D.A. Pennebaker Tagged Articles at Cinematical
RIP: Reel Important People -- April 22, 2008
Filed under: Animation », Obits »
Ollie Johnston (1912-2008) - Animator who was the last surviving member of Walt Disney's "Nine Old Men", who worked on classic features from 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarves to 1981's The Fox and the Hound. After retiring from animating at Disney, he was a story consultant on 1989's Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland and voiced characters in Brad Bird's The Iron Giant and The Incredibles. He was co-subject of the documentary Frank and Ollie and appears in The Pixar Story. He died of natural causes April 14, in Sequim, Washington. (Variety)
- Bebe Barron (1926-2008) - Composer who, with husband Louis Barron, scored Forbidden Planet, which was the first commercial feature film to include only electronic music. She also recorded music for Maya Deren's The Very Eye of Night and scored other experimental shorts, including Bells of Atlantis, which featured Anaïs Nin. She died April 20 in Los Angeles. (Variety)
- Hazel Court (1926-2008) - Actress who starred in '50s and '60s horror films, including Roger Corman's The Masque of the Red Death, The Raven and Premature Burial and Sidney J. Furie's Doctor Blood's Coffin, Terence Fisher's The Curse of Frankenstein and David MacDonald's Devil Girl from Mars. She died of a heart attack April 15, in Lake Tahoe, California. (Variety)
Tribeca Review: Al Franken: God Spoke
Filed under: Comedy », Documentary », Independent », Tribeca », Theatrical Reviews », Politics », Michael Moore », Cinematical Indie »
In 1992, filmmakers D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus documented Bill Clinton's presidential campaign, resulting in a still-noteworthy chronicle of political contending titled The War Room. Twelve years later, co-directors Hegedus and Nick Doob (who was cinematographer for The War Room) followed the race of 2004, only this time their subject was interestingly not one of the candidates. Al Franken: God Spoke, which presents a year in the life of the title comedian/author/radio talk-show host, is a humorous, but more importantly illustrative, documentary about the weight of the media -- especially the comedic media -- on the last presidential election.
Franken, who got his break on Saturday Night Live, is one of today's most influential political humorists, and, along with Jon Stewart and Michael Moore, he represents liberal America's unfortunate dependence on jesters instead of kings. The film opens with the publication of his latest book, which attacks the Bush administration and conservative individuals such as Ann Coulter and Bill O'Reilly, then goes on to present the beginnings of his show on Air America Radio and observes the ensuing war between him and the right-wing media, particularly O'Reilly and Sean Hannity at Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. During an early scene, he tells a classroom of students, "I take what they say and use it against them." This practice is nothing new, yet somehow in a time when kids get their news more from comedy shows like The Daily Show than from newspapers, it makes someone like Franken an important political figure.
Is Taylor Lautner Our Next Superhero?
100 Greatest Films Beyond the Canon
'Entourage' Movie in the Works?
Spielberg Backs Out of 'Harvey'
Discuss: Should Gay Actors Stay in the Closet?
_thumbnail.jpg)
_thumbnail.jpg)
