Ronnie Earl Movies

Television documentarian Leslie Cockburn makes her feature debut with American Casino, a documentary that examines the causes and repercussions of the American financial collapse of the late 2000s. Cockburn interviews bankers and former bankers about their roles and what they observed. The roots of the collapse are traced back to the December 2000 passage of the Commodities Futures Modernization Act, a deregulation bill proposed by then-senator Phil Gramm. The film details how the passage of that bill allowed financial institutions like Bear Stearns to make billions by repackaging mortgages into "esoteric products" like CDOs. In addition to looking at how these complex moneymaking schemes crippled the financial and insurance industries, Cockburn takes a hard look at the devastating impact of the mortgage crisis in both inner-city Baltimore and Stockton, CA. The film points out that African-Americans were four times as likely to obtain a subprime mortgage as whites, suggesting that they were specifically targeted by predatory lenders. Cockburn shows the devastation wreaked on individual lives and the community by evictions and bankruptcies. She also explores the environmental impact the crisis has had on upper-middle-class Stockton, where abandoned swimming pools have become a breeding ground for disease-carrying mosquitoes and rodents, and where abandoned homes are broken into and converted into meth labs. American Casino had its world premiere at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival, where it was shown in the Discovery section. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Ronnie Earl claims that as he sat in the audience of a Muddy Waters concert, he was so overwhelmed by the music that he decided right then and there that he was going to dedicate his life to mastering the blues. If having a professional career that has spanned three decades, being a member of Roomful of Blues and working with the likes of Willie Lomax, Sugar Ray Norcia, Bob Enos, and countless others isn't proof enough, then it would be safe to assume that your expectations are too high. If you want to learn the blues then you need to learn them from someone who's played them. Ronnie Earl has played them again and again and again and with soul. If you've figured out the standard blues progression but can't give it the rich full tone you hear coming from the amps of B.B. King, Magic Sam, or T-Bone Walker, then let Earl hop on your screen and show you some finger-lickin' guitar pickin'. ~ Ed Atkinson, Rovi