Politics

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Rick Schmidt’s Emerald Cities was filmed primarily 1979-1981, capturing the uneasy period when Ronald Reagan’s television Presidency began and daily fear of nuclear annihilation was perhaps as extreme as during the during the Cuban Missile Crisis, yet at a constant slow boil. So, if you’re going to chart the end of the world in progress as a kind of pre-Repo Man black comedy, why not turn to San Francisco’s the Mutants and Flipper to appear on screen as a sort of Greek Chorus to provide the music? Both bands specialized (and still do, decades later) in arch critiques of popular culture, but one did it as impossibly catchy pop-punk with a dirty edge (the former), and one did it by scraping out the grimiest and most deceptively plodding-tempo scum-rock on earth.Read More »

imdb .com wrote:
Larry Flynt is the hedonistically obnoxious, but indomitable, publisher of Hustler magazine. The film recounts his struggle to make an honest living publishing his porn magazine and how it changes into a battle to protect the freedom of speech for all people. Written by Kenneth ChisholmRead More »

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What happens when Governor Farley of Idaho (Beau Bridges decides to close his state’s borders rather than allow a planeload of immigrant orphans to make it their home? The answer is hilarious, frightening, scandalous – and may well be the start of The Second Civil War.

In this outrageous comedy, a nation watches – on TV – while the President (Phil Hartman) turns to his advisors, including lobbyist Jack Buchan (James Coburn), for advice. As the crisis escalates, it all depends on the Governor of Idaho. Will he be open to peaceful negotiations? Not before he’s negotiated his way back into the bedroom of his businesslike NewsNet reporter Christina Fernandez (Elizabeth Peña) with whom he is having a stormy affair. NewsNet is covering the tension at the Idaho state border as armed forces move in from either side. Will the Governor give way to his immigrant love or anti-immigration war? Either way, it looks like there’ll be nothing civil about The Second Civil War.Read More »

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In 1974, Alexander Kluge and Edgar Reitz roamed Frankfurt for ten days with a small crew, capturing life in the city at that time: the political demonstrations, carnival fun, and debate within the SPD Party’s Congress. Interwoven to these are bizarre fictional situations and spy story parodies.Read More »

The events surrounding the military coup which toppled the leftists Chilean government of Salvador Allende are chronicled in this Soviet docudrama. Nochi Nad Chili doesn’t go deeply into the names or motives of the hidden forces which might have sponsored the coup (the CIA and IT&T had been named as perpetrators). Instead, this film confines its efforts to the main events themselves and is based on interviews with eyewitnesses, including many who resisted the takeover.Read More »

The story of a private security contractor in Iraq who rejected the official explanation of his friend’s death and sets out to discover the truth.Read More »

This is a Vichy-sponsored propaganda film proposing to expose the occult power of the Freemasons.Read More »

Anyone who has interest in LA, architecture, Hollywood, or portrayal of a city in film should see this, imho.

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If we can appreciate documentaries for their dramatic qualities, perhaps we can appreciate fiction films for their documentary revelations. — Thom Andersen, Los Angeles Plays ItselfRead More »

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In the late 1960s and early 1970s polarization of American political situation was becoming acute, with the Vietnam War abroad and civil rights at home being the most pressing issues. For the youth political movement, seemingly ineffectual methods of peaceful protest and resistance led to the rise of a faction that wanted a more extreme approach that the government could not ignore. One particular group, the Weather Underground, attempted to team up with the Black Panthers to violently confront the US government. They began with participation in street riots, and escalated their efforts to include the bombing of specific targets associated with the government or local power structures. Through archival footage and interviews of participants on both sides of this conflict, this film covers the Weather Underground’s campaign of violence through this period, the FBI’s strategies and tactics to apprehend them (including some deemed unethical or illegal), until changing times and disillusionment brought their activities to an end.Read More »