The HBO doc about journalism legend Helen Thomas, Thank you, Mr. President, is now slated for its first airing next Monday.  My colleague at E&P, Joe Strupp, interviewed the director, Rory Kennedy, this week and has a full report at our site, see link below.

Here are a few highlights:

-- The story opens with this:  "When Rory Kennedy told her mother, Ethel Kennedy, that she was going to make a documentary about Helen Thomas, the former Mrs. Robert Kennedy responded, 'Do you really want to do that? She was awfully hard on Jack.'

Eventually, though, her mother understood what the veteran documentary-maker with the famous name wanted to do, even allowing her to interview Thomas at her famed Hickory Hill home in McLean, Va., over five days in the spring of 2007.

It's been awhile since I've posted anything here, but now that I am finding some time to do so, I have something that is a bit provocative. It's a trailer for a movie called Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West. I admit that I have mixed feelings about the subject in general. But I thought the movie would still be worth a look.

Netroots Nation '08 provided an awesome panel discussion on creating political community around film, featuring some megawatt all-stars who've done exactly that: Wendy Cohen of Participant Media, Jim Gilliam of Brave New Films, Jacob Soboroff of "Why Tuesday?", and Tracy Fleischman of Live from Main Street.  

If you're in the Triangle area of North Carolina tomorrow (August 9), you have the opportunity to see me put my Netroots Nation money where my mouth is as Galaxy Cinema in Cary hosts a screening of the documentary "Senator Obama Goes to Africa," a postfilm discussion with Obama campaign staffers, and a big voter-registration drive based out of the theater lobby.

Another documentary you can find on DVD, this entertaining examination of how Hollywood movies earn their ratings from the MPAA is pretty eye-opening. And as is true of many things in America, the system is rigged, capricious and blatantly biased.

It reminds me of this great Jack Nicholson quote:

"If you suck on a tit the movie gets an R rating. If you hack the tit off with an axe it will be PG."

review below the fold....

A little off the beaten path for this diary. Instead of pointing you toward issue-oriented docs I'd like to draw your attention to Werner Herzog's new film about Antarctica. Hopefully it's playing in a theater near you.

Needless to say, old Werner, the jolliest nihilist I can think of, takes a message of environmental doom and general misanthropy and turns it into a very entertaining 90 minutes (for those who like documentaries)

Check it out if you can. BTW stay away from The Mummy movie. It's dreadful. My full review is here.

(review down below...)

The Internet Talk Host And 9/11 Documentary Film Maker Just A "Skin Head"?

For the record, I can't stand James Carville. In many ways he represents the absolute wrong path for Democrats to take. Once upon a time he provided some much need direction to a party lost in the wilderness. But his underlying principles were always suspect, his arrogance staggering and his tactics cynical.

'Nuff said. But why do I bring him up. Because his firm's attempot to export American-style politics to the rest of the world is the subject of the my next documentary review.

Though I only have half a dozen or so more docs to spotlight in this diary, Our Brand Is Crisis is one of the more intriguing films to come down the pike and very much worth a looksee.

(review on the flip)

TWO JOURNEYS, TWO GENERATIONS, BRINGING EACH OTHER HOME

"Leave No Soldier"

A feature length documentary directed, produced and co-written by Donna Bassin,
an official selection of the 2008 Rhode Island International Film Festival.

"LEAVE NO SOLDIER," Tells the story of two impassioned journeys by two communities of American War Veterans who have carried a Military Oath from the Battlefield
to the home front. The two groups are divided by their politics, but united in their devotion to dead comrades and their compassionate commitment
to "Leave No Fallen Soldier Behind".

In 2006, when my disgust with the Bush administration knew no bounds and during the runup to the elections, Neil Young came out with his Living With War CD.  As he has done so many times before, he put my feelings to words and music.  That CD became my soundtrack and inspired me work hard to elect Democrats in the fall elections.  That summer Neil took to the road with his old bandmates Crosby, Stills and Nash for the Freedom of Speech tour.  I was lucky enough to have great seats for their show at Red Rocks, outside of Denver.  What a show!    

While at Red Rocks, where I was sitting next to the mixing board and cameras, I learned that the show was being taped for a DVD. Neil Young has released a film of that tour, CSNY: Deja Vu.  I took my son to see it last night.  The published reviews of the show were mildly positive.  I saw it with different eyes than the other reviewers, as someone who was inspired by Neil's music on Living with War and as a long time fan of the whole group.  The film is a reflection of the tour and the audience's reaction to the group and their message - positive and negative.  To me it was a touching and sometimes emotional film that energizes me about what we need to do in the fall.

The Truth Behind the Moon Landings
2003 episode of Stranger than Fiction, a documentary debunking the conspiracy theories surrounding the first moon landing. RT 48:46. Narrated by Neil Morrissey, with appearances by Buzz Aldrin, Bill Kaysing, Patrick Moore and Jay Windley.

Green" Stadium named "ExxonMobil Nationals Park?
The Washington Nationals ballpark is the first stadium to be LEED Silver Certified by the U.S. Green Building Council. Yet the Nationals continue to accept millions of advertising dollars from Exxon.

Okay, here's another of my reviews focusing on documentaries and features that do a good job of addressing the current conflict in the Middle East and current U.S. policies.

My Country, My Country came out about a year ago. It's well-worth seeking out on DVD and offers one of the few Iraqi perspectives of what effect our country's policies and actions have had on Iraq after the fall of Saddam.

Review below the fold...

(BTW apologies on the poll. I should have said which of these movies did you think was best... you only get one choice)

Rather than write twenty pages and not get my point across, I present to you a minidocumentary produced by Chuck at UpTake.org.

Please see http://www.youtube.com/...

Expected out of the McCain camp this afternoon, The Obama Iraq Documentary: Whatever Politics Demand:

ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain's presidential campaign today announced that U.S. Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), U.S. Senator Jon Kyl (R-AZ), U.S. Senator John Thune (R-SD), U.S. Representative Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), and U.S. Representative Eric Cantor (R-VA), will participate in a press conference to unveil a new campaign video entitled, "The Obama Iraq Documentary: Whatever the Politics Demand" on Thursday, July 17th at 3:30 p.m. EDT at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, DC.

Four years ago...

Counseling and medication weren’t enough to help Laef Fox recover from his grim war experience in Iraq, and drugs and alcohol didn’t work either, so he tried making a movie instead.

There's a new Documentary out, that was shown in a premeir private showing on July 4th in Denver.

Compared to 20th century conflicts, there is remarkably little iconic war imagery from Iraq and Afghanistan. Battlespace collects some striking photos -- I can only look at a few of them at a time.  Below the fold there's a video podcast from Daylight Magazine, with narration from photographer Michael Kamber; and today's image from Battlespace.

A film by Neil Young

Due in theaters July 25

The Trailer

The war in Iraq is the backdrop as the Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young "Freedom of Speech Tour" crisscrosses North America. Echoes of Vietnam-era anti-war sentiment abound as the band connects with today's audiences.

Tonight CineMax is showing my friend’s Oscar award winning documentary short Freeheld.

Detective Lieutenant Laurel Hester spent 25 years investigating tough cases in Ocean County, New Jersey, protecting the rights of victims and putting her life on the line. She had no reason to expect that in the last year of her life, after she was diagnosed with terminal cancer, that her final battle for justice would be for the woman she loved.

The documentary film "Freeheld" chronicles Laurel's struggle to transfer her earned pension to her domestic partner, Stacie Andree. With less than six months to live, Laurel refuses to back down when her elected officials - the Ocean County Freeholders -deny her request to leave her pension to Stacie, an automatic option for heterosexual married couples.

He was inspired to do a documentary on Obama.  Now he gets to see real change, inside and out.  His crew have been filming Barack even before Barack announced his candidacy for President.  He will get to film Obama to the Presidency.  I cannot wait for the release of his documentary.