Podcasts about Les Blank

Opera-loving director wants to make a movie about an opera-loving rubber baron who hauls a boat over a mountain in order to bring music to the jungle, and so he hauls an actual boat over a mountain. The lines between life and art, work and exploitation, madness and determination blur together in this documentary about the making of Fitzcarraldo. Starring Werner Herzog, Klaus Kinski, Jason Robards. Directed by Les Blank. Narrated by Michael Goodwin.

Tom Luddy was a quiet titan of cinema. He presided over the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley for some 10 years, co-founded and directed The Telluride Film Festival for nearly 50 years, produced some 14 movies, match-made dozens of international love affairs, and foraged for the most beautiful, political, important, risky films and made sure there was a place for them to be seen in the world. And that the people making this powerful work were known and knew each other. Tom Luddy with his photographic memory, his infinite rolodex, his encyclopedic knowledge of global cinema and his catalytic ability to connect people, caused the most unusual of collaborations to come to be. Tom championed the French New Wave, the Czech New Wave, Brazilian cinema novo, dissident Soviet cinema, directors Francis Coppola, Jean-Luc Godard, Werner Herzog, Agnes Varda, Les Blank, Paul Schrader, Agnieszka Holland, Barry Jenkins, Laurie Anderson and countless others.Tom passed away on February 13, 2023. There's a giant hole in the screen without him here. But his DNA is in the hundreds of filmmakers, musicians, writers and activists he nurtured and inspired.The Tom Luddy Connection: The Man, The Movies, The Rolodex was produced by Evan Jacoby and The Kitchen Sisters (Davia Nelson & Nikki Silva) in collaboration with Brandi Howell and Nathan Dalton. Mixed by Jim McKee.

If you've been listening to Transmissions for a while, you've noticed how often host Jason P. Woodbury brings up “time” when talking about music. And while he's certainly apt to talk about music in spiritual or "out there" terms, songs are in some ways literal time machines: they can take you back to your own past or in the case of traditional music, preserve some essential “nowness” of the human experience. Songsmith Jake Xerxes Fussell grew up understanding this intimately. As the son of folklorist, photographer, and artist Fred C. Fussell, he spent time on the road with his father, documenting the sound and feel of blues singers, indigenous fiddlers, and performers whose songbooks reached back generations.  The younger Fussell carries on curatorial work through his records, applying his alternately smooth and grainy voice to traditional vernacular ballads. His latest collection is called When I'm Called. Produced by James Elkington, it finds the Durham-based songwriter joined by a cast of collaborators including Blake Mills, Joan Shelley, and Joe Westerlund of Bon Iver. Though it's comprised of traditional blues and folk, as is Fussell's trademark, it isn't a work of historicity so much as a document of how songs live; how they can be preserved, and how they can find new life.  In this conversation, Fussell explains, and touches on The Beastie Boys and his time with one of our documentary heroes, Les Blank. Aquarium Drunkard is supported by our subscribers. Head over and peruse our site, where you'll find nearly 20 years worth of playlists, recommendations, reviews, interviews, podcasts, essays, and more. Subscribe at Aquarium Drunkard.  Transmissions is a part of the Talkhouse Podcast Network. Visit the Talkhouse for more interviews, fascinating reads, and podcasts. This episode is brought to you by DistroKid. DistroKid makes music distribution fun and easy with unlimited uploads and artists keep 100% of their royalties and earnings. To learn more and get 30% off your first year's membership, visit: distrokid.com/vip/aquariumdrunkard

Recorded Aug 29, 2024. Spark The Genius interviews Director Jon Nix about his documentary Don't Fall In Love With Yourself about Justin Pearson and the San Diego Punk Scene. Please support my show by clicking Follow at https://amazon.com/shop/sparkthegenius You can follow all my social media at the links at https://linktree.com/sparkthegenius The show notes below are made with the AI at Riverside recording software which I use to record my interviews and even to make show notes for interviews I did over Zoom, like this one. My affiliate link to Riverside is https://go.sparkthegenius.com/riverside-fm AI Show Notes: Summary The conversation is about the director's interest in the San Diego music scene and his documentary about it. They discuss the director's background in music and filmmaking, the process of making the documentary, the importance of practical actions in politics and social justice, and the impact of the documentary. The director also mentions his inspiration from Les Blank's anthropological approach to filmmaking. takeaways The director's interest in the San Diego music scene and his connection to the bands and stories from that scene. The process of making the documentary and the challenges of working with archival footage. The importance of practical actions in politics and social justice, focusing on personal choices and community involvement. The impact of the documentary in preserving and highlighting a lesser-known music scene. The director's inspiration from Les Blank's anthropological approach to filmmaking. Chapters 00:00 Introduction and Background 01:02 Interest in the San Diego Music Scene 03:18 Challenges of Making a Documentary 08:52 Practical Actions in Politics and Social Justice 11:15 Preserving a Lesser-Known Music Scene 12:41 Inspiration from Les Blank's Filmmaking Approach

Kinds of Kindness, Working On set, And Les Blank

In anticipation of the 4K remaster of Les Blank's 'Burden of Dreams,' we interview Harrod Blank, a filmmaker, photographer, and car artist. Harrod, who took over his father Les Blank's legacy by restoring his films, shares his journey of becoming a filmmaker and artist in his own right. He discusses his unique path, various Art Cars, relationship with Werner Herzog, and being the subject of a documentary. We delve into his father's perspective on making 'Burden of Dreams' and details on the new 4K version, along with reflections on the relationship between fathers, sons, and chickens.Catch the remastered Burden of Dreams:New York, Film Form July 19th - 25th: https://filmforum.org/film/burden-of-dreamsBerkeley, BAMPFA July 27th: https://secure.bampfa.org/24152/24162Harrod's notable works include the documentaries 'Wild Wheels' and 'Why Can't I Be Me? Around You', and he is developing Art Car World in Arizona.lesblank.comargotpictures.comartcarworld.orgJoin the Extended Family on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FilmwithFamilyYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FilmwithFamilyInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/filmwithfamily/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@film.with.familyTwitter: https://twitter.com/filmwithfamilyFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551928799003Email us at filmwithfamilypodcast@gmail.comLetterboxd: Austin C. Pruett and zacharyzweifler

Austin's dad, Glen, joins us to talk about the 1982 Les Blank documentary 'Burden of Dreams'. We cover the chaotic production of 'Fitzcarraldo', Werner Herzog's dark perspective on nature, and how art can become an obsession. Stay tuned for our interview with Harrod Blank on 7/17, where we'll explore the newly remastered version of 'Burden of Dreams'!00:00 - Intro04:30 - Glen's Obsession08:35 - Discussing 'Burden of Dreams'13:00 - 'Fitzcarraldo' Production23:20 - Behind-the-Scenes Chaos31:50 - Rolling Stones Story34:00 - Harrod Blank Coming on the Podcast36:30 - Final ThoughtsJoin the Extended Family on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FilmwithFamilyYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FilmwithFamilyInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/filmwithfamily/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@film.with.familyTwitter: https://twitter.com/filmwithfamilyFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551928799003Email us at filmwithfamilypodcast@gmail.comLetterboxd: Austin C. Pruett and zacharyzweifler

​Bookwaves/Artwaves is produced and hosted by Richard Wolinsky. Links to assorted local theater & book venues    Maureen Gosling, filmmaker and film editor, discusses the films of noted documentary director Les Blank (1935-2013), which whom she collaborated for several years, along with her own career, in this interview with host Richard Wolinsky.  A Retrospective of the films of Les Blank can be seen at Pacific Film Archive June 7 to July 27, 2024. Les Blank is best known for “Burden of Dreams,” an award winning documentary detailing the efforts of German director Werner Herzog in making his film “Fitzcarraldo” in the Peruvian jungle. Les Blank's work, though, focuses on the music and culture of the New Orleans and Louisiana, and the American South, with forays into the lives of several musicians, including rock legend Leon Russell. Maureen Gosling worked as a sound recordist and editor (and co-filmmaker) on several of Les Blank's films. Among her own films are There Ain't No Mouse Music: The Story of Chris Strachwitz and Arhoolie Records and The Nine Lives of Barbara Dane. Complete 45-minute Interview.     Paul Auster (1947-2024), in conversation with host Richard Wolinsky, recorded October 2, 2002 while on tour for his novel “The Book of Illusions.” Second of two parts. This segment of the interview has never aired. Paul Auster, who died on April 30th, 2024 was a world-renowned novelist, memoirist, and film-maker whose works were translated into forty languages. His career as a writer began with a well-received memoir, The invention of Solitude in 1982, and took off in 1987 with the publication of three connected novellas titled The New York Trilogy. His fame and success grew over the following years. He moved into film-making with the screenplays for two movies directed by Wayne Wang, Smoke and Blue in the Face, and then wrote and directed his own film, Lulu on the Bridge. Complete 48-minute Interview.   Review of “The Lehman Trilogy” at ACT Toni Rembe Theatre through June 23, 2024.   Book Interview/Events and Theatre Links Note: Shows may unexpectedly close early or be postponed due to actors' positive COVID tests. Check the venue for closures, ticket refunds, and vaccination and mask requirements before arrival. Dates are in-theater performances unless otherwise noted. Some venues operate Tuesday – Sunday; others Wednesday or Thursday through Sunday. All times Pacific Time. Closing dates are sometimes extended. Book Stores Bay Area Book Festival  See website for highlights from the 10th Annual Bay Area Book Festival, June 1-2, 2024. Book Passage.  Monthly Calendar. Mix of on-line and in-store events. Books Inc.  Mix of on-line and in-store events. The Booksmith.  Monthly Event Calendar. Center for Literary Arts, San Jose. See website for Book Club guests in upcoming months. Green Apple Books. Events calendar. Kepler's Books  On-line Refresh the Page program listings. Live Theater Companies Actor's Reading Collective (ARC).  Upcoming readings to be announced. African American Art & Culture Complex. See website for calendar. Alter Theatre. See website for upcoming productions. American Conservatory Theatre  The Lehman Trilogy by Stefano Massini . Adapted by Ben Power, directed by Sam Mandes, May 25-June 23, Toni Rembe Theater. Aurora Theatre  The Lifespan of a Fact by Jeremy Kareken & David Murrell and Gordon Farrell, June 21-July 21. Streaming:  July 16-21. Awesome Theatre Company. Por La Noche (By Night), October 11 – 26, 2924. See website for information. Berkeley Rep Galileo, World Premiere Musical, book by Danny Strong, with Raul Esparza, extended to June 23, Roda Theatre. Mother Road by Octavio Solis, June 14-July 21, Peets Theatre. Berkeley Shakespeare Company. See website for upcoming shows. Boxcar Theatre. The Speakeasy. Must close June 29, 2024 Brava Theatre Center: See calendar for current and upcoming productions. BroadwaySF: Company, June 5-29, Orpheum. Mrs. Doubtfire, July 2-28. Girl from the North Country, July 30-Aug 18, Golden Gate. See website for events at the Orpheum, Curran and Golden Gate. Broadway San Jose:  Peter Pan, June 25-30. California Shakespeare Theatre (Cal Shakes). As You Like it, September 12 – 29. Center Rep: Cabaret, May 26 – June 23, Lesher Center for the Arts. Central Works  Accused by Patricia Milton, July 13 – August 11. Cinnabar Theatre. La Boheme June 21 – July 5. Club Fugazi. Dear San Francisco ongoing. Check website for Music Mondays listings. Contra Costa Civic Theatre In Repertory: Hamlet and Rosencranz and Gildenstern Are Dead, September 7 – 22. Curran Theater: Sesame Street Live, Say Hello, June 7-8; The Cher Show, June 19-23. Custom Made Theatre. In hibernation. Cutting Ball Theatre. See website for upcoming shows. 42nd Street Moon. Bright Star postponed. Golden Thread  Conversations with Artists via Zoom and Howlround TV, through June 13, 2024. Hillbarn Theatre: Always…Patsy Cline, August 22 – September 15. Lorraine Hansberry Theatre. See website for upcoming productions. Magic Theatre. Garuda's Wing by Naomi Iizuka, June 5-23. Marin Theatre Company Yaga by by Kurt Sondler, October 10 – November 3, 2024. Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts Upcoming Events Page. New Conservatory Theatre Center (NCTC) tick..tick..BOOM by Jonathan Larson, through June 16, 2024. Ride the Cyclone by Jacob Richmond & Brooke Maxwell, September 20 – October 20. Oakland Theater Project.  Ghost of King Created by and featuring Michael Wayne Turner III June 6-23, 2024. Odd Salon: Upcoming events in San Francisco & New York, and streaming. Pear Theater. Chaplin and Keaton on the Set of Limelight  by Greg Lam, June 28 – July 21, 2024. Presidio Theatre. See website for complete schedule of events and performances. Ray of Light: Everybody's Talking About Jamie, June 1 – 23, 2024. See website for Spotlight Cabaret Series at Feinstein's at the Nikko. San Francisco Playhouse. The Glass Menagerie by Tennessee Williams, May 2 – June 15. SFBATCO I, Too, Sing America, Grace Cathedral, June 13-15. See website for upcoming streaming and in- theater shows. San Jose Stage Company: Dirty Rotten Scoundrels.  June 5 – 30. Shotgun Players.  Best Available by Jonathan Spector. May 18 – June 16. Website also lists one night only events at the Ashby Stage. South Bay Musical Theatre: Mary Poppins, the Broadway Musical, May 18 – June 8. Saratoga Civic Theater. Stagebridge: Shady Manor, a musical play by Prescott Cole. June 14-16. 2501 Harrison St., Oakland. The Breath Project. Streaming archive. The Marsh: Calendar listings for Berkeley, San Francisco and Marshstream. Theatre Rhino  Four Play by Jake Brunger, June 13 – July 7, 2024. Streaming: Essential Services Project, conceived and performed by John Fisher, all weekly performances now available on demand. TheatreWorks Silicon Valley. Being Alive: A Sondheim Celebration June 5-20, Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts.. Word for Word.  See website for upcoming productions. Misc. Listings: BAM/PFA: On View calendar for BAM/PFA. Berkeley Symphony: See website for listings. Chamber Music San Francisco: Calendar, 2023 Season. Dance Mission Theatre. On stage events calendar. Oregon Shakespeare Festival: Calendar listings and upcoming shows. San Francisco Opera. Calendar listings. San Francisco Symphony. Calendar listings. Filmed Live Musicals: Searchable database of all filmed live musicals, podcast, blog. If you'd like to add your bookstore or theater venue to this list, please write Richard@kpfa.org The post Bookwaves/Artwaves – June 6, 2024: Maureen Gosling, The Films of Les Blank; Paul Auster Part Two appeared first on KPFA.

Maureen Gosling, filmmaker and film editor, discusses the films of noted documentary director Les Blank (1935-2013), which whom she collaborated for several years, along with her own career, in this interview with host Richard Wolinsky.  A Retrospective of the films of Les Blank can be seen at Pacific Film Archive June 7 to July 27, 2024. Les Blank is best known for “Burden of Dreams,” an award winning documentary detailing the efforts of German director Werner Herzog in making his film “Fitzcarraldo” in the Peruvian jungle. Les Blank's work, though, focuses on the music and culture of the New Orleans and Louisiana, and the American South, with forays into the lives of several musicians, including rock legend Leon Russell. Maureen Gosling worked as a sound recordist and editor (and co-filmmaker) on several of Les Blank's films. Among her own films are There Ain't No Mouse Music: The Story of Chris Strachwitz and Arhoolie Records and The Nine Lives of Barbara Dane.   The post Maureen Gosling: The Films of Les Blank appeared first on KPFA.

With the weather warming up, now is the perfect time for a deep dive into Lake Merritt (not literally!). First, this episode explores the wild side of this body of water (which is technically a tidal estuary) with Constance Taylor, a naturalist with California Center for Natural History. Next, I interview C.J. Hirschfield, former director of Children's Fairyland, about the enchanting amusement park that's been entertaining families on the shores of Lake Merritt since 1950. Listen now to hear about the origin of the lake's geodesic dome, the real story behind Walt Disney's “inspiration,” and much more. Don't forget to check out the trailer for the upcoming documentary Reflections on Lake Merritt: https://www.gofundme.com/f/CreativeDiasporas Follow East Bay Yesterday on Substack to receive news about upcoming events, tours, and other local history news: https://substack.com/@eastbayyesterday Special thanks to the sponsors of this episode: UCSF Benioff Children's Hospitals Oakland and the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. To get tickets to Children's Hospital Oakland's upcoming event at the historic Fox Theater, visit: https://www.notesandwords.org/ To learn more about BAMPFA's summer program, which features the films of Les Blank and much more, visit: https://bampfa.org/film

Adam talks with legendary German filmmaker, writer and actor Werner Herzog about AI poetry, email etiquette, why LA is like ancient Rome, the Japanese soldier who hid in the jungle believing the 2nd World War was still happening for 29 years, the value of therapy and whether trauma and conflict are best dealt with or buried, what his problem is with David Blaine and why someone needs to send Werner into orbit.This conversation was recorded remotely on 8th December 2023Thanks to Séamus Murphy-Mitchell for production support and conversation editing.Podcast artwork by Helen Green ADAM BUXTON PODCAST TOUR 2024RELATED LINKSADAM BUXTON ON GET SHIRTY PODCAST - 2024 (HARDMAN AND HEMMING WEBSITE)BURDEN OF DREAMS Directed by Les Blank - 1982 (YOUTUBE)HERZOG ON THE VILENESS OF THE AMAZON JUNGLE (From Burden Of Dreams) - 1982 (YOUTUBE)THE WHITE DIAMOND Directed by Werner Herzog - 2004 (YOUTUBE)LITTLE DIETER NEEDS TO FLY Directed by Werner Herzog - 1997 (YOUTUBE)LITTLE DIETER NEEDS TO FLY - NAPALM THROAT SINGING SCENE - 1997 (YOUTUBE)A scene from Little Dieter featuring music from Russian Tuvan throat singer Kogar-ol OndarLESSONS OF DARKNESS Directed by Werner Herzog - 1992 (YOUTUBE)Retreating from Kuwait after the first Gulf War, the Iraqi army sets fire to the country's oil fields. In this documentary, filmmaker Werner Herzog films the raging flames while narrating from the perspective of a confused alien visitor, musing on the strangeness of the landscape. As the fires burn, helicopter shots display the extent of the damage. On the ground, firefighters do their best to control things, while Kuwaiti women recount atrocities perpetrated by the Iraqis.WERNER HERZOG IS VOICING A POETRY COLLECTION WRITTEN ENTIRELY BY AN AI - 2023 (DAZED)HERZOG ON THE HENRY ROLLINS SHOW (plus Frank Black singing 'I Burn Today') - 2006 (YOUTUBE)TEENAGERS' MATHS AND READING SKILLS ARE DROPPING SHARPLY (ACCORDING TO 2022 'PISA' TEST) - 2023 (WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM)DOMITABLE MYTH: THREE DEPICTIONS OF JAPANESE HOLDOUT SOLDIER by A.E.Hunt - 2023 (INTERNATIONAL DOCUMENTARY ASSOCIATION) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Michael M. Pessah, ASC and Buddy Squires, ASC talk about the art, history, and current practices of documentary filmmaking.

Summer 2023 was HOT for the movies, and Film with Family was there to be a part of history. In fact, it was so hot that we needed to cool off and debrief the last few months. After talking about what we did on our summer vacation, we revisit all the films we reviewed this summer, and touch on some movies that we didn't get to on the pod; like TMNT: Mutant Mayhem and Past Lives. We also hear from all your favorite members of the family! Caleb, Ana Rae, Glen, Donna, Lizzy, Steve, Drew, even Grandma and Grandpa all make cameos. And we got our first call-in guest to give their Take Two on Barbie. It's a jam packed episode for a jam packed summer!06:40 Oldboy and TMNT: Mutant Mayhem (with Caleb and Ana Rae)23:08 Asteroid City and Indiana Jones (with Donna)38:20 Mission Impossible (with Glen)43:48 Oppenheimer (with Glen, Drew, Lizzy, Steve and Grandma)01:12:15 Barbie (with Drew and Justin Fink)01:25:40 Summer Rankings01:34:38 Maui and Les Blank (with Glen)Join the Extended Family on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/FilmwithFamilyYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FilmwithFamilyInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/filmwithfamily/TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@film.with.familyTwitter: https://twitter.com/filmwithfamilyFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61551928799003Email us at filmwithfamilypodcast@gmail.comLetterboxd: Austin C. Pruett and zacharyzweifler

We continue our miniseries on the 1980s movies distributed by Miramax Films, with a look at the films released in 1988. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT   From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it's The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today.   On this episode, we finally continue with the next part of our look back at the 1980s movies distributed by Miramax Films, specifically looking at 1988.   But before we get there, I must issue another mea culpa. In our episode on the 1987 movies from Miramax, I mentioned that a Kiefer Sutherland movie called Crazy Moon never played in another theatre after its disastrous one week Oscar qualifying run in Los Angeles in December 1987.   I was wrong.   While doing research on this episode, I found one New York City playdate for the film, in early February 1988. It grossed a very dismal $3200 at the 545 seat Festival Theatre during its first weekend, and would be gone after seven days.   Sorry for the misinformation.   1988 would be a watershed year for the company, as one of the movies they acquired for distribution would change the course of documentary filmmaking as we knew it, and another would give a much beloved actor his first Academy Award nomination while giving the company its first Oscar win.   But before we get to those two movies, there's a whole bunch of others to talk about first.   Of the twelve movies Miramax would release in 1988, only four were from America. The rest would be a from a mixture of mostly Anglo-Saxon countries like the UK, Canada, France and Sweden, although there would be one Spanish film in there.   Their first release of the new year, Le Grand Chemin, told the story of a timid nine-year-old boy from Paris who spends one summer vacation in a small town in Brittany. His mother has lodged the boy with her friend and her friend's husband while Mom has another baby. The boy makes friends with a slightly older girl next door, and learns about life from her.   Richard Bohringer, who plays the friend's husband, and Anémone, who plays the pregnant mother, both won Cesars, the French equivalent to the Oscars, in their respective lead categories, and the film would be nominated for Best Foreign Language Film of 1987 by the National Board of Review. Miramax, who had picked up the film at Cannes several months earlier, waited until January 22nd, 1988, to release it in America, first at the Paris Theatre in midtown Manhattan, where it would gross a very impressive $41k in its first three days. In its second week, it would drop less than 25% of its opening weekend audience, bringing in another $31k. But shortly after that, the expected Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film did not come, and business on the film slowed to a trickle. But it kept chugging on, and by the time the film finished its run in early June, it had grossed $541k.   A week later, on January 29th, Miramax would open another French film, Light Years. An animated science fiction film written and directed by René Laloux, best known for directing the 1973 animated head trip film Fantastic Planet, Light Years was the story of an evil force from a thousand years in the future who begins to destroy an idyllic paradise where the citizens are in perfect harmony with nature.   In its first three days at two screens in Los Angeles and five screens in the San Francisco Bay Area, Light Years would gross a decent $48,665. Miramax would print a self-congratulating ad in that week's Variety touting the film's success, and thanking Isaac Asimov, who helped to write the English translation, and many of the actors who lent their vocal talents to the new dub, including Glenn Close, Bridget Fonda, Jennifer Grey, Christopher Plummer, and Penn and Teller. Yes, Teller speaks. The ad was a message to both the theatre operators and the major players in the industry. Miramax was here. Get used to it.   But that ad may have been a bit premature.   While the film would do well in major markets during its initial week in theatres, audience interest would drop outside of its opening week in big cities, and be practically non-existent in college towns and other smaller cities. Its final box office total would be just over $370k.   March 18th saw the release of a truly unique film.    Imagine a film directed by Robert Altman and Bruce Beresford and Jean-Luc Godard and Derek Jarman and Franc Roddam and Nicolas Roeg and Ken Russell and Charles Sturridge and Julien Temple. Imagine a film that starred Beverly D'Angelo, Bridget Fonda in her first movie, Julie Hagerty, Buck Henry, Elizabeth Hurley and John Hurt and Theresa Russell and Tilda Swinton. Imagine a film that brought together ten of the most eclectic filmmakers in the world doing four to fourteen minute short films featuring the arias of some of the most famous and beloved operas ever written, often taken out of their original context and placed into strange new places. Like, for example, the aria for Verdi's Rigoletto set at the kitschy Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, where a movie producer is cheating on his wife while she is in a nearby room with a hunky man who is not her husband. Imagine that there's almost no dialogue in the film. Just the arias to set the moments.   That is Aria.   If you are unfamiliar with opera in general, and these arias specifically, that's not a problem. When I saw the film at the Nickelodeon Theatre in Santa Cruz in June 1988, I knew some Wagner, some Puccini, and some Verdi, through other movies that used the music as punctuation for a scene. I think the first time I had heard Nessun Dorma was in The Killing Fields. Vesti La Giubba in The Untouchables. But this would be the first time I would hear these arias as they were meant to be performed, even if they were out of context within their original stories. Certainly, Wagner didn't intend the aria from Tristan und Isolde to be used to highlight a suicide pact between a young couple killing themselves in a Las Vegas hotel bathroom.   Aria definitely split critics when it premiered at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival, when it competed for the festival's main prize, the Palme D'Or. Roger Ebert would call it the first MTV opera and felt the filmmakers were poking fun at their own styles, while Leonard Maltin felt most of the endeavor was a waste of time. In the review for the New York Times, Janet Maslin would also make a reference to MTV but not in a positive way, and would note the two best parts of the film were the photo montage that is seen over the end credits, and the clever licensing of Chuck Jones's classic Bugs Bunny cartoon What's Opera, Doc, to play with the film, at least during its New York run. In the Los Angeles Times, the newspaper chose one of its music critics to review the film. They too would compare the film to MTV, but also to Fantasia, neither reference meant to be positive.   It's easy to see what might have attracted Harvey Weinstein to acquire the film.   Nudity.   And lots of it.   Including from a 21 year old Hurley, and a 22 year old Fonda.   Open at the 420 seat Ridgemont Theatre in Seattle on March 18th, 1988, Aria would gross a respectable $10,600. It would be the second highest grossing theatre in the city, only behind The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which grossed $16,600 in its fifth week at the 850 seat Cinerama Theatre, which was and still is the single best theatre in Seattle. It would continue to do well in Seattle, but it would not open until April 15th in Los Angeles and May 20th in New York City.   But despite some decent notices and the presence of some big name directors, Aria would stiff at the box office, grossing just $1.03m after seven months in theatres.   As we discussed on our previous episode, there was a Dennis Hopper movie called Riders on the Storm that supposedly opened in November 1987, but didn't. It did open in theatres in May of 1988, and now we're here to talk about it.   Riders on the Storm would open in eleven theatres in the New York City area on May 7th, including three theatres in Manhattan. Since Miramax did not screen the film for critics before release, never a good sign, the first reviews wouldn't show up until the following day, since the critics would actually have to go see the film with a regular audience. Vincent Canby's review for the New York Times would arrive first, and surprisingly, he didn't completely hate the film. But audiences didn't care. In its first weekend in New York City, Riders on the Storm would gross an anemic $25k. The following Friday, Miramax would open the film at two theatres in Baltimore, four theatres in Fort Worth TX (but surprisingly none in Dallas), one theatre in Los Angeles and one theatre in Springfield OH, while continuing on only one screen in New York. No reported grosses from Fort Worth, LA or Springfield, but the New York theatre reported ticket sales of $3k for the weekend, a 57% drop from its previous week, while the two in Baltimore combined for $5k.   There would be more single playdates for a few months. Tampa the same week as New York. Atlanta, Charlotte, Des Moines and Memphis in late May. Cincinnati in late June. Boston, Calgary, Ottawa and Philadelphia in early July. Greenville SC in late August. Evansville IL, Ithaca NY and San Francisco in early September. Chicago in late September. It just kept popping up in random places for months, always a one week playdate before heading off to the next location. And in all that time, Miramax never reported grosses. What little numbers we do have is from the theatres that Variety was tracking, and those numbers totaled up to less than $30k.   Another mostly lost and forgotten Miramax release from 1988 is Caribe, a Canadian production that shot in Belize about an amateur illegal arms trader to Central American terrorists who must go on the run after a deal goes down bad, because who wants to see a Canadian movie about an amateur illegal arms trader to Canadian terrorists who must go on the run in the Canadian tundra after a deal goes down bad?   Kara Glover would play Helen, the arms dealer, and John Savage as Jeff, a British intelligence agent who helps Helen.   Caribe would first open in Detroit on May 20th, 1988. Can you guess what I'm going to say next?   Yep.   No reported grosses, no theatres playing the film tracked by Variety.   The following week, Caribe opens in the San Francisco Bay Area, at the 300 seat United Artists Theatre in San Francisco, and three theatres in the South Bay. While Miramax once again did not report grosses, the combined gross for the four theatres, according to Variety, was a weak $3,700. Compare that to Aria, which was playing at the Opera Plaza Cinemas in its third week in San Francisco, in an auditorium 40% smaller than the United Artist, grossing $5,300 on its own.   On June 3rd, Caribe would open at the AMC Fountain Square 14 in Nashville. One show only on Friday and Saturday at 11:45pm. Miramax did not report grosses. Probably because people we going to see Willie Tyler and Lester at Zanie's down the street.   And again, it kept cycling around the country, one or two new playdates in each city it played in. Philadelphia in mid-June. Indianapolis in mid-July. Jersey City in late August. Always for one week, grosses never reported.   Miramax's first Swedish release of the year was called Mio, but this was truly an international production. The $4m film was co-produced by Swedish, Norwegian and Russian production companies, directed by a Russian, adapted from a Swedish book by an American screenwriter, scored by one of the members of ABBA, and starring actors from England, Finland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States.   Mio tells the story of a boy from Stockholm who travels to an otherworldly fantasy realm and frees the land from an evil knight's oppression. What makes this movie memorable today is that Mio's best friend is played by none other than Christian Bale, in his very first film.   The movie was shot in Moscow, Stockholm, the Crimea, Scotland, and outside Pripyat in the Northern part of what is now Ukraine, between March and July 1986. In fact, the cast and crew were shooting outside Pripyat on April 26th, when they got the call they needed to evacuate the area. It would be hours later when they would discover there had been a reactor core meltdown at the nearby Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. They would have to scramble to shoot in other locations away from Ukraine for a month, and when they were finally allowed to return, the area they were shooting in deemed to have not been adversely affected by the worst nuclear power plant accident in human history,, Geiger counters would be placed all over the sets, and every meal served by craft services would need to be read to make sure it wasn't contaminated.   After premiering at the Moscow Film Festival in July 1987 and the Norwegian Film Festival in August, Mio would open in Sweden on October 16th, 1987. The local critics would tear the film apart. They hated that the filmmakers had Anglicized the movie with British actors like Christopher Lee, Susannah York, Christian Bale and Nicholas Pickard, an eleven year old boy also making his film debut. They also hated how the filmmakers adapted the novel by the legendary Astrid Lindgren, whose Pippi Longstocking novels made her and her works world famous. Overall, they hated pretty much everything about it outside of Christopher Lee's performance and the production's design in the fantasy world.   Miramax most likely picked it up trying to emulate the success of The Neverending Story, which had opened to great success in most of the world in 1984. So it might seem kinda odd that when they would open the now titled The Land of Faraway in theatres, they wouldn't go wide but instead open it on one screen in Atlanta GA on June 10th, 1988. And, once again, Miramax did not report grosses, and Variety did not track Atlanta theatres that week. Two weeks later, they would open the film in Miami. How many theatres? Can't tell you. Miramax did not report grosses, and Variety was not tracking any of the theatres in Miami playing the film. But hey, Bull Durham did pretty good in Miami that week.   The film would next open in theatres in Los Angeles. This time, Miramax bought a quarter page ad in the Los Angeles Times on opening day to let people know the film existed. So we know it was playing on 18 screens that weekend. And, once again, Miramax did not report grosses for the film. But on the two screens it played on that Variety was tracking, the combined gross was just $2,500.   There'd be other playdates. Kansas City and Minneapolis in mid-September. Vancouver, BC in early October. Palm Beach FL in mid October. Calgary AB and Fort Lauderdale in late October. Phoenix in mid November. And never once did Miramax report any grosses for it.   One week after Mio, Miramax would release a comedy called Going Undercover.   Now, if you listened to our March 2021 episode on Some Kind of Wonderful, you may remember be mentioning Lea Thompson taking the role of Amanda Jones in that film, a role she had turned down twice before, the week after Howard the Duck opened, because she was afraid she'd never get cast in a movie again. And while Some Kind of Wonderful wasn't as big a film as you'd expect from a John Hughes production, Thompson did indeed continue to work, and is still working to this day.   So if you were looking at a newspaper ad in several cities in June 1988 and saw her latest movie and wonder why she went back to making weird little movies.   She hadn't.   This was a movie she had made just before Back to the Future, in August and September 1984.   Originally titled Yellow Pages, the film starred film legend Jean Simmons as Maxine, a rich woman who has hired Chris Lemmon's private investigator Henry Brilliant to protect her stepdaughter Marigold during her trip to Copenhagen.   The director, James Clarke, had written the script specifically for Lemmon, tailoring his role to mimic various roles played by his famous father, Jack Lemmon, over the decades, and for Simmons. But Thompson was just one of a number of young actresses they looked at before making their casting choice.   Half of the $6m budget would come from a first-time British film producer, while the other half from a group of Danish investors wanting to lure more Hollywood productions to their area.   The shoot would be plagued by a number of problems. The shoot in Los Angeles coincided with the final days of the 1984 Summer Olympics, which would cut out using some of the best and most regularly used locations in the city, and a long-lasting heat wave that would make outdoor shoots unbearable for cast and crew. When they arrived in Copenhagen at the end of August, Denmark was going through an unusually heavy storm front that hung around for weeks.   Clarke would spend several months editing the film, longer than usual for a smaller production like this, but he in part was waiting to see how Back to the Future would do at the box office. If the film was a hit, and his leading actress was a major part of that, it could make it easier to sell his film to a distributor.   Or that was line of thinking.   Of course, Back to the Future was a hit, and Thompson received much praise for her comedic work on the film.   But that didn't make it any easier to sell his film.   The producer would set the first screenings for the film at the February 1986 American Film Market in Santa Monica, which caters not only to foreign distributors looking to acquire American movies for their markets, but helps independent filmmakers get their movies seen by American distributors.   As these screenings were for buyers by invitation only, there would be no reviews from the screenings, but one could guess that no one would hear about the film again until Miramax bought the American distribution rights to it in March 1988 tells us that maybe those screenings didn't go so well.   The film would get retitled Going Undercover, and would open in single screen playdates in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Dallas, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Nashville, Orlando, St. Louis and Tampa on June 17th. And as I've said too many times already, no reported grosses from Miramax, and only one theatre playing the film was being tracked by Variety, with Going Undercover earning $3,000 during its one week at the Century City 14 in Los Angeles.   In the June 22nd, 1988 issue of Variety, there was an article about Miramax securing a $25m line of credit in order to start producing their own films. Going Undercover is mentioned in the article about being one of Miramax's releases, without noting it had just been released that week or how well it did or did not do.   The Thin Blue Line would be Miramax's first non-music based documentary, and one that would truly change how documentaries were made.   Errol Morris had already made two bizarre but entertaining documentaries in the late 70s and early 80s. Gates of Heaven was shot in 1977, about a man who operated a failing pet cemetery in Northern California's Napa Valley. When Morris told his famous German filmmaking supporter Werner Herzog about the film, Herzog vowed to eat one of the shoes he was wearing that day if Morris could actually complete the film and have it shown in a public theatre. In April 1979, just before the documentary had its world premiere at UC Theatre in Berkeley, where Morris had studied philosophy, Herzog would spend the morning at Chez Pannise, the creators of the California Cuisine cooking style, boiling his shoes for five hours in garlic, herbs and stock. This event itself would be commemorated in a documentary short called, naturally, Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, by Les Blank, which is a must watch on its own.   Because of the success of Gates of Heaven, Morris was able to quickly find financing for his next film, Nub City, which was originally supposed to be about the number of Vernon, Florida's citizens who have “accidentally” cut off their limbs, in order to collect the insurance money. But after several of those citizens threatened to kill Morris, and one of them tried to run down his cinematographer with their truck, Morris would rework the documentary, dropping the limb angle, no pun intended, and focus on the numerous eccentric people in the town. It would premiere at the 1981 New York Film Festival, and become a hit, for a documentary, when it was released in theatres in 1982.   But it would take Morris another six years after completing Vernon, Florida, to make another film. Part of it was having trouble lining up full funding to work on his next proposed movie, about James Grigson, a Texas forensic psychiatrist whose was nicknamed Doctor Death for being an expert witness for the prosecution in death penalty cases in Texas. Morris had gotten seed money for the documentary from PBS and the Endowment for Public Arts, but there was little else coming in while he worked on the film. In fact, Morris would get a PI license in New York and work cases for two years, using every penny he earned that wasn't going towards living expenses to keep the film afloat.   One of Morris's major problems for the film was that Grigson would not sit on camera for an interview, but would meet with Morris face to face to talk about the cases. During that meeting, the good doctor suggested to the filmmaker that he should research the killers he helped put away. And during that research, Morris would come across the case of one Randall Dale Adams, who was convicted of killing Dallas police officer Robert Wood in 1976, even though another man, David Harris, was the police's initial suspect. For two years, Morris would fly back and forth between New York City and Texas, talking to and filming interviews with Adams and more than two hundred other people connected to the shooting and the trial. Morris had become convinced Adams was indeed innocent, and dropped the idea about Dr. Grigson to solely focus on the Robert Wood murder.   After showing the producers of PBS's American Playhouse some of the footage he had put together of the new direction of the film, they kicked in more funds so that Morris could shoot some re-enactment sequences outside New York City, as well as commission composer Phillip Glass to create a score for the film once it was completed. Documentaries at that time did not regularly use re-enactments, but Morris felt it was important to show how different personal accounts of the same moment can be misinterpreted or misremembered or outright manipulated to suppress the truth.   After the film completed its post-production in March 1988, The Thin Blue Line would have its world premiere at the San Francisco Film Festival on March 18th, and word quickly spread Morris had something truly unique and special on his hands. The critic for Variety would note in the very first paragraph of his write up that the film employed “strikingly original formal devices to pull together diverse interviews, film clips, photo collages, and” and this is where it broke ground, “recreations of the crime from many points of view.”   Miramax would put together a full court press in order to get the rights to the film, which was announced during the opening days of the 1988 Cannes Film Festival in early May. An early hint on how the company was going to sell the film was by calling it a “non-fiction feature” instead of a documentary.   Miramax would send Morris out on a cross-country press tour in the weeks leading up to the film's August 26th opening date, but Morris, like many documentary filmmakers, was not used to being in the spotlight themselves, and was not as articulate about talking up his movies as the more seasoned directors and actors who've been on the promotion circuit for a while. After one interview, Harvey Weinstein would send Errol Morris a note.   “Heard your NPR interview and you were boring.”   Harvey would offer up several suggestions to help the filmmaker, including hyping the movie up as a real life mystery thriller rather than a documentary, and using shorter and clearer sentences when answering a question.   It was a clear gamble to release The Thin Blue Line in the final week of summer, and the film would need a lot of good will to stand out.   And it would get it.   The New York Times was so enthralled with the film, it would not only run a review from Janet Maslin, who would heap great praise on the film, but would also run a lengthy interview with Errol Morris right next to the review. The quarter page ad in the New York Times, several pages back, would tout positive quotes from Roger Ebert, J. Hoberman, who had left The Village Voice for the then-new Premiere Magazine, Peter Travers, writing for People Magazine instead of Rolling Stone, and critics from the San Francisco Chronicle and, interestingly enough, the Dallas Morning News. The top of the ad was tagged with an intriguing tease: solving this mystery is going to be murder, with a second tag line underneath the key art and title, which called the film “a new kind of movie mystery.” Of the 15 New York area-based film critics for local newspapers, television and national magazines, 14 of them gave favorable reviews, while 1, Stephen Schiff of Vanity Fair, was ambivalent about it. Not one critic gave it a bad review.   New York audiences were hooked.   Opening in the 240 seat main house at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, the movie grossed $30,945 its first three days. In its second weekend, the gross at the Lincoln Plaza would jump to $31k, and adding another $27,500 from its two theatre opening in Los Angeles and $15,800 from a single DC theatre that week. Third week in New York was a still good $21k, but the second week in Los Angeles fell to $10,500 and DC to $10k. And that's how it rolled out for several months, mostly single screen bookings in major cities not called Los Angeles or New York City, racking up some of the best reviews Miramax would receive to date, but never breaking out much outside the major cities. When it looked like Santa Cruz wasn't going to play the film, I drove to San Francisco to see it, just as my friends and I had for the opening day of Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ in mid-August. That's 75 miles each way, plus parking in San Francisco, just to see a movie. That's when you know you no longer just like movies but have developed a serious case of cinephilea. So when The Nickelodeon did open the film in late November, I did something I had never done with any documentary before.   I went and saw it again.   Second time around, I was still pissed off at the outrageous injustice heaped upon Randall Dale Adams for nothing more than being with and trusting the wrong person at the wrong time. But, thankfully, things would turn around for Adams in the coming weeks. On December 1st, it was reported that David Harris had recanted his testimony at Adams' trial, admitting he was alone when Officer Wood stopped his car. And on March 1st, 1989, after more than 15,000 people had signed the film's petition to revisit the decision, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Adams's conviction “based largely” on facts presented in the film.   The film would also find itself in several more controversies.   Despite being named The Best Documentary of the Year by a number of critics groups, the Documentary Branch of the  Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences would not nominate the film, due in large part to the numerous reenactments presented throughout the film. Filmmaker Michael Apted, a member of the Directors Branch of the Academy, noted that the failure to acknowledge The Thin Blue Line was “one of the most outrageous things in the modern history of the Academy,” while Roger Ebert added the slight was “the worst non-nomination of the year.” Despite the lack of a nomination, Errol Morris would attend the Oscars ceremony in March 1989, as a protest for his film being snubbed.   Morris would also, several months after Adams' release, find himself being sued by Adams, but not because of how he was portrayed in the film. During the making of the film, Morris had Adams sign a contract giving Morris the exclusive right to tell Adams's story, and Adams wanted, essentially, the right to tell his own story now that he was a free man. Morris and Adams would settle out of court, and Adams would regain his life rights.   Once the movie was played out in theatres, it had grossed $1.2m, which on the surface sounds like not a whole lot of money. Adjusted for inflation, that would only be $3.08m. But even unadjusted for inflation, it's still one of the 100 highest grossing documentaries of the past forty years. And it is one of just a handful of documentaries to become a part of the National Film Registry, for being a culturally, historically or aesthetically significant film.”   Adams would live a quiet life after his release, working as an anti-death penalty advocate and marrying the sister of one of the death row inmates he was helping to exonerate. He would pass away from a brain tumor in October 2010 at a courthouse in Ohio not half an hour from where he was born and still lived, but he would so disappear from the spotlight after the movie was released that his passing wasn't even reported until June 2011.   Errol Morris would become one of the most celebrated documentarians of his generation, finally getting nominated for, and winning, an Oscar in 2003, for The Fog of War, about the life and times of Robert McNamara, Richard Nixon's Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War era. The Fog of War would also be added to the National Film Registry in 2019. Morris would become only the third documentarian, after D.A. Pennebaker and Les Blank, to have two films on the Registry.   In 1973, the senseless killings of five members of the Alday family in Donalsonville GA made international headlines. Four years later, Canadian documentarian Tex Fuller made an award-winning documentary about the case, called Murder One. For years, Fuller shopped around a screenplay telling the same story, but it would take nearly a decade for it to finally be sold, in part because Fuller was insistent that he also be the director. A small Canadian production company would fund the $1m CAD production, which would star Henry Thomas of E.T. fame as the fifteen year old narrator of the story, Billy Isaacs.   The shoot began in early October 1987 outside Toronto, but after a week of shooting, Fuller was fired, and was replaced by Graeme Campbell, a young and energetic filmmaker for whom Murder One would be his fourth movie directing gig of the year. Details are sketchy as to why Fuller was fired, but Thomas and his mother Carolyn would voice concerns with the producers about the new direction the film was taking under its new director.   The film would premiere in Canada in May 1988. When the film did well up North, Miramax took notice and purchased the American distribution rights.   Murder One would first open in America on two screens in Los Angeles on September 9th, 1988. Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times noted that while the film itself wasn't very good, that it still sprung from the disturbing insight about the crazy reasons people cross of what should be impassable moral lines.   “No movie studio could have invented it!,” screamed the tagline on the poster and newspaper key art. “No writer could have imagined it! Because what happened that night became the most controversial in American history.”   That would draw limited interest from filmgoers in Tinseltown. The two theatres would gross a combined $7k in its first three days. Not great but far better than several other recent Miramax releases in the area.   Two weeks later, on September 23rd, Miramax would book Murder One into 20 theatres in the New York City metro region, as well as in Akron, Atlanta, Charlotte, Indianpolis, Nashville, and Tampa-St. Petersburg. In New York, the film would actually get some good reviews from the Times and the Post as well as Peter Travers of People Magazine, but once again, Miramax would not report grosses for the film. Variety would note the combined gross for the film in New York City was only $25k.   In early October, the film would fall out of Variety's internal list of the 50 Top Grossing Films within the twenty markets they regularly tracked, with a final gross of just $87k. One market that Miramax deliberately did not book the film was anywhere near southwest Georgia, where the murders took place. The closest theatre that did play the film was more than 200 miles away.   Miramax would finish 1988 with two releases.   The first was Dakota, which would mark star Lou Diamond Phillips first time as a producer. He would star as a troubled teenager who takes a job on a Texas horse ranch to help pay of his debts, who becomes a sorta big brother to the ranch owner's young son, who has recently lost a leg to cancer, as he also falls for the rancher's daughter.   When the $1.1m budgeted film began production in Texas in June 1987, Phillips had already made La Bamba and Stand and Deliver, but neither had yet to be released into theatres. By the time filming ended five weeks later, La Bamba had just opened, and Phillips was on his way to becoming a star.   The main producers wanted director Fred Holmes to get the film through post-production as quickly as possible, to get it into theatres in the early part of 1988 to capitalize on the newfound success of their young star.    But that wouldn't happen.   Holmes wouldn't have the film ready until the end of February 1988, which was deemed acceptable because of the impending release of Stand and Deliver. In fact, the producers would schedule their first distributor screening of the film on March 14th, the Monday after Stand and Delivered opened, in the hopes that good box office for the film and good notices for Phillips would translate to higher distributor interest in their film, which sorta worked. None of the major studios would show for the screening, but a number of Indies would, including Miramax. Phillips would not attend the screening, as he was on location in New Mexico shooting Young Guns.   I can't find any reason why Miramax waited nearly nine months after they acquired Dakota to get it into theatres. It certainly wasn't Oscar bait, and screen availability would be scarce during the busy holiday movie season, which would see a number of popular, high profile releases like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Ernest Saves Christmas, The Naked Gun, Rain Man, Scrooged, Tequila Sunrise, Twins and Working Girl. Which might explain why, when Miramax released the film into 18 theatres in the New York City area on December 2nd, they could only get three screens in all of Manhattan, the best being the nice but hardly first-rate Embassy 4 at Broadway and 47th. Or of the 22 screens in Los Angeles opening the film the same day, the best would be the tiny Westwood 4 next to UCLA or the Paramount in Hollywood, whose best days were back in the Eisenhower administration.   And, yet again, Miramax did not report grosses, and none of the theatres playing the film was tracked by Variety that week. The film would be gone after just one week. The Paramount, which would open Dirty Rotten Scoundrels on the 14th, opted to instead play a double feature of Clara's Heart, with Whoopi Goldberg and Neil Patrick Harris, and the River Phoenix drama Running on Empty, even though neither film had been much of a hit.   Miramax's last film of the year would be the one that changed everything for them.   Pelle the Conquerer.   Adapted from a 1910 Danish book and directed by Billie August, whose previous film Twist and Shout had been released by Miramax in 1986, Pelle the Conquerer would be the first Danish or Swedish movie to star Max von Sydow in almost 15 years, having spent most of the 70s and 80s in Hollywood and London starring in a number of major movies including The Exorcist, Three Days of the Condor, Flash Gordon,Conan the Barbarian, Never Say Never Again, and David Lynch's Dune. But because von Sydow would be making his return to his native cinema, August was able to secure $4.5m to make the film, one of the highest budgeted Scandinavian films to be made to date.   In the late 1850s, an elderly emigrant Lasse and his son Pelle leave their home in Sweden after the death of the boy's mother, wanting to build a new life on the Danish island of Bornholm. Lasse finds it difficult to find work, given his age and his son's youth. The pair are forced to work at a large farm, where they are generally mistreated by the managers for being foreigners. The father falls into depression and alcoholism, the young boy befriends one of the bastard children of the farm owner as well as another Swedish farm worker, who dreams of conquering the world.   For the title character of Pelle, Billie August saw more than 3,000 Swedish boys before deciding to cast 11 year old Pelle Hvenegaard, who, like many boys in Sweden, had been named for the character he was now going to play on screen.   After six months of filming in the summer and fall of 1986, Billie August would finish editing Pelle the Conquerer in time for it to make its intended Christmas Day 1987 release date in Denmark and Sweden, where the film would be one of the biggest releases in either country for the entire decade. It would make its debut outside Scandinavia at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1988, where it had been invited to compete for the Palme D'Or. It would compete against a number of talented filmmakers who had come with some of the best films they would ever make, including Clint Eastwood with Bird, Claire Denis' Chocolat, István Szabó's Hanussen, Vincent Ward's The Navigator, and A Short Film About Killing, an expanded movie version of the fifth episode in Krzysztof Kieślowski's masterful miniseries Dekalog. Pelle would conquer them all, taking home the top prize from one of cinema's most revered film festivals.   Reviews for the film out of Cannes were almost universally excellent. Vincent Canby, the lead film critic for the New York Times for nearly twenty years by this point, wouldn't file his review until the end of the festival, in which he pointed out that a number of people at the festival were scandalized von Sydow had not also won the award for Best Actor.   Having previously worked with the company on his previous film's American release, August felt that Miramax would have what it took to make the film a success in the States.   Their first moves would be to schedule the film for a late December release, while securing a slot at that September's New York Film Festival. And once again, the critical consensus was highly positive, with only a small sampling of distractors.   The film would open first on two screens at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas in midtown Manhattan on Wednesday, December 21st, following by exclusive engagements in nine other cities including Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington DC, on the 23rd. But the opening week numbers weren't very good, just $46k from ten screens. And you can't really blame the film's two hour and forty-five minute running time. Little Dorrit, the two-part, four hour adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel, had been out nine weeks at this point and was still making nearly 50% more per screen.   But after the new year, when more and more awards were hurled the film's way, including the National Board of Review naming it one of the best foreign films of the year and the Golden Globes awarding it their Best Foreign Language trophy, ticket sales would pick up.   Well, for a foreign film.   The week after the Motion Picture Academy awarded Pelle their award for Best Foreign Language Film, business for the film would pick up 35%, and a third of its $2m American gross would come after that win.   One of the things that surprised me while doing the research for this episode was learning that Max von Sydow had never been nominated for an Oscar until he was nominated for Best Actor for Pelle the Conquerer. You look at his credits over the years, and it's just mind blowing. The Seventh Seal. Wild Strawberries. The Virgin Spring. The Greatest Story Ever Told. The Emigrants. The Exorcist. The Three Days of the Condor. Surely there was one performance amongst those that deserved recognition.   I hate to keep going back to A24, but there's something about a company's first Oscar win that sends that company into the next level. A24 didn't really become A24 until 2016, when three of their movies won Oscars, including Brie Larson for Best Actress in Room. And Miramax didn't really become the Miramax we knew and once loved until its win for Pelle.   Thank you for joining us. We'll talk again soon, when Episode 117, the fifth and final part of our miniseries on Miramax Films, is released.     Remember to visit this episode's page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about the movies we covered this episode.   The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment.   Thank you again.   Good night.

We continue our miniseries on the 1980s movies distributed by Miramax Films, with a look at the films released in 1988. ----more---- TRANSCRIPT   From Los Angeles, California, the Entertainment Capital of the World, it's The 80s Movies Podcast. I am your host, Edward Havens. Thank you for listening today.   On this episode, we finally continue with the next part of our look back at the 1980s movies distributed by Miramax Films, specifically looking at 1988.   But before we get there, I must issue another mea culpa. In our episode on the 1987 movies from Miramax, I mentioned that a Kiefer Sutherland movie called Crazy Moon never played in another theatre after its disastrous one week Oscar qualifying run in Los Angeles in December 1987.   I was wrong.   While doing research on this episode, I found one New York City playdate for the film, in early February 1988. It grossed a very dismal $3200 at the 545 seat Festival Theatre during its first weekend, and would be gone after seven days.   Sorry for the misinformation.   1988 would be a watershed year for the company, as one of the movies they acquired for distribution would change the course of documentary filmmaking as we knew it, and another would give a much beloved actor his first Academy Award nomination while giving the company its first Oscar win.   But before we get to those two movies, there's a whole bunch of others to talk about first.   Of the twelve movies Miramax would release in 1988, only four were from America. The rest would be a from a mixture of mostly Anglo-Saxon countries like the UK, Canada, France and Sweden, although there would be one Spanish film in there.   Their first release of the new year, Le Grand Chemin, told the story of a timid nine-year-old boy from Paris who spends one summer vacation in a small town in Brittany. His mother has lodged the boy with her friend and her friend's husband while Mom has another baby. The boy makes friends with a slightly older girl next door, and learns about life from her.   Richard Bohringer, who plays the friend's husband, and Anémone, who plays the pregnant mother, both won Cesars, the French equivalent to the Oscars, in their respective lead categories, and the film would be nominated for Best Foreign Language Film of 1987 by the National Board of Review. Miramax, who had picked up the film at Cannes several months earlier, waited until January 22nd, 1988, to release it in America, first at the Paris Theatre in midtown Manhattan, where it would gross a very impressive $41k in its first three days. In its second week, it would drop less than 25% of its opening weekend audience, bringing in another $31k. But shortly after that, the expected Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film did not come, and business on the film slowed to a trickle. But it kept chugging on, and by the time the film finished its run in early June, it had grossed $541k.   A week later, on January 29th, Miramax would open another French film, Light Years. An animated science fiction film written and directed by René Laloux, best known for directing the 1973 animated head trip film Fantastic Planet, Light Years was the story of an evil force from a thousand years in the future who begins to destroy an idyllic paradise where the citizens are in perfect harmony with nature.   In its first three days at two screens in Los Angeles and five screens in the San Francisco Bay Area, Light Years would gross a decent $48,665. Miramax would print a self-congratulating ad in that week's Variety touting the film's success, and thanking Isaac Asimov, who helped to write the English translation, and many of the actors who lent their vocal talents to the new dub, including Glenn Close, Bridget Fonda, Jennifer Grey, Christopher Plummer, and Penn and Teller. Yes, Teller speaks. The ad was a message to both the theatre operators and the major players in the industry. Miramax was here. Get used to it.   But that ad may have been a bit premature.   While the film would do well in major markets during its initial week in theatres, audience interest would drop outside of its opening week in big cities, and be practically non-existent in college towns and other smaller cities. Its final box office total would be just over $370k.   March 18th saw the release of a truly unique film.    Imagine a film directed by Robert Altman and Bruce Beresford and Jean-Luc Godard and Derek Jarman and Franc Roddam and Nicolas Roeg and Ken Russell and Charles Sturridge and Julien Temple. Imagine a film that starred Beverly D'Angelo, Bridget Fonda in her first movie, Julie Hagerty, Buck Henry, Elizabeth Hurley and John Hurt and Theresa Russell and Tilda Swinton. Imagine a film that brought together ten of the most eclectic filmmakers in the world doing four to fourteen minute short films featuring the arias of some of the most famous and beloved operas ever written, often taken out of their original context and placed into strange new places. Like, for example, the aria for Verdi's Rigoletto set at the kitschy Madonna Inn in San Luis Obispo, where a movie producer is cheating on his wife while she is in a nearby room with a hunky man who is not her husband. Imagine that there's almost no dialogue in the film. Just the arias to set the moments.   That is Aria.   If you are unfamiliar with opera in general, and these arias specifically, that's not a problem. When I saw the film at the Nickelodeon Theatre in Santa Cruz in June 1988, I knew some Wagner, some Puccini, and some Verdi, through other movies that used the music as punctuation for a scene. I think the first time I had heard Nessun Dorma was in The Killing Fields. Vesti La Giubba in The Untouchables. But this would be the first time I would hear these arias as they were meant to be performed, even if they were out of context within their original stories. Certainly, Wagner didn't intend the aria from Tristan und Isolde to be used to highlight a suicide pact between a young couple killing themselves in a Las Vegas hotel bathroom.   Aria definitely split critics when it premiered at the 1987 Cannes Film Festival, when it competed for the festival's main prize, the Palme D'Or. Roger Ebert would call it the first MTV opera and felt the filmmakers were poking fun at their own styles, while Leonard Maltin felt most of the endeavor was a waste of time. In the review for the New York Times, Janet Maslin would also make a reference to MTV but not in a positive way, and would note the two best parts of the film were the photo montage that is seen over the end credits, and the clever licensing of Chuck Jones's classic Bugs Bunny cartoon What's Opera, Doc, to play with the film, at least during its New York run. In the Los Angeles Times, the newspaper chose one of its music critics to review the film. They too would compare the film to MTV, but also to Fantasia, neither reference meant to be positive.   It's easy to see what might have attracted Harvey Weinstein to acquire the film.   Nudity.   And lots of it.   Including from a 21 year old Hurley, and a 22 year old Fonda.   Open at the 420 seat Ridgemont Theatre in Seattle on March 18th, 1988, Aria would gross a respectable $10,600. It would be the second highest grossing theatre in the city, only behind The Unbearable Lightness of Being, which grossed $16,600 in its fifth week at the 850 seat Cinerama Theatre, which was and still is the single best theatre in Seattle. It would continue to do well in Seattle, but it would not open until April 15th in Los Angeles and May 20th in New York City.   But despite some decent notices and the presence of some big name directors, Aria would stiff at the box office, grossing just $1.03m after seven months in theatres.   As we discussed on our previous episode, there was a Dennis Hopper movie called Riders on the Storm that supposedly opened in November 1987, but didn't. It did open in theatres in May of 1988, and now we're here to talk about it.   Riders on the Storm would open in eleven theatres in the New York City area on May 7th, including three theatres in Manhattan. Since Miramax did not screen the film for critics before release, never a good sign, the first reviews wouldn't show up until the following day, since the critics would actually have to go see the film with a regular audience. Vincent Canby's review for the New York Times would arrive first, and surprisingly, he didn't completely hate the film. But audiences didn't care. In its first weekend in New York City, Riders on the Storm would gross an anemic $25k. The following Friday, Miramax would open the film at two theatres in Baltimore, four theatres in Fort Worth TX (but surprisingly none in Dallas), one theatre in Los Angeles and one theatre in Springfield OH, while continuing on only one screen in New York. No reported grosses from Fort Worth, LA or Springfield, but the New York theatre reported ticket sales of $3k for the weekend, a 57% drop from its previous week, while the two in Baltimore combined for $5k.   There would be more single playdates for a few months. Tampa the same week as New York. Atlanta, Charlotte, Des Moines and Memphis in late May. Cincinnati in late June. Boston, Calgary, Ottawa and Philadelphia in early July. Greenville SC in late August. Evansville IL, Ithaca NY and San Francisco in early September. Chicago in late September. It just kept popping up in random places for months, always a one week playdate before heading off to the next location. And in all that time, Miramax never reported grosses. What little numbers we do have is from the theatres that Variety was tracking, and those numbers totaled up to less than $30k.   Another mostly lost and forgotten Miramax release from 1988 is Caribe, a Canadian production that shot in Belize about an amateur illegal arms trader to Central American terrorists who must go on the run after a deal goes down bad, because who wants to see a Canadian movie about an amateur illegal arms trader to Canadian terrorists who must go on the run in the Canadian tundra after a deal goes down bad?   Kara Glover would play Helen, the arms dealer, and John Savage as Jeff, a British intelligence agent who helps Helen.   Caribe would first open in Detroit on May 20th, 1988. Can you guess what I'm going to say next?   Yep.   No reported grosses, no theatres playing the film tracked by Variety.   The following week, Caribe opens in the San Francisco Bay Area, at the 300 seat United Artists Theatre in San Francisco, and three theatres in the South Bay. While Miramax once again did not report grosses, the combined gross for the four theatres, according to Variety, was a weak $3,700. Compare that to Aria, which was playing at the Opera Plaza Cinemas in its third week in San Francisco, in an auditorium 40% smaller than the United Artist, grossing $5,300 on its own.   On June 3rd, Caribe would open at the AMC Fountain Square 14 in Nashville. One show only on Friday and Saturday at 11:45pm. Miramax did not report grosses. Probably because people we going to see Willie Tyler and Lester at Zanie's down the street.   And again, it kept cycling around the country, one or two new playdates in each city it played in. Philadelphia in mid-June. Indianapolis in mid-July. Jersey City in late August. Always for one week, grosses never reported.   Miramax's first Swedish release of the year was called Mio, but this was truly an international production. The $4m film was co-produced by Swedish, Norwegian and Russian production companies, directed by a Russian, adapted from a Swedish book by an American screenwriter, scored by one of the members of ABBA, and starring actors from England, Finland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States.   Mio tells the story of a boy from Stockholm who travels to an otherworldly fantasy realm and frees the land from an evil knight's oppression. What makes this movie memorable today is that Mio's best friend is played by none other than Christian Bale, in his very first film.   The movie was shot in Moscow, Stockholm, the Crimea, Scotland, and outside Pripyat in the Northern part of what is now Ukraine, between March and July 1986. In fact, the cast and crew were shooting outside Pripyat on April 26th, when they got the call they needed to evacuate the area. It would be hours later when they would discover there had been a reactor core meltdown at the nearby Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. They would have to scramble to shoot in other locations away from Ukraine for a month, and when they were finally allowed to return, the area they were shooting in deemed to have not been adversely affected by the worst nuclear power plant accident in human history,, Geiger counters would be placed all over the sets, and every meal served by craft services would need to be read to make sure it wasn't contaminated.   After premiering at the Moscow Film Festival in July 1987 and the Norwegian Film Festival in August, Mio would open in Sweden on October 16th, 1987. The local critics would tear the film apart. They hated that the filmmakers had Anglicized the movie with British actors like Christopher Lee, Susannah York, Christian Bale and Nicholas Pickard, an eleven year old boy also making his film debut. They also hated how the filmmakers adapted the novel by the legendary Astrid Lindgren, whose Pippi Longstocking novels made her and her works world famous. Overall, they hated pretty much everything about it outside of Christopher Lee's performance and the production's design in the fantasy world.   Miramax most likely picked it up trying to emulate the success of The Neverending Story, which had opened to great success in most of the world in 1984. So it might seem kinda odd that when they would open the now titled The Land of Faraway in theatres, they wouldn't go wide but instead open it on one screen in Atlanta GA on June 10th, 1988. And, once again, Miramax did not report grosses, and Variety did not track Atlanta theatres that week. Two weeks later, they would open the film in Miami. How many theatres? Can't tell you. Miramax did not report grosses, and Variety was not tracking any of the theatres in Miami playing the film. But hey, Bull Durham did pretty good in Miami that week.   The film would next open in theatres in Los Angeles. This time, Miramax bought a quarter page ad in the Los Angeles Times on opening day to let people know the film existed. So we know it was playing on 18 screens that weekend. And, once again, Miramax did not report grosses for the film. But on the two screens it played on that Variety was tracking, the combined gross was just $2,500.   There'd be other playdates. Kansas City and Minneapolis in mid-September. Vancouver, BC in early October. Palm Beach FL in mid October. Calgary AB and Fort Lauderdale in late October. Phoenix in mid November. And never once did Miramax report any grosses for it.   One week after Mio, Miramax would release a comedy called Going Undercover.   Now, if you listened to our March 2021 episode on Some Kind of Wonderful, you may remember be mentioning Lea Thompson taking the role of Amanda Jones in that film, a role she had turned down twice before, the week after Howard the Duck opened, because she was afraid she'd never get cast in a movie again. And while Some Kind of Wonderful wasn't as big a film as you'd expect from a John Hughes production, Thompson did indeed continue to work, and is still working to this day.   So if you were looking at a newspaper ad in several cities in June 1988 and saw her latest movie and wonder why she went back to making weird little movies.   She hadn't.   This was a movie she had made just before Back to the Future, in August and September 1984.   Originally titled Yellow Pages, the film starred film legend Jean Simmons as Maxine, a rich woman who has hired Chris Lemmon's private investigator Henry Brilliant to protect her stepdaughter Marigold during her trip to Copenhagen.   The director, James Clarke, had written the script specifically for Lemmon, tailoring his role to mimic various roles played by his famous father, Jack Lemmon, over the decades, and for Simmons. But Thompson was just one of a number of young actresses they looked at before making their casting choice.   Half of the $6m budget would come from a first-time British film producer, while the other half from a group of Danish investors wanting to lure more Hollywood productions to their area.   The shoot would be plagued by a number of problems. The shoot in Los Angeles coincided with the final days of the 1984 Summer Olympics, which would cut out using some of the best and most regularly used locations in the city, and a long-lasting heat wave that would make outdoor shoots unbearable for cast and crew. When they arrived in Copenhagen at the end of August, Denmark was going through an unusually heavy storm front that hung around for weeks.   Clarke would spend several months editing the film, longer than usual for a smaller production like this, but he in part was waiting to see how Back to the Future would do at the box office. If the film was a hit, and his leading actress was a major part of that, it could make it easier to sell his film to a distributor.   Or that was line of thinking.   Of course, Back to the Future was a hit, and Thompson received much praise for her comedic work on the film.   But that didn't make it any easier to sell his film.   The producer would set the first screenings for the film at the February 1986 American Film Market in Santa Monica, which caters not only to foreign distributors looking to acquire American movies for their markets, but helps independent filmmakers get their movies seen by American distributors.   As these screenings were for buyers by invitation only, there would be no reviews from the screenings, but one could guess that no one would hear about the film again until Miramax bought the American distribution rights to it in March 1988 tells us that maybe those screenings didn't go so well.   The film would get retitled Going Undercover, and would open in single screen playdates in Atlanta, Cincinnati, Dallas, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Nashville, Orlando, St. Louis and Tampa on June 17th. And as I've said too many times already, no reported grosses from Miramax, and only one theatre playing the film was being tracked by Variety, with Going Undercover earning $3,000 during its one week at the Century City 14 in Los Angeles.   In the June 22nd, 1988 issue of Variety, there was an article about Miramax securing a $25m line of credit in order to start producing their own films. Going Undercover is mentioned in the article about being one of Miramax's releases, without noting it had just been released that week or how well it did or did not do.   The Thin Blue Line would be Miramax's first non-music based documentary, and one that would truly change how documentaries were made.   Errol Morris had already made two bizarre but entertaining documentaries in the late 70s and early 80s. Gates of Heaven was shot in 1977, about a man who operated a failing pet cemetery in Northern California's Napa Valley. When Morris told his famous German filmmaking supporter Werner Herzog about the film, Herzog vowed to eat one of the shoes he was wearing that day if Morris could actually complete the film and have it shown in a public theatre. In April 1979, just before the documentary had its world premiere at UC Theatre in Berkeley, where Morris had studied philosophy, Herzog would spend the morning at Chez Pannise, the creators of the California Cuisine cooking style, boiling his shoes for five hours in garlic, herbs and stock. This event itself would be commemorated in a documentary short called, naturally, Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, by Les Blank, which is a must watch on its own.   Because of the success of Gates of Heaven, Morris was able to quickly find financing for his next film, Nub City, which was originally supposed to be about the number of Vernon, Florida's citizens who have “accidentally” cut off their limbs, in order to collect the insurance money. But after several of those citizens threatened to kill Morris, and one of them tried to run down his cinematographer with their truck, Morris would rework the documentary, dropping the limb angle, no pun intended, and focus on the numerous eccentric people in the town. It would premiere at the 1981 New York Film Festival, and become a hit, for a documentary, when it was released in theatres in 1982.   But it would take Morris another six years after completing Vernon, Florida, to make another film. Part of it was having trouble lining up full funding to work on his next proposed movie, about James Grigson, a Texas forensic psychiatrist whose was nicknamed Doctor Death for being an expert witness for the prosecution in death penalty cases in Texas. Morris had gotten seed money for the documentary from PBS and the Endowment for Public Arts, but there was little else coming in while he worked on the film. In fact, Morris would get a PI license in New York and work cases for two years, using every penny he earned that wasn't going towards living expenses to keep the film afloat.   One of Morris's major problems for the film was that Grigson would not sit on camera for an interview, but would meet with Morris face to face to talk about the cases. During that meeting, the good doctor suggested to the filmmaker that he should research the killers he helped put away. And during that research, Morris would come across the case of one Randall Dale Adams, who was convicted of killing Dallas police officer Robert Wood in 1976, even though another man, David Harris, was the police's initial suspect. For two years, Morris would fly back and forth between New York City and Texas, talking to and filming interviews with Adams and more than two hundred other people connected to the shooting and the trial. Morris had become convinced Adams was indeed innocent, and dropped the idea about Dr. Grigson to solely focus on the Robert Wood murder.   After showing the producers of PBS's American Playhouse some of the footage he had put together of the new direction of the film, they kicked in more funds so that Morris could shoot some re-enactment sequences outside New York City, as well as commission composer Phillip Glass to create a score for the film once it was completed. Documentaries at that time did not regularly use re-enactments, but Morris felt it was important to show how different personal accounts of the same moment can be misinterpreted or misremembered or outright manipulated to suppress the truth.   After the film completed its post-production in March 1988, The Thin Blue Line would have its world premiere at the San Francisco Film Festival on March 18th, and word quickly spread Morris had something truly unique and special on his hands. The critic for Variety would note in the very first paragraph of his write up that the film employed “strikingly original formal devices to pull together diverse interviews, film clips, photo collages, and” and this is where it broke ground, “recreations of the crime from many points of view.”   Miramax would put together a full court press in order to get the rights to the film, which was announced during the opening days of the 1988 Cannes Film Festival in early May. An early hint on how the company was going to sell the film was by calling it a “non-fiction feature” instead of a documentary.   Miramax would send Morris out on a cross-country press tour in the weeks leading up to the film's August 26th opening date, but Morris, like many documentary filmmakers, was not used to being in the spotlight themselves, and was not as articulate about talking up his movies as the more seasoned directors and actors who've been on the promotion circuit for a while. After one interview, Harvey Weinstein would send Errol Morris a note.   “Heard your NPR interview and you were boring.”   Harvey would offer up several suggestions to help the filmmaker, including hyping the movie up as a real life mystery thriller rather than a documentary, and using shorter and clearer sentences when answering a question.   It was a clear gamble to release The Thin Blue Line in the final week of summer, and the film would need a lot of good will to stand out.   And it would get it.   The New York Times was so enthralled with the film, it would not only run a review from Janet Maslin, who would heap great praise on the film, but would also run a lengthy interview with Errol Morris right next to the review. The quarter page ad in the New York Times, several pages back, would tout positive quotes from Roger Ebert, J. Hoberman, who had left The Village Voice for the then-new Premiere Magazine, Peter Travers, writing for People Magazine instead of Rolling Stone, and critics from the San Francisco Chronicle and, interestingly enough, the Dallas Morning News. The top of the ad was tagged with an intriguing tease: solving this mystery is going to be murder, with a second tag line underneath the key art and title, which called the film “a new kind of movie mystery.” Of the 15 New York area-based film critics for local newspapers, television and national magazines, 14 of them gave favorable reviews, while 1, Stephen Schiff of Vanity Fair, was ambivalent about it. Not one critic gave it a bad review.   New York audiences were hooked.   Opening in the 240 seat main house at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, the movie grossed $30,945 its first three days. In its second weekend, the gross at the Lincoln Plaza would jump to $31k, and adding another $27,500 from its two theatre opening in Los Angeles and $15,800 from a single DC theatre that week. Third week in New York was a still good $21k, but the second week in Los Angeles fell to $10,500 and DC to $10k. And that's how it rolled out for several months, mostly single screen bookings in major cities not called Los Angeles or New York City, racking up some of the best reviews Miramax would receive to date, but never breaking out much outside the major cities. When it looked like Santa Cruz wasn't going to play the film, I drove to San Francisco to see it, just as my friends and I had for the opening day of Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ in mid-August. That's 75 miles each way, plus parking in San Francisco, just to see a movie. That's when you know you no longer just like movies but have developed a serious case of cinephilea. So when The Nickelodeon did open the film in late November, I did something I had never done with any documentary before.   I went and saw it again.   Second time around, I was still pissed off at the outrageous injustice heaped upon Randall Dale Adams for nothing more than being with and trusting the wrong person at the wrong time. But, thankfully, things would turn around for Adams in the coming weeks. On December 1st, it was reported that David Harris had recanted his testimony at Adams' trial, admitting he was alone when Officer Wood stopped his car. And on March 1st, 1989, after more than 15,000 people had signed the film's petition to revisit the decision, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Adams's conviction “based largely” on facts presented in the film.   The film would also find itself in several more controversies.   Despite being named The Best Documentary of the Year by a number of critics groups, the Documentary Branch of the  Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences would not nominate the film, due in large part to the numerous reenactments presented throughout the film. Filmmaker Michael Apted, a member of the Directors Branch of the Academy, noted that the failure to acknowledge The Thin Blue Line was “one of the most outrageous things in the modern history of the Academy,” while Roger Ebert added the slight was “the worst non-nomination of the year.” Despite the lack of a nomination, Errol Morris would attend the Oscars ceremony in March 1989, as a protest for his film being snubbed.   Morris would also, several months after Adams' release, find himself being sued by Adams, but not because of how he was portrayed in the film. During the making of the film, Morris had Adams sign a contract giving Morris the exclusive right to tell Adams's story, and Adams wanted, essentially, the right to tell his own story now that he was a free man. Morris and Adams would settle out of court, and Adams would regain his life rights.   Once the movie was played out in theatres, it had grossed $1.2m, which on the surface sounds like not a whole lot of money. Adjusted for inflation, that would only be $3.08m. But even unadjusted for inflation, it's still one of the 100 highest grossing documentaries of the past forty years. And it is one of just a handful of documentaries to become a part of the National Film Registry, for being a culturally, historically or aesthetically significant film.”   Adams would live a quiet life after his release, working as an anti-death penalty advocate and marrying the sister of one of the death row inmates he was helping to exonerate. He would pass away from a brain tumor in October 2010 at a courthouse in Ohio not half an hour from where he was born and still lived, but he would so disappear from the spotlight after the movie was released that his passing wasn't even reported until June 2011.   Errol Morris would become one of the most celebrated documentarians of his generation, finally getting nominated for, and winning, an Oscar in 2003, for The Fog of War, about the life and times of Robert McNamara, Richard Nixon's Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War era. The Fog of War would also be added to the National Film Registry in 2019. Morris would become only the third documentarian, after D.A. Pennebaker and Les Blank, to have two films on the Registry.   In 1973, the senseless killings of five members of the Alday family in Donalsonville GA made international headlines. Four years later, Canadian documentarian Tex Fuller made an award-winning documentary about the case, called Murder One. For years, Fuller shopped around a screenplay telling the same story, but it would take nearly a decade for it to finally be sold, in part because Fuller was insistent that he also be the director. A small Canadian production company would fund the $1m CAD production, which would star Henry Thomas of E.T. fame as the fifteen year old narrator of the story, Billy Isaacs.   The shoot began in early October 1987 outside Toronto, but after a week of shooting, Fuller was fired, and was replaced by Graeme Campbell, a young and energetic filmmaker for whom Murder One would be his fourth movie directing gig of the year. Details are sketchy as to why Fuller was fired, but Thomas and his mother Carolyn would voice concerns with the producers about the new direction the film was taking under its new director.   The film would premiere in Canada in May 1988. When the film did well up North, Miramax took notice and purchased the American distribution rights.   Murder One would first open in America on two screens in Los Angeles on September 9th, 1988. Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times noted that while the film itself wasn't very good, that it still sprung from the disturbing insight about the crazy reasons people cross of what should be impassable moral lines.   “No movie studio could have invented it!,” screamed the tagline on the poster and newspaper key art. “No writer could have imagined it! Because what happened that night became the most controversial in American history.”   That would draw limited interest from filmgoers in Tinseltown. The two theatres would gross a combined $7k in its first three days. Not great but far better than several other recent Miramax releases in the area.   Two weeks later, on September 23rd, Miramax would book Murder One into 20 theatres in the New York City metro region, as well as in Akron, Atlanta, Charlotte, Indianpolis, Nashville, and Tampa-St. Petersburg. In New York, the film would actually get some good reviews from the Times and the Post as well as Peter Travers of People Magazine, but once again, Miramax would not report grosses for the film. Variety would note the combined gross for the film in New York City was only $25k.   In early October, the film would fall out of Variety's internal list of the 50 Top Grossing Films within the twenty markets they regularly tracked, with a final gross of just $87k. One market that Miramax deliberately did not book the film was anywhere near southwest Georgia, where the murders took place. The closest theatre that did play the film was more than 200 miles away.   Miramax would finish 1988 with two releases.   The first was Dakota, which would mark star Lou Diamond Phillips first time as a producer. He would star as a troubled teenager who takes a job on a Texas horse ranch to help pay of his debts, who becomes a sorta big brother to the ranch owner's young son, who has recently lost a leg to cancer, as he also falls for the rancher's daughter.   When the $1.1m budgeted film began production in Texas in June 1987, Phillips had already made La Bamba and Stand and Deliver, but neither had yet to be released into theatres. By the time filming ended five weeks later, La Bamba had just opened, and Phillips was on his way to becoming a star.   The main producers wanted director Fred Holmes to get the film through post-production as quickly as possible, to get it into theatres in the early part of 1988 to capitalize on the newfound success of their young star.    But that wouldn't happen.   Holmes wouldn't have the film ready until the end of February 1988, which was deemed acceptable because of the impending release of Stand and Deliver. In fact, the producers would schedule their first distributor screening of the film on March 14th, the Monday after Stand and Delivered opened, in the hopes that good box office for the film and good notices for Phillips would translate to higher distributor interest in their film, which sorta worked. None of the major studios would show for the screening, but a number of Indies would, including Miramax. Phillips would not attend the screening, as he was on location in New Mexico shooting Young Guns.   I can't find any reason why Miramax waited nearly nine months after they acquired Dakota to get it into theatres. It certainly wasn't Oscar bait, and screen availability would be scarce during the busy holiday movie season, which would see a number of popular, high profile releases like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Ernest Saves Christmas, The Naked Gun, Rain Man, Scrooged, Tequila Sunrise, Twins and Working Girl. Which might explain why, when Miramax released the film into 18 theatres in the New York City area on December 2nd, they could only get three screens in all of Manhattan, the best being the nice but hardly first-rate Embassy 4 at Broadway and 47th. Or of the 22 screens in Los Angeles opening the film the same day, the best would be the tiny Westwood 4 next to UCLA or the Paramount in Hollywood, whose best days were back in the Eisenhower administration.   And, yet again, Miramax did not report grosses, and none of the theatres playing the film was tracked by Variety that week. The film would be gone after just one week. The Paramount, which would open Dirty Rotten Scoundrels on the 14th, opted to instead play a double feature of Clara's Heart, with Whoopi Goldberg and Neil Patrick Harris, and the River Phoenix drama Running on Empty, even though neither film had been much of a hit.   Miramax's last film of the year would be the one that changed everything for them.   Pelle the Conquerer.   Adapted from a 1910 Danish book and directed by Billie August, whose previous film Twist and Shout had been released by Miramax in 1986, Pelle the Conquerer would be the first Danish or Swedish movie to star Max von Sydow in almost 15 years, having spent most of the 70s and 80s in Hollywood and London starring in a number of major movies including The Exorcist, Three Days of the Condor, Flash Gordon,Conan the Barbarian, Never Say Never Again, and David Lynch's Dune. But because von Sydow would be making his return to his native cinema, August was able to secure $4.5m to make the film, one of the highest budgeted Scandinavian films to be made to date.   In the late 1850s, an elderly emigrant Lasse and his son Pelle leave their home in Sweden after the death of the boy's mother, wanting to build a new life on the Danish island of Bornholm. Lasse finds it difficult to find work, given his age and his son's youth. The pair are forced to work at a large farm, where they are generally mistreated by the managers for being foreigners. The father falls into depression and alcoholism, the young boy befriends one of the bastard children of the farm owner as well as another Swedish farm worker, who dreams of conquering the world.   For the title character of Pelle, Billie August saw more than 3,000 Swedish boys before deciding to cast 11 year old Pelle Hvenegaard, who, like many boys in Sweden, had been named for the character he was now going to play on screen.   After six months of filming in the summer and fall of 1986, Billie August would finish editing Pelle the Conquerer in time for it to make its intended Christmas Day 1987 release date in Denmark and Sweden, where the film would be one of the biggest releases in either country for the entire decade. It would make its debut outside Scandinavia at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1988, where it had been invited to compete for the Palme D'Or. It would compete against a number of talented filmmakers who had come with some of the best films they would ever make, including Clint Eastwood with Bird, Claire Denis' Chocolat, István Szabó's Hanussen, Vincent Ward's The Navigator, and A Short Film About Killing, an expanded movie version of the fifth episode in Krzysztof Kieślowski's masterful miniseries Dekalog. Pelle would conquer them all, taking home the top prize from one of cinema's most revered film festivals.   Reviews for the film out of Cannes were almost universally excellent. Vincent Canby, the lead film critic for the New York Times for nearly twenty years by this point, wouldn't file his review until the end of the festival, in which he pointed out that a number of people at the festival were scandalized von Sydow had not also won the award for Best Actor.   Having previously worked with the company on his previous film's American release, August felt that Miramax would have what it took to make the film a success in the States.   Their first moves would be to schedule the film for a late December release, while securing a slot at that September's New York Film Festival. And once again, the critical consensus was highly positive, with only a small sampling of distractors.   The film would open first on two screens at the Lincoln Plaza Cinemas in midtown Manhattan on Wednesday, December 21st, following by exclusive engagements in nine other cities including Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington DC, on the 23rd. But the opening week numbers weren't very good, just $46k from ten screens. And you can't really blame the film's two hour and forty-five minute running time. Little Dorrit, the two-part, four hour adaptation of the Charles Dickens novel, had been out nine weeks at this point and was still making nearly 50% more per screen.   But after the new year, when more and more awards were hurled the film's way, including the National Board of Review naming it one of the best foreign films of the year and the Golden Globes awarding it their Best Foreign Language trophy, ticket sales would pick up.   Well, for a foreign film.   The week after the Motion Picture Academy awarded Pelle their award for Best Foreign Language Film, business for the film would pick up 35%, and a third of its $2m American gross would come after that win.   One of the things that surprised me while doing the research for this episode was learning that Max von Sydow had never been nominated for an Oscar until he was nominated for Best Actor for Pelle the Conquerer. You look at his credits over the years, and it's just mind blowing. The Seventh Seal. Wild Strawberries. The Virgin Spring. The Greatest Story Ever Told. The Emigrants. The Exorcist. The Three Days of the Condor. Surely there was one performance amongst those that deserved recognition.   I hate to keep going back to A24, but there's something about a company's first Oscar win that sends that company into the next level. A24 didn't really become A24 until 2016, when three of their movies won Oscars, including Brie Larson for Best Actress in Room. And Miramax didn't really become the Miramax we knew and once loved until its win for Pelle.   Thank you for joining us. We'll talk again soon, when Episode 117, the fifth and final part of our miniseries on Miramax Films, is released.     Remember to visit this episode's page on our website, The80sMoviePodcast.com, for extra materials about the movies we covered this episode.   The 80s Movies Podcast has been researched, written, narrated and edited by Edward Havens for Idiosyncratic Entertainment.   Thank you again.   Good night.

Hosts Rosalie Lewis, a writer for ⁠⁠⁠⁠FThisMovie.com⁠⁠⁠⁠, and Tim Rosenberger -- ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠a film writer for Film Obsessive⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTuber⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ -- return to the world of director and documentarian Les Blank with a look at five short docs: Hot Pepper (1973), Always for Pleasure (1978), Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers (1980), Sprout Wings and Fly (1983), and In Heaven There Is No Beer? (1984). Join them as they delve into music, New Orleans, garlic, fiddles, and everyone's favorite musical genre, POLKA! All five documentaries are available through The Criterion Collection's boxset Les Blank: Always for Pleasure.

On va aujourd'hui prendre congé de la science car je vais vous conter l'histoire de Werner Herzog qui est connu pour avoir mangé ses chaussures. Bon, il est aussi connu pour être un cinéaste, surtout en fait. Mais pas que, il a écrit, il a joué et il a même mis en scène des opéras. Alors, on se rappelle dans l'épisode qui traitait de la question qu'il n'était pas bon de manger ses vêtements. Vous risquez plus l'empoisonnement que la satiété. Alors l'épisode porte sur Werner Herzog mais j'aurais très bien pu parler de John Franklin. Un explorateur du grand froid qui dû se résoudre à dépasser bien des instincts pour survivre. Manger ses chaussures en est une, manger ses camarades morts en est une autre. Werner Herzog, lui, a mangé sa chaussure suite à une sorte de pari. En fait,  cela vient d'une discussion qu'il a eu avec Errol Morris qui se plaignait de ne pas trouver les financements et la motivation pour finir son documentaire. Et Herzog lui dit alors que s' il veut finir son film, il n'a qu'à finir son film, quitte à voler de la pellicule. Et il ironisera que quand son film sera fini, il mangera sa chaussure. Une sorte de just do it avant l'heure. Apparemment, Errol Morris bassinait tout le monde avec ce documentaire mais il semblait en parler plus qu'il ne le réalisait, d'ou cet agacement d'Herzog. Et en 1978 sort ce fameux documentaire. Werner Herzog fit amende honorable et à la suite de la projection, mangea sa chaussure qui fut préalablement bouillie et assaisonnée. Et cet étrange repas fut filmé par Les Blank qui en fera un court métrage à son tour. Étonnamment, Errol Morris n'était pas présent à cette dégustation. Il semble que sa version de l'histoire et du pari soit moins porteuse médiatiquement. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Can we all agree that the date of August 20, 2015 should be enshrined as one of the most important in the history of documentary? In case you've forgotten, that's the date that “Documentary Now!” burst on the scene with the airing of its first episode: “Sandy Passage”, an unforgettable debut starring Fred Armisen and Bill Hader parodying the Maysles' classic documentary “Grey Gardens”. Somehow, this crew of on and off-camera SNL talent (the show's co-creators are Armisen, Hader, Seth Meyers, and Rhys Thomas) managed to pull off the not-so-small miracle of parodying the high priests and priestesses of documentary in half-hour masterpieces and, just as miraculously, found a network to actually air the program (IFC, for the record). Fast forward seven years and “Documentary Now!” has just premiered its first episodes of season 4 (actually, season 53 in the bizarre-o world of “Doc Now!”). Seth, Rhys and Alex Buono (who directs with Rhys and is also the show's cinematographer) took time away from whatever else they were doing to join Mike and Ken on Top Docs and talk about the collective creative genius (our words, as they are far too modest) behind this unique show. Stay tuned for answers to such questions as: “Why did it take until season 4 (er, 53) to parody the highly imitable Werner Herzog and Les Blank's portrait of him, “Burden of Dreams”? How did the team find itself on a remote Welsh mountainside trying to build a sitcom set as howling winds threatened to blow the whole thing to smithereens? And what do you say to Cate Blanchett when she asks, “Is it OK if I wear giant Coke bottle glasses?” Join us as we peal back the layers on the show that dances on the line between the sublime and the ridiculous while never straying from its love of documentary. To paraphrase the show's host, the immortal Helen Mirren, “I give you ‘Documentary Now!'” Documentary Now! season 4 episodes discussed in this podcast include: “Soldier of Illusion” (written by John Mulaney) (parts 1 and 2), “Two Hairdressers in Bagglyport” (written by Seth Meyers), and “How They Threw Rocks” (written by Seth Meyers) Documentary Now! can be seen on IFC and streaming on AMC+.   Follow on twitter: @DocumentaryNow @sethmeyers @AlexBuono @RhysThom2 @topdocspod   The Presenting Sponsor of "Top Docs" is Netflix.

CLICK TO SUBSCRIBE ON YOUR FAVORITE PODCATCHER CONTENT WARNING: sex work, drugs, misogyny, sexual assault. We're back on the movie bit with a new series, catching up on some of the films one or both of us haven't seen from the 1990's, and we kick things off with the runaway smash hit rom-com that, well, redefined rom-coms. Julia Roberts makes everything better, but back in 1989 she was still completely unproven on screen and it was impossible to know if she could be a movie star. Enter Richard Gere, whose steely looks and detachment transform into something more subtle opposite the pitch perfect aw-shucks charm of America's sweetheart herself. That chemistry, partnered with the thoughtful, caring eye of director Garry Marshall, make this a must-see for anyone who loves movies; a version of The Apartment for a new generation…almost. We discuss Pretty Woman this week on Macintosh & Maud Haven't Seen What?! You can email us with feedback at macintoshandmaud@gmail.com, or you can connect with us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Also please subscribe, rate and review the show on your favorite podcatcher, and tell your friends. Intro and outro music taken from the Second Movement of Ludwig von Beethoven's 9th Symphony. Licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Hong Kong (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 HK) license. To hear the full performance or get more information, visit the song page at the Internet Archive. Excerpt taken from “Oh, Pretty Woman,” written by Roy Orbison and Bill Dees and performed by Roy Orbison. Copyright Acuff-Rose Publications, Inc. 1964. Excerpt taken from the film Burden of Dreams, featuring Werner Herzog and directed by Les Blank. Copyright 1982 Les Blank and Flower Films. Excerpt taken from “Oh, Pretty Woman,” written by Joe Melson, Ray B. Rush and Roy Orbison and performed by Van Halen. Published Acuff-Rose Publications, Inc. 1964. Copyright 1982 Van Halen Productions, Inc. and Warner Bros. Records, Inc. Excerpt taken from “It Must Have Been Love,” written by Per Gessle and performed by Roxette. Copyright 1990 EMI Svenska AB.

UN VENT D'AILLEURS Un Vent d'Ailleurs soufflait depuis Marseille, où Baba Squally s'est rendu à l'exposition dédiée à Abd el-Kader, à voir en ce moment au Musée des Civilisations et de l'Europe de la Méditerranée (Mucem). MUSIKACTUDans ce Musikactu, Hugues Mary revient sur sa découverte d'une chaîne Youtube dédiée aux films du réalisateur Les Blank. Documentariste de la société américaine, Les Blank a aussi réalisé des sujets sur des artistes comme le jazzman Dizzy Gillepsie. Intitulé Dizzy Gillespsie, le film est une manière de comprendre comment il appréhende par exemple la scène et ses concerts.D'ICI ET D'AILLEURS Cette semaine, Georges Troismille propose un focus sur les musiques ouïghoures dans Néo Géo. Une chronique, pensée comme un “hommage à des voix que l'on entend rarement”, avec les artistes Yiltiz, Athree & Arslan et Aire & Zenjir et bien d'autres. LE COUP DE CŒUR DE BINTOU Dans ce Coup de Cœur, Bintou Simporé vous emmène à la cérémonie du 10 mai, la Journée nationale des mémoires de l'abolition de la traite et de l'esclavage. Invitée pour chanter deux titres a cappella, la réunionnaise Christine Salem énonce au micro “l'importance de ces moments de mémoire” qu'il faut célébrer.LE CLASSICO Dans ce Classico, Bintou Simporé rend hommage au musicien sénégalais Rudy Gomis, cofondateur du groupe Orchestra Baobab, décédé le 27 avril dernier.LE LIVE Le groupe des Marx Sisters est dans le Salon de Musique de Néo Géo. Leur musique donne un nouveau souffle à la chanson yiddish et la musique klezmer d'Europe Centrale et au-delà. Pour ce live, ils nous livrent, en quintet, deux titres (“Der yokh” et “Rabeynu Tam”) de leur dernier album Arum Dem Fayer, sorti le 8 avril. Voir Acast.com/privacy pour les informations sur la vie privée et l'opt-out.

The counterculture brought all their flutes and vegetables to the park on March 26th, 1967, and the Love-In commenced! It Happened One Year plunges you into the midst of this glorious, groovy event as Sarah & Joe talk flower & incense based protest circa the Summer of Love, and then spiral it out to the Be-Ins of the time, the simultaneous Central Park event of Easter '67, more aggressive protests to come, and whether or not The Monkees joined in with the fun and frivolity. Attention is paid along the way to Les Blank's God Respects Us When We Work..., the psychedelic bands making appearances at Elysian Park that day, General Lewis Hershey vs. General Hershey Bar, and speculation as to how the hosts may have personally involved themselves in protests on their college campuses were they alive at the time. 

The fifth episode of our season on the awesome movie year of 1980 features our documentary pick, Les Blank's Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers. Directed by Les Blank and featuring various garlic enthusiasts, Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers has been added to the National Film Registry and preserved by the Academy Film Archive. The post Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers (1980 Documentary) appeared first on Awesome Movie Year.

Hey Dude, while listening to KPCC on the radio, I heard a mashup episode of Snap Judgement and Love + Radio, featuring Nick van der Kolk interviewing Glynn Washington. The whole thing made me trip on the blurred lines between podcasting and radio.QUOTE: "I freakin' love radio."CHARACTERS: Will Smith, Chris Rock, Nick van der Kolk, Glynn Washington, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Evo Terra,Tee Morris, Tim Coyne, Lightnin' Hopkins, Les Blank, Muddy Waters, Howlin' WolfSETTINGS: Wawona, Ukraine, Altadena, Los Angeles, The Brewery Art Colony, Barbara's at the BreweryPODCASTS/RADIO: Verge of the Fringe, Love + Radio, KPCC, Snap Judgement, Podcast Hall of Fame, Dawn and Drew, Keith and the Girl, Podcasting for Dummies, Podiobooks, Podcamp, Podcast Movement, National Public Radio, Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour, SiriusXMTHINGS: Kombucha, Motion Picture Academy, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Rough and Rowdy Ways, Every Grain of Sand, Blowin' in the Wind, Blues, Video Killed the Radio StarSOUNDS: Laguna Sawdust Cowbell Chimes footsteps, birds, jet, freeway, virgin cocktail, hornGENRE: storytelling, personal narrative, personal journalPHOTO: "Wawona Podcast Studio" iPhone XSRECORDED: April 2, 2022 from the "Wawona Lawn" under the flight path of the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, CaliforniaGEAR: Sony ICD PX370 digital voice recorder and Sony ECM CS3 "tie-clip" microphone.HYPE: "It's a beatnik kinda literary thing in a podcast cloak of darkness." Timothy Kimo Brien (cohost on Podwreckedand host of Create Art Podcast)DISCLAIMER/WARNING: Proudly presented rough, raw and ragged. Seasoned with salty language and ideas. Not for most people's taste. Please be advised. 

Hey Dude, while listening to KPCC on the radio, I heard a mashup episode of Snap Judgement and Love + Radio, featuring Nick van der Kolk interviewing Glynn Washington. The whole thing made me trip on the blurred lines between podcasting and radio. QUOTE: "I freakin' love radio." CHARACTERS: Will Smith, Chris Rock, Nick van der Kolk, Glynn Washington, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, Evo Terra, Tee Morris, Tim Coyne, Lightnin' Hopkins, Les Blank, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf SETTINGS: Wawona, Ukraine, Altadena, Los Angeles, The Brewery Art Colony, Barbara's at the Brewery PODCASTS/RADIO: Verge of the Fringe, Love + Radio, KPCC, Snap Judgement, Podcast Hall of Fame, Dawn and Drew, Keith and the Girl, Podcasting for Dummies, Podiobooks, Podcamp, Podcast Movement, National Public Radio, Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour, SiriusXM THINGS: Kombucha, Motion Picture Academy, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Rough and Rowdy Ways, Every Grain of Sand, Blowin' in the Wind, Blues, Video Killed the Radio Star SOUNDS: Laguna Sawdust Cowbell Chimes footsteps, birds, jet, freeway, virgin cocktail, horn GENRE: storytelling, personal narrative, personal journal PHOTO: "Wawona Podcast Studio" iPhone XS RECORDED: April 2, 2022 from the "Wawona Lawn" under the flight path of the Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, California GEAR: Sony ICD PX370 digital voice recorder and Sony ECM CS3 "tie-clip" microphone. HYPE: "It's a beatnik kinda literary thing in a podcast cloak of darkness." Timothy Kimo Brien (cohost on Podwrecked and host of Create Art Podcast) DISCLAIMER/WARNING: Proudly presented rough, raw and ragged. Seasoned with salty language and ideas. Not for most people's taste. Please be advised.    

We're launching a new mini-series this week featuring the return of SXSW CTO Justin Bankston to join Nate in discussing some of their favorite music documentaries. The series debut looks at filmmaker Les Blank and his documentary treatment of Leon Russell at work on an album in Nashville, playing live in LA and NOLA and at home in his studio complex in Oklahoma.Let It Roll is proud to be part of Pantheon Podcasts.Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter.Follow us on Facebook.

We're launching a new mini-series this week featuring the return of SXSW CTO Justin Bankston to join Nate in discussing some of their favorite music documentaries. The series debut looks at filmmaker Les Blank and his documentary treatment of Leon Russell at work on an album in Nashville, playing live in LA and NOLA and at home in his studio complex in Oklahoma. Let It Roll is proud to be part of Pantheon Podcasts. Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Twitter. Follow us on Facebook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We're launching a new mini-series this week featuring the return of SXSW CTO Justin Bankston to join Nate in discussing some of their favorite music documentaries. The series debut looks at filmmaker Les Blank and his documentary treatment of Leon Russell at work on an album in Nashville, playing live in LA and NOLA and at home in his studio complex in Oklahoma.Let It Roll is proud to be part of Pantheon Podcasts.Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.comFollow us on Twitter.Follow us on Facebook.

We're launching a new mini-series this week featuring the return of SXSW CTO Justin Bankston to join Nate in discussing some of their favorite music documentaries. The series debut looks at filmmaker Les Blank and his documentary treatment of Leon Russell at work on an album in Nashville, playing live in LA and NOLA and at home in his studio complex in Oklahoma. Let It Roll is proud to be part of Pantheon Podcasts. Have a question or a suggestion for a topic or person for Nate to interview? Email letitrollpodcast@gmail.com Follow us on Twitter. Follow us on Facebook. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, Indie Creatives! In this episode, we have a conversation with the Executive and Artistic Directors of the Indie Memphis Film Festival, Knox Shelton and Miriam Bale. We talk about why Festivals around the country are taking more COVID precautions than theaters and sporting venues, what sacrifices they look for in serious filmmakers, how festivals can create more opportunity and remove barriers for Black filmmakers, how to help Indie Film Creators get full-market value for their work, what made Charles Grodin and Les Blank so brilliant and essential, and much, much more! Enjoy! Listen+Subscribe+Rate = Love Questions or Comments? Reach out to us at contact@bonsai.film or on social and the web at https://linktr.ee/BonsaiCreative⠀⠀⠀⠀ Love Indie Film? Love the MAKE IT Podcast? Become a True Fan! www.bonsai.film/truefans⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ www.makeit.libsyn.com/podcast #MAKEIT

Intro - 0:00Tune called Planxty Sir Festus Burke | Randal Bays/fiddle, Chris Smith/tenor banjo, Roger Landes/bouzouki | composition by Turlough O'Carolan, from the album “Coyote Banjo” by Chris SmithPart I, Working on This Aint No Mouse Music!  - 01:00No Speed Limit from This Aint No Mouse Music! - 07:35Part II, It's All About The After Hang - 09:37How Strachwitz found Lightnin' Hopkins - 11:06Part III, Working on Dutch Hop!  - 13:21Dutch Hop Documentary Project Sampler -17:41Dutch Hop featuring members of the River Boys - 26:57Part IV, Working on [Closer to the Light] - 27:34Mike Beck - "Reuben's Song" - 31:18Part V, Working on I Hear What You See: The Old-Time World of Kenny Hall - 32:55Kenny Hall, Turkey in the Straw, Fresno Chiles - 36:28Part VI, Working with Vernacular Practices - 37:38Outro - 44:02Planxty Sir Festus Burke Chris Simon founded Sageland Media, in 1995, after 15 years as producer, sound recordist and editor for renown documentary director Les Blank. Since then she has completed seven independent films and numerous other films for non-profit organizations such as the Western Folklife Center and Crow Canyon Archaeology Center.  Simon has a masters degree in Folklore and many, though not all, of her films focus on cultural subjects.  This Ain't No Mouse Music!  is about roots music icon Chris Strachwitz and Arhoolie Records. It premiered at SXSW and took top prizes at Hot Docs, Mill Valley  and Washington DC Independent Festivals. Her most recent film, Dutch Hop!  is about the polka tradition of the Volga Germans. It is currently playing nation-wide on PBS.  Full Playlist for EP 16VVMC: Friends & Voices, a Collaborative PlaylistVoices from the Vernacular Music Center

Fitzcarraldo is a 1982 film written and directed by German Icon Werner Herzog and starring infamous actor Klaus Kinski in what would be their penultimate collaboration. The film is based upon a real life rubber baron who transported a disassembled steamboat over land to secure his Rubber trade. In the film however Fitzcarraldo undertakes this feat to secure enough money to bring Opera to his jungle home. The film has a infamously troubled production as Herzog isolated the crew in the Amazon and forced them to manually haul a 320-ton steamship up a steep hill, this was captured in Les Blank's documentary film Burden of Dreams (1982), a rare and crucial companion film to the main film. Herzog's clashes with Kinski were legendary but on this already troubled set it caused so much strife that an extra offered to kill Kinski, Herzog candidly talked about this relationship in his film My Best Fiend (1999). We watched all three of these films and we question what is the necessary sacrifice for the completion of art. All this and more on Adjust Your Tracking!  Follow us on: Twitter: @adjustyrtrack & Instagram: @betterfeelingfilms

Dans cet épisode, magie du monde d'après...nous sommes allées en Zoom à Brooklyn, New York pour rencontrer Dan DiMauro, le réalisateur de Get me Roger Stone, sorti sur Netflix en 2017. Dans cet épisode, la voix de Dan DiMauro est doublée en français par le comédien Pierre Hancisse. Retrouvez l'interview en anglais dans un autre épisode du podcast. Le film Get me Roger Stone retrace le parcours du sulfureux conseiller politique américain Roger Stone, roi des mauvais coups, et l'un des plus proches conseillers de Trump pour l'élection de 2016. Dan DiMauro nous raconte sa rencontre avec Roger Stone suite à un article du New Yorker intitulé “The Dirty Trickster” qui décrivait une personnalité sulfureuse et décalée dans le monde républicain. Dan nous parle également de l'interview de Donald Trump, et de ses souvenirs de tournage aux côtés de Roger Stone le jour de son élection. Nous vous recommandons aussi d'autres documentaires politiques de Dan DiMauro : son court métrage documentaire sur de Trump et Atlantic City sorti en 2020 : Trump A.C./D.C, et l'épisode de Dirty money sur Netflix sur les obscures pratiques immobilières de Jared Kushner, le gendre de Donald Trump. Les trois recommandations de films de Dan DiMauro: Sa “perle rare”: Denial, de Derek Hallquist. le réalisateur filme son père, un militant écologiste qui porte un lourd secret intime qu'on découvre au cours du tournage. Disponible sur Youtube ou sur Amazon. Sa “référence”: Burden of dreams, de Les Blank. Il suit Werner Herzog en Amazonie pour enregistrer le tournage de son film Fitzcarraldo. Disponible en VOD sur Vimeo. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, réalisé par Seth Gordon qui retrace l'histoire de deux champions du jeu vidéo Donkey Kong. Disponible sur Youtube. The Cave, de Feras Fayyad, magnifique documentaire sur la vie d'un hôpital en pleine guerre de Syrie. Nommé aux Oscars en 2020. Pas de lien disponible en France pour le moment malheureusement. Le film qui lui a donné envie de réaliser: La Haine de Mathieu Kassovitz. Voir en VOD sur La cinetek ou sur Canal + . Contactez-nous par email undocunsoir@gmail.com ou sur notre compte Instagram.

Dans cet épisode, magie du monde d'après...nous sommes allées en Zoom à Brooklyn, New York pour rencontrer Dan DiMauro, le réalisateur de Get me Roger Stone, sorti sur Netflix en 2017. L'interview est réalisée en anglais. Une version française est disponible dans un autre épisode de Un doc Un soir avec la voix du comédien Pierre Hancisse. Le film Get me Roger Stone retrace le parcours du sulfureux conseiller politique américain Roger Stone, roi des mauvais coups, et l'un des plus proches conseillers de Trump pour l'élection de 2016. Dan Di Mauro nous raconte sa rencontre avec Roger Stone suite à un article du New Yorker intitulé “The Dirty Trickster” qui montrait une personnalité sulfureuse et décalée dans le monde républicain. Dan nous parle également de l'interview de Donald Trump, et de ses souvenirs de tournage aux côtés de Roger Stone le jour de son élection. Regardez également l'épisode de Dirty money sur Netflix réalisé par Dan DiMauro sur les obscures pratiques immobilières de Jared Kushner, le gendre de Donald Trump. Nous vous recommandons aussi son court métrage documentaire, 100% archives sur de Trump et Atlantic City sorti en 2020 : Trump A.C./D.C. Les trois recommandations de films de Dan DiMauro: Sa “perle rare”: Denial, de Derek Hallquist. Celui-ci filme son père, un militant écologiste sur lequel le spectateur découvre un lourd secret au cours du tournage. Disponible sur Youtube ou sur Amazon Sa “référence”: Burden of dreams, de Les Blank. Il suit Werner Herzog en Amazonie pour enregistrer le tournage de son film Fitzcarraldo. Disponible en VOD sur Vimeo. The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters, réalisé par Seth Gordon qui retrace l'histoire de deux champions du jeu vidéo Donkey Kong. Disponible sur Youtube. The Cave, de Feras Fayyad, magnifique documentaire sur la vie d'un hôpital en pleine guerre de Syrie. Nommé aux Oscars en 2020. Pas de lien disponible en France pour le moment malheureusement. Le film qui lui a donné envie de réaliser: La Haine de Mathieu Kassovitz. Voir en VOD sur La cinetek ou sur Canal + . Contactez-nous par email undocunsoir@gmail.com ou sur notre compte Instagram.

Spend some time with us as we talk about two films that celebrate tasty food, soul stirring music and the joys of simple living.

Spend some time with us as we talk about two films that celebrate tasty food, soul stirring music and the joys of simple living.

Chaque vision est singulière, porteuse de sens et de changement. Le but de ce format est de rassembler de nombreux artistes et que chacun nous délivre sa vision et son expérience de la photographie. « Avec du recul, le corps est le sujet principal de mon travail. C’est le corps qu’on maquille, qu’on costume, qu’on démultiplie, qu’on imite. C’est une matière infinie d’inspiration. L’humain aussi et la psychologie de certaines personnes. Je dirais que je suis aussi intéressée par les marges, les gens qui paraissent un peu hors-circuit, hors-normes, qui challengent ces normes ou qui n’ont pas peur de se montrer à côté de ce qu’on attend d’eux... » Ces quelques mots sont tirés de ce huitième podcast dans un format Vision avec Estelle Hanania, photographe française de 41 ans, qui nous dévoile ici l’essence de son travail.  Diplômée des Beaux-Arts de Paris et lauréate du prix de photographie du Festival de Hyères, récemment exposée à la MEP, Estelle Hanania ne peut pas être réduite à une seule forme artistique. Sa pratique se situe à la frontière de plusieurs territoires : photographie plasticienne, documentaire ou même de rue. Ces dernières années, elle crée différents projets qui jouent avec les perceptions des spectateurs : entre réalité et fiction et visible et invisible. Ses photographies sont complexes, mystérieuses, ésotériques, drôles parfois. En parallèle, Estelle Hanania est représentée par l’agence M.A.P. et a une pratique de la photographie de mode, en lien avec l’esthétique et les sujets de son travail personnel.  Dans ce podcast passionnant d'environ une heure, nous abordons avec elle différents sujets : ses livres, son parcours et son évolution, son intérêt premier pour les rites, costumes et folklore et ses diverses collaborations, notamment avec la chorégraphe Gisèle Vienne dernièrement… À vos écouteurs, casques, enceintes et bonne écoute ! Nous soutenir https://visionspodcast.fr/nous-soutenir/ Pour aller plus loin Les Krims, Abbas Kiarostami, Les Blank, Makala d’Emmanuel Gras, Danielle Jacqui, Cassandro « El Exotico », George Grosz, Masques des Alpes de Clemens Zerling, Scrapbooks (1969-1985) de Walter Pfeiffer, Casa de Lava de Pedro Costa, Le diable sucré de Christine Armengaud. Liens https://www.instagram.com/estellehanania https://www.estellehanania.com/ https://www.instagram.com/podcastvisions/ https://www.visionspodcast.fr/

José Koechlin von Stein established Inkaterra in 1975, pioneering ecotourism and sustainable development in Peru. Aiming to underscore natural and cultural values, Inkaterra works under a holistic approach. Scientific research is produced as a basis for conservation, education and the wellbeing of local communities. Major flora and fauna inventories have been sponsored by Mr. Koechlin since 1978, defining natural areas where Inkaterra hotels are located – the Amazon rainforest in Madre de Dios, the Machu Picchu cloud forest, the Sacred Valley of the Incas, the city of Cusco and the Cabo Blanco coastline. Achievements in research and conservation in hotel grounds include the study of 814 bird species registered at Inkaterra areas of influence, equivalent to 93% of Costa Rica's total bird diversity; the description of 362 ant species (world record sponsored by Harvard biologist E.O. Wilson); the Andean Bear Conservation Center at Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel, in benefit of the only bear species native to South America; and the world's largest native orchid collection according to the American Orchid Society, with 372 species (including 20 new to science). To promote travel experiences in Peru, Mr. Koechlin co-produced Werner Herzog's classic films Aguirre, The Wrath of God (1972) and Fitzcarraldo (Best Director, Cannes Film Festival 1982), and Les Blank's documentary Burden of Dreams (1982). He has promoted various publications on Peru's biodiversity and culture, such as Cusco Amazónico: The Lives of Amphibians and Reptiles in an Amazonian Rainforest (Cornell University Press, 2005), described by Cornell University as “the baseline against which all future studies of Amazonian amphibians and reptiles will be compared to”; Flórula de la Reserva Ecológica Inkaterra (Missouri Botanical Garden and Inka Terra Asociación, 2007); Orchids at Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel (Inkaterra, 2007); Kim MacQuarrie's The Last Days of the Incas (Inkaterra, 2012); and Lord of Miracles (Inkaterra, 2014). Acknowledged by AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) in its ‘100 World Influential Leaders' academic list, Mr. Koechlin is also Chairman of Sociedad Hoteles del Perú; Vice Chairman of CANATUR (National Chamber of Tourism) and E-Meritus Board Member of Conservation International (Washington D.C.). He has been honored with the 2017 LEC Award in the Large Enterprise Category sponsored by EY; the first-ever HOLA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016 (Hotel Opportunities Latin America, US Conference); the 2015 PURE Award in the ‘Contribution to Experiential Travel' category; the 2013 and 2010 SAHIC Awards in the ‘Best Developer' category (South American Hotel Investment Conference). On this episode, Mr. Koechlin shares his one way ticket to Machu Picchu! He also talks about the fabulous bio diversity in Peru, his award-winning chain of Inkaterra hotels, and even this famed American literary figure who went fishing in Cabo Blanco. Mr. Koechlin is just one of the dynamic personalities featured on The One Way Ticket Show, where Host Steven Shalowitz explores with his guests where they would go if given a one way ticket, no coming back. Their destinations may be in the past, present, future, real, imaginary or a state of mind. Steven's guests have included: Nobel Peace Prize Winner, President Jose Ramos-Horta; Legendary Talk Show Host, Dick Cavett; Law Professor, Alan Dershowitz; Fashion Expert, Tim Gunn; Broadcast Legend, Charles Osgood; International Rescue Committee President & CEO, David Miliband; Former Senator, Joe Lieberman; Playwright, David Henry Hwang; Journalist-Humorist-Actor, Mo Rocca; SkyBridge Capital Founder & Co-Managing Partner, Anthony Scaramucci; Abercrombie & Kent Founder, Geoffrey Kent; Travel Expert, Pauline Frommer, as well as leading photographers, artists, chefs, writers, intellectuals and more.

The popularity of Borowski’s films reached an all time high in 2012. In April and October, HH Holmes aired on PBS and Borowski was the special guest on PBS' pledge drive. Bojan Pandža, Serbian author and film critic had this to say: "There are four horsemen of the Apocalypse, Herzog, Eroll, Les Blank and John Borowski. HONESTLY!!!"In 2013, Borowski's films were screened in Paris France, he was featured in Psychology Today, U.K.'s Bizarre Magazine, interviewed for the Travel Channel show Monumental Mysteries, served as an official judge in the documentary category for the Housecore Horror Film Festival, completed Mime Time a short film entered into the ABC's of Death 2 competition and completed his fourth feature documentary film, Serial Killer Culture, released in 2014.In 2016, Borowski released The Ed Gein File, a book containing documents from the Gein case. Serial Killer Culture TV was released in March of 2017 as a follow up to the successful film, Serial Killer Culture. Dahmer's Confession, Borowski's fourth book, was released in October of 2017. 2018 Marks the release of Borowski's fifth feature documentary film, Bloodlines: The Art and Life of Vincent Castiglia. Borowski is currently busy writing several feature narrative film screenplays, writing his next book, Panzram at Leavenworth, producing the second season of SKCTV and producing his next serial killer biography documentary film, Jesse Pomeroy: The Boston Boy FiendSupport this show http://supporter.acast.com/houseofmysteryradio. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A Poem is a Naked Person - 2015 Directed by Les Blank Forty years elapsed between the filming of Les Blank’s documentary “about” Leon Russell and its eventual release in 2015, a gap attributed to coagulating bad blood between the central subject and the filmmaker.  Blank filmed A Poem Is A Naked Person for two years, observing Russell up close at his Oklahoma studio while also taking short detours into the life of locals and the surrounding scenery.  The result is a film that is less a portrait of one musician and more a concentration of countless minutes into just ninety, a view from an arm’s length that is still incredibly personal. Spotify Playlist Please follow us on Instagram @rock_doc_talk

Les Blank, Maureen Gosling, and Chris Strachwitz on CHULAS FRONTERAS and IN HEAVEN THERE IS NO BEER Recorded July 15, 2012 as part of Always for Pleasure: The Films of Les Blank Les Blank and Chris Strachwitz, who made CHULAS FRONTERAS, and Blank and Maureen Gosling, who made IN HEAVEN THERE IS NO BEER, take us behind the scenes of the making of these films, drawing out links between Tex-Mex Norteño music and the polka, and relating stories about each film's premiere. They briefly mention DEL MERO CORAZÓN, a tribute to Norteño love songs made by the three of them and Guillermo Hernandez. archive.bampfa.berkeley.edu/film/FN19617 bampfa.org/program/always-pleasure-films-les-blank

With the help of festivals like the New Orleans Jazz Fest, Cajun music saw a revival in the 1960s and 70s. Many of the voices from this revival were captured in Les Blank's poetic J'ai Été Au Bal and Alan Lomax's more historical Cajun Country.

Turtle rabbit. Shell possum. Roadkill. Whatever you call it, the nine-banded armadillo is a mysterious, ancient, and unfairly maligned mammal. Find out everything you ever wanted to know (and more) about this Texas icon. Leah traces the armadillo’s bizarre migratory history, its role in medical research, and its rise as a symbol of the Austin music scene. We’ll bust some armadillo myths, meet some famous champions (including naturalist Roy Bedichek and artist Jim Franklin) and discuss the intractable problem of armadillos in the garden. So, spark up a spliff and fill your pantyhose with worms! The next time one wreaks havoc on your flowerbeds, you may just have a little more appreciation for this humble critter.  Songs: “Dead Armadillo Song” by the Lost Gonzo Band; “Spanish Moss” by Doug Kershaw; “Armadillo Stomp” by Commander Cody & the Lost Planet Airmen;  “You Look Like the Devil” by Willie Nelson; “London Homesick Blues” by Gary P Nunn; “Beautiful Texas Sunshine” by Doug Sahm. Here’s a Spotify playlist.   Mentioned in this episode:  Pink Fairy Armadillo; Adventures With a Texas Naturalist by Roy Bedicheck; The Amazing Armadillo by Larry L. Smith and Robin W. Doughty; The Armadillo World Headquarters: A Memoir by Eddie Wilson Jessie Sublett ; The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock, by Jan Reid; “The Rise and Fall of the Armadillo World Headquarters” doc; “Poster Art of the Armadillo World Headquarters” doc ; A Poem is a Naked Person, a film by Les Blank; Franklin’s story about “You Look Like the Devil” told on Pick Up The Tempo podcast; “Armadillo Man,” (The New Yorker, 1971). Managing Armadillo Damage (Texas A&M Agrilife Extension). 

Turtle rabbit. Shell possum. Roadkill. Whatever you call it, the nine-banded armadillo is a mysterious, ancient, and unfairly maligned mammal. Find out everything you ever wanted to know (and more) about this Texas icon. Leah traces the armadillo’s bizarre migratory history, its role in medical research, and its rise as a symbol of the Austin music scene. We’ll bust some armadillo myths, meet some famous champions (including naturalist Roy Bedichek and artist Jim Franklin) and discuss the intractable problem of armadillos in the garden. So, spark up a spliff and fill your pantyhose with worms! The next time one wreaks havoc on your flowerbeds, you may just have a little more appreciation for this humble critter.  Songs: “Dead Armadillo Song” by the Lost Gonzo Band; “Spanish Moss” by Doug Kershaw; “Armadillo Stomp” by Commander Cody & the Lost Planet Airmen;  “You Look Like the Devil” by Willie Nelson; “London Homesick Blues” by Gary P Nunn; “Beautiful Texas Sunshine” by Doug Sahm. Here’s a Spotify playlist.   Mentioned in this episode:  Pink Fairy Armadillo; Adventures With a Texas Naturalist by Roy Bedicheck; The Amazing Armadillo by Larry L. Smith and Robin W. Doughty; The Armadillo World Headquarters: A Memoir by Eddie Wilson Jessie Sublett ; The Improbable Rise of Redneck Rock, by Jan Reid; “The Rise and Fall of the Armadillo World Headquarters” doc; “Poster Art of the Armadillo World Headquarters” doc ; A Poem is a Naked Person, a film by Les Blank; Franklin’s story about “You Look Like the Devil” told on Pick Up The Tempo podcast; “Armadillo Man,” (The New Yorker, 1971). Managing Armadillo Damage (Texas A&M Agrilife Extension). 

Hosts Tim Rosenberger -- a 25 Years Later film writer, a blogger, and YouTuber -- and Rosalie Lewis, a writer for FThisMovie.net, discuss five short documentaries of director Les Blank: The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins (1968); God Respects Us When We Work, but Loves Us When We Dance (1968); Spend It All (1971); A Well Spent Life (1971); & Dry Wood (1973). Join them as they delve into the food, music, and culture of the Blues, Cajuns, hippies, and more. Visit 25YL for more Film analysis and reviews.

This is our Munchie May series on food documentaries. We watched Les Blank’s 1980 classic film Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers. Blank celebrates the virtues of garlic from Berkeley's Chez Panisse to the Gilroy Garlic festival. It’s a short but thorough look at the cultural stereotypes and medicinal qualities of the stinking rose, down the supply chain of farm workers. You can watch the film on the Criterion Channel.This doc was picked by our guest, Richard Parks the Third, a James Beard Award-nominated writer, filmmaker, cookbook author, and the host of Richard’s Famous Food Podcast.Richard is the co-author of the Guerrilla Tacos cookbook and The Boba Book. He’s written for Lucky Peach, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and produced radio stories for Snap Judgement, KCRW’s Lost Notes, and McSweeney’s, where he collaborated with The Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne.Richard also teaches us how to Spatchcock a chicken!This episode we shout out our friends at Hoppin Hot Sauce! Follow Richard on:Twitter: @reechardparksInstagram: @reechardparksFollow us on:Twitter: @supdocpodcastInstagram: @supdocpodcastFacebook: @supdocpodcastsign up for our mailing listAnd you can show your support to Sup Doc by donating on Patreon.

Gina Leibrecht has been working in film since she received her B.A. in Telecommunications and Film from the University of Oregon in 1990. She currently works and resides in the San Francisco Bay Area, working on documentary, commercial, and corporate projects for domestic and international audiences. Gina's most recent films are Art of Courage, Wilder Than Wild: Fire, Forests, and the Future, and Ai Weiwei: Yours Truly. In 1998 she began collaborating with Les Blank on All In This Tea, which she co-produced, co-directed, and edited, and which had its world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2007, screened in over 40 festivals world wide, and was broadcast on the Sundance Channel. She most recently completed a collaboration with Les Blank called How to Smell a Rose: A Visit with Ricky Leacock in Normandy, which had its North American debut at the 2014 Telluride Film Festival and has gone on to screen in film festivals around the world. Gina is currently collaborating with Harrod Blank on a documentary film about his father, the late Les Blank. Most recently, Gina finished editing on the feature documentary Serenade for Haiti with director Owsley Brown, which had its World Premiere at DOC NYC in 2016. Past documentary highlights include On Wayang: My Life with Shadows, which she Co-produced, Co-directed and edited with ShadowLight Productions; and Homegrown Bounty, which she produced and directed for the KQED series SPARK. Gina also edited Frank Green’s Counting Sheep, which aired on KQED’s Truly California series and won a Northern California Emmy Award for Best Documentary in 2006; Karina Epperlein’s Phoenix Dance, which won San Francisco International Film Festival’s Golden Gate Award for Best Documentary Short in 2006, and made the short list of Academy Award Nominations for Best Short Subject Documentary in 2006; Of Wind and Waves: The Life of Woody Brown, which was nominated for a Northern California Emmy for Best Documentary in 2006; and Kevin White’s A Land Between Rivers for PBS, which won a CINE Golden Eagle Award for Excellence in Film and Television in 2007. Gina has worked with several Bay Area production companies, editing for corporate and non-profit clients including Intel, Symantec, Sybase, Ebay, Guthy-Renker, Stanford University, the California Water Board, ChildFund International, and many others. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/americanfilmmaker/support

Nosso podcast encerra o ano com dobradinha no NERVOS Entrevista #32, que destaca dois filmes que conversam entre si sobre a dificuldade de viver de música no país: a ficção brasiliense Ainda Temos a Imensidão da Noite (2019), terceiro longa de Gustavo Galvão, e o documentário capixaba Diante dos Meus Olhos (2018), o début de André Felix. O primeiro foi exibido no último Festival de Brasília, tem a capital do Brasil como primeiro cenário da história de Karen (Ayla Gresta), uma trompetista que vê a sua banda, chamada Animal Interior, degringolar aos poucos com a falta de espaço e público para tocar na cidade, a necessidade de empregos formais e a ida do guitarrista Artur (Gustavo Halfeld) para Berlim, lugar para onde ela vai buscando um novo caminho em sua vida. O segundo acompanha, atualmente, os integrantes da banda Os Mamíferos, que marcou a cena musical local durante a década de 60, na época da contracultura, mas que não gravou nenhum disco ou faixa. Em entrevista à nossa editora Nayara Reynaud, o cineasta Gustavo Galvão conta sobre seu interesse por protagonistas vagando em road movies, o cenário musical em Brasília e a produção do filme em Berlim, até a escolha por músicos para interpretar os personagens, o processo de criação das canções e a participação mais do que especial de Lee Ranaldo na trilha sonora, enquanto o célebre guitarrista da banda de rock alternativo Sonic Youth comenta sobre seu trabalho na produção musical neste e em outras obras, além do seu próximo álbum com o espanhol Raül Refree e de seu interesse na música brasileira. Os musicistas e atores Ayla Gresta e Gustavo Halfeld, que fazem o quase par na tela que virou um casal na vida real, falam de como entraram no projeto e o desafio de atuar, além do processo vivo de formação dessa banda que seria fictícia, mas rendeu frutos na criação do duo YPU. Depois, é a vez da conversa com André Felix sobre como o diretor se envolveu com o trio que é motivo de pesquisa do projeto local Aurora Gordon e como driblou esteticamente a falta de registro dos músicos em atividade, além de revelar causos do conturbado festival de Guarapari que fez parte da história dos Mamíferos e do estado do Espírito Santo. Ouça no lugar que você quiser: SoundCloud | Spotify | Deezer | iTunes | Google Podcasts | Feed | Download > 6s: Introdução > 3min24s: Entrevista com o cineasta Gustavo Galvão sobre Ainda Temos a Imensidão da Noite > 26min05s: Entrevista com os atores Ayla Gresta e Gustavo Halfeld sobre Ainda Temos a Imensidão da Noite > 38min06s: Entrevista com o guitarrista e produtor musical Lee Ranaldo sobre Ainda Temos a Imensidão da Noite > 47min25s: Entrevista com o diretor André Felix sobre Diante dos Meus Olhos > 1h09min56s: Conexões Nervosas > 1h20min58s: Encerramento Conexões Nervosas > Gustavo Galvão: os documentários britânico Nick Cave – 20.000 Dias na Terra (2014), de Jane Pollard e Iain Forsyth, e alemão B-Movie: Lust & Sound in West-Berlin 1979-1989 (2015), de Jörg A. Hoppe, Heiko Lange e Klaus Maeck, e o filme russo Verão (2018), de Kirill Serebrennikov > Gustavo Helfeld: Contra a Parede (2004), longa turco-alemão de Fatih Akin > Ayla Gresta: a obra do trompetista norte-americano de jazz Ambrose Akinmusire > Lee Ranaldo: o “período elétrico” de Miles Davis, desde álbuns como Bitches Brew (1970), quando ele trabalhava com músicos de rock entre 1969 e 1974 > André Felix: os filmes norte-americanos Cowboys do Espaço (2000), de Clint Eastwood, O Irlandês (2019), de Martin Scorsese, e Cocoon (1985), de; e o documentário compatriota A Poem Is a Naked Person (1974), de Les Blank > Musicóide: http://musicoide.unb.br/ > Os quatro podcasts do site Tenho Mais Discos que Amigos: www.tenhomaisdiscosqueamigos.com/category/podcasts > Em frente. Marche!: www.emfrentemarche.com.br/index.php/podcast-2 *Músicas presentes no podcast (sob licença Creative Commons): “Content”, de Lee Rosevere; “Blind Love Dub”, de Jeris; e “Reusenoise_(DNB_Mix)”, de SpinningMerkaba

Episode Notes Awhhhhhh yeah we're back with more movie talk!!!! This week we discuss A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Post Tenebras Lux, De Palma, Les Blank documentaries, Philippe Grandrieux + ways of watching films. Hell, we even read some Martine Beugnet! Share & subscribe & let us know what ya think!This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

Welcome, Doccalos to the 99th episode of the Documenteers. This week we hit up a Herzog Month documentary that Werner didn’t direct. Les Blank returns with co-director Maureen Gosling to make the documentary “Burden of Dreams”. The story of the Werner Herzog feature film “Fitzcarraldo” is about a would-be rubber tree baron who does whatever it takes to do the seemingly impossible task of dragging a steamship through a jungle. The documentary “Burden of Dreams” is about Werner Herzog doing whatever it takes to do the seemingly impossible task of completing “Fitzcarraldo”. Including dragging a steamship through a jungle. Eldridge and Bob go all over Peru with Werner and the gang to discuss the troubles and ramifications of a weird German man amongst indigenous Peruvians. Oh, and also a stank-faced Klaus Kinski is wandering around and there’s yuca booze made with human spit. There’s also threats, attempted homicide, and a world made of murder and fornication. Even the stars are a mess. But Werner will do whatever it takes. So will we. We will step up and drink the yuca spit liquor. Keep on Horkin’. www.documenteerspodcast.com “Burden of Dreams” trailer: https://youtu.be/FYOYi9WLLVU “Fitzcarraldo” trailer: https://youtu.be/MDQyBmZa8vY Hol deinen Partyhut raus und schüttel deinen Arsch: https://youtu.be/La4Dcd1aUcE Ooh! A listicle! ROFLMAO: https://www.indiewire.com/2015/09/11-craziest-things-that-have-happened-during-the-making-of-werner-herzogs-films-58559/ Whoa…hot takes machine: https://www.themetropolistimes.com/the-metropolis-times/2017/3/13/fitzcarraldo

Here we go, Doccalo. The Herzog month pre-show is here and Bob and Angela discuss what can be considered “extra content” for their Gates of Heaven discussion earlier this week. Werner Herzog bet Errol Morris that he would eat his shoe if Errol completed his first film. Errol accomplished that task to critical acclaim so Les Blank brought a camera to document Werner keeping up his end of the bargain. This short doc is true motivation for the arts, and we’re not talking about some bullshit hallmark meme instagram motivational baloney. What goes well with shoe? Should you steal for your art? Does Werner slurp his shoelace like sketti? Didn’t Chaplain eat a shoe? Don’t be afraid to listen. Werner hates cowards. Let Herzog month begin! www.documenteerspodcast.com Here’s a Spanish subtitled version with bad audio on Dailymotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/video/xl61of Peep this knowledge: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoe

Connor and Riley examine one of the most acclaimed documentary filmmakers of all time: Werner Herzog. In his 2005 film Grizzly Man, he studies the tragic story of Timothy Treadwell, a man who spent 13 summers in Alaska with grizzly bears only to eventually be attacked and eaten by one of them. While Herzog unapologetically indulges in our morbid fascinations, he treats the story with appropriate reverence. Follow us: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rulesoftheframe/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rulesoftheframe Twitter: https://twitter.com/RulesOfTheFrame Films mentioned in this episode: Grizzly Man (2005) | Dir. Werner Herzog The King's Speech (2010) | Dir. Tom Hooper Little Dieter Needs To Fly (1997) | Dir. Werner Herzog Into the Abyss (2011) | Dir. Werner Herzog Ravenous (1999) | Dir. Antonia Bird Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) | Dir. Werner Herzog Into the Wild (2007) | Dir. Sean Penn The Wind Rises (2013) | Dir. Hayao Miyazaki My Best Fiend (1999) | Dir. Wener Herzog Aguirre, the Wrath of God (1972) | Dir. Werner Herzog Firzcarraldo (1982) | Dir. Werner Herzog Burden of Dreams (1982) | Dir. Les Blank Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (1980) | Dir. Les Blank

The 2019 BRIC Documentary Intensive has begun!TELL ME MORE ABOUT THE PROGRAMThe two-time, New York Emmy-nominated BRIC Documentary Intensive will guide you through all of the stages of creating a documentary. In this class, a group of 12 Brooklynites will be selected to write, produce, and shoot a documentary on a subject of their choosing. Students will make their own films, help their classmates, and develop a cohort that can work together after the class ends. We'll talk about documentary style, subjects, shooting, recording sound, and editing on Adobe Premiere!Liam Billingham (Special Projects Manager, BRIC Media Education) and Joseph Ranghelli (Manager, Community Producer Services) interview Charles Hailer, a fellow BRIC employee and 2019 BRIC Documentary Intensive participant. Charles tells us about his experience in arts administration, his love of Les Blank, and his documentary project.This will be the first of many episodes about the BRIC Documentary Intensive.

http://www.maureengosling.com/ (Maureen Gosling) is not only the editor of my favourite documentary film of all time, but quite possibly my favourite film of all time. Period. That film is Les Blank's https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083702/ (Burden of Dreams), starring Werner Herzog.   And as we near our finale episode for Season One of the show, I thought it might be a great time to have someone like Maureen on to the show, not only because I would get the opportunity to hear some https://lesblank.com/ (Les Blank), https://www.wernerherzog.com/ (Werner Herzog) & https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Klaus_Kinski (Klaus Kinski) stories, but also because editing is something that we often like to champion here on the show. I believe editing to be one of the most underrated positions in all of film. Plus, I know that we have a lot of #doclifers out there who are currently in post production on their doc film!   Topics Discussedhow a chance encounter with Les Blank would start her down the road of documentary being sued by Drew Barrymore for the use of the name Flower Films stories about her and Les' experience documenting Werner Herzog with their film Burden of Dreams touring in Latin America showing their films and working with Latin American filmmakers lessons & tips for working with indigenous cultures   Related Sources° Watch the trailer for Burden of Dreams https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYOYi9WLLVU   ° Watch the trailer for A Dangerous Idea https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26ZIfvWWqDA   ° Watch the trailer for The Long Shadow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RENJTepMW-4   Sponsors & Thank Youshttp://freemusicarchive.org/ (Free Music Archive) – Special Thank You to recording artist, http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Dlay/ (Dlay) who supplied music for this week's episode of TDL. You too can download his music or other artist's music by going to http://freemusicarchive.org/ (Free Music Archive) today!   Subscribehttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-documentary-life/id1112679868 (Apple) | https://open.spotify.com/show/0wYlYHJzyk3Y7fHzDDwvmp (Spotify) | https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/thedocumentarylife/the-documentary-life (Stitcher) |  Rate and ReviewIf you have found value in this podcast please leave a review so it can become more visible to others. Simply click the https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/documentary-life-filmmaking-documentary-films-documentary/id1112679868?mt=2 (link) and then click on the Ratings and Reviews tab to make your entry. Thank you for your support!    

Who Invented Mardi Gras? In today's episode, we tackle a controversial subject - who invented Mardi Gras? Mobile or New Orleans? My guest is Ted Flotte, with the Historic Mobile Preservation Society and Joe Cain Marching Society. Ted and I explore the history of Carnival and Mardi Gras in both Mobile and New Orleans.   On today’s show, you’ll learn... About the many things Mobile and New Orleans share in common, including their founders The history of Carnival and Mardi Gras in both places, and How to look for the tell tale signs someone walking down the street may be a member of one of Carnival's most secret organizations! All this and more on today's episode of the Beyond Bourbon Street podcast! Resources Recommended Reading Ann Pond: Cowbellion; Masons and Mardi Gras; and Cain.  Ann Pond is originally from New Orleans, got her BA/MA from U.N.O. and PhD from U.S.M. Former Assistant Diector of the Gallier House.  These three books are well-researched and sourced to give an accurate account of the beginning of Mardi Gras in Mobile and New Orleans. Available on Amazon or Lulu. Samuel Kinser: Carnival, American Style: Mardi Gras at New Orleans and Mobile. (1990) A Professor of History at Northern Illinois University gives his outsider, academic take. Available on Amazon. Rosary O'Neill: New Orleans Carnival Krewes: The History, Spirit & Secrets of Mardi Gras. An insiders view of New Orleans krewes. Available on Amazon. Jennifer Atkins, New Orleans Carnival Balls: The Secret Side of Mardi Gras, 1870-1920. Ditto. Available on Amazon. Films Order of Myths, Margaret Brown.  A behind-the-scenes look at many aspects of Mobile Mardi Gras. Watch on Amazon. By Invitation Only, Rebecca Snedeker.  A more incisive and critical (New Orleans Magazine called it a "hatchet job") look at New Orleans krewes.  Available on newday.com. Always For Pleasure, Les Blank. A classic. All On A Mardi Gras Day, Royce Osborn Photographic Books Jeff and Megan Haller, and Eleanor Inge Baker: Bon Temps: Alabama's Mardi Gras. Available online. Kerri McCaffety: Masking and Madness: Mardi Gras in New Orleans Other Books Robert Tallant: Mardi Gras As It Was Anything by Henri Schindler, Errol Laborde or Arthur Hardy (New Orleans), or Emily Staples Hearin (Mobile) A History of the Strikers 1852- America's Oldest Mystic Society (1997); The Mistick Krewe: Chronicles of Comus and his Kin (Perry Young, 1931) Our Book of State — The History of the Order of Myths (1967) Infant Mystics - The First Hundred Years (Caldwell Delaney/Cornelia McDuffie Turner, 1968) If I Ever Cease to Love — One Hundred Years of Rex 1872-1971 (Charles Dufour/Lenoard Huber, 1971) Without Malice — the 100th Anniversary of the Comic Cowboys (Samuel Eichold, 1989)    Website and Glossy Magazines   Arthur Hardy's Mardi Gras Guide   The Mobile Mask (Steve Joynt)   N.B. Because our discussion focused on the historic ties between New Orleans and Mobile, these recommendations are concentrated on the krewes that were formed as a result. There are many other sources that could be included about Mardi Gras since 1900.  For instance, the Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association has also had a King and Queen since 1940. Please check your local bookstores first. Thank You A huge thanks to Ted Flotte, with the Historic Mobile Preservation Society and Joe Cain Marching Society. Ted not only conceived the idea for this episode, but also provided the treasure trove of resources listed above. Thanks to Liz Maute Cooke of Lionheart Prints for providing a space to record the episode. After we recorded, Liz decided to become our first sponsor - yay! Check out all the fabulous hand lettered cards, prints, and handmade goods made by New Orleans artists. Shop online or in person and use the code BEYONDBOURBON to get 5 bucks off any t-shirt. I am currently loving my "Who's Your Crawdaddy" shirt with a design hand drawn by Liz. Want to Make Your Trip to New Orleans the Best Ever? Of course you do! If you’re planning a trip to New Orleans and want to cut through all the research we’re here to help. We offer a personalized travel consult. Here’s how it works: You complete a brief questionnaire to help us get to know you and the experience you want to have in New Orleans. Next, we set up a 20-30 minute phone or video call. During the call, we get to know you a little better. We can clarify any questions and bounce a few ideas off of you to make sure we ‘re on the right track. Finally, we prepare and deliver a pdf document with our recommendations for your trip. Depending on your needs the report will contain specific places to stay, eat and drink. It will also offer suggestions on things to do and see, all based on your budget and interests. Sound good? Just go to http://www.beyondbourbonst.com/travel for all the details and a link to order the service. Subscribe to the Podcast If you enjoy the show, please subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play Music or wherever you get your podcasts. If you do enjoy listening, please share Beyond Bourbon Street with someone who shares our love of New Orleans. Join Us on Facebook We now have a Facebook group where you can ask questions, share your New Orleans experiences and engage with others who love all things New Orleans. Join us by going to www.beyondbourbonst.com/facebook Contact Us Got an idea for an episode, have some feedback or just want to say hi? Leave us a message at 504-475-7632 or send an email to mark@beyondbourbonst.com Thanks for listening! Mark

Jay Caspian Kang is a writer at large at The New York Times Magazine and a correspondent for Vice News Tonight. “I make a pretty provocative argument about how Asian American identity doesn’t really exist—how it’s basically just an academic idea, and it’s not lived within the lives of anybody who’s Asian. Like you grow up, you’re Korean, you’re a minority. You don’t have any sort of kinship with, like, Indian kids. You know? And there’s no cultural sharedness where you’re just like, ‘oh yeah…Asia!’” Thanks to MailChimp, "Mussolini’s Arctic Airship", Blinkist and for sponsoring this week's episode. @jaycaspiankang Kang’s Blog Kang on Longform [00:00] Mussolini’s Arctic Airship (Eva Holland • Kindle Single • Aug 2017) [00:45] "What a Fraternity Hazing Death Revealed About the Painful Search for an Asian-American Identity" (New York Times Magazine • Aug 2017) [00:45] Kang on the Longform Podcast [01:15] Kang’s Archive at The New Yorker [02:30] readthissummer.com [02:45] Havrilesky on the Longform Podcast [05:45] "That Other School Shooting" (New York Times Magazine • Mar 2013) [07:30] The Dead Do Not Improve: A Novel (Hogarth • 2013) [15:15] Tim Ferriss on the Longform Podcast [17:45] "John Wayne: A Love Song" (Joan Didion • Saturday Evening Post • Aug 1965) [22:15] "A Question of Identity" (Grantland • Mar 2012) [24:45] Kang’s Column “On Sports” at The New York Times Magazine [27:30] Les Blank’s Website [27:45] Amy [27:45] Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck [35:15] "No place like home" (Vice News • Jun 2017) [36:15] "The End and Don King" (Grantland • Apr 2013) [36:45] "Inside the final days of the Standing Rock protest" (Vice • Feb 2017) [37:30] "What comes after Standing Rock?" (Vice • Jan 2017) [39:00] "‘Our Demand Is Simple: Stop Killing Us’" (New York Times Magazine • May 2015) [41:30] "Charlottesville: Race and Terror" (Vice News • Aug 2017) [42:45] "Impeached!" (David Gilbert • Vice News • Dec 2016) [48:00] "Now You See Me" (Vice News • Mar 2017)  

Shooting BTS (behind-the-scenes), or http://creativeskillset.org/job_roles/3838_epk_directorproducer (EPK )(electronic press kit) as it's known in the film industry, can be a great and a rather appropriate way for a documentary filmmaker to make some additional income.   I mean, who else to better create short promotional-type videos or vignettes than a filmmaker who owns their own gear, can conduct and shoot an interview, shoot some broll, then edit into a small concise package for quick delivery?   In this episode, we examine the position that is tailor-made for the documentary filmmaker, how to get into it, and how what you are already doing in your doc life makes you the perfect candidate for this industry position.   Podcast Conversation For our shared conversation segment, I am honoured to have on feature and documentary film director, http://www.stefanavalos.com/ (Stefan Avalos). You may remember Avalos from the very early days of digital film. And with a good reason, since he and fellow filmmaker http://lanceweiler.com/ (Lance Weiler) were true pioneers in the digital film field, with their ground-breaking feature, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8NzDgFtlrU (The Last Broadcast). And now, with his new film, http://www.stradstyle.com/ (Strad Style), winner of http://www.slamdance.com/ (Grand Jury and Audience Awards), Avalos enters the hallowed halls of documentary. To say that this was one of my favourite conversations with a doc industry guest in recent times, would be putting it lightly. Topics like his hand in digital cinema history, the influence of a doc like https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMFZOu8rDUQ (American Movie) on his work, and the various headscarfs that his lead subject in Strad Style was prone to wearing. It's enlightening, hilarious, and inspiring all at once. So yeah, not an episode to be missed!   Related Resources In the first segment of the episode, I mentioned the work of documentary filmmaker, http://lesblank.com/ (Les Blank), in particular his documentary film, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burden_of_Dreams (Burden of Dreams), which was basically the making-of http://www.wernerherzog.com/ (Werner Herzog)‘s http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-fitzcarraldo-1982 (Fitzcarraldo). Enjoy the trailer for the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYOYi9WLLVU   Stefan Avalos' digital feature film, The Last Broadcast, was not only a massive influence on my filmmaking career, but really digital cinema, as a whole. Here's a trailer for the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSCptQ1M7Rs   And now, we can all be thankful, that Avalos has decided to make his first feature documentary, the brilliant, Strad Style! Check out the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSlUiXHrpnI   Subscribehttps://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-documentary-life/id1112679868 (Apple) | https://open.spotify.com/show/0wYlYHJzyk3Y7fHzDDwvmp (Spotify) | https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/thedocumentarylife/the-documentary-life (Stitcher) |  Rate and ReviewIf you have found value in this podcast please leave a review so it can become more visible to others. Simply click the https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/documentary-life-filmmaking-documentary-films-documentary/id1112679868?mt=2 (link) and then click on the Ratings and Reviews tab to make your entry. Thank you for your support!    

James Gray’s new jungle adventure THE LOST CITY OF Z inspired us to take another trip to the Amazon via Les Blank’s BURDEN OF DREAMS, the 1982 documentary chronicling the notoriously difficult filming of Werner Herzog’s Amazonian epic FITZCARRALDO. In this half, we talk about Herzog — both the director and the pop-culture character we’ve come to know — and the borderline-mania that seems to drive his unique process. We also wrestle with what BURDEN reveals about how the indigenous people who worked on Herzog’s film were treated. Plus, some feedback from our recent episodes on THE MATRIX and GHOST IN THE SHELL. Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about BURDEN OF DREAMS, THE LOST CITY OF Z, or both by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On today’s very special episode of the show, host Tom Breen talks with writer-editor-musician Brian Slattery about the music documentaries of Les Blank, a pioneering independent filmmaker who made over 40 movies between 1960 and 2015, many of which focused on the diverse traditional musical subcultures of the American South. Over the course of the show, Brian plays songs on the guitar, fiddle, and banjo that are inspired by or some way related to the music in Les Blank's movies.

On this episode, host Tom Breen welcomes "Kitchen Sync" host and WNHH Station Manager Lucy Gellman for another installment of their food and movies series. They take a look back at Les Blank's 1980 documentary Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers. For the second segment of the show, Breen is joined by Allan Appel for a review of Manchester By The Sea.

Leon Russell passed away last week — he was 74. During the 1970s, he forged a musical career unlike almost anyone else’s before or since: an ultra-American mix of country, blues, gospel, and rock n’ roll, collaborating with musicians from all those genres. Kurt spoke with Russell in the summer of 2015 when a 40-year-old documentary about Russell’s musical career was finally released. Director Les Blank filmed Russell at the height of his stardom in the 70s, but Russell held the release of the film until after Blank’s death. “Les Blank is a wonderful documentarian, but I felt like it had a lot of coverage that didn’t have to do with me — you know, a lot of sunsets,” he explained. Russell also told Kurt about how a childhood injury influenced his artistic development, the provenance of Mick Jagger’s famous dance, and his collaboration with Elton John. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Episode 4 - Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers (1980) Les Blank's legendary documentary that helps to illuminate the origins of the American Foodie Movement.

Episode 4 - Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers (1980) Les Blank's legendary documentary that helps to illuminate the origins of the American Foodie Movement.

If there ever was a documentary filmmaker who let the good times roll, it was surely Les Blank (1935-2013).  He spent five decades as the gentle fly-on-the-wall who could put his subjects at ease and allow them to have fun and be at their best.  His specialty was praising pockets of culture throughout the U.S.  Blues musicians in Texas (The Blues According to Lightnin' Hopkins) Cajuns in Lousiana (Spend it All) and Polish-American polka dancers from all over (In Heaven There Is No Beer?).  Andrew and Phil talk about all three of these films, newly remastered in the Criterion Collection boxed set "Les Blank: Always For Pleasure."  Our two film critics are both pleased this collection exists, not to mention in gorgeous Blu-ray resolution.  If you are discovering these films for the first time, you are in for a treat. You can download the podcast here by right-clicking on the hypertext link and choosing "save as", or you can use the convenient player attached to this post.

Keith Vincent, John Holt, Mary Varn, and Adam Moerder discuss the second part in our topic, Non-Fiction.  ___________ Segment 1:  Pyongyang a Journey in North Korea (graphic novel) Mary brings a graphic novel travelogue to the table as her non-fiction pick. Guy Delisle recounts his excursion to North Korea to oversee an animation production for a French company. Delisle offers a unique perspective and a rare look at an isolated and somewhat alien culture. This graphic novel is available on Amazon.  _________________ Segment 2: Gap-Toothed Women (documentary film) John’s Non-Fiction pick the recently deceased Les Blank’s short documentary “Gap-Toothed Women.”  Blank may be best known for “Burden of Dream,” his documentary that follows Werner Herzog’s making of Fitzcarraldo.  You can find Gap-Toothed Women on DVD through Les Blanks film site. ______________________ You can follow us on twitter @newtoyoushow and you can leave comments down below! Join us next week as we take up a new topic: Autumn/Fall.

ALL IN THIS TEA   Crusading American tea importer David Lee Hoffman supports China's endangered organic farmers by searching out fine, chemical-free teas for sale to the American quality tea market, a market of Mr Hoffman's creation. Mr. Hoffman, who has been called the Indiana Jones of tea, may be the ultimate do-it-yourselfer. But the county has issues with the 30 or so structures he has built over the years. "My love of the planet is greater than my fear of the law" David Lee Hoffman He's been called "The Indiana Jones of Tea" by nothing less than The New York Times, more accurately, though, he's the best candidate I've seen for the title of "The Worlds Most Interesting Man."  Here's just a few of his qualifications for that title: As a young man, invented a unique sonic cleaning system for cleaning valueable ancient textiles, artifacts and fine art that is used to this day by major museums Spent over 10 years as a consciencous objecter wandering over 100 countries He was amongst the first Americans to visit the remote Tibetan kingdom of Dolpo. In the early 1960s, Hoffman befriended the Dalai Lama while living in Dharamshala, India. Several Tibetan monks have contributed to the construction and creation of Hoffman's eastern-inspired sustainable research center in Lagunitas, California, which he calls "The Last Resort".[1] Met and became a friend of  His Holiness, the Dali Lama while living in Dharamshala, India Started the first quality tea companies in America and pretty much started the modern Tea Movement in the US, single handed finding quality artisinal organic teas in remote areas of China (well before China loosened up), importating them in the US and then conducting 'tea tastings' across the country promoting knowledge of team among Americans and awakening many of today's tea gurus to the wonders of quality tea He became known in China as the “the American Pu-erh Tea King" Sold his tea company and started growing heirloom grains and doing artisinal baking.  Started a new tea company for which he hunts for teas, imports and sell wholesale and direct over the internet  He is the subject of filmmaker Les Blank and Gina Leibrecht’s 2007 documentary All In This Tea  As an architect he designed and continues to build THE LAST RESORT, an environmental model of sustainable and harmonious living that attempts to assimilate both natural methods from the past with modern know-how to create a living system that effectively demonstrates possibilities of thriving in a non-polluting healthy environment. Its mission is to discover and perfect practical low-cost sustainable methods for waste management, water re-use, and food security.  Was trained by acrobats from Circques Sole on how to safely install tiles on the highest roof    Several Tibetan monks  contributed to the construction and creation of "The Last Resort"   Probably the the most interesting: Marin County wants over $200,000 from David Lee Hoffman right now to pay for 40 years of failing to get permits for his projects - - or licensing for his tea businesses

We taped a portion of our recent visit with David Lee Hoffman. David has traveled frequently to China to individually taste and collect one of the finest pu-erh collections in the States. David worked with Les Blank on creating, "All in this Tea", a 70 minute documentary film on searching China's markets and plantations for great tasting tea, especially varietals grow without chemicals and pesticides. David is devoted to sustainable agriculture and is keenly aware of the cycle of energy and resources that are utilized in our daily lives.Teacast.org is pleased to bring you a portion of our tasting with David, recorded in early February 2010.

Harrod Blank grew up Santa Cruz, CA and began his lifelong love-affair with art cars by decorating his 1965 VW Beetle with plastic fruit, rubber chickens, and a television, among other items.  He dubbed the car Oh My God!. After graduating from UC Santa Cruz and drawing from the influence of his documentarian father Les Blank, Harrod began photographing art cars around the country.  This led to his first documentary Wild Wheels, which has been seen by an estimated 55 million people around the world. Harrod has continued to create art cars, his second being The Camera Van which included several working cameras among the 2500 cameras attached to the van and a third interactive musical art car called Pico De Gallo. Harrod's most recent feature documentary film Automorphosis looks into the minds and hearts of a delightful collection of eccentrics, visionaries, and just plain folks who have transformed their autos into artworks.

This is the special “sneak preview” episode, Episode Zero, which contains mini-excerpts from full segments that will be coming up on future episodes of Andy's Treasure Trove. I hope that you'll tell your friends about Andy's Treasure Trove, where culture, art and fun co-mingle! Thanks, Andy Moore Keywords for this episode: San Francisco, art, culture, fun, Lisa Geduldig, Charo, comedy, Frameline, Frameline32, Michael Lumpkin, Terence Davies, England, The Long Day Closes, The Neon Bible, House of Mirth, Liverpool, Dawn Logsdon, Lucie Faulkner, New Orleans, independent film, documentary, Faubourg Treme, Hurricane Katrina, Karen Pedersen, San Francisco Columbarium, Steve Fagin, Eloisa Haudenschild, Haudenschild Garage, pizza, JoAnne Brasil, The Wander Theater, Stuart Gaffney, Fenton Johnson, California same-sex marriage, gay, LGBT, Keeping Faith, Barbara Sher, Wishcraft, I Could Do Anything if Only I Knew What It Was, New York, Contemporary Jewish Museum, Daniel Libeskind, Rosalyn (Sissy) Swig, Alan Berliner, nature, mockingbird, crow, The Sea Ranch, harbor seals, Jeanne Jackson, Gualala, fireworks, Sonoma, Mendocino, Mendonoma, Al the Laysan albatross, Independent Coast Observer, Hugh King, Chopper King, the Coffeehouse Movement, Writers' Guild of America Foundation Library, scripts, film, television, Factor's Deli, Kyle Jewhurst, quantum physics, flash drives, Griffith Observatory, Griffith Park, carousel, Jim Van Buskirk, Tiara, Palace Hotel, tea, first grade, Ivy League college, graduation, Linda Servis, real estate, CIA, Lauri Amat, vocalizing, Quahogging, Liam Passmore, Litquake, Susan Stryker, Maureen Gosling, Les Blank, Burden of Dreams, Fitzcarraldo, Blossoms of Fire, Juchitan, Oaxaca, matriarchy, Martha Toledo, Brooks Collins, airplane crash 1964, Jay Hall, astrology, Ken Paul Rosenthal, Ralph Jack, Mike Carroll, Camden NJ New Jersey, Fats Waller, Willie Brown, Basic Brown, film festivals, parties.

A conversation with legendary documentary filmmaker Les Blank during the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, Montana.

A Lot More With Les– Les Blank comes from a conversation with legendary documentary filmmaker Les Blank at the Big Sky Documentary Film Festival in Missoula, Montana in 2007. Les Blank is best known for poetic films that transform folk cultures into art forms. His soft spoken contemplative thoughts allows free flowing revelations. That was […] The post A Lot More With Les – Les Blank appeared first on Film Festival reViews.