The Search Is Over

This week, we share another great film from Participant, and CNN Films, with Sundance standout RBG, which explores the personal journey of Supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. More personal adventures, a bit more extreme, with Mountain. And we close with a nod to the Cannes Film Festival, which is currently underway, as we highlight a personal portrait of filmmaker and artist, with David Lynch: The Art Life. Of course David won the Palme d’Or in Cannes 1990 with Wild at Heart.

This weekend, we celebrate Cinco de Mayo, so why not spotlight a few films that connect us to Mexican culture. We bookend the show with two films where themes of food and romance run wild, in Like Water for Chocolate and Tortilla Soup…with former Sundance standout, Quinceañera sandwiched in between.

This week, we highlight a few movies where show business is a recurring theme.  From celebrating the writing craft with Joan Didion, to personal stories affected by the Hollywood machine with Film Stars don’t die in Liverpool, and we conclude this week with new documentary bringing us another side of cinema – with Hitler’s Hollywood.

We also wanted to recognize, the 50th Anniversary of Mel Brooks’ The Producers, which kicked off the TCM Classic Film Festival at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood AND will have a limited theatrical run in theaters this June.

What some people don’t know, is Brooks originally wrote it as a play, entitled Springtime for Hitler. Fortunately, for us, a producer advised him to convert the play into a movie script, and change the title.

To see the trailers or get more info, visit us at Cause Cinema.

This week we’re happy to recognize Earth Day, coming up on April 22nd

Most of us believe in Climate change, and what better way to celebrate our planet than to engage through cinema. Today, we highlight 3 films anchored on this subject of the environment, along with some of the amazing wildlife being challenged by our climate crisis.

 Virunga, an extraordinary film sharing the biodiversity of the Congo and winner of 54 intl film awards – The Vanishing of Bees, an important movie released in 2009 that you may not have seen, and Origins, an interesting journey through our biological roots that raises concerns about how technology is choking our environment.

For more information on these films and the Eco Film Challenge that will launch on Earth Day (April 22), please visit us at Cause Cinema.

This week we explore one of life’s common questions…What if?

In life, we’re all faced with questions of trust, faith and the basic human condition. We all want to be happy, and we all have our own belief systems. But what if we learn something that shatters our truth? Or when we discover there are, in fact, solutions to problems we thought were beyond our reach? Or if long shots can payoff?

With these three movies, we get a get a fair sampling of such questions, along with some mind-altering answers.

Long Shot

A Time to Choose

Come Sunday

This week, we share 3 terrific movies, with very powerful themes. Important issues of humanity, the cost of war and conflict, on people and the environment, and the true power of love and connection. We experience a heroic Doctor in the Heart of Nuba, face some hard questions with The Age of Consequences and bittersweet magic of Life is Beautiful.

This week, we present 3 films with heroes who are met with extraordinary personal challenges. A teenage girl is bounced from one foster care to another in First Match.  A young boy with polio achieves phenomenal success in the documentary Itzhak; and we tip the hat to Easter Sunday with an old classic from 1959, that touches on the subject of Jesus with Ben Hur - winner of 11 Academy Awards including Best Picture!

SXSW is in full swing in Austin this week, so we decided bring you 3 of the more recent music docs.

Terrific movies that have played the fest circuit these past few years, now available on digital platforms. Gary Numan Android in LA LA land – which I saw at SXSW a couple years back. A Life in Waves, about music composer Suzanne Ciani, and finally Colin Hay: Waiting for My real life to begin.

For more information on these movies, or learn about other podcasts, visit Cause Cinema.

This week, we celebrated International Women’s day. As we can see, now more than ever, there are many calls to action with regard to supporting women.  Learn more here.

In this podcast, we honor 3 strong female personalities and talents. See Allred is the Netflix doc presenting Gloria Allred and her Voice for Change.  Followed by a music doc, Janis: Little Girl Blue, certainly one of the most talented and outspoken rockstars ever.

We close with Atomic Homefront, a terrific documentary from HBO, by Rebeca Cammisa. All she did was produce, direct and serve as director of photography.

To learn more about this film and how to take action, click here.

To learn more about Cause Cinema, and hear other podcast, click here.

The Academy Awards are this weekend so we thought it would be fun to have a look at a few Oscar misses, films we feel should have received a nomination.

We highlight two of the biggest docs ever, clearly deserving of this high honor, and one missing from this year’s list.

Jane (2017)

The Thin Blue Line (1988)

Hoop Dreams (1994)

For more information on Cause Cinema, or to hear other podcasts, click here.