Seven Signs: Music, Myth & The American South (2008)

Director:
J.D. Wilkes

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1337167/

Review:
Shot throughout Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Louisiana, 'Seven Signs' is a travelogue documenting a uniquely-American heritage that is currently being marginalized and homogenized by major corporations, 'Mega-churches' and gated communities. The interviews, musical performances, and stories provide a look into Southern Culture as it really is...not as it is typically packaged for mainstream audiences.

With an unflinching eye, 'Seven Signs' views the paradoxical world of The South: a land filled with warmth and humanity, as well as a strong-willed sense of honesty. It is this culmination of colorful individuals, strange tales and haunting melodies that stands as evidence as to why The South is so integral to American culture as a whole. It is a world where cultures have combined to create a place worth preserving...a place where, oftentimes, so much has gone horribly, horribly right.

In addition to local characters and amateur musicians, 'Seven Signs' features recording artists such as Slim Cessna and Jay Munly (Slim Cessnas Auto Club), The Pine Hill Haints, Th' Legendary Shack Shakers, and Scott H. Biram...all of whom are current touring musicians committed to preserving the true spirit of The South.

'Seven Signs' carries both a timelessness and an immediacy as it depicts a sadly aging generation of Southern Culture; yet a younger, New Breed, hellbent on carrying it on into an unknown future.

American Hardcore (2006)

Director:
Paul Rachman

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0419434/

Review:
The history of hardcore punk--the tougher, faster, and more politically minded stepchild of the '70s punk movement that arose in the '80s--is examined in exuberant detail in Paul Rachman's documentary American Hardcore. Rachman's cameras careen across the landscape of the U.S. to trace the movement's beginnings in cities like Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and New York, and cherrypicks interviews with the musicians that helped shape its sound and impact, including Henry Rollins and Greg Ginn of Black Flag, H.R. (frontman for the highly influential, all-African American outfit Bad Brains), Ian MacKaye of Minor Threat (and now Fugazi), and many others. Hardcore's violent reaction against the Reagan administration and the complacent mindset of middle-class America is also detailed in countless performance footage clips and poster-art reproductions, which do much to dismiss the popular opinion of hardcore as nothing more than mindless hooliganism. Some fans may find the omission of certain bands a considerable oversight (San Francisco's lethally satirical Dead Kennedys are not mentioned only in passing), but for most punk devotees, American Hardcore will be vital and essential viewing.

Manda Bala (Send a Bullet) (2007

Director:
Jason Kohn

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0912590/

Review:
Several stories are told simultaneously: a frog farm in northern Brasil launders money for a corrupt politician; a young woman who was kidnapped for ransom talks about her ordeal; a plastic surgeon discusses then demonstrates how to reconstruct a severed ear; a young business man has his cars armored and takes a course in evasive driving; a policeman in Sao Paulo's anti-kidnapping squad discusses his work; a civil engineer, the attorney general, and a district attorney describe their anti-corruption efforts. Violence and corruption is Brasil: the object is money.

Off The Chain (2005)

Director:
Bobby J. Brown

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0472478/

Review:
At the turn of the century, the pit-bull was America's favorite pet. How did it go from Pete in the Little Rascals to public enemy number 1. This documentary is an undercover look at the world of dog fighting and how its damaged the breed. Its not bad dogs, its bad owners.

Rollin: The Decline of the Auto Industry and Rise of the Drug Economy in Detroit (2010)

Director:
Alan Bradley

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1616162/

Review:
Once the heart of the "American Dream", Detroit began to crumble, and as the jobs evaporated, crime set in, & with illegal drugs, the city became hell & has never been the same since!... Learn about corrupt narcotic cops, the infamous YBI, White Boy Rick, & the Best Friends Murder-For-Hire Gang, as well as many others. 

Flock of Dodos: The Evolution-Intelligent Design Circus (2006)

Director:
Randy Olson

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0800334/

Review:
The highly anticipated, comic and controversial feature documentary, "Flock of Dodos: the evolution-intelligent design circus," is the first feature film to take an even-handed look at the intelligent design vs. evolution clash that appeared on the covers of Time and Newsweek in 2005. Filmmaker, scientist, surfer and evolutionary biologist Dr. Randy Olson explores the controversy over the teaching of evolution and the recently developed alternative, intelligent design. Olson, a native of Kansas, visits his home state and the community of Dover, Pennsylvania, which attempted to introduce intelligent design in science classes. Olson draws on basic aspects of evolution as metaphors, including the extinct dodo, which he suggests symbolizes what happens to those unable to change with their environment. Featured are seven top advocates for intelligent design, including Dr. Michael Behe, author of "Darwin's Black Box," fourteen evolution Ph.D.'s, a poker game among eight evolutionists, a rabbit eating its own poop, and a flock of animated dodos playing poker, dancing, and helping the audience answer the question, "who really is the 'flock of dodos?'"

This Film Is Not Yet Rated (2006)

Director:
Kirby Dick

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0493459/

Review:
An independent documentary about the Motion Picture Association of America's rating system and its effect on American culture since it acts as a means of censorship, affecting distribution and the potential for advertisement. The film discusses disparities in ratings and feedback: between Hollywood and independent films, between homosexual and heterosexual sexual situations, between male and female sexual depictions, and between violence and sexual content. Furthermore, Dick used a private investigator to unmask the identities of the ratings and appeals board members, whose identity is kept secret, and showing that the composition of these boards did not comply with the public assertions of the MPAA. The MPAA gave the original cut of the film an NC-17 rating for "some graphic sexual content": scenes that illustrated the content a film could include to garner an NC-17 rating. Kirby Dick appealed, and descriptions of the ratings deliberations and appeal were included in the documentary. The new version of the film is not rated. The film is also known for another controversy: the MPAA, a longtime bastion of anti-piracy, admitted to making unauthorised duplicates of a digital copy of the film that was provided to them for the purpose of obtaining an MPAA rating, despite having assured Dick that no copies would be made.

Methadonia (2005)

Director:
Michel Negroponte

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0485777/

Review:
METHADONIA is the borderland between high and straight, where recovering heroin addicts on methadone “maintenance” exist. Passing the time on benzos and other prescription drugs that enhance the methadone, addicts find themselves in Methadonia for years, or decades. Selected for the prestigious New York Film Festival and featured on HBO, this unflinching, intimate film reveals the culture of addiction through the eyes and lives of men and women stuck in Methadonia, holding on to the hope they will wake up one morning and not think about getting high.

We Live in Public (2009)

Director:
Ondi Timoner

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0498329/

Review:
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" through the infamous dot.com boom of the 1990's, founded Pseudo.com, the first Internet television network and created his vision of the future, an underground bunker in NYC where 100 people lived together on camera for 30 days over the millennium. He 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 a 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

Art & Copy (2009)

Director:
Doug Pray

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1333631/

Review:
Director Doug Pray reveals the work and wisdom of some of the most influential advertising minds of our time. From the "creative revolution" of the 1960s, artists and writers have brought a surprisingly rebellious spirit to their work in an industry know for pandering and manipulation. Featuring the brilliant campaigns behind everything from cars to presidents, Art & Copy takes us inside the powerful machine of advertising and brings to light the profound influence the industry enjoys by tapping into the zeitgeist of popular culture.