Greetings all,
We have not one but two episodes of Frame of Mind on KERA TV coming your way. First, on Friday night (Juneteenth) at 10pm, we are showing “Quakertown USA.” This film was executive produced by Linda and Harry Eaddy of the Denton Black Film Festival and directed by Lindell Singelton and King Hollis. I mentioned this film earlier when it screened at the Denton Black Film Festival, but now you can all see it on your TVs.
The film chronicles the destruction of the African American community that had been living and prospering in this small town in Denton. The film mixes evocative reenactments with archival footage and is deeply researched.
Lindell and King are masterful filmmakers whom I have admired for many decades. If you have other plans on Juneteenth, set your DVR or see it on PBS Passport.
Then, on the following Monday, June 22, we are showing “Nepal: Art is Love,” by Sarah Reyes and Daniel Driensky, who call their company “Explordinary.” The two focus on cinematic travel and arts & culture storytelling on a global scale. Their work has the look of a larger-budget production, but it is all done by the two of them. The film follows artist and sign painter Sean Starr as he visits Nepal to explore the country’s extraordinary array of traditional and handcrafted arts. Along the way, we meet Thangka painters, wood carvers, singing bowl manufacturers, paper makers, basket weavers, sign painters, and musicians and dancers to illustrate the significance of Nepali art passed down from generation to generation. I am sure you will find the film inspiring.
The NBA Finals just wrapped up a series in which many games went down to the wire, yet the NY Knicks won 4-1. These NBA games brought us together as a country to experience these games in a way that few things do in these troubled times. We were brought together through television. Some saw it on their TVs, and many on their phones and tablets, but what we all saw was an old-fashioned network feed.
The games were compelling. A young team against a historic franchise that has been starved for success for decades. One of the largest TV markets against one of the smaller ones. The Spurs had so many leads that just faded away. I assume that they will be back, more seasoned and less likely to wilt under the pressure. It was high drama and good TV.
But I am worried about the future of professional sports. It seems every team wants a new stadium or arena, and is moving from the city to the suburbs, where tickets, parking, and food prices are making games unaffordable for all but the wealthy to experience the games in person. At the same time, betting is making its way into all sports.
There was a great, well-attended screening of the film Robocop at the Texas Theatre on Saturday night to help save City Hall. It was a great feeling to be in a room with people who care deeply about saving this I.M. Pei masterpiece. When shots of the building were on screen, there was a spontaneous loud visceral reaction. This was a great case of a film bringing a community together.
June 14 was Flag Day, and we have released an episode of the Fog Truth about a new documentary called “Flag Day”, you can hear it here.
This week, I strongly advise that you see “Disclosure Day.” The Texas Theatre is showing Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life” on Saturday at 6:30pm and Sunday at 3:30pm, co-sponsored by the Texas Film Commission. This is exactly the kind of film that you should see in a theater.
Have a great week!
-Bart
The question arises again and again. What’s to be done with an egomaniacal, serial lying bully boy who also happens to be President of the United States?
From a media standpoint, completely ignoring him is not an option, even though it’s something Donald Trump would abhor above all else. But he is the leader of the free world, and his blabber obviously can have repercussions. Even if it’s more often than not the same old mix of threats, embellishments, insults and bald-faced untruths.
This all came to another head over the weekend when longtime CBS newsman Scott Pelley got fired for speaking truth to power while NBC “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker was repeatedly trashed by Trump for daring to ask him for evidence of election “rigging.” She had first sparred with him over a $1.776 billion weaponization (slush) fund that he still strongly supports in the face of opposition from even a handful of Republicans.
Pelley, who joined CBS News in 1989 from DFW’s WFAA-TV, had a duration that lasted longer than either Walter Cronkite’s (31 years with the network) or Edward R. Murrow’s (25 years). But he got fired the day after a stormy staff meeting in which he accused new CBS News president Bari Weiss, among other things, of trying to “murder” “60 Minutes” with a major revamp that in Pelley’s view, catered to the Trump administration.
In a later interview, he cited a memo in which Weiss allegedly had tried to make Minnesota ICE victim Renee Good an instigator who aimed her car at the officer who then shot her in the head three times. Pelley said that video of the tragedy completely contradicted that view of events.
Welker then devoted almost the entire hour of Sunday’s “Meet the Press” to an interview in a Wisconsin barn during the President’s visit to tout himself as the savior of farmers, etc. A heavy rainstorm occasionally caused audio difficulties while Welker spent the first half of the interview trying to get him to state a coherent strategy in Iran.
Trump behaved himself while raining the same old rhetoric about an imminent “deal” with a desperate nation that already had been decimated. But it then got uglier than any previous Trump interview when his allegations of election “rigging” came up anew in light of California’s always sluggish vote-counting.
The President lobbed a volley of insults that were outrageous even for him.
“People like you, the fake, dirty press,” he brayed before calling Welker “crooked.” Welker denied she was crooked before he told her, “You’re either crooked or you’re stupid.” It went on and on, with Trump also adding ABC, CBS and CNN to his tirade before walking out on her while she wailed, “We traveled all the way to Wisconsin” to interview him.
That’s a patently weak-kneed response. Here’s what she should have said: “Mr. President, the First Amendment is critical to our freedoms. And no amount of insults or allegations from you will deter journalists from seeking the truth.”
In the future, all responsible reporters should “pull a Pelley” and directly rebut Trump’s constant assault on their profession. And their corporations should fully back them. Have a spine. Enough’s enough. Yes, he has to be covered. But no, he doesn’t get a free pass to verbally assault any reporter who pointedly questions his “facts.” Mega MAGA zealots are going to accuse you of “disrespect” and “Trump Derangement Syndrome” anyway —as they have of Welker in streams of social media posts. And she shied away rather than finally call him out.
As a footnote to all of this, Trump grandiosely attended Monday night’s Game 3 of the NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs. When he was shown on Madison Square Garden’s video screen (just twice by my count), he was roundly booed by the Knick partisans. Other video on social media showed him again seeming to doze off during the up-and-down game.
In turn, it’s time for the “media” to stop being asleep at the wheel. Or as Peter Finch’s Howard Beale famously shouted in “Network,” “I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore.”
-Ed
Howdy,
The biggest movie at the box office this weekend was Steven Spielberg’s new film “Disclosure Day.” The movie made about $44 million in the US, which was enough to put it on top, but still a small enough number that there’s been some dissent online as to whether its a success or not. I’ve also seen people criticize the actual alien creatures in the movie, for looking like the standard idea of an extraterrestrial, which misses the point entirely.
I saw the film in Dolby at AMC and I thought it was a really incredible blockbuster. No one makes movies like Steven Spielberg, he has an incredible use of light and camera work. The film is exploring themes that he’s used before not only the aliens on screen, but a lot of his favorite adventure tropes and action scenes. Surprisingly the most similar movie in his canon is Oscar nominee “The Post.” Like that film, his newest is about the power of people working together for a common goal, but the entire film hinges on a local NBC affiliate station getting an exclusive report.
Aside from “Disclosure Day” I’ve been obsessed with the news last week that Lionsgate is finally adding their movies to the Movies Anywhere platform. For anyone who has any collection of digital movies, the service allows you to collect any of the films you’ve bought on Apple Movies, Prime Video, YouTube and even those iTunes codes that they used to include in DVDs. Disney was the first studio on board, because it was a spinoff of their own service, later fully replacing a digital site called Ultraviolet.
Almost every studio joined the initial launch including Sony, 20th Century, Universal and Warner Bros. Lionsgate movies started being added this week, presumably for the digital release of their biggest movie in years “Michael.” Now six years after it launched, Paramount and MGM are the only two not on board.
At The Modern in Fort Worth this week we are showing something unusual from our typical programming with an animated film, “Jinsei.” It’s all made by artist Ryuya Suzuki, from the animation, writing and score. I think it looks incredible, check out the trailer below and have a great week.
-Elijah
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