This new documentary film summarizes, illustrates and connects one of the principal structural elements of American society …. since the country began over 300 years ago. It is told through the discoveries of two white southern and privileged women who grew up uncomfortably aware of their own advantage in the long shadow of a disproportionately large disadvantaged population, that of the African Americans.
The argument that The Long Shadow cogently, convincingly makes is, that today descendants of millions of African slaves brought here still suffer discrimination and multiple entrenched social injustices which are specifically designed to keep these people down and exploited.
Director Frances Causey and Co-Creator and Editor Maureen Gosling attended the festival and I had the chance to talk with Maureen about the incredible amount of research that went into this film. “It’s surprising how much you can find by way of images through Google these days. Frances sent...
The argument that The Long Shadow cogently, convincingly makes is, that today descendants of millions of African slaves brought here still suffer discrimination and multiple entrenched social injustices which are specifically designed to keep these people down and exploited.
Director Frances Causey and Co-Creator and Editor Maureen Gosling attended the festival and I had the chance to talk with Maureen about the incredible amount of research that went into this film. “It’s surprising how much you can find by way of images through Google these days. Frances sent...
- 11/13/2017
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Dailies is a round-up of essential film writing, news bits, videos, and other highlights from across the Internet. If you’d like to submit a piece for consideration, get in touch with us in the comments below or on Twitter at @TheFilmStage.
NYC’s IFC Center has plans to expand, and they could use your help to let city officials know you support it.
Watch Don Cheadle analyze a scene from Miles Ahead:
Xavier Dolan‘s The Death and Life of John F. Donovan begins shooting on July 9th, Le Journal de Quebec reports.
Cinematographer Jeff Cutter discusses shooting 10 Cloverfield Lane with Filmmaker Magazine:
Anamorphic lenses just have a feeling that reminded Dan and I of what it used to be like watching these great widescreen movies when we were kids that were shot anamorphic. It just makes it feel like a big movie and that was something that we really,...
NYC’s IFC Center has plans to expand, and they could use your help to let city officials know you support it.
Watch Don Cheadle analyze a scene from Miles Ahead:
Xavier Dolan‘s The Death and Life of John F. Donovan begins shooting on July 9th, Le Journal de Quebec reports.
Cinematographer Jeff Cutter discusses shooting 10 Cloverfield Lane with Filmmaker Magazine:
Anamorphic lenses just have a feeling that reminded Dan and I of what it used to be like watching these great widescreen movies when we were kids that were shot anamorphic. It just makes it feel like a big movie and that was something that we really,...
- 4/4/2016
- by TFS Staff
- The Film Stage
Read More: Watch: Bask in the American Glory of the 'A Poem is a Naked Person' Trailer From 1972-1974, documentarian Les Blank spent time with country artist Leon Russell at his studio in Grand Lake, Oklahoma recording hours of video footage for a film project that would later become "A Poem is a Naked Person." However, creative differences and problems with musical copyright stifled the release of the documentary for decades, preventing it from ever receiving theatrical distribution. Following Blank's death in 2013, his son, Harrod, was finally able to complete the film, which debuted earlier this year at South by Southwest. "A Poem is a Naked Person" received its official theatrical opening last night at New York City's Film Forum with Leon Russell in attendance. Afterwards, Academy Award winning director Jonathan Demme ("The Silence of the Lambs") spoke with Russell, Blank and Maureen Gosling, Les Blank's longtime assistant and editor.
- 7/2/2015
- by Ethan Sapienza
- Indiewire
Ask Leon Russell a straight question — say, about the documentary made about him in the early Seventies that's just now seeing the light of day — and the iconoclastic singer-songwriter's answer will eventually wind its way back to the subject after rambling down the crookedest of backroads. "We had a guy at the studio at the time, a harmonica player," he begins. "And one day he put a mic on his heart and started playing harmonica. He played more and more as his heartbeat got faster and faster, until he finally passed out.
- 7/2/2015
- Rollingstone.com
Now that the busy winter fest schedule of Sundance, Rotterdam and the Berlinale has concluded, we’ve now got our eyes on the likes of True/False and SXSW. While, True/False does not specialize in attention grabbing world premieres, it does provide a late winter haven for cream of the crop non-fiction fare from all the previously mentioned fests and a selection of overlooked genre blending films presented in a down home setting. This year will mark my first trip to the Columbia, Missouri based fest, where I hope to catch a little of everything, from their hush-hush secret screenings, to selections from their Neither/Nor series, this year featuring chimeric Polish cinema of decades past, to a spotlight of Adam Curtis’s incisive oeuvre. But truth be told, it is SXSW, with its slew of high profile world premieres being announced, such as Alex Gibney’s Steve Jobs...
- 2/27/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Many people may know Les Blank most for his association with Werner Herzog, who he filmed while on the brink of creative madness in Burden of Dreams and earlier in Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, in which the notoriously true-to-his-word filmmaker indeed ate his shoe after having promised he’d do so if Errol Morris managed to finish his pet cemetery film, Gates of Heaven. But those ignoring the larger majority of Blank’s overflowing oeuvre would be sorely missing out on the jubilance of life that the quietly curious documentarian managed to strike on film with just his trusty 16mm Eclair, his appreciation for cultures of all kinds, and a fervent hunger for life. Sadly, Blank passed away in the spring of last year, just weeks before receiving the Outstanding Achievement Award and a restored retrospective of his body of work in Toronto at the Hot Docs Film Festival,...
- 12/2/2014
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Even the subject of the slight, likable doc This Ain't No Mouse Music would admit that he's not the most fascinating person in the picture. Chris Strachwitz has dedicated his life to recording, preserving, and releasing the deepest of roots musics, tracking down performers connected to the oldest of folk ways and bringing them to the world via Arhoolie Records, the label Strachwitz founded a half-century ago with Mance Lipscomb's Texas Sharecropper and Songster. If it had been titled like Strachwitz titles LPs, Chris Simon and Maureen Gosling's loose-limbed film could be named California Archivist, Music-Lover, and Record-Store Proprietor, which makes him an interesting guy, but once the people he documents turn up, This Ain't No Mouse Music b...
- 9/24/2014
- Village Voice
Reverse Shot, one of the best film criticism publications online or off for over a decade now, has not only relaunched with a new design, it's now also the official publication of the Museum of the Moving Image. With the relaunch comes a new symposium—on Martin Scorsese, no less. Also in today's roundup: John Sayles and Greil Marcus on Maureen Gosling and Chris Simon's This Ain’t No Mouse Music, the Quietus on Akira Kurosawa and Jim Jarmusch, Farran Nehme on Lauren Bacall and more. » - David Hudson...
- 9/19/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
Reverse Shot, one of the best film criticism publications online or off for over a decade now, has not only relaunched with a new design, it's now also the official publication of the Museum of the Moving Image. With the relaunch comes a new symposium—on Martin Scorsese, no less. Also in today's roundup: John Sayles and Greil Marcus on Maureen Gosling and Chris Simon's This Ain’t No Mouse Music, the Quietus on Akira Kurosawa and Jim Jarmusch, Farran Nehme on Lauren Bacall and more. » - David Hudson...
- 9/19/2014
- Keyframe
Born in Germany and transplanted as a teenager with his family to California after World War II, Chris Strachwitz was knocked out the first time he encountered Dixieland jazz. He explored other streams of indigenous American music—blues, country, gospel—with the same thrilling result. He’d found his calling: Finding, recording and releasing the songs of musicians essentially unknown outside their small communities. To this day, his Bay Area-based label of love, Arhoolie Records, is all about the artists. Strachwitz receives his own solo, backed by a stellar group of sidemen and women, via the toe-tapping, heart-swelling documentary This Ain’t No Mouse Music. Finally hitting theaters more than a year after its triumphant premiere at South x Southwest, the film is the handiwork of veteran filmmakers Maureen Gosling and Chris Simon, who were introduced to Chris Strachwitz some thirty years ago by their mentor, Les Blank, the shy...
- 9/15/2014
- Keyframe
Born in Germany and transplanted as a teenager with his family to California after World War II, Chris Strachwitz was knocked out the first time he encountered Dixieland jazz. He explored other streams of indigenous American music—blues, country, gospel—with the same thrilling result. He’d found his calling: Finding, recording and releasing the songs of musicians essentially unknown outside their small communities. To this day, his Bay Area-based label of love, Arhoolie Records, is all about the artists. Strachwitz receives his own solo, backed by a stellar group of sidemen and women, via the toe-tapping, heart-swelling documentary This Ain’t No Mouse Music. Finally hitting theaters more than a year after its triumphant premiere at South x Southwest, the film is the handiwork of veteran filmmakers Maureen Gosling and Chris Simon, who were introduced to Chris Strachwitz some thirty years ago by their mentor, Les Blank, the shy...
- 9/15/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Nov. 25, 2014
Price: DVD $124.95, Blu-ray $124.95
Studio: Criterion
An uncompromisingly independent filmmaker, Les Blank (Burden of Dreams) made documentaries for nearly fifty years, elegantly disappearing with his camera into cultural spots rarely seen on-screen—mostly on the peripheries of the United States, but also occasionally abroad.
The collector’s set Les Blank: Always for Pleasure provides a diverse survey of Blank’s vast output.
Gap Toothed Women, a 1987 film by Les Blank
The collection provides a diverse survey of the late filmmaker’s vast output, including the warmly funny The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins, about the legendary Texas musician; Always for Pleasure, which captures the vivacious spirit of New Orleans; Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers, a hilarious celebration of the pungent, flavorful “stinking rose” of the title; and eleven other unexpected features, plus eight of Blank’s short films.
Seemingly off-the-cuff yet poetically constructed,...
Price: DVD $124.95, Blu-ray $124.95
Studio: Criterion
An uncompromisingly independent filmmaker, Les Blank (Burden of Dreams) made documentaries for nearly fifty years, elegantly disappearing with his camera into cultural spots rarely seen on-screen—mostly on the peripheries of the United States, but also occasionally abroad.
The collector’s set Les Blank: Always for Pleasure provides a diverse survey of Blank’s vast output.
Gap Toothed Women, a 1987 film by Les Blank
The collection provides a diverse survey of the late filmmaker’s vast output, including the warmly funny The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins, about the legendary Texas musician; Always for Pleasure, which captures the vivacious spirit of New Orleans; Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers, a hilarious celebration of the pungent, flavorful “stinking rose” of the title; and eleven other unexpected features, plus eight of Blank’s short films.
Seemingly off-the-cuff yet poetically constructed,...
- 8/25/2014
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
.
Wearing multiple hats, Gil Scrine is arranging a national cinema tour for controversial film Pandora's Promise, distributing Australian and international documentaries on DVD and Video-on-Demand, and selling films and docs direct to consumers.
Cinema Ventures, Scrine.s not-for-profit distribution company, is launching Pandora.s Promise in Melbourne on October 8, followed on consecutive days by screenings in Adelaide, Perth, Hobart, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane.
Us director Robert Stone.s feature-length documentary, which premiered at Sundance, argues that nuclear energy should be reconsidered as the primary source to meet the country.s energy needs while limiting emissions that contribute to climate change.
.Pandora.s Promise is a fascinating documentary about nuclear power that argues it is the true green energy,. said Austin Chronicle critic Louis Black. .It would be hard to imagine a film more controversial than this one. Sure to push opponents of nuclear power into all kinds of rages, the...
Wearing multiple hats, Gil Scrine is arranging a national cinema tour for controversial film Pandora's Promise, distributing Australian and international documentaries on DVD and Video-on-Demand, and selling films and docs direct to consumers.
Cinema Ventures, Scrine.s not-for-profit distribution company, is launching Pandora.s Promise in Melbourne on October 8, followed on consecutive days by screenings in Adelaide, Perth, Hobart, Canberra, Sydney and Brisbane.
Us director Robert Stone.s feature-length documentary, which premiered at Sundance, argues that nuclear energy should be reconsidered as the primary source to meet the country.s energy needs while limiting emissions that contribute to climate change.
.Pandora.s Promise is a fascinating documentary about nuclear power that argues it is the true green energy,. said Austin Chronicle critic Louis Black. .It would be hard to imagine a film more controversial than this one. Sure to push opponents of nuclear power into all kinds of rages, the...
- 9/24/2013
- by Don Groves
- IF.com.au
Film-maker behind intimate, rounded portraits of musicians including Dizzy Gillespie and Lightnin' Hopkins
Les Blank and Werner Herzog: strange dreams and sole food
The film-maker Les Blank, who has died aged 77, explored the margins of America's music, capturing and framing idioms such as Louisiana Cajun and zydeco, the norteño music of the Texas-Mexico border, blues, polka, and Appalachian old-time music. He was also fascinated by traditions of eating and cookery, and when screening his film Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers (1980) he sometimes created what he called "smellovision" by cooking garlicky dishes in the auditorium.
Blank made more than 40 films, including Burden of Dreams (1982), about the shooting of Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo. While few of his documentaries were known to a wide public, many were admired by other directors. In 2007, he received the Edward MacDowell medal, an annual award for achievement in the arts, only twice before given to film directors,...
Les Blank and Werner Herzog: strange dreams and sole food
The film-maker Les Blank, who has died aged 77, explored the margins of America's music, capturing and framing idioms such as Louisiana Cajun and zydeco, the norteño music of the Texas-Mexico border, blues, polka, and Appalachian old-time music. He was also fascinated by traditions of eating and cookery, and when screening his film Garlic Is As Good As Ten Mothers (1980) he sometimes created what he called "smellovision" by cooking garlicky dishes in the auditorium.
Blank made more than 40 films, including Burden of Dreams (1982), about the shooting of Werner Herzog's Fitzcarraldo. While few of his documentaries were known to a wide public, many were admired by other directors. In 2007, he received the Edward MacDowell medal, an annual award for achievement in the arts, only twice before given to film directors,...
- 4/12/2013
- by Tony Russell
- The Guardian - Film News
With its origin in music and a 20-year history of supporting mainstream and independent film, Austin’s SXSW creates a unique atmosphere where both universes sometimes collide to create splendid works of art. This year’s festival managed to once again create a unique melding of music and film via the documentary This Ain't No Mouse Music! It's a heartfelt movie that tells the story of Chris Strachwitz and his unique music label Arhoolie Records.
Directed by Chris Simon and Maureen Gosling, This Ain't No Mouse Music! spans a period of over 50 years. Strachwitz's story begins in the summer of 1960 when he travelled to Navasota, Texas to record songwriter and guitarist Mance Lipscomb. During the same trip, Chris also met and recorded legendary bluesman Lightnin' Hopkins. In order to promote these two legendary musicians, Chris founded his own record label, Arhoolie Records. It was all melody from there.
read more...
Directed by Chris Simon and Maureen Gosling, This Ain't No Mouse Music! spans a period of over 50 years. Strachwitz's story begins in the summer of 1960 when he travelled to Navasota, Texas to record songwriter and guitarist Mance Lipscomb. During the same trip, Chris also met and recorded legendary bluesman Lightnin' Hopkins. In order to promote these two legendary musicians, Chris founded his own record label, Arhoolie Records. It was all melody from there.
read more...
- 3/25/2013
- by Rod Paddock
- Slackerwood
Some of the best films of the 2012/2013 calender year from Richard Linklater, Harmony Korine, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Andrew Bujalski, Jeff Nichols, David Gordon Green, Shane Carruth and Joshua Oppenheimer are among the headliner names for the 2013 edition of the South by Southwest Film Festival. With a little over 100 plus film line-up (a whopping 2000+ titles were submitted), almost 70 are world premieres: there is the highly anticipated sophomore film (that has been on our radar since it first went into production) with M. Blash’s (The Wait), Joe Swanberg who makes SXSW his second home will premiere Drinking Buddies, veteran indie filmmaker John Sayles saddles in with Go For Sisters, and rounding out the Narrative Spotlight section we’ve got The Bounceback from Bryan Poyser, Loves Her Gun from Geoff Marslett along with titles we thought might break into Park City, but found an Austin home instead with Jacob Vaughan’s Milo and...
- 2/1/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
With Insignificance (1985) out from Criterion last week (see the roundup), The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) opening at Film Forum in New York tomorrow and, in the UK, Don't Look Now (1973) out on Blu-ray on July 4, following the BFI retrospective in March, there's a Nicolas Roeg mini-revival going on.
Writing about Insignificance and The Man Who Fell to Earth for Artforum, Darrell Hartman argues, "Past is present in the cinema of Nicolas Roeg. To simply call those extratemporal sequences that punctuate his work 'flashbacks' is to downplay the role that images of what came before play in his films. Such 'digressive' framing devices are, in many ways, the emotional and visual keystones of Roeg's work. In his heyday, from the 1970s until the mid-80s, Roeg was known as an envelope pusher. He employed nonlinear editing as part of an ambitious attempt to bridge space and time, cutting frames together...
Writing about Insignificance and The Man Who Fell to Earth for Artforum, Darrell Hartman argues, "Past is present in the cinema of Nicolas Roeg. To simply call those extratemporal sequences that punctuate his work 'flashbacks' is to downplay the role that images of what came before play in his films. Such 'digressive' framing devices are, in many ways, the emotional and visual keystones of Roeg's work. In his heyday, from the 1970s until the mid-80s, Roeg was known as an envelope pusher. He employed nonlinear editing as part of an ambitious attempt to bridge space and time, cutting frames together...
- 6/26/2011
- MUBI
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