Category Archives: Film

We Did Okay, Kid: Anthony Hopkins

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“Earlier this year we had the great Al Pacino’s memoirs published, and now we have the new memoir of another great actor available, Anthony Hopkins, who as a child had to hear his schoolmates call him “Elephant Head.”  And while both Pacino and Hopkins grew up in working class circumstances with difficult upbringings, their writing voices, like their acting voices, could not be more different…”

Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above for my commentary on the new Hopkins memoir, We Did Okay, Kid, as broadcast this week on the Arts Express radio show, heard on WBAI-FM and Pacifica stations across the nation.

Culture and Barbarism With Dennis Broe

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Part One:

Part Two:

I was happy to have this cross-continental conversation with cultural critic, novelist, and Arts Express Paris Correspondent, Dennis Broe. I think you’ll have fun listening to our wide-ranging conversation with topics from the French street uprisings to media consolidation to AI to Robin Hood to Zohran Mamdani. We broadcast it last week and this week on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the country.

This was conceived originally as a fundraiser for listener-sponsored radio station WBAI, home of Arts Express, but we edited the conversation for the affiliates (and this blog!) to eliminate most of the pitching.

Click on the small triangle or mp3 links to play.

Newport And The Great Folk Dream PT 2

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We’re back this week with more of our conversation with Robert Gordon and Joe Lauro, director and producers of the film Newport and the Great Folk Dream, about the Newport Folk Festival in the years 1963 to 1966. The festival, started by George Wein and Pete Seeger–where all artists got paid the same–led to an incredible diversity in the music showcased there.

Click on the mp3 link or small triangle above to listen to the interview as broadcast on the Arts Express radio program, heard on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica stations across the nation.

Newport And The Great Folk Dream

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In the cultural and political explosion that became known as the 60s, music was an incredible unifier, and arguably the most important cultural and political form of expression. But what culminated in Woodstock in 1968 had its precursor in the Newport Folk Festival from the early 60s. Now, a new documentary about the Newport Folk Festival based on archival footage that hasn’t been seen in sixty years has been released called Newport and the Great Folk Dream. I was happy to talk with the director and producers of the film, Robert Gordon and Joe Lauro.

Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to hear the interview, as heard this week on the Arts Express radio program, broadcast on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

And you can find Part 2 here:

Newport And The Great Folk Dream PT 2

UNION

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We’ve recently been assaulted with Jeff Bezos’s 50 million dollar wedding, but now let’s turn back the clock to the spring of 2021. Bezos had sent a rocket into space, but down on the ground Amazon warehouse workers in Staten Island were fed up and ready to fight back. The workers there, led by the indefatigable Chris Smalls, were fighting for the first Amazon union representation ever in the US. Directors Brett Story and Stephen Maing were able to literally get the inside story on the drama and power of that 11 month union drive in a new film documentary called Union, and I was happy to speak with them.

Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to hear my interview with Brett Story and Stephen Maing, directors of Union, as broadcast on the Arts Express radio show, heard this week on WBAI-FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

Lead Belly!

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The great Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly, King of the 12-string Guitar, one of the most important musicians in American music, is the subject of a recent film documentary, titled Leadbelly: The Man Who Invented Rock and Roll. Perhaps it would be more telling to subtitle the film, The History of Being an Exploited Black Musician in America. What makes this film special is that the producer of the film, Alvin Singh II, is the great-nephew of Leadbelly, and the film includes not only his remembrances of Leadbelly, but also the wonderful on-screen memories of Tiny Robinson, Lead Belly’s niece.  And to top it off, we get plenty of first-hand accounts of Leadbelly from interviews with a dazzling array of musicians— Odetta, Pete Seeger, Harry Belafonte, BB King, Oscar Brand and more…

Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to listen to my review (and more Lead Belly music!), as broadcast on the Arts Express radio program, heard on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

Beat The Reaper With The Firesign Theatre

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If you are of a certain age, growing up as a high school or college kid during the late 60s or early 70s, then odds are that at least one time as you were toking up, the surrealist record LPs of the Firesign Theatre invaded your brain. As the albums brilliantly shifted in and out of tv, film and radio parody, they broke down walls of time, space and authority. Now in a new book about the Firesign Theater, called Firesign, author Jeremy Braddock provides a wonderful non-linear look at the four influential guys who turned the art of radio and recording upside down. I was happy to have as our guest on the show, the author of Firesign, Jeremy Braddock.

Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to hear the interview as heard on the Arts Express radio program broadcast this week on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation

Part Two here:

Firesign Theatre: Part Two

The Strike: Part 2

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Above, Part 2 of my interview with the directors of The Strike, JoeBill Munoz and Lucas Guilkey.

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The Strike

The Strike

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I’ve watched a lot of film documentaries this year, but none more  powerful than The Strike. It’s the story of how the inmates of Pelican Bay prison in California, incarcerated in solitary confinement sometimes for decades, went on a life-threatening hunger strike in order to regain their rights and dignity. I was happy to speak to the the directors of The Strike, JoeBill Muñoz and Lucas Guilkey for Arts Express.

Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to listen to the interview as broadcast yesterday on the Arts Express radio program, heard on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

And Part 2 is here…

The Strike: Part 2

My Friend, The Terrorist, Part 2

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Last week we broadcast Part 1 of our conversation with Malcolm Guy, co-director of the new film called My Friend The Terrorist, about Joma, the founder of the Communist Party of the Philippines and the Filipino New Peoples guerrilla Army, the NPA.

We left off last time with my rather naive comment about a scene in the film I found shocking. So now Part Two of our interview with Malcolm Guy, co-director of My Friend the Terrorist, as broadcast on Arts Express radio, heard on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation. Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to listen.

Listen to Part 1 here:

My Friend, The Terrorist

My Friend, The Terrorist

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“The song you just heard is from a poem by Jose Maria Sison, also known as Joma. But more than a poet, for the first 25 years of Joma’s adult life, he was known as the Fidel, Mao, and Che of the Philippines. However, for the next 35 years, he lived in exile in the Netherlands with his wife and comrade in arms, Julieta de Lima, thousands of miles from the Filipino battle grounds, giving counsel to the guerrilla army which he had founded. Now, a new film documentary about Joma and Julieta’s lives has been released, co-directed by Malcolm Guy and Demetri Estdelacropolis, called My Friend, The Terrorist: A Tale of Love and Revolution…”

Click on the small triangle above or the mp3 link to hear my interview with Malcolm Guy, co-director of My Friend, The Terrorist, as broadcast last night on Arts Express radio, heard on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

And…Part 2 here:

My Friend, The Terrorist, Part 2

Zach King’s Best of 2024

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Digital Wizard Zach King delights in this compilation of short videos!

More at Zach King

A Real Pain

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“A Real Pain, written, directed, and featuring Jesse Eisenberg is a film that has recently gotten quite a lot of attention, and I’m going to speak later about why I think that film has gotten that attention. But first let me talk about Jesse Eisenberg and the film…”

Click on the small triangle or mp3 link to listen to my review of A Real Pain, as broadcast this week on the Arts Express radio program as heard on WBAI FM and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

Sonny Boy: Al Pacino

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“It’s said that talent is common, and that’s true. But what is much more rare than talent is longevity. How does one take talent and have it develop and last decade upon decade? I’m thinking about this, because I’ve just finished reading the new autobiography by Al Pacino called Sonny Boy, and it was totally engrossing. No one would call It a work of literature, but you can certainly hear Al’s voice loud and clear, as if he were sitting in a bar with you telling intimate stories about his life and work…”

Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear my complete review of Al Pacino’s memoir, Sonny Boy, as broadcast yesterday on the Arts Express program, heard on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

CIA: Drugs R Us!

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If you are a conspiracy fan and a music fan, then have I got a film documentary for you. It’s called CIA: Drugs are Us and it’s kind of a greatest hits of some of the most evil and deranged programs that have been set into motion by the CIA over the years...

Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to hear my entire review as heard on Arts Express broadcast on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

Joan Baez and Earl Scruggs At Home

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Monday morning, banjo legend Earl Scruggs pays a visit to Joan Baez’s house in the California hills. It’s 1972, and the courageous Earl Scruggs was the first (and one of the very few) major country western star to have come out against the Vietnam war.

Earl decided he wanted to expand his musical horizons, so he paid a visit to a slew of young singers, including Dylan and Baez. Documentarian David Hoffman got it all on film and turned the footage into an award winning documentary.

Here’s a scene at Baez’s home with Baez singing “Love is Just A Four-Letter Word” and Scruggs playing backup. Baez’s singing voice here is incredible, unearthly almost, just sitting there in her living room with no equipment. Earl’s talented 16 year old son Randy is on the other side of Joan, playing guitar.

More at David Hoffman

Happy Campers

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Ever since I was a child, the summer meant freedom and joy, and summer’s end was always bittersweet. Now filmmaker Amy Nicholson captures that feeling even into adulthood with her new documentary Happy Campers, about a low rent trailer/camper community whose simple pleasures are threatened by greedy real estate developers.

I was happy to speak with Amy Nicholson about her film on Arts Express radio program broadcast this week on WBAI FM and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

Click on the small triangle or mp3 above to hear the interview.

I’d Love To Change The World

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Fifty-three years after Ten Years After, a powerful video to accompany the song.

Thanks to YouTuber Ricardo Meneghini

Tell Us How You Really Feel

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(Click to enlarge)

Tinker Street,

Woodstock, New York

For the Bette Davis/ Liz Taylor versions, see here:

From A Bundle of Blues

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A hot jazz dance routine by Bessie Dudley and Florence Hill with the Duke Ellington Orchestra providing the notes

Thanks to YouTuber Black Film History

Finding The Money Part 2

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Our conversation about how the US economy really works, with Stephanie Kelton and Maren Poitras of the documentary Finding The Money, continues.

Click on the triangle or mp3 link above to hear the interview as broadcast on the Arts Express radio program heard on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica stations across the nation.

Part One can be heard by clicking here

I’m Easy

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Monday morning, Keith Carradine in the film Nashville apparently singing to three women each of whom think he’s singing specifically only to her, until they finally realize he’s singing to Lily Tomlin, whose silent reaction is something to behold.

The story told by author Michael Schulman is that Carradine originally wrote the song for actress Shelly Plimpton. Carradine, a newcomer to New York City, saw Plimpton in the Broadway play Hair when he was nineteen, and then showed up at Plimpton’s apartment door, playing the song for her. And they became a couple for a while…

Thanks to YouTuber Patrick A

Finding The Money

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What if everything you thought you knew about the way the US economy works was wrong? I mean everything: the national debt, the role of taxes, even what money is. Now a new documentary Finding The Money challenges the story that we’ve all heard about how the national debt is out of control. The film flips the narrative on its head, challenging the arguments of those who say we can’t afford social spending. I was happy to have on Arts Express filmmaker Maren Poitras, and also one of the major subjects of Finding the Money, economist and former advisor to Bernie Sanders, Stephanie Kelton.

Click on the small triangle or mp3 link above to hear part one of the interview as broadcast last night on the Arts Express program heard on WBAI FM NYC and Pacifica affiliates across the nation.

Part Two is here:

Finding The Money Part 2

Taking Venice: The US And The Cold War Culture War

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At the height of the Cold War, the U.S. government was determined to showcase US culture to the world as proof of capitalism’s superiority as an economic system. And so in 1964, the US government embarked on a daring plan to make artist Robert Rauschenberg the winner of the Grand Prize at The Venice Art Biennale, the world’s most influential art exhibition. A new film documentary, Taking Venice, gives us an inside look at how the Biennale was manipulated, and more than that, a look at the enigma that was Robert Rauschenberg.

I was happy to interview the director of Taking Venice, and an art critic in her own right, Amei Wallach. Click on the small triangle above or the mp3 link to hear the interview as broadcast on Pacifica affiliate stations across the nation.