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There are two types of Native Americans on Hollywood sets: the scalping savage of Westerns, and the noble spiritual guide of more recent films. Luckily, Tinseltown isn’t the only place making movies. OTM’s Paul Ingles finds out how Hollywood holds up against independent releases in representing Native Americans.
Everyone has a sense of what it takes to pitch a movie to a studio executive: talk fast, compare it to two earlier blockbusters, and, if at all possible, think sequel. But that’s just the 9/10ths of it. In a groundbreaking report - think Watergate meets Tailwind - OTM’s Rex Doane, who we see as a slightly more weathered Johnny Depp, reports.
Everyone has a sense of what it takes to pitch a movie to a studio executive: talk fast, compare it to two earlier blockbusters, and, if at all possible, think sequel. But that’s just the 9/10ths of it. In a groundbreaking report - think Watergate meets Tailwind - OTM’s Rex Doane, who we see as a slightly more weathered Johnny Depp, reports.
There are 500 to 1500 film festivals worldwide. Some festivals turn small towns into film distribution factories, while others are salutes to specific genres, like silent flicks, while still others bring the blockbusters of Hollywood to isolated parts of the world. Bob talks with Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan, author of Sundance to Sarajevo: Film Festivals and the World They Made.
Police officers depicted on television often come with standard issue halos, but cops in movies have a grittier, less-than-saintly edge to them. Good or bad, though, one staple of all police dramas is that cops have to break the rules sometimes in order for justice to be served. Brooke talks to scriptwriter David Milch, who’s made a living off his crooked cop characters.
George Lucas’ epic saga of light sabers, death stars and ewoks is the popularized restoration of a timeless arc of storytelling: the myth. Actually, Star Wars has less to do with Lucas’ intense interest in comparative mythology than in the science fiction he read growing up. So argues Salon.com writer Steven Hart, who talks with Brooke.
Sports network ESPN’s original movie debut this weekend features a red-sweater-clad Brian Dennehy tossing around swears and chairs in his portrayal of controversial college basketball coach Bobby Knight. Does this fictional account of a newsmaker ESPN frequently covers taint the journalistic integrity of the sports news station? Bob asks ESPN reporter Jeremy Schaap.
Shortly after the brutal, racially motivated murder of James Byrd in Jasper, Texas, a film crew came to town to document the lives of the residents. The filmmakers split the crews and those they interviewed along racial lines in order to capture the dueling perspectives in the small southern town. Brooke talks to Marco Williams and Whitney Dow about their documentary “Two Towns of Jasper.”
