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Jennifer Abbott Movies

2010  
PG13  
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

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2007  
 
During the 1980s and '90s, professional snowboarder (or 'X-Games Pro') Craig Kelly clocked in as one of the top-tiered international competitors of his sport, then swept up a veritable pantheon of awards and honors including seven World Snowboarding Championship titles. Kelly also perfected the practice of mountain-back country riding - and developed such a longstanding affinity for that pastime that he opted to devote all of his time to it and qualified as the first accredited snowboarding mountain guide in history. In addition, Kelly developed and honed a unique spiritual philosophy related to snowboarding that explores the unity between the participant, the snowboard and the surrounding mountains. Jacques Russo's documentary homage Let It Ride interweaves two narratives: it observes and traces the history of the rise in snowboarding as an international pastime, as it relays Kelly's own personal ascent to legendary status within his field. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

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Starring:
James HetfieldCraig Kelly, (more)
 
2006  
 
Of the many genocides that racked the world during the latter half of the 20th century, few carried the weight or wielded the horror of the Khmer Rouge massacres in Cambodia - wherein Communist dictator Pol Pot annihilated between 1.4 and 1.7 million countrymen, and subjected innumerable others to incarceration and torture. Beth Pielert's Out of the Poison Tree marks one of the very few documentaries to put a human face on these events by filtering the massacres through the prism of one family's experiences. At the center of Pielert's film stands Thida Buth Mam, a woman who can easily trace her father's disappearance to the hellish doings of the Khmer. As the documentary unfurls, she embarks on a long and frequently harrowing journey to attempt to understand exactly what happened to him. In the process, she comes face to face with victims, family members of victims and former torturers, living in a country still reluctant to discuss the horror that once permeated it. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

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Starring:
Khatharaya Um
 
2003  
 
Add The Corporation to Queue Add The Corporation to top of Queue  
In the mid-1800s, corporations began to be recognized as individuals by U.S. courts, granting them unprecedented rights. The Corporation, a documentary by filmmakers Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott and author Joel Bakan, delves into that legal standard, essentially asking: if corporations were people, what kind of people would they be? Applying psychiatric principles and FBI forensic techniques, and through a series of case studies, the film determines that this entity, the corporation, which has an increasing power over the day-to-day existence of nearly every living creature on earth, would be a psychopath. The case studies include a story about how two reporters were fired from Fox News for refusing to soft-pedal a story about the dangers of a Monsanto product given to dairy cows, and another about Bolivian workers who banded together to defend their rights to their own water supply. The pervasiveness of corporate influence on our lives is explored through an examination of efforts to influence behavior, including that of children. The filmmakers interview leftist figures like Michael Moore, Howard Zinn, Naomi Klein, and Noam Chomsky, and give representatives from companies Burson Marsteller, Disney, Pfizer, and Initiative Media a chance to relay their own points-of-view. The Corporation won the Best Documentary World Cinema Audience Award at the 2004 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

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Starring:
Jane AkreRaymond L. Anderson, (more)