News

Anne Makepeace and Joan Churchill have been making newsworthy documentaries for my own entire career.

Joan's father owned Churchill Films, one of the nation's leading educational film companies when such a thing existed to service schools, universities, libraries and special interest groups.

The concept has never died but today in this dearth of real news that matters, Anne Makepeace and Joan Churchill continue to make documentaries which perform a major service to those who care more about humanity than about dollars. Here is what Anne Makepeace writes:

Midsummer Madness

The dog days of summer are here, but we're still busy with two new films, madly fundraising and prepping for a shoot in Africa with Kenyan artist Wangechi Mutu.

Bound for Kenya

In a few weeks, Joan Churchill and I will be filming Wangechi’s first family trip home in two decades. Meet the artist and see some of her astonishing work in the trailer below.

Filming Tribal Justice

It's a rare thing to find both of the judges we are featuring in the California Tribal Justice film in the same place. Judge Claudette White came up from the Quechan reservation in Southern California to Klamath on the North Coast for the Cross Court Cultural Exchange hosted by Yurok Judge Abby Abinanti.

We are fortunate to be filming with these strong, dedicated women who are working through their tribal courts to heal their people, keep their children, and revitalize their cultures by strengthening families and restoring traditional forms of justice.

Your Weekly Source for Blu-Ray and DVD Release News

There’s a lot to choose from this week. Criterion Collection adds three, two old and one new… Burt Lancaster and Tony Curtis star in Sweet Smell Of Success about a powerful columnist who tries to keep his sister from marrying a jazz musician; Senso is an Italian classic about a countess and a lieutenant who pursue a self-destructive relationship; Fish Tank tells an edgy, inspirational story of a disadvantaged British girl who longs to be a hip hop dancer. Relish in 80′s buddy cop cinema with Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte in 48 Hours. Admire the melding of nature and art in Rivers & Tides, a documentary about Andy Goldsworthy. Have a frighteningly silly time with the “animals attack” schlockfest fan-fave Birdemic. Robert Duvall shines as an eccentric recluse planning his own funeral party in Get Low, Vincent Cassell gets dangerous as...

A look at what's new on DVD today:

"Black Lightning" (2009)

Directed by Dmitriy Kiselev and Aleksandr Voytinskiy

Released by Universal Studios

"Wanted" director Timur Bekmambetov produced this Russian action flick about a man and his flying car, using the same effects team that worked on all of his previous films including "Night Watch." A Russian trailer is here since where we're going, we don't need to understand words.

"7th Hunt" (2010)

Directed by Jon Cohen

Released by Vanguard Cinema

A motley group of young adults are abducted and forced to fend for their survival at an abandoned military training center in the middle of nowhere in Jon Cohen's thriller.

"Alien Vs. Ninja" (2010)

Directed by Seiji Chiba

Released by Funimation

A selection of last year's New York Asian Film Festival, Seiji Chiba's crazy genre mashup may just be "the best and wittiest movie ever to air at 2am on the SyFy Channel" in the future,...

In 2009, animation studio Filmkmompaniet released the first Moomin feature titled Moomin and Midsummer Madness. which was based on a cartoon which was created by novelist and comic strip author Tove Jansson. The first film on the cute creatures was a bit of a disappointment considering it was cut together from footage of the stop-motion television show but that isn’t stopping Filmkmompaniet from continuing with the series, this time in a much bigger way.

There was news late last year that the studio was working on a stop-motion, 3D animated feature based on the Moomins titled Moomin and the Comet Chase and now some more information has surfaced on the project.

The new film will feature the voice talents of Stellan Skarsgård as Moomin Papa, Alexander Skarsgård (of “True Blood” fame) will voice Moomintroll and the fabulous Peter Stormare will be the voice of Snufkin (Moomintroll's best friend). If that’s not awesome enough,...

This is one for fans of Calvin and Hobbes or Studio Ghibli, and if you found Where the Wild Things Are's sweet melancholy too much to resist, then there's a good sprinkling of that feeling to be found here too. The Moomins were the creation of Finnish novelist and comic strip author Tove Jansson and, according to legend, she drew the first one to scare her brother. That cute thing? Scary? Maybe it was one of the Moominland monsters she drew, such as The Groke, the Antlion or the Hattifatteners? As a child I devoured the Moomin books and sat rapt, five days a week, watching the Moomin stop-motion TV series. A more recent series produced by hand-drawn animation was less successful artistically, but perhaps better known internationally. This year the Finnish animation studio Filmkmompaniet completed their first Moomin feature film, Moomin and Midsummer Madness. It was made by...