Don Schwartz Spotlight on Documentaries
Welcome to the Blog of actor/journalist/personal historian Don Schwartz.
Don has been published in a variety of publications since 1977. His book, Telling Their Own Stories: Conversations with Documentary Filmmakers, is available from Amazon in softback or Kindle edition.
Don holds multiple degrees, including a Ph.D. in psychology and counseling from the California Institute of Integral Studies.
Don is a regular guest on our web radio show, The Art of Film Funding, produced by From the Heart Productions, reviewing documentary films with founder Carole Dean—http://www.blogtalkradio.com/the-art-of-film-funding
Don also contributes film reviews and filmmaker profiles to CineSource Magazine online—www.CineSourceMagazine.com
His weekly film review appears in The Marin Post—https://marinpost.org/
Don’s actor resumé, voice samples, and reel may be found at: www.DonSchwartz.com
You can access Don’s Personal Historian services at:
https://donschwartzservices.com/
You can find, and Like Don’s official Facebook page athttps://www.facebook.com/OfficialDonSchwartz
‘In 1983, the people of Ireland voted to add the 8th Amendment to their Constitution giving the unborn an equal right to life to that of its mother. Ever since, abortion rights advocates have been fighting to overturn it.’
Directed by Aideen Kane, Lucy Kennedy, and Maeve O’Boyle, 
With 
“I mean, I think for a lot of young people right now, life is really scary—because we’ve never seen a moment like this in history. And our feelings about our life and our future is all because of choices that we had no participation in. And so the plaintiffs join this case because we all know who’s to blame, and what needs to be done.”
Young Litigator
Christi Cooper’s documentary film 
we fish, we fish, we merrily swim, we care not for friend or foe, our fins are stout, our tails are out, as through the seas we go
Herman Melville
This is a crucial benefit of documentary films. They can unearth little known worlds of destruction and optimism, facilitating awareness and actions. Little did I know that something as seemingly innocuous as aquarium fish tanks are yet another source of pollution and sorrow in our planet.
Paula Fouce’s 
Picture a Scientist
From Science and Nonduality: ‘Trauma is the invisible force that shapes our lives. It shapes the way we live, the way we love, and the way we make sense of our world. It is the root of our deepest wounds. Dr. Gabor Maté gives us a new vision: a trauma-informed society in which parents, teachers, physicians, policy makers and legal personnel are not concerned with fixing behaviors, making diagnoses, suppressing symptoms, and judging, but seek instead to understand the
“If I just had this magic power, I would like to alleviate poverty, because when you’re poor, never mind the individual suffering, you’re destroying the environment because you have to. You have to cut down the last trees to try and grow a bit of food, to feed yourself and your family, or to make some charcoal. Or, you have to buy the cheapest food even if that did cause horrendous suffering to animals. I would like to change the unsustainable lifestyle of 
“This question of how much of the universe is understood is very much a moving target, because as we are able to stand in a new place, because we’ve learned something new, we then see other wonders that were not even visible to us before.”
Jennifer Macalady, Ph.D.
Microbiologist, Penn State University
Produced and directed by Ian Cheney, 
“Not everyone has a place to go. And there are often times where I don’t want to send a patient out into the cold with bad lung problems and no access to get medicines that night. I can’t just send him to the street. So, there’s no movement on that bed, and nobody in the waiting room can use that bed until that patient has a place to go. If I was a patient in the waiting room, knowing that there’s somebody who is completely stable, and didn’t need to 
In their documentary film, 