DVDebut: Barbara Kopple's doc, HOT TYPE, looks at The Nation's 150-year history

Readers of The Nation (TrustMovies is one of them), America's longest-running progressive magazine that celebrated its 150th birthday last year, will have no doubt already perused the very large, print copy of that anniversary issue. But they -- and I hope movie-goers and documentary lovers who've appreciated over the years the work of Barbara Kopple -- will not want to miss the new documentary, HOT TYPE: 150 YEARS OF THE NATION, that made the festival rounds in 2015 without securing a theatrical release and now comes directly to DVD, thanks to First Run Features.

Ms Kopple's movie -- the filmmaker is shown at left -- isn't quite hagiography (who doesn't like The Nation, except Republicans, of course), but it neither does it cast a critical eye. It celebrates, and rightly so, while giving us a pretty good look at the history of the magazine, its purpose, and especially at many of the people -- writers, editors, publishers (current and ex) and interns -- who labor for the cause.

We come away from the film with much less of a fully-digested meal than we did from reading that super-packed anniversary issue -- but still satisfied that we've sampled some tasty hors d'oeuvres, while meeting a few of the intelligent, interesting and talented folk we read regularly.

Chief among these are the Editor & Publisher Katrina vanden Heuvel (above) and (now) Executive Editor Richard Kim (below, who proves the most adorable and charming thing in the movie -- even if he does delay those deadlines). We spend some time with ex-Publisher and leading Nation light from earlier decades, Victor Navasky and writer Amy Wilentz, and especially with the group of young people who were interns the year that Kopple filmed.

The Nation treats its interns with respect and caring, and a number of them stay with (or return to) the magazine later for full-fledged jobs in journalism. While it proves great fun to finally put a face and body to the people we read regularly, Kopple also takes us from the current Texas drought to the earlier one we called The Dust Bowl, from Joe McCarthy to Scott Walker, from The Depression to the Occupy Movement, which is covered by Mr. Kim ("It's not the DNC, where it's all 'scripted'," he says.)

We hear from folk like Rachel Maddow who explains why The Nation is so important, and we learn a few things about how -- in this time of declining readership and print newspaper and magazine closings -- this particular example of journalism is managing to hold on. Reaching a new and younger audience is key, and the magazine is, like so many others, still trying to figure that out.

The movie, despite its political nature, is buoyant and engrossing as it pops all over the map -- off to Haiti three years after that major earthquake hit (above), and fighting against Republican cutbacks in North Carolina (below), where, in the film's most moving and emotional scene, one young woman explains how the people who "have" are working with and for the people who "have not," the wealthier supporting the less so.

We end by taking one of those semi-famous Nation ocean cruises, which look like fun (and are maybe consciousness-raising, too). I'd certainly go on one myself -- if I could afford it. Meanwhile, this fine little documentary hit the street on DVD a week or so back via First Run Features and is available now for purchase and, I hope, rental. (You can save it now to your Netflix queue, though why the company does not actually have it yet is anyone's guess....)

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American documentaries, Barbara Kopple, Haiti, HOT TYPE: 150 YEARS OF THE NATION, North Carolina, progressive films, The Nation magazine,

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In THEO WHO LIVED, a kidnapped journalist survives to show & tell in David Schisgall's doc

How odd that, within a bit more than two weeks, two documentaries would open that feature their protagonists as both the subject and the narrator of their tales. And yet, the two films are as different as, well, oil and water, or maybe truth and falsehood. The first was the more-or-less execrable doc about that faker, JT Leroy/Laura Albert, a movie that seems to exist to build upon, glamorize and entertain us with lies. The second, opening this Friday, offers a lot more truth -- which, these days, seems a rarer commodity than one might think in documentary films.

THEO WHO LIVED tells the true story behind the 2012 kidnapping by Syria's al-Qaeda of American journalist Theo Padnos, who was held and tortured, escaped only to be caught, held and tortured some more, for nearly two years. As the title explains and as anyone who remotely followed this story at the time will know, Theo does live and is here now on film to provide us with his tale, as helped along by the documentary's director, David Schisgall (at left), who also acted as screen-writer (which I take to mean that he helped Theo present a more professional scenario).

As Theo (shown in the photos below) points out, and more than once as I recall, it was rather stupid of him, as a not-so-well-known freelancer, to undertake this speculative opportunity to interview fighters inside Syria and then write about them and hope to sell the piece. But he did. And then paid dearly for it. The young men who promised to put him in touch with those he wanted to interview turned out to be al-Qaeda agents only too happy to first beat an American journalist senseless, then turn him over to the powers-that-be.

Theo, however, spoke fluent Arabic and is also, as we soon see, hear and understand, a smart, resourceful and above all empathetic fellow. As horrible as things grew from time to time, he managed to form a kind of bond with his captors (some of them, at least) that somehow helped him survive. How all this occurred is told us by Theo as he returns to some of the landmarks of that "trip" -- which began in Turkey (the border of which with Syria, he explains, is quite a porous one), moves on to Syria and imprisonment, and ends up in Israel.

Much of the film uses recreations, but always with Theo front and center, to explain what went on and why. We visit the small apartment building in Turkey where those supposedly university students lived, and meet the "nice young men" who live there now and who might be, from all we know, al-Qaeda themselves. All this is uneasy-making and deliberately so. Theo's first escape comes fairly easily, it seems, and he ends up in the local police station. What happens next is doubly disturbing and should give you a very good sense of how the law operates in Middle-eastern countries at war with themselves.

As all this is happening we meet Theo's mom and sister (the latter is shown above, with Theo), who describe their actions and feelings as all of this was going on. "It's an emotional dead zone," mom explains. the "routine of daily life" being all that keeps one going. Theo remembers so many details that his experience resonates with alternately lively and horrible events. He also, without even trying it seems, expresses via his very being how his personality and liveliness enabled him to carry on. Even so, you may find yourself wondering how he could have managed this without totally giving in and up. Especially after those guards who were kindest to him end up dead and/or martyred.

Theo's story grows more and more amazing without ever seeming to lose its hold on the truth. There's another prisoner added to the mix who, with Theo's help, manages to escape but leaves our boy behind to face the consequences. Another journalist, Jim Foley, is taken prisoner and the two families of the men unite and help each other as best they can over the dark time ahead. Finally, Theo's mom explains how "shoe size" figures into all this, and her remarks proves darkly ironic and telling.

At the end of it all, how Theo feels about the whole experience -- his torture, his captors, and what is going on in the middle east -- should, if you are listening and feeling keenly enough, stop you in your tracks. Thanks to Mr. Schisgall and Theo we've been given entry into an experience that puts us in touch with life and the world in a new and very different manner that encompasses much more than you will expect. All the details Theo has given us add up, in their strange and specific way, to what really matters. Suddenly we look at things differently: the homeless man on the street in Israel, for instance.

This an amazing movie and, for my money so far this year, it's the documentary to beat come Oscar time. From Zeitgeist Films and running 86 minutes, Theo Who Lived opens this Friday, October 7, in New York City at the Lincoln Plaza Cinema; in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the Brattle Theater on October 14; and in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Monica Film Center on Friday, October 21. Click here, then scroll down, to see all currently scheduled playdates -- which I hope, once word-of-mouth starts growing, will increase exponentially.

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American documentaries, David Schisgall, Syria, the Middle East, Theo Padnos, THEO WHO LIVED, torture,

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Watch Jeff Feuerzeig's AUTHOR: THE JT LEROY STORY -- and you may feel the need to bathe

Boy, that "truth" thing! Ain't it a bitch? Here comes yet another new documentary in which, for all I know, literally everything we're dished out here is the "truth." However, since everything about the original situation is also a lie, which, as lies are wont to do, begins spinning off more and more lies in order to keep the original in place, what we're soon engaging with is something so grandly nefarious that one might call it "the whopper of 'em all." Still, what the hell: If Jayson Blair can get his very own movie, why not JT Leroy?

Jeff Feuerzeig, who wrote and directed AUTHOR: THE JT LEROY STORY, begins his film with a quote from Federico Fellini about creativity and truth -- A created thing is never invented and it is never true: It is always and ever itself -- that is clearly designed (by Feuerzeig, not by the late Signore Fellini) as an excuse for all that follows. Though it does not in the least manage the necessary excusing, it does prove but the first of many things about this fascinating-but-sleazy documentary that waves a red flag.

In truth, I would not know how to go about making an honest documentary about a situation like this, and perhaps Mr. Feuerzeig, realizing that he faced the same dilemma, chose what looks, more and more as the movie unfolds, like the easiest route. He simply hands the documentary over to its "protagonist," a woman named Laura Albert (above) who devised the whole JT Leroy scam and then brought it to pulsating, media-savvy life -- in the process, turning it into one of the most infamous, crazy, we've-conned-you-good! literary hoaxes in the history of, well, literature.

The above description sounds tasty enough to suck you in, no? Then why does this documentary begin to reek so foully, so quickly? TrustMovies thinks it's because Ms Albert never once in the entire proceedings shoulders any real responsibility for wrong-doing. She tells her tale as though it were just the most enjoyable, amusing and necessary thing to do. Now, if you feel, as Albert clearly does, that making up a story but labeling it as a true memoir, then creating the character who supposedly wrote the thing -- different age and different sex from the actual author -- in order to gain some of that wonderful stuff called fame is simply A-OK, then you'll probably embrace the documentary as all-fun-and-games.

Along the way, Albert, together with her Leroy creation (a gay, abused, teenage, would-be transgendered street urchin/hustler just longing for a world into which s/he can fit) cons everyone from supposed literature connoisseurs to celebrities in just about every field from music to movies to books to you-name-it. And, of course, the media just goes wild over a story (drugs. sex, prostitution, abuse) and a storyteller (under-age sex, queer and tearful) like this. In terms of lies and pretense, only the Donald could Trump it -- and, as we know, the media sure has given him plenty of undue attention.

What Albert really craved was success and celebrity above all, and from what we see here, she still does. And so the doc certainly shows us clearly and precisely how our culture of celebrity spawns more of the same, while feeding off itself in the process.

From filmmaker Gus van Sant -- who would of course gravitate toward someone of Leroy's ilk and is conned to a fare-thee-well (that's he above, right, with Albert and actor Michael Pitt) -- to television writer David Milch to actress turned director Asia Argento (below, right), the gullible just keep falling fast and hard. Ms Argento evens stars in and directs a so-so movie based on the LeRoy's "masterwork," The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things.

No one involved with Albert is safe, with doctors and analysts coming off as especially easy marks. Now, evidently, most of these folk are angry at Albert for putting them through the wringer once again via the new documentary. Well, honeys: You deserve each other. Whether or not the audience deserves to sit through this film is another question. Several times during and again at the end, I found myself muttering, Who gives a shit? I sure didn't, but then I also didn't follow Leroy's career during its ascendancy nor much during the scandal that followed.

If you followed that trajectory, the movie might just be your cup of whatever. Certainly it is full of details as to how the big lie was foisted upon us, and those details are often pretty amazing. And amusing. Overall though, it would seem as if Ms Albert is simply praying for this doc to hit pay dirt and provide her with a second round of celebrity and fame.
Good luck, dear.

From Magnolia Pictures and running a rather lengthy, considering its "true" content, one hour and fifty minutes, the movie -- after hitting the bigger cities and more noted cultural centers over the past couple of weeks -- opens here in South Florida tomorrow in Miami area at the O Cinema, Wynwood. You can click here to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.

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American documentaries, AUTHOR: THE JT LEROY STORY, celebrity culture, fakes, Jeff Feuerzeig, secrets and lies, survivor literature, truth, would-be celebrities,

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SEED: THE UNTOLD STORY -- Jon Betz and Taggart Siegel's food and farming doc opens

When we think about our food and where it comes from, the last thing on many of our minds is the humble little seed. Those of us who follow the ever-rising control of big corporations worldwide, however, may think first of seeds, and then of power-hungry behemoths such as Montsanto, soon, it would seem, to be merged into Bayer, an even bigger power-hungry behemoth: (You can register your disapproval of that merger by clicking here).

SEED: THE UNTOLD STORY, a new documentary from Jon Betz and Taggart Siegel, very smartly begins with a kind of history of seeds, introducing us to an ex-hippie farmer, shown below, who has now collected literally thousands of varieties of seeds, and who tells us that, sadly, we've lost 94 percent of our seed diversity during the 20th Century.

It was wise of the filmmakers to provide us this seed history and importance before showing us what the reign of Capitalism and "hybrid seeds," along with corporations and their venal and ridiculous idea of "patenting" nature are doing, with the help of slime balls like Clarence Thomas, surely the sleaziest member of our current Supreme Court. Next we move to Mexico and the fascinating story/history of corn. "We are seeds," explains one of several of the Indians who guide us through all this, as we are made to see and understand the kind of love that goes into caring for seeds. (Seed farming and seed banks, we learn, are now internationally connected.)

We visit Hawaii and watch as neighbors and whole communities protest the poisoning of their land and their children via toxic pesticides. We learn that NAFTA, by selling subsidized corn in Mexico, has forced two million farmers off their land. We see something similar in India, thanks to -- yes, again -- Montsanto. We view "Seed schools" in action via the Rocky Mountain Seed Alliance, an organization devoted to increasing, rather than further depleting, seed diversity.

Seed: The Untold Story is a vitally important documentary, subject-wise, at least. But, as you may have gathered from the above paragraphs, its approach to its subject is scattershot and all over the place. Also, for anyone who has followed the subject of food and farming via the number of good documentaries that have appeared over the past decade or two, the movie cannot help but seem repetitive. A figure such as Vandana Shiva, above, has already made some 78 appearances on film and TV, including the documentaries Dirt! The Movie and Solutions locales pour un désordre global. (Click the preceding link and then scroll way down for my review of that latter film.)

Filmmakers Betz and Siegel (shown above, with Betz on the left) are to be thanked for their efforts, even if the end result does not rise artistically to the level of importance of the subject itself. There are still plenty of things to be learned and gained from viewing this movie.

Seed:The Untold Story -- from Collective Eye Films and running 94 minutes -- opens this Friday, September 23, in New York City at the Cinema Village and the following Friday, September 30, in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Monica Film Center.

Will the film be shown elsewhere? I have no idea, and since it does not yet even appear on the Collective Eye web site, don't expect any help there, either.

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American documentaries, Bayer, farming, food movies, Jon Betz, Montsanto, SEED: THE UNTOLD STORY, seeds, Taggart Siegel,

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Amy Nicholson's short, sweet PICKLE opens theatrically with Myers/Whittet's GIRL ASLEEP

Excuse me if I am putting the cart before the horse here, but PICKLE -- the delightful and profound little 16-minute short by Amy Nicholson (shown below) starring her fascinating parents, Tom and Debbie Nicholson -- is such a must-see that it rather puts in the shade the perfectly OK feature film, GIRL ASLEEP, with which it shares the bill. What a blessing that the U.S. distributor of both, Oscilloscope Laboratories, saw fit to place both on the same bill -- which, together, adds up to 93 minutes of fun, frolic and food for thought.

While it obviously comes as no surprise to Ms Nicholson that her parents are people who can't seem to help but come to the aid of the other species on our planet who need their help, we are introduced to this couple as Tom asks us, "How interesting can a fish be when he's standing up in a sponge because he can't swim?" You'd be surprised. By the time we return to Pickle at film's end, you'll have been regaled with tales of animals, fish and fowl that will blow your mind & heart.

Don't mistake my words here; there's not a trace of terk-jerking or pushing buttons. Just tales of animal rescue that are bizarre, funny, appealing and rather amazing, too -- beginning with a Perdue chicken (no doubt going off to slaughter) who falls off the back of a truck and becomes Debbie's first rescue. As these tales pile up, they become a kind of pet lover's dream (or worst nightmare).

Yet Ms Nicholson's dry, inquiring tone, coupled to her very charming parents and some delightful animation as needed (since most of these pets have long since departed this vale of tears), makes for a one-of-a-kind movie experience that I suspect you will treasure.

Look for Peanut, the cat with a bad heart; Ginger, a chicken who must undergo amputation; Pogo, the paraplegic opossum; and finally that stump-bodied little title fish. How this black and hilarious movie that is all about sickness and death can keep you giggling throughout is just one of the mysteries here. Look for some sudden and amazing topiary from Tom, too. And finally, we get a quiet, thoughtful finale that will knock your socks off. Pickle is a 16-minute don't-miss -- and one I want to share will everyone I know and love.

And now for the main attraction: GIRL ASLEEP, a coming-of-age tale about a misfit high-school girl, Greta (Bethany Whitmore, at right and below), who is just about to celebrate her fifteenth birthday. Her family is concerned but not very helpful (in fact, by arranging a birthday party for their daughter to which they invite her entire class, they just about do her in). She has no friends except for one dorky boy, Eliott (Harrison Feldman, below, left)  who maybe has a crush on her -- or perhaps simply knows when he sees another nerd in need.

As written (from his own play) by Matthew Whittet and directed by Rosemary Myers (shown below), the movie is written and filmed with a kind of clever, deadpan stylization that takes things into a slightly surreal realm -- but not so far that reality topples.

Girl Asleep treads a rather fine line rather successfully for its first half, as our Greta is set up for one problem after another, as one embarrassment follows the next. But this is nothing like the WeinerDog, Dawn, of Todd Solondz fame. Greta, despite her wanderings into fantasyland, is a good deal more centered and strong. Even if she does not yet realize that fact. (Those are her three biggest school nemeses, below.)

How she comes to the necessary realization involves a very long fall-asleep/fantasy sequence in which, I must admit, the symbolism and metaphor become way too much. S&M (symbolism & metaphor, in this case), works best when it is not terribly obvious, which unfortunately it is here. And the sequence goes on and on and on. (Perhaps this fantasy sequence worked better as "theater," because it is so very theatrical.)

Then, just as we've pretty much given up, the movie redeems itself completely with a wonderful and surprising finale, in which what happens is unexpected but just about perfect, leading us into a place and position that were always there but have only now revealed themselves. On balance, Girl Asleep is worth the watch. And coupled as it is to Pickle, the experience proves more than worthwhile.

From Oscilloscope Laboratories, this smart double bill opens this Friday, September 23, in Los Angeles at the Landmark NuArt, and the following Friday, September 30, in New York City at the Landmark Sunshine. Over the weeks to come, the two films will play all across the country. Here in South Florida, you can see them in Miami at the Bill Cosford Cinema, beginning October 7. To view all currently scheduled playdates, with cities and theaters listed, click here and then click on SCREENINGS.

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American documentaries, Amy Nicholson, Australian film, coming-of age movies, Fantasy, GIRL ASLEEP, Matthew Whittet, pet rescue, PICKLE, profundity, Rosemary Myers, theatricality,

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Stick with Kirsten Johnson's unusual memoir/ doc, CAMERAPERSON, for its cumulative power

At the beginning of CAMERAPERSON, a strange -- and not immediately accessible -- documentary by Kirsten Johnson, we are faced with the following short paragraph of explanation:

"For the past 25 years I've worked as a documentary cinematographer.

I originally shot the following footage for other films, 

but here I ask you to see it as my memoir.

These are the images that have marked me

and leave me wondering still."

Fair enough, TrustMovies thought to himself, as he settled back to watch. Ms Johnson goes first to Bosnia and a sheepherder (below) along the road; to Nigeria where a midwife tends a newborn; back to Bosnia and then to New York, where a young boxer is in training. Locations are initially identified, but then for a time, they are not. (People are just people, anywhere, everywhere, right?) But then the identification begins again. Ms Johnson, shown at left, often seems to build to an important moment and then simply cut to elsewhere, leaving us wondering about what happens next. Then we also begin to wonder: Whose memoir is this, exactly? It certainly does not seem particularly "personal."

And then we see a pair of cute toddlers identified as the filmmaker's twins, and from there we go immediately to an interview with a young black woman (below) whose face is not shown but who appears to be in a some kind of clinic, where she may be about to have, or has previously undergone... an abortion? (I wished at this moment for English subtitles so that I could better understand what was being said.) In any case, a connection has been made: children who exist and those who don't.

We also meet the filmmaker's parents, and especially spend some time with her mom, who has, a few years previous, received a diagnosis of Alzheimer's. We return again to various places we've already seen, and each time we do, further connection is made. I must admit that it took me perhaps one-third to a full half of this film before I began to feel and understand what was going on. Initially I felt that the film was anything but personal, and yet, overtime, it became so, and fiercely.

By the time we are back in that Nigerian clinic, watching the midwife (below) succeed in bringing to life a newborn (I wish I knew what happened to this infant: Did he survive without the oxygen he needed?), then seeing a Bosnian grandmother making bread (Why is it that bread-making always seems so primal and wondrous?), we are thoroughly hooked -- even when we're not quite sure what we're watching. (Is that some kind of Christian ballet being performed in Colorado Springs? Swan Lake it sure ain't.)

Remember that young boxer we saw toward the film's beginning? Expect to meet him again near the finale and witness what may be the biggest "sore loser" of all time. This is frightening stuff, and one wonders at Johnson's fearlessness. We often don't know the details of what went on previously (or after), and even when we do (the tree-cutting women of Darfar), we hear and see only one side of the equation, though that does seem enough to make a judgment call. Yet part of what Ms Johnson is doing forces us to realize that documentary film, even in the best of hands-guiding-cameras, still gives us only one perspective. And how that camera (and microphone) are wielded can make a huge difference.

Johnson is not a "war" cinematographer, but you might call her a post-war one, as she shows us people in places like Bosnia, Darfar, Rwanda and the locales of our current mid-eastern wars -- where genocides have happened and the results are there to be seen. Or not. Listen as the Bosnian grandmother -- such a stylish dresser! -- tells us that nothing bad has happened here. Really? But then we recall another woman who had earlier explained what happened in the camp where women were held prisoner and raped, telling us the story of the young girls who did say aloud that bad things were happening. The moral here would seem to turn a current slogan, much expressed in America, on its ear: If you see something, don't say anything.

Truth in documentary cinema can be as difficult to find as can fairness and kindness in how one approaches the subject of an interview (Johnson's with a young mid-eastern boy, above, who has lost vision in one eye is a fine example of both, I think). The filmmaker spends quite a bit of time in Texas, too, covering the case of that man, James Byrd, Jr., who was chained to a truck and then dragged to his death. We may remember the details that came out at the time -- much prior to the Black Lives Matter movement -- yet what we see and hear here is still something else.

At the end, Ms Johnson offers a long list of films from which this footage has come. You may be surprised to realize that you've seen a number of these. Yet how the footage fits together in this "memoir" proves an entirely different kettle of fish. It may take some patience and faith to fully experience and appreciate Cameraperson, but the cumulative effect is powerful and thought-provoking -- and most definitely worth one's time and effort.

From Janus Films and running 102 minutes, the documentary opens tomorrow, Friday, September 9, in New York City (at the IFC Center), and on Friday September 23 in Los Angeles (at Laemmle's Royal).

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American documentaries, CAMERAPERSON, documentary styles, Kirsten Johnson, memoirs, post-war cinematography, truth,

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