Zachary Mortensen Movies

Documentary filmmaker Sara Lamm explores the life of the mental institute escapee, master soap-maker, and self-proclaimed rabbi whose all-natural soap would become a counter-culture cleaning product sensation and a staple of health food stores everywhere. In 1947 - after emigrating to the United States from Germany in order to escape the Third Reich and fleeing from a mental institution where he was forced to endure electroshock therapy - Dr. Emanuel Bonner finally realized his destiny. An experienced soap maker whose faith in humanity hadn't been shaken by the fact that his parents died in the Holocaust, Dr. Bonner began producing a multi-purpose cleaning product that would bring people together while providing them with tips for living a better live. The labels on Dr. Bronner's Soaps were filled with inspiring prose borrowed largely from Jewish and Christian sources, and his company was one of the first socially conscious organizations to mass produce a popular product. While Dr. Bronner himself may be long gone, his popular soap lives on. For viewers curious to hear the tale of a man who dedicated himself to the betterment of the human race through the use of all-natural cleaning products, this documentary presents Dr. Bronner's stranger-than-fiction story in greater detail than ever before. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

A working vacation takes two former lovers into a strange and dangerous place in this offbeat independent thriller. Margaret (Catherine Kellner) is a photographer who has landed an assignment with the federal government to document toxic waste sights along the U.S.-Canadian border. With a long drive ahead of her, Margaret decides she'd like some company, so she asks her former boyfriend Jay (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), who doesn't have much else to do, to tag along. Any hopes Jay held for a reconciliation are dashed when Margaret reveals she's engaged to be married, but that soon proves to be the least of his worries. After driving for a few hours, Jay and Margaret keep getting lost and seem to be going in circles, but no matter how far they drive, their gas gauge never changes. As the landscape becomes more puzzling, so do the people they encounter, who seem at once emotionally distant and menacing. But where have argaret and Jay ended up -- and is there any way they can get out? Road was the first feature film from writer and director Leslie McCleave. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

As a teenager growing up in the mid-'70s, Mark "Gator" Rogowski became a passionate skateboarder. With time, he became quite good on a deck and, by the early '80s, his skills on the vertical ramp, combined with his cocky charm and surfer-dude good looks, helped to make him one of the top professionals on the skating circuit. Between endorsement deals and performance fees, he was earning more than a hundred-thousand dollars per year by the time he was 18. Not surprisingly, Rogowski soon found himself living a fast-lane lifestyle, partying all night, and dating supermodels. But when the popularity of ramp skating fell in favor of street skating, Gator found his career going into a skid. Over several years, he struggled to get his demons under control, trying, with no real success, to reinvent himself and regain his place in the public eye. In 1991, the bottom finally fell out of Rogowski's life: At the age of 24, he found himself behind bars, confessing to rape and murder charges . Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator is a documentary which chronicles Rogowski's personal successes and private failures. The film includes interviews with fellow skating legends Tony Hawk, Stacy Peralta, and Jason Jessee. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide