Michel Negroponte Movies
- 2009
- NR
Dimitri Mugianis is an artist and musician who in the 1980s and '90s earned a cult following with his experimental rock band Mr. Unique and the Leisure Class. Mugianis was also a drug addict who spent nearly 20 years dependent on heroin and alcohol. However, Mugianis became aware of Ibogaine, a hallucinogenic drug derived from natural roots that has been used for centuries by shamans in West Africa. With Ibogaine, Mugianis was able to kick drugs and alcohol without painful withdrawal and has been clean ever since. Mugianis became an outspoken advocate for the use of Ibogaine in drug detox, despite the fact it's a Schedule 1 controlled substance in the United States, and has organized underground Ibogaine therapy sessions in the United States and Canada. However, after one such Ibogaine detox nearly led to the death of a patient, Mugianis set out to learn more about its traditional use in West Africa, going so far as to travel to Gabon and undergo traditional rituals with the drug in the company of shamans. Filmmaker Michel Negroponte followed Mugianis on his voyage to Africa, and his documentary I'm Dangerous With Love chronicles his experiences and how he believes Ibogaine can change the way we treat drug addiction in North America. I'm Dangerous With Love was an official selection at the 2010 Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Jimmy O'Pharrow is a boxing trainer and one of the founders of the Starrett City Boxing Club, who describes one of his most promising fighters, Dmitriy Salita, like so: "Looks Russian, prays Jewish, fights Black." Salita was born in Odessa, Ukraine, and moved with his family to Brooklyn, NY, when he was a boy, as his father didn't want his children held back by widespread Russian anti-Semitism. Growing up in a rough-and-tumble section of Brooklyn, Salita developed a passion for boxing, and made a reputation as a fighter to be reckoned with in Brooklyn gyms. After winning New York's Golden Gloves championship, Salita turned pro, but he also made a renewed commitment to his faith, and while he's become a hero to the Big Apple's Russian and Ukrainian exile community as well as to devout Jews, he also struggles to remain true to Orthodox Judaism; as Salita himself once said, "If anyone wants a whuppin' from me, they got to wait until after sundown." Orthodox Stance is a documentary from filmmaker Jason Hutt that explores Salita's remarkable life and his journey to faith; the film received its world premiere at the 2007 Silverdocs Film Festival, a competition founded by the American Film Institute and the Discovery Channel. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Explore the clouded middle-ground between addiction and sobriety as recovering heroin addicts pass the time on prescription medications while struggling for years and decades to break their dependence on one of the most notorious narcotics of the modern era. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
A loving daughter documents her reunion with her mentally-unstable mother in this heartfelt and decidedly personal documentary from filmmaker Tara Wray. When Wray was just a child, her mother was her entire life. A young girl with no father figure to speak of, Wray and her mother became so close that it was nearly impossible to distinguish where daughter ended and mother began. It was during those years, as the pair did their best to elude demons both real and imagined, that Wray first began to see signs of the powerful psychosis that would gradually cloud her mother's mind to the point of total insanity. After loving and protecting her increasingly unstable mother to the best of her abilities, Wray left home at the age of nineteen - when her mother threatened to kill her. Now, five years after that fateful threat, Wray returns to Manhattan, Kansas to re-establish her bond with her mentally disturbed mother, and perhaps help the ailing abstract artist locate the geographic center of the United States - a curious location that just may hold the secret to establishing world peace. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
The ancient insulated steam pipes that lie under the streets and buildings of New York City are in need of constant repair. They also are very dangerous when they blow, causing injuries, damage, and inconvenience. The steam is vital to the success of the city -- it powers everything from clothes presses to elevators -- as well as the survival of the citizens, who rely on it for heat even in the most modern skyscrapers. The only way to repair the 16-inch pipes is to close off the street and dig up the road to get to the break -- at a cost of about 35,000 dollars at each break. But wait, what's that thing crawling along inside the pipe with a blow torch? A pyromaniacal snake? A fire-breathing dragon? No, it's W.I.S.O.R., the robo-welder to the rescue. ~ Buzz McClain, Rovi
- 2000
Unemployed in New York City after his late 1980s college graduation, Jason Rosette started selling books on the street. He soon became a full-time street bookseller, collecting from rummage sales, library clearances, and even dumpsters. His career brought him into contact with other remarkable characters who sold books on the street: Marvin, a self-styled man of God with a jaunty black hat and fondness for betting on horses; Polish Joe, a tobacco enthusiast with a five-pack-a-day habit and a sixth sense for knowing when bad weather will thin out his competition; Slick Rick Sherman, who does magic tricks to pass the time and has mastered the art of book-selling psychology; and Peter Whitney, who creates sculptures and collages that document his fascination with toads. Rosette began documenting the culture of street booksellers on videotape and Super-8 film in 1995, just as New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani began to crack down on street vendors and New York University began to lose patience with the book dealers operating near their campus. BookWars, Rosette's first film, was named Best Documentary at the 2000 New York Underground Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
A homeless woman living in Central Park is examined in this documentary. Maggie is a good-humored woman in her '40s. She lives in Central park with 6 dogs and a huge backpack. It is in the park that filmmaker Miche Negroponte met her and gradually became her friend. Outwardly she seems normal enough. She is witty, gentle, and intelligent. She claims to be the daughter of actor Robert Ryan and has six children. She also claims to receive radio reports from her husband Jupiter, the Greek god. In trying to understand what she means, Negroponte spent two years following her and interviewing her. The film, which also looks into her past is the result. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1979
Cape Canaveral in Florida (now Cape Kennedy) has long been the home of the U.S. space program. However, this documentary features a different kind of space, to wit: three "space cases," or highly eccentric people who lived near Cape Canaveral in the late 1970s. Each of them seems to present a bottomless well of oddities, beginning with "Papa John," a geriatric leader of a motorcycle gang who gives vent to his own personalized theology at a local church and also plays the piano there. Mary is a small-time local reporter who covers everything which is in the remotest way newsworthy on the NASA site, and she is busy trying to make a profit by recycling leftover space debris. Finally, Willy, an area businessman given to making racist statements, has a part-time job as a clown on a local children's TV show. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
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