Monsters to Destroy: ZAP Completes Post on Lucasfilm's 3-Part Foreign Policy Documentary Series

After a six month hiatus, our friends at JAK Films (Lucasfilm Ltd.'s production arm) completed offline editing on part three of their series "Manifest Destiny." The final chapter "Monsters to Destroy" spans the historical period of Bush 41 through Bush 43, from the end of the Cold War (1989) through the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

We provided finishing on episodes one and two in 2010 covered here in our blog.

"Monsters to Destroy" was written and produced by our old friend Sharon Wood and was edited by Greg Sirota and Jim McSilver. The task (for ZAP) was in some ways more complicated than the previous two episodes, as the archival material was 1980s-early 2000s video of decidedly mixed quality requiring careful up-rezzing to HD, conformed by ZAP's on-line wizard Ri Crawford and artfully color graded by our colleague Leo Hallal. Same post team who was colorist on episodes 1 and 2.

MANIFEST DESTINY

A documentary mini-series on U.S. Foreign Policy

What does a City on a Hill have to do with Guantanamo? How did descendants of anti-colonialists create what some have called the most powerful empire on earth? Where do exceptionalism, democracy promotion and interventions abroad intersect or collide? How has the 19th century rallying cry of “Manifest Destiny” continued to influence American foreign policy?

These and other questions are raised in the powerful stories featured in MANIFEST DESTINY, an historical series being produced by the documentary unit of JAK Films, a division of Lucasfilm. The series is comprised of three 90 minute episodes

Part 3, “Monsters to Destroy,” examines America’s multilateral and unilateral military campaigns in the post-Cold War era. By following how George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush interpreted humanitarian intervention and democracy promotion, from the first Gulf War, through Somalia, Rwanda, the Balkans, and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the episode will bring the concept of Manifest Destiny into the 21st century.

Now that the series is completed, Lucasfilm will begin actively trying to place the series on domestic television and will plan their educational distribution.

Swimming Upstream at ZAP for PBS Nature

Salmon : Running the Gauntlet
A Sea Studios Foundation Production for WNET/NATURE. Airing on PBS Sunday 8pm, May 1. Check local listings.

Mark Shelley, founder and executive producer at Sea Studios in Monterey spent four years putting together this remarkable 60 minute documentary that examines the folly of humans damming wild salmon habitat throughout the west and then going to extreme measures to preserve the fish by raising them in hatcheries and trucking and barging the fingerlings AROUND the dams to enter the sea. The footage is spectacular; the specie's life cycle is even more amazing than you had previously thought and sad to say, the future looks pretty bleak.

ZAP provided online finishing services including color grading and HD mastering for THIRTEEN WNET in New York.

Here is a statement from the filmmaker:

Salmon: Running the Gauntlet celebrates one of the world's most incredible animals, with a remarkable and vital role in sustaining millions of square miles of diverse ecosystems - and whose imminent disappearance will have profound effects for the richness of life in the pacific northwest. Salmon: Running the Gauntlet is the story of a creature at once resilient and fragile, manipulated and wild. It is one of the nature stories of our time - not just of what we destroy, but how we try to save.

August to June Goes Tri-Lingual

Tom and Amy Valens' wonderful documentary, August to June was completed at ZAP last September. Over the past six months, we have been in a raging national debate on the state of public education: the achievement gap between rich and poor, the role of teacher unions and school boards, the place for charter schools and other alternatives. Yet "August to June" examines an elemental part of this...the teaching process itself, focusing on one year in the life of a classroom as master teacher Amy Valens teaches the "whole child" for the last time and reflects on her career in a beautiful nuanced way.

FROM THE AUGUST TO JUNE website:

After 30 years of watching the public open classroom where his wife taught, and admiring at a distance the model for learning that evolved, Tom Valens couldn’t miss the opportunity to film her last class from beginning to end. And so he was there the day school started and many days thereafter: one man with a camera and a tripod, trying to stay out of the way as kids skipped from one activity to another, listening on headphones for events in other parts of the building, and sometimes rushing, tripod in hand, only to arrive at the action just as it ended.

Slowly but surely kids came into focus. Tom captured their relations with each other, with their teacher, with learning. The film is not meant to suggest there is one right way to teach. Instead, it shows how one unconventional classroom puts schoolwork inside a larger picture, bringing into focus a broader vision of what education should and can be.

ZAP helped our old friends Tom and Amy with some film finishing details and we created a DVD edition in November. Recently, we helped the filmmakers prepare a special tri-lingual DVD version with subtitles in Spanish and French.

The Power of Two - Marc Smolowitz's New Documentary

"The Power Of Two" is a new documentary film based on a remarkable memoir by the Stenzel twins, Anabel Mariko Stenzel (“Ana”) and Isabel Yuriko Stenzel Byrnes.

The film was directed by San Francisco-based Marc Smolowitz, one of the producers of the 2002 documentary "The Weather Underground." The film was edited by Matthew Sultan and Thomas Eugene Green. Gary Coates did color grading. Sound post by Berke Sound.

ZAP supported the filmmakers with post production consultation, HD mastering and deliveries.

The 90 minute documentary was filmed at nearly 20 filming locations, following the Stenzels on their quest to raise consciousness about organ donation in the U.S. and especially in Japan. You can read more about the twins remarkable story at their website.

Here is an excerpt:

The Stenzel Twins

Anabel Mariko Stenzel (“Ana”) and Isabel Yuriko Stenzel Byrnes (“Isa” – pronounced “ee-sah”) are identical twins who were born in Los Angeles in 1972 to Japanese and German immigrant parents. At three days old, Ana and Isa were diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis (CF), a fatal genetic disease that impacts the lungs and pancreas; their doctor told their parents they would be lucky to live to reach 10 years of age.

For decades, Ana and Isa struggled to maintain their health with rigorous daily respiratory and digestive treatments. Working together, they survived and thrived into adulthood, graduated from college and graduate school, started careers as a genetic counselor (Ana) and social worker (Isa), and developed loving relationships.

In their mid-20s, however, the twins’ health began to decline precipitously. Every breath was difficult. Many of the activities they loved, including hiking and traveling, tried the limits of their stamina. Their passion and will to live remained but CF was relentless.

There is no cure for CF. But, in their darkest hour, when their ability to breathe was leaving them, Ana and Isa received the gift of new life and new breath in the form of double lung transplants in 2000 and 2004, respectively.

Because of the generosity of their organ donors James and Xavier, and their donors’ families, Ana and Isa have survived and are thriving with their new lungs. Their post-transplant activities have included running a half marathon, climbing a 10,000 foot mountain peak, swimming and running in the U.S. Transplant Games, traveling across three continents, and writing their memoir, “The Power of Two: A Twin Triumph Over Cystic Fibrosis,” which the University of Missouri Press published in late 2007.

Ana and Isa’s experience has influenced them to cherish the following values:

1. Each human interaction is a cherished blessing.
2. Illness has great potential to teach awareness and appreciation of life.
3. Life is too short to not appreciate every moment- the good and the bad

A Fierce Green Fire - History of the ECO Movement at ZAP

ZAP STOKES KITCHELL'S
FIERCE GREEN FIRE

Mark Kitchell's new ambitious documentary series, a history of the environmental movement from "Silent Spring" and the Sierra Club through Love Canal, Greenpeace and the current global warming consciousness is in the fine cut stage here in the Presidio. ZAP has been providing the filmmakers with exotic solutions to the problems that come with integrating media from over 4 decades and six continents. Up-rezzing and improving archival video and general post production advice.

Mark is best known for Berkeley in the Sixties, which won top honors and has become a well-loved classic, one of the defining documentaries about the protest movements that shook America during the 1960s. I've known Mark for several years; I was one of many who helped prep 16mm footage for his "Berkeley In The 60's" when I worked for a time at an independent film studio on Mission Street in the mid 1980s. Then, in 2000 when I was preparing documentary shorts for "The Godfather" on DVD for Paramount, I was filming the great production designer Dean Tavoularis on the Lower East Side talking about the Sixth Street location for The Godfather, Part II (filmed in 1973). I was remarking that there was no "behind the scenes" footage of the original photography, and Dean said "too bad you can't find that kid's student film....by Mark something or other, skinny tall kid, long hair...NYU film student I think..." That led me to Mark Kitchell, and his great student film "The Godfather Comes to Sixth Street" from which we licensed clips for our documentary short.

Here is a synopsis of the project from the Fierce Green Fire website:

A Fierce Green Fire is the first film to take on environmentalism as a whole, to bring together all the parts and eras, from conservation to climate change. It explores how the issues built into an international cause, the largest movement the world has ever seen and perhaps the most crucial in terms of what’s at stake. It’s not easy being green – every battle is against the odds. We focus on successes: halting dams in the Grand Canyon; rescuing the people of Love Canal; saving whales and the greatest rainforest on earth. However, we also look at how the struggles continue and the issues grow in scope until it’s an open question whether they’re too big for the environmental movement to deal with. Our approach differs from the usual environmental documentary in two ways. First is our focus on activism. We reveal the issues by showing how people acted on them; it’s a more engaging approach, emphasizing drama and passion. Second is our emphasis on the big picture – connections, core ideas, what it all means. This film is designed to reach and teach a huge and hungry audience, give them an understanding of environmentalism like nothing before. Now we must all be environmentalists, as Bob Bullard the environmental justice advocate puts it: “There’s no Hispanic air. There’s no African-American air. There’s air! And if you breathe air – and most people I know do breathe air... then I would consider you an environmentalist.” A Fierce Green Fire unfolds in five acts, each 20-25 minutes. E.O. Wilson, the biologist and advisor to the film, suggested focusing on five of the most dramatic and important events and people. In developing those main stories and characters, we discovered each was emblematic of an era and a part of the environmental movement. So we devised an hourglass structure for each act. They begin with the broader context. Then they focus in on the main story, more fully told. Finally they open up again to explore ramifications.erke

Getting Great HD Video from Inferior Source Material

UP-REZ YOUR STANDARD DEF

CLIPS TO HD AT ZAP

Are you working with a sequence containing a mixture of HD and SD elements and frame rates? Need to deliver in HD 1080i or 1080p24? Perhaps ZAP can help!

We have been testing a powerful image processing system called Dark Energy developed by Cinnafilm of Albuquerque. The system uses sophisticated motion analysis and is great at re-scaling from SD to HD, and is also effective at de-interlacing, restoring original film pull-down, converting between frame rates and speed changes. The spatial module has excellent noise, film grain and scratch removal and texture control. At ZAP, we are exploring whether there is a market for this high-end “better mouse-trap” in the Bay Area.

• ITEM: We fixed 12 shots in a feature length documentary film recently released theatrically. The film was edited at HD 24P, but had many inserts shot in HDV at 60i with a frame size of 720x540. These shots had been previously converted to 24P HD using an expensive real-time hardware solution. The original conversions were juddery, and degraded the overall look of the film.

• ITEM: A documentary feature had digitally acquired shots of the sky (in HD) with noticeable banding caused by the small gradient of brightness from the darkest to lightest part of the otherwise flat field. We fixed the problem using Dark Energy’s texture components.
• ITEM: A documentary film was shot with the Panasonic DVX-100a in 4x3, protected for 16x9. The finished film must be delivered 16x9 HD. Dark Energy allowed us to re-scale the footage blowing it up to 16x9 1920x1080 with greater sharpness and a more natural look than other scalers we tried.
• ITEM: A clip of analog 1980s home video needed to be blown up to HD, cropped to 16x9, de-interlaced and slowed down to 30% of its original speed. The Dark Energy conversion was a vast improvement over what was done in the client’s editing system.

UP-REZ CLIP TESTS: ZAP can convert your source material to any HD resolution and frame rate. We can provide you with conversions at no charge up to 15 seconds duration for you to compare to the original footage in your sequence. Or we can show you A/B comparisons between your original and converted footage on our HD displays.

You can see an on-line demo here: www.zap-sf.com/dark_energy_demo

ZAP Offers "Digital Direct" HD Screenings at SF Film Centre

A Bay Area Filmmakers' Secret Resource: a rarely used, well-equipped 24-seat screening room in The Presidio. Originally installed in the late 1990s as a film rushes facility with high quality 35mm changeover projection and calibrated Dolby 5.1 audio monitoring, the room has been under-utilized as the number of Hollywood features shooting on location in San Francisco has dropped off to a trickle.

Beginning in November of last year, ZAP took over some of the management and oversight of the facility working in league with the SF Film Centre. Our goal was to ENGINEER an economical way for local filmmakers to screen their works in progress, without having to resort to costly HD tape outputs, or down-grading their film by burning a mediocre screener DVD. We came up with a scheme involving a professional HD Media player that can play back all popular screening formats and frame rates from QuickTime movies delivered to ZAP on a portable hard drive or via FTP. To date, we have hosted around a dozen HD screenings; mostly works in progress, sound mix checks and a few fundraisers and cast/crew thanks screenings.

If you'd like to know more about the facility or the service, you can email screening@zap-sf.com, and we'll send you info and a delivery spec.

Manifest Destiny - A History of American Foreign Policy from Lucasfilm

AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM

Was the United States a beacon of freedom or an emerging imperialist power? A new 3-part documentary series from the same Lucasfilm-JAK Films documentary unit that produced ninety four one-hour history documentaries for young people asks fundamental questions of American identity and its role in the world of nations since the early eighteenth century. Going from advocacy of democracy to containment, through the emergence of the US as a world power after the first world war to world superpower during the cold war and finally the world's only superpower.

ZAP was brought in to provide on-line post production including HD conforming, color grading, title design and animation.

This ground-breaking series revisits our foreign involvments and adventures throughout our history: Cuba and Spain, The Philippines, Mexico, Vietnam, Somalia, the Former Yugoslavia, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The American Historical Association got a sneak preview of epsode one earlier this year:

Broadening our vision.... to the Philippines, indeed taking in the Westward Movement on the North American continent and the whole Pacific region, is the first public screening (a world premiere!) of a just-completed Lucasfilm production, Manifest Destiny: To Conquer or Redeem. Directed and produced by Sharon Wood, the film tells the powerful story of the Spanish-American and U.S.-Philippine Wars in the context of continental expansion and conquest. As part one of Manifest Destiny, which will be a three-part series on U.S. foreign policy, this film tracks the evolving role of “American Exceptionalism” as the United States grew from a rebellious colony into a continental power and began to develop an overseas empire. Utilizing some remarkable historic footage and revisionist approach, it’s a work that guarantees you’ll never again see William McKinley as a kind of innocent victim of circumstances.

The three films all create linear worlds in which ambiguity is downplayed and the argument or story is made as clear as possible given the available evidence.

Race to Nowhere Launches in Theaters

Opening This Week in Theaters in New York and Los Angeles.


Vicki Abeles' documentary Race to Nowhere will play for one week at the IFC Center in New York and at Laemmle's Sunset 5 theater in Los Angeles. The film was shot using portable HD equipment and was finished in HD 1080P. These playdates will be presented with digital projection using D-Cinema Package.

Vicki will be attending the shows in New York on September 10 and 11 and will be joined by others on the RTN film team and from the cast including Sara Bennett on September 11 at 5 PM. Vicki will also attend the shows in Los Angeles on September 14 and 15 and will be joined on the 14th at 7:30 PM by Dr. Wendy Mogel who appears in the film. Other cast members will make appearances throughout the week.

Other theatrical screenings in selected cities will follow. Go Vicki!

ZAP did final post production of the film including HD mastering, trailer work, Digital Cinema Packaging and DVD design and preparation.
The film was edited by Jessica Congdon, Color grading by Gary Coates, Sound by Jim LeBrecht and Berkeley Sound Artists, Original music by Mark Adler, On-Line Editing by Jesse Spencer with Ri Crawford. A truly Northern California crew!

Our Summer in Tehran Now on DVD

To purchase this wonderful new documentary by Justine Shapiro of Promises Films, go to their webstore. We love this film!

The Nature of Cities, an exhibit of short films Opened in Shangai

ZAP just completed the design and previsualization for a dramatic installation that will open in July in Shanghai. Oakland-based Art Works for Change engaged ZAP to figure out the best way present seventeen short films at the United Nations Pavillion at the EXPO; the curator, Randy Rosenberg has been working with Nairobi-based United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) to mount this exhibition that "...will be a visually compelling and entertaining exhibition, combined with effective storytelling, that informs and inspires viewers to respect nature and her ecosystems..."

United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) [link]

To learn more about the exhibition, click here.

The Nature of Cities
United Nations Pavilion, Shanghai Expo, China, July, 2010

UNEP has asked Art Works For Change to produce an art installation for the UN Pavilion at the upcoming Shanghai Expo. Up to 20 video artists, architects and animators will create short videos addressing the theme of urban biodiversity.

The renowned Zoetrope Aubry Productions is providing the design and technical editing for the project. The result will be a visually compelling and entertaining exhibition, combined with effective storytelling, that informs and inspires viewers to respect nature and her ecosystems. The UN anticipates that the installation be seen by 40,000 visitors a day.
Artists:
Allora & Calzadilla; Vincent Callebaut; Rob Carter; Catherine Chalmers; Ri Crawford; Anthony Discenza; Cao Fei; Hall Moline; Katja Loher; Kevin Nolting; Sven Pahlsson; Kahn Selesnick; Molly Schwartz; Marina Zurkow.

Wikipedia Documentary Premiers at Wikimania, Gdansk, Poland

Truth In Numbers?
Everything, According To Wikipedia

A controversial new feature-length film that chronicles the remarkable rise of the "massive live collaboration" called Wikipedia. Filmmakers Nic Hill and Scott Glosserman traveled to over twenty countries filming interviews with the Wiki founders, Wiki critics, and Wiki contributors.

ZAP got involved with the film in December; the breadth of original source material is impressive. Post production: daunting. Our first task was to review the post production work flow; the film has been in post for over two years in an on-again, off-again cycle with various collaborators working in various cities on various platforms. Original interviews were shot in HDV and DVCProHD over years. ZAP organized the on-line and color grading, and will provide final delivery and DVD services. To learn more about the making of the film, you can go to an early filmmaker fan website that claimed that "anyone can edit this documentary web-site."

To view a trailer of the film, you can go to the GlenEcho Entertainment movie site.

A short list of some who appear in the film:

Jimbo Wales
Howard Zinn
Stephen Colbert
James Woolsey
Susan Jacoby
Richard Branson
Ray Kurzweil
Noam Chomsky
Bob Schieffer
Ward Cunningham
Len Downie, Executive Editor of The Washington Post
Bob McHenry, Former Editor-In-Chief - Encyclopaedia Britannica
Jaron Lanier
Lawrence Lessig
John Seigenthaler

Tati Documentary to have U.S. Premiere at Yerba Buena Center

ZAP recently posted the new documentary by Michael House "The Magnificent Tati."

The film will be screened during a film series at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in late January. The documentary will be shown on Sunday, January 24 at 2pm, and the director Michael House will answer questions immediately afterwards.


JACQUES TATI: GENIUS OF FRENCH COMEDY

Is there anything new to be said about the French comic performer and filmmaker Jacques Tati and his eccentric alter ego Monsieur Hulot? Recognized internationally as one of the most innovative and creative filmmakers of his time, much of Tati’s work is about the humor of humanity attempting to exist in an increasingly mechanical society. He broke apart and then reinvented slapstick comedy. His films are just as relevant as ever, if not more so, in this new dehumanized digital age. For those who are new to his work, you will discover one of the masters of modern cinema. And for those who already know him, this is a rare chance for re-discovery of films which easily stand up to, and benefit from, repeated viewings.

Race to Nowhere on track at ZAP

ZAP is helping Bay Area first-time filmmaker Vicki Abeles get her documentary feature "Race to Nowhere" finalized for HD screenings and for DVD release.

Race To Nowhere is a groundbreaking documentary film that examines education, childhood and the unintended consequences of the achievement-obsessed way of life that permeates American education and culture. Unrelenting pressure, whether from well-intentioned parents, teachers, national leaders or from children themselves, is creating a generation suffering from unprecedented levels of stress, depression and burnout.

Vicki Abeles, a mother of three and former corporate attorney, found herself questioning the changes she saw in her children as they navigated days filled with school, homework, tutoring and extracurricular activities. After a series of wake-up calls in her family and community, including the suicide of a young girl, Vicki set out to discover why children’s lives more closely resemble high-powered CEOs' than the relaxed, carefree lives of children from the past.

The filmmakers take viewers to schools across the country, featuring the stories of students who have been pushed to the brink, educators who are burned out and worried that students aren’t learning anything substantive and college professors and business leaders concerned that incoming young people lack the skills needed to succeed in our complex times.

Race To Nowhere is a call to families, educators, experts and policy makers to examine current assumptions on how to prepare our national youth to become the healthy, bright, contributing and leading citizens of the next century.

ZAP Posts Justine Shapiro's New Iran Documentary

Berkeley native Justine Shapiro who co-produced the landmark 2002 film "Promises" has locked her edit on her new film "My Summer in Tehran." ZAP is conforming, color grading and designing titles and will online the film shortly.

About The Film:

A personal, poetic and provocative documentary film, My Summer in Tehran takes American filmmaker Justine Shapiro and her six-year old son into the lives of three Iranian families: a religious, conservative family with ties to the government; a modern, secular family; and a single mom who is also an actress. This remarkable journey introduces American audiences to the fascinating, and yet strikingly familiar home of our enemy," where we discover that everyday life is never separate from ever-watchful eye of the government.

With stunning cinematography, editing by renowned Iranian editor Mostafa Kherghehpoush, and featuring original music by French-Iranian composer Christophe Rezai, the film reveals a city and a culture where modernity and tradition sit side by side. 85 minutes, in English, Farsi, and French with English subtitles.

The documentary is in the final stages of post-production. It will be released in early 2010.

Gump Blu-ray On Sale

Forrest Gump (on Blu-ray) went on sale a few days ago. Very little fanfare. No launch events. Not much press coverage either. (The item reprinted below was published yesterday.) Unlike previous high-profile DVD projects, this one seems to have gotten very little support (ads or PR) from the mothership. Reviewers and periodicals did not receive advance copies which seems to be the new policy at many of the studios in these new economics! (Shoot in foot!)

Click here to view an excerpt from one of our featurettes, "Little Forrest."

A detailed description of the release (and ZAP's contributions) can be found here.
(DVDBeaver.Com)

Below is an clipping from a review at Blu-ray.com.
Primarily descriptive, fairly complete. All of the documentaries and featurettes were produced here at ZAP earlier in 2009.

Forrest Gump Chocolate Box Giftset Blu-ray

Paramount Pictures | 1994 | 142 mins | Rated PG-13 | Nov 03, 2009 (New Release)

Included on disc one is Musical Signposts to History (1080p, 3:54) featuring Rock Journalist Ben Fong-Torres, Director Robert Zemeckis, and Music Supervisor Joel Sill discussing Forrest Gump's soundtrack and score and how the popular songs match up to the scenes they accompany. Also featured are Michelle Phillips from "The Mamas and the Papas," Roger McGuinn and David Crosby from "The Byrds," and Ray Manzarek from "The Doors." Once this introductory piece concludes, viewers will be prompted to choose a mode through which to view the film with the Musical Signposts feature. Modes include "Manual," "Auto," and "Selective." When activated, the film will stop and Ben Fong-Torres and others will discuss the music accompanying each particular scene.

Moving onto disc two, viewers will first find Greenbow Diary (1080p, 25:59), an excellent piece that chronicles the production of the film from the perspective of a bystander. Viewers will be transported to the set to witness the construction of various shots, and the piece also features interview clips with the cast and crew discussing the scenes being filmed. The Art of Screenplay Adaptation (1080p, 26:58) looks at the fascinating process of translating novel to screen and the lengthy process that was the creation of Forrest Gump, including the difficulty of the special effects, the films transition from Warner Brothers to Paramount, the many drafts of the screenplay, and more. The piece includes Forrest Gump author Winston Groom and others speaking on the process, from studios seeking to discover material not even on bookstore shelves to the process of adapting a screenplay from the novel, which may require changes to make the story work on-screen. This is a fantastic supplement that will enthrall anyone with interest in writing, filmmaking, or Forrest Gump.

Getting Past the Impossible: 'Forrest Gump' and the Visual Effects Revolution (1080p, 27:04) is another solid feature that examines the creation of some of the film's visual effects. It chronicles Industrial Light & Magic's contributions to the film, offers a fascinating history of optical effects, and Forrest Gump's groundbreaking visuals that advanced the field considerably, with emphasis on several particular shots, including Forrest's meeting with John Kennedy, the removal of Lt. Dan's legs, and the Washington, D.C. segments. Little Forrest (1080p, 14:48) looks at the casting and contributions of Actor Michael Conner Humphreys, including his voice that influenced Tom Hanks' performance. A now-adult Humphreys also recalls his experiences in working on the film. An Evening with 'Forrest Gump' (1080p, 55:08) is a discussion with Tom Hanks, Gary Sinise, Eric Roth, and Robert Zemeckis discussing the film at the University of Southern California.

"The Magnificent Tati" Posts at ZAP

Around six months ago, we got a cold e-mail inquiry from filmmaker Michael House then in production on his new documentary on the life and work of the great French film auteur Jacques Tati. Michael hails from the Bay Area but has been an expat living and working in London for many years. He yearned to return to the Bay to finish his film. The subject matter alone got me interested. ZAP's scope includes motion graphics, on-line HD conforming, color grading and sound design. The film is scheduled to air on the British SkyTV network sometime early next year. The Magnificent Tati will premier at the "Totally Tati" retrospective film series in Edinburgh on November 26. All six of Tati's masterworks will being showcased in an ongoing French Film Festival in Europe.

I have loved Tati's great films since college, and I was thrilled when The Criterion Collection released the controversial and fascinating "Play Time" (1967) on Blu-ray disc earlier this year. Here is just one fascinating factoid: Jacques Tati, a performing mime artist and showman had been cast as a back-up to play the mime "Baptiste" in Marcel Carnet's 1945 landmark Les enfants du paradis, in case the great Jean-Louis Barrault had been unavailable to take the part. Michael's documentary is full of fascinating historical and aesthestic info, chronicling the amazing career of a well-known filmmaker whose output was actually very small: just six films. We hear from Tati fans Black Francis/Frank Black (formerly of the Pixies) and Craig McCracken, creater of the Powerpuff Girls cartoon series; we learn that every episode has at least one visual reference to a Tati film!

From the filmmaker's website: Sit Up Straight Films

‘The Magnificent Tati’ a feature factual film on the life and work of iconic French director/comedian Jacques Tati. One of cinemas greatest artists, Tati pushed cinema to its limits with six feature films that redefined how we experience movies. ‘The Magnificent Tati’ will be the first English language feature to explore the Tati legacy, produced in collaboration with the Jacques Tati Archive in Paris, this film will offer unprecedented access to the world of Tati. The film examines Tati’s life and work and the massive influence his films have had on contemporary art, film, music and design. Shot on RedOne.

Jonathan Parker's (Untitled) Opens later this Month

A new comedy by Jonathan Parker starring Adam Goldberg and Marley Shelton
(Untitled) will be released by Samuel Goldwyn Films in New York and Los Angeles on October 23rd and in San Francisco, Chicago, Washington D.C., and most major cities on November 6th.

We talked about ZAP's participation in the finishing of this independent feature film in an earlier blog entry.

Haven't seen the trailer yet? Watch it here.

And here is the film's official site.

ZAP Posts Documentary on the History of the Global Anti-Apartheid Struggle

Occasionally, we have an opportunity to become involved with a film who's subject is so compelling that we drop everything to jump in. Clarity Films "Have You Heard From Johannesburg: The Bottom Line" is one.

The film will premiere at the British Film Institute's 53rd London International Film Festival at the end of October. ZAP is providing HD post production facilities for their final push.

Here is a synopsis from the London Film Festival's site:

Have You Heard From Johannesburg: The Bottom Line

As the British anti-apartheid movement celebrates it 50th birthday, a look at how grass roots movements mobilised during the 80s to enforce economic sanctions on South Africa.

2009 marks the 50th anniversary of the British anti-apartheid movement, and in timely fashion documentary maker Connie Field (who directed the memorable The Life and Times of Rosie the Riveter and Freedom on My Mind) is working on a series of films which tell the story of the global anti-apartheid activity. The Bottom Line explores the role of money, specifically how grass-roots organisations mobilised to cut the South African government off from their financial allies in the West. Through a widely-sourced collection of archive material, Field charts the history of the power of collective action, which culminated in a number of major companies withdrawing from South Africa during the 1980s. From the employees of Polaroid and General Motors in the USA to the massed ranks of British protestors boycotting Shell and withdrawing their money from Barclays Bank, all refuse to let it be business as usual with the repressive regime. Interviews with the key players, including British activists and senior figures in UK-based banks, add fascinating insights into just how effective the economic isolation of South Africa was.

Sandra Hebron

http://www.bfi.org.uk/lff/films/world_cinema/405

Speaking In Tongues - A Documentary on Immersion Education

SPEAKING IN TONGUES

ZAP recently helped San Francisco filmmakers Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider of Patchworks get their wonderful new documentary "Speaking in Tongues" out on DVD. The film won an audience award at this year's San Francisco International Film Festival. Ken Schneider has edited several short films at ZAP, and it was a great pleasure to help Ken and Marcia get their beautiful topical film out to a broad audience.

The heated debate over bilingual education usually takes place in courtrooms, at academic conferences and in editorial missives. At its most vitriolic the "English only" camp skews toward xenophobia and racism, while the opposition at times sounds utopian themes of American global economic resurgence with the aid of multilingual classrooms. Often neglected in this discourse is the firsthand experience of students, an oversight that veteran documentarians Marcia Jarmel and Ken Schneider beautifully rectify with their latest effort.

Closely following four very different local public-schoolers through an academic year, they draw on subtle nuances of the kids' stories to illustrate the complex shades and permutations of bilingual schooling. Two children are placed in immersion programs to retain their native tongues while learning English, and the other two are in the reverse situation. Their parents list both familiar and surprising reasons for enrolling their children, but each remains a strong proponent of the programs despite criticism from extended family, friends and a loud chorus of English-only activists. Even while dismissing common barbs, the families must confront unique challenges both humorous and serious.

With San Francisco becoming the first city to mandate access to bilingual opportunities for all public schoolchildren, this thought-provoking documentary could hardly be timelier.

—Ilya Tovbis

San Francisco International