In the Shadow of the Moon
by David Sington
from VELOCITY / THINKFILM
Remember When The Whole World Looked UpIn The Shadow Of The Moon is an intimate epic which vividly communicates the daring and the danger the pride and the passion of this extraordinary era in American history. Between 1968 and 1972 the world watched in awe each time an American spacecraft voyaged to the Moon. Only 12 American men walked upon its surface and they remain the only human beings to have stood on another world. Now for the first time and very possibly the last In The Shadow Of The Moon combines archival material from the original NASA film footage much of it never before seen with interviews with the surviving astronauts who emerge as eloquent witty emotional and very human.System Requirements:Running Time: 100 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/HISTORY Rating: PG UPC: 821575555951 Manufacturer No: TF-55595
You Can Heal Your Life, the movie, expanded version
by Michael A. Goorjian
from Hay House, Inc.
90-minute DVD, plus 4 hours of additional interviews and an Interactive Affirmations Tool! This entertaining and inspirational movie based on the best-selling book of the same name is hosted by author and teacher Louise L. Hay. This film gives penetrating insights into Louises fascinating personal story; and shows how her views on self-esteem, abundance, and the metaphysical causes behind physical ailments were developed. It also reveals how she applied these concepts to her own emotional, spiritual, and professional life. A number of luminaries in the fields of self-help, philosophy, health, spirituality, and New Thought join Louise, giving their take on success, happiness, and the myriad ways in which people can heal their own lives.
The Last Waltz
from MGM
Twenty-five years ago on Thanksgiving Day 1976 five thousand cheering fans gathered for the historic farewell concert of "The Band". In Martin Scorsese's "brilliant" (Newsweek) film superstars Eric Clapton Joni Mitchell Neil Young and Van Morrison join the musicians on-stage along with one-time collaborator Bob Dylan and Ringo Starr in an unforgettable finale.System Requirements:Running Time: 117 Min. Color. This film is presented in "Widescreen" format. Copyright 2002 MGM Studios. Genre: MUSICALS/MUSICALS Rating: PG UPC: 027616875754 Manufacturer No: 1003426
Martin Scorsese's 1978 capsule history of the Band is mixed with footage of the group's allegedly last performance (certainly their last performance as a quintet) in this particularly stylish concert film. Scorsese shoots the players and their sundry guests with the same flair and enthusiasm one can see in the later The Color of Money or Goodfellas. He also proves a good interviewer with Band members, particularly Robbie Robertson, whose sleepy-sexy good looks make a star-caliber impression in close-up. But the film's real hook is the stage show, which features a rotation of rock legends (Van Morrison, Joni Mitchell, Paul Butterfield, Bob Dylan, and so on) playing with the Band before a wildly appreciative audience. --Tom Keogh
Bob Dylan - No Direction Home
from Paramount
Songwriter. Rocker. Rebel. Legend.He is one of the most influential inspiring and ground-breaking musicians of our time. Now Academy Award®-nominated director Martin Scorsese (Goodfellas 1990) brings us the extraordinary story of Bob Dylan's journey from roots in Minnesota to his early days in the coffee houses of Greenwich Village to his tumultuous ascent to pop stardom in 1966. Joan Baez Allen Ginsberg and others share their thoughts and feelings about the young singer who would change popular music forever. With never-before-seen footage exclusive interviews and rare concert performances it's the definitive portrait fans the world over have been anticipating for decades; the untold story of a living American legend.System Requirements:Running Time 207 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. Rating: NR UPC: 097360310542 Manufacturer No: 031054
It's virtually impossible to approach No Direction Home without a cluster of fixed ideas. Who doesn't have their own private Dylan? The true excellence of Martin Scorsese's achievement lies in how his documentary shakes us free of our comfortable assumptions. In the process, it plays out on several levels at once, each taking shape as an unfailingly fascinating narrative. There is, of course, the central story of an individual genius staking out his artistic identity. But along with this Bildungsroman come other threads and contexts: most notably, the role of popular culture in postwar America, art's self-reliance versus its social responsibilities, and fans' complicity with the publicity machine in sustaining myths. All of these threads reinforce each other, together weaving the film's intricate texture.
Scorsese's 200-plus-minute focus on Dylan's earliest years allows for a portrayal of unprecedented depth, with multiple angles: a rich composite photo is the result. The main narrative has an epic quality: it moves from Dylan growing up in cold-war Minnesota through Greenwich Village coffeehouses and the Newport Folk Festival, climaxing in the controversial 1966 U.K. tour that crowned a period of unbridled and explosive creativity. In his transition from Robert Allen Zimmerman to Bob Dylan, we observe him concocting his impossible-to-describe, unique combination of the topical with the archaic, like an ancient oracle. Scorsese was able to access previously unseen footage from the Dylan archives, including performances, press conferences, and recording sessions. He also uses interviews with Dylan's friends, ex-friends, and fellow artists, and, intriguingly, with the notoriously reclusive Dylan himself (who looks back to provide glosses on the early years), fusing what could have turned into a tiresome series of digressions and tangents into a powerful whole as enlightening, eccentric, contradictory, and ultimately irreducible as its subject.
Some of the deeply personal bits remain unrevealed, but Dylan's preternatural self-assurance acquires a slightly self-deprecating, even comic edge via some of his reflective comments. Alongside the arrogance, we see touching moments of the young artist's reverence for Woody Guthrie and Johnny Cash. Joan Baez, in a poignant confessional mood, comes off well, and the late Allen Ginsberg is so seraphically charming he almost steals the show a few times. A crucial throughline is Dylan's hunger for recognition and ability to shape perceptions so that would be singled out as not just another dime-a-dozen folk singer. It's illuminating--particularly for those familiar with the artist's latter-day aloofness on stage--to see his reactions to audience booing in the wake of his "betrayal" in this fuller context. No Direction Home also makes clear--in a way that wasn't possible in D.A. Pennebaker's iconic Don't Look Back--how Dylan's ability to manipulate his persona always, at its core, protects the urge for expression: Dylan's ultimate mandate, as an artist, is never to be pinned down. As Scorsese masterfully shows, the myth around Dylan only grows bigger the more we discover about him. --Thomas May
DVD features: This two-disc set of Scorsese's full two-part documentary includes treats such as Dylan working on a song at his hotel during the UK tour as well as performing several songs as in concert or on TV.
More for the Dylanologist
 No Direction Home: The Soundtrack |  Chronicles: Volume One (paperback edition) |  Bob Dylan Scrapbook |
 Don't Look Back |  The Bob Dylan Bootleg Series |  The Last Waltz |
Pumping Iron (25th Anniversary Special Edition)
by George Butler (II)
from Hbo Home Video
Arnold Schwarzenegger works the crowds, plots strategies for defeating multiple opponents, shares his parents' values with the press, and inspires legions of admirers with his resolute optimism about the future. And all of this long before he decided to run for governor of California, in 1977's hit documentary, Pumping Iron. Larger than life, though not necessarily larger than his rivals for the Mr. Universe and Mr. Olympia bodybuilding titles (especially a young Lou Ferrigno, hot on Arnold's competitive trail but much less interesting), Schwarzenegger still comes across, at age 28, as a consummate politician, smart, likable, and crafty about exploiting others' psychological weaknesses. The film still feels redundant (there's only so much beefcake the human eye will tolerate), but the emotional dramas--the unrewarded hard work, the unanswered hopes--are compelling. Complete with a revealing 2003 interview with Schwarzenegger and a reunion of the film's bodybuilders and director. --Tom Keogh
In 1977, an independent documentary movie shone a light on the world of bodybuilding, becoming a huge box office hit and creating an international sensation. It launched one man's multi-million dollar career and changed the world of bodybuilding and physical exercise forever: PUMPING IRON. Starring five-time Mr. Olympia, Arnold Schwarzenegger, the movie followed the 28-year old bodybuilder as he competed for his 6th title.
DVD Features:
Biographies
Documentary
Interviews
Outtakes
Photo gallery
Standing In The Shadows of Motown
by Paul Justman
from Lions Gate
Fourteen years in the making this film is based upon a book of the same title that won the 1989 Rolling Stone / BMl "Ralph J. Gleason Music Book Award" STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN was shot in 35mm film on location in Detroit and elsewhere. This one hour and forty-eight minute documentary and performance film tells the Funk Brothers' saga through archival footage and still photos narration interviews re-creation scenes 20 Motown master tracks and twelve new live performances of Motown classics with the Funk Brothers backing up Chaka Khan Ben Harper Bootsy Collins Montell Jordan Meshell Ndegeocello Joan Osborne and Gerald Levert.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. Rating: UPC: 012236137801 Manufacturer No: 13780
Standing in the Shadows of Motown is a must-see film for any fan of the Supremes, the Temptations, Marvin Gaye, or any other classic Motown stars. This swinging documentary celebrates the Funk Brothers--the team of studio musicians who powered dozens and dozens of hit Motown songs--by combining reminiscences, reenactments, and clips from a recent concert put on by the Funk Brothers, featuring singers like Chaka Khan, Ben Harper, and Joan Osborne on classic tunes like "What's Going On," "Ain't Too Proud to Beg," and "Heatwave." This crafty gang of elderly musicians will charm your pants off with a slew of entertaining anecdotes. Though it seems that there's a lot of dirt they're declining to dish, the movie deftly outlines the history of Motown, surely the most significant music label in American history--the label that turned segregated "race music" into chart-topping success. A soulful delight. --Bret Fetzer
The Fog of War - Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara
from Sony Pictures
The Fog of War, the movie that finally won Errol Morris the best documentary Oscar, is a spellbinder. Morris interviews Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and finds a uniquely unsettling viewpoint on much of 20th-century American history. Employing a ton of archival material, including LBJ's fascinating taped conversations from the Oval Office, Morris probes the reasons behind the U.S. commitment to the Vietnam War--and finds a depressingly inconsistent policy. McNamara himself emerges as--well, not exactly apologetic, but clearly haunted by the what-ifs of Vietnam. He also mulls the bombing of Japan in World War II and the Cuban Missile Crisis, raising more questions than he answers. The Fog of War has the usual inexorable Morris momentum, aided by an uneasy Philip Glass score. This movie provides a glimpse inside government. It also encourages skepticism about same. --Robert Horton
A Concert for George
by David Leland
from Rhino / Wea
Exceptionally moving but not the least bit sentimental, Concert for George is a splendid tribute to the late George Harrison, whose contributions to the Beatles were so often hidden in the long shadows of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. A year to the day after Harrison's November 29, 2001 death, Eric Clapton assembled some musicians--people who had played with Harrison and known him intimately, including McCartney, Ringo Starr, and Tom Petty--to perform his music at London's Royal Albert Hall. They take on not just the predictable ("My Sweet Lord" and "Something," beautifully sung by Billy Preston and Sir Paul, respectively), but also lesser-known fare like "Old Brown Shoe" and "Beware of Darkness," all to superbly empathetic effect. But the tune most likely to make you misty-eyed is "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," which brings together three of the five musicians who played on the original recording: Ringo on drums, Clapton replicating his own classic solo, and McCartney playing piano and harmonizing with Clapton's lead vocal. Concert for George enjoyed a brief theatrical release, but even those who caught it on the big screen will delight in this two-disc DVD edition. Disc 1 features the complete concert (sans interview and rehearsal footage, but with a few additional songs and in the original running order), while disc 2 contains the theatrical version and some additional backstage and photo material. All in all, a beautiful piece of work. Wish you were here, George--but man, what a way to be missed. --Sam Graham
Filmed on November 29, 2002 before a sold-out audience at Royal Albert Hall in London, "The Concert For George" is a beautifully filmed, joyous celebration of some of the most significant music of the 20th Century. Friends including Eric Clapton, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, Ravi & Anoushka Shankar, the cast of Monty Python and other artists who worked with George Harrison throughout his lifetime, present his music in a special concert to commemorate the first anniversary of his passing. This 2 DVD set includes the full 2 hour & 40 minute concert and the 1 hour 40 minute documentary filmed in high definition by David Leland ("Band Of Brothers") featuring concert footage and interviews with the artists about George's life and music. Documentary produced by Ray Cooper, Olivia Harrison and Jon Kamen.
Soul Masters: Dr. Guo & Dr. Sha (2008)
by Sande Zeig
from 926363 Ontario Limited
Step into Liquid
by Dana Brown (II)
from Lions Gate
Thanks to Dana Brown's delightful Step Into Liquid, the surfing scene in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, should get a healthy boost. That's because Brown, in the tradition of his father, filmmaker Bruce Brown (The Endless Summer), has captured dazzling images of surfers riding curls in some of the world's most exotic--and sometimes unlikely--places. Besides the action on Lake Michigan, Brown leads us to Costa Rica, where the sport's senior elite (including Summer star Robert August) prove they still have the moves, and Oahu's North Shore, where the legendary Pipeline inspires this quote: "It's so scary, maybe you die a little." Most entertaining is a segment in County Donegal, where the American Malloy brothers startle the locals and meet their Irish counterparts on the grayest ocean imaginable. Great personal stories here, including the tale of Northern California's Dale Webster, who has never missed a day on the waves in 30 years. --Tom Keogh
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