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:
Jane Goodall opens this documentary about herself and her work with this story:
"I used to get pretty fed up when people thought I was Diane Fossey, and they said, 'I loved your movie, you know, Gorillas in the Mist.'
And I would say, 'Well, you saw that movie?'
'Yeah.'
'You remember, the lady was killed?'
'Yes.'
'Well, here I am.'"
Written and directed by
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People of the Feather is one of the best reviewed and has received the most accolades of any documentary film I’ve seen in the last few years. Joel Heath’s documentary observes the Inuit people of the Belcher Islands, in Canada’s Hudson Bay, and their gorgeous, endangered environment.
With sensational cinematography, the film observes the land, water, seasons, and
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Every three seconds a human being dies of hunger.
Daniel G. Karslake’s film, Every Three Seconds, addresses that global horror as well as extreme poverty.
Karslake focuses on five formerly ordinary people – including a young child – who have made a difference, a contribution to the alleviating of those two human maladies.
1)
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“There are billions and billions of dollars worth of diseases out there!”
It was a couple decades ago, on the NBC Nightly News that I heard the above quote, one of their occasional pieces on the unendingly rising costs of pharmaceuticals. If only I had a recording of it!
My ears and brain struggled with the ‘did-I-just-hear-that?!’
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Louder Than a Bomb covers the annual Chicago High Schools-based “Poetry Slam” called, of course, Louder Than a Bomb.
Produced and directed by Jon Siskel and Greg Jacobs, the film follows four teams and four individuals—Adam, Lamar, Nate, and Nova—in the eighth year (2008) of the competition in which 46 teams participate
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Private Violence is a well-produced documentary about domestic violence in the United States. The statistics on this type of violence – which is primarily perpetrated against women – and the occasional flurry of national news headlines are chronically horrifying.
Produced and directed by Cynthia Hill, and premiering October 20, 2014, on HBO, Priva
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Directed, edited, and shot by Nicola Bellucci, In the Garden of Sounds tells the story and demonstrates the work of music and sound therapist Wolfgang Fasser who became blind at an early age.
Fasser's
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First Reaction to Press Release: 'Hmm. This is a documentary about a pageant for disabled little girls. A pageant. Pageants highlight the most superficial aspect of our humanity, and ignore character. But this one’s for and about disabled little girls. It won't be easy to stomach this, but I'll check it out.'
And then I watched the movie—in tears the whole time.
Produced and directed by Ron Davis, and cablecast by HBO, Miss You 
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What’s the deal with string quartets? I’ll be the first one to admit I’m a philistine, but I’m smart enough to know it’d take a book to answer that question.
I ask it, though, because Allan Miller’s Speak the Music is the fourth film I’ve seen in a short period of time about string quartets. I’ll take advice from
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The Act of Killing focuses on the 1965 genocide in Indonesia.
The film’s introductory text states:
“In 1965, the Indonesian government was overthrown by the military. Anybody opposed to the military dictatorship could be accused of being a ‘communist’—union members, landless farmers, intellectuals, and the 
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