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/
You can access Don’s Personal Historian services at:
https://donschwartzservices.com/
Directed by well-lauded veteran filmmaker Alex Parkinson, Lucy the Human Chimp tells the epic story of a young woman’s devotion to the care of a chimpanzee who had been raised by psychologist Maurice Temerlin and his wife Jane as an experiment. Eventually, Lucy became unruly, and the couple made the painful decision to send he
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“For the first time in my life I can say I enjoy a job.”
Cara Participant
Directed by Greg Jacobs and Jon Siskel, The Road Up is a masterfully produced documentary about a Chicago-based program called 'Cara' which supports people who aspire to recreate their shattered lives in a healthy and fruitful manner. Cara’s centerpiece is a month-long ‘boot c
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Phil Demers was working as a trainer at Canada’s MarineLand, in Niagara Falls. The park decided to add walruses to their show. The first walrus, a baby, was named ‘Smooshi’—on account of her affectionate way of ‘shmooshing’ her face against Demers’. One day there was a need to draw blood. Demers was taking care of Smooshi as the veterinarian was in the process of preparing the draw when Smooshi’s eyes and Demers’ eyes met. The tw
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Can You Hear Us Now? is another painful reminder of democracy’s frailty, as well as a call for hope and change from inspiring candidates.
Director Jim Cricchi and writer Susan Peters of
Twelve Letter Films tell this all-too-common story of the sabotage of American d
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Five Years North is a deeply moving, expertly produced film taking place in the world of U.S. immigration as seen by a young illegal immigrant (‘Luis’) who ended up in New York City, and as seen by Judy—a Cuban-American ICE Supervisory Detention and Deportation Officer who also lives in Luis' neighborhood.
The inciting incident that led
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The title says it all in Louise Hogarth’s Elephant Refugees.
The film covers a lodge called Elephant Sands located in Africa’s dry, sandy, Kalahari woodlands of eastern Botswana. Created by founders Marie and Ben Moller in 2002, the
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All Light, Everywhere begins with the following narration:
‘At the back of the eye is the optic nerve. It connects the eye to the brain. The optic nerve receives no visual information. It’s a blind spot. At the exact point where the world meets the seeing of the world, we’re blind. We do not perceive this blind
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Directed and narrated by well-lauded veteran filmmaker John Walker, the flippantly titled Assholes: A Theory is a serious-as-a-heart-attack documentary film about rampant narcissism. The film is based upon the New York Times bestseller Assholes: A Theory by Aaron James who received his PhD from Harvard University, is a Pro
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Iain McGilchrist is a former Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, an associate Fellow of Green Templeton College, Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Consultant Emeritus of the Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital, London, a former research Fellow in Neuroimaging at Johns Hopkins University Medical School, Baltimore, and a former Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Studies in Stellenbosch.
Note: A
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“The astonishing speed and variety of nature’s response [to the pandemic] has shown that even modest changes to our lives can make a vital difference to wildlife around the world.”
Richard Attenborough
Directed by Tom Beard, and hosted by Attenborough, The Year Earth Changed
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