tagged w/ Documentary Short
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Every Thursday night for many months beginning in 2010, Felipe Donnelly and Tamy Rofe invited friends and strangers into their New York City Tribeca apartment for dinner. Each week, six people were offered seats at the long table in the couple’s small one-bedroom home. Donnelly created gourmet Latin-inspired dishes, while Rofe kept the wine glasses full and the guests laughing.
The couple began hosting the weekly dinner parties shortly after they got married, using them as a way to enliven their social lives and give Donnelly an outlet for his cooking ambitions. They also started a blog, called “Thursdays at Worth Street,” to keep track of recipes and the unique mix of people each dinner attracted.
After some time hosting the increasingly popular dinner parties for strangers in their apartment, the NYC Department of Health took notice and shut them down. Undaunted in their desire to follow their hearts into the world of professional cooking, Tamy and Felipe decided to open a restaurant in Greenwich Village. “Opening Cómodo” is a documentary short film that tells the story of creating Cómodo, their new little restaurant on MacDougal Street in the village.
This piece includes color photographs and two documentary short films.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/10/14/creating-the-magic-hour-opening-comodo/Every Thursday night for many months beginning in 2010, Felipe Donnelly and Tamy Rofe... more
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“As I Am” is a beautiful, sensitive documentary short film by Emmy-Award winning photojournalist/filmmaker Alan Spearman. The poetic and powerful imagery of the film follows the Memphis landscape of remarkable young Chris Dean, revealing the many lives that have shaped his world. Told in Dean’s own words, the film is a long spoken word poem describing his trenchant observations about life: his thoughts and feelings regarding the places and people that make up his home. “As I Am” portrays Dean’s hopes, fears and, more than anything, his sensitivity and grace.
Chris Dean’s heart stopped when he was two; he died but he came back. When Chris was five, his father was murdered, shot with more than 20 bullets in a gang shootout. In 2011, at age 18, Chris gained national attention when he introduced President Barack Obama at his high school graduation. Chris is an observer-philosopher who has always had a few things to say about life from his vantage point in South Memphis.
This piece includes color photographs, a video and the documentary short film.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/10/12/imagine-your-dreams-as-i-am/“As I Am” is a beautiful, sensitive documentary short film by Emmy-Award... more
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Many political commentators speculated that once Mitt Romney put Paul Ryan on his ticket, the campaign would become one about two competing visions for the country, finally a campaign about substance. But just days later, the 2012 presidential campaign is already turning into what many commentators say is one of the nastiest and most personal campaigns in modern times, with one side accusing the other of coming “unhinged,” while the other invokes charges of anger and hate.
However, going negative is nothing new, as this montage of 22 presidential campaign ads, from Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson through Romney and Obama, clearly demonstrates. Thanks to a retrospective from the Museum of the Moving Image, which compiled dozens of presidential campaign spots from 1952 through 2008, viewers can dive deep into the fascinating history of a unique brand of television advertising. This montage represents the breadth of strategies and styles over six decades of presidential political wars in the media.
This piece includes photographs and a documentary short film.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/watch-60-years-of-nasty-presidential-campaign-ads/Many political commentators speculated that once Mitt Romney put Paul Ryan on his... more
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Today, the mayors and governors along the Gulf Coast issued dire warnings about Hurricane Isaac. Seven years ago, Katrina slammed into New Orleans on Aug. 29, 2005, as a strong Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of 125 mph. More than 1,800 people were killed, most of them in Louisiana. On Tuesday, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said Isaac had become a Category 1 hurricane with winds of 75 mph, which could get stronger by the time it’s expected to reach the swampy coast of southeast Louisiana. The latest projections showed Isaac making landfall at or near New Orleans late Tuesday or early Wednesday.
This week marks the seventh anniversary of Hurricane Katrina’s ravages of New Orleans, a city that not long ago appeared to be completely lost. Only seven years have passed since rotting corpses were floating through the city’s streets, since hundreds of thousands of survivors sat in hotel rooms and shelters and the homes of relatives, finding out from news coverage that they had been forced to join the ranks of the homeless. The unbelievable devastation of New Orleans is almost beyond human comprehension. The virtually complete destruction of the entire city by Hurricane Katrina, the loss of huge numbers of lives, the ruination of the property and lives of so many, especially the poor and disadvantaged, is a tragedy of historically monumental proportions.
Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast with devastating force at daybreak on Aug. 29, 2005, pounding an area that included the fabled city of New Orleans and wreaking large-scale damages on neighboring Mississippi. In all, more than 1,700 people were killed and hundreds of thousands of others were displaced. Packing a terrifying punch of 145-mile-an-hour winds when it made landfall, the category-4 storm left more than a million people in three states without power and submerged highways even hundreds of miles from its center. The hurricane’s storm surge pushed a 29-foot wall of water ashore when the hurricane struck the Gulf Coast, which was the highest level ever measured in the United States. Levees failed in New Orleans, resulting in political and social upheavals that continue a half decade later.
Damage, costing billions of dollars, has made Katrina one of the costliest storms on record. In New Orleans, floodwaters from the breached levee rose to rooftops in the poorest neighborhoods, and in many areas residents were rescued from roofs of homes that had become uninhabitable. The hurricane’s roaring winds stripped 15-foot sections off the roof of the Superdome, where as many as 10,000 city residents had been forced to take shelter. An exodus of hundreds of thousands left the city, many becoming refugees, finding shelter with nearby relatives or restarting their lives in states as far away as Massachusetts and Utah.
This piece includes a number of color photographs, a photo-gallery and two videos.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/08/28/remembering-hurricane-katrina-portraits-of-tragic-loss/Today, the mayors and governors along the Gulf Coast issued dire warnings about... more
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The Kills just celebrated their ten-year anniversary as a band, but it feels like they’re just getting started. Singer Alison Mosshart and guitarist Jamie Hince have taken their time on their rise from anonymous newcomers to veritable rock stars. Last year they put out their fourth album, “Blood Pressures,” and played some of the biggest venues of their career. Now, on September 4th, they’ll release a book of photographs, “Dream and Drive,” taken by their longtime friend Kenneth Cappello.
Photographer Cappello has gotten to know Mosshart and Hince pretty well over the last 10 years. Through lonely deserts and stages crawling with fans and sweat, Cappello captured many of the band’s most public and private moments. “He’s seen it all, the good and the bad, the broken down and the weird,” says Mosshart in the forward to “Dream and Drive,” Cappello’s collection of photographs of life on the road with The Kills.
This piece includes a number of photographs, a photo-gallery and two music videos.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/on-the-road-with-the-kills-dream-and-drive/The Kills just celebrated their ten-year anniversary as a band, but it feels like... more
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In “Apex Predators,” sharks discover their prey and find adventure within the hunt. In honor of Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week,” photographer Sarosh Jacob presents stunning footage of the the Bahamas’ Ray of Hope shipwreck in an artificial reef swarming with sharks. “Apex Predators” is artistic take on what happens between those doing the chasing and those being sought. Paired with Massive Attack’s “Angel,” the sequence is absolutely mesmerizing.
This piece includes a number of color photographs and the stunning documentary short film.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/08/20/thrill-of-the-chase-reef-sharks-shipwrecks-and-massive-attack/In “Apex Predators,” sharks discover their prey and find adventure within... more
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Chinese divers had won six of the seven gold medals awarded at the 2012 London Games going into the final diving event, the men’s 10-meter platform. Two Chinese divers, Qiu Bo and Lin Yue, were ranked first and second after the preliminaries and again after the semifinals. But in an upset, David Boudia of the United States won gold, the first gold medal for the United States in diving since Laura Wilkinson in 2000 and the first for the men since Mark Lenzi won the 3-meter springboard in 1992.
This piece includes color photographs and video of the event.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/08/12/david-boudia-upsets-chinese-wins-olympic-gold-in-10-meter-platform-diving/Chinese divers had won six of the seven gold medals awarded at the 2012 London Games... more
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Oscar Pistorius of South Africa made history on Saturday morning, becoming the first double-amputee runner to compete in the Olympics when he lined up for a first-round heat in the men’s 400 meters at London’s Olympic Stadium. The crowd saluted Pistorius with roars of encouragement; he sprinted to a second place finish in his heat in 45.46 seconds, a season-best time, and advanced to Sunday’s semifinals.
Pistorius reached the finish line after six lomg years of yearning to achieve a qualifying time and five years of scientific and legal arguments about whether his prosthetic legs gave him an unfair advantage over sprinters using their natural legs.
This piece includes color photographs, a video of the race and a documentary short film.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/08/04/the-blade-runner-oscar-pistorius-makes-olympic-history-advances-to-400m-semifinals/Oscar Pistorius of South Africa made history on Saturday morning, becoming the first... more
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The Mermaid Parade is an annual event that first took place at Coney Island in 1983 and has been a very popular attraction ever since. The Mermaid Parade draws a huge crowd of celebrators, who don wild and outrageous costumes, with the parade’s naughty marchers wearing sea-themed outfits that often leave little to the imagination.
This year, clad in costumes that combined seashells and glitter, scores of exuberant revelers gyrated through Coney Island on Saturday. An estimated half-million people lined the sunny streets to watch ogle Brooklyn’s version of Mardi Gras. The flamboyant marchers, many of whom wore their costumes on the subway out to Coney Island, much to the amusement of their fellow riders, walked on the boardwalk alongside colorful floats and danced to several live bands blaring out top 40 hits and old-time standards.
This piece includes colorful photographs, a naughty photo-gallery and three videos.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/06/24/those-crazy-coney-island-dayze-the-sexy-mermaid-parade/The Mermaid Parade is an annual event that first took place at Coney Island in 1983... more
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America may finally be legalizing gay marriage in 2012, but the real beginning of the modern gay rights movement began in 1969 at NYC’s Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village. On June 28, 1969, police officers raided the Stonewall Inn, which immediately sparked a series of violent protests. To commemorate the event, a parade is held on the last Saturday of June every year.
Relive the history of the gay rights movement: This piece includes vintage photographs and three documentary short films.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/06/24/stonewall-the-proud-moment-the-closet-door-finally-opened/America may finally be legalizing gay marriage in 2012, but the real beginning of the... more
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“Amar” is the acclaimed nine-minute documentary short film directed by English documentary filmmaker Andrew Hinton for Pilgrim Films, which won The Satyajit Ray Foundation 2011 Short Film Competition Award and The Best Documentary Award at The 2012 Vimeo Festival +Awards.
“Amar” is an observational documentary that follows the day of a 14 year-old Indian boy from a teeming slum in India, who is at the top of his class in school and who also fantasizes of someday becoming a professional cricketer. In addition, Amar happens to be his family’s main breadwinner, working two jobs six-and-a-half days a week. On its surface, the film is presented as a quiet celebration of the human spirit, of a boy whose tenacity and quiet resolve carry him through every day.
But on a deeper level, Amar presents the sad and haunting echoes found in earlier seminal works, such as: Alan Sillitoe’s “Loneliness of a Long Distance Runner,” Carson McCullers’ “The Ballad of the Sad Café” and Truman Capote’s “Other Voices, Other Rooms.” Beneath the film’s face of optimism lurks a deep well of solitude, a life that is always surrounded, yet always alone.
This piece includes a number of photographs, as well as the award-winning, haunting documentary short film.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/amar-always-surrounded-always-alone/“Amar” is the acclaimed nine-minute documentary short film directed by... more
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The Wallenda family likes challenges, and Nik Wallenda had plenty of them tonight when he attempted to do what nobody had ever done before: A high wire walk directly over the precipice at Niagara Falls and 190 feet above the churning torrent below. Although he was tethered to the wire to prevent falling to a near-certain death, the seventh-generation funambulist still had to contend with wind, water and an unfamiliar wire when he attempted the high-wire walk from the U.S. to Canada.
In 2008, Wallenda broke a high-wire record when he walked and bicycled on a tightrope high above the buildings in Newark, New Jersey. Today he embarked on a far more arduous trek: walking across a tightrope over Niagara Falls. Confronted by all these life-threatening perils, Nik Wallenda, descendant of the legendary circus act The Flying Wallendas, successfully tightroped across Niagara Falls tonight and managed to make it all the way across.
About a dozen other tightrope artists have crossed the Niagara Gorge downstream, dating back to Jean Francois Gravelet, aka The Great Blondin, in 1859. However, no one has walked directly over the falls, and authorities haven’t allowed any tightrope acts in the area since 1896. It took Wallenda two years to persuade U.S. and Canadian authorities to allow it, and many civic leaders hoped to use the publicity to jump=start the region’s struggling economy, particularly on the U.S. side of the falls.
This piece includes a number of color photographs, as well as the full-version video of his dare-devil walk.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/06/16/the-walk-of-death-nik-wallenda-walks-across-niagara-falls/The Wallenda family likes challenges, and Nik Wallenda had plenty of them tonight when... more
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“Limbo” is the new documentary short film directed by Eliot Rausch, created in association with Phos Pictures, which had its World Premier in New York City earlier this week. Previously, Rausch won the Best Documentary Award and the Grand Prize at the 2010 Vimeo Festival + Awards, for his short film “Last Minutes with Oden.” After winning the 25K Grand Prize Grant from the Vimeo Awards, Director Eliot Rausch partnered with Producer Mark Schwartz and the Dreamers of Los Angeles to create “Limbo.”
The emotionally moving 19-minute documentary short film exposes the lives of three undocumented students, who are living in Los Angeles without legal status. Without ever before having touched a camera, the students were gifted with a small video camera and provided with a half-day of training. They were asked to film everyday for three months. Through their lens, this is a story from the hearts and mouths of the undocumented.
This piece includes color photographs, as well as the poignant, emotionally moving documentary short film, “Limbo.”
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/06/15/limbo-a-story-from-the-hearts-and-mouths-of-undocumented-young-people/“Limbo” is the new documentary short film directed by Eliot Rausch,... more
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“Under African Skies” is a brilliant, must-see documentary by the renowned filmmaker Joe Berlinger, which was created on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the release of Paul Simon’s seminal album “Graceland.” The documentary won the 2012 SXSW Audience Award in the 24 Beats per Second Category and is the only music film to win an Audience Award. Berlinger intertwines both sides of a complex story as Simon returns to South Africa for a reunion concert with the original “Graceland” musicians, which unearths the turbulent birth of the album.
Paul Simon’s historic “Graceland” album sold millions of copies and united cultures, yet it also ended up dividing world opinion on the boundaries of art, politics and business. Despite its huge success as a popular fusion of American and African musical styles, “Graceland” spawned intense political debate. Simon was accused of breaking the United Nations’ cultural boycott of South Africa, which was designed to end apartheid.
While the album went on to be widely celebrated for its revolutionary mix of musical styles and for bringing the extraordinary gifts of under-exposed South African musicians to the forefront, many of the questions “Graceland” raised in 1986 remain. For example, what is the role of the artist when society is in upheaval? Who does music belong to? Whose rules, if any, should artists play by? Do cultural collaborations matter? And what will be the legacy of “Graceland’s” indelible songs in a world that has since been politically, and musically, transformed?
This piece includes a number of color and black-and-white photographs, a documentary short, and the full-length HD version of “Under African Skies.”
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/06/07/paul-simon-takes-us-back-under-african-skies/“Under African Skies” is a brilliant, must-see documentary by the renowned... more
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May 16th marks the 100th anniversary of Studs Terkel’s birth and an occasion to memorialize one of the most prolific writers and cultural critics in the history of Chicago letters. As an author, broadcaster and oral historian, legendary Chicagoan Studs Terkel celebrated the lives of ordinary Americans. Some of Terkel’s many friends and fans are hoping to return the favor with a series of events marking the 100th birthday of a man whose work is a chronicle of the 20th century.
The Studs Terkel Centenary, a group headed up by Terkel’s friends, including Chicago Tribune reporter Rick Kogan, on Saturday will rededicate the Division Street Bridge, which was named after Terkel 20 years ago. On Wednesday, The Newberry Library will host a birthday party featuring guest speakers who will share stories about Studs. Terkel’s friends will ensure that his memory lives on with a day of Studs-only programming on WFMT-FM on his birthday, with performances of passages from Terkel’s 2001 book “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?” at Steppenwolf Theatre next week and by phoning in personal anecdotes about Terkel to a hotline set up by Chicago’s Hull House Museum.
This piece includes a number of photographs, an animated short and five documentary short films about the life and works of Studs Terkel.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/the-studs-terkel-centenary-chicago-celebrates-legendary-studs-terkel/May 16th marks the 100th anniversary of Studs Terkel’s birth and an occasion to... more
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An iconic portrait of Elvis Presley by pop artist Andy Warhol went for $37 Million when it hit the auction block tonight at Sotheby’s. The life-size 1963 painting, “Double Elvis (Ferus Type),” epitomizes Warhol’s obsessions with fame, stardom and the public image, according to Sotheby’s. Previously estimated to sell for $30 million to $50 million, it was included in the auction house’s May 9th sale of post-war and contemporary art.
Art auctions have turned into freak-show casinos, spectacles where the uber-rich can act out as much in public as possible, trying to buy immortality, become a part of art history, make headlines and create big profits. They are despicable for what they do to art, for the bad magic of making mysteriously powerful things turn into numbers.
This piece includes a number of vintage photographs, two videos and a documentary about Warhol's art and life.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/05/09/another-freak-show-big-money-art-auction-warhols-double-elvis-brings-33-million/An iconic portrait of Elvis Presley by pop artist Andy Warhol went for $37 Million... more
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On Wednesday, President Obama publicly endorsed gay marriage in a television interview and took a definitive stand on one of the most politically charged social issues of the day. Includes photographs and a video of the interview.
“At a certain point, I’ve just concluded that for me personally it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married,” Mr. Obama said in an interview that came after the president faced mounting pressure to clarify his position.
Public support for same-sex marriage is growing at a pace that surprises even professional pollsters as older generations of voters who tend to be strongly opposed are supplanted by younger ones who are just as strongly in favor. Same-sex couples are featured in some of the most popular shows on television, without controversy.
Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, called the president’s statement “a watershed moment in American history” that would aid efforts to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act barring federal recognition of same-sex marriage. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York said, “No American president has ever supported a major expansion of civil rights that has not ultimately been adopted by the American people, and I have no doubt that this will be no exception.”
Chad Griffin, the incoming president of the Human Rights Campaign, said that, “President Obama’s words today will be celebrated by generations to come. For the millions of young gay and lesbian Americans across this nation, President Obama’s words provide genuine hope that they will be the first generation to grow up with the freedom to fully pursue the American dream. Marriage, the promise of love, companionship, and family, is basic to the pursuit of that dream.”
This piece includes photographs and video of the interview.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/05/09/obama-publicly-endorses-gay-marriage-says-same-sex-marriage-should-be-legal/On Wednesday, President Obama publicly endorsed gay marriage in a television interview... more
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“Before They Were Famous: Behind The Lens of William John Kennedy” is an extraordinary collection of images by the photographer William John Kennedy, which is currently on exhibition at the new gallery Site/109 in New York City. The collection presents a number of never-before-seen photographs of Andy Warhol and Robert Indiana, among them Warhol’s “Marilyn Monroe” and Indiana’s “LOVE,” taken by Mr. Kennedy in the mid-60′s when they were both just emerging American artists.
The fact that these early images of the two iconic American artists happened isn’t necessarily the exciting part. It’s that the amazingly early, naïve portraits of the artists with their own works were created before they were famous. These early images sat untouched for over 50 years, until Kennedy uncovered them within his archives and decided it was time to finally print this project.
This piece includes a number of photographs, a photo-gallery and two documentary short films.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/05/04/never-before-seen-photographs-of-the-young-andy-warhol/“Before They Were Famous: Behind The Lens of William John Kennedy” is an... more
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“Toast to Freedom” is a music video dedicated to human rights activism around the world. Nearly 50 artists contributed to the video, celebrating Amnesty International’s 50th Anniversary. The basic tracks for “Toast to Freedom” were recorded at the legendary Levon Helm Studios in Woodstock, N.Y. One of the last studio recordings by the late Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Levon Helm, it was also one of the closest to his heart.
The song continues a long relationship between Amnesty International and the creative community, which has helped spread the word of its mission almost from the start in 1961. Artists contributing to “Toast to Freedom” included: Levon Helm, Kris Kristofferson, Carly Simon, Angelique Kidjo, Ewan McGregor, Saul Hernandez, Donald Fagen, Warren Haynes, Keb Mo, Eric Burdon, Taj Mahal, Florent Pagny, Marianne Faithfull, Jane Birkin, Jimmy Barnes, Rosanne Cash, Shawn Mullins, the Blind Boys of Alabama and Gentleman, among others.
This piece includes a number of color photographs, as well as the “Toast to Freedom” HD music video, the “Making of Toast to Freedom” HD video and the “Toast to Freedom” (Long Version) HD music video.
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/05/03/toast-to-freedom-a-celebration-of-amnesty-internationals-50th-anniversary/“Toast to Freedom” is a music video dedicated to human rights activism... more
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Fred Hakim, last of the old-time Times Square hot-dog vendors, has died at the age of 83. Mr. Hakim’s family owned a hole-in-the-wall hot-dog counter in Times Square, which was the last of its kind when in the 1990s the city began condemning dozens of establishments like it in order to revitalize the area. The Grand Luncheonette was a seven-seat, 250-square-foot piece of Edward Hopper streetscape on West 42nd Street, which Mr. Hakim’s father had opened in 1941 and wryly named the Grand Luncheonette.
The Grand Luncheonette lived on 42nd Street for 58 years, grandly offering its greasy ambiance to the passing crowds in Times Square, proudly wrapped in shining chrome beneath the rotted marquee of the old Selwyn Theater. Mr. Hakim tried to keep the place open as a sort of living museum-like tribute to the golden age of Times Square’s hawkers, strippers and honky-tonks. But New York’s urban planners had other ideas, and after a two-year fight, he finally was evicted on Oct. 19th, 1997.
Writing about the demise of the Grand Luncheonette, a “New York Daily News” journalist pessimistically concluded: “This is bigger than 42nd Street, bigger even than the Disney Corp. This is about New York being colonized by The Gap and Banana Republic and Starbuck’s and all the rest. If new and improved Times Square is any indication, the standard for Italian cuisine will be the Olive Garden chain.”
This piece includes a number of photographs and the nostalgic, touching documentary short film, “Grand Luncheonette.”
http://disembedded.wordpress.com/2012/05/01/the-grand-luncheonette-sadly-no-place-left-at-the-table-for-42nd-street-diner/Fred Hakim, last of the old-time Times Square hot-dog vendors, has died at the age of... more
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