Category: Documentary

Review by Richard Caldwell
Rating: 3/5

What do you love? What sparks some of your favorite childhood memories? Does that thing make you feel a spark of passion every time you speak of it? “Virgin Blacktop” is a film that analyzes each of those individual thoughts. Each thought is generated from a place of love and engulfed in remembrance.

“Virgin Blacktop” is a documentary type film. The film is directed by filmmaker Charles Samuels. It follows Samuels and his group of friends as they tell stories of their beginning days as skateboarders. The group was known as the “wizards” and each got their start in New York towns/cities. That was before they later would combine to form a new sidewalk surfing team.

Overall the film is enjoyable and informative. The tale is unique as it centers around a group of New York skateboarders, The kind of music they chose as their skating background also adds an interesting twist to the story. The “funk” is what they were turned on to. The funk was definitely alive in the “Wizards” as they took the New York skating world by storm.

Review by Richard Caldwell
Rating: 3.5/5

As humans we were all created to be equal. Yes, we wear different hairstyles and have different personalities, but at the end of the day we’re more similar than anything else. Actors and Actresses face many of the same struggles to make it in the entertainment industry. However, each should be given the same opportunities to advance their careers. That also goes for actors/actresses with disabilities. An entertainer shouldn’t be discouraged from doing the things they love. “CinemAbility: The Art of Inclusion” discusses those challenges faced by disabled performers, but also shed’s light on their career achievements.

“CinemAbility: The Art of Inclusion” is a film directed by Emmy award winner Jenni Gold. Gold is the only female wheelchair using Director Member of the Directors Guild of America. Her personal perspective helped Gold put together a wonderful film. A film in which Jane Seymour delivers a wonderful performance as the narrator of the tale. This film also features commentary from the likes of Ben Affleck, Jamie Foxx, Marlee Matlin, Gary Sinise, William H.Macy and Geena Davis.

Overall I enjoyed this film. It’s a wonderful documentary and really sheds light on important issues facing performers in the entertainment industry. I think it’s important to know that actors/actresses with disabilities should receive offers for film roles. I also feel like it’s important to know that it’s not ok for a performer to play the role of a disabled person when there are performers with disabilities that are more than capable of handling the role. “CinemAbility: The Art of Inclusion” was very enlightening and I think its a film that anyone with an interest in the entertainment should watch.

Upstream Flix is partnering again with Award winning producer Adam Scorgie (Ice Guardians, The Culture High, Inmate #1: The Rise of Danny Trejo) in conjunction with Oilers Entertainment Group VP Don Metz and Co-Producer Shane Fennessey for Making Coco: The Grant Fuhr Story. Upstream Flix plan to release the film in late 2018.

Don Metz directs this captivating cinematic chronicle on one of the most celebrated, yet enigmatic goalies in the history of the NHL. The feature has been announced as the closing Gala film at the Calgary International Film Festival.

Featured contributors in the documentary include Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Martin Brodeur, Brett Hull, Chris Pronger and many more of the NHL’s royalty.

Fuhr, along with a number of his teammates, will provide a never-before-seen exclusive look into the high-flying Oilers dynasty of the 80’s, what made them so successful, and the infamous challenges that they faced. All-time rivals will speak to what it was like playing against the greatest goalie on the greatest team in the NHL’s 100-year history. Those closest to Grant will take the audience on a journey behind the mask to understand who the mixed-race superstar truly is.

Barely 19, Grant ‘Coco’ Fuhr became starting goalie for the most exciting team in NHL history. In his mid-30’s, he played 76 consecutive and 79 total games in an 82-game season to set two league records, then followed that ironman performance by playing 73 the following season on a completely rebuilt knee. During the decade and a half between, he employed his acrobatic style and cat-like reflexes to backstop five Stanley Cup champions and two Canada Cup winners, cementing a reputation as the ultimate “money goalie”. He also got himself demoted to the minors for calling the hometown fans jerks, announced his retirement at the age of 26 in an attempt to force a famously hard-nosed general manager to renegotiate a long-term contract, and was suspended for an entire NHL season for conduct deemed “dishonourable and against the welfare of the league” for substance use, only to return and redeem himself as one of the game’s true greats.

“I think he’s the best goaltender in the history of the NHL.” – Wayne Gretzky

From filmmaker and film historian Chris Espenan comes The Coolest Guy Movie Ever — a fascinating forensic documentary about the making of the classic World War II adventure film The Great Escape — to DVD and digital HD from Virgil Films on August 21, 2018, after a special screening earlier this year at Marché du film in Cannes.

Before Evans, Hemsworth, and Downey Jr. there was McQueen, Garner, and Bronson. These men represented what it meant to be tough guys in the 1960s, and they had the acting chops to play the toughest characters around – including the real life airmen who pulled off one of the most improbable escapes in war history.

The filming locations of the enormously popular World War II adventure The Great Escape have become enshrined over the years by film buffs and historians alike, forever changing the landscape of the small German towns that once played host to these Hollywood heavyweights. Now for the first time, Filmmaker Chris Espenan set out to visit all of the locations in Germany where the 1963 film was made, while compiling facts, behind-the-scenes stories, and inside information on how the film was produced.

From visiting Geisel Gastag Studios in Munich to the Bavarian town of Füssen, Espenan assembled a unique team of cameramen, historians, film buffs, and local experts who painstakingly found the exact spots where actors Steve McQueen, James Garner, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, James Coburn, David McCallum, and others toiled in the summer of 1962.

Uncovering treasures such as footage from a German television news shoot — which included a rare interview on the set with Steve McQueen — to getting first person interviews from the locals who were there during filming, The Coolest Guy Movie Ever is a true labor of love, fashioned by filmmakers who exult The Great Escape as one of the most memorable World War II movies ever made, featuring one of the greatest casts ever assembled, and for many, indeed, The Coolest Guy Movie Ever.

“The Great Escape is my favorite film of all time,” said Producer Steve Rubin. “It is the first film I started researching for my book ‘Combat Films 1945-2010’, the subject of my 1993 documentary Return to The Great Escape, and the reason I was nominated for Best Classic Commentary in 2004 for The Great Escape: Special Edition. When filmmaker Chris Espenan came to me with the idea for The Coolest Guy Movie Ever, I literally dropped everything to help him.”

Executive Producer and Virgil Films CEO Joe Amodei echoed Rubin’s sentiments when he said “As a young boy exploring the big wide world of motion pictures for the first time The Great Escape excited me, thrilled me and cemented a love for movies that has stayed with me forever. This is the film that started it all.”