Opening: August 12
Venue: Film Forum/New York City
Film: Yasukuni
Dir.: Li Ying
Distributor: The Film Library (Hong Kong
http://www.filmforum.org/films/yasukuni.html
When Japan's Prime Minister Koizumi insisted that his visits to the Yasukuni shrine were a purely personal matter, he unleashed an international furor. Established in 1869, the shrine houses 2.5 million Japanese war dead including World War II "class A war criminals," among them General Tojo and others sentenced to death at the Tokyo Trial (Japan's Nuremberg). Visitors to Yasukuni include still-militant Japanese nationalists as well as outraged protesters from China, Taiwan, Korea and Okinawa. Chinese filmmaker Li Ying doesn't pull his punches. He includes archival images of a "100-man beheading contest" between Japanese officers as well as a fascinating contemporary interview with a 90-year-old craftsman who continues to forge Yasukuni swords, used in these and other atrocities.
Opening: August 14
Venue: The Quad Cinema/New York City
Film: Earth Days
Dir./Prod.: Robert Stone
Distributor: Zeigeist Films
http://www.earthdaysmovie.com/
It is now all the rage in the Age of Al Gore and Obama, but can you remember when everyone in America was not "Going Green"? Visually stunning, vastly entertaining and awe-inspiring, Earth Days looks back to the dawn and development of the modern environmental movement--from its post-war rustlings in the 1950s and the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson's incendiary bestseller Silent Spring, to the first wildly successful 1970 Earth Day celebration and the subsequent firestorm of political action.
Earth Days' secret weapon is a one-two punch of personal testimony and rare archival media. The extraordinary stories of the era's pioneers--among them former Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall; biologist/Population Bomb author Paul Ehrlich; Whole Earth Catalog founder Stewart Brand; Apollo Nine astronaut Rusty Schweickart; and renewable energy pioneer Hunter Lovins--are beautifully illustrated with an incredible array of footage from candy-colored
Eisenhower-era tableaux to classic tear-jerking 1970s anti-litterbug PSAs. Directed by acclaimed documentarian Robert Stone (Oswald's Ghost, Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst), Earth Days is both a poetic meditation on humanity's complex relationship with nature and an engaging history of the revolutionary achievements--and missed opportunities--of groundbreaking eco-activism.
Opening: August 14
Film: It Might Get Loud
Dir.: Davis Guggenheim
Prod.: Thomas Tull
Distributor: Sony Pictures Classics
http://www.sonyclassics.com/itmightgetloud/
Rarely can a film penetrate the glamorous surface of rock legends. It Might Get Loud tells the personal stories, in their own words, of three generations of electric guitar virtuosos - The Edge (U2), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), and Jack White (The White Stripes). It reveals how each developed his unique sound and style of playing favorite instruments, guitars both found and invented. Concentrating on the artist's musical rebellion, traveling with him to influential locations, provoking rare discussion as to how and why he writes and plays, this film lets you witness intimate moments and hear new music from each artist. The movie revolves around a day when Jimmy Page, Jack White, and The Edge first met and sat down together to share their stories, teach and play.
Opening: August 14
Film: Art & Copy
Dir.: Doug Pray
Prods.: Jimmy Greenway, Michael Nadeau
http://www.artandcopyfilm.com/
Art & Copy is a powerful new film about advertising and inspiration. Directed by Doug Pray (Surfwise, Scratch, Hype!), it reveals the work and wisdom of some of the most influential advertising creatives of our time--people who've profoundly impacted our culture, yet are virtually unknown outside their industry. Exploding forth from advertising's "creative revolution" of the 1960s, these artists and writers all brought a surprisingly rebellious spirit to their work in a business more often associated with mediocrity or manipulation: George Lois, Mary Wells, Dan Wieden, Lee Clow, Hal Riney and others featured in Art & Copy were responsible for "Just Do It," "I Love NY," "Where's the Beef?," "Got Milk," "Think Different," and brilliant campaigns for everything from cars to presidents. They managed to grab the attention of millions and truly move them. Visually interwoven with their stories, TV satellites are launched, billboards are erected, and the social and cultural impact of their ads are brought to light in this dynamic exploration of art, commerce, and human emotion.
Opening: August 28
Venue: Cinema Village/New York City
Film: At the Edge of the World
Dir.: Dan Stone
Distributor: WealthEffectMedia
What are you willing to risk your life for?
For 46 volunteers on two ships determined to shut down an illegal whaling fleet in Antarctic waters, the consequences are very real.
At The Edge of the World puts you in the middle of the action as the international crew
unleashes an arsenal of bizarre and brilliant tactics in this uniquely beautiful and deadly corner of the world.
With one ship (The Farley Mowat) too slow to chase down the whaling fleet, with their second ship (The Robert Hunter) unsuited for Antarctic ice conditions and with no country supporting their efforts to enforce international law, the situation becomes increasingly desperate in this real-life David-vs.-Goliath adventure.
Opening: August 28
Film: The September Issue
Dir./Prod.: R.J. Cutler
Prods.: Eliza Hindmarch, Sadia Shepard
Distributor: Roadside Attractions, A&E Indie Films
http://www.arp.tv/production.html?production=septissue
http://www.theseptemberissue.com/#/home
The September 2007 issue of Vogue magazine weighed nearly five pounds, and was the single largest issue of a magazine ever published. With unprecedented access, The September Issue, directed and produced by R.J. Cutler, tells the story of legendary Vogue editor in chief Anna Wintour and her larger-than-life team of editors creating the issue and ruling the world of fashion.
Opening: August 28
Film: We Live in Public
Dir./Prod.: Ondi Timoner
Prod.: Keirda Bahruth
http://www.weliveinpublicthemovie.com/
On the 40th anniversary of the Internet, We Live in Public tells the story of the effect the Web is having on our society, as seen through the eyes of "the greatest Internet pioneer you've never heard of," visionary Josh Harris. Award-winning director Ondi Timoner (DIG!), documented his tumultuous life for more than a decade to create a riveting, cautionary tale of what to expect as the virtual world inevitably takes control of our lives.
Josh Harris, often called the "Warhol of the Web," founded Pseudo.com, the first Internet television network during the infamous dot-com boom of the 1990s. He also created his vision of the future: an underground bunker in New York City where 100 people lived together on camera for 30 days over the turn of the millennium. (The project, named QUIET, also became the subject of Ondi Timoner's first cut of her documentary about Harris. Her film shared the project's name.) With QUIET, Harris proved how, in the not-so-distant future of life online, we will willingly trade our privacy for the connection and recognition we all deeply desire. Through his experiments, including another six-month stint living under 24-hour live surveillance online which led him to mental collapse, he demonstrated the price we will all pay for living in public.