SUMMARY: The Duplass Brothers have made more than two dozen films and TV shows together, largely on their own terms, and funded other directors' low-budget projects. Now they've collaborated on a new book, "Like Brothers," about making it as independent filmmakers in Hollywood. Jeffrey Brown talks with Mark and Jay Duplass.
SUMMARY: he actress Hedy Lamarr captivated audiences during the 1930s and 1940s in films like "Algiers" and "Ziegfeld Girl" and became known as an iconic beauty. "Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story," a new documentary, showcases her overlooked achievements in technology, including her work on an invention that helped form the basis for WiFi.NewsHour Weekend's Megan Thompson spoke to Alexandra Dean, director of the film, which airs May 18 on American Masters.
SUMMARY: “Manchester by the Sea” is the story of what happens after an uncle is asked to take care of his nephew after the death of the boy's father. The film deals with loss, grief, and the idea of closure, but director Kenneth Lonergan tells Jeffrey Brown it's really a story about love.
ANTONIO MORA (NewsHour): It's award season in Hollywood, and one of the most highly praised films of the year, “Manchester by the Sea,” was nominated for six Academy Awards this week.
Its director, Kenneth Lonergan was nominated for two of them.
Jeffrey Brown spoke with him recently at the Atlantic Theater in New York.
This report is part of our ongoing coverage of awards for the 2016 movie season, Beyond the Red Carpet.
JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour):In an early scene in the film, “Manchester by the Sea,” Lee Chandler learns that his recently deceased brother has named him as his nephew's guardian, and the weight of the world comes crashing down again.
CASEY AFFLECK, Actor: He can't live with me. I live in one room.
ACTOR: Well, but Joe has provided for Patrick's upkeep, food, clothes, et cetera. And the house the boat are owned outright.
CASEY AFFLECK: I can't commute from Boston every day until he turns 18.
ACTOR: I think the idea was that you would relocate.
CASEY AFFLECK: Relocate to where? Here?
JEFFREY BROWN: As played by Casey Affleck, Lee is a lost, mostly silent man at sea over some hidden grief.
But, says director Kenneth Lonergan, it's more than that.
KENNETH LONERGAN, Director, “Manchester by the Sea”: I don't see it as a film about grief. I see it as a film about love, and about people trying to help each other and take care of each other, as much as it's a film about grief. It is about grief, obviously, but it's really about someone who's trying to do right by his family, even though he's ready to quit.
SUMMARY: In the early part of the 20th century, black filmmakers were forced to work outside the white Hollywood mainstream -- and produced around 500 films, mainly for black audiences. To preserve this history, the company Kino Lorber released a five-disc collection this year containing 20 hours of these films. Executive producer Paul Miller joins NewsHour Weekend Special Correspondent Karla Murthy.
KARLA MURTHY, PBS NEWSHOUR WEEKEND: In the early part of 20th century, with racial segregation still in place in much of the U.S., black filmmakers made movies for black audiences, outside the white Hollywood mainstream. They produced around 500 so-called “race films,” but most are lost to history.
To preserve America's first “independent” cinema, this year, the company Kino Lorber released a five disc collection combining 20 hours of these films called The Pioneers of African-American Cinema.
The collection of 16 feature films and shorts — mainly from the 1920s and 30s — includes comedies, dramas, and documentaries. They not only starred black actors, the films were often written, directed, and produced by [black]-Americans.
Executive Producer Paul Miller, a musician also known as DJ Spooky, raised money for the project initially through a Kickstarter campaign.
PAUL MILLER, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER OF THE PIONEERS OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN CINEMA: We helped them raise a little bit under maybe $100,000 just, (snaps) you know, in like a week and some change. And I love to think of it as a festival in a box.
KARLA MURTHY: So the New York Times called this project– this is what it said about it, “From the perspective of cinema history, and American history for that matter, there has never been a more significant video release than Pioneers of African American Cinema." So why is this collection so significant?
PAUL MILLER:Well, the interesting thing about American history is we have what I call selective amnesia. And Americans love to forget. Like, people, what Korean War? Did we ever occupy the Philippines? So putting the box set together was kind of a situation of reclaiming these hidden histories of very positive, and pro what I call multicultural visions of this history of American cinema, which is usually again very white white-washed.
KARLA MURTHY: How revolutionary was it at that time that these films were actually able to get made and seen?
PAUL MILLER:You've got to remember it was incredible that African-Americans saw themselves on the screen. Usually most portrayals of African-Americans in the larger white culture were meant to be very derogatory. So by reclaiming that space in the culture you could show positive images of black people outside of the white context.
SUMMARY: So far this year, ticket sales for Hollywood blockbusters have underperformed. But that could all change with the opening of “Jurassic World,” a much anticipated reboot. What else do this season’s “popcorn movies” have in store for audiences? Jeffrey Brown reports.
JEFFREY BROWN (NewsHour): “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Mad Max: Fury Road,” and “Furious 7.”
ACTOR: Lock it up.
JEFFREY BROWN: In theaters near you this summer, Hollywood is heating up, and looking for a hero, a familiar hero, to entertain the masses, and boost its own bottom line.
Film critic Mike Sargent of Pacifica Radio.
MIKE SARGENT, Pacifica Radio: You’re seeing a lot of sequels, reboots, reimaginings, things that have some sort of following.
JEFFREY BROWN: An emphasis, that is, on films Hollywood and we, the consumers, already know, or at least knew, a remake of an old ’80s film, like “Poltergeist,” or a riff on a once-popular TV series like “Entourage.”
ACTOR: Like I told you 15 years ago, the next level is coming.
JEFFREY BROWN: Sargent calls these popcorn movies.
MIKE SARGENT: I think the audience for a popcorn movie is an audience that wants to go into to — in the heat of summer, go into an air conditioner and kind of check out.
You’re going because you’re either visiting characters you know before, in the case of something like “Entourage,” “Mission: Impossible 5,” where you know it’s going to be fun. You know it’s not about anything. There’s no message. There’s no exploration of the human condition, but you’re just going to forget your troubles.
JEFFREY BROWN: And superheroes remain all the rage. Studios have announced plans to release nearly 30 more superhero films between this summer and 2020.
JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour): It’s been just about two weeks since word broke of cyber-criminals hacking into Sony Pictures. And each day seems to bring more damaging, embarrassing or worrisome revelations.
The hackers have released a steady flow of information, ranging from salaries, to personal e-mails, Social Security numbers, and health records of employees, to internal messages showcasing industry hardball.
The past couple of days have been even worse for the company, if you can believe that.
And again to Hari, who is in our New York studios tonight.
HARI SREENIVASAN (NewsHour): The latest e-mails put new pressure on Amy Pascal, the co-chair of Sony Entertainment and one of the most powerful executives in Hollywood. It’s focused on confidential e-mails between Pascal and Scott Rudin, a powerful producer.
Before a fund-raiser for President Obama, they exchanged messages in which they try to guess the president’s favorite movies, all with African-Americans. Pascal writes: “Should I ask him if he liked ‘Django’?” referring to “Django Unchained.”
Rudin writes back, “12 Years,” for “12 Years a Slave.”
Pascal responds: “Or ‘The Butler? Or ‘Think Like a Man?’”
Both apologized yesterday. It’s not yet clear who’s behind the hacking. But they call themselves the Guardians of Peace.
We turn to two watching this closely, Sharon Waxman, editor in chief of The Wrap, an industry news site, and James Lewis, a cyber-security expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Sharon, I want to start with you.
You’re one of the few people to get in touch with Ms. Pascal yesterday. How significant is this hack? Put this in perspective. Is this what folks in Tinseltown are all talking about right now?
I am Retired U.S. Navy (22yrs) and a Vietnam Veteran. After my Navy retirement I was in the computer related industry, now retired. In 2000 I was a registered Republican and voted for George W. Bush. Six months of having Bush in the Whitehouse forced me to re-evaluate my political stance. I had always thought of myself as a Moderate Republican, but was a Republican by "default" NOT because of close examination of the GOP. Due to what has happened in America since 2000, I now consider myself a progressive, and registered as a Non-Affiliated voter.
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