Monday, April 11, 2011

Ann Arbor Docu Fest

free documentary films every Monday ~ 7pm
Cafe Ambrosia, 326 Maynard Street, Ann Arbor
behind Nickels Arcade

EVERYONE WELCOME



Monday, May 2 - Waste Land

What happens in the world's largest trash city will transform you.

An uplifting film highlighting the transformative power of art. Internationally acclaimed artist Vik Muniz takes us on an emotional journey from Jardim Gramacho, the world's largest landfill on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, to the heights of international art stardom. Vik collaborates with the brilliant catadores, pickers of recyclable materials, true Shakespearean characters.

Even as Vik understands how to manipulate and respect the art world, he also understands how ludicrous it is. A show in London, which pickers attended, became a catalyst for change in their lives and in the lives of spectators.

Muniz makes sure no one feels sorry for the catadores, some of whom have never known anything but the landfill. Waste Land is a dignified story about the potential of the poor to rise out of garbage through art to a better life. For this reason, Muniz stands with great humanitarians like Albert Schwitzer and Mother Theresa.


Monday, May 9 - Psywar

The film explores the evolution of propaganda and public relations in the US, with an emphasis on the “elitist theory of democracy” and the relationship between war, propaganda and class. This is not a high budget affair, but was financed via a blue collar job. The interviews contained within are original and were conducted by proxy. If you are interested in how we are manipulated into believing the things we do — watch this film.

Includes original interviews with a number of dissident scholars including Howard Zinn, Michael Parenti, Noam Chomsky, Peter Phillips ("Project Censored"), John Stauber ("PR Watch"), Christopher Simpson ("The Science of Coercion") and others.


Monday, May 16 - Brick by Brick: A Civil Rights Story

Imdb.com rating: 9.2! Brick by Brick recounts the monumental struggle between the federal government and Yonkers over segregation in the city’s neighborhoods and schools -- and is more than just a news story from the '80’s. It should be a sober warning about the present day. America — never mind Yonkers — still grapples with unsettled issues of poverty and race, and until that conundrum is resolved, it will keep reasserting itself in new and troubling way.

The film, produced and directed by Bill Kavanagh (www.brick-by-brick.com) is a fascinating artifact. It lays out the city’s gridwork of racial separation. It revisits the heated meetings and demonstrations that erupted over plans to disperse poor residents from black neighborhoods into white ones. It shows the stubbornness that led the Yonkers City Council to endure crippling fines over its refusal to bend to a federal judge’s will and enact an affordable housing plan.

The story is told through the recollections of three families whose quiet calm and good sense make the madness around them surreal. But the events really happened — the library closings, the political grandstanding, the suicide of a young ex-mayor, the bittersweet ribbon cuttings for some houses here and there.


Monday, May 23 - Winnebago Man

Opening with a deeply sincere "I don't give a fuck!" - Winnebago Man features Jack Rebney, a hermit living atop a California mountain with a dog named Buddha. He's a former broadcast journalist, hence the cultivated voice that makes his Youtube rant, The Angriest Man in the World, so entertaining. (It's his profane tantrum while making a 1989 RV infomercial.)

This hilarious and poignant film could be the most genuine and true cinematic representation of a human being. Rebney is a complex, contradictory, and intensely intelligent man. As filmmaker Ben Steinbauer pushes harder to draw Rebney out, the docu becomes as much about the volatile relationship between the filmmaker and his subject as about the subject himself.


Rebney, both funny and philosophical, isn't just a source of amusement; he's an example of true, real, complete humanity. He's like us, but has no need to fit in anymore.


Cafe Ambrosia ~ (734) 929-9979



Saturday, April 2, 2011

Ann Arbor Docu Fest

free documentary films every Monday ~ 7pm
Cafe Ambrosia, 326 Maynard Street, Ann Arbor
behind Nickels Arcade

EVERYONE WELCOME 
 
Monday, April 4 - People and the Land

People and the Land airdrops viewers into the universe of an occupied people, unreeling images of a new form of apartheid based on ethnicity.  Challenging US foreign policy and the conventions of the documentary form itself, the film examines the concrete realities of Israel's conduct in the West Bank and Gaza, the level of US support for that conduct through foreign aid, and the human cost of that aid in Palestine and the US.  According to mideast professors, the best film on this topic so far.
Israel and Palestine:  What the Media Leave Out   Short lecture by Alison WeirDirector of If Americans Knew


Monday, April 11 - Inside Job

2011 Best Documentary Academy Award.  Inside Job is the first film to provide a comprehensive analysis of the '08 $20 trillion financial crisis, causing millions to lose jobs and homes in the worst recession since the Great Depression, and nearly resulting in global financial collapse. Through interviews with key financial insiders, politicians, journalists, and academics, the film traces the rise of a rogue industry which has corrupted politics, regulation, and academia. Locations include US, Iceland, England, France, Singapore, and China

An added extra looks at the role of academics, many of whom put their name to a system that eventually collapsed. 


This film is as gripping as any thriller. 
-Guardian.  
More entertaining than Wall Street 2 while saying infinitely more about the iniquities of those who claim to work for us. 
-Fan the Fire.  
Hilarious and ultimately rousing experience.  
-Real.com.  
...reconstructing the system that failed and circling its weak spots.   
-Daily Telegraph.  
Here's the biggest story of our time, lucidly told.  
-This is London.  
How deregulation led to disaster.  -anon.


Monday, April 18 - Zeitgeist:  Moving Forward (part 1)

This is a profound, professional, scientific work of genius - a life-changing and hopefully world-changing documentary.  
Filmmaker Peter Joseph gathered up some of the best scientists in their respective fields to present a case for a near-empirical way of dealing with the problems of society.  
Any fan of science over opinion or challenging the status quo in general will find much to love here.  
The film takes no sides in the establishment, basing its solutions on evidence.  
This comes off as a radical approach to problems, only because we don't see it in politics. But what Zeitgeist: Moving Forward presents doesn't seem "out there" at all. The ideas are universal and exist in every culture or religion as "goals" to work towards. Until now, a clear case hasn't been presented on how to actually get there. 
Strong societies require strong foundations - and not a country in the world currently has this.


Monday, April 25 - Zeitgeist:  Moving Forward (part 2)


Cafe Ambrosia ~ (734) 929-9979 
  sponsored by a group of concerned citizens