This extraordinary documentary Pina by German filmmaker Wim Wenders (justly nominated for an Academy Award) on the choreographer Pina Bausch, his countryman, near-contemporary and fellow visionary, was a long time in coming. An artistic collaboration had been planned for some time but in an instance of epic bad timing, Bausch died just two days before filming was to have begun, having been diagnosed with cancer only five days previously.

The movie is thus haunted by the specter of death and of aging, compounded by the fact that many company members had been with Bausch for twenty-plus years. This theme is stated in the opening piece (returned to periodically in the duration of the movie), in which a long line of dancers chants Fruhling…Sommer…Herbst…Winter as they snake along a train platform, behind and onto a stage and later, on a wind-blown hilltop.

The Tanztheater German expressionist influence is clear in their affects, which ride the line between ecstasy and despair. Are they smiling in the face of death, or ruefully acknowledging that life and death march on regardless?

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The X-Men are a cornerstone franchise, the popularity of the book from the 70′s through the 80′s and it’s domination in the 90′s have helped shape an entire generation of artists and storytellers. The man behind most of that legacy is Chris Claremont, one of the most prolific creators in comic history. Now the story of his legendary run on Uncanny X-Men is being told as a documentary and you have a chance to help fund it.

Sequart and Respect Films are putting together the documentary and have set up a kickstarter page looking for funding from true believers like you. If successful, this documentary would be the first in a series of docs that focus on iconic series and creators that are worth telling, but likely would struggle to be big enough for a feature length doc.

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Once upon a time, the state of cinemas was a gritty, hilarious, violent place filled with guns, big boobs, and every kind of animal wanting to kill and/or eat your flesh. These days, everything is dumbed down to the least common denominator, but with an homage to some of those classic film genres.

Now, you can get to see exactly what that world was like with a brand new documentary delving into the eclectic mind of cinematic legend Roger Corman in Corman’s World: Exploits of a Hollywood Rebel. Here’s the premise.

CORMAN’S WORLD: EXPLOITS OF A HOLLYWOOD REBEL is a tantalizing and star-studded tribute to Roger Corman, Hollywood’s most prolific writer-director producer, and seminal influencing force in modern moviemaking over the last 60 years. Featuring interviews with Hollywood icons and cinematic luminaries, some who launched their careers within Corman’s unforgettable world of filmmaking, including Paul W.S. Anderson, Peter Bogdanovich, Robert De Niro, Peter Fonda, Pam Grier, Ron Howard, Eli Roth, Martin Scorsese, William Shatner and Jack Nicholson, along with many others, this documentary chronicles how Corman created his cult film empire, one low-budget success at a time, capitalizing on undiscovered talent, and pushing the boundaries of independent filmmaking.

The film is set to hit select theaters on December 16th, but you can check out the very first trailer for it after the jump.

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For me and many of my friends, one of our endless debates will always be: Star Trek or Star Wars? Like Coke vs. Pepsi, Ginger vs. Mary Ann or Mac vs. Windows, geeks always have a fun time debating the merits of their favorite things.

One of those favorite things celebrating a milestone today is Gene Roddenberry’s venerable franchise Star Trek. 45 years ago today the show first aired on NBC and from that moment on it spawned generations of devoted fans and turned into a worldwide phenomenon beloved by millions of people all over the world.

To help celebrate that milestone, the Science Channel is working with Gene Roddenberry’s only son, Rod Roddenberry, to produce the world premiere documentary, Trek Nation.

According to the Science Channel, the film “shadows Gene Roddenberry’s son, Rod, as he explores his family legacy and the crusade his father’s passion and curiosity for exploration. Through interviews with his most devoted fans, including George Lucas and J.J. Abrams, Trek Nation follows a son searching for the wisdom of his father.”

Sounds pretty interesting. Think I’ll give it a look.

Trek Nation is set to air on Wednesday, November 30 only on Science Channel. Check out a new clip from the doc after the break.

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If you don’t live in Los Angeles or New York or you do and just haven’t had a chance to go out and see director Asif Kapadia’s Senna, one of the best documentaries of the year about one of the greatest race car drivers of all time, don’t worry. You’re going to get your chance.

How do we know? Well, the doc is doing so well at the LA and NYC box office, averaging over $35K per screen, that the film’s distributor, Producers Distribution Agency, are planning to take it into 11 new markets and put it on 15 more screens this weekend.

“Obviously, we’re thrilled with the opening,” said John Sloss, co-founder of the Producers Distribution Agency in the article. “What it proves, both numerically and anecdotally, is that the film plays well beyond the core. We knew from our advance screenings, to our surprise, that the film played better to women that even gearheads, and they showed up. This movie is much more playable than it is marketable, so we couldn’t be happier with this word-of-mouth base.”

In case you’re not familiar with the film (even though you should be) it “follows the story of Ayrton Senna, perhaps the greatest race-car driver who ever lived. In the mid ‘80s, Senna burst onto the world of Formula One racing. As a Brazilian in a predominantly European sport, he had to fight hard both on (against his nemesis, French World Champion Alain Prost) and off (against the politics that infest the sport) the track.”

That description doesn’t really do the film justice. If you like compelling stories, great characters and fast cars, this doc is for you. Be sure to check it out.

If there’s one thing we love as much as movies, TV, comics, games and pop culture here at The Flickcast, it’s cars. Cars are fun and they go really fast. We like fast.

Speaking of fast, there’s a new documentary out now called Senna which tells the story of a man who liked to go fast and is widely regarded as one of the greatest Formular One drivers that ever lived. That man: Ayrton Senna.

Director Asif Kapadia has put together a great documentary about the man and his legend and the guys at one of our favorite car websites, The Smoking Tire, managed to snag an exclusive interview with Kapadia, which we are glad to bring you right now.

Check out the interview after the jump. Senna is in theaters on LA and New York now with a wider release to follow. If you like cars and great stories, this is one you don’t want to miss.

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My initial feeling upon leaving Project Nim was something akin to Werner Herzog’s closing monologue in Grizzly Man—I felt nothing for the animal. While others looked into Nim’s eyes and saw flickers of humanity, depth, tenderness, all I could see was its cold instinct. Every hug was punctuated by either a vicious bite or a beg for food.

There was no instance of it sharing or displaying any concern for its companions unless it was for Nim’s own selfish benefit. The best that can be said for it is that the creature’s offenses can be excused because it is, after all, a wild animal.

Nim is Nim Chimpsky, a chimpanzee taken from his mother at birth (and the Oklahoma chimp farm where he was born) and made the subject of Herbert Terrace’s, Columbia professor of Primate Studies, experiment. Terrace wanted to see if a chimp raised as a human child and taught sign language could converse with other humans.

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The Last Mountain of the title refers to Coal River Mountain, an area in West Virginia being mined by the Massey Energy company. Massey has a long history of violations, as the villagers below are quick to point out—creating lakes of toxic goo that threaten to pollute the waterways of West Virginia and other states; unsafe mining practices that likely caused brain cancer in several residents, union busting, profiteering, global warming and so on.

Director Bill Haney (The Price of Sugar) provides an informative summary of the dangers of Massey Energy’s practices with first-hand accounts from Coal Mountain locals as well as experts. It’s well-researched and articulate, and yes, it’s a problem. But that’s where The Last Mountain stops being informative and Haney’s contempt for Massey takes over.

It gets points for criticizing democrats and republicans alike, but it ultimately lets politicians like West Virginia governor Joe Manchin and Obama off the hook while taking aim at Massey CEO Don Blankenship. Sure, Blankenship may be a crook, but I doubt the filmmakers believe that the next guy in line will act any differently, so what’s the point in vilifying him?

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Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop follows the comedian on his Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour (that’s a mouthful to type), better known as the thing Conan O’Brien did after the NBC fiasco that left him without a television show. He’s bitter, but the film doesn’t dwell on the controversy; instead its aim is to focus on O’Brien’s showmanship.

His energy is amazing to behold. He’s performing whether on the stage, bus, at home, at the office, greeting hordes of fans or a meager handful—anywhere. If nothing else, the film deserves its title; the man literally cannot, and will not, stop. The 85 minutes breeze by as we see Conan go from Eugene, Oregon (“Should I be nervous that we’re opening in a city where no one lives?”) to Seattle to Atlantic City to Manchester, Tennessee for Bonnaroo, and finally to Atlanta.

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I’m not the biggest fan of gospel music. Actually, I’m not really a fan at all, so I’m not the target audience for Rejoice and Shout, but you don’t have to be once you’ve heard the little black girl in the opening scene belt out a killer rendition of “Amazing Grace.” And I can’t stand “Amazing Grace.” Rejoice has its show-stopping moments—a 1902 recording from one of the first gospel groups, named “The Dinwiddie Colored Quartet”; a gospel-off between two groups; the sad history of Clara Ward and her domineering mother—but they’re too scarce to foster a sustained interest.

And that’s largely the movie. I can’t quite recommend it save for gospel fans, but I can’t really write it off either. Director Don McGlynn constructs something squarely aimed at fans but occasionally offers moments that will appeal to anyone.

It’s nice enough, and, in bits and pieces—the evolution of gospel is interesting, particularly when the interviewees discuss how the blend of African music with Christian hymnals created the genre, or some of the stories of the gospel singers themselves are intriguing, however the singular focus is on the music, and these are simply compelling asides. McGlynn also chooses to play many of the songs in their entirety, which, at five-to-seven-plus minutes in length, combined with 200+ years of history, is pleasant at first but drags after the first hour, and even more so when you realize that there’s another hour to go.

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Page One: Inside the New York Times focuses on several facets of the paper itself—its day-to-day operations, the folks who write, edit, and run the paper, and its struggle to remain competitive in the age of the digital news, but it also provides a glimpse into the quickening change of newsmedia as well.

Director Andrew Rossi (Le Cirque: A Table in Heaven) was granted a year’s access inside one of the oldest papers in America to film, and from what must have been a warehouse of footage, he scaled it down to a mere 88 minutes that covers an exhaustive array of topics through the camera’s own eyes and those of The Times‘ colorful cadre of show-runners. Among the faces we meet and follow are the paper’s Executive Editor Bill Keller, Jill Abramson, the Managing Editor, Brian Stetler, the cherubish Media reporter, and, mostly, Media Columnist David Carr, the plain-talking, ex-cocaine addict.

Rossi does an excellent job of capturing the toils, trials, and tension of a daily newspaper with practically every shot. We see reporters and editors ensconced in their workspaces, surrounded on all sides by endless stacks of books, papers, and computer monitors. We see them plan a day’s paper and then go to work furiously, bicker amongst themselves, check their facts, chew out interviewees, and feel the tension as they wait for a call back from one source minutes before the deadline.

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If there was one week for forget to check Apple Trailers  it was definitely this past week.  Usually there is at least one interesting trailer coming out everyday, but for some reason this weekend only had new cuts for films we already had seen trailers for, and has hardly anything new premiering in theaters or online.  Is this a preview of what we can expect in the fall?  At this rate, at the end of the summer we will have quite a boring couple months until Oscar season.

This week we have a franchise spin-off, a quirky indie comedy, and one documentary to throw in the mix.

Planes

Click to see the trailer

Yes, this is a spin off of the popular Pixar movie Cars, who’s sequel is set to come out this month.  No, this one is not being make by the talented team at Pixar, and is instead being brought to us by Disney alone.

In all honesty, the mere fact that this is only a Disney film really scares me as to the quality of this film.  I would have normally thought that this is a terrible spin-off idea for this franchise, but if I hear that Pixar was still doing it, I would hold onto my hope just because of their impeccable track record with animation.  Disney, on the other hand, while I admire their effort in acquiring Pixar to stay on top of the animation industry, has had a long string of bombs in the past few years when it comes to producing feature animations by themselves.

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