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Story Archives of 'Documentary'
The Other Side of Immigration
By Laura Knoy on Wednesday, October 28, 2009.The new documentary “The Other Side of Immigration” tells the story of immigration entirely from the Mexican side of the border, from the towns the produce the highest amount of immigrants, the planning that happens before they begin to cross and the families who are left behind. Roy Germano joins us to talk about his new documentary and this less discussed side of the immigration issue.
Guest
- Roy Germano, producer, cinematographer and editor of the documentary “The Other Side of Immigration”
The Greening of Southie
By Virginia Prescott on Thursday, September 17, 2009.
We’ve heard a lot about efforts to boost our sagging economy and revive the manufacturing sector with green-collar jobs. But if sustainable and energy efficient systems are going to get built properly, it’s blue-collar workers who need to be on board.
A green-collar job is a lot like a blue-collar job, except that workers incorporate the principles of sustainability and environmental stewardship. Take the union stronghold of construction. The EPA ranks construction as the nation’s most wasteful industry by far, which makes eco-friendly development sound like a contradiction, or a massive undertaking. Raising a green building in the working-class neighborhood of south boston introduces other challenges. The documentary The Greening of Southie chronicles Boston’s first residential green building – the Macallen – and the workforce that set out to construct the “city of tomorrow.” "The Greening of Southie" is coming to Red River Theatres in Concord tomorrow night and runs through next week. I spoke with the director, Ian Cheney, when the film was first released, and asked him how he came across this unusual project.
The Greening of Southie at Red River Theatres in Concord
(Photo by Taylor Gentry)
No Impact Man
By Virginia Prescott on Wednesday, September 16, 2009.In March of 2007, The New York Times ran a story called “The Year Without Toilet Paper,” about Colin Beavan, Michelle Conlin and their daughter Isabella. Almost instantly, No Impact Man was thrust into the spotlight.
Colin and his wife decided to live for a year generating as little waste as possible. They avoided carbon-fueled transportation and shopped for nothing other than food which was grown within a 250-mile radius of their East Village apartment. Eventually they stopped using electricity all together, in a kind of 9th floor walk-up version of Walden Pond.
The Times profile generated a stream of critics and some defenders. Colin’s year, and his blog from the time inspired the book No Impact Man: The Adventures of a Guilty Liberal who Attempts to Save the Planet, and the Discoveries he Makes about Himself and Our Way of Life in the Process. A documentary film rolls out in U.S. cities this month.
As part of our "next green thing" series, Colin Beavan joins us to talk about his experiment and whether it's possible for one family to truly make a difference.
Mapping Main Street
By Virginia Prescott on Wednesday, September 2, 2009.
As last year's election drew close and the economy plummeted, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama battled it out over helping Main Street versus Wall Street. The phrase "Main Street" became not-so-secret political code for the middle class. But it also evoked a certain mythology, of a golden age of small-town American community.
Two Peabody Award-winning radio producers, Ann Heppermann and Kara Oehler, were intrigued by what people meant when they talked about Main Street. After all, there are 10,466 of them across the country. Along with media artist Jesse Shapins and economist James Burns, the four loaded up a Subaru station wagon for a 12,000-mile summer-long road trip to talk to people about their Main Streets.
The radio series is airing on NPR's Weekend Edition, and the Mapping Main Street website has attracted photographs, videos, and stories from people across the country. Ann Heppermann and Kara Oehler join us with more.
The Solitary Life of Cranes
By Avishay Artsy on Friday, August 28, 2009.High above the city, crane drivers have a bird's-eye view of the hustle and bustle of urban life. From their perch, they are removed from the city as they build it. They imagine the lives of strangers as they observe their daily routines. They sit mostly in silence as they take in the patterns and hidden secrets of the city.
Six String Nation
By Virginia Prescott on Monday, August 3, 2009.
Schoolchildren in the U.S. are taught about the pilgrims and pioneers who persevered through hardship and fought unruly natives to settle this country. We learn about the huddled masses stirred together in a great melting pot, as if we invented immigration.
Our single-minded concept of "a real American" excludes our neighbors to the south, and the north. Many Canadians are more circumspect over just what "Canadian-ness" is. Canadians tend to look more critically at the genocide of "first nations" people, at identity, at sovereign populations and policies. From this tentative nationalism comes Six String Nation, an idea, a book, a website and one composite guitar making its way across Canada.
Jowi Taylor is Peabody Award-winning broadcaster for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He came up with the idea for Six String Nation in 1995, on the eve of a referendum for Quebec’s sovereignty. The guitar was crafted by luthier George Rizsanyi and made its debut eleven years later, in 2006. Jowi Taylor joins us with more about this project, which reflects an ongoing quest for Canadian identity.
View the guitar from Six String Nation
(Photo by quartertonality via Flickr/Creative Commons)
Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go
By Virginia Prescott on Tuesday, July 28, 2009.
Most teachers have to deal with occasional outbursts from students. For the staff at the Mulberry Bush School in Oxfordshire, England, a typical day can sound like the endless screaming of children.
Mulberry Bush is often the last stop for children who’ve survived extreme trauma to be cared for and educated. Explosive eruptions from the children are common. They punch, kick, spit, and swear at the forbearing staff, who respond with consolation and loving restraint.
The esteemed filmmaker Kim Longinotto spent a year at the Mulberry School, filming its 40 children and 108 staff. She brings her unflinching eye to the rage and tenderness of the school to life in Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go which airs this week on P.O.V. on most PBS stations. Director Kim Longinotto joins us from her home in London.
Read more about Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go
(Photo courtesy of PBS)
Food, Inc.
By Virginia Prescott on Thursday, July 23, 2009.
The documentary Food, Inc. opens this weekend at the Red River Theatres in Concord. A creation of Emmy-award winning filmmaker Robert Kenner, the film throws open the barn doors on the American food industry. It argues that behind the farm-fresh food images we get on supermarket labels is a highly mechanized industry controlled by a small number of corporate interests.
Life. Support. Music.
By Virginia Prescott on Tuesday, July 7, 2009.
In August of 2004, Jason Crigler, a highly-regarded guitarist, suffered a brain hemorrhage during a gig in New York City. His pregnant wife rushed him to the hospital and got the bad news: doctors told Jason’s family that he might not live through the night, and if he did, little of the Jason they knew would be left.
But Jason and his family refused to accept the prognosis. Their tenacity and loving attention to Jason’s recovery is the subject of the documentary, "Life. Support. Music."
We spoke to Jason Crigler and director Eric Daniel Metzgar last year, before they came to Red River Theatres in Concord for a screening of the film and a live Q & A. Both joined Word of Mouth to discuss how the film was made and the vital and demanding role that Jason's family played in his rehabilitation.
The film premieres on the PBS documentary series P.O.V. on July 8 on WGBH and July 17 on NHPTV.
Anti-Semitism Around the Globe
By Virginia Prescott on Monday, June 22, 2009.Anti-Semitism is alive and well in America. News of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme late last year triggered a wave of anti-Semitism, even though prominent Jewish charities and Holocaust survivors like Elie Wiesel lost millions in the scam.
A recent study based at Stanford and Columbia Universities found that almost one in four Americans blame “the Jews” a moderate amount or more for our nation’s financial problems. The recent shooting at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum and earlier rants against “them Jews” for political meddling by Rev. Jeremiah Wright highlight a new wave of anti-Semitic rhetoric.
Israeli filmmaker Naftaly Gliksberg sought to get at the heart of contemporary anti-Semitism, and to see whether it is indeed on the rise. He traveled to Poland, Germany, France and the U.S. for his new documentary film Look Into My Eyes. It premiers this week as part of the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival in New York.
(Photo by P.J.S. via Flickr/Creative Commons)
