Political documentaries

[seemslikeadream]

"Political documentaries are becoming very, very important," Cinema Libre founder Philippe Diaz says. "People will tell you that five or 10 years ago, they never would have thought to go to a documentary in the theater, but because now they are so disenfranchised by what they see on TV in terms of news, they go to theaters to see a movie."

"Uncovered" is only one of the political docus on Cinema Libre's slate. Exact dates have not yet been determined, but the feature-length "The Oil Factor Behind the War on Terror" is slated tentatively for an October release in the United States, and the 57-minute "Unprecedented: The 2004 Election" could begin a theatrical run by year's end.

As business practice, indie distributors are profiting from these types of documentaries. 2003 was a windfall year for docus of all stripes: In addition to "Bowling," Magnolia's "Capturing the Friedmans" earned $3.1 million at the domestic boxoffice, and ThinkFilm's "Spellbound" earned $5.7 million. Sony Pictures Classics' "The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons From the Life of Robert S. McNamara," which went on to claim the Oscar for best feature documentary, earned $4.2 million domestically.

More recently, Magnolia has found success with Jehane Noujaim's "Control Room," which opened in limited release May 21 after screening at this year's Sundance Film Festival. The movie, which offers a behind-the-scenes look at Arab TV news channel Al Jazeera, has received considerable critical acclaim and earned about $654,000 at the domestic boxoffice.

In addition, Regent's "The Hunting of the President: The Ten-Year Campaign to Destroy Bill Clinton," based on the book by Gene Lyons and Joe Conason, was released June 18 to an opening-weekend gross of $23,298 from only two theaters.

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http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/film/feature_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000554567

[AP]

1. It's because there's no political news anywhere else. Keven Phillips in

wealth and democracy writes about how all the progressive ideas of the late 19 and early 20th century had to be published in novels first becaue the corporate owned news media (daily, weekly and monthly papers and magazines) refused to report what was going on in the world. People learned about the meat packing industry from the Jungle before any of that information was ever published anywhere else.

That's what's going on today too.

[zbdent]

2. Gee, what with "reality TV", and "The Real Cancun" video, and

"Caught on Film" and "Cops", "Big Brother", "American Idol", "The Apprentice" and the like,

Why wouldn't people go see something that is based more on reality than any of the freep I mentioned above?

[Morning Dew]

3. "Uncovered" is great...

rent it, buy it, whatever. See it now.

Thank you, Robert Greenwald, MoveOn, Center for American Progress, The Nation, Alternet, Working Assets and Buzzflash.

I got it at Best Buy for about ten bucks.

[apnu]

4. I would love to see "Unprecedented" and "Uncovered" in the theaters! n/t