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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA V. THOMAS B KIN CHONG a/k/a Tommy Chong

Friday, April 29th, 2011

United States of America v. Thomas B Kin Chong – a/k/a Tommy Chong is a unique, actuality based documentary, directed by Josh Gilbert. Different because it successfully combines a strong political message with humor, emotion and entertainment. The story begins with Tommy Chong apparently being interviewed at Taft, a federal minimum-security prison in California, where he is serving a nine month sentence for owning a company that sold bongs on the internet. The glass bongs were sold to a fake store, set up by the Department of Drug Enforcement (DEA), near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where it’s illegal to sell anything that could be considered drug paraphernalia. The DEA badgered Chong’s company for eight months to ship them the bongs so they could entrap Tommy Chong. This initiative, under John Ashcroft as Attorney General, and Mary Beth Buchanan, an ambitious US Attorney appointee, appears to be nothing more than a lead up to a show trial. The twelve million dollar sting to bust Tommy Chong, and others was conducted despite the ongoing war on terrorism after 911. In the film GW Bush is seen equating the “war on drugs” to the “war on terror.”

Tommy Chong narrates the lead up to the bust, while the documentary utilizes archival footage of Cheech and Chong, how they met and got started doing their comedy routine. Some of their funniest routines including scenes from Up In Smoke are used. As the film progresses it becomes clear that the Bush administration using Ashcroft is prosecuting Chong for making movies and doing comedy that, in their view, glorified drug use. They appear to have gone to great lengths for a year to find away to bust Chong.

United States of America v. Thomas B Kin Chong – a/k/a Tommy Chong includes clips of Bill Maher and Jay Leno, who are supportive of Tommy Chong. The author of Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs, and Cheap Labor in the American Black Market, Eric Schlosser comments on political and historical realities concerning the Bush Administrations actions. Chong maintains that he was busted, in part, for making anti GW Bush jokes like, “The only weapons of mass destruction they found in Iraq were bongs!”

The documentary covers periods before and after the bust of Tommy Chong and the raid on his glass blowing factory that produced bongs. Parallel themes including Chong’s biography, Cheech and Chong clips, the build up to the raids and arrests, Chong’s incarceration and release, and the emotional affect on the family are edited in nonlinear fashion, pulling the story together succinctly. Tommy Chong’s wife Shelby relates that they were awoken up by helicopters, swat teams and DEA officers who raided their home in the middle of the night. Chong gives his reaction to the events as the film, visits the factory where Tommy’s son Paris is interviewed. It turns out that the government coerces Tommy Chong into a plea bargain where he pleads guilty. In exchange the government doesn’t prosecute his son and wife.

United States of America v. Thomas B Kin Chong – a/k/a Tommy Chong is a well paced and edited story. It makes a statement regarding the abuses of power that were conducted by US Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan under Attorney General Ashcroft (appointed by George Bush). Tommy Chong tells his story in an often humorous way either in an interview or in live performances before and after he “serves his time.” The documentary provides insight into the laws and contradictions regarding the use of marijuana. It brings up the important question of First Amendment rights since the government used Chong’s comedy routine and his acting in films that portrayed smoking marijuana, as evidence in the prosecution’s case. This and other factors point to possible abuses of power by the Department of Justice run by John Ashcroft.

In the case of United States of America v. Thomas B Kin Chong – a/k/a Tommy Chong, actuality is stranger than fiction. It seems that this documentary could be the basis for a satire scripted as “Up In Smoke, Part 2.”

J R Martin

Trailer

Tags: Cheech and Chong, DOCUMENTARY REVIEWS, Tommy Chong, United States v. Chong
Posted in Documentary Film Reviews, REVIEWS | No Comments »

HAIL HAIL ROCK ‘N’ ROLL

Friday, March 25th, 2011

CHUCK BERRY HAIL! HAIL! ROCK ‘N’ ROLL is a documentary that entertains and informs on many levels. Sit back and enjoy the music, anecdotes as told by the artists, a great concert with insight into the social and historical aspects of the emergence of Rock ‘N’ Roll. Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock N Roll is an amazing documentary that begins when the director Taylor Hackford asked Keith Richards to be musical director/producer for the film and to put together a solid backup band for Chuck’s 60^th birthday concert. Keith, “…wanted to serve Chuck up with a good band, because he hadn’t had one for years.” Keith brought in Johnnie Johnson on piano. Chuck Berry started out with Johnnie in St Louis. Keith also brought in Steve Jordan on drums and other musicians including himself to put together an excellent back up ensemble for Chuck’s concert. The concert is scheduled at the ornate and classic Fox Theater in St Louis, Missouri where Chuck, at age eleven, was denied entrance because of his race.

The concert is only one aspect of this multifaceted study of Chuck Berry, the roots of his music, his life and connection with other musicians of the day including Little Richard and Bo Diddley, who’s interviews are candid and informative. In addition you hear from Jerry Lee Louis, Erick Clapton, Bruce Springsteen and John Lennon (archival footage) who all relate their feelings about Chuck Berry and his music.

Hail! Hail! Rock ‘N” Roll tells the story by interweaving interviews, rehearsals, and the actual concert. Early interviews, archival material, and the rehearsals set the stage for the concert. But even after the concert begins there is time to continue Chuck Berry’s story and the evolution of Rock ‘N’ Roll as it happened in the lives of everyone Chuck Berry influenced with his music. Chuck explains his approach to song writing and why he feels he was successful in his career.

Shot in 1986, Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock N Roll was available on VHS for a time. The new release on DVD is excellent visually and the audio has been re-mastered in 5.1. There is also “The Ultimate Collectors Edition” DVD release that includes four discs. The first is the actual documentary with an intro by Taylor Hackford. The other three discs contain an interesting behind the scenes documentary, additional rehearsal footage and historical documentaries about the history of Rock N Roll featuring the musicians who lived it.

Taylor Hackford manages to get Chuck Berry to talk more than usual, unless it’s a subject Chuck doesn’t what to talk about, like his times in prison and his family life. Mrs. Berry states who she is and how long they’ve been married. Before she can answer another question Chuck stops the interview. It is clear that Chuck Berry likes to be in control and has places he doesn’t want to go.

Keith Richards is interviewed sitting in chair next to a sink with a bottle of his favorite booze sitting in it. He talks about his experience with Chuck Berry both before this gig and how things went working with Chuck for the concert and film. Keith works hard to get the back up band and Chuck on the same page, even though Chuck Berry resists the effort. Keith might have what is called a “love/hate” attitude for the man who once “cold cocked” him the face for tapping him on the shoulder. Keith is proud that he “…didn’t go down from the punch.” There are some scenes during the rehearsals where Keith and Chuck butt heads that are revealing and humorous. These problems persisted even onto the stage of the concert. But Keith Richards prevailed and back up band appeared to give Chuck’s performance a boost. Even so there was, apparently, some over dubbing of Chuck Berry in the final stages of mixing the concert footage for the film. All of the band’s members did an outstanding job including Johnnie Johnson.

In the process of putting the band together Keith brought in Johnnie Johnson on piano. A brilliant blues pianist, Johnson’s career had faded since Chuck disbanded the original band he started out with; a group that was once Johnnie Johnson’s. Keith’s bringing Johnnie into this film and concert helped Johnnie resurrect his career and got him back to performing all over the world for many years before his death. In his book “Life,” Keith writes, “It was fantastic, to say the least, to put Chuck and Johnnie together. What was interesting was the way they reacted off each other. They hadn’t done it for so long. Just by being there, Johnnie reminded Chuck of how it really went, and Chuck had to come up to Johnnie’s mark…”

There is no question of Chuck Berry’s status as a performer and musician, his lyrics and guitar playing are unique and the inspiration for many other artists over the years. The documentary, mainly because of Chuck’s refusal to touch on anything controversial, stays focused on the music, the man and the people he touched. Some of those people including Keith Richards, Eric Clapton, Linda Ronstadt, Etta James, Robert Cray and Julian Lennon perform with Chuck at the concert adding another entertaining dimension to this great documentary. Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock N Roll is a must see, must have for anyone interested in the world of music. You will be humming those classic Chuck Berry songs for days.

J R Martin

TRAILER

Tags: Documentary Film Review, Keith Richards, Music, Taylor Hackford
Posted in Documentary Film Reviews, News, REVIEWS | 1 Comment »

WASTE LAND

Sunday, March 20th, 2011

Waste Land begins with Vic Muniz, a well-known artist, living in Brooklyn, New York, who decides to return to Brazil, his birthplace, to do an art project that has social relevance. Art that will somehow help the people involved. Muniz’s work mainly combines photography with other media. He has gained recognition worldwide. He decides to go to Rio de Janeiro to photograph “Catadores” who make their living picking recyclable materials out of the huge garbage dump/landfill known as Jardim Gramacho located on the outskirts of Rio. Muniz plans to take photographs of a number people, blow the pictures up, project them as templates and have the individuals participate in painting themselves with the recyclable materials or “garbage” as it’s called in the publicity. Muniz then re-photographs these “portraits.” His plan is to exhibit this work and sell prints with the proceeds going to the “Catadores.”

As much as Waste Land documents the process of creating the art it also, by default, explores the influence of both the artist’s involvement with the subject and the act of making the documentary involving the “pickers” in Muniz’s project. As the story continues, questions regarding the motivation of the artists and their self-proclaimed altruistic goals, becomes apparent.

Director Lucy Walker allows all the contradictions that surface in the telling of the Waste Land story to be seen. Muniz’s, possibly naïve, even self-serving notion that he can somehow use his art to invoke change in someway, is confronted by the social realities of the “pickers.” The individuals interviewed and photographed are in some cases second generation. Many are illiterate. They form a caste at the very bottom of Rio’s multi-tiered society. As the film progresses you meet and learn about six of the “pickers.”

Suelem is a young woman who started picking at age seven, she is now eighteen, with two children who live with her mother in a shack. Suelem is still working. She rents a shelter by the dump during the week and visits her family every two weeks or so. She relates how she eats some of the fresh garbage she comes across. The portrait of her with her two children is quite beautiful and moving. But there doesn’t seem anyway out of this environment for her or the other people interviewed.

Hope springs eternal in the heart and mind of Tião, President and the founder of the Association of Pickers of Jardim Gramacho (ACAMJG) an association he formed to represent the pickers. Tião can read and has created his own library out of found books. If you didn’t know this was a documentary you could see it at some post apocalyptic world in a science fiction movie. During the documentary Tião gets to go to London for an auction of his portrait. It sells for $50,000. In the end Muiz raises over $250,000 dollars from the sale of prints which goes to ACAMJG to help them buy equipment, truck and Tião open a learning center.

There is a scene in Waste Land where the artist and others discuss what impact this whole process will have on the “Catadores,” after they finish working on the project and the chosen few have to go back to picking. Will they want to go back? Will they now be disenchanted with the life they once accepted, perhaps were even happy with? There’s a kind of arrogance in the way this is approached by the artists, as if the “pickers,” were the subjects of some social experiment. The subjects are apparently never really consulted on these matters. There are no sociologists or psychologists involved or any plans to deal with problems that may come up. Everything appears to be resolved by the notion that at the very least the opportunity to experience the project; perhaps travel to London, makes it okay even if in the end you have to return to the garbage dump. You get the feeling that the artists have accepted the self-serving idea that they can make no lasting impact on the lives of the subjects.

Waste Land presents images that are, at times, difficult to stomach. Human beings working day and night in a huge garbage dump/landfill picking recyclable materials out of refuse as soon as it is dumped there. There’s a woman who cooks meals for the workers using “unexpired” discards the supermarkets send to the dump. The film is edited at a decent pace; certain segments seem a little redundant. The cinematography is good overall and in the night scenes at Jardim Gramacho where pickers are working. Some of the “pickers” shown in the film are actually photographed at the dump and this action is documented as it happens. There are a number of scenes shot inside the shacks where certain people live giving the feel of these living conditions. Music by Moby is very good.

Waste Land is an interesting multi faceted documentary. On one level in chronicles artist Vic Muniz, his humble roots growing up in a suburb of San Paolo, to fame and fortune in New York, then back to Brazil in an apparent attempt to “give something back” to his native land.

Next Waste Land brings to light the lives of the “Caladores,” pickers of recyclables from Jardim Gramacho the largest garbage dump in the world, (These scenes are reminiscent of similar situations in third world countries) and the sub-culture they are part of by intimately profiling several of the “pickers.”

At the same time the question of exploitation by artists, intentionally or unintentionally has to be considered. Are the artists well intentioned, self-indulgent or unable to comprehend the enormity of the problems? What is the responsibility of the artist or the filmmakers to the subjects? To everyone’s credit an attempt to address these issues is made and shown in the documentary.

Waste Land, directed by Lucy Walker is an honest documentary that attempts an exploration of the shadows of perceived reality in the hope of finding some glimmer of truth. This is an excellent documentary that deals with many issues on many levels.

There are some positive outcomes for the “pickers of recyclable materials” by the end of the film. But their future is in doubt as Rio plans to shut down the landfill in 2012. In all due respect to the “Huffington Post;” and its reviewer’s quote used in the Waste Land trailer, likening this documentary to the fictional feature Slumdog Millionaire is bizarre. There are no millionaires here and no “Bollywood” ending.

J R Martin

Trailer