Diana Kennedy: Nothing Fancy

Loosely based on Charles Dicken’s book “A Tale of Two Cities”, Working Class tells the tale of underground street artists Mike Giant and Mike Maxwell and their decade long friendship that started with a tattoo. The story is told through the cities they call home by, cutting back and forth between the neighborhoods of San Francisco and San Diego, as the artists talk about their life philosophies and the work they create.

Casa Bonita opened in 1974 in an unassuming strip mall. The massive "Disneyland of Mexican restaurants" is an Old West and Acapulco-inspired fever dream made famous by its indoor waterfall, cliff divers, and haunted caves, and was featured in a classic 2003 episode of South Park. When its creators, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, learn that Casa Bonita might close its doors for good, they attempt to preserve a crumbling piece of their childhood and Denver history.

When Ruben, a young Chicano musician, is caught between his mother’s expectations and his own hopes, he is forced to make a decision that will change his life forever. Based on true events, “Con Esperanza” follows Ruben on his journey of pursuing his dreams, balancing both the traditional and financial expectations of his Mother.

When business is slow on opening day of their food truck, Olivia and her chef cat, Ferdinand, concoct elaborate schemes to bring in customers.

Tita, who lives on a ranch in Mexico, falls in love with a boy, Pedro, who lives nearby; but when they want to get married, Tita's family prevents it, because she must remain single to take care of her mother.

James Bataille is in love. He attempts to stage an elaborate motorcycle stunt to impress the girl, but when it goes sour, he ends up in prison with a 133-year sentence. Bataille escapes from behind bars to make an appointment to fix the car of music biz tycoon, as well as watch the love of his life take part in the town's annual talent show.

Miguel tells us how the Yucatecan dish Tikin Xiik' is prepared in the town of Dzidzantún while at the same time he recounts how his grandfather used to prepare it.

Julian dreams of becoming a chef while working in his father's auto repair shop. When he finds out about a cooking competition that awards the winner a full scholarship to culinary school, he jumps at the chance with the encouragement of his grandma and despite his father's disapproval.

Maria is a girl who loves to cook and lives with his grandmother, Doña Tere, in Mexico City's downtown. Doña Tere has a traditional Mexican restaurant called "El Molcajete". After the death of her daughter, Doña Tere abandoned his passion for cooking and stopped working in "El Molcajete", now operating under the direction of chef Rosi. Maria does everything possible to bring her grandmother back to the restaurant, while chef Rosi cooks dishes according to new trends in fusion cuisine which highlights the light food, but Maria and Doña Tere won't accept the traditional flavors and cooking secrets to be forgotten. The cuisine battle between Tere and chef Rosi is an epic fight not only between long-stablished mexican food and light food, but also a struggle of family bonds, friendship, cooking secrets, flavour’s passion and more than two hundred ingredients that are needed in order to prepare Mole, a traditional mexican sauce.

A brand new retrospective documentary produced by Ballyhoo Motion Pictures and featuring interviews with cinematographer Dean Cundey, production designer/editor Tommy Lee Wallace, photographer Kim Gottleib-Walker, make-up effects artist Steve Johnson, Carpenter biographer John Muir, music historian Daniel Schweiger, visual effects historian Justin Humphreys and assistant Larry Franco

A brand new retrospective documentary produced by Ballyhoo Motion Pictures and featuring interviews with writer Nick Castle, cinematographer Dean Cundey, composer Alan Howarth, production designer Joe Alves, special visual effects artist/model maker Gene Rizzardi, production assistant David De Coteau, photographer Kim Gottleib-Walker, Carpenter biographer John Muir, visual effects historian Justin Humphreys, and music historian Daniel Schweiger.

A brand new retrospective documentary produced by Ballyhoo Motion Pictures and featuring interviews with Associate producer Sandy King, cinematographer Gary Kibbe, actor Peter Jason, actor Robert Grasmere, composer Alan Howarth, stunt coordinator/Ghoul Jeff Imada, author Jonathan Letham, music historian Daniel Schweiger, Blumhouse editor Rebekah McKendry, and visual effects historian Justin Humphreys.

A brand new retrospective documentary produced by Ballyhoo Motion Pictures and featuring interviews with Cinematographer Gary Kibbe, actor Peter Jason, actor Alice Cooper, composer Alan Howarth, script supervisor Sandy King, visual effects supervisor Robert Grasmere, stunt coordinator Jeff Imada, Carpenter biographer John Muir, film historian C. Courtney Joyner, music historian Daniel Schweiger and Producer Larry Carpenters.

Cast and crew offer up a nice overview piece, discussing the picture's authenticity, real life in the time of "Boyz n the Hood," the parallels between Singleton's real life and his film, the process of making the film, the casting process, the quality of the script, the film's reception, its Oscar nominations, and its legacy.

Documentary purporting to expose the cover-up of the JFK assassination conspiracy.

A wonderful retrospective supplement that features much of the primary cast cast as well as Writer/Director John Singleton looking back at the picture's history and legacy. They speak on the themes of the film, the casting process, its importance then and now, its reception upon release, the project's novelty, its placing in the National Film Registry, and more. There's no shortage of good insight here and the piece does a fine job of encapsulating what Boyz n the Hood is all about.

Building Brick is the Behind the Scenes documentary for the film Brick (2006). Brick was written and directed by Rian Johnson in San Clemente, CA in 2003. The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Nora Zehetner, Lucas Haas, Noah Segan Building Brick was filmed and edited by L Jean Schwartz (Disclaimer: I shot most of this footage when I was 17 with my family camcorder, edited it when I was 19, and this is not a very high res version, but it has only been available on the German DVD so I wanted a way that my friends could see it) Also, I am endlessly immensely grateful to Rian Johnson for giving me the opportunity to be part of Brick.

Portland, 1988. Filmmaker Gus Van Sant shoots Drugstore Cowboy, the project that will bring he and his collaborators a formidable burst of mainstream attention. Starring Matt Dillon, Kelly Lynch, and Heather Graham, the film follows a roving quartet of drug addicts — and, consequently, drug thieves, especially from the businesses of the title — who wash up in Portland's then-gritty Pearl District. A death among their own spooks the leader of the pack into trying to clean up, and an encounter with a sepulchral junkie priest does its part to convince him further. Or maybe we should call him a Junkie priest, portrayed as he is by a controversial cameo from writer William S. Burroughs. "I'm going back to the old days," Burroughs says of his role early in the above documentary on the making of Drugstore Cowboy. "The old days when they used to give people morphine in jail. The old days before the methadone programs."

This fascinating making-of documentary investigates the controversy and political atmosphere surrounding the production of Salt of the Earth, movingly chronicling the filmmakers' defiance of the blacklist. (BAM) Preserved by the Academy Film Archive in 2015.

Behind the scenes documentary of Gus Van Sant's "Paranoid Park." Felix Andrew: director, cinematographer, editor. Dane La Chiusa: titles and original drawings. Joel Shelton, composer. Additional music: "Songs" by Ethan Rose, "Sangue de Bairro" by Chico Science e Nacao Zumbi. Made in 2006. Length: 27 minutes