Detroit Residents In Crime Ridden-Neighborhood Say They Feel Like Prisoners In Their Homes A group of residents living in a crime-ridden and predominantly black Detroit neighborhood say they often feel like prisoners in their own homes and are afraid to even leave to go to church. via News One You would think going to church wouldn’t pose a security risk, but some Detroiters beg to differ. On city’s West Side, between Seven and Eight Mile Roads near Telegraph, rests a tight-knit community that has grown tired of vagrants who frequent a park near their homes. On any given day or night, street walkers], drug dealers and other trouble makers can be seen hanging out in Fargo-Fenton Playground. Too often, they leave behind syringes, liquor bottles, and used condoms, according to one resident interview by Fox 2 News Detroit. Other residents told the television station that they believe the shady people hanging around the park are connected to a string of recent home break-ins in the neighborhood–especially during church hours. Here is more of what some residents told Fox 2 about break-ins during church hours: “Come home and find that their windows have been pried open,” said a resident. “You don’t know who’s going to attack you next.” “Your hands are tied basically as a citizen. You really are at the mercy of the criminals.” “We have to defend ourselves against the criminals who want to just singly take over,” said another neighbor. “People are afraid, and they’re getting older, and the kids are now beginning to move them away.” “We’re being targeted when we go to church. Come home and everything should be fine, but when you come home and everything you’ve worked hard for is ripped apart and then you’ve got to pay to repair the damage that was done to your home, it will deter you from going because you want to try to protect what you have because no one else is going to do it for you.” This is a shame. We really have to do better….NOW.
I’ve always liked Rachel Bilson , and we never seem to see enough of her these days now that she’s on some crappy show that nobody watches as opposed to the crappy show that everybody watched. Either way, I was glad to find some bikini pictures of Rachel in Barbados. It looks like she’s got some serious tan lines though, and she’s welcome to come over to my place to get rid of them. I can promise almost total privacy, but the windows in my mom’s basement don’t get that much sun, so it may take a while. » view all 13 photos Related Articles: Rachel Bilson’s Jacket Needs To Disappear Rachel Bilson Doggystyle Rachel Bilson Is Rachel Bilson For Halloween Rachel Bilson Makes A Cute Boy Photos: Fameflynet
And then there were 15. American Idol narrowed down its Season 12 field some more last night, as 10 women sang for five spots. In the end, half were eliminated and we were left with the 10 total female semifinalists – a quintet from last Wednesday mixed with these Sudden Death survivors – who will battle it out next week on the first live shows of the season.
Wow. Usually in these stories, the skanky teachers are choppin the young boys down in the backseat of their car or something, but not “Jennalin!” Jennalin said f**k it, we just gonna f**k here in the classroom! Via Sun Sentinel: A New Jersey high school teacher was arrested after she reportedly fled to Davie amid accusations she was having sex with a 16-year-old student inside her classroom. Officials said she fled to Florida to seek “help.” Jennalin M. Garcia-Calle, 28, of Piscataway, N.J.,a teacher at Plainfield High School, made a brief appearance during a Broward County bond court hearing on Friday morning to answer to charges stemming to an alleged sexual relationship with a male student. class=”aligncenter size-full wp-image-717057″ /> Acting on a tip, members of the U.S. Marshals Florida Regional Fugitive Task Force in Fort Lauderdale found the teacher at the Recovery Institute of South Florida, a drug and psychiatric treatment center in Davie. She was arrested Thursday afternoon at the center with the help of the Fort Lauderdale and Davie Police departments, officials said. Garcia-Calle is being held without bond and will likely appear at an extradition hearing on Monday, court officials said. She is charged with sexual assault in the 2nd degree and child abuse, according to the U.S. Marshals Service. A Kean University graduate, Garcia-Calle has been teaching math at Plainfield High School since 2008, according to her classroom website. In a report that appeared on the website mycentraljersey.com, authorities in New Jersey began investigating after the student told a family member about his relationship with the teacher. Family members then contacted police, according to the news site. The sex encounters took place in her classroom during school hours, Union County Prosecutor Theodore J Romankow told the newsite. “What made this particularly … unusual is that they actually had sex in school, in her classroom,” Romankow said. “Evidently they blocked the windows and locked the door.” Well at least she has acknowledged the fact she has a problem. SMH.
Charlie Sheen has a knack for random acts of kindness. Not long after helping Lindsay Lohan with her tax burden, the actor has cut a check for $12,000 to the family of Chris Guerra, the photographer killed on New Year’s Day in pursuit of a Justin Bieber story. Insiders tell TMZ that Sheen is close with another paparazzi member who knew Guerra well and jumped into financial action when he heard the family was having trouble covering funeral costs. “A tragic incident like this erases the line between the photographer and the subject,” Sheen told TMZ. “It’s an unforgiving moment that begs us all to be human and work as one to prevent this in the future. “As parents, we are all not supposed to bury our children. My deepest condolences to the families involved.”
Despite more than 100,000 virtual signatures demanding it, the U.S. government has denied a petition from gun advocates to deport CNN host Piers Morgan. The petition started in response to British-born Piers Morgan’s gun control rant was posted to the White House’s We the People forum last month. Morgan has been even more outspoken than usual in the aftermath of the massacre that killed 26 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Earlier this week, he clashed it Alex Jones in an epic interview … or whatever that was. Bottom line, people petitioned to throw him out of the U.S. The Obama administration responds to any petition with 25,000 signatures, and therefore, issued a statement on Morgan and his 1st Amendment rights. “Let’s not let arguments over the Constitution’s Second Amendment violate the spirit of its First,” stated White House press secretary Jay Carney. “President Obama believes that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms. However, the Constitution not only guarantees an individual right to bear arms, but also enshrines the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press – fundamental principles that are essential to our democracy.” “Americans may disagree on matters of public policy and express those disagreements vigorously, but no one should be punished by the government simply because he or she expressed a view on the Second Amendment – or any other matter of public concern.” As of this post, the petition to oust Piers has 109,334 virtual signatures – however he offered to self-deport , Romney-style, if U.S. gun laws don’t change. What do you think? Is it time for stricter/more gun control? YES. Fewer guns, fewer tragedies! NO. It’s unconstitutional and won’t stop anything! View Poll »
Oakland Raiders linebacker Rolando McClain was pulled over yesterday for driving with strongly tinted windows. And then arrested for being a total moron. Rather than accept a simple citation for the violation, McClain reportedly wrote his name as “Fuck y’all” when handed a ticket by police in Decatur, Alabama. When asked to sign again, he told the officer “that is my name” and was then arrested forgiving a false name to the cops. Among other idiotic moves… In defense of the windows, McClain handed over a letter from a doctor that claimed he had “photosensitivity and needed maximum ultraviolet radiation protection to include window tinting,” but it was not written on a prescription form. Instead of giving his license and/or insurance information to the police, he simply said: “You know who I am.” Asked by The Decatur Daily if the police were out to get him, he replied: “Yes. You said it. I answered it.'” “I’m falsely accused of everything,” McClain added after posting $1,000 bail. “It’s corrupt. It’s terrible.”
My name is Akvile, I’m 17 and I live in London . June 18th 2012 was when I got my first picture with Justin Bieber. Just the feeling of being in his presence was honestly amazing. He is so stunning, you can just get so starstruck. I got my picture with him at Radio 1 in London, there were quite a few people there so I couldn’t talk to him , he had to leave pretty quickly because there was paparazzi also. That week was amazing because I met the whole crew. September 12th to 14th= the best few days of my life, honestly. September 12th was when Justin was recording the acoustic set for the BBC Radio 1 Teen Awards so we went to the studios. We saw him go in but he ran inside quickly due to paparazzi. We stayed there till around 5.20pm. We had wristbands to his ‘Just Getting Started’ book signing and we heard that the doors to get into the signing closed at 6pm so we decided to just leave and go there . The moment we left, as we were walking down the road, we heard screams and turned around to see that he had just left. The car was coming in our direction so we ran to the end of the road and stood at the turn so he could see us. As the car was turning slowly, we waved at him and he was banging on the window at us and waving. Then he kissed the window of the car at us and drove off. That made my entire day. At the book signing, it was INSANE. We were near the end so it was really rushed because Justin was really sick, they wanted to get him out of there as soon as possible. I didn’t get to speak to him or anything, he was looking elsewhere when it was my turn so he didn’t notice me. We weren’t allowed to film but I managed to get a video of some of it. The next day included a lot of waiting again and we saw him towards night time at his hotel. When he got back from the Jonathan Ross show, a few of my friends got to meet him and get amazing pictures. We didn’t manage to get to him on time but I’m glad they did. We all decided that we were not leaving until we saw him and we stayed out the entire night. He came out for us around 11-12pm and fans swarmed him. He said, “Guys chill out, we can take pictures, let’s just hang out.” He asked everyone to line up but no one listened and so he said he’s going back in and then he left. I didn’t think he would come out for us again, but later on he did, at around 1.30am, and it was the best experience ever. The entire time I watched him, I was standing two feet away from him for like an entire 2 minutes just listening to him talk. He was so unwell but he still looked so perfect. I asked him for a hug and he was like ‘sure’ and I hugged him and whispered “thank you” in his ear because honestly, it was all I’ve ever wanted to say to him. I got a picture with him and it was just brilliant. When he left, we waved at him and then I honestly just collapsed and cried. I hugged all of friends, just crying because I have never been so happy before. That night, we actually slept on the street because we all missed our trains home, but we had fun so it was no big deal, except it was absolutely freezing that night. The next morning, we all heard that he wouldn’t be coming out because he was sick so we were so upset to hear about that so we wanted to do something for him. I got an idea and I ran to the nearest arts and crafts store I saw and bought some tape. I decided to write a note saying ‘Get well soon Justin’ and covered it in tape so that I could stick it on the car. Then my friends decided to join in and we decided to cover the car in those notes. Right before Justin left, as he was driving out, he had the car door open, JUST so he could say bye to us all. He drove out and said, “Hey guys!” to us, so we said hi and wished him to get well soon. As he drove away, we ran after the car as fast as we could and taped the notes onto the windows. I was so happy that we managed to do it. I was hoping he would smile at them, but I NEVER expected him to actually Instagram a picture of those notes on his car and say thank you to us . I cried my eyes out when I saw that Instagram and the tweets. We actually managed to make him smile and make him feel better when he was sick. That was such an amazing feeling for me, I couldn’t stop crying . We all made the effort and we did it, we made him smile and we made him feel better. Justin Drew Bieber is my pillar. He is my everything. He has helped me through so much and he’s the reason that I’m still here and living. I’m so grateful. I finally managed to thank him. The hours and days we spent waiting for him. All the time we spent staying outside during freezing weather. All of the times we were running everywhere to see him despite me having fractured legs and being in constant pain, it was just all SO worth it in the end. He is WORTH IT. Every 11:11, we all wished to meet him. And it happened. So the moral of MY story is – your dreams can come true. You just have to believe in them. -@AkvileEagle See the original post: My name is Akvile, I’m 17 and I live in London. June 18th…
Tony Gilroy ‘s tumultuous history with the Jason Bourne franchise is, as he calls it, “well-documented.” But after penning or co-scripting the first three Matt Damon-starring spy pics in the series — navigating a maelstrom of widely reported behind the scenes beefs, including Damon’s snipe last year at Gilroy’s Bourne Ultimatum script — the writer-director was lured back to this weekend’s The Bourne Legacy by the opportunity to create a new secret agent ( Jeremy Renner ) to build insidious political conspiracies and impossible action sequences and existential questions around. “In a strange way,” he tells Movieline, “I felt more of a personal connection with this character than I ever felt with Jason Bourne.” Prior to Gilroy coming aboard The Bourne Legacy , which introduces Renner’s highly-skilled agent Aaron Cross as Jason Bourne’s gentler, funnier, and more genetically-modified contemporary ( Chems! He needs chems! ), Universal and author Robert Ludlum’s estate were in a bind to find a new, fresh way to continue the lucrative spy franchise. Gilroy, who had left the series behind to helm his own Michael Clayton and Duplicity — and up to that point, he admits, had never even seen the Paul Greengrass-directed The Bourne Ultimatum — took a polite coffee meeting, which turned into a few weeks’ worth of scripting help, which in turn rekindled his interest in the property so much so he signed on to direct. The result is a Bourne “sidequel” that runs parallel to the events of Ultimatum but follows new hero Renner as he and Rachel Weisz’s comely, brainy scientist Dr. Marta Shearing evade a government burn-down of their top secret Outcome program. The action takes the pair from the labs to the woods of Maryland to the streets of Manila, through an assortment of set pieces including one physics-defying sequence inspired, Gilroy reveals, by Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men . Gilroy rang Movieline to discuss those eye-catching stunts and more, including why he returned to Bourne after all that drama, how Renner and Weisz’s crackling chemistry dictated on-set rewrites of Aaron and Marta’s “will they/won’t they?” romantic relationship, and what, if any, master plan is in place to reunite both Damon and Renner as a superspy duo in future Bourne installments. There’s an unusual history between you and this franchise; you’re not just any director who’s been hired, and you’re not just any screenwriter tackling the next sequel in this series. You know, it came about in such a random, incremental way. I turned in the script for Bourne Ultimatum about three weeks before I started pre-production on Michael Clayton and then I couldn’t have been more outside [the process]. They greenlit the script and they started and everyone was happy, then I went to do Clayton and was completely outside, for years. I really didn’t have any involvement whatsoever. I mean, I’d hear anecdotally from people but my main source of information would be whatever was in the press. So the movie came out and it was like, “What are they going to do next?” And a lot of really switched-on people spent a lot of time trying to figure out what to do — I wasn’t part of any of that — and then they all fell apart. They ran out of road. That’s a tough problem. I’m not sure I would have been able to solve that exact problem, of where you go with Jason Bourne. And then they all left! So then you came in with the idea for Aaron Cross? More time went by and I took a very casual meeting with the guys from the estate who were in New York — really, just a cup of coffee, a 20-minute meeting, and they said, “We don’t know what to do! We don’t have Matt, and we don’t have Jason Bourne anymore — somebody has to figure out a way to go forward.” I said, “I haven’t seen the third movie but I’ll go and look at it, and if I can think of a way to help you out, I will.” A couple weeks later I called them back with just the very first idea for [ Bourne Legacy ]: What if there was this larger conspiracy — what if there was another program? What if there was someone, a mastermind, sitting behind all of this? If you’d asked me then I’d have said the last thing I’ll ever be doing was this. Then the idea got a little sexier — Oh my god, you can have Ultimatum playing in the background, you can do all these really cool things that no one’s ever done before! I really came on for a couple of weeks; it was like a problem-solving job, it wasn’t even a writing job. And then I got the character and I got sucked in. So there was no master plan. What was your feeling in returning to helm Bourne Legacy given your past relationships with these movies? Feelings-wise, at this point it’s been 13 years. It’s been very good to me in some ways, and it’s been very frustrating in other ways which are well documented. It’s been very successful and certainly helped me get Clayton made. So I’m very happy that I did it all those years ago. Is it gratifying to step into the director’s chair after being a writer for so long on this franchise? The places to be anxious are in terms of the quality of the other films and being beholden to the DNA of the other films in key areas, the really fundamental things that make it what it is. But I never really felt like, wow, this is finally mine! It was interesting to me; I like the character, the story came together, and I thought, wow — I’m really into this. This could be something that would be worth two years of your life, that’s what you’re looking at. You’d never base a decision like that on anything petty or competitive. It’s too big a decision. So the solution to the Bourne series’ problem was creating Aaron Cross. I liked Jason Bourne as a character, but as played by Jeremy Renner, Aaron Cross is pretty much the perfect spy boyfriend you’d want to be on the run with. How did you approach carving this guy out, giving him a different purpose in life, with a personality that’s not only a stark contrast to Bourne but from the other agents we’ve encountered in this world? [Laughs] You know, part of getting here in the script is like math, problem-solving, craftsmanship. And then part of it is wherever dumb luck and inspiration meet up. As excited as everybody else got about it, I was like, this is really empty — you’ve got to have a character here that’s huge. I don’t think we realized in the beginning — we certainly didn’t realize it when we did the first one — what a great problem it was for an assassin to have an identity problem and a morality problem. You could get three movies out of it! But the idea for [Aaron Cross] just sort of dropped one day as I was sketching it. I’ve never worked on a character like this before, I’ve never quite seen this problem and certainly have never seen this problem expressed in an action or adventure movie before. In a strange way I felt more of a personal connection with this character than I ever felt with Jason Bourne — the idea of being alive and losing your awareness, the idea of turning down the dimmer switch on your appreciation of life, even, is such a terrifying thing and something that we all worry about. [Laughs] I was really happy it was sitting in front of me on a piece of paper! You chose to wrap up Bourne Legacy ’s conclusion by not falling prey to the easy romantic moments one might expect from a guy-and-girl on the lam movie like this. Was there a specific intention behind that Aaron-Marta relationship? We had a really big advantage, I think, in that when we started and even while we were shooting — well, we shot Norton’s stuff first, then Rachel came in and did the lab stuff, and then Jeremy came in and they started working together — at the end of our shoot in New York we still didn’t really know how far we would go with [the romance], but we were kind of liberated in that I didn’t feel like a win for us had to necessarily be that. The movie could have been weirdly satisfying if they ended up sort of as brother and sister or co-conspirators. If they’d just been two people that survived it would have been interesting, or if it had ended up with just a doctor-patient relationship — a really strange one. I’ve been on movies where you start off, these two people have to be in love at the end of the movie, or have to be in love in the movie and fall apart and then get back together, and you have to have that. But we didn’t have to have that, so we didn’t have to force it. For instance, the motel scene, where that chemistry really builds. We shot that motel room scene — in point of fact, we did it once and didn’t like it, and went back and did it again a week later. In the rewrite of that, I really had to cop to the idea that this was really happening and really wrote into it, and then we shot it and they were just so kinda hot with each other, in a scene that’s not like that at all. So the rest of the way in we put up the spinnaker and went for it. But it was nice to know that we didn’t have to do that. Well, all that said, I’d still like to thank you for all the male topless scenes. All these half-naked Jeremy Renner shots and not a single gratuitous look at Rachel Weisz. [Laughs] You’re welcome! You shot a number of ambitious action sequences — the motorcycle chase in the Philippines among them — but there’s one particular impossible shot of Jeremy as Aaron free-climbing up the side of Marta’s house, up the walls, and into the second-story window. How did you conceive of that coming together? We had the idea for it and we had the house — there was a real house that we had found, and we went there. You wrote action to fit your locations, right? Exactly. I can’t really do them unless they’re really specific. If we were to say we’re in the Four Seasons hotel right now and we need to do an action sequence, I’d say okay, let’s walk around and figure out what works, and what’s fun, whatever. We saw this house and it wasn’t just all the opportunities inside – we looked at the outside and it was really cool. And filming it in a faux unbroken shot enhances the movie illusion that Aaron is an enhanced human being. I’m a huge fan of Children of Men — I think it’s the greatest action movie in the last many years. And I love how seamless it is, they never make you think about what’s going on. So there’s a little bit of trickery but a lot of reality; you can’t do them unless you really rehearse them. And really, our climbing up the house is a small fractional piece of what they’re doing in Children of Men . I watched it thinking I would love to believe that Jeremy Renner really just crawled up that house. A lot of it really happened! That’s really Jeremy going up the side of that house. I mean, a camera can’t fit through that window and follow him through the window, that’s not physically possible. Was that easier or tougher than filming Jeremy jump straight down perfectly into that skinny alley in the Philippines? Oh that , you do. That’s a real place, a real thing. So that’s him and that’s a real practical thing that we built. It’s actually an easy thing to do — dropping down is easier than going up. There’s been a lot of talk about bringing Matt Damon back to join with Renner in future Bourne installments — has there been any concrete movement in that direction so far? That’s beyond hypothetical. There’s nothing concrete at all, and anytime anybody says anything in print it turns into a whole… no, really, really nothing. Zero conversations. Do you think the chances are good that that’ll actually ever happen? I have no insight into that at all. We’ll be running around gabbing away and doing all this stuff and the audience will tell us what should happen, I should think. But the idea that we have some sort of organized thing here is such an amusing idea. [Laughs] There’s no master plan. Previously: Tony Gilroy (Fondly) Remembers His 1992 Olympic Skating Romance The Cutting Edge The Bourne Legacy is in theaters today. Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
The Bourne Legacy , The Campaign and Hope Springs are among the latest in studio fare churned out for your summer popcorn pleasure. And some – at least – are worth a view. But if you’re itching for something else beyond the grain, check out the latest from Spike Lee, whose Red Hook Summer begins its roll out this weekend with an expansion set throughout the rest of summer. Actress/director Julie Delpy’s sequel to her hilarious 2 Days In Paris opens, but this time she trades Paris for New York in, fittingly, 2 Days In New York , in which she stars opposite Chris Rock . And David Duchovny stars in Goats , which is finally making its way to the screen after a decade in the making. More teasers, insight and films here beyond the blockbuster… 2 Days in New York Director: Julie Delpy Writer: Julie Delpy, Alexia Landeau, Alexandre Nahon Cast: Julie Delpy, Chris Rock, Albert Delpy Alexia Landeau, Alexandre Nahon, Daniel Bruhl Opens: New York in two locations this weekend with other cities to follow. The followup to her 2007 feature 2 Days In Paris , which took in a cool $4.433 million Stateside for that film’s distributor Samuel Goldwyn Films, the current title basically replicates Paris’ dialogue-heavy banter, open talk about sexuality and crossing social taboos, but this time Chris Rock stars as her love interest and New York is the setting. Though she has been acting since she was discovered by Jean-Luc Godard (who cast her in his 1985 Détective) and has a half-dozen features under her belt as director, the ever present challenge of financing played havoc with 2 Days In New York. “It’s fine if you have the money, and we had the money, but when the money fell apart at the last minute, it was just drama. It was the most painful experience to think you’re about to shoot and then everything just stops,” she said. Nevertheless, the production went on and the film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival in January where it was picked up by Magnolia Pictures. Synopsis: Marion and Mingus live cozily—perhaps too cozily—with their cat and two young children from previous relationships. However, when Marion’s jolly father (played by director Delpy’s real-life dad), her oversexed sister, and her sister’s outrageous boyfriend unceremoniously descend upon them for a visit, it initiates two unforgettable days that will test Marion and Mingus’s relationship. With their unwitting racism and sexual frankness, the French triumvirate hilariously has no boundaries or filters…and no person is left unscathed in its wake. Watch the trailer on YouTube . Goats Director: Christopher Neil Writer: Mark Poirier Cast: Vera Farmiga, David Duchovny, Graham Phillips, Keri Russell, Justin Kirk, Dakota Johnson Opens: New York, Los Angeles, Tucson, Phoenix and Dallas with more cities to follow. From conception to being “in the can,” Goats took 10 years to make. Director Christopher Neil optioned the material from Mark Poirier and worked with the author to adapt the script. Producer Daniela Taplin Lundberg first saw the script through Oliver Stone producer Eric Kopeloff while she was at Plum Pictures and tried to find financing. Eventually she formed Red Crown Productions and decided to make Goats her company’s first project. “We brought it to David Duchovny who loved the character of the Goat man and said it was like something he hadn’t done before,” Lundberg said. Following a long editing process, production finished in late fall. “Sundance was the best place to premiere.” Synopsis: In Goats , Ellis (Graham Phillips) is the most adult member of his eccentric family at 15 years old. His mom (Vera Farmiga) is a New Age hippie that spends all of her time working on self-help rituals with her hustler boyfriend (Justin Kirk). His dad (Ty Burrell) left home years ago and is more focused on his new wife (Keri Russell) and family. And then there’s Goat Man (David Duchovny), the goat-herding sage who has lived in their pool house since Ellis was a child, teaching him the meaning of stability, commitment, and expanding one’s mind. When Ellis decides to leave Tucson to go to the same East Coast prep school that his father went to, he easily assimilates to his new environment – even gaining the attention of a local girl (Dakota Johnson). But as he re-connects with his estranged father, he finds Goat Man’s influence and his life out West thrown into stark contrast. Based on Mark Jude Poirier’s best-selling novel, director Christopher Neil’s hilarious and poignant film is a witty reversal of the coming of age formula, a beautifully honest portrayal of life with its rough edges, awkward moments, and non-endings. Watch the trailer on YouTube . The Green Wave Writer-director: Ali Samadi Ahadi Cast: Mohsen Kadivar, Mitra Khalatbari, Shadi Sadr Opens: In limited release. Synopsis: Green is the color of hope. Green is the color of Islam. And green was the symbol of recognition among the supporters of presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who became the symbolic figure of the Green Revolution in Iran last year. The presidential elections on June 12th, 2009 were supposed to bring about a change, but contrary to all expectations the ultra-conservative populist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was confirmed in office. As clear as was the result, as loud and justified were the accusations of vote-rigging. The on-going Where is my vote? protest demonstrations were again and again worn down and broken up with brutal attacks by government militia. Images taken from private persons with their cell phones or cameras bear witness to this excessive violence: people were beaten, stabbed, shot dead, arrested, kidnapped, some of them disappearing without trace. What remains is the countless number of dead or injured people and victims of torture, and another deep wound in the hearts of the Iranians. The Green Wave is a touching documentary-collage illustrating the dramatic events and telling about the feelings of the people behind this revolution. Facebook reports, Twitter messages and videos posted in the internet were included in the film composition, and hundreds of real blog entries served as reference for the experiences and thoughts of two young students, whose story is running through the film as the main thread. Watch the trailer on YouTube . Meet The Fokkens Writers-directors: Gabrielle Provaas, Rob Schroder Subjects: Louise Fokkens, Martine Fokkens Opens: New York this weekend followed by other cities. Dutch filmmakers Gabrielle Provaas and Rob Schroder stumbled on the two women who would be the subjects of their film by chance. Provaas said her colleague moved to an Amsterdam neighborhood where local prostitutes ran their window-front enterprise, although it was not in the city’s famed sex worker district frequented by tourists and gawkers. “We were fascinated by the women working in the windows,” said Provaas. “This area where we found them is outside the main Red Light District and these women were their own bosses and doing it out of their own choice.” They soon wanted to make a film about the area weren’t sure how to proceed. “You can’t just tap the window and say, ‘Hey we want to make a movie about you.'” Synopsis: Meet Louise and Martine Fokkens: 69-year-old identical twins who have worked as prostitutes in Amsterdam’s red light district for over 50 years. Louise is newly retired due to arthritis (“I couldn’t get one leg over the other”), but Martine carries on, unable to support herself on a state pension. Between explicit scenes of her daily grind, she and Louise stroll the city in matching outfits, recounting hilariously ribald stories from a lifetime of sex work. (Discussing a client who was a chaplain, one recalls: “Don’t you remember, we even had a little confessional!”) An immensely affectionate portrait of two women who have seen and done everything (and everyone), Meet the Fokkens is a rollicking and revealing look at the world’s oldest profession in the 21st century. Watch the trailer on YouTube . Red Hook Summer Writer-director: Spike Lee Cast: Jules Brown, Thomas Jefferson Byrd, Tony Lysaith, De’Adre Aziz, Turron Kofi Alleyne Opens: Manhattan and Brooklyn this weekend followed by Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Baltimore, Philadelphia and Los Angeles in two weeks. “The key with this one, is that we’re working hand in hand with Spike and his team at 40 Acres,” RHS distributor Variance Films founder Dylan Marchetti said referring to Lee’s film outfit, 40 Acres and a Mule Filmworks. “They’re savvy and they’re smart. He has a few tricks up his sleeve. I’ve never seen someone so busy and working hard. He doesn’t just do a New York press day and then call it quits.” Marchetti said the film purposely does not draw conclusions and the audience will have to come up with their own. “In a nutshell what’s interesting about RHS is that it’s personal for Spike,” said Marchetti. “He’s saying something but not telling people what to think and we’re tying our marketing to that. We want them to figure that out themselves and they’re a smart audience.” Synopsis: Red Hook Summer tells the story of Flik Royale (Jules Brown), a sullen young boy from middle-class Atlanta who has come to spend the summer with his deeply religious grandfather, Bishop Enoch Rouse (Clarke Peters) in the housing projects of Red Hook. Having never met before, things quickly get off on the wrong foot as Bishop Enoch relentlessly attempts to convert Flik into a follower of Jesus Christ. Between his grandfather’s constant preaching and the culture sock of inner-city life, Flik’s summer appears to be a total disaster – until he meets Chazz Morningstar (Toni Lysaith), a pretty girl his age, who shows Flik the brighter side of Brooklyn. Through her love and the love of his grandfather, Flik begins to realize that the world is a lot bigger and perhaps a lot better than he’d ever imagine. Watch the trailer on YouTube .
