Sad sad story… Wife of Former Congressman Dies After Being Run Over By Her Own Car This is a very sad and tragic acciden t. Police said 82-year-old Nancy Hamilton arrived in the parking lot of a veterinary clinic with a pet Saturday around 4:15 p.m., but her car was not shifted into park. As Hamilton walked behind the vehicle to retrieve her pet from the passenger side of the car, the car rolled backward, striking and running her over. Bloomington Police Capt. Joe Qualters said Hamilton was alone at the time, and he believes the incident to be entirely accidental. Monroe County Coroner Nicole Meyer told NBC News Hamilton died from blunt force trauma to the head and suffered chest injuries. She was taken to the Indiana University Health Center in Bloomington where she died hours later. “This is so tragic,” Charlotte Zietlow, former Bloomington City Council president, told the Herald-Times. “They were going to have a life together.” Source
Another dirty azz thief got a little kid in New York. Four-year old Robert Rendon and his 14-year old sister were targeted on their way home. Bling-toting pre-schoolers are proving easy prey for New York’s most cowardly crooks. A 4-year-old Bronx boy became the third toddler since July to lose fancy jewelry to a robber when a teenage thug grabbed a gold bracelet from his wrist, police sources told The Post yesterday. Robert Rendon was walking home with his 14-year-old big sister Jayleen at about 12:45 p.m. Aug. 3 after they’d visited their mother at work. Suddenly, they noticed they were being followed. Jayleen caught a glimpse of the suspect in the reflection of a car window. “He had his face covered . . . He was looking calm. I knew something was going to happen,” the teenager told The Post. The brother and sister ducked into the stairway of their apartment on East 182nd Street in Belmont. But their home proved no refuge — the teen thug barged through the door right behind them and grabbed Jayleen around the waist. “He tried to grab me — and then, he like, he tried to force me with him,” Jayleen said. Panicked, the girl screamed and ran upstairs to her apartment, where her grandmother was waiting. When she fled, Jayleen admitted, she left Robert behind. “I ran away — I let go of his [Robert’s] grip,” she said. The suspect called out to her — “he just kept saying, ‘Come here,’ ” Jayleen said. “My little brother was stuck on the first floor.” The children’s grandmother ran downstairs, and found Robert safe, but crying. It wasn’t until about 15 or 20 minutes later that they noticed Robert’s bracelet was missing. “My mom bought it for him for his first birthday,” Jayleen said. “It had his name engraved on it.” The next day, cops arrested 18-year-old Abubakarr Payinkay, of Claremont, and charged him with robbery, burglary, grand larceny, and other charges. He is free on personal recognizance bail. Robert was traumatized by the incident, his sister said. “He’s just scared about it. He doesn’t like doing anything anymore,” Jayleen said. She’s still pretty upset, too. “I’m scared,” Jayleen said. “I don’t like going out alone.” Other criminals too spineless to pick on people their own size ripped off two Brooklyn tots of their jewelry last month. Two-year-old Destiny Maizanche had a $300 bracelet stolen from her wrist in Bedford-Stuyvesant on July 6 by a thug who also grabbed a $400 necklace from her pregnant mom. Cops arrested 30-year-old Michael Andrews in the attack. Andrews allegedly targeted Destiny and her mother, Adriana Espinal, as they entered the elevator in a building on Flushing Avenue where the tot’s grandmother lives. Espinal said she fought back against the thug by hitting him with her set of keys. In another Bed-Stuy caper, 3-year-old Harvey Hernandez was robbed of a $400 neck chain in the lobby of his apartment on July 10 while he sat in a stroller pushed by his mom, Riyanna Guerrero. Harvey’s godparents gave him the chain for his baptism. It has a small medallion depicting hands holding a child. Days after the crime, Harvey was still afraid to go outside, his parents said. Can’t believe this thug got recognizance and that people out there are still snatching from little kids. Source Photo Credit: David Greene
After rolling out its Galas and other spotlights last week, the Toronto International Film Festival unveiled a swarm of new films added to its lineup, including documentaries by Ken Burns, Alex Gibney and Julien Temple. TIFF also added its genre-heavy Midnight Madness section including new work from Oscar-winners Martin McDonagh and Barry Levinson as well as Don Coscarelli and Rob Zombie. The festival’s Vanguard section includes international work that “defies convention” and includes work from North America, Asia, Europe and Latin America. Also joining the 2012 roster is TIFF’s City to City lineup which this year will spotlight Mumbai; the TIFF Kids lineup including the new Finding Nemo 3-D animation and a collection of restored work. In all, the festival announced over 70 films Tuesday. “There is great satisfaction in discovering films from new voices in non-fiction filmmaking,” said Thom Powers, lead Festival programmer for documentaries. “Some of the most powerful stories being told are from these bold and original emerging filmmakers whose work stands strongly side by side documentary filmmaking greats Alex Gibney and Ken Burns.” The 2012 Toronto International Film Festival takes place September 6 – 16. Descriptions are provided by TIFF. TIFF Docs: 9.79* by Daniel Gordon, United Kingdom World Premiere Daniel Gordon’s 9.79* looks at the legacy of the 100-metre men’s final at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, when gold medalist Ben Johnson tested positive for anabolic steroids and scandal reigned. For the first time ever, the eight athletes who ran that infamous race tell their story. Artifact by Bartholomew Cubbins, USA World Premiere The band Thirty Seconds to Mars and lead singer Jared Leto fight an excruciating lawsuit with EMI while writing songs for their album This is War. A World Not Ours by Mahdi Fleifel, United Kingdom/Lebanon/Denmark World Premiere A World Not Ours is an intimate, often humorous, portrait of three generations of exile in the refugee camp of Ain El-Helweh, in southern Lebanon. Based on a wealth of personal recordings and historical footage, it is a sensitive and illuminating study of belonging, friendship and family. The Act of Killing by Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark/Norway/United Kingdom World Premiere In a place where killers are celebrated as heroes, these filmmakers challenge unrepentant death-squad leaders to dramatize their role in genocide. The result is a surreal, cinematic journey, not only into the memories and imaginations of mass murderers, but also into a frighteningly banal regime of corruption and impunity. Executive produced by Errol Morris. As if We Were Catching a Cobra by Hala Alabdalla, Syria/France World Premiere Initially intended as a documentary foray into the art of caricature in Egypt and Syria, when the insurgencies break out in both countries, Syrian director Hala Alabdalla ends up drawing an electrifying, intimate, passionate film on the fearless tenacity of Arab artists fighting for freedom and justice. Camp 14 — Total Control Zone by Marc Wiese, Germany North American Premiere This is the story of a man who was born and grew up in a Gulag-style North-Korean camp. After his escape at the age of 23, he discovers the “outside world” for the first time. The film relays his incredible story, as well as those of his fellow inmates and prison guards. Featuring Shin Dong-Huyk, Hyuk Kwon and Oh Yangnam. The Central Park Five by Ken Burns, David McMahon and Sarah Burns, USA North American Premiere The Central Park Five tells the story of how five black and Latino teenagers were wrongly convicted of raping the Central Park Jogger and how a rush to judgment by the police, media clamoring for sensational stories, and an outraged public contributed to that miscarriage of justice. Far Out Isn’t Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story by Brad Bernstein, USA North American Premiere Far Out Isn’t Far Enough: The Tomi Ungerer Story depicts one man’s wild, life-long adventure of testing societal boundaries through his use of subversive art. This film combines traditional documentary storytelling with original animation from over 70 years worth of art from the renegade children’s book author and illustrator. Featuring Tomi Ungerer, Maurice Sendak, Jules Feiffer, Steven Heller and Michael Patrick Hearn. Fidaï by Damien Ounouri, France/Algeria/Qatar/China/Kuwait World Premiere An exceedingly timely tribute of unsung everyday heroes of revolutions draws the intimate portrait of El Hadi, a seventy-year-old veteran of the Algerian War of Independence, filming the unrecorded memory of years in combat, with its glories, traumas and legacy of violence. First Comes Love by Nina Davenport, USA World Premiere With the bracingly honest, occasionally hilarious and ultimately moving First Comes Love, Davenport examines husband-free parenthood. From hormone injections to post-natal chaos, Davenport chronicles her own pregnancy — including her conventional family’s reaction to it. She reflects upon a rapidly changing world, providing a wry and insightful play-by-play that keeps the viewer tuned in and transfixed by the topsy-turvy state of modern reproduction. The Gatekeepers by Dror Moreh, Israel/France/Germany/Belgium International Premiere Charged with overseeing Israel’s war on terror, the head of the Shin Bet — Israel’s secret service agency — is present at the crossroad of every decision made. For the first time ever, six former heads of the agency agree to share their insights and reflect publicly on their actions and decisions — offering an exclusive account of their experiences and attitudes during, and after, their service. The Girl from the South by José Luis García, Argentina International Premiere Filmmaker José Luis García was fascinated by a young Korean student activist he met in 1989 in North Korea. The director begins his quest to ask her how she crossed the most fortified frontier in the world and what happened to her dreams after the fall of communism. How to Make Money Selling Drugs by Matthew Cooke, USA World Premiere How To Make Money Selling Drugs offers a provocative glimpse into the lives of those on both sides of the “war on drugs,” delivering a diverse and unique perspective on the subject through interviews with 50 Cent, Eminem, The Wire producer David Simon, Arianna Huffington, Woody Harrelson, Eminem, Susan Sarandon and infamous drug kingpin “Freeway” Rick Ross. Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp by Jorge Hinojosa, USA World Premiere Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp examines the tumultuous life of Iceberg Slim (1918-1992) and how he reinvented himself from pimp to author of seven groundbreaking books. These books were the birth of Street Lit and explored the world of the ghetto in gritty and poetic detail and have made him a cultural icon. Interviews with Iceberg Slim, Chris Rock, Henry Rollins, Ice-T, Quincy Jones and Snoop Dogg. London – The Modern Babylon by Julien Temple, United Kingdom International Premiere London – The Modern Babylon is legendary director Julien Temple’s epic time-travelling voyage to the heart of his hometown. From musicians, writers and artists to dangerous thinkers, political radicals and — above all — ordinary people, this is the story of London’s immigrants, its bohemians and how together they changed the city forever. Lunarcy! by Simon Ennis, Canada World Premiere With wry humour and affection, Simon Ennis’ Lunarcy! follows a disparate group of dreamers and schemers who share one thing in common: they’ve all devoted their lives to the Moon. From the former ventriloquist who’s made millions selling Moon lots to the young man who’s resolved to depart for Luna (permanently), Lunarcy! is a touching and comic portrait of passion, creativity and quixotic dreams. Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God by Alex Gibney, USA World Premiere Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney exposes the abuse of power in the Catholic Church and a cover-up that winds its way from the row houses of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, through the bare ruined choirs of Ireland’s churches all the way to the highest office of the Vatican. Men At Lunch by Seán Ó Cualáin, Ireland International Premiere Narrated by Fionnula Flanagan, Men at Lunch reveals the remarkable untold story behind one of the most iconic images of the 20th century, Lunch atop a Skyscraper, taken on the 69th floor of the Rockefeller Building in the autumn of 1932. Part homage, part investigation, Men at Lunch is the revealing tale of an American icon, an unprecedented race to the sky and the immigrant workers who built New York. More Than Honey by Markus Imhoof, Germany/Austria/Switzerland North American Premiere Einstein once said: “If the bee disappears from the surface of the earth, man would have no more than four years to live.” In the past five years, billions of honeybees simply vanished for reasons still obscure. If the bees keep dying, there will be drastic effects for humans as well: more than one third of our food production depends on pollination by honeybees and their lives and deaths are linked to ours. No Place on Earth by Janet Tobias, USA/United Kingdom/Germany World Premiere While mapping out the largest cave system in Ukraine, explorer and investigator Chris Nicola discovers evidence that five Jewish families spent nearly a year and a half in the pitch-black caves to escape the Nazis. This is the story of the longest uninterrupted underground survival in recorded human history. Reincarnated by Andrew Capper, USA World Premiere Legendary hiphop star Snoop Dogg travels to Jamaica to record a new album and immerse himself in the island’s music and culture. After decades as America’s ultimate gangsta, Snoop seeks a more spiritual path. Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out by Marina Zenovich, USA World Premiere In 2009, celebrated director Roman Polanski was arrested at the Zurich Film Festival. His weekend jaunt turned into a 10-month imprisonment. Zenovich’s follow up to Wanted and Desired — which some say was one of the reasons for Polanski’s arrest — explores the bizarre clash of politics, celebrity justice and the media. The Secret Disco Revolution by Jamie Kastner, Canada World Premiere A cheeky, sexy documentary-hybrid, The Secret Disco Revolution wraps revealing celebrity interviews — The Village People, Gloria Gaynor, Kool and the Gang — classic glitter-era footage and music in a hilarious new package that never lets you stop dancing long enough to decide what’s real and what’s satire. Shepard & Dark by Treva Wurmfeld, USA World Premiere Remember when close friends corresponded by letters? When intimate thoughts about life, family and mortality were hand-written or typed on the page, with full thought given to every word? This is the kind of friendship that Sam Shepard and Johnny Dark had. Show Stopper: The Theatrical Life of Garth Drabinsky by Barry Avrich, Canada World Premiere One of the most infamous moguls, Garth Drabinsky’s incredible story is the most dramatic and unprecedented rise to and fall from power in show business history. Show Stopper features interviews with artists who loved him, industry players who battled him and the media who spilled gallons of ink chronicling his prodigious career. State 194 by Dan Setton, Israel/Palestine/USA World Premiere In 2009, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad launched a plan to demonstrate that his people were deserving of statehood, inspiring them to change their destiny and seek U.N. membership. Since then, they’ve made remarkable progress, but the political quagmire threatens to destroy the most promising opportunity for peace in years. From Participant Media, the company behind Waiting for Superman and An Inconvenient Truth. Storm Surfers 3D by Christopher Nelius and Justin McMillan, Australia World Premiere Storm Surfers 3D is an epic, character-driven adventure documentary following two best friends on their quest to hunt down and ride the biggest and most dangerous waves in the world. Aussie tow-surfing legend Ross Clarke-Jones and two-time world champion Tom Carroll enlist the help of surf forecaster Ben Matson, and together they track and chase giant storms across the Great Southern Ocean. The Walls of Dakar by Abdoul Aziz Cissé, Senegal International Premiere A rare documentary that chronicles Dakar’s unplanned, spontaneous mural frescos, produced by marginal painters, rappers and taggers, that functioned, until the city’s insurgency, as one of its rare sites for free, uncensored expression and the crucible for articulating citizenship. Visually captivating, an elegy of Dakar’s unrepentant insurgent spirit of its everyday artists. Documentaries screening in other Festival programs include: Wavelengths: Bestiaire by Denis Côté, Canada/France Toronto Premiere Animals/People: Along the rhythm of the changing seasons they watch one another. Award-winning director Denis Côté’s sixth feature film, Bestiaire, unfolds like a filmic picture book about mutual observation and about peculiar perception. A contemplation of a stable imbalance, and of loose, quiet and indefinable elements. Masters : The End of Time by Peter Mettler, Canada/Switzerland International Premiere The End of Time is a cinematic experience from visionary filmmaker Peter Mettler which explores our perception of time. The Toronto International Film Festival will continue to announce documentary film selections in coming weeks. Previously announced documentaries include the world premieres of Shola Lynch’s Free Angela & All Political Prisoners (Gala), Liz Garbus’ Love, Marilyn (Gala) and Maiken Baird and Michelle Major’s Venus & Serena (Special Presentation). Midnight Madness: The ABCs of Death World Premiere Kaare Andrews, Angela Bettis, Adrián García Bogliano, Bruno Forzani & Hélène Cattet, Ernesto Díaz Espinoza, Jason Eisener, Xavier Gens, Jorge Michel Grau, Lee Hardcastle, Noboru Iguchi, Thomas Cappelen Malling, Anders Morgenthaler, Yoshihiro Nishimura, Banjong Pisanthanakun, Simon Rumley, Marcel Sarmiento, Jon Schnepp, Srdjan Spasojevic, Timo Tjahjanto, Andrew Traucki, Nacho Vigalondo, Jake West, Ti West, Ben Wheatley, Adam Wingard, and Yûdai Yamaguchi Twenty-six directors… 26 ways to die! The ABCs Of Death is perhaps the most ambitious anthology film ever conceived, featuring segments directed by over two dozen of the world’s leading talents in contemporary genre film. With each director assigned a letter of the alphabet, they were then given free rein in choosing a word to create a story involving a tale of mortality. It’s an alphabetical arsenal of destruction orchestrated by some of the most exciting names in global horror including Ben Wheatley ( Kill List ), Ti West ( House of the Devil ), Jason Eisener ( Hobo With A Shotgun ), Adam Wingard ( You’re Next ), Xavier Gens ( Frontieres ), and Nacho Vigalondo ( Time Crimes ). Aftershock by Nicolás López, USA/Chile World Premiere In Chile, an American tourist’s vacation goes from good to great when he meets some beautiful women travellers. But when an earthquake ravages the underground nightclub they’re in, a fun night quickly turns to terror. Escaping to the surface is just the beginning as they face nightmarish chaos above ground. Starring Eli Roth and Selena Gomez. The Bay by Barry Levinson, USA World Premiere A brutal and harrowing film about a deadly parasite, The Bay chronicles the descent of a small Maryland town into absolute terror.
Comic-book movies can be many things — ridiculous, entertaining, stupendously dull – but very rarely are they erotic. I’m not talking about the garden-variety sexually neutral charge thrown off by a fit actor, man or woman, who happens to look good in a latex suit. Even in the best comic-book movies, made by filmmakers who know what they’re doing — people like Sam Raimi, Bryan Singer, Guillermo del Toro and Jon Favreau — sex is often treated as a mild embarrassment, a thing that just doesn’t mix well with action inspired by comic-book panels. And so amid all the questions about whether or not the Spider-Man franchise ought to have been rebooted just 10 years after Raimi kicked off his own spin on it, maybe the real question to ask of Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man is — when it comes to sexual chemistry, why can’t more comic-book movies be like this one? Depending on your expectations, The Amazing Spider-Man — based, of course, on the characters created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko — is probably not as good as you hoped or as bad as you feared. The plot is fairly standard: The movie opens with the typical traumatic childhood event — in this case, the young Spider-Man-to-be Peter Parker is hastily left behind by his parents (Campbell Scott and Embeth Davidtz) who must flee, somewhere, to safety. Peter is left in the care of his Uncle Ben and Aunt May (Martin Sheen and Sally Field), and before we know it, he’s grown into Andrew Garfield — his Peter is an awkward and only mildly sullen teenager who tries to ride his skateboard through the halls of his school (a no-no) and who harbors a not-so-secret crush on the most adorable science nerd you’ve probably ever laid eyes on, Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy. Before long, young Peter has an encounter with mysterious one-armed herpetologist Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans), a man who knows something about Peter’s parents and who may hold some of the keys to their disappearance. Later, Dr. Connors will turn into an ill tempered scaly something, but only after Peter is bit by a radioactive spider and realizes that he himself has super-sticky spider powers. He fashions his own costume and web shooters — they allow him to spin magnificent transparent web structures that look like rubbery spun sugar – and, after his failure to take action spurs a personal tragedy, he becomes a swinging, web-slinging vigilante, cleaning up the streets because, well, someone has to. And the police force, which happens to be headed by Gwen’s dad, Captain Stacy (an all-too-straight-faced Denis Leary), doesn’t always do the greatest job. In most ways, The Amazing Spider-Man isn’t really all that amazing. The action is occasionally thrilling, particularly the sequences in which Peter tests out and perfects his newfound powers — Webb has some fun with vertiginous camera perspectives that work reasonably well in 3-D. But like so many contemporary action movies – in fact, like almost all of them — the action sequences in which Spidey fends off various bad guys are imprecise and hard to follow visually. And the script, by James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves (from a story by Vanderbilt) leaves dozens of unanswered questions: Why is Character X a pretty nice guy as a human being but a baddie once he’s transformed into Creature X? And how (and why) does he change back and forth? Also, thousands of tiny versions of Creature X overrun the city at one point — where have they come from? The list goes on, but I suppose we’re not supposed to care. But what The Amazing Spider-Man does have is a pair of extremely charismatic leads in Garfield and Stone. I enjoyed Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man pictures well enough — even the much-derided number 3 — and had no specific desire to see the series resuscitated. But watching Garfield and Stone made me think doing so wasn’t such a bad idea, and Webb — who previously directed the somewhat gimmicky but ultimately winning romantic comedy 500 Days of Summer — knows just what to do with these appealing young actors. Garfield is just on the cusp of being too handsome to play Peter Parker – he’s almost not nerdy enough, a requirement that the gifted Tobey Maguire filled pretty ably. Still, Garfield makes you believe in his geekiness. His Peter seems to be uncomfortable making eye contact, and the occasional shy smirk crosses his face, though it’s less a bratty affection than a nervous tic – he’s like Heathcliff with just a touch of Asperger’s. As charming as Garfield is, though, Stone’s Gwen Stacy — a girl with the kind of smile that Mattel could never have dreamed up for even its most winsome doll — nearly outshines him. Gwen is more graceful than Peter is, socially and physically, but when the two finally get together, she meets him more than halfway in a tentatively bumpy pas de deux – watching the two characters settle into each other’s rhythms is one of the movie’s chief delights. Raimi, in his first Spider-Man movie, gave us that erotic half-mask kiss between Maguire and Kirsten Dust’s Mary Jane, but beyond that, his Spidey was rendered in safely asexual way; comic-book fans have been known to tolerate a little bit of ewky girl stuff, but not too much. But Webb doesn’t seem to care about staying within safe limits. Peter, having stolen into Gwen’s bedroom, tries to explain to her why he can suddenly cling to the sides of buildings and swing through the air with impossible lightness. “I’ve been bitten,” he stammers. She leans in close with her husky whisper: “So have I.” And that sound you hear is the cumulative sigh of a million viewers who suddenly sort of remember, maybe, that there can be something more to movies than elaborate yet repetitive action sequences and strained 3-D effects. You’ve got a girl and a guy in a bedroom, alone. Aren’t you just dying to see what happens in the next panel? Follow Stephanie Zacharek on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Jerry Sandusky, the former Penn State assistant football coach who was once the heir apparent to Joe Paterno, has been found guilty on 45 charges of sexual abuse. The jury reached its verdict late tonight, determining that Sandusky abused 10 boys over a period of 15 years. He faces life in prison for his actions and will be sentenced in approximately three months. In total, eight men testified in a Pennsylvania courtroom over the last few weeks, all of them recounting instances of Sandusky either kissing them, groping them, or engaging with them in oral and anal sex. Sandusky never took the stand in his own defense, but his wife testified at the request of his lawyers and tried to paint a picture of a conspiracy against her husband. However, the jurors chose to side with prosecturors, who described Sandusky as a “predatory pedophile” in closing arguments. The ex-defensive coordinator was arrested in November, a shocking and traumatic event that eventually exposed a cover-up at Penn State University and led to the firing of the legendary Paterno, who died a couple months later. The abuse scandal also led to the removal of university president Graham Spanier, along with criminal charges against two university administrators for failing to properly report suspected child abuse and perjury. After the jury was sequestered for deliberations, Matt Sandusky , one of Jerry’s adopted sons, came out and admitted he was also abused as a foster child living with the Sanduskys.
It’s hard to know exactly how to review something like The Invisible War , how to step back and look at it as a movie through the steady barrage of emotional devastation it presents. The stranger sitting next to me at my screening spent the latter half of the runtime sobbing into a fistful of tissues, and I couldn’t blame her — the film, the latest documentary from the Oscar-nominated Kirby Dick ( Outrage, This Film Is Not Yet Rated ) presents a sickening chorus of accounts not just of rape but of institutional betrayal, of a system that’s utterly failed to protect or serve those who’ve joined it. The Invisible War is brutal in the cases of sexual assaults in the U.S. military it runs down, but it’s even harder to take when it then explores the lack of follow-up, the victim blaming and self-serving protection of those in charge and the status quo. Again and again, the interviewees in the film — who are mostly but not entirely women — tell stories of enlisting out of idealism, patriotism or family tradition, thinking they’ve found a place for themselves, only to realize that for some of their colleagues, they’ll only ever be a target, and for others, they’re going to be held responsible for their own safety and taken to task otherwise. The film offers a variety of stories from military rape victims from different branches of the armed forces, including the Coast Guard and the Marines. Disturbing patterns quickly emerge. A woman ends up on assignment somewhere where she’s usually outnumbered. She gets harassed; she gets raped. She reports what happened to her superior officer, who either warns her off, or is a friend of the attacker, or would just rather the problem go away. And usually, at least for the perpetrator, it does — an appallingly low number of cases actually get brought to any kind of justice. Dick skillfully weaves together interviews with presentations of some damning numbers — like the fact that 20% of active-duty female soldiers get sexually assaulted, and the military itself acknowledges that a lot of cases are underreported because accusations of rape are so discouraged and can also permanently damage careers. To listen to someone talk about how she ended up getting charged with adultery and conduct unbecoming an officer after being assaulted by a married colleague is to feel that these structures aren’t just fundamentally flawed, they actually encourage this kind of horrific behavior because there are no consequences. The Invisible War follows a few of its interviewees in their current, non-military lives. One, Kori Cioca, is a young mother trying to get the VA to help her with the surgery she needs for her facial injury — she had her jaw broken by someone with whom she was serving in the Coast Guard, a man who raped her. Struggling with PTSD and in constant pain, she’s able to eat only soft food and is told she hasn’t served long enough to be covered because she left after the assault. Navy Seaman Trina McDonald was drugged and raped repeatedly while on a remote assignment in Alaska — the men attacking her were the military police to whom she’d need to report an assault. Now married to a woman and living in Seattle, she still struggles with trauma that, for a while, left her addicted and homeless. There are others — Marine Ariana Klay was told she must have wanted the harassment she received because she wore her military-standard uniform skirt. Elle Helmer, another Marine, and Navy Seaman Hannah Sewell had their rape kits “lost.” The film delves into what’s been done to change the present military culture and comes up with some laughable in-house poster and video campaigns that feature a woman soldier being angrily quizzed about why she’s out by herself and another that urges guys to “ask her when she’s sober,” suggesting that the problem in the military’s eyes is drunk girls with morning-after regrets rather than the kinds of attacks described by the interviewees on screen. The Invisible War also suggests, though doesn’t pursue the way perhaps it should have, that the military has a higher percentage of sexual predators than the outside world — because they’re drawn to the macho imagery with which enlistment is sold. The film certainly offers a solid case for military service being a great environment for someone with those inclinations, because there’s little recourse for a victim to report what happened outside of going to his or her commanding officer (one spokesperson earnestly suggests one could also write to one’s congressperson as a secondary option), and that goes against military sentiment of solidarity and strength through suffering. But solidarity’s worth nothing if you’re not actually a part of the whole, and both the accounts on display here and the way so many of the interviewees conclude that, initial positive experiences aside, they couldn’t recommend that anyone serve, show just how warped the system is and how many scars it’s left. The Invisible War might be best judged as a piece of activism, in which case it’s already succeeding — after seeing the film in April, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta took the responsibility for sexual assault investigations away from commanding officers and put them in the hands of higher-ranking officials. It’s a step in the right direction, but this doc makes it clear there are many more serious changes to be made. Follow Alison Willmore on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
The Invisible War by director Kirby Dick and producer Amy Ziering is simply shocking. In this doc, which won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival in January and screened at the recent Provincetown International Film Festival (where it also picked up an audience prize) the filmmaking duo expose a long-brewing scandal in the U.S. military. Sexual assault against both women and men has run rampant throughout the various branches of the military and even up the chain of command. It is, in fact, the chain of command that has, in part, allowed rape and other sexual assault to remain virtually hidden despite its ubiquity. The Invisible War blows the cover off this decades-old (or older) crisis with an emotional and devastating look at the victims of sexual assault and how it can be fixed. Though the film will be released theatrically this weekend, it has already had a major impact. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta screened the film and soon afterward announced some reforms. Though, as Kirby Dick warns in his interview with ML from the recent Provincetown festival, the moves are not enough and the U.S. military still needs to take some cues from its allies in alleviating this scourge. It may be tough to watch, but the film is riveting and the stories of individuals he and Zeiring interview are phenomenal. Dick has screened the film for various groups since Sundance and its subsequent East Coast premiere at Provincetown and, as he explains in his conversation with ML below, audiences have been riveted by what has been uncovered. What led you and your producer Amy Ziering to this topic and ultimately doing a film? Amy and I read an article in by Helen Benedict in Salon and we were astounded by the numbers of people sexually assaulted, and we were equally astounded that nobody had made a feature documentary on this. From a filmmaker point-of-view, that is sort of lucky when that happens. We pretty much decided right then and there that we’d make this film. I remember hearing about the Tailhook scandal in the ’90s when a number of women were assaulted at a U.S. Navy/Marines event in Las Vegas. And despite that, I still thought this was a horrifying yet isolated outrageous incident. I didn’t think it was so pervasive… Yeah, I remember following that situation and the Air Force Academy [situation] and I wondered when I was making this film why I hadn’t done this 15 years ago. It seems so isolated, but then it’s over – but no, it’s systemic. And the military has been very good at conveying that these are isolated. They’ll deny it or then blame the victim or they’ll say it’s been dealt with and it’s in the past. This has been covered up for generations. I would imagine, and I don’t have statistical evidence in this, but I would bet it’s a part of militaries forever and a problem in foreign militaries that have women or even ones that only have men. And that’s one thing we hope that this film will do as it plays around the world, which is to raise the same discussion in those countries as well. Are these people not able to call the police as civilians do or hopefully do? If they’re in the military it’s almost always referred to military authorities. If it happens on base then it automatically is referred to military authorities and if it happens off-base, then yes it is possible to call civilian authorities, but they very often will refer it back to the military. This must’ve been a heart-wrenching experience for both of you filming this doc. My mouth was dropping hearing these stories and I couldn’t help but talk back to the screen. Yeah, it was. Each one of these interviews were equally stunning. Amy did each interview and she did a phenomenal job and she’d be emotionally drained and devastated and be incredibly angry afterward. It was a good combination [for the creation of the film] and I knew we’d get it. The assaults of course were horrifying in and of themselves, but then to see how the institution reacts to these assaults is absolutely incredible. That’s one of the things we hope this film will inspire. Not only the outrage but this sense of responsibility which you’re alluding to that we all have in this country. There’s a sense that there are military families and non-military families and sometimes people without family members in the military think that they’ll simply take care of themselves. We all have responsibility for people in the military. We’re all a part of one society whether we agree with what the military is doing or not. And I’ve seen this happening. One of the things I foresaw was bring together veterans groups and women’s groups. In fact, we’ve set up a coalition to extend the impact of the film together with civil rights groups and sexual assault groups. And what we want to see happen is a push for reform after the film has gone. Did you reach out to any of the people who were accused? We decided not to do that. But what we did try to do is reach out to someone who was convicted. We tried to do that through many defense attorneys. We were interested in getting his perspective. It would be a courageous act for someone to come forward and talk about this, but ultimately we weren’t able to get anyone. Traditionalists may hold all of this up as evidence that women shouldn’t serve in the military or that they shouldn’t serve alongside men in the military and I was curious what your response is to that? Well I think first of all, that’s holding the men in our military with great disrespect. I believe the men in the military are more than capable of taking care of and not assaulting the people who they serve with side by side. And in the second place, these women make amazing soldiers. The women in our film are the people you would want in the military. They are so good at what they do and so idealistic. They’re model soldiers and that’s one of the tragedies. There was this problem with these gay translators being dismissed from the military and that was also a significant loss to the military. How did you get Leon Panetta to see this? Well, it was part of a long campaign immediately after Sundance. This movie was made to change policy. We got this into the hands of high ranking retired officers. We had dozens of screenings for officers’ wives, non profits, other military organizations and corporate leaders to get the discussion going and not only get the military aware of it, but also to get them to react to it. Eventually, it got to the Defense Secretary who saw the film and two days later held a press conference to announce significant policy changes. We later learned from our executive producer Jennifer Siebel Newsom, the wife of California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom – and all three know each other – that Jennifer saw Leon Panetta at the White House Correspondence dinner and Panetta told her he was really moved by the film and decided to hold the press conference in part because of the film. So the campaign was successful to that degree. But there’s a lot more to do. The changes he announced do not fully take investigation outside the chain of command. It still remains within the chain of command and until that happens, there’s still opportunity for great miscarriages of justice. It should be taken out and there should be no opportunity for a conflict of interest. Take it out like it’s done in every other justice system. There are running sexual themes in many of your films including Twist of Faith and Outrage . Is it fair to say you’re drawn to topics related to sexual taboo – or maybe not “taboo” exactly but you get what I’m saying… Maybe not so much taboo, but yes I think there is. On the one hand sexuality is made for the cinema – any sexuality. But I’m also interested in almost all my films about sexuality and its relationship to trauma. Some more than others, but in some ways trauma is playing some sort of role to sexuality. Certainly as a documentary filmmaker I approach this topic similar to a novelist. The sexuality and the traumatic history of a subject makes for great material to work with. I think it’s something I work with – not always – but do work with [consistently].” Has the audience reaction here in Provincetown and at Sundance been what you have expected? Oh yeah, even more so. I also do these small screenings in various places [between the festivals] and people just wouldn’t get up afterward and I’ve never had that. I saw that they were really affected by this. It’s the experience we had when we were doing these interviews. You’re like, ‘this can’t be true.’ But at the same time you just want to reach out to them. Follow Brian Brooks on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Is The Man Who Killed The Child Molester Who Harmed His Child A Criminal In Shiner, Texas, there’s little doubt among residents that a 23-year-old man who reportedly killed a man he found molesting his 5-year-old daughter in a horse barn should be hailed as a hero, not denounced as a criminal. Yet some legal experts question why the father hasn’t yet been arrested and charged with murder, saying vigilante justice, no matter how the circumstances come about, can’t be tolerated in a civil society. A Texas grand jury will have to deal with those questions next week as it takes a deeper look at the circumstances of the killing, and whether the father was justified in hitting the man so hard with his fists that he died. In most jurisdictions, according to “Criminal Law,” a widely used textbook, the use of fists in defense if there are no other weapons present is automatically an example of reasonable force. But in this case, were emotions an extenuating circumstance that caused the angry dad to go too far? More broadly, when is a person in a defensive fight required to stop? “Assuming it’s true that this guy was molesting the daughter … he would then have the right to defend her and hit him enough to have him stop,” James Harrington, director of the Texas Civil Rights Project, told Foxnews.com. “But you cannot summarily execute him, even though I can understand the anger he would have.” He added: “The question is: When does it move beyond self-defense?” The killing happened last Saturday, according to Lacava County Sheriff Micah Harmon, after the man’s daughter had gone to a barn to feed the family’s chickens, and then began screaming. When the father ran to investigate, he found a man described as a family acquaintance, a horse groomer, sexually abusing the girl. Police have not released any names, in part to protect the girl’s identity, and, in the case of the man who was killed, because they have not yet located his relatives in Mexico. According to the county coroner, the man died of blunt force trauma to the head and neck. Eyewitnesses arrived to see the alleged molester already on the ground, not moving. The girl was taken to a hospital, where she was treated and released for minor injuries. While police continue to investigate, they have so far found no reason to disbelieve the man’s story. The dad “had remorse,” says Sheriff Harmon. “It wasn’t his intent [to kill anybody]. He was protecting his daughter and doing what he thought he had to do to protect his daughter.” Discuss… Source
Homeboy had been suffering “emotional problems” over the last couple months… SMH. Black Trauma Surgeon Wanted In Shooting Death Of Woman At Erie County Medical Center A popular black surgeon is wanted in the shooting death of a woman at the Erie County Medical Center this Wednesday morning: Buffalo police are looking for a prominent trauma surgeon in connection with the fatal shooting this morning of a woman on the campus of the Erie County Medical Center. Timothy V. Jorden Jr., 49, of Lakeview, is described as a bald, black male, about 6-foot-2 and 250 pounds. Police also said Jorden, who served in the Army, could be “special weapons trained.” The victim was Jacqueline Wisniewski, a 33-year-old receptionist at ECMC. The shooting was “not a random act,” officials said. The shooting death prompted authorities to lock down the hospital as a huge police presence converged on the campus to find the killer. The lockdown was lifted shortly before noon. People familiar with the case called Jorden a well-known, popular trauma surgeon at the medical center. Two sources, though, said Jorden had experienced some emotional problems in recent months. The attempt to locate him also included information about four vehicles registered to Jorden, including two GMC Sierra pickups, a Cadillac and a Chevrolet Cobalt, all from 2008 or 2010. Police were given a photograph of the man and were showing it to people at various checkpoints. Meanwhile, a police helicopter and a police presence surrounded the area around Jorden’s home, on West Arnold Drive in Lakeview, late this morning and early this afternoon. K-9 dogs, the Buffalo and Amherst police SWAT teams, an Erie County sheriff’s helicopter, and a team of U.S. marshals all rushed to the shooting scene earlier in an attempt to track down the killer. Four shots were fired at about 8:15 a.m., killing the woman, police officials said. There has been no indication from authorities about anyone else being wounded in the attack. The shooting happened on the ECMC grounds, but there have been conflicting reports whether it occurred in a covered passage-way between the campus’s David K. Miller Building and the kidney center, or in the Miller Building itself. “The SWAT Team is in control of the situation,” Buffalo police spokesman Michael J. DeGeorge said at mid-morning, during a news conference several hundred yards from the shooting scene. “It is an active situation.” Through early afternoon the hospital diverted emergency room patients to Buffalo General Hospital but the campus reopened shortly before 2 p.m., except for the Miller building. The hospital also said all employees should report at their regularly scheduled time today. Here’s a little more information about Jorden : He graduated from the University at Buffalo School of Medicine in 1996 and also was promoted to captain in the Army, according to a Buffalo News profile of him. Jorden has been known as a highly skilled, busy trauma surgeon who was popular at ECMC. But two sources said he had experienced some emotional problems in recent months. A News profile in 1996 described Jorden as a Buffalo native and 1981 Bennett High School graduate who joined the National Guard in high school, went into the Army after graduation and served with the Army’s Special Forces, first as a weapons expert, then as a medic. In those roles, he was on active duty in the Caribbean, Japan and Korea. Following his Army service, Jorden went to Methodist College in Fayetteville, N.C., where he graduated cum laude, with a bachelor’s degree in sociology. Earning a scholarship through the Army’s Health Professional Scholarship Program, Jorden chose UB over other medical schools. While at UB, Jorden tutored local high school students in math and science and received an award for academic achievement from the Buffalo Chapter of the National Medical Association, as well as a dean’s award. From UB, Jorden went to Madigan Army Medical Center in Tacoma, Wash., for two years. He later joined the ECMC department of surgery as an attending physician in 2003, also serving as a clinical assistant professor in surgery at UB. Jorden is certified in advanced-trauma life support and has received numerous awards recognizing his relationships with patients, his teaching skills and his involvement in the community. In 2002, Jorden was one of about two dozen people honored with the Black Achievers in Industry Awards in Buffalo. Sounds like a really top notch guy who went all the way left. This is so sad. Hopefully they catch him before he does any more harm to himself or others. Source Photo Credit: James P. McCoy
