WHAT'S UP DOC? - "THE VENTURES", "DISPOSABLE HUMANITY", "STUNTWOMEN: THE UNTOLD HOLLYWOOD STORY": THREE DOCUMENTARIES EVERY FILM LOVER NEEDS TO SEE IN 2021

What could make the greatest film summer of them all, 1982 - where within four months POLTERGEIST, STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN, E.T., ROCKY III, BLADE RUNNER, THE THING, CONAN THE BARBARIAN, TRON, FIREFOX, AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN, PINK FLOYD: THE WALL, THE SECRET OF NIMH, THE ROAD WARRIOR, NIGHT SHIFT, DINER and more, ... which 40 years ago all opened back-to-back / week-after-week - even better? How 'bout reliving that time with the people with whom you first saw many of those movies! That's what we did - inviting three of our closest life-long friends to step into the WayBack Machine with us to that most memorable summer. And, hey, in doing so we realized it wasn't just the films themselves which gave us that lifetime of memories we cherish to this day, but the fact that it was also a very special time of life associated with those movies which we came to emotionally - sometimes subconsciously - link to them. And as such, whether - like us - you got to those now-classic flicks of '82 in the first "POS" car you ever owned or on bicycles, whether those four months helped heal a first-time broken heart, or whether it was the last time you and your own personal STAND BY ME / STRANGER DAYS / FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH-like group of friends were ever together in the same room before separating to the four winds, to this day every time you rewatch one of those films a piece of you zooms back to the time and place you first saw it - and with whom you saw it - faster than Doc Brown can say "Great Scott!" or "1.21 gigawatts!".

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THE MOVIE SNEAK PODCAST is part of The GullCottage/Sandlot - a film blog, cinema magazine, growing reference library and online network "Celebrating The Art of Cinema, ... And Cinema As Art".

Explore the GULLCOTTAGE / SANDLOT @ www.gullcottageonline.com

Rights to film / TV clips and other audio excerpts held by copyright owners. Presented here for educational and criticism purposes.

The concept of independent cinema isn't as new as some believe, and there have always been two kinds. One is where stars break from the system to do their own thing - such as when Douglas Fairbanks, Mary Pickford, Charlie Chaplin and D.W. Griffith joined to form the (then) independent company United Artists to oppose the financial and creative strangulation of the “Big Five” studios of the day. And the other where a relative upstart / outsider has the chutzpah to not only tear down long-established walls, but in the process build bridges for others into the industry - such as when 100 years before Tyler Perry African-American novelist Oscar Micheaux establish himself as the first black American “one man studio”, directing and producing 40 films and seven novels in just under 30 years between 1919 and 1948. 

That spirit still exists today. And in celebration THE MOVIE SNEAK sits down with three filmmakers for our annual fireside on the current state of the independent cinematic arts. Stacy Layne Wilson takes us behind-the-scenes on her new “Lo Fi, Sci Fi, Rock ‘n Roll Comedy” THE SECOND AGE OF AQUARIUS. Filmmaker Amanda Kasmira Cryer gives us a little pre-vis on her searing in-the-works documentary INSIDE MEN which delves into prison reform and the need to do away with the “for-profit” incarceration system. And ahead-of-his-time writer / director Chris Chan Lee chats with us about his acclaimed hard-hitting 1997 coming-of-age drama YELLOW, and his “currently on the festival circuit" SILENT RIVER – which begins as a Sam Shepard-like drama about a man seeking reconciliation with his estranged wife, then branches in mind-bending genre territory worthy of Rod Serling and Richard Matheson. Recently returned from Europe where just a few weeks ago SILENT RIVER picked up a Jury Award at the Paris International Film Festival, we’re honored to have Chris -- along with Stacy and Amanda – join us for our Second Annual Celebration of “INDEPENDENT’S” DAY. 

More on STACY LAYNE WILSON @ ...

• Staci Layne Wilson Official Website
• Staci Layne Wilson - IMDb

More on AMANDA KASMIRA CRYER @ ...

• Amanda Cryer - IMDb
• Kazzy Reacts - YouTube

More on CHRIS CHAN LEE @ ...

• Chris Chan Lee - IMDb
• FILM AND TV NOW - CHRIS CHAN LEE (SILENT RIVER) INTERVIEW - YouTube

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THE MOVIE SNEAK PODCAST is part of The GullCottage/Sandlot - a film blog, cinema magazine, growing reference library and online network "Celebrating The Art of Cinema, ... And Cinema As Art".

Explore the GULLCOTTAGE / SANDLOT @ www.gullcottageonline.com

Rights to film / TV clips and other audio excerpts held by copyright owners. Presented here for educational and criticism purposes.

It's that time of year again where - as certain as those proverbial death, taxes and the changing of the seasons (though usually a lot more fun) - THE MOVIE SNEAK PODCAST unleashes its choices for the annual CHEAPIE BIN AWARDS. The world's most unpretentious awards show (which really doesn't actually give out any trophies), THE CHEAPIE BINS celebrates a love of film by delving into our favorites from the last year. The twist, though, is they aren't necessarily films which opened within the last year. But are rather films we've only just seen in that last year via taking a chance / a flyer / a gamble and picking them up for a buck or two in a local supermarket, drug store or Dollar Store / Dollar Tree cheapie bin. As such, we take into consideration old and new, and everything from studio fare and critical gems to contemporary action flicks and old-school grindhousers in our awards categories - "Best Remake or Reboot", "Most Surprising Film, ... In A Good Way", "Most Technically Impressive", "Fave Film Which The Rest of The World Absolutely Hated", "Favorite Guilty Pleasure" and "Best CHEAPIE BIN-DER Of The Year". 

"The envelope please" 😄  

*NOTES* The audio distortion during the first 30 seconds of the episode is intentional. And some film audio clips contain explicit language which some may find offensive. Just givin' you a heads up!

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THE MOVIE SNEAK PODCAST is part of The GullCottage/Sandlot - a film blog, cinema magazine, growing reference library and online network "Celebrating The Art of Cinema, ... And Cinema As Art".

Explore the GULLCOTTAGE / SANDLOT @ www.gullcottageonline.com

Rights to film / TV clips and other audio excerpts held by copyright owners. Presented here for educational and criticism purposes.

"Neo" means "new". But from Charlottesville, to the plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, to the January 6th terror attack (and Sept.18th rally attempting to recasts the insurrectionists as "political prisoners") and beyond, it's the same age-old supremacist doctrine which earlier fueled Germany's "Beer Hall Putsch" and the Holocaust, South Africa's once all dominant Apartheid, and America's "Jim Crow". So, let's be clear there's nothing "new" about any of this at all. Art - including cinema - is society's subconscious. And in the 1980s, when long-standing ethnic / cultural barriers were being torn down (remember MTV refusing to air black artists until the success of Michael Jackson and Prince forced them too?), there was rising blowback among those who felt they were losing long-held power. And before this blowback was publicly acknowledged (or maybe even realized) by the general public, filmmakers had already picked up on it and addressed the threat in a remarkable number of mainstream films between 1988 - '89 where white supremacists and their doctrine were challenged head-on as a modern day threat: among those films - Costa-Gavras' BETRAYED and MUSIC BOX, Oliver Stone's TALK RADIO, John Frankenheimer's DEAD BANG, Clint Eastwood's PINK CADILLAC, Richard Donner's LETHAL WEAPON 2, along with MISSISSIPPI BURNING, MURDERER'S AMONG US, A DRY WHITE SEASON, TRIUMPH OF THE SPIRIT, HANNA'S WAR and others. And it's remarkable how, when re-watching these films today, they all seem as if they could have been shot as recently as just last week. 

In one of our most stark and raw installments (yes, we've still got film audio clips, but no background music or slick production this time around) Craig and Jim recall the era, and do in-depth retros on the various films as they related to the social / political landscape of their day, ... as well as how many still amazingly / tragically closely relate to our present.  

*NOTE* THIS EPISODE CONTAINS FILM AUDIO CLIPS AND LANGUAGE WHICH SOME MY FIND DISTURBING.

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THE MOVIE SNEAK PODCAST is part of The GullCottage/Sandlot - a film blog, cinema magazine, growing reference library and online network "Celebrating The Art of Cinema, ... And Cinema As Art".

Explore the GULLCOTTAGE / SANDLOT @ www.gullcottageonline.com

Rights to film / TV clips and other audio excerpts held by copyright owners. Presented here for educational and criticism purposes.

Ever see any of those films, ... or POSEIDON, SMALL SOLDIERS, HOCUS POCUS, NEWSIES, PAYCHECK, THE FLINTSTONES or HOTEL FOR DOGS? Whew - helluva career! Well, all of their sets - those created cinematic worlds and many more - were imagined and designed by the legendary William Sandell. And we’ve got him! So, sit back, crack one open, light ‘em if you got ‘em, open a steno pad and take some notes ... or whatever it is you do. Because Sandell’s taking us on a trip, both chill and informative as all hell at the same time, through behind-the-scenes Hollywood history - from his early days as a set dresser on films like MEAN STREETS, TRUCK TURNER, BLACK BELT JONES and Roger Corman’s BIG BAD MAMMA, to world creator on later day modern faves which have actually become traveling art museum staples like HOCUS POCUS. Prepare to have your movie mind blown.

Learn more - 

* WILLIAM SANDELL online @ https://williamsandell.com/

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THE MOVIE SNEAK PODCAST is part of The GullCottage/Sandlot - a film blog, cinema magazine, growing reference library and online network "Celebrating The Art of Cinema, ... And Cinema As Art".

Explore the GULLCOTTAGE / SANDLOT @ www.gullcottageonline.com

Rights to film / TV clips and other audio excerpts held by copyright owners. Presented here for educational and criticism purposes.

The best awards show ever for "Movies No One Gives A Damn About, ... But Should!" returns with THE MOVIE SNEAK's annual CHEAPIE BIN AWARDS. Y'know those department store, Rite-Aid and Dollar Store dump bins overflowing with that disorganized mess of Blu-rays and DVDs? Well, once per year we offer up a "Best Of" list culled from films - older and newer - we've only just seen over the last 12 months because we took a flyer, dove into that pile and pulled out what turned out to be some true cinematic gems. And with categories ranging from "Biggest Pleasant Surprise", to "Best Remake or Reboot", to "Favorite Film Which The Rest Of The World Absolutely Hated!" and more, we're pretty effin' certain there's gonna be something for every taste in this our latest celebration of the "$4 DOLLAR FILM FESTIVAL". That one right around the corner and down the aisle from the paper towels and Pepto. Also ... 

THE MOVIE SNEAK MASTERS SERIES (begins at 5:06 min. mark) returns with a chat with conductor / award-winning filmmaker Amy Andersson. The founder of Orchestra Moderne NY, Maestra Andersson is an industry multi-tasker renowned for conducting operatic, symphonic, Broadway musical, and video game concerts globally - among the most popular being the uber-successful THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: SYMPHONY OF THE GODDESSES tour. She's made appearances on THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT, the CBS MORNING and CBS EVENING SHOWs and more. And she’s the creator and producer of WOMEN WARRIORS: THE VOICES OF CHANGE - a stunning multimedia "live-to-picture" symphony production featuring the music of eight celebrated contemporary female composers synched to a silent 70 minute documentary film. Premiering at Lincoln Center to rave reviews on September 20th, 2019, the soul stirring concert creation honors the strength and heroism of global activists fighting for social justice, human and civil rights, gender equality, environmental causes, and for the right of every girl around the world to an education. Brava, Maestra Andersson!  

Learn more -

* WOMEN WARRIORS: THE VOICES OF CHANGE @ https://womenwarriorsthevoicesofchange.com/

* Amy Andersson conducts THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: SYMPHONY OF THE GODDESSES on THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT (10/13/15) @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgRn5Ir2Dmg

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THE MOVIE SNEAK PODCAST is part of The GullCottage/Sandlot - a film blog, cinema magazine, growing reference library and online network "Celebrating The Art of Cinema, ... And Cinema As Art".

Explore the GULLCOTTAGE / SANDLOT @ www.gullcottageonline.com

Rights to film / TV clips and other audio excerpts held by copyright owners. Presented here for educational and criticism purposes.

Remember when documentaries were the purview of PBS, Jacques Cousteau, the Disney Nature films of the 60s, and they felt like junior high Social Studies? Not anymore! Since filmmakers Barbara Koppel, Michael Moore, Ken Burns and others entered the field the documentary has become one of the primary contemporary catalysts for environmental change, setting straight the long-bent historical record, and instigating a wide spectrum of social change – from setting the innocent free, sending those who “got away with it” up the river, bringing abusive political, religious and other leaders to justice … . And, oh, yeah, very often they're as damned entertaining (and poignantly moving) as any narrative film. But what sets one apart as unique or special? We've got three films we believe by year's end will be forefront in the hearts and minds of many, ... and we've got a sit-down with each of the filmmakers behind them.

Staci Layne Wilson's THE VENTURES: STARS ON GUITARS (begin 4:10) is a fast and fun retrospective of her father Don Wilson and The World's All Time Bestselling Instrumental Band - featuring testimonials, accolades and fandom from everyone from Jimmy Page, John Fogerty and The Surfragettes, to Lalo Schifrin, Billy Bob Thornton and more. With DISPOSABLE HUMANITY (begin 16:15) documentarian Cameron Mitchell traversed Europe to bring to light WWII Germany's tragic (but little known) medical genocide program "Aktion T4" which took the lives of 300,000 physically disabled, and served as a developmental precursor to gas chamber "technology", death camps and ultimately the Holocaust. And finally with STUNTWOMEN: THE UNTOLD HOLLYWOOD STORY (begin 29:44) director April Wright and THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS' Michelle Rodriguez pull out all the stops and let the film industry's greatest stuntwomen tell their own story with stirring (and at times heartbreaking) recollections ... and the best scenes from some of Hollywood’s greatest action flicks. Wright calls her film an “action documentary”. But truth is it’s a bad-assed contemporary action classic in it’s own right  - with the participation of over 50 filmmakers and (of course) those high flying, physics smashing stuntwomen themselves!

Learn more - 

* THE VENTURES: STARS ON GUITARS @ https://theventuresstarsonguitars.com/movie

* DISPOSABLE HUMANITY @ https://www.disposablehumanity.com/?fbclid=IwAR0QCqtmtHi4RI1vci9dMrt1O0x72khEzPNiUfev1DI1d29jQlgeSvyCY1M

* STUNTWOMEN: THE UNTOLD HOLLYWOOD STORY @ 

https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/stuntwomen-untold-hollywood-story-watch-150057359.html

https://instabio.cc/StuntWomen?fbclid=IwAR3sjTqDbpfh2NXH1u6P3MISaewQR5zMy60pGjj5HwpZhPLXAWWkeMFW-ac

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THE MOVIE SNEAK PODCAST is part of The GullCottage/Sandlot - a film blog, cinema magazine, growing reference library and online network "Celebrating The Art of Cinema, ... And Cinema As Art".

Explore the GULLCOTTAGE / SANDLOT @ www.gullcottageonline.com

Rights to film / TV clips and other audio excerpts held by copyright owners. Presented here for educational and criticism purposes. 

Elections both large and small, every time one rolls around we hear the inevitable refrain of how "Never has one been more important!". With America's 2020 Presidential race, however, regardless of where one falls within the political spectrum, we don't think anyone would disagree with that assessment this time around. We're old enough to remember how years ago before a few Presidential elections Roger Ebert & Gene Siskel did a handful of episodes entitled "Films Every President Needs To See Before Taking Office" which included such expected titles as DR. STRANGELOVE, FAIL SAFE and others. Now on the occasion of our 2020 election we present our version directed more at the voters called FILMS EVERY VOTER SHOULD REMEMBER BEFORE ENTERING THE BALLOT BOOTH. Yeah, you'll find a couple you know, but maybe even one or two you've not yet seen ... or of which you may not even be aware. As Samuel L. Jackson said ... "Vote, dammit!"  

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THE MOVIE SNEAK PODCAST is part of The GullCottage/Sandlot - a film blog, cinema magazine, growing reference library and online network "Celebrating The Art of Cinema, ... And Cinema As Art".

Explore the GULLCOTTAGE / SANDLOT @ www.gullcottageonline.com

Rights to film / TV clips and other audio excerpts held by copyright owners. Presented here for educational and criticism purposes. 

Few historical figures have been as polarizing as Christopher Columbus. So, how does someone create a film which - as if piecing together an historical puzzle with personal journals, newly discovered archaeological and forensics evidence and more - paints a dramatic portrait of both sides of the man: at once a brave and brilliant navigator, explorer and missionary; but ultimately also an obsessed seeker of gold, exploiter of a continent, and slaver? Well, leave it to Ridley Scott. Lauded today as the director of such classic historical dramas as GLADIATOR and KINGDOM OF HEAVEN, as well as more contemporary ones the likes of BLACK HAWK DOWN and AMERICAN GANGSTER, back in 1992 he was mostly known as the man behind highly stylized and extremely pulpish genre films such as ALIEN, BLADE RUNNER, LEGEND and BLACK RAIN. But in a year which saw three other Christopher Columbus films – one another historical drama, one a comedy, and one even an animated family film! - Scott’s blend of hardcore fact and fascinatingly plausible speculation, ... which landed in theaters 500 years to the day of Columbus' landing in the "New World", ... was the only one which refused to put the Columbus statue on a pedestal, but chose not to topple it either. Rather he and screenwriter Roselyne Bosch moved it into the filmic equivalent of an interactive museum (so to speak) where it could be placed in context, debated, parceled and argued over as one of the best realized (if not always flattering) examinations of the controversial explorer outside a History Channel documentary. Not a success at the time of it's initial release, as many didn't much care for it's (so-called) "darker tone, 1492: CONQUEST OF PARADISE nonetheless remains the unsung (and still mostly unseen) jewel in director Scott's storied cinematic crown.

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THE MOVIE SNEAK PODCAST is part of The GullCottage/Sandlot - a film blog, cinema magazine, growing reference library and online network "Celebrating The Art of Cinema, ... And Cinema As Art".

Explore the GULLCOTTAGE / SANDLOT @ www.gullcottageonline.com

Rights to film / TV clips and other audio excerpts held by copyright owners. Presented here for educational and criticism purposes. 

Some films are perhaps too experimental (or just too ahead of their time) to be understood, ... even by their makers. After winning the Cannes Film Festival's Palm d'or for his 1989 breakout hit SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPE, Steven Soderbergh was dubbed the "poster boy of the Sundance generation". Eagerly courted by studios large and small, filmdom eagerly anticipated the wunderkind's next cinematic endeavor. Then when KAFKA hit theaters in November of 1991 there was a loud world-wide collective “What the f**k!” accompanied by a lot of head scratching. Close thematic, visual and tonal kin to Terry Gilliam's earlier BRAZIL, David Cronenberg's later NAKED LUNCH and Alex Proyas' DARK CITY, director Soderbergh and screenwriter Lem Dobbs fashioned KAFKA as their own version of Cronenberg's "Brundle-Fly" - wherein the genomes of different beings were fused together to create an all new one. In this case feeling it impossible to faithfully adapt a Kafka story to the screen “in toto”, they took literary DNA from various works by the author, combined them with references to Kafka's actual life, then stirred them together into a brand new narrative in which the budding author in 1919 Prauge takes place in a freakishly macabre mystery - elements of which would later find their way into some of his most famous stories.

A box office failure, and unavailable on home video for almost 20 years, the film has developed a fervent cult following, ... with us among the loudest members of this "misunderstood masterpiece's" cheerleading squad. Soderbergh himself has since even re-evaluated his own film, and has plans to do a new "Midnight Cut" which would make it even more "Rorshach"-like. If unfamiliar with this gem, join us for a 20 minute "mini pod" rundown of what still remains our all time favorite Soderbergh flick, and one of the most intriguing films of the entire decade of the 90s.

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THE MOVIE SNEAK PODCAST is part of The GullCottage/Sandlot - a film blog, cinema magazine, growing reference library and online network "Celebrating The Art of Cinema, ... And Cinema As Art".

Explore the GULLCOTTAGE / SANDLOT @ www.gullcottageonline.com

Rights to film / TV clips and other audio excerpts held by copyright owners. Presented here for educational and criticism purposes.