Krysanne Katsoolis Movies
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, Rovi
- 2005
- Add What Remains: The Life and Work of Sally Mann to Queue Add What Remains: The Life and Work of Sally Mann to top of Queue
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, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sally Mann
Director Don Letts' documentary Punk: Attitude examines the politics, fashion, and music of this pop culture trend. He interviews and shares performance footage from a variety of famous musical acts including "Black Flag, Jello Biafra, Legs McNeil, The Ramones, and proto-punks The Stooges and New York Dolls. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
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, Rovi
- Starring:
- Frank Gehry, Sydney Pollack, (more)
- 2006
- Add LoudQUIETloud: A Film about the Pixies to Queue Add LoudQUIETloud: A Film about the Pixies to top of Queue
The band that inspired some of the most innovative rock acts of the new millennium reunites to conquer the globe 12 years after calling it quits, and filmmaker Steven Cantor is there to capture all the low-lights and highlights of their tentative reunion in a probing documentary exploring the re-birth of Gen-X alternative giants the Pixies. Plagued by personal problems from the beginning but driven to create such classic albums as Surfer Rosa and Doolittle, Frank Black, Kim Deal, Joey Santiago, and David Lovering smashed convention to deliver a wailing wall of chaotic but catchy riffs that, when combined with Black's disjointed lyrics and volatile vocals, gave birth to an entirely new sound. Initially self-destructing in 1993 and fragmenting into a variety of compelling offshoots, the Pixies weathered out the remainder of the decade and the first years of the new millennial crossover on their own before a series of jam sessions between the former bandmates led to a wildly successful 2004 North American tour. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Pixies, Frank Black, (more)
- 2006
- PG13
- Add Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos to Queue Add Once in a Lifetime: The Extraordinary Story of the New York Cosmos to top of Queue
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, Rovi
- Starring:
- Johann Cruyff, Franz Beckenbauer, (more)
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, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ron Holiday, Joy Holiday, (more)
Kris Carr is a filmmaker who was known to her friends for her daring, adventurous and upbeat personality. In February 2003, Carr began feeling ill, and thinking she may have injured herself during yoga class, she went to see a doctor. On Valentine's Day, she got the unexpected word that she was suffering from a rare and virulent form of liver cancer, for which there were few treatments and no known cure. Rather than give in to illness and depression, Carr decided to make a film about her journey through treatment, determined to use her art to help keep her focused and sane through this profound challenge. Carr's documentary Crazy Sexy Cancer is her visual record of her struggle to regain her health and how she found a new life along the way as she faces a battery of treatments and therapies with irreverent humor and take-no-prisoners attitude. Crazy Sexy Cancer was screened in competition at the 2007 South by Southwest Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kris Carr
- 2007
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, Rovi
Jimmy O'Pharrow is a boxing trainer and one of the founders of the Starrett City Boxing Club, who describes one of his most promising fighters, Dmitriy Salita, like so: "Looks Russian, prays Jewish, fights Black." Salita was born in Odessa, Ukraine, and moved with his family to Brooklyn, NY, when he was a boy, as his father didn't want his children held back by widespread Russian anti-Semitism. Growing up in a rough-and-tumble section of Brooklyn, Salita developed a passion for boxing, and made a reputation as a fighter to be reckoned with in Brooklyn gyms. After winning New York's Golden Gloves championship, Salita turned pro, but he also made a renewed commitment to his faith, and while he's become a hero to the Big Apple's Russian and Ukrainian exile community as well as to devout Jews, he also struggles to remain true to Orthodox Judaism; as Salita himself once said, "If anyone wants a whuppin' from me, they got to wait until after sundown." Orthodox Stance is a documentary from filmmaker Jason Hutt that explores Salita's remarkable life and his journey to faith; the film received its world premiere at the 2007 Silverdocs Film Festival, a competition founded by the American Film Institute and the Discovery Channel. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- 2007
This film follows the fifth annual Goth Cruise as it sails from New Jersey to Bermuda and then back, all the while providing a 24 hour a day place for members of the goth community to keep the party going. The film also takes a wider look at goth culture in general, exploring the allure that's made it such a vital element of the American subculture. ~ Cammila Collar, Rovi
- 2007
When envisioning real-life penitentiary sports, forget about the bone-crunching comedy of The Longest Yard - the San Quentin Giants baseball games that transpire inside the barbed-wire electric fences of San Quentin State Prison, as supervised by guards with semi-automatic rifles, are unflinchingly brutal, scabrous and violent. In their documentary The Bad Boys of Summer, directors Tiller Russell and Loren Mendell's observe this on-the-diamond action in such an unusual venue, but travel a step or two further by presenting a series of unforgettable character studies. We meet both the coach assigned to reform the men's lives even as he guides the team to victory, and the psychologically and emotionally troubled players - who despite crime and vice-ridden individual histories invariably retain cores of humanity and grace, exposed time and again by the directors. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- 2007
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, Rovi
- Starring:
- David Walker, Richard Cendali, (more)
- 2009
- NR
Dimitri Mugianis is an artist and musician who in the 1980s and '90s earned a cult following with his experimental rock band Mr. Unique and the Leisure Class. Mugianis was also a drug addict who spent nearly 20 years dependent on heroin and alcohol. However, Mugianis became aware of Ibogaine, a hallucinogenic drug derived from natural roots that has been used for centuries by shamans in West Africa. With Ibogaine, Mugianis was able to kick drugs and alcohol without painful withdrawal and has been clean ever since. Mugianis became an outspoken advocate for the use of Ibogaine in drug detox, despite the fact it's a Schedule 1 controlled substance in the United States, and has organized underground Ibogaine therapy sessions in the United States and Canada. However, after one such Ibogaine detox nearly led to the death of a patient, Mugianis set out to learn more about its traditional use in West Africa, going so far as to travel to Gabon and undergo traditional rituals with the drug in the company of shamans. Filmmaker Michel Negroponte followed Mugianis on his voyage to Africa, and his documentary I'm Dangerous With Love chronicles his experiences and how he believes Ibogaine can change the way we treat drug addiction in North America. I'm Dangerous With Love was an official selection at the 2010 Hot Docs Documentary Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- 2009
Filmmaker Mandy Stein pays tribute to one of the most famous rock and roll clubs ever by speaking with CBGB owner Hilly Kristal as well as a number of famous musicians who built their reputations performing at the legendary rock and roll venue. Originally named "Country Bluegrass Blues" and intended as a place to showcase music of those particular styles, CBGB quickly became a staple of the punk scene thanks to landmark earl performances by such legendary acts as The Ramones, Talking Heads, Patti Smith, and Television. In addition to featuring interviews with Kristal, various bands that performed at the club, employees, and frequent patrons, Stein's affectionate documentary also takes a look at the struggle to keep the club open as the non-profit homeless charity that owned the building fought to have it shut down. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- 2009
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, Rovi
- 2009
The philandering, drug addicted Washington, D.C. mayor who was famously arrested in a 1990 FBI sting operation serves as the subject of this documentary examining not only Marion Berry's role as a poster boy for corruption, but his curious status as a folk hero as well. Barry's catastrophic failures were fodder for damning headlines across the country, often obscuring his role as a civil rights champion and defender of the downtrodden. Through it all, it was Barry's remarkable resiliency earned him the reputation of a phoenix-like symbol of mythic indestructibility. Forty years after entering into Washington, D.C. politics, the man who battled drug and alcohol addiction, fought cancer, weathered four marriages, and got humiliated on the international stage is back in the political limelight - and he's got a fair share of supporters backing him up. Now, for the very first time, viewers are invited to reflect back on the life of the polarizing politico and discover just how he always seems to bounce back stronger than ever before. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- 2009
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, Rovi
Alex Jones is a radio talk-show host based in Texas who has attracted a passionate following for his commentaries in which he explains his belief that a powerful underground one-world government secretly rules the world. Jones contends that the attacks on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, TX, were ordered without provocation by Janet Reno and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to silence David Koresh and keep him from spreading his anti-authoritarian philosophy, and that the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, were staged by the government in order to strip American citizens of their freedoms in the name of security. Jones has followers and like-minded supporters around the world, and he and his compatriots have faced arrest and jail terms in order to spread the word by staging protests and setting up amateur surveillance operations to monitor the annual meetings of a Bilderberg Group, a private enclave of important figures in politics, economics, and world trade whom Jones (among others) is convinced pull the strings behind the New World Order. Does Jones know something most people don't, or are he and his listeners oddball conspiracy buffs who have come to believe in a bogeyman that doesn't really exist? Filmmakers Luke Meyer and Andrew Neel allow Jones and a handful of his supporters to speak for themselves in the documentary New World Order, which chronicles their ongoing battle against a movement most people don't think is happening. New World Order received its world premiere at the 2009 South by Southwest Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
Filmmakers Tyler Measom and Jennilyn Merten profile a group of teenage boys who were banished from the polygamous Utah community founded by controversial spiritual leader Warren Jeffs for the sin of daring to question his God-like authority. In these communities, girls are considered precious gems, and boys are exiled the moment they display the first signs of individual thought. By following the journey of a group of boys who must navigate the real world after being purposefully raised to be ignorant, we get a vivid picture the power that Jeffs wields over his followers, and daily struggles faced by teens who can't go back to their families, even if they want to. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Dogtooth writer/director Yorgos Lanthimos challenges our perception of reality once again in this darkly comic drama about a mysterious underground group who assist the bereaved in coping with death by temporarily posing as their deceased loved ones. Under the leadership of their coach Mont Blanc (Aris Servetalis), the members of ALPS memorize various phrases spoken by the dearly departed, perfect their distinctive mannerisms, and spend time with their grieving families until the acceptance of loss eventually sets in. Following the sudden death of a talented tennis star, sympathetic hospital nurse and ALPS member Monte Rosa (Aggeliki Papoulia) secretly offers her services to the woman's family. Little does Monte Rosa realize her clandestine work with the deceased athlete's family has put her career with ALPS in serious jeopardy. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Aggeliki Papoulia, Aris Servetalis, (more)
An awkward Sunday brunch takes an unexpected turn thanks to the apocalypse in this comedy from writer/director Todd Berger (The Scenesters). Tracy Scott (Julia Stiles) is ready to introduce her new boyfriend Glen (David Cross) to her best pals Hedy (America Ferrera), Emma (Erinn Hayes), and Lexi (Rachel Boston), and what better way to do it than gathering for a laid-back Sunday brunch? As the ladies and their significant others file in, it quickly becomes apparent that the chemistry is a bit off. Just when it seems like the situation couldn't get any more uncomfortable, however, the group learns that a series of dirty bombs have been set off downtown, and that a deadly cloud of VX nerve gas is blowing their way. Now, with their demise seemingly imminent, this bickering bunch must make peace with the fact that the worst party they've ever attended may also be their last. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
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