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:
You can find, and Like Don’s official Facebook page athttps://www.facebook.com/OfficialDonSchwartz
Directed by Pedro Ruiz, 
Cindy Meehl’s 
Barefoot: The Mark Baumer Story
“I remember, they took us to Old Town, there’s a great big house. There were other state foster kids there, and they left us there. I remember we all slept in one big room. We had bunk beds. If you wet the bed, you had to stay in that bed for 24 hours, and you couldn’t get up. If you had to pee, you had to pee in the bed. If you stole food, you couldn’t eat for 24 hours. (crying) I never cried, I never cried.
“I think it was only one time we told t
“Plastics are treated as a product that miraculously appears from nowhere and it goes to nowhere. That invisibility, that magic nature of plastics is something that the oil and gas industry has perpetuated and promoted very effectively for decades. But what was once invisible is becoming visible. The plastic crisis doesn’t start when the plastics enter the ocean, it starts when the oil and the gas leave the wellhead, and it keeps on being a problem at eve
“What I’ve been able to do up to now is just plan the next footstep—one step ahead on the next goal to overcome. But, now we’ve done it, I can take a moment to actually see what is around, and it’s beautiful, it’s a beautiful place. And, I just consider myself very fortunate to have had this opportunity to see it through”
Desmond O'Keeffe
The title says it all in Michal Sulima’s 
The mill in David Craig’s well-produced environmental documentary is in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, Canada. The multinational company has been manufacturing paper products there—mostly tissue paper and paper towels—since the 1960s. Within Pictou County is the Mi’kmaq fishing community of Pictou Landing.
For more than six decades Northern Pulp Nova Scotia Corp. has been pumping a toxic pulp effluent into a body of water called Boat Harbour which is adjacent t
“I absolutely think you can draw a line between voter suppression efforts and the gerrymandering efforts, and election results. We are seeing efforts to undermine the very core values of American democracy. Nothing is more fundamental in America than having the right to vote, and having the right to representation. And those two core values have been undermined by this new assault on democracy.”
Ari Berman, Journalist, Mother Jones.
Gerrymandering is one of
‘Compassion: A feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering.’
Dictionary.com
There is no want for documentary films about plant-based, vegetarian, and vegan diets. A few of these films have found a relatively large viewership.
“Something’s happening to me. I’m beginning to feel things again. It’s unsettling. This is why and how I got on that plane 55 days into recovery—despite my crippling fear. The wild out here feeds the wild in me, is the wild in me. The wild in me is eternal, that thing untainted, pure. This connection to the wild is the connection to the Source.”
Mark Titus, Director
Alaska’s Bristol Bay is the only fully natural salmon run left on planet Earth. The Bay