Alan Adelson/Kate Taverna's THE PEOPLE VS AGENT ORANGE: Our poisoning continues....

 

This new documentary begins in the state of Oregon back in 2015 with a quiet shock: The same horrific chemicals used in Agent Orange are being used to spray forests here in the USA. 

THE PEOPLE VS AGENT ORANGE calls the use of this herbicide/defoliant "the most destructive incidence of chemical warfare in modern history," and by the time you've finished this information-filled, quiet, never-raises-its-voice documentary, you are likely to agree.  

As written and directed (with the help of additional writer Véronique Bernard) by Alan Adelson (shown below) and Kate Taverna (at left) the film takes us back to the Vietnam era, when Agent Orange was first used and its lethal effects on humanity initially noticed (and done nothing about). 

Older readers may remember the enormous amount of pushing, insisting and finally fighting our government -- that initially refused to even recognize the harm done by Agent Orange -- by American 

servicemen who had fought in Vietnam and suffered the effects of the chemical. What we didn't see much (maybe any) of back then was the horror inflicted upon the Vietnamese themselves, where as many as four million people were exposed to the chemicals. 

The People vs Agent Orange remedies this by moving gracefully back and forth between Vietnam and the USA (with a few side trips to Paris), while showing us the important work being done by two women. 

Tran To Nga (shown at left, below), herself a victim of Agent Orange whom we see in both Vietnam and France, is suing the American chemical industry -- including U.S. multinational companies Dow Chemical and Monsanto, both of which are now owned by the German conglomerate Bayer. We view not only her legal fight but the visits she makes to the younger generation of Agent Orange's dreadful legacy.

In America, we meet Carol Van Strum (below), who, for decades now, has continued to expose the use of toxic herbicides in the Pacific Northwest. All this -- even after a home break-in and the disappearance of a trove of documents that incriminate the chemical companies, and a hugely suspicious fire that destroys her home and kills family -- attests to the strength and insistence of Van Strum and other activists who continue to fight for justice. 

How these companies have gotten away with all this and continue to do so remains yet another of the great shames of our nation. Where is justice and accountability in all this? Will corporations, along with their money and lobbyists, forever control us, while destroying us in the process? (The latest example of the USA's no accountability practice comes as our new President, while admitting that Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, declines to level any punishment against the despicable little Prince.) 

The chemical spraying, which we both observe and learn more about, does not simply land on foliage but goes into the area's drinking water, as well. Plus, the chemicals themselves have a half-life that's truly frightening. The documentary easily combines 60-year-old history with recent events and actions, while profiling its two leading women, along with brief glimpses of other activists consistently fighting against the chemical behemoths. 

The People vs Agent Orange is a quiet, composed film that never grows angry. But so comprehensive and scathing is the information presented that, by the finale, viewers should be incensed beyond belief. 

Running 87 minutes, in English, French and Vietnamese with English subtitles as needed, the documentary opens this Friday, March 5, in a couple dozen cities across the country. Click here to access information on all the current theaters, virtual and otherwise, where the film can be seen.

How do we stop gerrymandering? Find out in Barak Goodman and Chris Durrance's documentary, SLAY THE DRAGON

Gerrymandering? Right. That's the carving up of voting districts in such a way that you can assure that your competition loses every time --- even when there are many more voters on the side opposite yours. This is the subject of the new and hugely important documentary, SLAY THE DRAGON, which shows us the history of this sleazy function, along with how the Republican Party, always the minority party in modern times, has managed to carve up voting districts in the craziest, weirdest of ways in order to assure that Democrats keep losing -- even as they remain the party of the majority.

Directed by filmmakers Barak Goodman (shown at left) and Chris Durrance (below, right), the movie -- as vitally important as is its subject -- turns out to be not quite up to the level of that subject. It tells us, if we follow politics, voting rights and voter suppression at all closely, an awful lot that we already know, it's more repetitive than it needs to be, and in terms of organization occasionally loses its focus.

And yet so necessary and consequential is its subject -- along with what can actually be done about gerrymandering

(you'll learn here what the voters of the state of Michigan did about this via their VNP organization) -- that Slay the Dragon immediately becomes a must-see documentary.

Beginning oddly enough with Flint, Michigan, and that city's water crisis, the doc informs us how gerrymandering enabled all this to occur without those responsible held accountable or voters being able to do anything about this.

Archival footage offers up everyone from Mike Wallace to a much more recent John Oliver, but the really important players here are folk you're not likely to have heard of unless you live and vote in Michigan. That would include an angry, intelligent and very savvy, determined young woman named Katie Fahey (below).

Ms Fahey organizes and leads the VNP (Voters Not Politicians) movement that wants voting districts to be redrawn along much fairer, less partisan lines. (The Slay the Dragon title, as well as its accompanying T-shirt slogan seems to have derived from one voting district carved up so bizarrely that it resembles that dragon.)

We also learn, via Republican Party strategist Chris Jankowski, how and why the 2010 mid-term election was of such importance to Republicans and how Jankowski's gerrymandered redistricting program won statehouses at what was practically a nominal cost (using dark money, advanced technology and zero transparency). We then move to Wisconsin to watch governor Scott Walker's infamous union-busting, and learn how ALEC contributed to all this and more.

By the time we return to Ms Fahey and her fight in Michigan, we're primed to understand how urgent is this movement against gerrymandering. The film makes clear that over time both parties have played this sleazy game, but it is the Republicans that now control and continue the practice.

An unabashedly activist film, the documentary encourage us to fight gerrymandering wherever we live, and in its closing moments shows how -- because our Supreme Court refused to rule on the constitutionality of gerrymandering and turned the problem back over to the individual states -- various states are using the Michigan model to try to halt the practice. Unless you're uber-wealthy, highly corporate, and or simply a brainwashed Republican, I suspect you'll want to get on board.

From Magnolia Pictures and running 103 minutes, Slay the Dragon was to have opened theatrically today, Friday, April 3. But due to Corona and theater closings, it arrives instead via VOD and digitial streaming. Click here to learn where and how you can view.

Wanna get REALLY angry? Watch the new Aussie doc, KANGAROO: A LOVE-HATE STORY

It's from Australia -- where else? And if you've ever been there (TrustMovies has, a couple of times) and watched with delight all those kangaroos and wallabies in the wild, you've probably been left with an indelible impression and love for this remarkable species. And trust me: You won't get anything like the same result from visiting a zoo. The first time I journeyed down under -- this was back in the 70s -- I heard from some people about what horrible pests kangaroos really were. But then, when I asked around a bit, I was told by others that this was all bullshit, coming from the industries and government officials that wanted to "harvest them," and that, when dealt with properly, the kangaroo population posed little real problem at all.

That was over 40 years ago, and the situation has apparently only grown worse since then -- with kangaroo meat (eaten by both humans and our pets) becoming more popular and the industries that cater to this growing larger and more powerful. No film I've watched in a long while -- including anything, even, about America's current and unspeakably racist and venal sleazebag President -- has made me angrier and more disgusted than the new documentary by Kate McIntyre Clere (above, right) and Michael McIntyre (above, left), entitled quite properly KANGAROO: A LOVE-HATE STORY. I admit that you probably have to be an animal lover to get this worked up, but the filmmakers do a bang-up job of showing you what is going on (along with why), how awful it truly is, and what might be done to halt this -- if enough citizens finally speak up and hold their elected politicians' feet to the fire.

Those feet, by the way, belong mostly, as expected, to Australian politicians (and corporations), but they also include many others internationally, since Kangaroo meat and skin/hide is sold worldwide. What we learn here about how the industry and their lobbyists tried to subvert our own state of California to their needs will open many eyes and also show us, thankfully, that the USA still has some politicians willing to fight for what's right.

Kangaroo approaches its tale and goal using everything from history to statistics to a lot talking heads (here with their bodes shown as well, since we're so often in the wilds of Australia) who follow our kangaroos as they hop and play and are killed -- in the most awful of ways that allow them to die slowly and horribly by hunters who just don't give a damn. Their joey, too (the term for kangaroo young) are affected just as terribly. There is a scene here of one injured joey trying so hard to hop away that it will likely break your heart.

Sure, the film is biased. It wants to preserve a species, for Christ sake. But it allows the "other side" to have its say, and then pretty much pulls the rug out from under it, whether the speaker is a politician or a farmer who insists that the kangaroo cannot be stopped except by hunting them down. We see the ongoing results (over quite some time) of a public relations campaign to denounce these animals as "pests" and how, when done skillfully and long enough, this can turn a population against its own "national" animal.

Wildlife experts and preservationists have their say, too, and it is equally intelligent and anger-making, as we perceive yet another example of how the wealthy, corporate and "elected" are growing richer even as they destroy our planet and the life upon it. Kangaroo is a documentary you'll want to share with everyone you know, but you'll also have to warn them that it is not an easy watch. It is a salutary one, however. This is a movie that will put you on the alert and maybe drive you to action.

From Abramorama and running 99 minutes, Kangaroo: A Love-Hate Story opens this Friday, January 19 in New York City (at the Village East Cinema) and Los Angeles (at Laemmle's Music Hall 3) and will then, over the coming weeks, open in another 15 or more cities. Click here to see all currently scheduled playdates, cities and theaters.

Business saves the planet in Mark van Wijk and Pedram Shojai's documentary, PROSPERITY...

...and not just any Capitalistic business. Oh, no: It's "conscious business," rather than the unconscious variety we're evidently more used to, that is going to do the trick here. If TrustMovies sounds a tad unconvinced, this is only because it seems a little late in the game to be offering up -- as does the new documentary PROSPERITY -- a very small-potato/band-aid solution to something so major, even as climate change and warming/rising oceans flood entire islands and shorelines and cause hurricanes to hit more often and more strongly. But, hey: Every little bit counts. Or does it?

It does indeed, according to director Mark van Wijk (shown at right) and his subject/narrator Pedram Shojai (below) who together travel some of the globe to interview examples of this new-ish business trend and explain how Conscious Capitalism/Business works, while in the process helping just about everyone. It is indeed encouraging to see and hear some of these business "leaders" explain what they're doing and why: among them, Paulette Cole, a lady who owns ABC Carpet and Home; Naomi Whittel, whose cocoa business out of

Panama is also going great guns; and Thrive Market, which brings healthy organic food to America's heartland at a reasonable price. Unfortunately, among other businesses included here is Whole Foods, the main purpose of which, other than making very rich its owner, has been to provide the elite with food to eat (together with the ability to feel so good about their going organic) and has by now been involved in enough scandals to disqualify its inclusion. The recent sale of Whole Foods to Amazon immediately lowered many of the prices, but against Amazon's increasing monopoly on business worldwide, I am not sure whether all this will play in any kind long-term positive fashion. Of course, neither am I sure that our planet itself will play out in any long-term positive fashion.

The movie grows more interesting when it deals with a company like The Container Store that appears to be dedicated to its employees, who in turn seem very dedicated to their clients, us consumers. You can still make money, some of these business owners assure us. Profit will be there, but it will simply be a smaller one. Of course, that's anathema to many Capitalists.

Things grow even more interesting when we arrive at The Stakeholder Theory vs The Shareholder version. Sustainable investing -- and how to democratize this  -- comes into play, as well, and we even learn about banks that have a conscience!

The documentary ends with a section on how to act regarding all this and what, specifically, we, as individuals, can do. Shops more wisely, support businesses that give back to society, you know the routine.  Many of us have been doing this for years, so perhaps we can be forgiven for not noticing much change -- except for the worse.

Still the movie is beautifully filmed, and it is always encouraging to note even a dent being made in plastic recycling/reduction (toward the end of the film, no less than Proctor & Gamble gets involved with the native Panama community). In my estimation, individuals can help, but for all this to actually "take off," one might think a good push from government would be in order. Good luck with that.

Prosperity, from Well.org, and running 84 minutes, hits theaters (the IFC Center in New York City and Laemmle's Music Hall 3 in Los Angeles)  According to the distributor, the film will also be available via via well.org's Global Online Free Screening as of October 5, 2017.

HEATHER BOOTH: CHANGING THE WORLD completes Lilly Rivlin's women activists trilogy

First she gave us a terrific documentary about the life and times of activist/writer Grace Paley, then followed this with a shorter but fascinating film on Esther Bronner, the woman who brought us the first feminist seder. Now, Lilly Rivlin offers up her hour-long documentary, HEATHER BOOTH: CHANGING THE WORLD, which will introduce many (if not most) of us to, as Ms Rivlin puts it, "the most important person you've never heard of." This film's a winner, too.

Rivlin, shown at left, has a way of fishing out the facts of a life and stringing them together in a fashion that draws you in, makes you think and then connect the dots that lead from personal life to politics to change. All three women she has so far memorialized are good examples, and while Paley was certainly the best known, Bronner and now Booth make fine follow-ups. And this time, Rivlin is taking on a living woman -- which seems to bring even more energy and vitality to her film. (Of course, Booth herself could hardly be more vital and alive!)

So who is Heather Booth? (That's she, above, in both her younger and more recent days.) Well, the woman is an "organizer," and if that might seem at first a bit mundane, we soon learn how important this job is, along with how it most effectively can be done. We also learn about the forces that drive her -- love people, hate injustice -- and how her status as an "outsider" probably fueled the fire.

From her first task -- handing out anti-capital-punishment flyers in Times Square -- through the Mississippi terror and the Civil Right demonstrations during the 1960s, we follow her career with interest and often surprise. She worked with Fannie Lou Hamer -- above, center -- in the south, where her sense of the need for social justice was strengthened by living with a black family. From there her skill for organizing seemed to bloom and flourish.

From racial justice to abortion rights and the creation of "Jane" (at a time when abortion was still illegal), we follow her career, professional and personal (there is a lovely section here devoted to "When Heather Met Paul," the man who became her husband and co-worker, though in a very different venue).

We discover the ACDC (Action Committee for Decent Child Care), and The Midwest Academy where, against all conventional wisdom, Heather proves that "organization" can indeed be taught. The movie does skip around a lot, even, it seems, in terms of time frames, yet there is not an uninteresting minute in all of the 60.

We watch as, with Booth's help, Harold Washington is elected mayor of Chicago, and eventually Elizabeth Warren's Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is formed (and has by now returned almost twelve billion dollars to consumers!). Accolades to Booth from both Warren and Julian Bond are included in the documentary. The movie's a call to action, as it demonstrates just what a wonder Heather Booth really is. Watching and listening to her will give you much needed courage. The film ends with the election of Donald Trump, a declaration of concern and -- of course -- the need for organization.

Distributed by Women Make Movies, Heather Booth: Changing the World will make its debut in Sarasota, Florida, beginning next week at the Through Women's Eyes Film Festival on Saturday, April 1, at 3:15pm (click here for the complete film schedule); and again during the Sarasota Film Festival on Monday, April 3, at 4:15pm. Click here for this festival's complete schedule.

DVDebut: Food waste gets its comeuppance in Baldwin/Rustemeyer's doc, JUST EAT IT

How much perfectly edible and nutritious food do the "haves" of the world waste yearly? The answer will stop you in your tracks, as will so much else in this new, highly entertaining and quite thought-provoking documentary, JUST EAT IT: A Food Waste Story. From filmmakers/participants Grant Baldwin (he directed, edited, photographed, handled the music and co-stars) and Jenny Rustemeyer (she produced and also co-stars in the doc), the movie shows us what these two filmmakers (shown below) feel, think and then tackle -- once they're made aware of just how much food the world wastes.

After explaining how most of the world's wasted food is both safe and nutritious, Grant and Jenny decide to try to live for six months entirely on discarded food, and they bring us along for the ride. This could prove too cute and silly by far, but we spend only part of our time on this experiment. The rest of the film is filled with smart and timely interviews with food-and-its-waste experts who talk about everything from the huge quantities of fruit and vegetables (these are the most wasted foods) constantly tossed away (that's Tristram Stuart, below, with a busload of wasted bananas)...

...to the results of dairy and livestock on this waste, as well as waste's impact on our energy sources. At one point we are told that "The water embedded in the food we throw out could meet the household needs of 500 million people." Just watch what happens to a full stalk of celery as it is prepared for 'market' and you'll cringe.

We learn about how appearance counts for so much more than nutrition in the buying habits of most consumers (whether shopping at supermarkets or farmers' markets) and how it has been a very long time since there were any public service announcements about food waste (we watch popular 1940s-50s actor Jack Carson make a Don't-Waste-Food plea during World War II).

And yes, we also watch as our couple takes to dumpster-diving to find food to keep them going over those six months. What they find is as eye-opening as all else. I think it was Jen (or maybe Grant) who tells us, "If you could see the quality of the food we find, we've been eating pretty well!" The problems with landfills and waste, how food scraps can make for a productive business (pigs love 'em!), what sell-by dates really mean, and a special kind of grocery store and how it serves its specific public (the fellow shown below is a proud worker in that store) -- all of this and more is included in a documentary that rarely loses momentum nor importance as it gets its message out.

Best of all are the many ways the movie shows us how we, too, can make a difference via our own "food" behavior: using what's in our refrigerators rather than eventually tossing it all out, shopping more sensibly, and choosing those not-so-pretty fruits and veggies that most consumers have already bypassed in their shopping.

From Bullfrog Films, distributed here in the USA by Icarus Home Video and available to view in two formats on the disc -- the 73-minute theatrical version, as well as a 50-minute classroom cut -- Just Eat It hits the street on DVD this coming Tuesday, December 6, for purchase and/or rental.

Peruvian-style Capitalism meets major opposition in Heidi Brandenburg & Mathew Orzel's WHEN TWO WORLDS COLLIDE

We've heard, over the years, a lot about Brazil's deforestation of its Amazon region but not so much about what neighboring Peru has done. We're brought up to date with with a jolt and much vigor by the new documentary, WHEN TWO WORLDS COLLIDE that takes us back a few years and then forward as two major political leaders in Peru -- the country's then-President, Alan Garcia, and Alberto Pizango, President of AIDESEP, the country's major organization devoted to indigenous rights -- square off against each other and the policies that each represents.

As very well directed and photographed (sometimes in the midst of violent unrest) by Heidi Brandenburg and Mathew Orzel (shown above, respectively right and left), and edited by Carla Gutierrez to maximize our understanding of what is going on from various angles and viewpoints, the documentary brings us up-close-and-personal to power wielded South American style by two men absolutely intent on seeing that their ends come to fruition.

While Progressives and environmentalists will of course side with Señor Pizango (above, center) and American Republicans and other promoters of Capitalism will favor Garcia (below), the filmmakers do an excellent job of offering up both men's viewpoints honestly (Garcia refused to cooperate or give interviews to the the documentarians), but it is clear from what we see that the Peruvian government, under Garcia and his minions, enacted laws that were actually illegal. Under International Convention C169, to which Peru was a signatory, it is mandatory that before the government passes a law that affects the rights of it native people, those people must first be consulted. This was never done, and since these laws have given huge corporations the power to despoil the Amazon and impact badly the heath of the natives, Pizango goes full-out against Garcia to stop this.

How all this is done -- via speeches, actions, and the use of the media to (mostly) bolster the government's case -- escalates into the kind of implacable force that leads finally to violence and death. The film, evolving rather like a thriller, proves intelligent and engulfing, showing us concisely and irrefutably how actions have consequences, many of them unintended -- perhaps on both sides, though the use of what appears to have been unnecessary gunfire by the government forces places a stronger burden of guilt upon Garcia.

The documentary show us once again, but dramatically and with startling immediacy, how the one percent of America -- in the South just as in the North -- exercises its control with an iron hand, consequences be damned. It also shows how, in fighting this control, the limits of behavior can be stretched past the breaking point.

Many scenes resonate, but one in particular, in which a cold and entitled TV talk show host "interviews" Pizango and tells hims that she should not have to be without electricity and lights because of his protests. "What about our rights?" he counters, and she cuts him off, ending the interview.

We hear several times from a scurrilous Minister of the Interior, as well as from various indigenous people, and the most personal and saddest part of the film deals with a father whose son was one of the policeman who were killed during the violence with protesters, when several of the protesters were also killed. The man's son has never been found, and the father spends his days and months searching for any information. What he finds at last is deeply moving and unsettling in ways expected and not.

The two worlds here -- wealthy and poor, the government and the people, the urban and the indigenous -- do indeed collide, and this will happen more often now that, thanks to activists, whistle-blowers and the use of social media, we can more quickly see and understand what is going on in our world and why. Once you've viewed this strong and riveting movie, I suspect that it will come to mind first from now on, whenever you hear of or think about Peru.

From First Run Features and running 103 minutes, When Two Worlds Collide opened in New York last week at Film Forum, where it is continuing its run through this coming Tuesday. It will open in Los Angeles at Laemmle's Monica Film Center on Friday, September 16, as well as in another ten cities and theaters. Click here to see all currently scheduled playdates.

Note: The DVD of this film, also from First Run Features, 

will hit the street come Tuesday, November 15. 2016