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American Movie Jaqi Ross   Hollywood video rental   10 October 2004 Revisiting the favorites - On the northwest side of Milwaukee, Mark Borchardt dreams the American dream: for him, it's making movies. Using relatives, local theater talent, slacker friends, his Mastercard, and $3,000 from his Uncle Bill, Mark strives over three years to finish "Covan," a short horror film. His own personal demons (alcohol, gambling, a dysfunctional family) plague him, but he desperately wants to overcome self-doubt and avoid failure. In moments of reflection, Mark sees his story as quintessentially American, and its the nature and nuance of his dream that this film explores.

An Engineer's Assistant Jaqi Ross   National Gallery of Art   21 February 2004 In the early 1960s, following a train crash, the National Railroad Company in Japan commissioned the distinguished documentary filmmaker Noriaki Tuschimoto to do a short promotion for a new safety device. The film he finally shot, however, is a paean to an engineer's assistant working an obsolete steam locomotive on the same track.

An Injury to One Jaqi Ross   National Gallery of Art, D.C.   21 February 2004 Perhaps my all-time favorite documentary. The Montana town of Butte and its celebrated struggle with the Anaconda Copper Mining Company provide the focus for Travis Wilkerson's beautifully-crafted, experimental documentary. Zeroing in on its assertions with sly agitprop style, An Injury to One rises above one-dimensional origins to become a consummate example of nonfiction filmmaking and, affirms historian John Gianvito, "a work of formal precision and acrid beauty".

Big Fish Jaqi Ross   Hollywood Video rental   15 August 2004 The story revolves around a dying father and his son, who is trying to learn more about his dad by piecing together the stories he has gathered over the years. The son winds up re-creating his father's elusive life in a series of legends and myths inspired by the few facts he knows. Through these tales, the son begins to understand his father's great feats and his great failings.

Bubba Ho Tep Jaqi Ross   E Street Cinema   11 January 2004 Based on the Bram Stoker Award nominee short story by acclaimed author Joe R. Lansdale, Bubba Ho-tep tells the true story of what really did become of Elvis.

Capturing the Friedmans Jaqi Ross   DVD   04 April 2004 Documentary on the Friedmans, a seemingly typical, upper-middleclass Jewish family whose world is instantly transformed when the father and his youngest son are arrested and charged with shocking and horrible crimes.

City of God Jaqi Ross   Loews Dupont   06 March 2004 This pyrotechnic Brazilian slumland epic gallops through two decades, handguns and rifles matching the flamboyant camerawork nearly shot for shot.

Company Town Jaqi Ross   National Gallery of Art, D.C.   21 February 2004 The abandoned coal town of Widen in central West Virginia is the subject of a portrayal quite different from An Injury to One. Said filmmaker Richard Leacock, "Company Town manages to avoid the obvious political clichés but causes one to wonder 'why do they stay?'...and at the same time to understand that this place, with all its limitations, is still unique and wonderful..."

Control Room Jaqi Ross   E Street Theater   22 July 2004 This documentary, shot in Qatar, takes a behind-the-scenes look at Al-Jazeera, the Arab world’s most popular news network, and Central Command, where the international media were headquartered in the run-up and start of the Iraq war. Without being didactic, “Control Room” raises important issues about objectivity and news bias.

Crimson Gold Jaqi Ross   Visions Cinema   11 February 2004 "As much a warning about the dangers of self-containment as it is an expose of a dysfunctional society." -L.A. Daily News

Death in Gaza Jaqi Ross   Silver Spring AFI   19 June 2004 The story of three Palestinian children living in the Gaza strip. Ahmed is twelve years old. A great football fan, his life doesn’t differ from many other boys of the same age. But then, one day, a friend is shot dead by an Israeli sniper before his eyes and, all of a sudden, Ahmed is a changed boy. From this point on, he begins to take an interest in paramilitary groups operating in his neighbourhood. The film observes him become more and more radical. Mohammed is Ahmed’s best friend. His mother begs him to stay well away from the frontline of Israeli occupied territory. But, only a short time later, he and Ahmed are busy making Molotov cocktails intended to be thrown at Israeli tanks. Finally, 16-year-old Nailja lives close to the border, where the Israeli army are in the process of destroying Palestinian houses in order to create a buffer zone. DEATH IN GAZA describes a fragmented world in which to die a martyr is considered a great honour. The film also bears testimony to how deeply filmmaker James Miller was affected by these children’s stories. A cameraman and director who regularly reported from war zones for CNN and the BBC, James Miller was shot and killed by an Israeli soldier during the making of this film.

Dog Days Jaqi Ross   Hollywood video rental   18 August 2004 Winner of the Grand Special Jury Prize at the 2001 Venice Film Festival, Austrian director Ulrich Seidl's "strangly entertaining first feature" (LA Times) shows everyday people leading extravagantly sordid lives. A teacher who is in bondage to a sleazy pimp, a very importunate hitchhiker, a private detective on the run for some car vandalists, a couple with a serious marriage problem and an old man, whose wife died long before on the search for some sexual entertainment live their lifes while their lifelines cross from time to time. Not recommended.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Jaqi Ross   Courthouse   04 April 2004 The cinematography made it worthwhile, alone. Great movie.

Fahrenheit 9/11 Jaqi Ross   Georgetown Loews   26 June 2004 Social commentary more than documentary. I just happen to agree with some of what he says.

Good Morning Jaqi Ross   Freer Gallery, D.C.   05 March 2004 In this delightful comedy—a perfect introduction to Ozu's lighter side—two young boys take a vow of silence to protest the inanity of adult conversation (not to mention their father's refusal to buy them a television).

Im toten Winkel - Hitlers Sekretärin (Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary) Jaqi Ross   Hollywood Video rental   15 August 2004 A static documentary (talking head interview). Traudl Junge was Adolf Hitler's private secretary, from Autumn 1942 until the collapse of the Nazi regime. She worked for him at the Wolfsschanze in Obersalzberg, on his private train and, finally, in his bunker in the besieged capital. It was Traudl Junge to whom Hitler dictated his final testament. In her first ever on-camera interview, 81-year-old Junge talks about her unique life. In the spring of 2001, Andre Heller succeeded in convincing Traudl Junge how valuable it is to record her unique memories. Fifty-six years after the end of the Second World War, an important eyewitness reveals her experiences to us. What she saw and heard turned her into an furious opponent of National Socialism; an opponent, moreover, who is still painfully aware and seems incapable of forgiving the young girl she once was--for her naivete, ignorance, and her liking for Hitler.

Inner Senses Jaqi Ross   Meyer Auditorium, Freer Museum of Art   16 July 2004 Though it starts out as an obvious Sixth Sense ripoff, Law Chi-Leung and Derek Yee's cerebral horror-thriller is an entertaining and worthy effort. They manage to tell an interesting story with just the right cinematic touch. For a Hong Kong film, this is easily above average work.

Kill Bill Vol. 2 Jaqi Ross   Hollywood video rental   23 August 2004 There were five on her list. Now it's three. O-Ren Ishii and Vernita Green were the first to fall, now The Bride (Uma Thurman) is out to finish the job by killing Elle Driver, Budd, and last of all, Bill (David Carradine). If the final three aren't afraid now, they better start, because she's coming for them. However, something has thrown off her plans a bit. Her daughter (whom she was pregnant with as she was getting married) is still alive. What affect this will have on her quest for vengeance is unclear, but the question is, will The Bride have actually succeeded in completing her ultimate goal, to kill Bill?

Les Triplettes de Belleville Jaqi Ross   Loews Georgetown   23 February 2004 Animated: When her grandson is kidnapped during the Tour de France, Madame Souza and her beloved pooch Bruno team up with the Belleville Sisters--an aged song-and-dance team from the days of Fred Astaire--to rescue him.

Lost Boys of Sudan Jaqi Ross   Visions, D.C.   13 March 2004 Lost Boys of Sudan is a feature-length documentary that follows two Sudanese refugees on an extraordinary journey from Africa to America. Orphaned as young boys in one of Africa's cruelest civil wars, Peter Dut and Santino Chuor survived lion attacks and militia gunfire to reach a refugee camp in Kenya along with thousands of other children. From there, remarkably, they were chosen to come to America. Safe at last from physical danger and hunger, a world away from home, they find themselves confronted with the abundance and alienation of contemporary American suburbia.

Mystic River Jaqi Ross   Hollywood video rental   12 September 2004 Three childhood friends (Tim Robbins, Sean Penn, Kevin Bacon) are reunited in Boston when Penn's daughter is murdered. Robbins was molested as a boy and still shows the scars of it. On the night of the murder he arrives home covered with blood. He tells his wife that he killed a mugger... but there's nothing in the paper the next few days. Penn is desperate to find the killer and Bacon plays a member of the Boston police who tries to figure out what happened. Slow pace and moody cinematography make this film.

On the Road: The Document Jaqi Ross   National Gallery of Art, D.C.   21 February 2004 Commissioned in 1963 (the same year as An Engineer's Assistant) to make another government public relations film--this time for the traffic division of Japan's police administration--Noriaki Tsuchimoto made the starkly beautiful, black-and-white On the Road: The Document. A cautionary tale for those who would whitewash the ills of automobiles, this "record of the city according to a cab driver" represents a historic moment for documentary film of the 1960s.

Open Hearts Jaqi Ross   National Gallery of Art, D.C.   01 February 2004 A couple, looking forward to their wedding, suffers an accident that leaves one of them incapacitated. "But," claims critic Stephen Holden, "because Open Hearts follows the conventions of the Danish filmmaking collective Dogme 95, it purveys a documentary-style realism that dilutes any lingering soap opera gloss."

Run Ronnie Run Jaqi Ross   DVD   04 April 2004 Both Bob and David (the creators) agree that all in all, the movie is not that great. While it definitely has some very funny moments, the current cut of the movie that is out there being screened and traded on the internet, just isn't that good.

Super Size Me Jaqi Ross   Hollywood video rental   11 October 2004 Documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock makes himself a test subject of this documentary about the commercial food industry. Rigorously eating a diet of McDonald's fast food, three times a day for a month straight. Spurlock is out to prove the physical and mental effects of consuming fast food. Amusing social commentary.

The Animation Show: Volume One Jaqi Ross   Hollywood video rental   19 August 2004 An international collection of the "world's best animated short films", programmed by co-producers Mike Judge and Don Hertzfeldt. The lineup includes several international Academy Award nominees, rare material from Disney, never before seen animation from Hertzfeldt and Judge, and many other surprises, among them the fact that it's not such a great collection.

The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara Jaqi Ross   Visions Cinema, Dupont Circle   11 March 2004 Difficult to watch; excellent film. Soundtrack by Philip Glass.

The Humiliated Jaqi Ross   National Gallery of Art, D.C.   18 January 2004 In The Humiliated, Jesper Jargil closely tracks Von Trier's conduct while shooting the controversial Dogme 95 film The Idiots.

The Journey Jaqi Ross   Hollywood video rental   13 September 2004 After college, Eric Saperston bought a 1971 Volkswagen Bus, took his Golden Retriever, Jack, and set out to follow The Grateful Dead and work a ski season in Aspen. While out on the road, he called up some of the most powerful people in the world and asked them out for a cup of coffee.

The Trickle Down Theory of Sorrow Jaqi Ross   National Gallery of Art   21 February 2004 Avant-garde filmmaker Mary Filippo said of her short videowork, "It is an experimental, autobiographical documentary about my being both the daughter of a working-class mother and someone who has become (economically at least) middle-class and a mother herself"

Trekkies Jaqi Ross   Hollywood video rental   21 August 2004 A hilarious look at the universe's most fervent fans.

Wait, It's the Soldiers, I'll Hang Up Now Jaqi Ross   National Gallery of Art   21 February 2004 Sitting at home in his study in Tel Aviv, filmmaker Avi Mograbi receives a phone call from a friend inside the occupied territories. Acting out the conversation from his end, Mograbi conveys not only the unease but also the informality of the moment when his caller is interrupted.

Zyklon Portrait Jaqi Ross   National Gallery of Art   21 February 2004 A poetic rendering of one family's Holocaust experiences mixes old instructional footage, snapshots, home movies, hand-painted imagery, and even underwater photography to "privilege the personal over any attempt at objectivity".