News stories tagged with "documentary"

(07/01/10) Last December, Jose Obeth Santiz Cruz of Mexico was killed when his shirt got caught in a machine on a Vermont dairy farm. The incident renewed concerns over Hispanic farmworkers in the dairy industry who are in this country illegally. An estimated 1500 work on dairy farms in Vermont. Hundreds more work in northern New York. A farmworkers' rights group helped return Santiz Cruz' remains to his family in Chiapas, Mexico. The Vermont Migrant Farmworker Solidarity Project made a documentary about their journey. It's called "Silenced Voices" and debuts tonight at 7 at the Black Box Theater in Burlington. Brendan O'Neill teaches English to Hispanic farmworkers in Vermont. He co-directed the documentary and spoke with David Sommerstein.

(02/04/10) Lake Placid's Olympic heritage goes deep -- back to 1932, and through the "Miracle on Ice" 1980 games, to this month's games in Vancouver, Canada. The story of how Lake Placid developed as a winter sports resort and hosted two Olympic Winter Games is told in the documentary Small Town, Big Dreams. The film is being shown nationwide on public television this month as part of the 30th anniversary of the winter games in Lake Placid. It includes rare film footage and audio recordings from museums and private collections. Todd Moe talks with Adirondack-area filmmaker Scott Carroll about some of the people behind the '32 and '80 Winter Olympics, and whether the region could host the winter games again.

(06/16/08) The First People's Festival runs this week through Sunday in Montreal. It showcases the best in art and culture from America's indigenous people. Showing tonight is a new documentary about a neighborhood in Brooklyn that was the epicenter of a community of Mohawk ironworkers in the 1940s and '50s. "Little Caughnawaga: To Brooklyn and Back" tells the story of that neighborhood through the eyes of the ironworkers' wives, and through their descendant, Reaghan Tarbell. Tarbell directed the film. She spoke with David Sommerstein.

(04/17/08) A cutting-edge Dutch/Indonesian filmmaker will show and speak about one of his films Monday night in Potsdam. It's a part of the Cinema 10 film series. Leonard Retel Helmrich's documentary "Promised Paradise" has been banned in Indonesia. Helmrich is known for inventing a special technique for filming his documentaries, called "single shot cinema." "Promised Paradise" traces the story of a puppeteer who tries to arrange an interview with the perpetrators of the 2002 terrorist bombing at a nightclub in Bali. Helmrich spoke with David Sommerstein. "Promised Paradise" shows at 7:15 pm Monday night at the Roxy Theater in Potsdam.

(05/25/07) A new documentary about Fort Drum's 10th Mountain Division debuts Sunday at 7pm on WPBS in Watertown. The Last Ridge: the Uphill Battles of the 10th Mountain Division uses vintage film footage, first-person accounts, and on-location reenactments to bring to life the 10th Mountain's role in World War 2. NPR's Scott Simon is the narrator. Abbie Kealy directed, wrote, and produced The Last Ridge. She told David Sommerstein it's the story of the division's daring assault on the German front in the mountains of northern Italy in 1945.

(04/01/02) David Sommerstein talks with award-winning documentary director Stephanie Black. She'll be in Potsdam tonight to show and talk about her latest film, Life and Debt. It highlights how the policies of global lending organizations like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund affect everyday people in Jamaica. The film features a reggae soundtrack.

Life and Debt will be shown at the Roxy Theater in Potsdam at 7:15, with an introduction and discussion afterwards with Stephanie Black. One of the artists featured on the soundtrack, Yami Bolo, will be playing live at Maxfields in Potsdam Monday at 10 pm.