Laura Gabbert Movies
- 2008
- NR
Colin Beavan was a writer living in Manhattan who had the usual concerns over the future of the environment until he realized he wasn't doing much about it. Beavan decided that it was time he and his family did something to deal with the practical issues of global warming and environmental sustainability, so he set out on a grand experiment -- to see if he, his wife, Michelle Conlin, their young daughter, and their dog could live for a year in New York City without leaving any sort of carbon footprint. Michelle, a writer for Business Week with a taste for fashion, was a hard sell for the notion of spending a year without electricity, takeout, toilet paper, or motorized transportation, but in time she agreed and found that their new life was a life-changing experience. Colin, however, found his will tested by the experience and his ideals questioned when he began writing a book about his experiences and sharing his story with the news media, becoming a minor celebrity in the process. Colin and Michelle's friends Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein are filmmakers who decided to capture the family's year of environmental purity on film, and No Impact Man is a documentary that chronicles the nuts and bolts of living a carbon-neutral life as well as how the experience impacted the family. No Impact Man was an official selection at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Sunset Hall is a managed care facility for the aging with a difference; located in Los Angeles, Sunset Hall is described by its proprietors as "a nonprofit retirement home for free-thinking elders," and Sunset is home to a group of elderly residents who haven't allowed their years and their infirmity to quiet their voices or their consciences. Sunset Story is a documentary about the residents of Sunset Hall, in particular two recent arrivals, 95-year-old Lucille Alpert and 81-year-old Irja Lloyd, who become fast friends. While Lloyd has been confined to a wheelchair following a major heart attack, with the help of Alpert, the two frequently participate in political demonstrations (the staff often organizes field trips around activist opportunities) and frequently debate the issues of the day with Lloyd frequently taking a more optimistic viewpoint and Alpert displaying a greater cynicism. Sunset Story received an enthusiastic reception when it premiered at the 2003 Los Angeles Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irja Lloyd, Lucille Alpert, (more)
- 1999
Premiering in the dramatic competition at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, Getting to Know You is director Lisanne Skyler's first narrative feature, following her 1995 Sundance Film Festival documentary No Loans Today. The film takes place in one afternoon at a bus depot where Judith (Welcome to the Dollhouse's Heather Matarazzo) and her brother Wesley wait for the bus. There Judith meets Jimmy (Michael Weston), a kid with a great imagination and nowhere to go. Jimmy tells Judith stories about the lonely people who are sitting at the depot, and his tall tales become flashbacks in the film. As the story progresses, Jimmy and Judith start falling in love and finally reveal the secrets of their own lives: Jimmy's father was a cop who was killed in a simple domestic disturbance call, and Judith lives with her aunt following a spousal argument that put Judith's father in prison and her mother (Bebe Neuwirth) in a mental institution. ~ Arthur Borman, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Heather Matarazzo, Zach Braff, (more)
