Tuesday, Oct. 21 at 9pm on PBS (Check local listings). For years, big business -- from oil and coal companies to electric utilities to car manufacturers -- have resisted change to environmental policy and stifled the debate over climate change in America and around the globe. Now, facing rising pressure from governments, green groups and investors alike, big business is reshaping its approach to the environment. With the election looming, FRONTLINE producer Martin Smith investigates what some businesses are doing to fend off new regulations and how others are repositioning themselves to prosper in a radically changed world.
After asking the audience for a beer at a concert in Michigan, Pat Green was knocked out by a flying beer can. Luckily he was not seriously hurt. We're glad to hear he is ok!
I know, I know, the album has been out since June and you probably already know everything about it, but I found this while perusing YouTube earlier today and thought I would share. Not only does it include some interview snippets with the band and live concert footage, but the band also makes a trip to the Austin Zoo!
All of us here are big fans of MMJ, and I must admit we are all a-twitter with excitement for their taping next week. There just might be a ticket announcement on this blog, so keep checking back!
Sax player LeRoi Moore of the Dave Matthews Band died yesterday from complications sustained in an ATV accident he had in June. Our condolences to the friends, family and fans of the talented musician who contributed greatly to the sound of the Dave Matthews Band.
Though the DMB has not appeared on Austin City Limits to date, Dave Matthews joined Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin, and Buddy and Julie Miller for an unforgettable songwriters' special in 2000.
KLRU's award-winning interactive series will take an in-depth look at Austin City Limits in their upcoming season. Docubloggers producer Sean Cunningham wrote about what ACL means to him and what you can expect to see in the epsiode. All episodes are available online, so we'll let you know when it's ready for viewing!
Xinjiang province in remote western China is best known for the Taklamakan desert and the struggle for autonomy among the region's Muslim Uighur people. It's also considered a provincial backwater looked down upon by the Western influenced provinces in the east. Xinjiang native Jake Yong set out to change that perception by teaching himself -- and others -- to speak English.
Every week, independent journalist Tom Roston checks in and writes about the world of documentaries in his column, Doc Soup.
In honor of this week's premiere of season four of MTV's "The Hills," I'd like to ruminate a bit on the end of the world. Not really, but you'll get what I mean.
The show, in case you're over 25 and/or don't subscribe to a magazine other than The Nation, is a reality (I use that word liberally) TV series about a group of young women in Los Angeles, their friendships, their love lives and their incipient careers.
It is probably the last thing you'd expect to hear discussed by fans of P.O.V. docs, but I'd like to change that. I think there's gold in them hills. The format of the show is such an effective manipulation of real life through filmmaking techniques, that I think documentary lovers ought to take note.
Whether it's in writing or not, it's patently obvious that the creators and the so-called real-life subjects of the show are in a pact to produce a successful money-making enterprise. If we accept that fundamental fact, then the allegation that the subjects stage events isn't so scandalous. I don't even want to suggest you should become enmeshed in the drama of the show or the characters. All I care about is how watching "The Hills" is such an incredibly unusual viewing experience.
You'll be inside an apartment with two people talking, and then there's a cut to outside the building, where you see the same people in a wide shot inside the building. Seems like ordinary filmmaking, but, wait, have you ever seen that in a documentary? Or there's the lighting — it's beautiful; every scene is perfectly lit. And then there's the constantly seamless camera angles — you'll see two people sitting in the front seat of a car, and they are each shown in a standard shot-reverse-shot format. How did they do it? They mount two small cameras right in the front of the passengers, just out of view of each other. That way, the audience observe the dialogue without noticing them, and it must allow the subjects to also be unaware (and I use the word very, very liberally) of the cameras as well. Other shots are clearly carried out with cameras on tripods or stedicams ... it's really quite incredible to watch.
Ok, sure, so it takes tons of money to achieve such feats. And the content is hardly the sort to elicit the interest of serious-minded documentarians. All I'm saying is check it out.
It's the future of cinema verité — as most people will know it.
The Judge and the General explores the criminal investigation of General Augusto Pinochet, who led a military regime in Chile for nearly 20 years. In 1973, Pinochet led a military coup that ousted the democratically elected president Salvador Allende. In the service of his anti-Communist crusade and with U.S. help, Pinochet's military and intelligence community consolidated power with a campaign of violence that included secret prisons, torture and murder. Hundreds of Chileans "disappeared" — never to be seen again.
In 1998, relatives of victims filed suit against the former dictator and a judicial lottery assigned the case to a conservative judge, Juan Guzmán, who was known to be a longtime Pinochet supporter. The filmmakers, who were granted unique access to Judge Guzmán's criminal investigation, might have expected to document a cover-up. Instead, they witnessed a profound personal transformation as Guzmán descends into what he calls the "abyss," and uncovers a past that includes his own role in the tragedy.
For Judge Juan Guzmán, a man who says that his investigations "opened the eyes of my soul," there is one clear choice: "A wounded country needs to know the truth."
For filmmakers Elizabeth Farnsworth and Patricio Lanfranco, The Judge and the General was an opportunity to explore the aftermath of the 1973 coup. Patricio is Chilean and lived through it all. Elizabeth helped make a film in Chile in the early 1970s and has been haunted by what happened there ever since.
Patricio Lanfranco says: "One of the hopes I had for the film was to encourage the same kind of transformation in Chilean society. The Pinochet regime was a huge mistake that we committed as a society, and it is important for Chileans to see the truth and make sure this situation could never happen again."
Elizabeth Farnsworth says: "I was interested in understanding the phenomenon of 'the Good German,' the conscientious person of high ideals who goes along with state terror because it offers safety and order in a time of chaos."
Juan Guzmán was such a person. As a young man, he closed his eyes to the terrible things that were happening in his country. But as we see in The Judge and the General, Guzmán had the courage to face his mistake and expose the truth.
What do you think of Judge Guzmán, his support of Pinochet as a young man and his change of mind? Why do millions of people stand by and allow injustice to happen? Have you ever been in a situation where you kept quiet instead of standing up for what's right? What can be done to encourage citizens to fight against injustice?
Aug 16, 2008 4:47 PM
P.O.V. Blog
Ask the Filmmakers: The Judge and the General's Elizabeth Farnsworth and Patricio Lanfranco
The Judge and the General filmmaker Patricio Lanfranco was 19 years old when General Augusto Pinochet overthrew the democratically elected Chilean president Salvadore Allende in 1973. His co-director, Elizabeth Farnsworth, had spent time filming in Chile in 1970, and some of the people she had met there were killed in the coup. Elizabeth and Patricio met in 2000 when Elizabeth went to Chile again to work as a journalist for The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. They realized they were both very interested in human rights cases, and decided to make a film about Chile together.
After they met Juan Guzmán, a conservative judge who had been assigned to a criminal case against Pinochet, the two filmmakers knew that his was the story they had been waiting to tell. His extraordinary transformation — from youthful Pinochet supporter who believed the tales of mass murder and human rights violations to be mostly Communist propaganda, to a skeptical man with the courage to undertake a thorough and personally dangerous investigation — shows not only how people can be bystanders while acts of cruelty and repression are carried out by their government, but also how those same people can make the decision to face the truth about their own complicity and help to bring justice to the victims' families.
Patricio Lanfranco says, "Guzmán shows that it is never too late to be a good human being, to recognize one's own mistakes and one's own blindness and take responsibility for it." Read more from Elizabeth and Patricio's interview.
Do you have a question for Elizabeth and Patricio? Your question might be chosen for inclusion in a special Online NewsHour Insider interview with the filmmakers being taped Wednesday, August 20 at 11:30 AM ET. Enter your question below or on the NewsHour website. If you submit your question before Wednesday morning, Elizabeth and Patricio may answer your question as part of this special podcast.
The Newport Folk Festival is considered to be the first modern music festival, the precursor to today's behemoths like the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Click here for a nice piece on this year's NFF from our buddies at CNN. What I wouldn't give to have seen the Calexico/Jim James collaboration on Dylan's "Going to Acapulco" from The Basement Tapes...
In 2006, Congress authorized the Secure Fence Act, a multi-billion dollar plan to build hundreds of miles of fencing along the southern border of the United States to stem the flow of undocumented immigrants and provide security from potential terrorism. But what was built to fight illegal immigration has turned into a nightmare for many Americans living along the U.S.-Mexico border. Turns out the fence -- which will cover less than half of the actual border -- inexplicably cuts through the middle of some properties, while leaving others untouched. Many question if it can keep people from sneaking in at all. NOW senior correspondent Maria Hinojosa travels to Texas to meet border families who fear losing their property, their safety, and their way of life. We also follow an investigative reporter who questions whether certain landowners are getting preferential treatment.
(Photo by Robin Holland)
In his conversation with Bill Moyers on this week’s JOURNAL, scholar and former army colonel Andrew Bacevich discussed his vision of what has gone wrong with American government and policy over the last several decades.
“The Congress, especially with regard to matters related to national security policy, has thrust power and authority to the executive branch. We have created an imperial presidency. The Congress no longer is able to articulate a vision of what is the common good. The Congress exists primarily to ensure the reelection of members of Congress... As the Congress has moved to the margins, as the President has moved to the center of our politics, the presidency itself has come to be less effective...
Because of this preoccupation, this fascination with the presidency, the President has become what we have instead of genuine politics, instead of genuine democracy... We look to the next President to fix things and, of course, that lifts all responsibility from me to fix things. So one of the real problems with the imperial presidency is that it has hollowed out our politics and, in many respects, has made our democracy a false one. We’re going through the motions of a democratic political system, but the fabric of democracy really has worn very thin.”
What do you think?
Do you agree with Bacevich’s assessment? If yes, how can we fix it? If no, explain.
Bacevich talks about the legislative and executive branches. How does the judicial branch relate to his discussion?
(Photo by Robin Holland)
Below is an article by JOURNAL writer Michael Winship. We welcome your comments below.
Andrew Bacevich, America and the World
By Michael Winship
In a letter written in 1648, the Swedish statesman, Axel Oxenstierna, chancellor to both King Gustavus Adolphus and Queen Christina, counseled, “Know, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed.”
The fighting between Russia and the former Soviet republic of Georgia is an unnerving reminder of that, and of how quickly the balance of global power can be tilted from unexpected directions with barely a warning.
Some hawks and neo-cons called for NATO intervention or even suggested we send in Stinger missiles or the 82nd Airborne as a peacekeeping force. President Bush warned, “Russia has invaded a sovereign neighboring state and threatens a democratic government elected by its people. Such an action is unacceptable in the 21st century.”
This week, PBS Teachers rolled out its curricular guide for the 2008 election. It offers teachers a range of online tools created by the public broadcasting community to encourage civic engagement, embracing social media with each lesson plan.
As U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warns Russia to stop its aggression in Georgia or face lasting consequences, iWitness talks with Gigi Ugulava, the young mayor of Georgia's capital Tbilisi and a close confidant of President Mikhail Saakashvili.
Every week, independent journalist Tom Roston checks in and writes about the world of documentaries in his column, Doc Soup.
Because my previous doc list — the ten sexiest documentaries — garnered a good amount of interest (and a healthy dose of nastiness), I'll return to the well for another top ten. Of course, I was tempted to call this my 10 Funniest Documentaries of All Time. But that just struck me as slightly inaccurate. In truth, the best documentaries that are funny are also seering portraits of humanity. And since real life isn't brought to us by Pixar, it's often replete with complexity and sadness. (And since there is at least some truth the notion that all happy families are alike, documentary filmmakers don't make films about them.) And for that reason, the best docs are both sad and funny, so here is my 10 Most Lugubrious Documentaries of All Time. Before we get started, I will note that about a month ago, my old Premiere pal Glenn Kenny went on a screed against lists. If you agree with him, please read no more and instead bask in the buzzkill at his blog. If you do get a kick out of lists, let me know your thoughts on docs that make you giggle.
And let me just say one other thing about what you won't find here — The Aristocrats. In my humble opinion, The Aristocrats is not funny, it's not interesting, it's not anything. Other than dull and repetitive.
Here's what I do find funny:
10. Fast Cheap and Out of Control
9. My Best Fiend
8. American Movie
7. Roger & Me
6. Grey Gardens
5. Crumb
4. Anvil! The Story of Anvil*
3. Supersize Me
2. Fahrenheit 9/11
1. Grizzly Man
* If you haven't caught this yet on the film festival circuit, look for it this fall in theaters.
Want to intern for P.O.V. this fall and get an inside look at the world of independent documentaries? We're looking for people with excellent communication and writing skills and who pay keen attention to detail to assist in the areas of production/programming, research and development, community engagement and education, Web, and communications and marketing. Interested candidates are strongly encouraged to visit the P.O.V. website to learn more about us.
Interns must commit to a minimum of 10 hours per week. Internships are unpaid; college credit can be arranged. Travel stipend available. All interns are required to attend a one-hour orientation session, date TBD.
To apply, please submit the following materials to internships[at]pov.org:
- resume
- writing sample
- cover letter detailing your availability and your interest in P.O.V.
Good luck!
Here's a new video from Calexico's forthcoming album Carried to Dust, due September 9th. It's called "Two Silver Trees".
Video via P4K.tv
Can't get enough down at Zilker Park? When the Fest shuts down for the night, head on over to these venues for the official ACL Fest Aftershows. Tickets go on sale this Saturday at 10am through Frontgate Tickets. There are rumors that some of these artists may stop by Studio 6A for an ACL TV taping as well...stay tuned...
Full listing available after the jump.
Stubb's BBQ (801 Red River St.):
Sept. 25
Manu Chao
Doors 7p.m., show 8 p.m.
$35
Sept. 26
Gnarls Barkley and CSS
Doors 8 p.m., show 9 p.m.
$27 adv/ $30 dos
Sept. 27
Mike Farris gospel brunch
Doors at 11 a.m., Brunch at 11:30 a.m.
Call 512-480-8341 to make reservations and purchase tickets.
$30, $40
Sept. 27 (outdoors)
Butthole Surfers w/ The Kills
Doors 7 p.m., Show 8 p.m.
$30 adv/ $33 dos
Sept. 27 (indoors)
Mugison
Doors 11:30pm, show midnight
$15
Sept. 28
The Black Keys w/ The Black Angels & Jessica Lea Mayfield
Doors at 7 p.m., Show at 7:30 p.m.
$25 adv/ $25 dos
Belarus, one of the nations formed in 1991 from the breakup of the Soviet Union, is a strange and little-known country in a region of growing strategic importance, a country that's been called "Europe's last dictatorship." In filmmaker Andrezj Fidyk's Belarusian Waltz, one man — post-modern performance artist Alexander Pushkin — is determined to challenge dictator Alexander Lukashenko's power through wheelbarrows of dung, mock patriotic displays and portraits of condemned Nazi collaborators.
Pushkin is determined to get Belarusians to talk about what is happening in their country. But if there's one thing Belarusians seem to agree on, it's that they should keep quiet about history, politics and culture — which makes Pushkin's avant-garde street theater perhaps less of a challenge to the regime than a continuing irritant to Pushkin's family, neighbors, old girlfriend (and mother of his child) and a series of nonplussed policemen and passersby.
While we see Pushkin fighting against the totalitarian system in Belarusian Waltz, we also seehis cruelty to his ex-girlfriend, and his abandonment of his daughter. Is it possible to reconcile the brave artist with the man who seems indifferent to the hurt he has caused to his ex-girlfriend and daughter?
Filmmaker Fidyk says "Pushkin is a complicated man. On the one hand, he is a hero, fighting for freedom in Belarus. On the other hand, he is not as good a person as everyone wants him to be...He has destroyed his former lover, and he doesn't feel sorry for her at all. He never wanted to meet his daughter and acts like his daughter doesn't exist. That scene reveals that as a man, he turned out to be a different person than he was as a political hero."
Is Alexander Pushkin a hero or a cad? Were you surprised by this glimpse of contemporary Belarus? Do you think that performance art is an effective way to fight totalitarianism?
Despite the fact that Vladimir Putin is no longer Russia's president, his decision to send the military into Georgia dramatically underscores how, as prime minister, he is running the country -- not his hand-picked successor Dmitri Medvedev. Earlier this year, just before the presidential election, FRONTLINE/World documented Putin's systematic suppression
In an interesting legal twist to the Megan Meier saga, a group of high-powered Internet law advocates have published a brief in relation to the case against Lori Drew, the woman being prosecuted in the wake of Meier’s suicide. In this brief, they argue that the government has overstepped its authority by charging Drew with a crime.
Aug 08, 2008 4:42 PM
Bill Moyers Journal
Bill Moyers Asks: What Should The Next Administration Do About America's Troubles?
This week on the JOURNAL, Bill Moyers talked with economist Dean Baker and columnist Bob Herbert about the economy and the political conditions that have contributed to its troubles.
Bob Herbert said:
“The class war is over, and we lost... Over the past 30 years or so, Americans’ wages have remained relatively flat. But women went into the workplace, wives and mothers started working. People started putting things on their credit cards. There was a stock market bubble there for a while. We had a housing bubble. People refinanced and stuff. Now, they’re coming up against a wall. They’re not finding a way now to get some extra money to power the consumer economy.”
Dean Baker suggested that public officials deliberately failed to protect ordinary Americans:
“All the people who should have been looking out the last six, seven, eight years are all going ‘oh, well, who could have known? Who could have known?’ And they’ll put Alan Greenspan here on a pedestal, because he’s [saying that] he had no idea this was going on. You had to try not to know this was going on. Certainly, someone like Alan Greenspan, our reserve board chair, had all the data I have times a thousand. He absolutely knew what was going on. And he was doing his best to look the other way because you had a lot of big interests who were making a lot of money.”
Faced with these dire diagnoses, Bill Moyers asked:
“No matter who wins this election, the next administration will inherit the mess: $10 trillion in debt, two of these wars, stagnating paychecks, growing inequality. What’s the first thing each of you would like to see the next administration do, whether it’s McCain or Obama?”
What do you think? And, do you expect the next administration to take up any of your suggestions?
Aug 08, 2008 4:12 PM
Bill Moyers Journal
Bill Moyers & Michael Winship: A Novel Approach to Politics
ABC News’ political blog, “The Note,” points out this week that Paris Hilton is issuing policy statements while John McCain nominates his wife for a topless beauty contest. The world’s turned upside down. Who could blame a person for thinking that chronicling such oddness is beyond the skills of simple journalists? This is a job for the novelists.
Here, for example, is something straight out of Tom Wolfe’s BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES. Are you ready for this? THE WALL STREET JOURNAL reports that, “At a time when scores of companies are freezing pensions for their workers, some are quietly converting those pension plans into resources to finance their executives' retirement benefit and pay. In recent years, companies from Intel Corp to CenturyTel Inc. collectively have moved hundreds of millions of dollars of obligations for executive benefits into rank-and-file pension plans. This lets companies capture tax breaks intended for pensions of regular workers and use them to pay for executives' supplemental benefits and compensation.”
Everyone knows we've been living through one of the great redistributions of wealth in American history – from the bottom up. But this takes the cake, because our tax dollars are subsidizing this spectacular round of robbing the poor to pay off the rich. Sad to say, it’s not fiction.
This week, BILL MOYERS JOURNAL collaborated with EXPOSÉ AMERICA'S INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS to tell the story of a team of BUSINESSWEEK reporters as they track new corporate practices that some say exploit the working poor.
We thank reporters Brian Grow, Paul Barrett, Keith Epstein and Robert Berner for taking time to answer your questions about the story. We will post their responses next week.
When Pakistani filmmaker Sabiha Sumar chose to make a film about democracy in her country, she didn't just request a traditional interview with President Musharraf: she insisted on a formal dinner. To her surprise, the man who ran Pakistan for nearly eight years agreed, and Sumar spent the evening grilling Musharraf about the state of affairs in their sharply polarized culture. Sumar's documentary "My Dinner with the President," intercuts the dinner discourse with candid interviews with a wide range Pakistanis, from religious fundamentalists to partiers on a Pakistani beach. On Friday, August 8 at 8:30 pm (check local listings), NOW's David Brancaccio talks with Sumar about the film, about our cultural and political relationship with Pakistan, and about Musharraf's desire to democratize his nation while functioning as its dictator.
Ido Haar is the director of 9 Star Hotel. After the film aired on P.O.V., viewers wrote in with questions for Ido. Read on for his responses.
Allen asks: Thanks for the film. I found similarities between the Palestinian men and Mexican migrant workers in America. Is this something you thought about as you were making the film? Do you think your portrait of Palestinian workers has other echoes around the world?
Ido Haar: I didn't think about the similarities between the Palestinian men and Mexican migrant workers in America, but I did try to find a way to show a universal story, a human story. Almost every place I've visited and shown the film, people find similarities between the situation of the Palestinian men and things in their communities; many people told me about the exploitation of illegal workers in Europe.
Nicholas asks: What is the status of the security barrier? Are there still places where Palestinian workers can sneak past the police and the army to work? Or is this no longer possible?
Haar: The status of the security barrier has changed since I shot the film. There are a lot less places where Palestinian workers can sneak into Israel. The separation fence is already closed in most areas. Getting in to Israel for a Palestinian worked is now much more expensive, dangerous and complicated.
Joe asks: While 9 Star Hotel is described as an "essentially non-political film", I believe it is nonetheless pro-Palestinian. Why did you not portray the Israeli families who have been victimized by Palestinian acts of terror?
Haar: In Israel and abroad, a lot of people are exposed to the stories of the Israeli families who have been victimized by Palestinian acts of terror. In this film I tried to bring a different point of view about the situation in Israel, I tried to show the story from the point of view of young Palestinians who are trying to survive and support their families in the complicated conflict.
Carly asks: How can people from the U.S. help these young Palestinian men?
Haar: It's hard for me to answer the question of how people from the U.S. can help these young Palestinian men. I hope that by knowing more aspects of the conflict, people may help pressure Israel and Palestine to work towards a peace solution.
Magalee asks: How did you find your subjects?
Haar: I grew up in a village near the city of Modi'in and I know that area very well. During my research I walked around the forests and the hills nearby and tried to talk with the workers. When I met Muhammad, he took me to the hideouts in the hills, and when I saw the place and met the workers there, I knew that I wanted to make the film there.
Our encore episode this weekend features Sufjan Stevens and Calexico. (Check with your local stations for airdates.) The Stevens show was a lot of fun, very visually interesting, and I'm glad we were able to showcase his intricate songs and lush arrangements.
But it's Calexico that truly blew me away. Despite having heard the band's first record Spoke a zillion years ago, I was familiar with them mainly by reputation - they've been critical darlings their entire career, and numerous friends whose musical opinions I trusted constantly recommended them to me. I'm not sure why I didn't pick up on them - I think I thought their entire catalog was the same as that first album, which is neat but more atmosphere than anything else. So I didn't have huge expectations for this show, other than it being cool that we'd hosted such a respected group.
Needless to say, the actual performance was pretty mind-blowing. The levels of musicianship, creativity, songcraft and charisma were far higher than I expected and I was riveted from the first song. It was a great show, and I didn't envy the editors trying to cut it down to a half-hour. (Fortunately for those of us who missed the songs left out, the Calexico half will also be expanded and available on DVD from New West Records sometime in early 2009.) Combined with Stevens' colorful performance, it's a great hour of music television. Check it out if you can.
Wilco leads the crowd in "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" at Wrigley Field. Bandleader Jeff Tweedy then sits with the announcers for a quick interview. Check it out here.
