More Republican party ugliness and destruction, as Reuben Atlas and Samuel D. Pollard's ACORN AND THE FIRESTORM hits DVD

I suspect most of us will remember one of the big news stories of 2009, in which the nationwide community organizing group, ACORN, was beset by a major scandal involving an "undercover" operation in which a young man and woman, purporting to be a pimp and his whore, went into an ACORN office and talked its workers into supposedly helping the pair get a loan on a house they would then use as a brothel.

Yes, this seemed on the face of it to be utterly ludicrous, but there it was, captured on videotape for the whole country to see. See it, we did. Fox News, of course, made an ongoing meal of it, and much of the mainstream media did, too -- without doing a lick of the required investigation into the video's veracity.

One of the great strengths of the new documentary, ACORN AND THE FIRESTORM, by filmmakers Reuben Atlas shown at right) and Samuel D. Pollard (below), is that, after introducing us to a

few ACORN workers and giving a short history of the organization -- designed to help the working class and poor by helping them help themselves -- as well showing us the pair of shysters determined to "expose" ACORN, the movie tells its tale of a sham and scam that somehow looks "real" in pretty much the same manner that this story originally unfolded. The filmmakers refuse to give away their hand too early. This allows the viewer to better understand how something so unfair and dishonest could have taken place here in "democratic" America. Sure enough, as the documentary rolls along, we're caught up once again in how stupid and thoughtless these ACORN workers seemed -- before at last we are shown and told, with all the requisite proof, what really happened.

By the end of the film, sadness and disappointment have turned to shock and anger. Yes, the head of ACORN made some mistakes regarding family, transparency, and moving the power structure of the organization from local to national. But these pale in significance to the shoddy and actually unlawful scam perpetrated against ACORN.

We meet the perpetrators, abetted by that late, anything-but-great sleazebag Andrew Breitbart (what a shame his heart attack did not take place a few years earlier), and watch our anti-heroine, Hannah Giles (above) practicing self-defense in a video that looks every bit as unbelievable and unconvincing (with those very slow moves against an assailant, she'll be dead in no time) as does her later and more famous video (the unedited version I mean) with co-conspirator James O'Keefe.

TrustMovies does not want to spoil the surprise and more delivered by the twists and turns this documentary takes as its tale unfolds. You'll come away from it with enormous respect and appreciation for the film's true heroine, a woman named Bertha Lewis, below, who led ACORN during its latter days. The filmmakers arrange a meeting between Ms Lewis and Ms Giles to end their film, and the restraint Lewis shows toward the not merely naive but really stupid Giles is exemplary. When Giles, who behaves like an entitled piece of trash, declares, "I don't ____!" as though this were a badge of honor (you'll have to view the doc to learn what it is she does not do), you'll suddenly realize what jaw-droppingly dumb actually looks like.

Who stood up for ACORN and its proud, 40-year history or demanded a real investigation of what went on here? Nobody. Not even our crass and cowardly Democrats like Chuck Schumer, Al Franken or even a certain President Obama, who gladly signed the bill into law that defunded the organization. And, as ever, the post-event and more truthful news took a decided back-seat to the fake "event" news that preceded it. ACORN and the Firestorm is a sad, anger-making commentary on truth and fact in the USA -- which of course has only grown worse over the past two years of Trumpiana.

Pictured above is the fellow who opens the documentary by unfurling a Confederate Flag and then telling us, "This is 'heritage not hate'," even as he also explains how he came to connect with ACORN and how the organization helped save his and his wife's home from foreclosure during the 2008 financial crisis. He's a most interesting choice to provide entryway into this fine documentary, which I suspect will be on my list of "best films," come the end of the year.

From First Run Features, via iTVS, the documentary, running a swift 83 minutes, opened in a very limited theatrical run the beginning of this month and will hit DVD come Tuesday, May 15. 

STARVING THE BEAST: Mims and Banowsky's smart, timely and very important documentary

Is higher education at America's public universities soon to become a "private" kind of thing?  As in: even higher tuition fees, less and less public funding, and more and more nasty disruption and fake reform from trash-talking (and worse-acting) Republicans bent on the destruction of any kind of government that would actually provide for the people it governs? According to the new, must-see documentary STARVING THE BEAST, the answer is a decided "yes" -- unless the public that most needs to make use the of that education is able to wrest control back from the purveyors of this "new business model" for our universities.

As written, directed, filmed and edited by Steve Mims, shown at right, who earlier co-directed that exceptional documentary, Incendiary, and produced by Bill Banowsky (below), the documentary is actually one of the more intelligent I've seen in its refusal to spoon-feed us a bunch of talking points and sound bites. Instead, the filmmakers let us slowly see and understand what is going on here by listening hard and watching well, then putting together all the pieces Mims provides in order to understand the bigger picture, as well as the smaller details that make up that picture.

Mims begins with an angry speech by James Carville (shown below, and no hero of mine: see Our Brand Is Crisis) about what's happening at LSU, but there so much going on here that the filmmaker then offers up some history, including how the private sector began encroaching upon the public, and the results of all this in various locations and universities. Those locations are often, no surprise, in America's south and southwest (Louisiana, Virginia, North Carolina, Texas). But not always: We get a good dose of what Scott Walker did and wants to continue doing in and to Wisconsin.

We also see what Rick Perry and Bobby Jindal have in mind for higher education in Texas and Louisiana. Funny how all three would-be Presidential candidates have long since been unmasked for the lying pikers they are. We even get a dose of another would-be, Marco Rubio, who sings the praises of the Investing in Student Success Act -- surely one of the worst ideas those die-hard/kill-the-government idiots have yet concocted. Wait until you hear its particulars: This lunatic piece of if-only lawmaking (along with another bit of nonsense called The HERO Act) sounds like something out of the darkest, dystopian sci-fi film.

How did all this come about? Listen and learn of Jeff Sandefer and his Seven Solutions, or Wallace Hall and the Kick-Ass Regents. And, yes, Grover Norquist rears his ugly, no-more-taxes head once again. The fix is in by the one per cent to "starve" public higher education of funding. Sure, times are hard (except for the wealthy) but that is no excuse for so many states to abdicate their responsibility over higher education.

There is so much impressive information here -- including talking head interviews, copious charts and statistics, and especially a delving into exactly what happened and why -- that you will come away from this documentary with renewed appreciation for what public education used to mean and what, we hope, it can someday signify again.

As a filmmaker, Mims never raises his voice (although he occasionally lets his interviewees do this for him). Instead he piles up the evidence quietly and carefully and places it right in front of us. The result is impressive in both its quantity and quality. The movie's epilogue, involving the condition of Iowa State University, is like a further call to arms.

Starving the Beast, from Mr. Banowsky's distribution company, Violet Crown Films, and running 95 minutes, opened this past Friday, September 2, in at the E Street Cinema in DC, hits New York City at the IFC Film Center this coming Friday, September 9, and then opens on Friday, September 16, in Austin (Violet Crown Cinemas), Charlottesville (Violet Crown Cinemas), Los Angeles (Laemmle's Noho) and Madison (Sundance Cinemas). Click here to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.