Charles Ferguson’s brilliant “Inside Job” documents the endemic greed of the financial sector, whose foray into decades of fraud destroyed the global economy. Talking heads include the Federal Reserve chairmen, Congressmen, Justice Department officials, journalists, hedge fund managers and business-school faculty.Snappy and energetic, this is a user friendly tutorial on the larcenous mysterious practices the financial sector used to fleece their own customers. Ferguson walks us through decades of Washington’s dismantling of bank regulations put in place after the Great Depression. The irresponsible deregulations culminated in the “foxes in the henhouse,” feeding frenzy of derivatives that toppled the world economy…
Author: Robin Menken
Robin Menken
Robin Menken Robin Menken lives in Los Angeles. She was the Artistic Director of the Second City Workshops, taught at UC Berkeley, USC, Barcelona\'s Ateneu and the Esalin Institute. She was Roberto Rossellini\'s assistant, and worked with Yevgeny Vevteshenku, Glauber Rocha and Eugene Ionesco. She sold numerous screenplays and wrote the OBIE winning The FTA SHow (touring with Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland and Ben Vereen.) She was a programming consultant and Special Events co-ordinator for numerous film festivals, including the SF, Rio, Havana and N.Y Film Festivals. Her first news outlet was the historic East Village Other.
“Letters To Father Jacob” the winner of Cinema Without Borders’ Bridging The Borders Award at Palm Springs International Film festival, 2010, has finally made it to the US screens. Klaus Haro’s radiant “Letters To Father Jacob” is an elegantly simple three person drama, is a jewel of a film. I had an opportunity to interview Haro last year at The Scandinavian Film Festival LA.Director-writer Klaus Haro (“Mother of Mine”, “Elina: As if I Didn’t Exist” -both Crystal Bear recipients, Berlin; “The New Man.”) was awarded the Ingmar Bergman Award in 2004, an award chosen by Bergman himself. Haro extensively…
The Japanese American National Museum’s “ID Film Fest” a weekend of Asian / Asian American film presentations in Little Tokyo, Downtown Los Angeles, opened Friday October 8, 2010. The opening night film, Hong Kong tyro director Kit Hui’s thrilling neo-noir “Fog” is a classic story of lost identity, starring Hong Kong-based American actor Terence Yin and Eugenia Yuan was preceded by ID Film Fest alum’s Ming Lai’s emigration drama short “Journey of a Paper Son.” Saturday, October 9th, featured the AAIFC – Asian American Independent Feature Conference-is a one-day think tank and networking conference for filmmakers on the state of…
Born in 1932, Canadian prodigy Gould began public performance at 14. His provocative 1955 recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations (Columbia Records) made him famous worldwide. He was just 23.As we see and hear in this carefully constructed portrait by Michèle Hozer & Peter Raymont, Gould’s older parents made the handsome child pianist the center of their focus. The flamboyant virtuoso that crafted his persona as carefully as his performances, had a matinee-idol glamour that is fully exploited in this thoughtfully assembled portrait. Like Bruce Webber’s “Let’s Get Lost” (about Chet Baker), archival footage and press photos from the 50’s capture…
The high spirited “Bran Nue Dae” is one of short list of Australian musical features. Think Gillian Armstrong’s ebullient 1982 “Starstruck” and quasi musicals like “The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert”, Baz Luhrmann’s “Strictly Ballroom.”Based on the 1990 Aussie stage musical, Rachel Perkins’s film adaptation makes up in candy-colored charisma for it’s stereotypical characters and largely forgettable songs. It’s 1969. Church-going Aboriginal Willie (newcomer Rocky McKenzie) has been in love, all his life, with his local sweetie Rosie (“Australian Idol’s” Jessica Mauboy) who sings in the church choir at his mother’s evangelical church. Willie and Rosie sneak out…
Dana’s father, Bruce Brown, invented the surf doc genre; starting in 1958 with the laid back “Slippery When Wet” and the 1959 follow up “Surf Crazy.” His classic, the 1966 “The Endless Summer” spawned two sequels and Dana assembled the last one ” The Endless Summer Revisited”, from outtakes. Dana’s “2003 “Step Into Liquid”, an “awesome” tour of the international surf culture, redefined the genre. Dana’s latest, “Highwater” doesn’t rise to the heights of his first film, but there’s plenty to enjoy here. The film takes on a single competition the two-month Triple Crown on Oahu’s North Shore (the legendary…
The Maya Indie Film Series, a national traveling film series now in its second year, comes to Los Angeles on August 27. The films will play in repertory for one week at Manns Chinese 8 to tie in with Hispanic Heritage Month celebrations.The six films in the series include: The Kid: Chamaco, a bi-lingual drama about a Mexican boxer starring Martin Sheen, Kirk Harris, Alex Perea, and Michael Madsen; Backyard, a Mexican thriller starring Jimmy Smits, Ana de la Reguera, and Joaquin Cosio; a family film about Roberto Clemente starring Ray Liotta and Rory Culkin called Chasing 3000; a Brazilian…
“Enemies Of the People”, which won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury prize at Sundance 2010, and a dozen other international Festival awards, still awaits permission for a national theatrical release from the Ministry Of Culture and Arts of Cambodia.Cambodian reporter Thet Sambath and British documentarian Rob Lemkin collaborated on the exceptional “Enemies Of The People.” Sambath, whose family were killed in the “killing fields” of the Khmer Rouge, spent a decade patiently wooing a friendship with Khmer Rouge second in command, Nuon Chea AKA “Brother Number Two.” Years into his freelance assignment, Thet Sambath met Brit filmmaker Rob Lemkin,…
The 14th Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival (LALIFF) returns to the Mann Chinese 6 in Hollywood, August 19 through August 25. The weeklong event will screen over 90 feature films, shorts and documentaries from 20 different countries.Marcel Rasquin’s “Hermano” will be the Opening Night Gala presentation on Thursday, August 19 at the legendary Grauman’s Chinese Theater (6925 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, CA). First-time director Rasquin’s soccer film, set in the slum of La Ceniza, follows two players scouted to tryout with the Caracas Football Club. The drama won The 2010 Moscow International Film Festival’s top prize, the Golden George.Carlos Carrera’s…
As part of a yearlong celebration of Japanese master Akira Kurosawa, The UCLA Film And Television Archive (in collaboration with the American Cinematheque) presents CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION: THE FILMS OF AKIRA KUROSAWA, PART II. (Part l played at the American Cinematheque in May.) This is a unique opportunity to see these classics on the big screen.Akira Kurosawa’s filmography is a crash course in filmmaking. For young filmmakers of the 1960’s Akira Kurosawa was a god. Scorcese and Coppolla worshipped him. (They later exec-produced ‘Kagemusha”.) Lucas, Milius and Peckinpah copied him. Serge Leone plagarized him (and settled out of court.) Ingmar Bergman…