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The Juarez murders have inspired songs, plays, and telenovelas, and now, feature films. In two movies scheduled for release later this year, Minnie Driver and J-Lo play journalists on the trail of the killers. You might think the attention would be welcome. But Diana Washington Valdez, who covered the story for the El Paso Times for almost 12 years, tells Bob why the Hollywood treatment might do more harm then good.
Climate change may be a tough sell for newspaper editors, but what about sitcom writers? Lately the subject has been popping up in some unexpected places, and behind many of these plot twists is actor and environmental activist Laurie David, a co-producer of the new Al Gore documentary. She tells Mike Pesca about her effort to make global warming a pop culture phenomenon.
Sigmund Freud was born 150 years ago this weekend. He’s certainly pop culture’s most-cited psychoanalyst, but his influence on media doesn’t end there – Freud’s ideas are cinema staples: flashbacks, projection, not to mention the sexual stuff. Brooke speaks with Andrea Sabbadini, a psychoanalyst and chairman of the European Psychoanalytical Film Festival.
While the experts may assert that psychoanalysis can’t really be portrayed on film, this hasn’t stopped filmmakers from trying. A few years back, OTM asked Sara Fishko to assemble some of the more memorable attempts to put the unconscious on the big screen.
In many of the historically-liberal nations of Western Europe, years of immigration from the South have raised difficult questions about assimilation and tolerance. Loath to admit to a clash of cultures, the European media often ignore the issues. But at the Berlin Film Festival this year, at least three movies addressed the internal divide. LA Times reporter Jeffrey Fleishman screened the films, and shares some of his impressions with Bob.
"CSA: The Confederate States of America" opened this week. The film imagines an America in which the South won the Civil War. Under the Confederate States of America, Abraham Lincoln is captured – in blackface – trying to escape to Canada and slavery is the law of the land. It all plays out in what looks like a Ken Burns documentary, complete with slow pans of still photos, and talking head historians. Bob speaks with filmmaker Kevin Wilmott about this weirdly plausible version of American history.
You've heard him in dozens of movies, but you can't quite place his name. That's because he's not an actor, he's a sound effect. And among sound editors he's legendary. On the Media's David Serchuck reports.
Last month, Ted Peshak passed away. You might not recognize the name, but if you came of age just after World War II, there's a good chance you're familiar with one of his "hygiene films." The ten-minute black and white films, often screened in classrooms, illustrated the dangers of shyness and the virtues of soap and water. Brooke discusses Peshak's legacy with Ken Smith, author of the oral history Mental Hygiene.
