Living Proof: A beneficiary of ARV treatment poses with her former self, from THE LAZARUS EFFECT.

Before the big show this weekend (Jean-Pierre Jeunet on MICMACS and George Romero on SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD, yippee!), here’s a bonus episode focusing on a special, short documentary that HBO will be debuting next Monday, May 24th, at 9 PM, eastern time.

It’s called THE LAZARUS EFFECT, it was produced in cooperation with (RED), a private sector organization that works with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to help curb the spread of HIV/AIDS in Africa. At the behest of Spike Jonze, who executive produced, filmmaker Lance Bangs (DAVID CROSS: BIGGER AND BLACKERER; THE BLACK KEYS LIVE AT THE CRYSTAL BALLROOM) travelled to Lusaka, Zambia, and met with the men, women, and children who are being treated with antiretroviral (ARV) drugs provided by these funds. Over the span of months, Bangs captured some dramatic before-and-after footage showing how these people’s lives were being restored by the treatments — the so-called Lazarus Effect. It’s moving stuff, particularly for a film that runs just over thirty minutes.

Director Bangs spared a few minutes to talk with us about the experience of capturing these near-miracles on film, and also of exploring how help is still desperately needed. Click on the player to hear the interview.

THE LAZARUS EFFECT

Trailer

THE LAZARUS EFFECT on hbo.com

www.joinred.com

A baptism at the River Jordan from WAITING FOR ARMAGEDDON

I’ll admit I have little patience for people who confuse religious mythology for real-world politics. You want to believe that, when the earthly going gets tough, you’re going to be zapped up to heaven and have a front row seat for the conflagration and the return of your deity? Cool, swell, no skin off my nuts. You want the U.S. to model its domestic and foreign policies on such fantasies, that’s when I politely have to object.

Which is to say that I probably couldn’t have sat where the directors of WAITING FOR ARMAGEDDON did while interviewing people who dearly believe in the looming spectre of the End Times — including a couple who have come to their beliefs after, ahem, “scientific” analysis and a guy who leads tours through Israel and gets all giggly at the thought of the razing of the Dome of the Rock — and not wound up stabbing a pencil in my brain. I’m just not that strong.

Fortunately, directors Kate Davis, David Heilbroner, and Franco Saachi are, and their forbearance pays off in a documentary that gives you a good look into what a vocal and influential segment of our population believes is the world’s ultimate destiny, and what the risks may be in trying mold our politics to that worldview. It’s an important film for anyone concerned about the continuing incursion of religion into our public policy, and a balanced warning in particular for those who have noted the religious right’s involvement in Middle East politics without considering its possible costs.

Click on the player above to hear my interview with Kate Davis and David Heilbroner.

Trailer

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firstrunfeatures.com/armageddon_synopsis.html

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More of the Highly Motivated

If you’re still having trouble downloading, I’d appreciate being contacted. Your satisfaction is my only goal (that, and having dinner with Martin Scorsese, but you know…).

In addition, the release date I cited in the IN THE LOOP episode came from old info. Turns out the film is being released in New York on July 24th. Hope that didn’t mess up your plans for the weekend.

That’s all for now. Resume living.

Director Jake Rademacher "on location" in BROTHERS AT WAR

I have to admit: I can get a little knee-jerk liberal at times. So when I saw that BROTHERS AT WAR was exec produced by Gary Sinise and came with high praise from Jon Voight — especially since my last exposure to the political Jon Voight was through his role as George Washington in the atrocious “conservative comedy” AN AMERICAN CAROL — I approached the Iraq documentary with my guard up.

I needn’t have worried. Director Jake Rademacher — an actor who had wanted to serve himself but because of poor eyesight had to defer while his brothers Isaac and Joe were dispatched to Iraq — is respectful to the troops but succeeds in embuing this examination of soldiers coping in the war zone and at home with a reassuring candor. That he was able to get unprecedented access — going out on surveillance missions, sitting in with snipers on the job, and at one point finding himself smack-dab in the middle of a fire fight — and that he brings to bear in shaping this story his love and concern for his brothers (Joe, in particular, who appears to struggle with his occasional returns to the civilian world), help make this a one of the more riveting glimpses into a soldier’s experience in the midst of a very difficult war.

I know, were I in the same situation, I’d be hanging out in the bunker with the DVD system and the Coke machine, so I was interested in getting behind Rademacher’s motivations. Here’s the interview.

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www.brothersatwarmovie.com

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A New Dimension of SNAFU:

Alfre Woodard and Nicole Beharie in AMERICAN VIOLET

For director Tim Disney, the irony of one, brave woman taking on an unfairly balanced, Texas criminal court system at the same time that George Bush was gaming the Supreme Court to get into the White House was irresistible. Based on a true story (as the saying goes), AMERICAN VIOLET explores what happens when innocent people find themselves at the mercy of a justice system more bent on processing bodies than seeking actual justice, and considers the results when someone has the guts not to play along. Here’s my interview with director Disney.

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www.americanviolet.com

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