Julie Goldman Movies

Go behind the scenes of the 2007 Oklahoma State Penitentiary Rodeo to see how a group of convict cowgirls risk life and limb for the thrill of riding a bucking bull. Oklahoma has the highest female incarceration rate in the entire United States. In 2006, female inmates from the Oklahoma State Penitentiary were permitted to participate in the prison rodeo for first time since the annual event was launched in 1940. It's half Wild West show, and half coliseum-esque spectacle, and also the very last rodeo of its kind. Some inmates, like Danny Liles, have been participating in the annual event for over a decade. The rodeo affords them a brief respite from prison life, but the risks are high even for the toughest male inmates. As the female inmates file in to take part in their very first rodeo, the spectators and guards wait with baited breath to see just what happens when the gate goes up and all hell breaks loose. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A family struggles to come to terms with their differences and their many emotional shortcomings in this powerful documentary from director Samantha Beck. After learning that she's pregnant with her first child, Sharon decides she needs to settle her quarrels with her family before she can start a family of her own, and returns with her husband to her hometown of Buffalo, New York for a visit and some fence-mending. However, while there's still plenty of bad blood between Sharon and her mother, it doesn't take long to see that the real family crisis involves Sharon's sister Karen. Karen is single and already has two children, one of whom has a rare and untreatable illness that should claim her life in three years, and Karen has discovered she's expecting a third child. Adding to her mother's anxieties, Karen's current boyfriend and the father of her unborn child is a small-time drug dealer who often abandons her and seems like a poor candidate for responsible parenthood. While Sharon is as appalled as her mother at the poor choices Karen has made, as they spend some time together they're reminded of how much they share, and that their situations aren't as dissimilar as they seem on the surface. 21 Below received its world premiere at the 2009 Hot Docs International Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A vengeful stripper schemes to take a slimy casino owner for all he's worth, but finds her foolproof plan foiled by a collaborator with a secret agenda. In Las Vegas, money equals power, and few men have more of both than wealthy casino owner Barry Kaylin. A thirty-something bachelor who owns four Las Vegas casinos, Barry lives life to the fullest and never apologizes to anyone. One night, while anticipating the arrival of two potential business associates at his sprawling desert mansion, Barry hires five local dancers to make a big impression. The proceedings take a dark turn, however, when Barry snorts too much cocaine over the course of the evening and forces himself on Jennifer, the youngest of the sultry strippers. Confronted by police the following day, Barry claims that the sex was consensual. As a result, the local prosecutor refuses to press charges, and Barry walks away a free man. But Jennifer isn't willing to let Barry off so easily, and immediately begins scheming with her four sexy friends to take him for all he's worth by targeting the crown jewel of his massive empire -- the highly lucrative Crystal Sky Casino. With the help of two male employees, Jennifer and her friends will rob the Crystal Sky blind, perhaps even putting Barry out of business for good. As preparations for the big job get under way, one member of the team goes rogue. By the time the others catch wind of the secret agenda, it's already too late, and a notorious hit man emerges to blow the entire plot sky high. With precious little time to lose, the remaining members of the team attempt to stay alive long enough to carry out their cunning plan. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Decades before Siegfried and Roy were thrilling audiences with their breathtaking live act, husband-and-wife team Ron and Joy Holiday were performing alongside some of the most majestic felines ever to take the stage. In the 1960s Ron and Joy would establish themselves as the world's first exotic cat entertainers. Later, in the 1980s, the duo found their act expanding into a three-person show with the addition of charismatic performer Chuck Lizza. As the years wore on the trio would endure tragedy, heartbreak, and loss while constantly striving to deliver one of the most unique stage shows around. Though the laughter and the tears, filmmaker Harris Fishman keeps his lens trained on these captivating and fearless performers to tell a story that's as inspirational as it is original. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Documentary filmmaker Liz Mermin receives unprecedented access to the wildly successful Office Tiger corporation, and the resulting meditation on the melding of Western business structure and Eastern work philosophy offers an absorbing study on the evolution of the global marketplace. Joseph Sigelman is the thirty-four-year-old co-founder and co-CEO of Office Tiger - a six-year-old business that rapidly expanded to employ over 3500 individuals on three continents. The goal of Office Tiger is to provide its clients - which consist primarily of law firms, investment banks, and consultancies - with highly secure processing of sensitive documents. In the wake of a particularly memorable New Yorker Magazine profile of the company, filmmaker Mermin was offered complete access Office Tiger's primary office in Chennai, India. It's here that Mermin and her team of filmmakers explore the energetic efforts of Sigelman in motivating his employees, the ultra-competitive nature of the workers who sacrifice their social lives for twenty-hour workdays, and team manager Nikhil's efforts to encourage his underlings to practice selfishness by delegating their work and thus having more time to plan their rise up the corporate ladder. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Filmmaker David Sington merges the magnificence of science with the compelling drama of the human quest for advancement with this fascinating and visually stunning meditation on the historic Apollo space program. In the four remarkable years between 1968 and 1972, American history took a defining turn as nine NASA spacecraft made the trip to the moon, and 12 bold explorers became the first men ever to set foot on ground beyond planet Earth. In this documentary, space enthusiast Sington allows the surviving crew members from each Apollo mission the unique opportunity to recount their memories of those missions in their own words as vintage, original NASA film footage offers a tantalizing glimpse of this extraordinary era in American history. Candid interviews with the astronauts reveal the sensitive and fun-loving souls whose fearlessness would lead a nation into a new era of progress, and audio recordings from Mission Control lend a newfound sense of poignancy to a variety of oft-recounted historical milestones. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Filmmaker Stephanie Johnes documents how what was once a simple exercise fad has taken on exciting and unforeseen dimensions in this look at the hyper-competitive world of jumping rope. Thirty-years ago kids were skipping rope on the sidewalk, and health-conscious adults were bringing the practice into the gym. It wasn't long before the simple act of jumping rope evolved into something more ambitious though, and as acrobatics and fancy footwork came into play a certain playful competition began to take form. Eventually, an international rope jumping competition was established. With this documentary, Johnes tells the stories of two teams - one inner-city African-American and the other suburban Caucasian - who each long to take home the title that proves just how fast they can keep their feet moving. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

While professional soccer is still struggling to find a firm foothold in the United States, in the 1970s the North American Soccer League marked the brave first attempt to introduce the game to American sports fans. While most teams had only limited success at best, one did manage to break through to genuine mainstream popularity -- the New York Cosmos. The brainchild of Steve Ross (a passionate soccer fan who was also a major executive at Warner Communications) and Ahmet Ertegun and Nesuhi Ertegun (the founders of Atlantic Records), the Cosmos got off to a rocky start in 1971 (no one was especially happy with the playing field at Randall's Island, and some rowdy fans were known to throw broken glass onto the grass), but things changed in 1975 when the world's most celebrated soccer star, the Brazilian champion Pele, signed with the Cosmos for a five-million-dollar payday. With the arrival of Pele, the Cosmos became a hit with both fans and the media, and the players became the toast of the town, earning their own private table at Studio 54. A number of other international soccer stars were soon lured to the Cosmos, including Franz Beckenbauer, Rodney Marsh, and Carlos Alberto, but with the turn of the decade, the team began losing favor with fans and folded in 1985. Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos is a documentary by Paul Crowder and John Dower that looks at the team's remarkable history and includes interviews with many of the Cosmos' star players (with the notable exception of Pele, who declined to participate). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Acclaimed film director Sydney Pollack took a five-year break from the realms of fiction to assemble a lovingly crafted tribute to longtime friend and acclaimed architect Frank Gehry in this documentary born from the sketches of its talented subject. A notoriously shy craftsman whose impressive body of work includes the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, Ghery is shown working in his studio unobstructed as Pollack attempts to capture the very essence of the artist's bold works through use of film and digital video. Driven by an intimate but informal series of discussions between Ghery and Pollack, Sketches of Frank Gehry uses the subject of architecture as a launching point to discuss the creative process, and paints a fascinating portrait of how one humble man was able to create some of the world's most awe-inspiring structures. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Named "America's Best Photographer" in 2001 by none other than Time Magazine, Lexington-based photographer Sally Mann captures images that challenge both the values and moral attitudes of the viewer. It was 1992's "Immediate Family" series that first propelled Mann into the public eye - the enigmatic pictures of her three children striking a deep chord in art critics and aficionados. Now those children have all grown up, and filmmaker Steve Cantor turns his lens on the shutterbug who's used to being on the other side of the camera. In fact, Cantor has been documenting Mann's work since the early 1990s; his documentary short Blood Ties: The Life and Work of Sally Mann having played at the 1994 Sundance Film Festival. Here Cantor expands on many of the ideas only hinted at in that abbreviated profile of the artist. In addition to highlighting the controversy surrounding Mann's divisive body of work, Cantor expands his scope to focus more on her artistic output. From the southern landscapes that followed her original portraits to the photos of death and decay that dominated her later work, the filmmaker never shies away from uncomfortable details of the artist's personal and professional lives. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

HBO's first Prime Time reality-documentary series, the 10-part Family Bonds concentrated on the Evangelista family of Long Island. Headed by tough but tender Tom Evangelista, the family was in charge of a thriving "bounty hunter" service, specializing in tracking down bail jumpers, defaulting debtors, errant spouses and other such scofflaws. Though the Evangelistas were capable of dispensing violence, often as not they preferred more humanitarian methods to hunt down their targets, and on a few occasions soft-hearted Tom would extend the necessary funds to get the fugitive off the hook with the law. In true TV-series fashion, each of the family members was cast in a "role", drawn from life. Tom Evangelista was "The Boss", Flo Evangelista was "The Wife", Chris Evangelista was "The Nephew", Dana Evangelista was "The Daughter" (actually, the Married Daughter--and by series' end, the New Mother), and Sal Evangelista was "The Kid." Seen as "The In-Laws" were Dawn Carfora, Jimmy Carfora and Kim Persinger, while trusted family friend Dan Boswith was billed as "No Relation" (though he was as close to the Evangelistas as any relative). Through it all, the family laughed, cried, quarreled, negotiated, celebrated and in general acted like most everybody in the audience--except with a lot more profanity and tattoos. Famed documentarian Steven Cantor was both producer and director of Family Bonds, which began its HBO run on September 19, 2004. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lucy Walker directed this documentary about a little-known facet of Amish life. Although the Amish live in traditionally conservative enclaves, shunning modern conveniences and electricity while favoring a strict code of conduct and dress, they do have a moment in their lives known as "rumspringa." When an Amish child turns 16, they are allowed to interact with and take part in life away from their upbringing. This film follows a handful of teenagers as they break from their past and experiment with drinking, drugs, and driving (possibly for the only time in their lives). Devil's Playground was screened at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

God, religion, and spirituality are considered and discussed by perhaps the most honest and innocent of believers, grade-school children, in Saving Grace: Children and Spirituality. Kids discuss their beliefs regarding the larger questions of philosophy and morality, and adult teachers and religious leaders provide their insight in response. The children's perspective is aimed at adults who want to get back to basics, and for early discussions of religion with children in school and churches. ~ Sarah Sloboda, All Movie Guide