Eric Minh Swenson with Mana producers Couwenberg and Campognone

On Monday, May 20th, FDL Movie Night interviews director/photographer Eric Minh Swenson about his work chronicling art and artists in Southern California.  Swenson has gained unprecedented access to artists, collectors, curators, gallerists, and art world denizens from San Diego to Ventura. His photos and interviews are revealing portraits of both the Southland and the artistic impulses–shaped by the area’s geography, climate, history, and cultures–that express themselves here. His growing body of work–over 200 short film about Southern California art to date, and thousands of photos– is unique, far ranging and in depth. The art scene in any city has yet to be documented this extensively.

The short documentaries Swenson creates are fluid and evocative, pieces of art themselves. This summer, he begins work on Mana, his ambitious feature-length documentary about a group of Southern California artists, produced by Andi Campognone, curator at Lancaster’s Museum of Art and History, and artist Alex Couwenberg, whose doc is shown below.

Join us Monday at 5pm West Coast time on the front page of Firedoglake.com. Read the rest of this entry →

Star Trek is awesome. I remember the first episode I ever saw–I must have been about 7, and my mom always sent me to bed before it came on, but that night she fell asleep on the couch and I got to watch as a pointy eared guy and his captain somehow ended up on modern day Earth trying to catch a mad scientist and his lady friend who would turn into a black cat.  A few years later, the entire series was in reruns, and every night at 6pm, before I Love Lucy, there would be an hour of aliens, be it children who developed weird blue spots as they turned into “grups,” Greek gods forsaken by their worshipers, android women chanting

Harcourt Fenton Mudd

amazing costumes, epic fisticuffs, and of course tribbles. Reading the book, The Trouble with Tribbles, by tonight’s Movie Night guest, David Gerrold gave me, at whatever age I was when it was published, a background into television production and excited me beyond measure about writing as a career. Gerrold wrote the script for The Trouble with Tribbles on spec; it was produced and became one of the most popular episodes ever.  And Star Trek, through eleven films, four lives series (weirdly, my ex-husband has appeared on all four, and is a Star Trek trading card!), an animated series, and ongoing conventions around the world (as well as web series Star Trek Phase 2, for which Gerrold penned a two-part episode) has shaped  our world by boldly going where no man has gone before.

Please join us Monday, March 25 form 5pm-6:30pm west coast time on the front page of firedoglake.com to talk Trek and sci-fi with one of the greats, David Gerrold.

(FYI: All of the Star Trek series are free this month on Hulu!)

NOTE: To participate in Movie Night by asking questions, please make sure you are logged in. If you don’t have a log-in, register using the red button up top. It’s fast and free! At 5pm west coast time, sign in to Firedoglake.com, Type in your questions or comments, hit the “send” button, and please refresh your browser every minute or so to see new questions and responses. To reply to a question, hit the “reply” button. Thanks!

Side note: I don’t mind the IRS making a training video based on Star Trek. WHat I mind is that it sucks.

Things are scary right now: The Frankenstorm. The election. Gas prices. Let’s not forget Halloween, the holiday designed to make us forget our fears by making us really scared. And for a long time one of the scariest things has been the estate market, buy or selling. And thus [cue spooky music]:

Firedoglake is chillingly thrilled to present a Halloween spookfest, The Selling, a horrifyingly funny movie about flipping a haunted house. Imagine if you will, an honest real estate agent named Richard Scarry who tries to talk people out buying houses they can’t afford. When his less-than-honorable partner convinces him to flip an old house to make a huge profit, Richard agrees, since his mom needs the money to cover her medical bills.

Already we have two major FDL issues: Real estate profiteering and health care reform!

While most renovations have problems with plumbing, electricity, and load-bearing walls, the house is, well, a real mess with bleeding walls and a portal to the spirit realm in the upstairs bedroom closet. Not even kindly Father Jimmy or the Ghosts’ Rights activist Richard enlists to settle the spirits can help. In fact they make matters worse.

And then the unthinkable happens…

Join us Monday night form 5pm-6:30pm West Coast time as we discuss The Selling with writer/producer Gabriel Diani and actress Etta Devine.

Thank god/s for ACT UP! Monday’s Movie Night “How to Survive a Plague” with director director David France looks at the founding of ACT UP, the AIDS activism group, and how they changed the face of activism in America. From marches and hospital sit-ins to disrupting mass in St Patrick Cathedral and covering Senator Jesse Helms’ house in Virginia with a giant condom, ACT UP and the related Treatment Action Group (TAG) fought entrenched hatred, bigotry, and bureaucracy to save lives. This is their story, and a story of America, of Americans fighting for their rights.

Please join us Monday at 5pm west coast time. To participate you need to be registered at Firedoglake.com (it’s free!) and logged in.

HEADS UP TRAILER NSFW!

Monday on FDL Movie Night we discussing one of the most ambitious indie films ever made, Showgirls 2: Penny’s From Heaven” Rena Riffel’s surreal riff on “Showgirls,” one of the most reviled, yet beloved, movies of the 90s Riffel–who co-starred in the original  Joe Eszterhas scripted melodrama, directed by Paul Verhoeven–revisits her character Penny and takes her on a wild trip as she strives to become “Goddess” the star of “Star Dancer,” a television show that is the foundation and apparently main focus of the freakish resort, Seven Sisters.

Calling to mind early John Waters, with references to David Lynch and 1970s horror, “Showgirls 2: Penny’s From Heaven” is a spoof, and homage, a camp comedy, and a commentary on fame and the lengths some people will go to achieve it, plus it touches on feminism and post-feminism. And it’s definitely NSFW!

Please join us at 5pm west coast, 8pm east coast time to discuss the film which is destined to become a cult classic.

Saturday night, the reading of Dustin Lance Black’s “8″ based on the transcripts of the 2010 trial in Judge Vaughn Walker’s courtroom on the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8 live streamed on YouTube (where its now archived and available for viewing for free), and Monday March 5 we’re discussing the play, directed by Rob Reiner, with FDL’s Teddy Partridge who liveblogged the trial.

The play’s reading is jam packed with celebrities (George Clooney, Martin Sheen, Brad Pitt, Jamie Lee Curtis are just some of the famous faces you’ll see onstage) and is around the trial’s historic closing arguments in June 2010, 8 provides an intimate look what unfolded when the issue of same-sex marriage was on trial.

Please join Monday at 5pm West Coast, 8pm East as we discuss the importance of this play, the events that lead up to the trial, and the trial itself.

A couple years ago Shane Smith, the founder of Vice–a bold and in your face Gen-Whatev website–tried to get into North Korea to document the country, because, well why not. That’s what Vice does. Eventually he and another Vice-ster, armed only with point and shoot cameras, found a way in and recorded the most insane documentary ever. Shane, being an International Man of Mystery and possibly The Most Interesting Man in the World, hasn’t been available to join us on Movie Night, though we’ve come pretty close. (He travels a lot, to say the least).

That being said, this three part, hour long travelogue of absolute cognitive dissonance should be watched, enjoyed, and discussed for its utterly absorbing, fascinating look at the most surreal nation in modern times. So please join us Monday January 2 at 5pm West Coast/8pm East for our first Movie Night of 2012 as we present Vice Guide to North Korea and discuss this mysterious and um peculiar country.  Includes rare footage Shane shot of the the Grand Mass Gymnastics and  Arirang!

“Gidget” a girl midget,  is what the surfers at Malibu’s Surfrider Beach called Kathy Kohner when she showed up to surf in the summer of 1956. As she learned to ride the waves, she also saw another side of society, a crew of guys who lived to surf, who had practically signed a blood oath to drop out of society. Her diaries became the source material for her father’s bestselling novel Gidget, The Little Girl with Big Ideas. Translated into Spanish, French, Yiddish and Japanese, the book was bought by Columbia Pictures, and became the basis for the Gidget films, a TV series starring Sally Field in her debut role, as well as subsequent TV shows.

The character of Gidget–her innocent yet bold, fearless personality; her willingness to break with convention–struck a chord, forever changing the face of surfing and youth culture. By 1960, the Beach Boys had released their first album, foam boards were introduced; surfer competitions popped up. The beaches, once a place for family getaways, grew packed with teenagers exploring their freedom. Surfing became a major sport and a commercial industry.

As well as popularizing surfing and changing the face of Southern California, the character of Gidget became an inspiration for women surfers and an accidental icon of feminism and female empowerment.

This Monday on  Movie Night we discuss Accidental Icon: The Real Gidget with director Brian Gillogly.

Monday’s Movie Night features The Power of Two, a documentary that focuses on twins  Anabel Mariko Stenzel and Isabel Yuriko Stenzel Byrnes, identical twins born with cystic fibrosis. The film charts their journey through the illness and their lung transplants, highlighting the need for organ donation.

Ana and Isa will be joining us along with director Marc Smolowitz.  When the twins were diagnosed with CF, a fatal genetic disease that impacts the lungs and pancreas, their doctor told their parents they would be lucky to live to reach 10 years of age. With a daily exercise and nutritional treatments,  and their combined emotional strength, the twins exceeded their expected lifespans attending graduate school and living life fully , but by the time they reached their mid-twenties, the outlook was grim. Until they both received double lung transplants.

Now Ana and Isa are advocates for organ donations, and are bringing awareness of the need for organ donations to boht the United States and Japan, their mother’s homeland. Their story highlights the importance of living life to its fullest, and shows us that each day is a gift.

Ana and Isa’s experience has influenced them to cherish the following values:

1. Each human interaction is a cherished blessing.
2. Illness has great potential to teach awareness and appreciation of life.
3. Life is too short to not appreciate every moment- the good and the bad

Please join us Monday evening at 5pm-6:30pm west coast time, 8pm-9:30pm east coast on the front page of Firedoglake.com

One of FDL Movie Night’s favorite directors, Dave Markey, returns with The Year Punk Broke, his awesome 1991  indie doc, finally released on DVD, featuring Sonic Youth, Babes in Toyland, Dinosaur Jr., the Ramones and Nirvana on tour, right before the release of Nirvana’s major label debut Nevermind which changed the face of music, going on to sell selling 400,000 copies a week by Christmas 1991, and dethroning Michael Jackson at the top of the Bilboard chart.  Was 1991 the year punk broke into mainstream consciousness or the year underground cred was broken by exposure?

The title works both ways. Punk became grunge and would go mainstream–including a fashion spreads in major glossy magazine which are now recycling the trend–corporate interests would come into play; the DIY manifesto also seeped out into the suburbs, creating legions of alternative lifestylers. And the dreaded hipster. Things haven’t been the same since the year punk broke, in both good and bad ways. Read the rest of this entry →