By Jason Apuzzo. LFM contributor Joe Bendel recently reviewed the controversial and award-winning documentary 1428, which is currently showing at The Los Angeles Film Festival. 1428 depicts the botched and inhumane handling of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake by the Chinese communist regime.
Now comes word that another recent documentary about the Chinese government’s appalling mismanagement of a deadly earthquake – in this case, the 1976 Tangshan Earthquake that killed over 200,000 people – has been made available for free (in 12 parts) on YouTube. The title of this documentary from director Wang Libo is Buried (2009), and amazingly the film was one of the prizewinners of the 2009 Beijing Documentary Film Festival.
Joe Bendel writes in his review of Buried that the film “methodically assembles a damning indictment of the Chinese government … Unless Wang fabricated Buried out of whole cloth, he presents an airtight case of government negligence and craven bureaucratic cya-ing.”
We encourage LFM readers to check out this extraordinarily courageous film from Wang Libo.
IN ADDITION … we wanted LFM readers to get a chance to see the Oscar nominated short China’s Unnatural Disaster, that was shown earlier this year on HBO. This utterly heartbreaking documentary film gives you a sense of what life is like under China’s brutal regime. You will see, for example, a parent’s official letter of ‘compensation’ after the Sichuan earthquake from the Chinese government: $317 for each dead child. It turns out, however, that even this ‘compensation’ is tied to a pledge to “obey the law and maintain social order.” Those willing to cooperate with the government (i.e., keep their mouths shut and stop complaining) have their ‘compensation’ packages upped to $8,800 per dead child.
Btw, I’m so glad Obama bowed to Chinese President Hu Jintao, aren’t you?
• AND IN TODAY’S MOST IMPORTANT NEWS … Rotten Tomatoes is featuring a behind-the-scenes early first look at Centurion, the new sword-and-sandles film starring former Bond girl Olga Kurylenko. Ancient Rome gets such a bad name these days – it’s nice to see the Romans finally get a little love thrown their way on the big screen.
And that’s what’s happening today in the wonderful world of Hollywood.
By Jason Apuzzo. The Wall Street Journal’s Speakeasy blog reports today on a new documentary called Please Remove Your Shoes, about the troubled state of the Transportation Security Agency (TSA).
Please Remove Your Shoes follows the efforts of six whistleblower employees trying to fix what has obviously become – particularly in the wake of the Christmas bomber episode – an increasingly porous security situation at our nation’s airports.
According to the film’s website, the documentary “examines the period before 911 and the current situation nine years later and asks the questions that makes Washington squirm: ‘Are we really any better for all our money spent? Or is it safe to say that nothing has changed?'”
The driving force behind the project is retired pilot Fred Gevalt, who was himself flying a plane into New York on the morning of 9/11 – and was apparently 20 miles out of LaGuardia airport when the attack took place.
According to Speakeasy:
The final production, which Gevalt is self distributing July 1, asks viewers to evaluate if the TSA has truly made flying the friendly skies any safer post 9/11, and features interviews with Congressmen James Oberstar and John Mica (both of whom are on the Committee of Transportation and Infrastructure), as well as a number of former TSA and FAA employees. Gevalt adds that it wasn’t easy finding enough subjects to speak about their relationship with the TSA on the record, but as one interview beget another, “the business of access became less difficult.”
Does this make us safer?
In a review of the film by Manhattan Movie Magazine, Lita Robinson writes: “Through extensive interviews with ex-Air Marshals, government officials and reporters, this documentary examines the advent of the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) in the wake of 9/11, painting a disturbing picture of waste, inefficiency, and abuse of power. The former Marshals, several of whom have specific expertise in aviation-based terrorism, describe a ‘nonexistent’ security system before 9/11, and a bureaucratic nightmare after.”
We’ve all become accustomed to the bizarre situation at our nation’s airports – a situation in which passengers are asked to perform something akin to a highly ritualized Japanese tea ceremony of removing our shoes, bowing respectfully before our superiors, and speaking in low, formalized tones professing our innocence (“No, I’m not carrying plastic explosives in my contact lens case”) … all the while never feeling that we’re any safer. If Mr. Gevalt’s film can in any way improve this situation – and improve our security – then we wish him the very best with it. It’s a pity to me that this documentary is being self-distributed, due to the extremely important subject matter – and the fact that the film appears to have good production values and feature credible experts on the situation. But such is typically the fate of whistleblowers who buck the system. Feel free to visit the film’s official website for more information.
By Jason Apuzzo. MPower Pictures, the people behind Bella, The Stoning of Soraya M and American Carol, are apparently joining Beloved Pictures in an adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ Christian allegorical novel, The Great Divorce. MPower’s Steve McEveety, one of the producers of The Passion of the Christ, will be leading the production team according to Variety. Children’s book author N.D. Wilson (100 Cupboards) is attached to write the screenplay. John Shepherd is reported to have brought the project in for MPower. Beloved Picture’s team includes CEO Michael Ludlum, president Caleb Applegate, and VP Bob Abramoff.
I have not read The Great Divorce, but the story apparently involves a narrator who finds himself in a dark, gray metropolis – a city that serves as a kind of metaphorical stand-in for Hell. He eventually boards a bus bound for Heaven, discovering along the way that he and his fellow passengers are actually dead. The passengers are given the opportunity to enter the verdant, elysian fields of Heaven – although, ironically, most choose to cling to their past and return to their hellish metropolis. The novel apparently probes the many reasons that people resist the better life Christ has waiting for them.
Lewis’ novel was also apparently intended as a response to William Blake’s The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, hence the title.
Due to the Narnia series, we all know that C.S. Lewis is hot right now in Hollywood circles – particularly in the Christian community. My sense from reading the internet write-ups on The Great Divorce (see the Wikipedia entry), is that there are significant opportunities for CGI here both in the depictions of the dark, hellish metropolis – and in the depiction of heaven. The bus, given the environmental sensitivity of our times, will probably need to be an electric bus. Just kidding.
We will continue to monitor this story. We’ve had Steve McEveety as a guest at several Liberty Film Festivals, and we want to wish him and his entire team the best on this ambitious project.
By Jason Apuzzo. • LFM wants to wish Hollywood legend Jane Russell a Happy Birthday today! Jane was a guest at a Liberty Film Festival event back in 2007, and this talented and lovely lady charmed everyone there with her warmth, good cheer and delightful stories from her career. We had the chance to spend a lot of time with Jane that weekend, and I can’t tell you how gracious and fun she is. All our best wishes to her on this day – and LFM readers should note that Turner Classic Movies is playing a lot of her films today, as well. I was thrilled to see TCM show Underwater! recently – the huge, color 3D adventure Jane did for director John Sturges and producer Howard Hughes. You read that right: Jane Russell in 3D … [Jane also did 3D for Hughes’ The French Line.] Feel free to pick up some of Jane’s best films in the LFM Store below.
• British director Ronald Neame passed away this past week at age 99. Neame actually began his career as an assistant cameraman way back on Hitchcock’s Blackmail from 1929, which was the UK’s first sound film. Neame had an extraordinary visual sense as a director, as evidenced by films such as Oliver Twist, Great Expectations and The Poseidon Adventure. He will be missed.
• The Wall Street Journal engages in some fun speculation this week: who were The Real Holly Golightlys of New York City, on which the Truman Capote/Audrey Hepburn character was based for Breakfast at Tiffanys? You can pick up the original film in the LFM Store above.
• LA Times conspiracy theory: TLC new channel for Red Staters, with channel featuring new Sarah Palin show. Channel reportedly aiming to be an “antidote to Bravo.” Does that include Bravo’s ratings? Lots of people who aren’t left wing like Bravo, too, which is why that channel is doing such boffo business. Memo to TLC: get ratings first, talk smack second.
• If somebody gave you this pitch, would you believe it: “Think Willy Wonka, The Matrix, and Avatar all rolled into one.” Apparently Warner Brothers did. I love LA.
