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  Desire

  Julie Gustafson

  An independent filmmaker invites a diverse group of teenage girls from New Orleans to make autobiographical videos exploring their developing sexuality and identity. An unprecedented long-term collaboration, DESIRE weaves together the girls’ video work, the story of their changing lives, as well as the family, social and economic contexts in which their desires, opportunities, and choices are shaped. Distributed by Women Make Movies (www.wmm.com). Website: http://www.desiredocumentary.com/Home.html Continue reading →

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  Waiting for Beckett

  Global Village, John Reilly

  A unique television documentary on the life and work of the Nobel Prize-winning writer Samuel Beckett, which includes a rare scene with the playwright critiquing a video performance of one of his plays. There are three additional works in The Beckett Project series produced by Global Village: What Where (1988/10 minutes), a video version of Beckett’s last play overseen by the playwright himself, Peephole Art: Beckett for Television (1992/38 minutes) featuring definitive versions of Beckett’s recent works written or adapted for television, and Godot in San Quentin (1988/27 minutes), a fascinating version of Waiting For Godot, produced by inmates of this maximum-security prison. Continue reading →

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  Casting the First Stone

  Julie Gustafson

  Set against the background of the Supreme Court’s historic decisions on women’s reproductive rights, this documentary looks at the abortion controversy through the eyes of six women activists on both sides of the barricades in Paoli, PA. Continue reading →

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  The Trial of the Avco Plowshares

  Global Village, John Reilly, Julie Gustafson

  In July of 1983, seven Americans entered AVCO Systems Division, a manufacturing plant for MX and Pershing II missiles in Wilmington, Massachusetts, and damaged weapon parts to protest the buildup of nuclear arms. AVCO PLOWSHARES documents the ensuing trial, which includes dramatic testimony on the tradition of civil disobedience, and the question of a higher moral imperative, beyond the letter of the law. Expert witness and comments from Howard Zinn, Admiral Gene LaRocque, Daniel Berrigan, and George Wald. Continue reading →

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  The Pursuit of Happiness

  Global Village, John Reilly, Julie Gustafson

  A video exploration of the meaning of ‘the good life’ in the lives of six ordinary people whose paths intersect at a maximum security prison, including an anti-nuclear activist, the Warden and his wife, and two inmates — one African American, the other Hispanic — both ‘lifers’. Continue reading →

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  Home (Parts 1-3)

  Global Village, John Reilly, Julie Gustafson

  Through eloquent portrayals of four different life experiences—birth, aging, marriage, and the death of a parent—HOME explores the changing social dynamic of American families during the 20th century as many life events and roles begin to shift from homes to institutions. The tape opens with the birth of a baby, not in the sterile atmosphere of a hospital, but in a home-like clinic staffed by midwives. The second portrait focuses on a widow growing old in a nursing home, who is disappointed because her adult children have no time or room for her in their homes. The third celebrates the marriage of two divorcees that hope a traditional wedding will fortify their union. The final sequence portrays a young man who gives up his job to care for his terminally-ill mother in her home. He sums up a major theme of HOME: “she has never turned her back on anybody, so why should I?” Co-produced by the Television Laboratory of WNET and aired on public television in 1979. Critic Tom Shales of THE WASHINGTON POST said, “HOME has immediacy and impact possible with no other medium but television, and an inquisitive compassion that turns cold video images warm and real.” Originally shot in ¾” Color and B & W Video. Parts 1-3. Continue reading →

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  Joe Albert’s Fox Hunt and Other Stories from the Pine Barrens of New Jersey

  Global Village, John Reilly, Julie Gustafson

  In JOE ALBERT’S FOX HUNT, documentary team Julie Gustafson and John Reilly experiment with the short story form in a series of vignettes about the people and environmental issues facing the New Jersey Pine Barrens, the last remaining open wilderness between Washington, D.C. and New York City. Once considered a wasteland, the Pine Barrens have become a battleground of conflicting interests between developers, conservationists and longtime inhabitants. Colorful characters include the developer of Crestwood Village, a 6000 unit housing project aimed at urban dwellers seeking a piece of the American Dream; a small town mayor who believes in biblical stewardship of the pristine aquifer that underlies the area; and Joe Albert, a fox hunter and member of the “Pineconers,” a bluegrass group whose music descends from early English settlers. Albert laments, “I never thought it would go. I always thought it would be there. That’s what the Indians felt.” Completed in 1979 and aired in 1980 on public television stations in New York and New Jersey. Anne Wooster of the VILLAGE VOICE said, “Autobiography and politics intermingle in personal tales from the last wilderness in the Eastern Megalopolis…a complex and compelling orchestration of passions.” Continue reading →

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  Giving Birth

  Global Village, John Reilly, Julie Gustafson

  An examination of American birthing traditions focusing on four couples and four different types of childbirth: a standard hospital delivery with high technology and anesthesia, a Leboyer “birth without violence,” a Caesarean section, and a midwife-assisted natural childbirth using the Lamaze method. The first collaboration of husband and wife documentary team Julie Gustafson and John Reilly, GIVING BIRTH illustrates the joys and pains of childbirth in intimate, video vérité portraits. Through interviews with Frederick Leboyer, Elizabeth Bing and Margaret Mead, GIVING BIRTH contextualizes emerging ideas and techniques for birthing. As Mead says, “There are cases when childbirth is surgery, but there is no reason we should take a life process and treat it always like a disease.” One of the first video documentaries produced by WNET’s pioneering TV Laboratory, GIVING BIRTH aired nationally on public television in 1976 to critical acclaim. The Scripps Howard News Service said, “Splendid… absolutely candid…The medical, physical and spiritual points of view explored.” According to John Cashman of Newsday, “Men should see it…Women should see it…Explicit and absolutely real.” Originally shot in ¾” Color and B & W video. Continue reading →