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
A ‘cordillera’ is an extensive chain of mountains or mountain ranges. Mountain ranges of this type have a complex structure, usually the result of folding and faulting accompanied by volcanic activity. In South America the ranges include numerous volcanic peaks.
The definition above is of a generic noun. Legendary writer/director Patricio Guzmán capitalizes the ‘C’ because he is referring to the specific Cordillera in his home country of Chile
Written and directed by Thomas D. Herman, and narrated by Sam Waterston, 
“When I look out this window which had been chewed by polar bears, both from the outside and inside, I think maybe I belong to the last generation who will see a polar bear walking on the ice outside.”
Asgeir Helgestad
Asgeir Helgestad is a prolific, multi-talented wildlife cameraman from Norway. For more than 20 years his second home—and the location of this film’s production—has been on Svalbard, a group of islands between Norway and the North Po
Directed and shot by Daniel Traub, with music by Simon Taufique, 
“Before bringing me to meet her family in Italy, my mother told me, ‘you will find out who you really are.’”
Matteo Troncone
Had my mentor David Hakim not shared 
Aaron Weisblatt’s 
“It took me years to understand how deeply the Peace Corps experience affected my ability to be a good journalist. It was in the Peace Corps that I really learned empathy.”
Maureen Orth, Journalist
“Frequently, when they come to the office they say, I want my migraine cured. I would look at them and say, If I can cure your migraine, I’m going to get the Nobel Prize. That’s how big that is.”
Dr. Allan Purdy, Prof. of Neurology, Dalhousie University
Written, directed, and narrated by Susanna Styron, 
“If they’re given a command that might put their person in harm’s way, they have to make the decision to not take that command. Every other service dog is trained to take commands no matter what.”
“The new generation is fascinated with obsolete technology. They’ve grown up with extendible fingers, Game Boy, texting—and here’s letterpress? You betcha.”
Paul Brown, letterpress printer
For a little more than four hundred years printing was done by a process called ‘letterpress.’ Good ol’ 