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vidlib@videolibrarian.com
 
Updated September 2, 2008 |
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Monster Road: Collector’s Edition  (2005) 80 min. DVD: $24.95 ($59.95 w/PPR from www.brettingram.org). Microcinema International (avail. from most distributors). PPR. 
Even in the cultish world of clay animation, Bruce Bickford stands out as an offbeat filmmaker. His collaborations with Frank Zappa in the 1970s—such as the 1979 concert film Baby Snakes, among other projects—made him a revered alternative culture figure. Today, the sixtysomething Bickham continues to make disturbing movies (that hardly anyone ever sees) in his basement. Documentarian Brett Ingram’s labor-of-love portrait takes viewers into Bickford’s insular world, where he lives seemingly cut off from everyone except his father, George—who is descending into the haze of Alzheimer’s—and his own deep-seated neuroses. Drawing on home movies, childhood sketches, interviews, and clips from Bickford’s recent work, Ingram explores Bickford’s psychological monsters, illuminating the mind of an artist who produces meticulously animated battle scenes, unsettling metamorphoses of humans changing into creatures or being consumed, strange manipulations of scale that reduce men to dwarves or render them as giants, and other disquieting imagery. A poignant but never pitying profile, this intriguing study of the driving force behind an artist’s work has been recognized with a slew of festival awards, including Best Documentary Jury Prize at Slamdance in 2004. DVD extras include rare samples of Bickford’s animation, deleted scenes, and more. Recommended. [Note: Bickford’s half-hour-shy 1988 film Prometheus’ Garden is also newly available at the same price.] Aud: C, P. (M. Johanson)
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Creating with Crayons (2008) 29 min. DVD or VHS: $29.95. Crystal Productions (tel: 800-255-8629, web: www.crystalproductions.com). PPR. ISBN: 978-1-56290-581-1 (dvd), 978-1-56290-580-4 (vhs). 
Educator Peggy Flores’ (How to Create Optical Illusions, VL-1/06; Self-Portraits, VL-9/06) latest art instruction program offers a primer on art projects using crayons. Following a brief history of crayons and exploration of varieties (from plastic-based to glitter and metallic, from watercolor to fabric), Flores provides step-by-step instructions for making designs, sketching ideas, using negative and positive space, making crayon rubbings with textural effects, collage work, crayon etchings (using tempura paint and liquid soap), crackle batiks (with a sponge), while also offering tips (including saving the shavings for other activities). Reminding viewers that it’s okay to experiment (that’s how artists learn), this half-hour-shy motivational program is sure to be a boon for art students or home craft enthusiasts. Recommended. Aud: J, H, P. (J. Williams-Wood)
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In Xanadu (2006) 63 min. DVD: $30: individuals; $150: institutions. ShadowLight Productions (tel: 415-648-4461, web: www.shadowlight.org). PPR. 
Boasting exquisitely intricate shadow puppetry, In Xanadu is a unique theatre experience created by director Larry Reed and his gifted cast of performers, musicians, and behind-the-scenes craftspeople at ShadowLight Productions, a San Francisco-based shadow-theater company founded by Reed in 1972. Winner of the UNIMA-USA Citation for Excellence (puppetry’s highest honor), In Xanadu combines Tibetan, Chinese, and Indonesian performance techniques with detailed shadow puppets to dramatize the eventful love story of Chinese emperor Khubilai Khan and his devoted wife Chabui. The characters are a combination of costumed human actors wearing cardboard shadow-puppet cutouts and all-cardboard characters manipulated by masterful puppeteers. The full range of shadow-casting techniques is employed with astonishing skill, ranging from magical shifts in scale to dazzling, impressionistic designs. Edited together from videotaped performances in 1993, 1994, and 1997, this DVD is obviously mastered from VHS, which means that the visual quality is hardly sterling. But as the action swings from domestic serenity and marital romance to supernatural warfare on an epic scale, In Xanadu remains engrossing, occasionally shifting from shadowy b&w to bold palettes of color. Seen by the live audience on a 30-by-15-foot rear-projection screen, the elaborately choreographed shadowplay here also frequently employs cinematic techniques including lap-dissolves, lighting effects, electronic and acoustic “foley” sound effects, and compositions that recall the classic films of Bergman and Kurosawa. While viewers unfamiliar with Asian theater techniques may find In Xanadu to be somewhat impenetrable—the behind-the-scenes/making-of featurette included as a bonus will help—this document of a highly specialized performance art form will still be appreciated by many. Recommended. [Note: also available in the ShadowLight puppetry series are: 7 Visions, Ambrosia of Immortality, Coyote’s Journey, Mayadanawa, Shadow Master, and The Wild Party.] Aud: C, P. (J. Shannon)
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Tony Palmer’s Film About Callas  (2007) 92 min. DVD: $28.98. Isolde Films (avail. from most distributors). 
Three decades after her death, Maria Callas remains the quintessential prima donna, and Tony Palmer’s Film About Callas (1987) is still one of the best cinematic portraits of the artist available. Boasting a digitally-remastered 2007 transfer, Palmer’s film covers Callas’ entire life and career, from her childhood, through her myriad professional triumphs and personal tragedies, to her reclusive retirement and death at the age of 53. The documentary certainly doesn’t ignore Callas’ problems—her weight (which she reduced by sheer power of will), her tendency to cancel appearances and drop out of performances, and—especially—her troubled love life (including her relationship with Aristotle Onassis). And the film poignantly depicts her final attempts at performing in concert, when her voice was a wobbly shadow of its former self. But this is no piece of tabloid sensationalism, but rather a balanced work that includes the unhappy aspects of Callas’ life together with an appreciation for the enormous impact the singer had on operatic style (by adding powerful drama to her vocalism), a fact noted in extensive interview segments with renowned directors such as Franco Zeffirelli and stage partners including Tito Gobbi. The admiring recollections here are buttressed by substantial footage from her performances, which Palmer skillfully edits with the other archival materials that—along with periodic observations from biographer John Ardoin—are employed to tell Callas’ story. Maria Callas might not have had the most sensuously beautiful of voices, but Palmer’s film persuasively illustrates how she used what conductor Tullio Serafin famously called her “great ugly” instrument to create a virtual operatic revolution—even as she was tormented by a host of personal demons. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)
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What Not to Wear: Mom Makeovers  (2008) 2 discs. 377 min. DVD: $24.95. Genius Entertainment (avail. from most distributors). ISBN: 1-5944-5042-0. 
Fashion consultants Clinton Kelly and Stacy London unsheathe their perfectly manicured claws and rip “wardrobe-challenged moms” into shreds in this compilation of 13 episodes from the TLC-aired reality series. The premise: so-called “friends” and family members nominate their assorted dowdy-dressing victims from across North America for a re-do, after which the dapper duo accost their prey, and whisk them away to NYC for a catty fashion vivisection by Kelly and London (“I thought Oompa Loompas only came in orange”), followed by a regimented $5,000 shopping spree, and an unveiling finale back at home. The hosts (read: couture vultures) are knowledgeable about hues, fits, and style rules, but while most of the women featured are ultimately happy with their sparkling new looks, it’s uncomfortable to watch the video diaries and embarrassment (one woman is called the “office joke”), tears, and defensiveness the participants experience—all for the sake of trendsetting. DVD extras include a bonus “Wear Are They Now” update. Optional. Aud: P. (J. Williams-Wood)
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Ape Genius (2008) 54 min. DVD: $19.95. WGBH Boston Video (avail. from most distributors). PPR. Closed captioned. ISBN: 978-1-59375-821-9. 
Co-produced with the National Geographic Society, this upbeat, thought-provoking NOVA episode surveys the latest research in primate studies to explore the differences and similarities between human and ape intelligence. Since people and great apes (chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, and gorillas) are nearly identical genetically, scientists wonder why there’s such a large gap between our intellectual capacities. Some answers are found at a site in Senegal, where researchers marvel at the discovery of chimps, previously thought to be afraid of water, swimming at a “pool party” and making spears to use as weapons for hunting food. Other studies with various apes in learning labs in Texas, Germany, and Japan, question why simians have never built upon the achievements of previous generations to create a more human-like culture of cooperation. As engaging experts describe their findings and discuss the factors that make apes and humans so intellectually similar (including the apes’ capacity for learning language, simple math, puzzle-solving, etc.), we also gain a greater insight into communication techniques—such as the simple act of pointing—that are unique to humans. All of this is illustrated with an abundance of fascinating footage of apes demonstrating intellectual skills that are equal to—and even greater than—young human children. Which leads to yet another intriguing question: why didn’t Earth literally become a “planet of the apes”? DVD extras include printable materials for educators. Highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (J. Shannon)
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Eon Kid: Season One, Vol. One (2007) 110 min. DVD: $16.98. Anchor Bay Entertainment (avail. from most distributors). Closed captioned. 
Something of a hit in the WB’s Saturday-morning lineup, this anime series (actually a Korean import) is loaded with action, but doesn’t traffic in the hard-edged violence that distinguishes more mature anime offerings. The futuristic Eon Kid revolves around the adventures of a young boy named Marty, who finds an old iron fist among spare robot parts that suddenly hums with energy and attaches itself to his arm. This seemingly ancient relic endows Marty with unusual strength and agility, transforming him into a veritable fighting machine. Empowered, the boy is precipitated into an eons-old battle with the forces of darkness, who are led by a ruthless tyrant known as The General. While there’s nothing terribly fresh or inventive about this CGI-animated series (the first five English-language episodes are compiled here), the suitable-for-7-up Eon Kid will likely appeal to younger viewers. DVD extras include a photo gallery and extended trailer. Recommended. Aud: P. (E. Hulse)
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‘Til Death Do Us Part (2008) 92 min. DVD: $19.98. Pathfinder Home Entertainment (avail. from most distributors). 
Vita Lusty’s documentary ‘Til Death Do Us Part serves as a kind of after-the-fact defense for 13 California women—victims of domestic abuse convicted for murdering their spouses and sentenced to life in prison—who weren’t able to explain the circumstances behind their actions before sentencing (and in fact many were forcibly sedated during their trial), because “battered woman syndrome” was not admissible in a court of law prior to 1992.Although each story is different (when Ellen tried to leave after 17 years, her husband threatened to kill their two daughters; Caroline miscarried twins after a vicious beating), all share a similar arc, from falling in love, to enduring multiple beatings before striking back in self-defense, to the legal aftermath. In addition, Lusty speaks with author Elizabeth Leonard (Convicted Survivors), Judge Elliot Daum, and Stephen Green, a representative for former Governor Gray Davis, and concludes with a call-to-action profile of the Habeas Project, a nonprofit group working toward providing these convicts with a second chance at a fair trial (the deadline is 2010, which means some will have already spent 20 years behind bars). Although this low-budget documentary carries a warning about poor audio conditions, the dialogue is comprehensible, with the possible exception of a parole hearing. DVD extras include text-only director’s notes and subject updates, two of Lusty’s student shorts, and performance footage of soundtrack artist Faith Nolan. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)
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Two Nations of Black America (1998) 60 min. DVD: $24.99 ($54.95 w/PPR). PBS Video (tel: 800-344-3337, web: www.pbs.org). Closed captioned. ISBN: 0-7936-9420-5. 
Harvard professor and author Henry Louis Gates Jr. has been writing for years about a growing economic divide between middle class African-Americans and the black underclass concentrated in inner cities. Two Nations of Black America, a 1998 episode of PBS’ Frontline series, finds Gates reviewing what happened to black America during the thirty years since the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Gates demonstrates that King’s attention in the late period before his death had shifted from civil rights to making the academic, economic, and governing power infrastructures in America more racially inclusive. Affirmative action policies, which helped Gates and other African-Americans attend college, was a major force in the development of a black middle class in America, although Gates and other commentators here say that many have not reaped the benefits of increased opportunities. Combining history with personal reflection, Gates recalls being part of the largest group of blacks ever admitted to Yale, after which he immediately faced identity confusion. Were he and fellow students supposed to turn down their opportunity at Yale to show solidarity with the militant arm of the Black Power movement? Or were they supposed to take advantage of their education and try to open other doors for blacks after they graduated? After a near-disastrous flirtation with the former, Gates and the others opted for the latter. Featuring interviews with Cornel West, Julian Bond, Angela Davis, Eldridge Cleaver, and others, this is an excellent (if also somewhat dated) look at the divided state of African-American economic power in the U.S. Highly recommended. Aud: H, C, P. (T. Keogh)
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Wetlands Preserved  (2007) 96 min. DVD: $24.95. First Run Features (avail. from most distributors). 
A variety of factors led to the demise of Wetlands Preserve, a music venue established by Larry Bloch and his then-wife in New York’s Tribeca neighborhood in 1989. Maybe it was Rudy Giuliani’s fault, with all those “quality of life” laws preventing kids from smoking dope or urinating in the street anymore. Of course, the foot-long rats didn’t help either. And now that you mention it, Jerry Garcia dying was really inconsiderate. According to Dean Budnick’s documentary Wetlands Preserved, Wetlands was not just another nightclub, but rather a “multi-issue activist organization,” a place where political and environmental issues were as important as the music, operating under the guiding principles of “justice, dignity, and environmental sanity” (it was “green” before the term was in vogue). Bloch and many, many others are on hand here, telling tales of jam bands galore: Dave Matthews, Widespread Panic, Blues Traveler, Spin Doctors, Phish, and other Grateful Dead descendents all played there; the Dead themselves never did, although Bob Weir once did a set with, uh, Hanson. In the end, however, there’s way too much talk and not nearly enough music (few shows were filmed), making this a profile of rather limited interest. DVD extras include bonus concert footage, outtakes, and a photo gallery. Optional. Aud: P. (S. Graham)
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