The best in independent documentary.
In
the 1890's, when the speed of a bike was considered amazing, "Scorcher"
was a euphemism for a bicyclist. Return of the Scorcher is a spirited
celebration of the bicycle, which asks why this cheap, clean, quiet and
healthy method of transportation isn't more widely used in America. Filmed
in Europe, China and the United States, this film raises fundamental questions
about the nature of "progress," and was the inspiration for the term "critical
mass." By the maker of We Are Traffic.
A
multi-racial, grassroots movement brings the powerful Los Angeles Metro
Transit Commission to its knees, forcing the city to provide transportation
for all. Bus Rider's Union is a compelling story of insider politics
versus outsider activism. An inspiring lesson in political organizing,
the film challenges popular assumptions by connecting the dots between
mass transit, class equity and participatory democracy. By Academy Award-winning
director and cinematographer Haskell Wexler. Proceeds benefit the Labor/Community
Strategy Center.
Madison protestors
take aim at the federal courthouse with a bicycle-powered submarine. If
you've ever wondered how to build a giant puppet, paint a banner or construct
a pedal-operated Trident armed with a 22-megaton warhead, this is the film
for you.
34 heads
of state. 2 1/2 miles of chain link. 6,000 cops. 60,000 protesters. One
secret document. A journey through the historic April 20th & 21st protests
in Quebec City against the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Viva la Resistance!
San Francisco
activists use an old vaudeville favorite as an act of political and artistic
revolt against elitism and high society.Vintage 1969 footage rescued from
the trash bin. Overture Center, beware!
Moberly,
Missouri, known as the Magic City, is a boomtown gone bust. In this filmzine,
David Wilson goes there looking for his lost friends, but stumbles into
the weirdness of small town subculture. Covering youth culture from skateboarding
to heavy metal to crystal meth, Magic City cuts and pastes beautiful
scenes from a dying downtown with hilariously real interviews of local
kids. Virgins, cowboys and punks all tell the world what's wrong and right
with rural America.
A
young woman travels to China to meet her mother's relatives for the first
time, and gets caught in a web of politics and history , including bitter
memories of the Cultural Revolution. Weaving together dreams, archival
footage and scenes from her relatives' lives, she meditates on the complications
of the past.
The
definitive hip-hop DJ documentary by Brooklyn based filmmaker John Carluccio."[Battle
Sounds] ups the ante on the idea that the DJ's use of the turntable is
just as relevant and important in the world of music as the trumpet player
or the guitarist, and it furthers the notion that DJing is the new jazz.
An obvious must see for aspiring DJs and introspective hip-hop heads, and
a need to see document of an amazing and under appreciated art form for
the uninitiated and non-appreciative." - Sam MacAbee (Lumpen)
Ed's
basement seems an unlikely hotbed for underground music, but the eclectic
mix of performers and spectators discover why Ed's Juke Joint is the place
to be. On a stage no bigger than a bathroom, performances ranging from
gospel, folk, rockabilly and zydeco get this joint jumpin'.
From
stencils to zines, graffiti to poster art, Subverting Media: A Low-Tech
Guide toInformation Activism takes us on a trip through the alternative
media scene, meeting East Harlem muralist, James De La Vega; anti-patriarchal
poster collective, Sister Serpents; Bronx based graffiti group, The Tats
Cru; ABC No Rio Zine Librarian Rob; and Sabrina Margarita Sandata, a feminist
zinester challenging social and cultural steroetypes. The program explores
the potential everyone has to create their own media, to examine the process
for creating the message, and to encourage, through demonstration, further
use of these communication methods.
In
its three decades of existence, cable access television has become a low-rent,
uniquely American institution. Access is a documentary journey into
the colliding American realities that make up the cable access world, and
a chronicle of the lives and works of three of its inhabitants: itinerant
preacher Homer Giles, who with his wife Maggie "have saved over 340 souls"
across Minnesota and televised the results for the faithful back home;
"Militiaman" Mark Hansen, who gives annual Conspiracy Tours across the
nation with a camcorder lashed to his wrist, and perennial political candidate
Richard "A-Bomb" Klatte, who claims his experience in outer space and other
dimensions will aid him in his race for governor. Access is a tribute
to the tradition of the great American rant, and to the medium that brings
it into our homes, unexpurgated, twenty-four hours a day.
This
is the story of Tommy Strange, musician, anarchist and office worker. It's
about his beautiful vision of society and what we have instead.
The
press called him "Clean Gene" when he ran against the war in Vietnam. His
colleagues on Capitol Hill called him "the Needle," in honor of his wicked
wit. The poet Robert Lowell declared him, "a one-man Greek chorus." A friend
says, "he is Renaissance Man super-squared." He is the politician and poet,
Senator Eugene McCarthy, and he's the subject of I'm Sorry I Was Right,
an intimate portrait of a thoughtful and remarkable man. Through a mix
of archival footage and interviews with Clean Gene himself, we learn of
McCarthy's experience as a novice monk, the lessons of the Vietnam war,
and the dangers of corporate control of the public mind.
This
10,000 mile, coast-to-coast journey around the U.S. follows the growing
underground network of 8-track tape collectors, or "trackers." The result
is a fascinating mix of reminiscences, rants, political diatribes, paranoid
fantasies, fix-it tips, sales pitches, and everything else the skeptical
yet inquisitive mind of the 8-track enthusiasts, who range from hipsters
to hicks to hardcore Rockers. Not a film about nostalgia, So Wrong They¹re
Right serves as a statement of outrage from a population of consumers
who are tired of being told what to consume.
A
philosophical portrait on religious diversity and fanaticism in Times Square,
giving voice to a wide assortment of street preachers, missionaries, and
mysitics as they congregate and proselytize under the jumbotrons of America's
busiest crossroad. Just before New York mayor Rudy Guliani's notorious
"Quality of Life" campaign initiated the sterilization of Times Square,
filmmaker Richard Sandler brought his camera down every day and began talking
with a wide range of people, from the homeless to the intensely radical
Black Jews. As the film progresses, these wildly diverse and often volatile
discussions coalesce into a lyrical, humanistic examination of belief and
religion, as filtered through the thoughtful musings of rarely heard voices.