Have you seen a great documentary lately?

On the next Your Call, we'll talk about the power of documentaries. The 9th Annual International Documentary Film Festival and the Arab Film Festival are in the Bay Area this month. We'll talk to filmmakers, film subjects, and festival organizers about the motivation behind their work. How do documentaries affect you? What do you love about them? What can they do that other film genres can't? Join us at 11 or send an email to feedback@yourcallradio.org. How have documentaries changed over the years? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Zeina Daccache, director, 12 Angry Lebanese

Jeff Ross, founder/director of SF IndieFest

Gregg Marks, co-director of May I Be Frank? A Film about Sex, Drugs, and Transformation

Frank Ferrante, subject of May I Be Frank? A Film about Sex, Drugs, and Transformation

Click to Listen: Have you seen a great documentary lately?

Can a Film Change an Industry?

On the next Your Call we'll bring you a conversation Rose Aguilar had with Louie Psihoyos, director of the documentary film, The Cove. The Cove reveals an annual slaughter of tens of thousands of dolphins in a small town in Japan, a reality that the Japanese government wanted to keep hidden. But now the story is out to the world. The Cove won the audience award at Sundance in 2009 and since our interview first aired live, the film won the Oscar for best documentary. We asked our listeners, what are you doing to save dolphins? Does a film have the power to change a whole industry? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar.

Guest:
Louie Psihoyos, director of The Cove, winner of the audience award at Sundance in 2009. Psihoyos was a photographer for National Geographic for 18 years and his photography has appeared in Fortune, Smithsonian, The New York Times Magazine and Rock and Ice.

Click to Listen: Can a Film Change an Industry?

Your Call 092909 What comes next for California's state parks?

What comes next for California's state parks? On the next Your Call we'll talk about the deal that averted a state park closure in California. Locked gates at hundreds of parks across the state has been delayed for at least one more year, but what comes next? How will the parks cut an additional $22 million from their budget? In his new PBS series, Ken Burns calls the National Parks America's Best Idea, but across the country fees are rising and hours are shrinking. What are you willing to do to keep state parks public? It's Your Call with Sandip Roy and you.

Guest:
Dan Jacobson in Sacramento
Legislative Director for Environment California, a statewide, citizen-based environmental advocacy organization. Mr. Jacobson has been with Environment California for 22 years and played a leading role in the passage of the California Clean Energy Act - the strongest renewable energy law in the country, the 2003 ban on PBDE's and the phthalate ban in 2006.

Click to Listen: What comes next for California's state parks?

Your Call 080509 Can a documentary save thousands of dolphins from slaughter?

Can a documentary save thousands of dolphins from slaughter? On the next Your Call we will speak with Louie Psihoyos, director of the new documentary The Cove. The Cove reveals an annual slaughter of tens of thousands of dolphins in a small town in Japan. It won the audience award at Sundance in 2009 and followed Psihoyos' extreme efforts to film a slaughter the Japanese government wanted to keep hidden. Send us an email at feedback@yourcallradio.org or join us live at 11 a.m. What are you doing to save dolphins? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guest:
Louie Psihoyos

Director of the Cove, winner of the audience award at Sundance in 2009. Psihoyos was a photographer for National Geographic for 18 years and his photography has appeared in Fortune, Smithsonian, The New York Times Magazine and Rock and Ice.

Click to Listen: Can a documentary save thousands of dolphins from slaughter?

Your Call 020409 What's a biopic got that a documentary doesn't?

What's a biopic got that a documentary doesn't? And vice-versa? On the next Your Call we'll discuss the choices artists make when deciding to retell the past on film. Gus Van Sant decided to tell the story of Harvey Milk as a biopic rather than as a documentary -- other than getting to cast Sean Penn in the leading role, what's the advantage? Can they bend the truth more? Does original footage from a particular time and place have an impact that actors and sets never can? Is there a documentary you wish would be made into a biopic -- or one that never should be? It's Your Call with Sandip Roy and you.

Guests:
Robert Cary in Los Angeles
Director of the feature film Save Me, about the intertwined lives of three people struggling with homosexuality.

Dawn Logsdon in San Francisco
Director of the documentary Faubourg Treme: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans, a celebration of the oldest black neighborhood in America.

Bill Banning in San Francisco
Runs the Roxie movie theater in the Mission since 1984

Click to Listen: What's a biopic got that a documentary doesn't?

Your Call 080508 Non-violence in Israel-Palestine

How strong is the non-violence movement in Israel? On the next Your Call, we'll have a conversation with two Israeli filmmakers, Shai Carmeli Pollack and Rachel Leah Jones, who are using their camera to raise awareness about the Occupation. Sahi Carmeli Pollack's documentary film Bil'in Habibti documents the struggle against the construction of the wall by the residents, internationals and Israelis in the village of Bil'in. So who is watching these films? And do they make any difference? It's Your Call, with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Rachel Leah Jones, producer of the documentary film, Ashkenaz

Shai Carmeli Pollack, producer of the documentary film, Bil'in my love

Click to Listen: Non-violence in Israel-Palestine

Your Call 041108 The Reality-Based Community

On the next Your Call, it's a special edition of our Friday Media Roundtable. This week, a panel of progressive independent filmmakers join us to discuss how documentaries are changing the mainstream media conversation. We'll be joined by Jeffrey Springer, co-director of Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea, David Redmon, director of Mardi Gras: Made in China, and Laurie Walters, head of film acquisitions for Ironweed Films. What was the best documentary you saw this year? How much power do documentaries have to create social change? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar.

Guests

Jeffrey Springer in San Francisco

Co-Director, editor and photographer of Plagues & Pleasures on the Salton Sea, one of the featured films in an Ironweed Film Release. 

Laurie Walters in Los Angeles

Head of film acquisitions for Ironweed Films, a progressive film distribution company that curates a monthly documentary film festival that it puts on DVD and mails out to its members. Ironweed was a project of Act Now in San Francisco, but is now an independent company.

To submit to Ironweed send DVDs to:
PO Box 636
Ojai, CA 92023 

David Redmon in New Jersey

Director of Mardi Gras: Made in China

Click to Listen: The Reality-Based Community

Your Call 072607 Stories from the Holy Land

What stories are Israelis telling each other? On the next Your Call, we'll host a panel of Israeli documentary film makers in town for the San Francisco Jewish film festival. The festival includes a movie about the last Israeli soldiers in an abandoned Lebanese fort right before their withdrawal, an inside portrait of Israeli prisons, and the story of Palestinian workers who sneak into Israel to find work. Dispatches from the front lines on the next Your Call with Sandip Roy and you.

Click to Listen: Stories from the Holy Land