Christian Blackwood Movies

This made-for-cable family film was inspired by the 1960s TV series after the same name. Following the (apparent) deaths of his parents, young Mark (Reiley McClendon) goes to live with his sheriff uncle Jack (Dean Cain) in the North Woods. Here Mark befriends a huge but lovable bear, whom he nicknames Ben. The rest of the film finds Mark and Jack joining forces to rescue the endangered Ben from a relentless poacher named Fog (Corbin Bernsen). Filmed on location in Auburn and Foresthill, CA, Gentle Ben debuted March 25, 2002 over the Animal Planet cable network. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This documentary takes the viewer off the interstate highways and onto the back roads of the U.S., where a few strange and idiosyncratic motels still cling to existence. Before the advent of the interstates, and the resulting boom in big motel chains, such establishments were common. The film focuses on three such motels - - The Silver Saddle in Santa Fe, New Mexico, The Blue Mist Hotel in Florence, Arizona, and the Amargosa Hotel and Opera in Death Valley Junction (California). The Blue Mist Hotel is located across the road from a state prison and serves mainly the friends and spouses of inmates. The Amargosa is owned and operated by an aging ballerina and her husband, the only residents of the ghost town in which it's located. Other notably odd lodgings shown include the Movie Manor, whose rooms look out on a drive-in theater across the parking lot. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Documentary filmmaker Christian Blackwood has made a career of filming various notable cinema and stage directors at work or interviewing them about their lives and careers. In this documentary, the well-known and highly self-effacing Philippine director Lino Brocka is interviewed. At the time of the documentary, the director had returned to making commercial romantic schlock for mass consumption back home, but from time to time, as he could afford it, he made more adventurous movies, often including homosexual themes, or themes relating to the tremendous poverty and social oppression of his homeland. In his interviews, he is shown to be highly politically aware and active: he was jailed earlier in the 1980s for championing the cause of striking jitney drivers. One of his most celebrated films, Insiang, was shown at the 1978 Cannes Film Festival, but by that time he had already made numerous gripping films with social themes. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Director Christian Blackwood has brought forth more than 40 documentaries in 25 years, most of them specializing in artists' and filmmakers' work and/or biographies. This docudrama represents a new approach and melds the single-minded adoration of one fan, Paul Seiler, with film clips and archival interviews with Swedish Zarah Leander, an actress from the 1930s, '40s, and '50s. She was a haunting chanteuse whose distinctive voice and great beauty captivated many during the era of the Third Reich. She ultimately left Germany for Stockholm in 1943, in spite of Goebbels attempts to keep her working in the Nazi film industry. In this fictionalized drama, Paul watches a documentary about her on television while he intermittently spills out his emotions and history as one of her most ardent fans. Paul became friends with the star and attended her recording sessions, held her hand when she got bad reviews, corresponded with her on a regular basis, and personally questions her ethics in refusing to face up to Nazi atrocities. His psychology, her own personality, and their interaction make for an intriguing and unusual docudrama. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Director Christian Blackwood filmed this documentary of John Huston directing his actors and camera crew -- and taking time out -- as he created the 1984, award-winning Under the Volcano. Best for film aficionados, Blackwood shows how scenes were developed, run through, and then completed -- and offers clips of the final product. He interviews people on the set about the history of the film and asks for their interpretations of characters or of other people or events connected with the shoot. Huston is even shown winning at poker, a sure hand even in that game. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Tap dancing had been a racially-divided art for many years, as witnessed in several of the interviews in this 39-minute documentary. Honi Coles talks about his own experiences in a white-dominated business that tended to keep black tap dancers on the lower rungs of the economic ladder. The Nicholas Brothers are also interviewed, and their early work is contrasted with the scenes of their introduction to Redd Fox's Las Vegas act. Routines in modern recitals and work-outs in current classes are shown in detail, revealing some of the training that is needed to achieve a level of high technical and artistic skill - not always appreciated in the past. The long hours of practice might suddenly pay off in hugely successful stage productions like "Oklahoma" that brought in crowds to watch tap dancing, and kept it alive as a uniquely American dance form. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Documentary filmmaker Christian Blackwood, whose previous subjects have included John Huston and Thelonious Monk, aims his sights at low-budget movie maven Roger Corman. Hollywood's Wild Angel traces Corman from his screenwriting days to his earliest directorial efforts at the newly-formed American International Pictures in the mid-1950s. As Corman's fame and reputation grows, he gives a leg-up to the careers of dozens of aspiring filmmakers-so long as they don't bother him about such details as money and working hours. Among the Corman associates and protegees interviewed are David Carradine, Peter Fonda, Ron Howard, Paul Bartel, Martin Scorcese, Joe Dante and Peter Bogdanovich. And, of course, this 58-minute documentary offers generous samples of such Corman classics as A Bucket of Blood, Little Shop of Horrors, The Trip, The Wild Angels and the Edgar Allan Poe film cycle of the early 1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi