Category Archives: In the Works

John Waters’ inimitable and outrageous muse gets the bio doc treatment by the filmmaker who’s already crafted the definitive portraits of porn star Jack Wrangler, activist Vito Russo, and filmmaker showman William Castle.

Jeffrey Schwarz adds another larger-than-life character to his already impressive list of film biographies with this portrait of Harris Glenn Milstead, better known as the one and only Divine. Through his outrageous collaborations with John Waters, the Baltimore native became heralded the world over as the queen of trash cinema and a symbol of proud non-conformity. The imposing Divine took drag to a new, confrontational, and almost surreal extreme, creating an unforgettable persona who was always the standout of Waters’ films until her untimely death in 1988. I AM DIVINE aims to capture Milstead’s – and Divine’s – lives through her work, rare archival footage, and interviews with those who knew the performer best.

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A planned community built near “The Happiest Place on Earth” may be anything but, as smalltown traditional values face the realities of the recession and the dark side of the American Dream.

Founded in 1994, Celebration FL was planned and developed by the Walt Disney Company to be a utopian return to smalltown American life. Inspired by Walt Disney’s plans for a “Community of Tomorrow” – though decidedly different in approach and architecture from EPCOT – Disney took an active role in creating the mater planned community which today has a population of close to 7500 individuals – people who bought into the idea of translating the Disney experience into a literal way of life. Perhaps realizing that they were better off dealing with theme parks and movies, the company soon divested most of its interest in the town, but their stamp remains. While, on the surface, Celebration appears to be an idyllic places, a “bubble” that protects its residents from the harsher elements of larger, less-planned communities, cracks have started to appear. When filmmaker Philip B Swift started to see articles about the first murder in the town, he was motivated to start digging beneath the surface, and his discoveries motivated this project.

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An examination of a life lived online, the nature of celebrity, and the impact of social media, all through the story of a smalltown Tennessee gay boy who rocketed to Internet infamy in 2007 when he posted a heartfelt, albeit hysterical, plea on YouTube to “Leave Britney Alone!”

Chris Moukarbel and Valerie Veatch’s first feature documentary focuses on the curious case of Chris Crocker. After Britney, his videos have been seen by millions and he entered into pop culture, largely as an object of ridicule, but he clearly had many fans as well. His story is both unique and becoming all-too-common, as more individuals upload the content of their lives online every day. Named for the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube, the film uses Crocker’s story to explore how the swift development of social media has radically altered the ways we interact with and reveal ourselves to one another and to the world, and how the world sometimes responds back.

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After more than 35 years, a man reunites his old friends to recapture their wayward youth as represented by his old 1968 Mustang.

Back in the 1970s, Mike Ondish and his friends tore up the roads in the Catskills, racing other cars, running moonshine, and gleefully evading the authorities at every turn in a real-life Northeastern DUKES OF HAZZARD. Eventually, they put their cars away and settled down to much quieter lives. Now, decades later, Mike is repairing his legendary car, the Demon, to get it back out on the road, reuniting with his friends, and his youth, as a result. Director Christina Eliopoulos, producer George Wieser, and executive producer Josh Levin follow Mike as he commits himself to his new mission.

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The makers of BAG IT turn their attention from the environmental impact of plastic to the potential rebirth of uranium mining in a Colorado town.

Paradox CO has seen better days. A once-thriving mining town, its population is down to 242. In the hopes of encouraging population growth through the creation of new jobs, there are plans for a new uranium mill, reversing a trend away from uranium mining of more than two decades. Despite the environmental legacy of radiation-related health problems from the uranium industry in the past, many residents are supportive of the project and for the boost the new mill would bring to the local economy. For others, it’s not a welcome change. Director/producer Suzan Beraza and producer Michelle Hill live in the vicinity of the proposed Pinon Ridge Uranium Mill, giving them a personal stake and intimate access to others who stand to be affected by the project.

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In PLIMPTON! STARRING GEORGE PLIMPTON AS HIMSELF, directors Tom Bean and Luke Poling construct a compelling portrait of the extraordinary life of the quintessential everyman.

George Plimpton became known to the general public for being a veritable jack of all trades, spearheading what he called “participatory journalism” while writing for Sports Illustrated. Rather than simply write about the Detroit Lions, for example, he became a Detroit Lion, embedding himself in the team to gain a first-hand perspective on their culture and dynamics. He parlayed such escapades into a career as a successful author and television personality. Before, during, and after these adventures, Plimpton’s circle was a bit more rarefied – as the founding editor of The Paris Review, he helped to discover some of the leading writers of the second half of the 20th Century. The film explores the disparate sides of this complex but always strangely likable and approachable figure.

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Ruaridh Arrow’s HOW TO START A REVOLUTION profiles an octogenerian whose writings have helped inspire individuals to topple dictators around the world.

That eightysomething-year-old is Gene Sharp, a Nobel Peace Prize nominee whose books on nonviolent resistance, such as FROM DICATORSHIP TO DEMOCRACY and WAGING NONVIOLENT STRUGGLE, have proven influential from the Balkans to Tunisia. The film combines interviews with Sharp with testimony from nonviolent revolutionaries all over the world who have used his methods to try to secure freedom from repression. In our age of ubiquitous cell-phone cameras, illustrations of these techniques are provided through user-generated content on the streets during major protests for freedom.

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Pet owners go to what some might see as excessive lengths to keep their best friends with them, even after the deaths of the furry companions, in Amy Finkel’s FUREVER.

Brooklyn-based Finkel set out to document the odd world of pet preservation and those who seek it out in an effort to retain a physical connection with their deceased animals. Rather than bowing to the inevitable, some owners have turned to professionals who can essentially freeze-dry their pets, keeping them in a permanent, life-like, but eerie stasis – a step beyond taxidermy – and a physical condition that allows them to safely return their companions to their homes. The project looks to profile a number of owners, delving into their past relationships and histories with their pets, and perhaps suggesting some explanation for why they’ve chosen this unorthodox step.

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The director of THAT MAN: PETER BERLIN takes an appreciative look at another figure who is synonymous with the cinematic depiction of frank gay male sexuality in the immediate post-Stonewall era.

Director Jim Tushinski’s previous film (which premiered in Berlin in 2005 and had a theatrical release after its run on the LGBT film festival circuit) served as both a tribute to a gay erotic icon and an introduction to younger generations of gay men who were not familiar with Peter Berlin. His new film, DIRTY POOLE, seems likely to do the same for Wakefield Poole. Poole directed features from the early 1970s until the mid 1980s, most famously the sexually-explicit gay adult films BOYS IN THE SAND and its sequel and BIJOU (available on DVD packaged together as THE WAKEFIELD POOLE COLLECTION – note: NSFW link). Taking advantage of the post-sixties era new openness and newly identifiable out audience, Poole’s films celebrated gay male sexuality and brought these images to theatrical release in major urban centers. Tushinski film explores these contributions to gay cinema while providing more of a context for the filmmaker, who he notes didn’t see himself as a pornographer despite the graphic content of his work – before filmmaking, in fact, Poole was a ballet dancer and a Broadway choreographer, so filmmaking was as much an artistic expression as those endeavors. DIRTY POOLE aims to capture the fullness of Poole’s life and legacy and its specific impact on gay male culture.

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The fate of the unique autonomous community of Christiania in the heart of Copenhagen is the subject of this documentary.

Directors Robert Lawson and Richard Jackman have gained access to the residents of Christiania to tell the story of the “free state” founded forty years ago by anarchist squatters on an abandoned military base. Pressured by public sentiment, the Danish government allowed the community to continue to exist as a “social experiment,” and the residents developed their own unique collective culture and identity. Christiania has its own eye-catching flag (pictured), industries, laws, and open soft drug trade. Tensions have grown between the residents and the Danish government in recent years, as the property Christiania inhabits is valuable real estate seemingly ripe for development. Lawson and Jackman focus their film on this potential catastrophic change to the free state’s existence, speaking to residents, government officials, and Danes outside of Christiania’s boundaries.

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