Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Favorite Movie Reviewed

Excerpt from: Time Goes By (click for full article)

 

There are numerous great films of the 1940s. After searching the back shelves of my memory bank, an all time favorite of mine is It’s A Wonderful Life with Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey and Donna Reed as Mary Hatcher.

It was a curious phenomena that I hadn’t seen the movie until the early 1990s. One of those great flicks that had fallen through the cracks of daily experience along with a myriad of other movies viewed.

I was in my mid-forties when one bitter cold winter’s evening I turned on the television and there was, It’s A Wonderful Life, right at the beginning.

This movie is great for it shows how deeply connected we all are to each other in ways totally not discernible and that our place in the great scheme of things does make a difference and is worthwhile despite the many vicissitudes we all struggle with.

We learn we can make a difference, that the measure of our worth has nothing to do with fame and fortune. I suspect this movie has touched literally thousands of lives to see a perspective of their own lives they had never considered before.

Autism Gets Hollywood Treatment In ‘Story Of Luke’

Excerpt from: Disability Scoop (click for full article)

 

A feature film debuting at movie theaters across the country this week is giving big-screen attention to the desire among many with developmental disabilities for independence as they become adults.

“The Story of Luke” focuses on a 25-year-old with autism who is adjusting to life with relatives after his grandmother — and long-time caretaker — dies. Luke resolves to make it on his own and embarks on a journey to find a job and a girlfriend.

The fictional account is rooted in the real-life experiences of the film’s writer and director, Alonso Mayo, whose mother runs a school for those with developmental disabilities in Peru. Mayo said he was inspired to write the script after seeing many kids from his mother’s school grow into adults who yearned for the same opportunities as their typically developing peers.

The Best of Quentin Tarantino: Celebrating the Director’s 50th Birthday with our Favorite Videos

Excerpt from: Open Culture (click for full article)

 

We recently featured a Vanity Fair article on the making of Quentin Tarantino’s  Pulp Fiction, marking the only semi-believable fact that its making happened 20 years ago. But can you accept that the making of Tarantino himself happened 50 years ago? We think of the motormouthed, grammatically unconcerned, pop-cultural blender of a filmmaker as an eternal genius adolescent, consummately skilled and passionate but never well served by the rigid structures of traditional education and craft. His recent releases like Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained don’t even hint at a cooling of the fire within. As the man who (for better or for worse) represents the past two decades of creativity in American cinema crosses the middle-age rubicon, seemingly untroubled, we ask this: how does Quentin Tarantino do it? To help you find the answer yourself, we’ve rounded up all of our choicest pieces of Tarantino-related material.

Six Reasons To See The Jackie Robinson Biopic '42'

Excerpt from: Vibe (click for full article)

 

Big screen newcomer Chadwick Boseman broke a sweat as the leading man of 42. The biopic centers on the arduous career of legendary baseballer Jackie Robinson as he faces racial adversity on and off and on-the-field some more. Eventually, the short stop becomes a symbol of black excellence in a white-dominated, post-Civil War world.

Film Highlights Hepatitis Research on Kids With Disabilities

Excerpt from: ABC News (click for full article)

 

“Willowbrook,” a film that highlights hepatitis research on disabled children during the 1960s, was screened  in New York last weekend as part of ReelAbilities, a festival that features disabilities in film.

“It was unanimously accepted by our board,” said ReelAbilities director Isaac Zablocki. “When we saw it, there was no question we wanted to keep it.”

Although it is a work of fiction, the film is based on the Willowbrook State School, which was an institution in Staten Island, N.Y., for children with intellectual disabilities until the late 1980s. During the 1950s and 1960s, some children there were purposefully exposed to hepatitis for research.

The film follows a new doctor, Bill Huntsman, as he learns what the research patients endure for inpatient care and must decide whether he wants to participate. Huntsman’s superior, known only as Dr. Horowitz, explains that parents willingly give consent for hepatitis research on their children because they think they have no other choice. The non-research ward stopped taking new patients, but the research ward will take children in if they undergo a hepatitis injection.

ReelAbilitiesBoston Disabilities Film Festival sets records

Excerpt from: Metrowest Daily News (click for full article)

 

The second annual ReelAbilities Boston Disabilities Film Festival was a record setter, according to festival officials.

The festival, presented from Jan. 31-Feb. 5, enjoyed a nearly 21 percent jump in overall attendance and a record number of people attending a single screening.

ReelAbilities Boston, presented by The Boston Jewish Film Festival, saw attendance rise to almost 850 people. The screening of Israeli feature film "Mabul" ("The Flood") drew 275 people, the best ever for a single screening at the Festival.

The festival also had a jump in the number of movies from six to nine and spread to new locales in Hanover, Newton and Springfield.

10 Reasons 19th Century Paris Was As Miserable As Les Mis

Excerpt from: Listverse (click for full article)

 

By now you’ve probably either seen the movie, watched the play or read the book Les Miserables, Victor Hugo’s classic tale of life in nineteenth century Paris. But have you ever wondered if life in Paris at that time really was as miserable as the movie depicts? Here are ten reasons why it was even worse:

10. Women Had It Really Rough

9. Children Were Regularly Abandoned

8. Child Prostitution

7. Lower Classes Were Despised By Upper Classes

6. Men Had It Just As Bad

5. Living Conditions Were Terrible

4. Life Stunk

3. Cholera Epidemic

2. The Morgue Became A Place of Entertainment

1. The Reign of Terror

James Earl Jones, Angela Lansbury working together in their 80s

Excerpt from: The Oakland Press (click for full article)

Patti's comment: I love them both!

 

They're starring in a play about a woman reluctant to age and the perils of passing time, but veteran actors James Earl Jones and Angela Lansbury say that life in their 80s continues to be exciting thanks to their determination to keep doing what they love.

Jones and Lansbury, in Australia to star in a touring production of Alfred Uhry's Pulitzer-Prize winning play "Driving Miss Daisy," say the thrill of performing has propelled them throughout their decades-long careers and gives them the energy necessary to keep up with their often grueling schedules.

"Coming back to the theater about seven years ago turned the tide for me, it really did. Because it gave me a career after 70," she said. "I could still work in the theater and play great roles, but it wasn't so easy to continue as a motion picture actress. Which I was very glad of — I didn't like the way we were making movies ... the kind of roles I would like to play didn't seem to exist. But I love the theater and, as it turned out, it was the thing to do."

 

Faulkner Estate Sues Sony Over Quote From ‘Midnight in Paris’

Excerpt from: ABA Journal (click for full article)

 

The estate of William Faulkner sued Sony Pictures Classics Thursday, alleging that the studio used the author’s work without permission in the 2011 Woody Allen film Midnight in Paris.

The work in question is from Faulkner’s Requiem for a Nun, according to Variety. Midnight in Paris is about a writer, played by Owen Wilson, who romanticized the city’s literary community of the 1920s and magically goes back to meet writers like Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Gertrude Stein.

"The past is not dead! Actually, it's not even past. You know who said that? Faulkner. And he was right. And I met him, too. I ran into him at a dinner party,” Wilson’s character says in the film.

According to Variety, Faulkner actually wrote "The past is never dead. It's not even past."

According to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi complaint (PDF), Sony should have sought to obtain permission to use the line.

Sony had no immediate comment about the complaint, Variety reports.

Sprout film programs - featuring people with developmental disabilities

From Sprout Film Festival.org:

Here are a few pieces of news related to Sprout’s film programs I think you may find of interest.

Sproutflix:  In addition to the option of purchasing DVDs, streams and downloads of films featuring people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, we created a new, affordable educational tool. In response to a growing interest in using our films for training and educational purposes, we now provide customized “playlists” in an easy, user-friendly format.  We can help you select from our growing catalog of artistic, entertaining, personal, memorable films to fit your specific needs. Check out this sample playlist and contact me with questions or to receive a customized proposal: http://sproutflix.org/stream/your-customized-playlist 

Sprout Touring Film Festival: We recently returned from Little Rock, AR and Duluth, MN and in the coming weeks, I will be bringing programs of films to the following locations:

Alfred, NY -  Alfred State College –  Tuesday October 16

St. Bonaventure, NY -  St. Bonaventure University – Wednesday October 17

Albany, NY - Cerebral Palsy Association of NYS – Tuesday October 23

Washington, DC  -  The Arc National Convention – Thursday October 24

Boise, ID -  The Arc of Idaho – Saturday November 3

Nashville, TN -  The Arc Davidson County – Friday November 9

Please share this information with anyone you believe may be interested. Contact me if you would like a proposal to bring the Sprout Touring Film Festival to your area.

2013 Sprout Film Festival:   The dates are set!!!   Friday May 31 - Sunday June 2  

For our 11^th annual festival we will once again return to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.  Our “Call for Submissions” is now open.  For details about submitting a film for consideration, please check out the festival website:  www.sproutfilmfestival.org