Roko Belic Movies

Director Tom Shadyac (Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, Bruce Almighty) reveals how his near-fatal cycling accident forever altered his perception of the Hollywood rat race, and inspired him to make some profound personal changes in a bid to create a better world. At first, doctors told Shadyac he might never walk again. Incredibly, just a few years later, the man behind some of Hollywood's biggest comedies was back on his feet. But his outlook on the world had been inexorably altered, and shortly thereafter, Shadyac relocated from his posh L.A. home to a modest mobile home community. In this film, we follow the filmmaker as he discusses his life-altering experience while attempting to gain a stronger grasp on the human condition by speaking with such noted thinkers as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, and Lynne McTaggart. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Cinema verité icon Albert Maysles captures the best in very Gypsy music while highlighting the diversity of the Romani people in this documentary tracing the World Music Institute's Gypsy Caravan six-week concert tour across North America. Featuring five bands from four countries, the Gypsy Caravan showcases a variety of musical styles ranging from flamenco to Indian folk, Romanian violin, Raga, and jazz. The result is a celebration of song and dance that's sure to thrill music lovers of all ages and backgrounds. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Filmmaker Jasmine Dellal set out to record the lives of the Gypsy community in contemporary America and ended up with a story about one Romani-American and his attempts to take on the Spokane, Washington, police department in this documentary. While most Gypsies (or "Roms," as they often call themselves) whom she encountered seemed ill-inclined to talk about their lives or history before a camera, Dellal did find a cooperative subject in Jimmy Marks, who was fielding a $40 million lawsuit against the city of Spokane after law enforcement officers performed what he considered an improper search of his home ($1.6 million in cash was discovered, which Marks claimed were funds from a private community bank, but due to technicalities, only a misdemeanor charge of theft was filed against him). Marks' crusade included a number of public protests, and even an appearance on The Jerry Springer Show, though several Rom witnesses (including his grandmother) suggest that Marks is not always to be trusted. Along the way, Dellal does find several American Gypsies (including a pair of University professors) who shed light on the Rom community, its customs and etiquette, and how they've been changed by modern conditions and concerns. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A group of gay and lesbian teen characters addresses the camera directly in this pseudo-documentary about the travails of queer adolescence in early-'90s Los Angeles. Andy (James Duval), who hides his sensitive side beneath a nihilistic exterior, really yearns to find a nice boyfriend and settle down the way his pal Steven (Gilbert Luna), an aspiring filmmaker, has with boyfriend Deric (Lance May). Meanwhile, their sex-crazed friend Tommy (Roko Belic) has been kicked out by his parents for being homosexual. The only seemingly carefree members of this adoptive family are Michele (Susan Behshid) and Patricia (Jenee Gill), a lesbian couple whose desire to raise a child together leads the boys to participate in a group sperm donation during one of the film's many scenes of these characters just hanging out and rapping about AIDS, fag-bashing, homophobia, and alienation. In-between polemicizing and posing in front of Steven's camera for interviews, Andy meets college student Ian (Alan Boyce), who seems, at least for a while, to be Mr. Right. Just as Andy and Ian's relationship begins to blossom, Steven and Deric's starts to fall apart, but nothing's for certain in director Gregg Araki's angst-ridden world. Framed as 15 vignettes, each one introduced by an ironic intertitle and many of them interspersed with graphic sexual and commercial images, Totally F***ed Up marked the end of Araki's no-budget phase; the glossy, gaudy Doom Generation would follow two years later. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide