Roundup: Pop Culture & the Arts ... Movies, Documentaries and Museum Exhibits

'Last Confederate' filmmaker finally sees project released

Aspiring filmmaker Julian Adams has finally seen a dream come true. His production “The Last Confederate: The Story of Robert Adams,” formerly known as “Strike The Tent,” is being released by ThinkFilm for theatrical runs this month and in June. Then it is scheduled to be released June 26 on DVD ($27.98). “I feel great about this,” Adams said in California during a telephone interview. “We had other offers, but ThinkFilm seemed like a good fit for us. I feel they will g

Japan's WWII "Kamikaze" Film Sparks Talk of Peace

A film celebrating Japan's wartime ''kamikaze'' suicide pilots and written by Tokyo's nationalist governor opened in theatres on Saturday, sparking more of a pacifist than a patriotic response from audiences. The movie comes as Japan's government edges towards a vote on revising the U.S.-drafted constitution that has strictly limited the country's military activities for six decades following its World War Two defeat. ``For Those We Love,'' written by Shintaro Ishihara,

A Film Rides The Hamilton Revival (American Experience/PBS)

Like the stock market, Alexander Hamilton has hit recent highs," the president of the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, James Basker, told a crowd of history buffs gathered in Trinity Church. The event was a sneak preview of the "American Experience" film "Alexander Hamilton," which will make its premiere on Monday on PBS. As Mr. Basker noted, the timing of the film is serendipitous: After long being caricatured as an elitist, and compared unfavo

Berlin Exhibition Honors Little-Known Nazi Opponent

A new exhibition at a Berlin museum -- a former brush factory run by a German entrepreneur during the Nazi era -- throws light on a network of people who tried to save Jews from deportation to Hitler's death camps. Tucked away in a backyard in Berlin's downtown Mitte district amid art galleries, cinemas and bars, the museum "Blindenwerkstatt Otto Weidt" is a former brush workshop run by German entrepreneur Otto Weidt in the 1940s. Wedt hired Jewish workers --

When Images Take on Lives of Their Own (Documentary)

This documentary by Hans Pool and Maaik Krijgsman about four World Press Photo contest winners defines icon to mean a still image so searing that it supplants memories of the event it was supposed to record. The selected pictures pass the test: a South Vietnamese brigadier general executing a Vietcong guerrilla in 1968; a 1973 image of President Salvador Allende of Chile, soon to be assassinated; the 1989 snapshot of a Chinese protestor blocking a column of tanks in Tiananmen Square

Classic Book About America’s Indians Gains a Few Flourishes as a Film

When the historian Dee Brown published “Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee” in 1971, it became an instant sensation. In an age of rebellion, this nonfiction book told the epic tale of the displacement and decline of the American Indian not from the perspective of the winners, but from that of the Indians. But the fact that Mr. Brown’s work has been translated into 17 languages and has sold five million copies around the world was not enough to convince HBO that a film version would draw

The new Newseum: A Museum for Artifacts of the News Media’s Hunters and Gatherers

Time magazine’s armored truck from the Balkans, pockmarked with bullet holes, has been hoisted into place. The laptop used by Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal reporter murdered in Pakistan in 2002, has arrived. So has the vest that Bob Woodruff of ABC was wearing last year when he was wounded by a roadside bomb in Iraq. These stark reminders of the hazards of newsgathering will be displayed at the new Newseum on Pennsylvania Avenue, scheduled to open on Oct. 15. Cranes still ho

Revisiting, and Revising, a Very Familiar Legend (Pocahontas Documentary/Nova)

She was bright and curious, probably between 10 and 14. He was a cocky adventurer, short and hairy, about 28 when they met. They were Pocahontas and Capt. John Smith. Many details of their lives remain unknown, despite their often controversial branding as a fabulous multicultural couple. Most historians say it was unlikely that they were lovers, although legend has it that she saved him from death at the hands of her people. The two connected near the Jamestown colony of Virginia w

Picasso work found in Oxfam book

A donated first edition book on ballet featuring a lithograph by Pablo Picasso and a design by Matisse could raise more than £500 for Oxfam Cymru. Charity worker Marilyn Willis was sorting through contributions at Bangor's Oxfam shop when she found the copy of Le Ballet by Boris Kochno. The book will now be sold in the charity's Valued in Wales auction in Cardiff in July. Mrs Willis said: "It was a very special book - you could not miss it."

Bollywood takes a chance on film on 1991 assassination of PM Rajiv Gandhi

MUMBAI, India -- The investigation into the 1991 assassination of former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi is the subject of a Bollywood thriller which promises to reveal new facts about the suicide attack, a report said on Tuesday. Gandhi was killed by a suicide bomber while he was on his way to address an election meeting near the southern Indian city of Chennai. The assassination was blamed on neighboring Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels. It was seen as revenge for Ga

New NOVA Documentary: Pocahontas Revealed

For centuries, Americans have celebrated her as a romantic fairy-tale heroine, but who was the real Pocahontas? As the US marks the 400th anniversary of its first successful colony at Jamestown, VA, NOVA investigates the Pocahontas story and reveals an entirely new version of the epic events that helped found our nation. At the center of this dramatic reevaluation is the discovery of Werowocomoco, the site of Pocahontas’ village, 17 miles from Jamestown. Long sought by archaeologis

The New World (Movie about Jamestown)--A disappointment, says critic

With the upcoming 400th anniversary of the founding of Jamestown, I can’t help looking back at the lost opportunity of its latest film adaptation. As a Jamestown enthusiast, an author of a recent history of Jamestown, and author of Britannica’s entries on the colony and John Smith, Pocahontas, and Powhatan, I’d been avidly looking forward to The New World from the day New Line Cinema announced it back in 2005. It seemed as if it would have everything: a celebrated director, a boatlo

Alexander Hamilton documentary (PBS)

One of the most controversial men of his age, Alexander Hamilton was a gifted statesman brought down by the fatal flaws of stubbornness, extreme candor, and arrogance. His life and career were marked by a stunning rise to power, scandal, and tragedy. He had one of the most notorious love affairs of any public figure in American history, and met his death in a startling act of political violence - the famous duel with Aaron Burr. But his contributions as a statesman survive. As first

Robert Novack on "September Dawn" -- movie about Mountain Meadows Massacre

Opening Friday, a motion picture called "September Dawn" depicts a brutal American massacre that has been forgotten. On Sept. 11, 1857, in Utah Territory, Mormons slaughtered more than 120 California-bound settlers from Arkansas. Retelling at this time the Sept. 11 carnage of 150 years ago does not help Mormon Mitt Romney's presidential campaign. The basic facts of the Mountain Meadows Massacre are not in dispute. Mormons mobilized Paiute Indians, accompanied by Mormons di

"From 12/7 to 9/11: Lessons on the Japanese American Internment"

On Feb. 19, 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which authorized his secretary of war to establish military areas in which certain people were not allowed. Issued in the wake of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, the order mentioned no ethnic groups, but its execution focused exclusively on individuals of Japanese ancestry."From 12/7 to 9/11: Lessons on the Japanese American Internment," on view at UCLA's Charles E. Young Research Library

Brad Pitt's 'Jesse James' comes under fire

Every great western has a duel, and there's a showdown at the center of Brad Pitt's new movie about gunslinger Jesse James. The struggle hinged on the film's tone and length — at one point its running time was more than three hours — according to several people close to the production. But running time wasn't the main issue. The thornier challenge was to come up with a cut of "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford" that satisfied audiences and Warner B

David Greenberg: How Frost/Nixon gets Nixon right

In 1983, Paul Berman called Richard Nixon "the richest, most promising character the American theater has ever seen." Recalling the scores of Nixons that had, even then, already appeared on stage and screen, Berman noted, "His personality descends to almost oceanic depth, plunging from bright intelligence through piety, vulgarity, maudlinity and paranoia to the murky floor of violent criminality. His quivering cheeks and humped back are an actor's dream." Some ye

History Channel show explores the cultural roots of Star Wars

We are pleased to be working on a new special from the History Channel, Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed ! Premiering May 28th at 9 PM EST, the show examines not only the cultural impact of the Star Wars films but also reveals parallels to their historic connections. The show will feature interviews with some famous Star Wars fans as well other important voices in today’s culture. Here is some info on the show: The special makes the argument that Star Wars’ intensely compelling

"The Mormons"--Modern-Day Look at History of the Latter-Day Saints (Documentary/PBS)

A proposition: If your beliefs are any good, you needn’t be afraid to bring them out into the light. The proof: “The Mormons,” a thoughtful two-part series tonight and tomorrow on PBS. The tenets of the Mormon church may not be to everyone’s tastes, but the church members and leaders who speak in this program are admirably forthright about their religion’s history, strengths and challenges. It’s great to hear people who believe in something and can articulate it without sounding crazy or defensi

Hollywood tackles Hitler's Leni

Oscar-winning actress Jodie Foster will play the leading role of Riefenstahl in a work that is bound to generate immense argument, as it examines the beautiful woman who became Adolf Hitler's favourite director and whose slick propaganda helped the Nazi war machine. The on-again, off-again project has been in the works for at least seven years, but now a script is being written - by British writer Rupert Walters - and a director is being negotiated. People involved in the movie say