Results tagged “documentary”

If we say Lost In The Fog is a film about horse racing, surely Seabiscuit comes to mind. But Tobey Maguire isn't nearly as adorable as the horse's cantankerous octogenarian owner Harry Aleo. And unlike most documentaries made after a story ends, filmmaker John Corey just happened to fall into the development of the story of a three-year-old horse named, Lost in the Fog. He followed him from the small-time races in San Francisco, through a 10-race winning streak, until the horse's capture of the coveted Eclipse Award, as the nation's top sprinter.

Robert Kenner's documentary Food, Inc. is a harsh look at how Americans get their food in the age of factory farms and the tacit approval of their techniques the USDA and FDA. Slow Food Chicago is sponsoring a free screening of the film at 600 N. Michigan this evening at 7 p.m.

Running March 6 -- April 2 at the Siskel, the 12th Annual European Union Film Festival includes 59 feature films, all Chicago premieres. No matter what kinds of movies you like, this festival has them. We urge you to check out the full slate. Meanwhile, we'll be reporting on a few of the titles we've seen.

Left Field is a documentary about a very adult version of kick ball played primarily by folks from the old school crustier side of the Wicker Park rock and/or roll bar scene. (There are no hipsters to be found in these reels.) The debut screening is tonight at The Portage Theater, and is sure to be attended by most of the film's subjects, so expect a rowdy showing.

With a couple of endless wars abroad to discuss, a defenestration-inspiring economy freaking us out and so many dreamboaty candidates and First Spouses to drool over, the War on Drugs -- arguably the nation's longest endless war ever -- didn't receive much spotlight time this election season. But while we were hearing about Sarah Palin’s fancywear and debating the long-ago bombing habits of Bill Ayers, tens of thousands of people ended up spending part of the campaign behind bars for committing nonviolent drug offenses. According to NORML, in 2007 arrests for marijuana violations alone reached 872,721 – about 100 people per hour, an all-time high (no pun intended). Expect 2008 stats to surpass that figure. Oh, and almost 90% of those 2007 arrests were for possession only. "Cha-ching!" says Mr. Cash Register to Mr. Prison-Industrial Complex.

Are you a fan of the shoes Michael Jordan made famous? If so, you might want to join the hundreds (thousands?) of fans of MJ and his eponymous shoes who will converge at his statue outside the United Center at noon this Saturday to shoot the final scene of the documentary "Jordan Heads." Billed as "the most anticipated sneaker documentary ever," Saturday's shoot caps four years of production on the film.

There was an interesting article in yesterday's Wall Street Journal about a new multimedia documentary about the Old Maxwell Street Market released by blues, world, jazz and folk music label Shanachie Entertainment. combines a photo slideshow and classic films shot on Maxwell Street, a cd of blues tied to the market and a booklet of exhaustively researched information about Maxwell Street's history.

We finally saw the Heavy Metal in Baghdad documentary last night and walked away rather stunned. It follows the one and only metal band in Iraq, Acrassicauda, from just after Saddam's defeat through 2006 when they are seeking refugee status in Syria. (Currently the band is in Turkey.)

], and some members of the Kelly jury pool have given us some great examples this week. One woman was dismissed for singing high praises of Kelly, calling him a "musical genius." When asked to say something negative about him, she reluctantly brought up his feud with Jay-Z. Another woman was dismissed because the judge thought the woman's impending June wedding would distract her from juror duties. One woman, when asked if she had an opinion on Kelly replied, "Yes, he's not very smart." The Sun-Times reported that the answer caused Kelly to wear "a hurt expression on his face." Sad panda.

We’re big fans of the Helvetica Typeface here at Chicagoist. It’s everywhere here on our site. But we’re not sure about an 80-minute documentary, Helvetica, celebrating the typeface and it’s proliferation in society. The film is currently being screened at the Gene Siskel Film Center, now through the 20th.