize
A slow-moving, seemingly uneventful film that tackles the issue of suicide: not from the victim's prospective but from the point of view of the survivor who sees the end of life as we know it within clear sight. What to do?
This film is the struggle between life and death, portrayed through the encounter of two very different people, a Senegal immigrant man and an American man who was once a full blooded motor cycle, beer drinking, tattooed man of the world who is now "over the hill".
There is a tedium in watching the slow motions that pass as events between the two men, the Senegalese is the taxi driver "Solo" and William the passenger about to end his life.
So many head shots, so little motion. Only the car seems to move. Although the film director is enamored with the car, the motion, the confining of the space allowed, i am more claustrophobic and the endless car trips did not ease the tension I feel within a moving car.
But the message, the process of being able to let go, to stop trying to save a man's life particularly when he doesn't want to be saved is a forceful one, a compelling moment to think about when or if such a moment is put in our way.
Suicide is always a difficult subject to discuss. Whether it is because of the religious taboo against it or the fear that it is a contagious event, there is rarely the question of why not. But, why not? We may not have a choice about being born but certainly there is nothing fundamentally wrong, nor impossible in our ability to end our own life for whatever reason.
Let go. That is the powerful message that informs on Goodbye Solo.
Linda Zises
WBAI Women's Collective
Criticalwomen.net
American Violet
The Texas Raids Where Men And Women Are Given Equal Maltreatment
Directed by Tim Disney
Starring Alfre Woodard, Michael O’Keefe, Tim Blake Nelson, Will Patton, Charles S. Dutton, Xzibit, and newcomer Nicole Beharie
Based on real events and set in a small Texas town in the midst of the 2000 Bush/Gore presidential election.
AMERICAN VIOLET tells the astonishing story of Dee Roberts (critically hailed newcomer Nicole Beharie), a 24 year old African-American single mother of four who is wrongfully swept up in a drug raid. A raid that is periodically visited on the denizens of the Texas housing projects, and the threat of its re-occurrence does not stop with the end of the film.
The inside view of the prison was riveting. I had no idea of the conditions, the lack of humanity that people incarcerated, even if not guilty, are afforded.
This is a piece of history we need to know. The trip to knowledge that Tim Disney offers is an engrossing, enjoyable, yet disturbing adventure that will not be forgotten by those who see the film. It isn't a Hollywood extravaganza, but a slice of life that draws us into the moment and doesn't let us go, even after the lights come up.
The acting is stunning, the music is so perfect and the story is strong. A good job, a necessary work of art.
Samuel Goldwyn Films releases American Violet April 17th, 2009 nationwide
Linda Z
Crotocal women
wbai radio
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Notes on a Scandal
Notes on a Scandal (2006) DVD
Sexuality, Age and Attraction: what is moral, when?
Director: Richard Eyre
Starring: Judi Dench, Cate Blanchett
A twist and turn film with great acting and a moral message that encompasses age, sex, the double standard and the public, the moral majority who relish an attractive woman gone astray. Notes of a Scandal will bring moments of spontaneous fun, clever insight into human nature and moments of repulsion and anger to those who think sex with a young underage person is wrong, reprehensible without equivocation unless sanctioned by marriage.
In Notes of a Scandal morality is turned upside down, the good and bad dichotomy reversed and reversed again while the Pacific Palisades, California Look Out Point towering above the Will Rogers State Park gets center stage for those intimate quiet moments upon which the film's meaning depends.
A good film for quiet restless moments when something interesting, provocative will quell life's multiple distractions.
Linda Zises
WBAI Women's Collective
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
BALL DON'T LIE
Brin Hill Director
Writers (WGA):
Matt de la Peña (screenplay) &
Brin Hill (screenplay) ...
This is a quiet tour de force, a film that doesn't awaken you until it reaches its climax and then the lightening rod goes crazy.
Ball Don't Lie is the story of Sticky (Grayson Boucher), a 17 year old white boy who travels from one foster care home to another after suffering the trauma of the premature violent loss of his parental figure.
It is a story of a white boy making it in a black boy world because he has found basketball, a game that he excels at. But with all the bonding on the court, with all the seeming similarity in their life expectancy, the black and white world remain divided. It is this divide so beautifully articulated on the sands of Venice Beach, California beach that brings this film into notoriety and extraordinary excellence.
This is a film that uses real people, not just seasoned actors, and real places and even though in the main it feels like a trite, redo of a redo, by the end of the film you feel elevated to another plane of understanding of the world in which we live.
No small feat.
opens June 5th, 2009
Linda Z
WBAI Women's Collective
Writers (WGA):
Matt de la Peña (screenplay) &
Brin Hill (screenplay) ...
This is a quiet tour de force, a film that doesn't awaken you until it reaches its climax and then the lightening rod goes crazy.
Ball Don't Lie is the story of Sticky (Grayson Boucher), a 17 year old white boy who travels from one foster care home to another after suffering the trauma of the premature violent loss of his parental figure.
It is a story of a white boy making it in a black boy world because he has found basketball, a game that he excels at. But with all the bonding on the court, with all the seeming similarity in their life expectancy, the black and white world remain divided. It is this divide so beautifully articulated on the sands of Venice Beach, California beach that brings this film into notoriety and extraordinary excellence.
This is a film that uses real people, not just seasoned actors, and real places and even though in the main it feels like a trite, redo of a redo, by the end of the film you feel elevated to another plane of understanding of the world in which we live.
No small feat.
opens June 5th, 2009
Linda Z
WBAI Women's Collective
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Jane Harmen: too attractive to last so long in congress
It is no surprise that an attractive white woman is being attacked not just for being attractive but she is Jewish.
Jewish is not just a religion. It is a source of increasing identification with meaning where by new blogs are springing up to address this special interest group. A corrupt politician is not just potentially corrupt, but Jewish too.
Elliot Spitzer is another case in point. It is being said that his current return to the political scene is too much, too soon. Is this because he is Jewish? His crime was mostly one of personal behavior. Politically he was a whistle blower without protection
How much does prejudice control the political scene? Too much?
Linda Zises
WBAI Women's Collective
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Helen Gurley Brown: The original Carrie Bradshaw
Found in: Books of The Times
April 22, 2009
Written by a Man!
DWIGHT GARNER
This article raises much to be debated. It is rift with prejudice about women, about the uneducated and those who were educated (at great cost and effort in private colleges), and the effect of the women movement on today's second sex.
Helen Gurley Brown author of “Sex and the Single Girl” (1962) and the editor of Coismopolitan for three decades was the first "tough sexy woman" to take public notice and female followers who sought out her teachings because they entertained and made life a little nicer. She helped the "single women" be single without fear of recrimination and she pushed for common sense about issues where common sense was not formerly exercised.
Certainly a woman to be studied and talked about. This book Helen Gurley Brown The original Carrie Bradshaw is well worth a read. I recommend it for selection at your next women's book or study group.
Linda Zises
WBAI Women Collective
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Julia: Funny or not, that is the question
Julia is a 2008 drama/thriller film
directed by Erick Zonca with Tilda Swinton
shot in California and Mexico.
The film was inspired by:
* Gloria (film) (1980), a film directed by John Cassavetes
* Gloria (film) (1999), a remake of John Cassavetes' Gloria by Sidney Lumet
* Gloria (TV series) , an All in the Family spin-off
Julia is a confusing film with gender at center stage. The academy award winning actress Tilda Swinton did an outstanding performance in her role as Julia, an attractive alcoholic woman, who in her superficial effort to stop drinking by attending an AA meeting meets up with a scam maker who deals in money for a kidnapped eight to ten year old boy.
What ensues is a series of chase scenes and schemes replete with guns drawn and even used when the moment seemed ripe. This masculine driven behavior is contrasted with Julia's maternal striving that seem harshly hidden in the beginning of the film.
I am not as disturbed by women dressed up in clothes and behavior and general speech and demeanor to seem like men but the lack of any character in the film for me to identify with is a serious problem. I didn't like anyone and I doubt if any viewer could. What I did like was the contrast in life style between the rampant poverty in Mexico , the barren harsh desert and the affluent American life style that is afforded to even the downward mobile citizens.
Men seem to like this film, perhaps they feel titillated by it (as will some woman) because there is a playful element to the interactions.
Putting children into an intensely disturbed adult setting often yields awkward juxtaposition and amusing moments in contrast to the harsh authoritarian rule.
Julia is a case in point.
But
For a film like this to "work" there has to be a reason to care, to feel a positive emotional involvement with someone on screen and that didn't happen. Not for me.
Linda Zises
WBAI Women Collective
Monday, April 20, 2009
"TURNING POINTS" Left Forum
The Left Forum, April 17-19, 2009 conference entitled "Turing Points" was larger than years past due to he change in venue. In the post few years the weekend event was held at Cooper Union. This year the "left" community or those who just want to know piled into Pace University the third and sixth floor to hear "what is going on " and what the alternative media and academicians have to say on current events.
Current events of note abound.
From one session to another three to five men stood on their small podium to discuss the depression (here there is no illusion of a repression or slow down of economic malais) with tentative offerings of an assessment of what use we, not them, can make of the moment and where do we go from here.
Where we go from here is an endless topic with lively criticism of the current policies and forecast of doom and gloom for the "risk and speculation" debt driven world that has dominated the economy known as Capitalism.
The grass roots movements seemed small but notable challenges for the rights of people to get what they think government should provide (food, clothing, shelter and the ability to fulfill their potential) while others debated the forecast of another "Bubble" or the dimensions of the crisis and if the crisis is good, leading towards another kind of economic system or bad, leading to a fascistic society where more members of the ruling elite separate themselves further and further from the crowded working/lower class citizens.
Of course there is still debate on if there is a working class and how will this huge debt be paid and by whom and will China loom large or will 'China come down into the mire of the world economy
It was lively, even enjoyable conference with plenty of books and ideas to take home. But the overall complaint as to why Men must be in the forefront and women so neglected as speakers remains in the minds of those who care about such things. Does gender matter?, was not one of the titles of the more than sixty sessions and vegetarianism was frowned upon as being off the map, irrelevant And if one looked around at the participants at the conference it is easy to see why Vegetarianism hasn't taken hold, at least, not for this group of high thinkers and poor eaters.
Linda zises
WBAI women Collective
Current events of note abound.
From one session to another three to five men stood on their small podium to discuss the depression (here there is no illusion of a repression or slow down of economic malais) with tentative offerings of an assessment of what use we, not them, can make of the moment and where do we go from here.
Where we go from here is an endless topic with lively criticism of the current policies and forecast of doom and gloom for the "risk and speculation" debt driven world that has dominated the economy known as Capitalism.
The grass roots movements seemed small but notable challenges for the rights of people to get what they think government should provide (food, clothing, shelter and the ability to fulfill their potential) while others debated the forecast of another "Bubble" or the dimensions of the crisis and if the crisis is good, leading towards another kind of economic system or bad, leading to a fascistic society where more members of the ruling elite separate themselves further and further from the crowded working/lower class citizens.
Of course there is still debate on if there is a working class and how will this huge debt be paid and by whom and will China loom large or will 'China come down into the mire of the world economy
It was lively, even enjoyable conference with plenty of books and ideas to take home. But the overall complaint as to why Men must be in the forefront and women so neglected as speakers remains in the minds of those who care about such things. Does gender matter?, was not one of the titles of the more than sixty sessions and vegetarianism was frowned upon as being off the map, irrelevant And if one looked around at the participants at the conference it is easy to see why Vegetarianism hasn't taken hold, at least, not for this group of high thinkers and poor eaters.
Linda zises
WBAI women Collective
Friday, April 17, 2009
FOREVER Heddy Honigmann's 'expressions of lasting love'
What a romantic title, an eye catching approach to a delicate subject, a cemetery in Paris.
I went to Paris, to the Pere Lachaise Cemetery. After looking for housing I stepped inside its gates because I was in the vicinity. I thought an hour or so and I would be back on the streets looking for a place to stay.
But cemeteries, even Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn New York were not designed for only the no longer living in this world. They were formerly Parks, places to bring your picnic basket and partake of a family Sunday afternoon meal.
Perre Lachaise kept my interest for the entire day and to see this experience duplicated/preserved through the eyes of a master documentary maker is a rare and precious experience.
This film captures both the emotional moments of those who join in the celebration of life past and those who cherish the quiet world sans cars, where maps to find particular sites are a requisite in this beautiful, emotionally gripping retreat.
I have not been back to Paris in years and years but the sculptural creations in celebrated remembrance of each Nazi Concentration camp lingers in my mind, revisited in memory because they are what the best of Art is all about. To take what is and elevate it to a new configuration, a new memory stacked one upon the other.
That is the genius of Heddy Honigmann. She knows how to take a place, a moment, draw upon her ability to capture the essence as she sees it and create a work of Art with layer upon layer of meaning. The impact is as riveting as the Cemetery itself.
A necessary addition to our human experience.
Forever.
Grave sites of Note:
Jim Morrison
Oscar Wilde
Frederic Chopin
Marcel Proust
Maria Callas
, Guillaume Apollinaire,
Amadeo Modigliani,
Jean-Auguste Ingres,
Georges Méliès,
Yves Montand
Simone Signoret
And
their music,
their art,
their written words
preserved!
APRIL 21st
HOME-VIDEO RELEASE FROM ICARUS FILMS (DVD)
LindaZises
WBAI Women Collective
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Cookies & Cream
------------------
Linda
Thank you for a very well written, thought out, and honest review. It is refreshing to see the female point of view on a film like this, and its because you have managed to find the intricate details of the character and the story, where sometimes male critics or reviewers missed it. Its refreshing. Thank you sincerely, for your interest. We will make sure to blog about it at our site, and let the world know about it and your writing. If there are any more films in our catalog that may be suitable to your tastes and sensibilities, we will definitely not hesitate to contact you.
Sincerely,
Princeton
www.onewaytv.blogspot.com
Linda
Thank you for a very well written, thought out, and honest review. It is refreshing to see the female point of view on a film like this, and its because you have managed to find the intricate details of the character and the story, where sometimes male critics or reviewers missed it. Its refreshing. Thank you sincerely, for your interest. We will make sure to blog about it at our site, and let the world know about it and your writing. If there are any more films in our catalog that may be suitable to your tastes and sensibilities, we will definitely not hesitate to contact you.
Sincerely,
Princeton
www.onewaytv.blogspot.com
Cookies & Cream: Sex industry with a human twist
Written and Directed by Princeton Holt
Cookies and Cream: Another way of life, other options, other ways of finding independence, financial security and a home life.
Maybe not the American dream home life but a life where shopping is not a financial drain and care of one's body is an art, not an option.
Being a sex worker in America is not quarented work on the fast track to success. But Cookies&Cream and Candy too(Carmen's very young daughter) is a tale where Carmen a young woman, headed for pre-law classes at a local New York, maybe Brooklyn high school, is intercepted by three men on the hunt for another victim, another young woman ripe for the picking.
Camen (Jace Nicole) is their new recruit, their fish plucked out of the mainstream of American life headed for the underground sex world, a successful woman hungered by men(and enjoyed by women) world wide.
A fighter in the real world, Carmen's promoters don't ask her height, her weight, her age. They want to know her roots, her ethnic origin but what does this answer mean? If she said, American Black, Puerto Rican, French, Africans what difference does this label make? "I'm all mixed up", she confesses.
Her parents made no sense to me and her daughter, Candy, was so sad. There is a constant theme of don't cry, don't feel what you really feel. Be false to yourself, be strong, cruel in the moment of potential tenderness.
Love is so thin, so tender that when Carmen walks away from an attempt at honest integrity with a man who seems to like her, not for her body alone but for her personality, her strength of mind and feeling, there is a moment when even I wanted to yell at the screen, cry , cry, cry for us all.
For inquiring minds, for people who might not want to go up on the Web to play voyeur to scenes from the money minded people who proliferate handsomely in the underworld of sex, this film will open your eyes and mind to what it is to be successful in the sex industry. What it means to fail can only be far worse.
This human tragedy unfolds with great acting and musical scores of serious excellence.
We need more films like Cookies & Cream.
One Way or Another Productions
WWW.Cookiesncreammovie.com
A web sight well worth viewing.
LindaZises
WBAI Women Collective
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