Forks Over Knives is both a personal journey story and an educational documentary. It explores the world of nutrition and the damage foods derived from animal-based food products (meat and dairy) may be doing to human health. Forks Over Knives also makes the claim that “most, if not all” degenerative diseases that plague humans can be controlled or reversed by moving away from animal-based and processed foods.
Forks Over Knives is written and directed by Lee Folkerson, who for personal health reasons, looks at the affect of processed and animal-based foods on his health. The research of Dr. T. Colin Campbell, a nutritional biochemist from Cornell University, and Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn a former surgeon at the well know Cleveland Clinic is highlighted. According to the filmmaker, Esselystyn and Campbell’s separate, independent studies into degenerative diseases, proves there is a connection between eating processed and animal-based foods and diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, cancer and other problems.
The opening scenes of Forks Over Knives begins with the following quotes, “the average American now carries twenty-three extra pounds.” “ Heart disease and stroke will claim the lives of 460 thousand American Women,” and “We’re talking about diabetes and hypertension, bone disease and osteoporosis…” also facts about the food we eat and health problems in the United States and other countries. Food and the drugs we take may be extremely harmful to the health of adults and children in the long run. According to the film the US spends five times more on health care then the defense budget. Why are there so many health problems? Bill Maher is quoted saying, “…There’s no money in healthy people or dead people. It’s the people in the middle; people who are alive with one or more chronic conditions…” Others like Michele Obama talk about “Obesity,” and other conditions as seen in a montage of film clips. These facts are well documented and the problem well stated to set the investigation conducted by the documentary.
One of the marks of a good documentary story is not to have a string of talking head interviews. In Forks Over Knives there is a continuing montage of action and “B” roll that parallels what is claimed with graphic evidence making for a convincing argument.
Forks Over Knives takes an unexpected turn when it takes goes to China and a study done there initiated by Chinese Premier Zhou En-lai, who is suffering from bladder cancer. Six hundred and fifty thousand researchers cataloged the mortality patterns caused by several types of cancer for the years between 1973 and 1975. The study covered every county in China and over 850 million people.
Based on the study by Dr. Campbell they found some important correlations between what people in China were eating and the types of cancer and other diseases they contracted. An in-depth food and nutrition study ensued looking at the diet and lifestyles of people over many years. The results were conclusive. In 1990 after ten years of intensive work, Dr. Campbell and his team published the China Study. It identified no less than ninety-four thousand correlations between diet and disease.
Forks Over Knivesis a documentary that may well change your life. There is important information here that cannot be ignored. This is a film well worth seeing, that makes a definitive statement based on fact and not speculation. It is informative and educational. It may save your life.
FORKS OVER KNIVES – 2011 – 96 Minutes – Written and Directed by Lee Folkerson – Virgil Films Entertainment
LINKS
Forks Over Knives
Books by James R Martin Available on Amazon
Listen Learn Share: How & Why Listening, Learning and Sharing can Transform Your Life Experience In Practical Ways
Create Documentary Films, Videos and Multimedia: A Comprehensive Guide to Using Documentary Storytelling Techniques for Film, Video, the Internet and Digital Media Projects.
Actuality Interviewing and Listening: How to conduct successful interviews for nonfiction storytelling, actuality documentaries and other disciplines … (Documentary and Nonfiction Storytelling)
I AM – What if the solution to the world’s problems was in front of us all along?
I AM is a good documentary that makes many worthwhile observations about how we live, what our values are and what we might do to reverse some of the more dangerous trends in our current version of civilization. It is well paced and makes its point-of-view known early in the story. I AM explores how we have evolved in our perception of ourselves and the world around us. One major theme is that we have survived not necessarily by “survival of the fittest” but by cooperation with others. That in fact only one aspect of Darwin’s Theory of Evolution has been promoted while the his theories about cooperation as part of survival and evolution have been ignored. What emerges is the idea that we have separated ourselves from nature so completely that it could destroy us. Science evolves in it’s theories but the documentary claims that there is too much reliance on science in our culture. (SEE TRAILER – END OF POST)
Tom Shadyac, director of Bruce Almighty, Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and The Nutty Professor is living high. He has it all, luxurious homes, corporate jets; the life style of the rich and famous until one day he has an accident riding his bicycle. The concussion he received in the accident puts him in the hospital for an extended stay. Even when released he suffers from Post Concussion Syndrome – the same malady pro football players experience. When he finally recovers he decides he needs to find the answer to two key questions: “What is wrong with our world?” and “What can we do about it?” With a small documentary film crew of four, Shadyac goes on a quest to find the answer to these questions by interviewing some great minds including authors, poets, teachers, religious leaders and scientists (Lynn McTaggart, Desmond Tutu, Thom Harman, Coleman Barks, David Zuzuki and others).
“We started asking what’s wrong with the world and ended up discovering what’s right with it.” — Tom Shadyac.
Tom Shadyac sets up this hybrid documentary with what appears to be reenacted scenes of him in the hospital, leaving the hospital, and recovering. Before long there are shots of his past opulent Hollywood life style with one or two large, nouveau riche decorated homes. This opening seems a little long but does make the point of how rich Shadyac is and how he seems to have been, like many Americans, obsessed with material wealth. But the central theme of this story is not material wealth. It also appears that while Shadyac “lived the life” he did so because he thought it was what you were supposed to do.
One of the first ideas presented inI AM is the reliance humankind has put on science. I AM does not appear to be an anti science documentary. It simply offers human realities to be considered in addition to scientific theory when it comes down to human existence. There is no doubt that scientific theory can be and is questioned by scientists themselves over time. The documentary does make a false analogy between what has been considered scientific fact at a given point in history by one culture and reality. In some respects it equates scientific fact with how it is interpreted by society. The film does seem to try to make the point that somehow science equates with a mechanistic view of how humans behave and eat. It is easy to blame science and the government for all that is wrong with the world. Perhaps the problems lie with individual people, who they select as leaders and not faceless institutions.
David Zuzuki, Scientist, Author “The Sacred Balance” is one of the first individuals interviewed, he is insightful. He makes the case for a holistic view of what humankind have created as their reality of the world. He also points out how we have come to treat “The Economy” almost as if it were some natural force, beyond human control. The premiss that “Greed is Good” has become commonplace.
I AMcovers a number of contemporary issues about how we live and brings to light not only the problems but possible solutions. It is fast paced, incorporates archival footage and graphics to tell the story. I AM is well directed, edited and shot. Director Tom Shadyac chose to treat the story as a personal quest. At times he seems very self-conscious in this role. There is something to be learned from watching I AM. I think it’s interesting that a filmmaker made a documentary that in part talks about humans cooperating. That’s what we do making films. We cooperate to create something larger than the sum of it’s parts, something that wasn’t there before. I feel that idea coming through in this documentary.
The “economy” is where it is today because of factors that began in the Bush/Cheney administration over an eight year period causing a budget surplus to turn into a huge deficit, unemployment to rise, and involved the country in two wars. The United States sank into a major financial depression triggered by banking industry malfeasance. In 2012 the economy is slowly healing despite the unyielding efforts of the Republican Party far right radicals, Neo-Cons and others to obstruct any policy that would help the country heal faster.
President Obama has succeeded despite this adversarial, partisan climate to not only avoid a long term depression in the US, but to also create over four million jobs, save the US auto industry, reduce unemployment and end one of the wars. His landmark achievement, a progressive bill to reform healthcare, has been totally misrepresented by the far right and then used against him.
Opponents of the Affordable Health Care Act and other accomplishments of President Obama have adhered to the propaganda axiom that recommends taking someone’s strengths and turning them against them. In recent months the radical right, the Romney campaign, Fox Fake News and Republican politicians have even tried to take the elimination of Osama Bin Laden under Presidents watch and turn it against him using alleged leaks about the mission afterward.
The attack on the President is amplified by “framing” positive accomplishments in a negative light. Of course this makes it difficult for the person being attacked to showcase his administrations accomplishments. Every trick in the book has been used to destroy not only the economy but the President himself with countless personal attacks, overt and “dog whistle” racism, not to mention demeaning rhetoric never used against a President of the United States. The President is essentially a moderate Democrat but his adversaries try to “frame” him as “socialist” who is somehow foreign. Everyone knows the President was born in the US but the Republicans support “birther” nonsense to spin the Presidents credibility in a negative way.
Is the economy as bad as it’s made out to be? Is the “economy” the only standard by which we judge the success of our democracy? Should we take to heart all the predictions of gloom and doom put out by economists who all have different theories of what is needed and what should be done “to turn the economy around? The “economy” is turned around and making slow by steady progress against the head winds of partisan obstructionism. We don’t have a “do nothing congress,” we have “do nothing Republicans” stopping congress from doing anything. Now we have a presidential candidate who’s only plan is to go “back to the future” and repeat what didn’t work before? A candidate who is getting advice from Dick Cheney!
As far as the barrage of negative predictions and reporting by media pundits and bombastic radio personalities there is a self-serving tendency to stay negative in order to prove themselves right. Even when there is positive news it is spun or framed to favor their point-of-view. For example, when a “Jobs Report” comes out stating the fact that say, 250,000 new jobs were created, it is reported as ONLY 250,000 jobs were created. It could also have been reported as ” 250,000 new jobs were created, continuing the trend of new job creation each month for the past 24 months.” There is very little original thinking in the media industry. A new development reported in the New York Times, ends up being reported or misreported by Broadcast, Radio and Cable shows. The negative spin on all economic and political news is like a virus that has reached epidemic proportions.
We live in an era of instant gratification. We want everything to happen now. We are told that what took eight years to destroy should take a year or two to recreate. Progress is being intentionally held back by forces who don’t give a damn about the economy. billionaires are set for life, why would they care if the economy is bad while they achieve goals that have to do with ideology, power and control? Goals that in the long term will make them even richer.
Using all sorts of fear tactics the billionaires backing Romney have convinced a large number of people that the government is their enemy except when the billionaires candidates are in power. But the actual reality is that in every State where the Republicans gained control in 2010 they have enacted laws in which their state governments restrict the rights of citizens in many areas including the right to vote, women’s health issues and the rights of working people, especially in the public sector. They campaigned on creating jobs. In fact they have eliminated jobs, refused federal stimulus money and hampered commerce in their own states.
This upcoming Presidential election is not about the economy it is about whether the United States will remain a democracy of and by the people, with majority rule deciding issues. It’s about the middle-class surviving and flourishing or being reduced to working for minimum wages.
We voted for President Obama because the Bush/Cheney polices that favored the very rich were hurting the country. Bush/Cheney wars and tax cuts ruined the economy. Cheney’s “crony capitalism” (connections with Haliburton and the oil industry) gave billions of dollars away in government contracts which often didn’t deliver the goods as ordered.
Now we have Romney the “vulture capitalist” who is too arrogant to release his tax returns running on a Bush/Cheney platform. In the words of Romney’s wife, “…you got all you need to know,” this after one year worth of taxes were partially released. But it’s more than arrogance, Romney is quite possibly hiding the fact that he’s a billionaire. It’s likely that he has stretched he limits of ethical financial behavior and the tax laws. That the tax returns for certain years may well prove he has been lying about his involvement in Bain Capital from 1999 to 2002.
Moderate and Independent Americans of all persuasions have only one choice. Give the current administration four more years and a clear majority in the house and senate. The economy will continue to improve. Employment will increase. The deficit will be reduced. College graduates will find jobs again. Teachers, firefighters, policemen and public sector workers will be able to do their work again. The war in Afghanistan will end. Our troops will come home. There will not be another war like Iraq started in Iran. Veterans will get the kind of aid they need in all areas. Social Security will not be destroyed. Medicare will not be turned into a voucher program. Students will not be dropped from their parents healthcare policies.
This country and working middle-class does better when Democrats have control of the government. FDR brought the country out of a major depression, created jobs, and enacted Social Security. Under the Clinton Administration a surplus was created — there was no deficit until Bush/Cheney. President Obama has been systemically obstructed in his efforts to create jobs and move the economy by Republicans. Since 2010 the Republicans have had control of the House of Representative and have done nothing but obstruct progress. Republicans in lockstep have voted to repeal the Affordable Health Care act thirty-one times but have not created one stimulus bill for the economy.
The choice is clear move the country forward, save the American way of life or let the ultra conservative billionaires create a country with only two classes, the super rich and the poor.
After it’s all over, when you measure things, this year’s camping trip took far less time and covered less distance than last year, close to a third of the distance and a third of the time at 4080 miles and one month on the road. Yet every trip has its own character, spirit and goals that the end leads you feeling successful for totally different reasons.
Our plan was visit with family around Philadelphia and also visit my wife Tracy’s family in VA beach. In addition we had the goal of driving the length of the Skyline Driveand the Blue Ridge Parkway. On my bucket list for the journey starting from Florida was a week visiting with daughter and family near Boston while they prepared to move to Seattle. Also on my list was to explore the area from Johnson City, TN to Binghamton, NY on either side of I-81. That’s basically the valley between the Allegheny and the Appalachian mountains. Generally we did all that and much more, while having a lot of fun along the way, plus we got to see a few family members and friends.
Driving North solo I camped my first night at High Falls State Park (SP) in Georgiafollowed by a stop at friends who live near Asheville NC. By luck I was able to attend a birthday party for one of their neighbors and got to meet many people.
Douthat SP Bridge Virginia
High Falls SP, North Carolina with Newton
I left North Carolina looking for a Shenandoah Valley experience and soon found it at Douthat State Park (SP) in Virginia. Up in the mountains west of I-81 and hard to get to, yet one of the oldest CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps)built parks in the country. No Cell, no Radio, no TV, or for me because of the thick tree cover, no XM sat radio either. If you wanted a newspaper they might have one in a town some 8 miles away. Talk about disconnecting from the grid this is what I needed to get in sync with the other part of me, the one that can take off his wrist watch and “chill out” with nature in the mountains or at sea. I got the camper set up outside and was putting things in order inside when I glanced out the back door to see a deer feeding some 25 feet or so away, a good sign.
Deer Feeding at back door
Douthat SP has lots of hiking trails that I got to try until my old hiking boots decided to come apart. Campground neighbors invited me to their grill out one night of my two there, southern hospitality has not diminished in this neck of the woods. Leaving Douthat and returning to cell phone range I found out I really didn’t miss anything in the world save for some distressed calls from Tracy concerned about my welfare. Oops! Just never know when that link to the world will be lost, sorry honey!
My plan was to stop further north in the Shenandoah Valley and look up an old sailing friend who bought a farm and opened a cabinet making shop. Either he had moved on or was flying below the radar because I found no sign of him. Even other cabinet makers in the area had never heard of him. I wonder what happen to him and his dream.
I made my way north on I-81 with a stop overnight in Pennsylvania and one near Woodstock NY in the Catskill Mountains. Woodstock was like a time machine in that folks there age but stay the same. There were hippies in the road, they were out in the pasture, might even have been dancing and one geezer who looked like Santa Claus in jeans was trying to climb a tree via his bicycle. I wondered if the whole town was stoned!
Onward to my daughter in North Reading just north of Boston. They were in the throes of moving to Seattle and I soon found myself helping load pods and keeping the grand kids out of the way. For the next week they loaded and prepped for their journey since they planned to rent an RV and drive across the country in two weeks. Cars and belongs packed while the cats were flown out earlier in the month.
MYSTIC SEAPORT WOODEN BOAT SHOW
After Boston I drove south to Mystic, CT to see the Mystic Seaport Wooden Boat Show. Aside from my love for wooden boats as a surveyor it doesn’t hurt to keep up with the latest in composite boat building. Wooden boats are seldom planked any more. Laminates and epoxies have taken over. I enjoyed myself at the show and on Saturday drove down to North Wales, PA to my brother’s house where my wife Tracy would join me on Sunday.
The second half of the trip began with a visit with family in Pennsylvania and a stop to visit my Mother who lives in a nursing home in Montgomery County, Pa. After a great couple of days we drove down to Tracy’s sister’s home in Virginia Beach to help her celebrate the 4th of July. Not that she needed any help; there were 53 people at her July 4th party which she and friends handled pretty well. We had a nice couple of days there and by Friday we were driving up to Front Royal, Virginiaand the Skyline Drive. A weather note, since arriving in Pennsylvania the East coast began baking in a record-breaking heat wave of 100 degrees plus! Maybe you’ve seen people walking on hot coals, that what it felt like walking on the beach. I thought I would be damaged for life! A little ice and I was okay. We were hoping the mountains of Virginia would offer some relief.
One thing we like to do is stop in visitor centers, be they state or in this case the Skyway Drive. We find lots of great information and maps in these stops. We arrived at a Skyway Drive Visitor Center around lunchtime so it was a dual-purpose stop for us. I took care of our dog Newton letting him stretch is legs and use the potty while Tracy headed to the camper to make us lunch. It wasn’t long before Tracy informs me the deadlock on the camper is broken. We have two locks on the camper and try to lock both never wanting to have the door pop open while driving. We are locked out and no matter how many times I spin the tumbler the tail is not catching the deadbolt. We have snacks in the truck so we won’t go hungry, but I need to figure out how to get in to the camper without breaking the door or some other part. I finished walking Newton while Tracy checked out the visitor center. All I can think about is the deadbolt. We didn’t have far to go to our campground at Mathews Armso we proceed and once at the site I take up the task of getting into the camper. I know I can take a big screw driver and bust the lock but rack my brain for an alternative. Unfortunately no alternative presented itself so I ended up busting the lock to open the door. Now I know why we really had two locks on that door! Crisis over we resume life.
You might wonder, what you do when driving the Skyway or Blue Ridge Parkway? One thing to do is stop at the many overlooks for the view, also critter watch mostly to avoid hitting them and then visit some of the attractions along the way. The views are incredible and they show up on either east or west side since you are up on the ridge. We spot deer and wild turkeys along the way.
Only one of us was able to sleep our first night up on the Skyway, to me the 70s are comfortable, need I say more. We planned to go to Luray Caverns our second day and camp at a place with electricity and showers both perfect defenses for heat waves. The caverns were a cool 57 degrees and the camp had a pool. This being my first visit to caverns I’m in awe, we walked about a mile and a half underground. Amazing! We met another couple at the pool who went to high school with one of my brother in laws. It’s a small world.
Luray Caverns -165 feet Underground
Back on the Skyway the weather is still hot but there is talk about a front rolling in that night that will cool things off.
The Skyline Drive is part of the Shenandoah National Park and 105 miles long it connects with the Blue Ridge Parkway, which is 465 miles long. That night we camp to the Peaks of Ottercampground, which is on a mountainside along the Blue Ridge Parkway. I should note that before the heat wave hit there was a nasty storm, a “derecho” that did some major damage in Virginia. The area around the Peaks of Otter had just that afternoon gotten their power back on, some nine days after the storm. Our front moved in with much less violence and dropped the temperatures some 30 degrees creating some good sleeping weather. One of the noticeable things along the Blue Ridge is hundreds if not thousands of downed trees, caused by the storm. Many had been removed from the road. We got to see a few deer in our camp ground that morning as we left.
Mabry Mill Wheel
We stopped and toured Mabry Mill, VA and also got to see a hang glider jump off the Blue Ridge successfully. Our stop for the night was off the Blue Ridge at Fancy Gap where we would food shop and fuel up also, and another swim in a pool, hot showers, even laundry done in a delightful campground.
Fancy Gap, Virginia is just north of the Virginia border with North Carolina where we wanted to stop at the Blue Ridge Music Center. Even in the clouds and rain you hear the music when you open the doors of the truck at the music center. What a treat to hear it live and to tour the center’s history exhibit. We continue on in the clouds with a side trip checking out a campground along the Blue Ridge that takes us a mile down into the woods on a gravel road in the mud and rain. This campground turns out to be a very rustic spot. We drove back up the mountain unsure if it is right for us. Another stop in a clearer moment is at the Moses Cone Mansion which has been converted to an Arts Center with a commanding view of Blowing Rock NC. That night we camped at Julian Price CG in North Carolina, along the Parkway.
The next morning the rain and low clouds continued to make driving hazardous so we decided to seek lower elevations in the hopes to finding a little comfort. Tracy found a campground right under Chimney Rock called Hickory Nut Falls and we headed for it. It seems the campground has drifted towards trailer park with majority of residents living in their trailers permanently or seasonally. There is one section along the Broad River that they saved for campers that is very nice so we were comfortable that night. The roar of the rain-swollen river bouncing through the boulders does dominate but we had no problem sleeping that night.
We do a lot of “strategizing” about how to continue camping abet the rains and poor visibility on the Blue Ridge Parkway. We wanted to spend a night at the Pisgah Campground and have dinner at the Pisgah Inn at 4800 feet. Last night we walked down to the road and could see Chimney Rock and Hickory Nut Falls briefly which encouraged us but this morning there was no visibility. We came up with a compromise of sorts; we picked a campground in Georgia that would take us pass a road leading to the Blue Ridge Parkway and Mount Pisgah Inn and if it looked worth it we would drive up to the lodge. When we got to that intersection we decided to try seeing what the weather was at Pisgah Inn and at worst have lunch there. The 15 mile drive which took us past Davidson River CG and the Cradle of Forestry Center wasn’t bad but as we approached the Parkway the clouds moved in and once again we were driving in poor visibility. The Pisgah Lodge is 3 miles from the exit so we make the effort and did have lunch there. Lunch was excellent. Afterward we noticed several RVs in the Lodge parking lot. We wondered if they gave up driving and were staying at the Inn.
Our drive via route 64 and 106 to Dillard Ga. Was through some twisting, winding roadway but for a short section is out of the clouds. We have been to Black Rock Mountain State Park before, liked it and were hoping for a break from the rain and clouds yet as we climbed up to the 3600 foot high campground back in the clouds. We chose to spend just one night there and head to southern Georgia to try to dry out. Tracy found a state park not far from Adel Ga. So still dripping wet we departed Black Rock Mountain CG for southern Ga.
We decided to fuel up prior to driving the five miles to the campground. When I went into the camper to get some cash to pay I discovered that the Barbecue sauce had leaped out of the cabinet and exploded on the floor somewhere along I-75 after lunchtime. Quite a mess but it was cleanable. Reed Bingham State Park turned out to be very nice and we spent the night drying out. The next day was an easy drive to St Petersburg and home.
Wednesday, 25 July 2012 00:00 By Paul Krugman, Krugman & Co. | Op-Ed
“President Obama gets this exactly right: “When some people question why I would challenge [Mitt Romney’s] Bain record,” he told CBS News on July 13, “the point I’ve made there in the past is, if you’re a head of a large private equity firm or hedge fund, your job is to make money. It’s not to create jobs. It’s not even to create a successful business — it’s to make sure that you’re maximizing returns for your investor.”
“A country is not a company — and it’s definitely not a private equity firm.”
Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead is a personal story directed by Joe Cross, who finding himself one hundred pounds overweight, loaded up with steroids and trying to deal with an autoimmune disease, decides he’d had enough. This documentary begins with Joe weighing in at 310 pounds. He doesn’t see any future in his current condition except pain, suffering and an early demise. Doctors and conventional medicine seem unable to help him.
Joe Cross, who lives in Australia, decides to come to the Unites States where he plans a sixty-day road trip across the country eating only fresh veggie and fruit juice he makes in the back of his car. Joe’s goal is to lose weight and improve his health to the point where he will be able to stop taking all the medications and live a healthy life.
Joe starts his journey in New York City where he feels there will be the most temptation to go off his juice fast. In NYC he talks to people on the street to get their reaction to what he is trying to do. Joe meets and talks to about 500 people as he travels. In a truck stop in Arizona he meets Phil Staples, an obese truck driver who suffers from the same autoimmune disorder that he does. Phil weighs 429 pounds. Joe tells Phil about what he is doing and mentions that if Phil ever needs help to give him a call. One day back in Australia, Joe gets a call from Phil who is desperate.
What emerges is a documentary about Joe Cross and his journey along with Phil Staples amazing transition from extreme obesity to a healthy life. The juice fast not only helps each of them to lose weight, it also helps them overcome their autoimmune problem by detoxing their bodies. Soon they are able to get off all the medications they have been taking.
The documentary shows both men getting checkups to make sure it is safe to do the fast. Also checkups along the way. Joe emphatically suggests to others in the film that they also check with their doctors about doing this kind of fast.
Unlike Super Size Me, another hybrid documentary with someone on a mission, Fat, Sick & Nearly Deadpresents a positive story in which it advocates good health. This documentary is inspirational. It presents a simple remedy for getting one’s physical and ultimately mental life back on track. Fast, Sick & Nearly Dead comes across as a serious nonfiction story advocating one way of obtaining good health.
Fat, Sick & Nearly Deadis well shot and edited in a way that keeps the pace moving. The progress that Joe, Phil and others make is amazing to watch. The documentary uses several animated scenes to explain an idea or situation. No particular juicer or other products are pitched, although there may be some incidental product placement. The focus is the idea of fasting on vegetable and fruit juices for a certain period of time to detox one’s body and gain a foothold on a healthy life style. Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead shows the progress of others beside Joe and Phil that testify to the success of the idea.
Review written by James R (Jim) R Martin
[box] FAT, SICK & NEARLY DEAD – A JOE CROSS FILM – Directed BY Joe Cross, Kurt Engfehr – 96 Minutes – 2011 – Director of Photography Daniel Marracino, Editors, Alison Amron and Christopher Seward. REBOOTYOURLIFE – http://www.jointhereboot.com/[/box]
TRAILER
LINKS
Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead
Create Documentary Films, Videos and Multimedia: A Comprehensive Guide to Using Documentary Storytelling Techniques for Film, Video, the Internet and Digital Media Projects.
“I pledge allegiance to the Flag of the United States of America…” “The Pledge.” We used to say it all the time in grammar school, with our hands on our hearts; it was part of our education. I can still hear everyone reciting it, mostly in unison. So was the notion that when you came of age you had the responsibility, the right and the obligation to vote. I couldn’t wait to do just that, I’ve voted in most every election ever since. I’m sure there are a lot of Americans who had the same experience. I wonder what they’re telling the kids in schools today around those Republican controlled, state Public schools or perhaps Charter Schools.
Do they encourage their students to vote when they become eighteen? If they do the students are getting a mixed message. Outside class they will hear all the talk about hundreds of thousands of voters being disenfranchised because they don’t have a certain form of identification to show at the polling places. When these young people do turn eighteen they will need some sort of government ID or they will be turned away. It used to be people working the polls probably knew a good many people who came to vote every election. If you were new you just had to show something with your name on it showing you were a resident in that district. A utility bill would do. I’ll bet many poll workers still do know families and other people in the neighborhood or town.
So why are state governments with a Republican majority stripping voters from voting rolls? In Pennsylvania, about seven hundred and fifty thousand voters have been put in question. In Florida 150,000 proposed to be eliminated. Who are these voters? Well a close look shows that they are mostly Democrats, Independents, minorities, people with Hispanic surnames and students who have registered, voted before, but now are being taken off the roles for ambiguous reasons. Are any of these people being informed that they are no longer considered eligible to vote — no longer registered?
Republicans say they are trying to prevent voter fraud in their states, but they have very few cases of actual voter fraud to report. What they are trying to do is eliminate voters who might not vote for them. This is no different than voter suppression of African Americans in the southern states and other efforts over the history of the United States to steal elections. If anything is “fraud” it is what the Republicans are doing. If disenfranchising voters to win an election isn’t fraud it certainly is UN-American.
It is an American right to vote and every effort should be made in include, as many citizens as possible not eliminate them. Republican laws are demanding government ID’s, but many Americans do not have a government ID. They don’t drive, have a passport or in Texas a gun license. Student ID’s are not valid even if issued by a state college.
The Attorney General of the United States as stepped in to stop these new laws in a number of states, so the Republicans voted to hold him contempt of congress. This is a major abuse of power by these congressmen. The same individuals in congress voted thirty-one times to overturn the Affordable Health Care Act. This after they lost the vote the first time and the United States Supreme Court ruled that the law was constitutional. They have obstructed the administration of the duly elected President of the United States consistently since his first day in office.
If Republicans continue to get away with all of this we will have officially sanctioned minority rule just like in the Senate. Yes the Senate where the Republican minority can hold the Senate hostage to getting sixty votes instead of a simple majority of fifty-one to pass legislation. The majority of citizens in the United States voted for representatives who stood for the things they believed in. A minority of citizens are doing everything possible to impose their priorities on everyone else.
Voter suppression is illegal and UN-American. It needs to be stopped. The only way to do stop it is to vote Republicans out of office and elect Democrats including the President. Democrat or Republican voting is a right guaranteed by the constitution. Demanding special ID’s is the same as a poll tax. It is also a way to discourage people from even tying to vote. Everyone who is registered with mandated ID must vote and help those without that ID to get it, register and vote. Only by handing the right wing a huge defeat at the polls will this abuse of the system be halted.
ROTHKO’S ROOMS, produced and directed by David Thompson is a journey into the world of Mark Rothko (1903 to 1970), who in the period from 1940 into 1960’s was one of the leading American Painters in the Modern Art world. The unique thing about this educational documentary is that it goes beyond mere facts and history. Using action, interviews, archival elements, and additional footage, the documentary story penetrates Rothko’s abstract view of the world — unlocking the door to Rothko’s abstract work. This is a beautifully crafted documentary film well worth watching.
Rothko’s work and fragments of his life are brought into focus with the aid of voice over narration by Dilly Barlow. Also interviews and commentary with Sean Scully, Artist, Brian O’Douherty, writer/artist, and other artists, friends, family, critics, art historians, collectors and museum curators. One technique used throughout the documentary is to conduct the interviews in front of subjectively lit paintings by Rothko. This has an amazing effect, like being there with someone giving you a guided tour. Classical music, Mozart (Rothko enjoyed Mozart), is used in the film under interviews and in other scenes. Between interviews and commentary there are moments when you are allowed to spend a few moments on your own with the work and music.
ROTHKO’S ROOMS looks at Mark Rothko’s life from age ten when his family moved from Russia to Portland Oregon. Upon graduating from high school he won a scholarship to Yale. According to his daughter he did not begin his career as an artist until after he finished studying and then moved to New York City. The documentary makes a beautiful transition from archival photographs of Rothko to New York City and a series of shots of the city in a twilight rush of colors. The lighting and cinematography in ROTHKO’S ROOMS is excellent and helps to tell the story. It goes beyond simply getting a good exposure. The sound track whether it’s music or the sound of a subway train pulling into the platform, also helps set the mood and subjectively narrate scenes.
ROTHKO’S ROOMS goes a long way in helping one to understand abstract modern art; how the work represents emotion, environment and the artist’s presentation of those realities. The film looks at Rothko’s early years, his time at Yale, his evolution from the early years and New York abstract minimalism to his later painting. Like many artists Rothko did not like labels. He wanted his work to stand on its own. Rothko said: “I’m not interested in the relationship of color or form or anything else. I’m interested only in expressing basic human emotions – tragedy, ecstasy, doom and so on… The people who weep before my pictures are having the same religious experience as I had when I painted them.”
ROTHKO’S ROOMS examines the circumstances surrounding Mark Rothko’s refusal to deliver work he was commissioned to create for a space in the new Segrams Building in New York City. He apparently did not understand that the work would be exhibited in a Four Season’s restaurant. He visited the restaurant before the installation happened and returned the $35,000 fee he had received. This work is now exhibited in the Tate Modern in London, England.
ROTHKO’S ROOMS is both an informative and entertaining documentary. It should be watched by anyone interested in understanding modern art, Mark Rothko’s work or enjoying an excellent documentary film. But the major achievement of this documentary is that it brings you closer to Rothko’s work and his message.
Create Documentary Films, Videos and Multimedia: A Comprehensive Guide to Using Documentary Storytelling Techniques for Film, Video, the Internet and Digital Media Projects.
ORIGINALLY OPENED IN 1955 THE MUSEM OF MODERN ART, NEW YORK
A DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHIC EXHIBIT AND BOOK
It must be a wonderful experience to walk though this exhibit of photographs documenting “The Family of Man,” and to linger and examine each picture depicting so much human life and activity. No narration and/or interviews are needed, each photograph speaks for itself and then joins the overall collection of pictures creating a myriad of impressions. This exhibit is a testament to the fact that documentary actuality and explorations come in all forms, not just on film or video. The title of the exhibit was inspired by the expression “family of man” found in a speech by Abraham Lincoln.
The Family of Man Exhibit Clervaux
Clervaux, Castle
The Family of Man Exhibit, created by Edward Steichen, is a documentary employing still photographs hung in an exhibition environment. It began life in The Museum of Modern Art, New York and ultimately traveled around the world to thirty-seven countries. It is now housed in Clervaux, Castle in Luxembourg, Edward Steichen’s birthplace. The exhibition is undergoing restoration and will not be open to the public until 2012.
Photographs from the exhibit can be viewed in The Family of Man book version, with an introduction by Steichen and a prologue by Carl Sandburg. While the book cannot give us the same experience as viewing the exhibit, it does present the photographs as a documentary compilation of the exhibit.
In the introduction to the book Steichen writes, “The exhibition, now permanently presented on the pages of this book, demonstrates that the art of photography is a dynamic process of giving form to ideas and of explaining man to man. It was conceived as a mirror of the universal elements and emotions in the everydayness of life – as a mirror of the essential oneness of mankind throughout the world.”
Photograph by Dorthea Lange – Migrant Mother
The pictures come from all over the planet. Steichen with the help of his wife and staff culled 503 photographs from the two million photographs submitted by amateurs and professionals. Two hundred and seventy-three photographers, male and female, from sixty-eight countries took the 503 photographs used in the exhibit. Included in these numbers were many photographs from the US Library of congress and Life magazine. The exhibit traveled worldwide during the Cold War. Steichen felt that it might help for the world to see the “essential oneness of mankind.” The photographs are grouped in themes including love, birth, work, play, death, pleasure, pain, fears, hopes, tears and laughter.
All of the photographs in the book are black and white. Photographs that depict love in many forms begin the story of The Family of Man. Not only lovers embracing but also love demonstrated in many forms including the love of parents for their children. There are photographs by well known photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson, Dorthea Lange, Robert Capa, Margaret Bourke-White, Diane and Allan Arbus, Mathew Brady and many more.
Until 2012 when the exhibit reopens in Luxembourg, the book version of The Family of Man, on its own, is well worth a visit.
Forks Over Knives is both a personal journey story and an educational documentary. It explores the world of nutrition and the damage foods derived from animal-based food products (meat and dairy) may be doing to human health. Forks Over Knives also makes the claim that “most, if not all” degenerative diseases that plague humans can be controlled or reversed by moving away from animal-based and processed foods.
