American Casino documentary film trailer
Sunday, September 13th, 2009
Politicians and the media like to talk about the relationship between Wall Street and Main Street, but investigative journalist Leslie burns debut feature gets to the guts of the matter, visiting defectors from Bear Stearns and Standard & Poors and other high-level players in the subprime mortgage gamble (not to mention Bloomberg’s Mark Pittman, America’s finest financial reporter) and, on the flipside, visiting the working-class Americans who were the unwitting chips on the table. Unique in coverage of the financial fiasco that is ruining us all, American Casino tracks the fate of a subprime borrower enmeshed in a Goldman-Sachs mortgage bond, catches Alan Greenspan in his most abject moment of self justification, and takes to the post-apocalyptic world of California’s Riverside County, where millions of disease-bearing mosquitoes are breeding in the stagnant swimming pools of the foreclosed American dream. All this musically underscored by the irony and pathos of Moby, the caustic humor of Herbie Hancock, Bruce Springsteen’s haunting evocation of the last great depression, as well as astonishing hip hop tracks from the streets of Baltimore.
Official selection Tribeca Film Fetival 2009
For more information visit www.americancasinothemovie.com
It is rare that a documentary director has the privilege to shoot a film that, while in production, becomes the greatest story of our time. The worst case scenario of January 2008, when we began work on American Casino, turned into reality in the year that followed. We were able to follow our characters through Wall Streets collapse, foreclosure, bankruptcy, homelessness. We watched whole neighborhoods ravaged by the subprime meltdown. I have spent much of my career filming in war zones and post apocalyptic societies — Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan. But I never expected such a disaster at home. To be there, with a camera, while it was happening, telling the story, was certainly the highlight of my career.
— Leslie burn, Director
Duration : 0:2:44
Alex talks with Bill Federer, author of American Minute, about the Constitution and the Fourth of July.
Alex talks with Bill Federer, author of American Minute, about the Constitution and the Fourth of July.
Alex talks with Bill Federer, author of American Minute, about the Constitution and the Fourth of July.
The Wall (1962) / Berlin Wall Documentary Film Video. Creative Commons license: Public Domain. Government film about the erection of the Berlin Wall. From the holdings of the National Archives.Sponsor: United States Information Agency. The Berlin Wall (German: Berliner Mauer) was a physical barrier separating West Berlin from the German Democratic Republic (GDR) (East Germany), including East Berlin. The longer inner German border demarcated the border between East and West Germany. Both borders came to symbolize the Iron Curtain between Western and Eastern Europe and, ultimately, between USA and the Soviet Union. The wall separated East Germany from West Germany for more than a quarter-century, from the day construction began on August 13, 1961 until the Wall was opened on November 9, 1989. During this period, at least 136 people were confirmed killed trying to cross the Wall into West Berlin, according to official figures. However, a prominent victims’ group claims that more than 200 people were killed trying to flee from East to West Berlin. The East German government issued shooting orders to border guards dealing with defectors; such orders are not the same as shoot to kill orders which GDR officials denied ever issuing. When the East German government announced on November 9, 1989, after several weeks of civil unrest, that all GDR citizens could visit West Germany and West Berlin, crowds of East Germans climbed onto and crossed the wall, joined by West Germans on the other side in a celebratory atmosphere. Over the next few weeks, parts of the wall were chipped away by a euphoric public and by souvenir hunters; industrial equipment was later used to remove almost all of the rest of it. The fall of the Berlin Wall paved the way for German reunification, which was formally concluded on October 3, 1990. On Saturday, 12 August 1961, the leaders of the GDR attended a garden party at a government guesthouse in Döllnsee, in a wooded area to the north of East Berlin, at which time Ulbricht signed the order to close the border and erect a wall. At midnight, the police and units of the East German army began to close the border and by Sunday morning, 13 August 1961, the border with West Berlin was closed. East German troops and workers had begun to tear up streets running alongside the border to make them impassable to most vehicles, and to install barbed wire entanglements and fences along the 156 km (97 miles) around the three western sectors and the 43 km (27 miles) which actually divided West and East Berlin. The Soviets were not directly involved. The barrier was built slightly inside East Berlin or East German territory to ensure that it did not encroach on West Berlin at any point, and was later built up into the Wall proper, the first concrete elements and large blocks being put in place on August 15. During the construction of the Wall, NVA and KdA soldiers stood in front of it with orders to shoot anyone who attempted to defect. Additionally, chain fences, walls, minefields, and other obstacles were installed along the length of the inner-German border between East and West Germany. Due to the closure of the East-West sector boundary in Berlin, the vast majority of East Germans could no longer travel or emigrate to West Germany. Many families were split, while East Berliners employed in the West were cut off from their jobs; West Berlin became an isolated enclave in a hostile land. West Berliners demonstrated against the wall, led by their Chancellor Willy Brandt, who strongly criticized the United States for failing to respond. Allied intelligence agencies had hypothesized about a wall to stop the flood of refugees, but the main candidate for its location was around the perimeter of the city.
(Highlights only) This documentary paints a compelling portrait of Taurean Charles, a high school football player for Miami’s Northwestern Bulls. Located in Miami’s impoverished Liberty neighborhood, Northwestern high has a history as a breeding ground for college football and NFL players. Led to believe that football is his only ticket out, Charles focuses all his efforts on earning a place on a Division I collegiate team, letting his grades suffer in the process. But if Charles can’t raise his SAT score to meet the NCAA’s standards, he might never escape his inner city life. As Charles struggles to meet demands from his coaches, family, and society, he wonders who he can actually trust. YEAR OF THE BULL reveals the immense pressures facing poor black youth, and exposes the violent and cruel methods used by coaches to push young athletes.