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MOVIES & TELEVISION

All Movie descriptions are from Amazon.com
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An Inconvenient
Truth
Director Davis Guggenheim eloquently weaves the science of global
warming with Al Gore's personal history and lifelong commitment
to reversing the effects of global climate change in the most
talked-about documentary of the year. An audience and critical
favorite, An Inconvenient Truth makes the compelling case that
global warming is real, man-made, and its effects will be cataclysmic
if we dont act now. Gore presents a wide array of facts
and information in a thoughtful and compelling way: often humorous,
frequently emotional, always fascinating. In the end, An Inconvenient
Truth accomplishes what all great films should: it leaves the
viewer shaken, involved and inspired.
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Who
Killed the Electric Car?
With gasoline prices approaching $4/gallon,
fossil fuel shortages, unrest in oil producing regions around
the globe and mainstream consumer adoption and adoption of the
hybrid electric car (more than 140,000 Prius' sold this year),
this story couldn't be more relevant or important. The foremost
goal in making this movie is to educate and enlighten audiences
with the story of this car, its place in history and in the larger
story of our car culture and how it enables our continuing addiction
to foreign oil. This is an important film with an important message
that not only calls to task the officials who squelched the Zero
Emission Vehicle mandate, but all of the other accomplices, government,
the car companies, Big Oil, even Eco-darling Hydrogen as well
as consumers, who turned their backs on the car and embrace embracing
instead the SUV. Our documentary investigates the death and resurrection
of the electric car, as well as the role of renewable energy and
sustainable living in our country's future; issues which affect
everyone from progressive liberals to the neo-conservative right.
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The
11th Hour
Comparisons to Al Gore's Oscar-winning slide show will be inevitable,
but there's a key difference between the two documentaries. An Inconvenient
Truth was aimed at the PBS set, while Leonardo DiCaprio's The 11th
Hour combines a traditional structure with a more MTV-friendly pace.
Of course, neither was made by these public figures. Davis Guggenheim
directed the former, while Nadia Conners and Leila Conners Petersen
are behind the latter. DiCaprio serves as producer, co-writer, and
narrator (the three previously worked on the short films Global
Warming and Water Planet). Their first feature combines a diverse
array of interviews with a dizzying variety of images, both soothing
and alarming (droughts and hurricanes vs. serene sunsets and playful
polar bears). Speakers include former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev,
Cambridge physicist Stephen Hawking, and progressive CEO Ray Anderson,
hero of The Corporation. Granted, there's no obvious youth appeal
in these subjects, but the presence of the Titanic heartthrob-turned-Scorsese
star, who keeps his on-screen narration to a tasteful minimum, plus
atmospheric tracks from Sigur Rós, Coldplay and Mogwai seems
likely to attract a younger crowd. And that seems to be the point,
since The 11th Hour is, at heart, a call to arms. It begins by taking
a look at the causes of global warming before exploring solutions,
from eating organic to building with solar power. There isn't a
ton of new information for environmental experts, but DiCaprio and
his team have assembled a thought-provoking primer for neophytes
and potential activists. --Kathleen C. Fennessy |
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Enron:
The Smartest Guys in the Room
Based on the best-selling book of the same name by Fortune reporters
Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, a multidimensional study of one
of the biggest business scandals in American history. The chronicle
takes a look at one of the greatest corporate disasters in history,
in which top executives from the 7th largest company in this country
walked away with over one billion dollars, leaving investors and
employees with nothing. The film features insider accounts and rare
corporate audio and video tapes that reveal colossal personal excesses
of the Enron hierarchy and the utter moral vacuum that posed as
corporate philosophy. The human drama that unfolds within Enron's
walls resembles a Greek tragedy and produces a domino effect that
could shape the face of our economy and ethical code for years to
come. |
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Grizzly
Man
A docudrama that centers on amateur grizzly bear expert Timothy
Treadwell. He periodically journeyed to Alaska to study and live
with the bears. He was killed, along with his his girlfriend, Amie
Huguenard, by a rogue bear in October 2003. The films explores their
compassionate lives as they found solace among these endangered
animals. |
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