they both went to film school.et when the filmmakers of this generation graduated they had no plans to work for the studios. in fact, if hollywood was on their minds at all, it was as an example of what to do differently. the first feature of a filmmaker from usc named george lucas had a title that read like a license plate, "thx 1138." a film with striking imagery, it perplexed studio executives. he later made "star wars." the first feature of a filmmaker from nyu named martin scorsese was picked up by an independent who changed its title and put it in local theatres. it didn't last long. he later made "goodfellas." steven spielberg, francis ford coppola, brian depalma. though their early work was not mainstream hollywood, their later work would ultimately represent what hollywood did best, with works like "e.t.," "the godfather," and "the untouchables," blockbusters. we are going to look at a band of filmmakers who thought they could change the world, and they did. "the film school generation." (whizzing of rocke

they both went to film school.et when the filmmakers of this generation graduated they had no plans to work for the studios. in fact, if hollywood was on their minds at all, it w as an example of what to do differently. the first feature of a filmmaker frousc named george lucas had a title that read like a license plate, "thx 1138." a film with striking imagery, it perplexed studiexecutes. he later made "star wars." the first feature of a filmmaker from nyu named martin scorsese was picked up by an independent who changed its title and put it in local theatres. named martin scorsese wasit didn't st long.ndependent he later made "goodfellas." steven spielberg, francis ford coppola, brian depalma. though their early work was not mainstream hollywood, their later work would ultimately represent what hollywood did bes with works like "e.t.," "the godfather," and "the untouchables," blockbusters. we are going to look at a band of filakers who thought they could change the world, anthey did. "the film scho generation." (

i started to film that. and as i was filming that, all of a sudden this array of lights started to form this arch that you see in the videotape. it was an exciting thing, because i've never seen anything like it before. it was very bright. it looked like it was very close. i got pretty excited about it. i called my wife. >> hey, sue! >> well, that is a totally different configuration than we've seen before. >> dr. lynn keti also sees the lights and takes this video. >> i was excited to get out there and grab my camera. by the time i got the camera focused, the six had changed to three. like the end points of a triangle. it was unbelievable. it was exciting. here i'd been documenting these things for two years then i learned thousands of people saw what i'd been seeing. >> is this a ufo sighting with photographic evidence from multiple sources? paul scohan at arizona state university has a less extraordinary explanation. >> here in the desert southwest we have a lot of military bases and rocket launches, and

and he said to me, "why do you make amateur films, as opposed to professional films?"nd i asked him, "what is the difference between amateur and professional film?" he said, "a professional film costs at least $5 million." so i still have not yet made a professional film. another part of his filmmaking which i think is important and different from hollywood is that he's always developing and writing a character with a specific actor in mind. jim had wanted to make a film with tom waits and john lurie trapped together in a confined space. and then when he met roberto, he said, "well, i'm going to take a character like roberto and put that into the same space with them." and roberto played bob much like roberto benini. not you, shorty, it ain't your turn. come on, let's go. but i don't go for 4 days, it's my turn. jim jarmusch might have needed to turn to other money sources, if he hadn't been so embraced from "stranger than paradise" by the world film community. the fact that "stranger," "down by law" and movies since were big hits in countries all over the world, and c

and he said to me, "why do you make amateur films, as opposed to professional films?"nd i asked him, "what is the difference between amateur and professional film?" he said, "a professional film costs at least $5 million." so i still have not yet made a professional film. another part of his filmmaking which i think is important and different from hollywood is that he's always developing and writing a character with a specific actor in mind. jim had wanted to make a film with tom waits and john lurie trapped together in a confined space. and then when he met roberto, he said, "well, i'm going to take a character like roberto and put that into the same space with them." and roberto played bob much like roberto benini. not you, shorty, it ain't your turn. come on, let's go. but i don't go for 4 days, it's my turn. jim jarmusch might have needed to turn to other money sources, if he hadn't been so embraced from "stranger than paradise" by the world film community. the fact that "stranger," "down by law" and movies since were big hits in countries all over the world, and c

as a documentary or a film. it very much grew from my own experiences of having been bullied as a kid and feeling like or taking the memory of how hard it was to communicate what was happening, to find agreement or adults or even to get my parents to advocate on my behalf and feeling that if i could tie my own experience to what perhaps happens around the country that there was something very powerful there and that there was also a collective need for this film. so that was really the beginning of it was how do we do this? what would make it meaningful. and in many ways we were really sometimes i think the streepgt of the film has much less to do with me as a film maker but with the intense and deep philosophy that the stories carry and that all the stories really of kids that are being bullied and families that are struggling, they all have that philosophy. so i think by just turning the lens and giving voice it those kids gave the film its heart. >> and its power. he told me he saw me tweeting -- i have to tw

no hip, no film. and he has worked tirelessly behind the scenes for way too longnd deserves the lion's share of the credit that comes to this film. and so i feel as i speak to you this afternoon the absence like amputated limbs that tickle an itch long after they're gone, my daughter and son-in-law deserve to be here. deserve to share this podium. serve to receive whatever credit you might extend to the film. and if there's anything you don't like, it's all my fault. [laughter] also missing are five extraordinary individuals. anton mccray, kevin richardson, yusef salaam, raymond santana and cory wise. they are the central park five. if you were a member of the central park five in 1989, you were among the worst human beings on earth. today, that is quite different. and to be counted among the central park five is to be counted among a band of brothers who i think represent in some ways the best of us, that represent a kind of heroic forbearance in the face of unbelievable odds, who exhibit startling l

spike lee, all of his films, his early films. errol morris, the documentary film maker. ang lee.an go down a whole list. myself included. he got behind our films and was an enthusiastic critic. when you say the word critic, it implies that criticism is negative. well, the criticism can also be very positive and encouraging and supportive, and that's who he was to film makers like myself and these other film makers. >> first of all, my deep condolences at the loss of your great friend. you knew roger for over 30 years. it was your idea to put him together with siskel. how should we remember roger? how would he like to be remembered? >> i think that roger would like to be remembered as a real communicator about the power of movies to give people really insights into themselves. he loved to talk about the way a movie could take and catch you up, put you up on the screen, introduce you to lives, to characters, to ideas that you never would have experienced in any other way, and that really, the whole idea of a movie, watching a movie, being a personally enriching experience, i think

having seen the film, there's never a moment in the film when we do not return again and again to her extraordinary recovery and progress and understand that was the primary victim. there was a total of six. >> there is so much more i want to know. what happened in prison? what are the central park five doing now? are any of the police remorseful? >> as the film said, the police investigated after the district attorney had been investigated and moved to vacate the convictions and a judge agreed. the police investigated. revinvestigating thmemselves, they found they did nothing w rong. as a new york times columnist pointed out in the film, they had gotten the wrong guys and had let the real guy continue to rape and murder subsequent to that. there has been no remorse expressed. it has been the exact opposite, a sort of contempt for the five and the extraordinary deliverance from this hell. >> what about the five now? where are they now? >> they are a remarkable group of human beings. i hope i could communicate that in my remarks. they all suffer, as many other family members do, from s

he trained people in the film. he received an advocacy fellowship and named a public interest fellow by harvard law school. next we have maurice call well. he was convicted in the housing project here in san francisco. there was no physical evidence linking him to the crime yet he was still convicted based on the false testimony of a single neighbor. he was sentence to life behind bars. in prison mr. colwell contacted the center for help and located two witnesses who saw the murder and said mr. colwell was not involved in anyway. they located the real killer who confessed and he committed the murder. that man is serving a life sentence for a subsequent murder . on march 28, 2011 after more than 20 years in prison, maurice colwell is free. thank you for being here. [ applause ] linda star is the legal and cofounding in the santa clara law, law center clerk received her ph.d.. she wrote and argued post conviction matters in state and federal court and supervisor in the sex crimes unit. she worked as a staff attorney

let's take a look... . >> it seems to be an indy film. you say you are here to save the indy film. it looks slick to me. >> it comes from such a unique space. that is 15 years of collaboration between those actors and that director. it is made outside a studio system. and you look at it and recognize that only one filmmaker could have made it. that is really the core. ultimately i think it aims for expression first over commerce. >> okay. let's take a look at this movie about a marriage falling apart and seen through the eyes of a little girl. >> you got it. >> okay. "what made menu"... -- me new... . >> okay. that is julianne moore. you see a lot more established actors showing up in independent films, yes? >> yes. they get the meety roles in these types of movies, and they don't have to wear glamorous costume, they get to be true people. >> and the money is always a factor because it is expensive. you have a program called film maker 360, one of your preed successors started this. >> yes. >> it gives upstart up money to new filmmakers. they don't have to be 20 something but they

>> um, i do a lot of film. i'm a film maker as well as an anthropologist, so right now we've been focusing on a lot of graduate courses that are getting the students to understand that film can be a medium for scholarship not just for public intellectualism. so often academics think, well, we write these books, and the other people who read them are other scholars, right? so 15 other people. but if we make a film, everyone will see this project. and, of course, that's an incredibly important incentive for going to that medium. but the other things students are interested in is the idea it might actually allow you if you're thinking about the world and using film to tell some kind of story based on your research question, it might allow you to say different things about the world. and it could be a good medium, a good vehicle for actually producing scholarship for your colleagues, not just for an outside audience. trying to figure out what would it mean to say do visual dissertations or to write, to think about

in you don't see that much films, whether they are made by black filmmakers or white film makers. tavis: when i first saw the screenplay before i saw the film, i was concerned whether or rachel andry of jackie might slow down the story or in some way get in the way of the larger story about what he was up against, the politics, the era, etc. i went to see the movie and a few hours later i was processing what i had seen. and had to solely -- teles let myself and just recant and back up. what made it work is that i had seen something on the screen which was the love story, which was such a part of how he overcame to respect the jackie robinson story is a much broader story than is contained in the limits of the period of time "42"focuses on. he was an extraordinary athlete. he was a very successful student at ucla. he served his country in the war. not in the war, but in the army. he was court-martialed by the army, which we did bring up in the film. he went on after his baseball career to be very important and instrumental in the civil rights movement. all the way up through 1955-

at the tribeca film festival. is about the fight of his life -- you might think it is heavyweight boxing, but it was actually his challenge to the war in vietnam as a muslim man. stay with us. ♪ [music break] >> this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. >> we end today with a new look at the boxing legend muhammad ali. he is considered the greatest boxer in the history of sports. in his prime, he was an outspoken advocate of the black muslim movement and critic of the vietnam war. when he refused to be drafted and he filed as a conscientious objector, sentenced to prison and stripped of his heavyweight title. he appealed his case all the way to the supreme court and did not go to prison, but was forced to wait four years before regained his boxing license. in a broadcast exclusive, we bring you excerpts from a new documentary that examines the struggle ali faced in his conversion to islam, his refusal to fight, and years of exile that followed before

film. he did the transformers films. i think the actors are very good in the movie. the direction not so much. > >coming up this summer disney is hoping for some smash hits. here's a list of what to expect from disney this summer...which will be the biggest hit of all eric? > > i think it's gonna be "the lone ranger" suprisingly enough. this film was plagued with pre-production problems but once the film got started everything was pretty smooth sailing and this the team that did "pirates of the caribbean" --johhny depp, gore verbinski, and jerry bruckheimer. i think the iconic appeal of it, the july 4th holiday. i think it's gonna cruise through july and be number one for a good portion of that month so i think it's gonna be the big hit of the summer. > >"ironman 3" is right around the corner. > >yeah. we'll be talking more about it next week. it's going to kick off the summer obviously and we're gonna see if it's going to get "the avengers" bump from last year. its coming off of that more

so it is going to be curious to see how this film opens. - film studios are already gearing up for what they hope will be summer blockbuster hits. what do you see coming out of cinemacon that is going on in vegas? - this is the annual event that happens in vegas where studios get together and they sort of present their entire lineup to theater owners and say, "this is what we've got coming out. we have brad pitt, and here is brad pitt for you." so i think, obviously they have a lot of hope this summer, and over the next few weeks we will sort of look and see, break down sort of by studio what they have to look forward to, and hopefully maybe warner bros. can get out of their rut. is universal going to continue their streak with "mama," "identity thief" and now "oblivion?" we will see what they have coming up, too. so there are a lot of things to talk about over the next few weeks. - other than "hangover 3." - yes. though it'll make money, but it will probably be horrible. - thanks a lot, erik. have a good weekend. - thank you. coming up, investors are becoming 'very nervous' about apple

and what do you see for film and how do people learn more about it. >> the film will be on hbo in july in the summer series which is great because they do a lot of marketing. we are selecting the open night. which is a thousand seat audience. it is the premier selection. it's at the film festival as it went to sundance and they voted it and it's a film we would like to bring home. we are doing as many film festivals as we can. we won the audience award and jury award in miami and doing as many speaking and community talk back events. the film i hope will become a gathering point for people to use and say this is what's happening in our jurisdiction. this shows the experience of just a few lawyers. there are many people struggling to do a great job across the country. >> what's your website? >> we'll be taking questions. now let's move to john rapping who is one of the individuals featured in the film. john, i remember when you first talked about starting a training center for public defenders, no one took you seriously. so what happened? you created it and you have been successfully tr

i was -- in the filming. i was laughing so hard when the coach from the pittsburgh team is calling you nigger over and over again. he was so hilarious to me that they were doing everything they could to try to throw you off your game and i was there and a couple of other african- americans and we were laughing. and the white folk were, like, that's not funny. it wasn't funny. but if you are black, you process it in a different way. these white folks are doing everything they can to throw him off his game. so i had to control myself. i did not want to laugh out loud. i read later on where it was kind of humorous for you, too, while you were filming it. is that true? >> i am glad you asked the question. a lot of times, when people ask you, they want you to say a certain thing. they want you to say that those words have control over you. reading it and hearing it, hearing him do it, alex is a funny guy. most of the stuff he does is funny. he is cast in a role that is not typical for him. so when i first started

>> it is a really honest film and a film that has so much heart and so much soul.is one of those special willing films that breaks through and i am so grateful to the audience for finding it. it just takes me back to the la bam ba days and how a little film goes out and just roars. >> it also features three generations of latino artists. tell me about the significance of that. >> it is true. you got me and eddie, thank goodness a movie like stand and deliver is in the nation registry of film, iconic, classic. between myself and eddie, we have between the two of us three of the highest grossing latino films of all time, so it is nice to see at phil is the amazing gina rodriguez in the title role. >> what do you hope that viewers take away from this film? >> it started out as something that potential will i could have been a niche film, that spoke to the latino community and only the latino community. it is a story that crosses over. this is a story of hope and a story of finding yourself and about finding your place in the world and in seizing your piece of the amer

-- film critic?> well, a certain amount of wisdom and he has to be anchored in real life. and that was roger. he would, for example, talk very eloquently about how to raise children, that boys should dig a hole in the ground. he was blessed with chaz his wife and what wonderful he talked about her and pie condolences, of course, to her. shissuering theiggt of all losses. and we would talk we motions and how emotions inform our lives and also strange enough, we had a lot of discourse about emotions in cinema. how does it work. and how does the audience develop a separate story, different parallel story, for example, in a romantic comedy. we do anticipate, for example, the yng lovers who had been separated by lots of obstacles. we race ahead in our emotions as an audience and we wish and hope they will be reunited at the end. and there will be a happy end. so there is a separate emotional story within an audience which is not all the time coinciding with the flow of the film itself, the story itself. s

building and film those interactions and those conversations. but they did it because they wanted to do better. but when we first did the screening, someone that had been an administrator for many many years basically said, listen, if we're going to be honest in unpacking this movie, then we have to recognize and i'll be the first one to say it, that i have made those mistakes. i have rushed to judge. i have gotten it wrong in exactly that same way many times in my career. then suddenly the conversation started to flow and not only did people connect to how they missed those moments and that they don't, that they felt they didn't have the training to catch those moments or really do that inner reflection, but then they started sharing their stories of being bullied in their life and why they got into education and suddenly everyone was crying. it's a really amazing moment. so i think those moments are really important. the other thing you asked about with the parent when sunset is referring to alex's dad. >> they are referring to his mom and dad

we found who she is and by yesterday, before that film even started screening r

first i wanted to talk to him as a director whose based real known films, on film maker's responsibilityspecially in the confines of hollywood whose main purpose is to make things up. >> i want to talk about movies, truth and the responsibilities of the artist with history because it's a topic much on my mind this year. stone's biographer once wrote of stone's approach to story telling as, quote, stone sees the mission as communicating the spiritual truth of the story. he may even slightly distort the factual truth sometimes for the good of the goal. because of these attitudes he has never understood why people get offended when he tells what he believes is the truth. great to have you here. thank you for getting up early on a saturday morning. >> thank you. it's a challenge. >> i've been really interested in this debate we seem to be having this year because of the crop of academy award films, three of which are so heavily focused in either specific historical periods, specific historical actors or specific historical record, specifically "zero dark thirty". >> i heard you the other day

some of you know that we started this summit yesterday with a screening of the documentary film, bully, to 3,000 students in san francisco from san francisco's public schools. the superintendent of schools you're going to hear from in a minute, he was there, i know ter theresa sparks was there, i was so proud of san francisco in being there because the superintendent, he's, you can tell he's a teacher because he took control of that room. there was a thousand people in that room, he had them all raise their hands to quiet them down, it was beautiful. you could see the teacher in him. but i was so proud of being in san francisco because the kids -- kids are kids -- they were warned, you need to be respectful, you need to be respectful of the children that are being depicted in this film, please don't laugh at inappropriate moments, that kind of thing, and the kids were great. the kids were silent and crying when things were really tough and when things were going well for the kids depicted in the film they were cheering. it was a really, really wonderful moment. it was a wonderful way t

the film does not look very good. but the scary movie franchise has done quite well for weinstein and dimension. the last two opened over 40 million dollars. i think this one will be number 1 this weekend. > > i'd like to get your take on a blurb that showed up on the la times talking about wealthy people who are able to screen first run films. what you're seeing in the theater, they're seeing at home in their comfy chairs. > >if you got it flaunt it i guess. if you have a screening room, it's pretty much something like out of 'queen of versailles' the documentary from last year. iwant a screening room in my home but if you're paying $500-600 for a first run movie, that's just stupid. > > do you think it will be a trend that catches on? > >no. not at all. [laugh who wants to pay $500 to see admission in their home? i > >you never know when you're flush with cash. coming up this weekend you have your film festival but that's taking on a bit of a somber tone. > >we're very proud of this festival we have this weekend. ti

this is an ambitious, ambitious film. you wrote midnight's children, an incredible novel. had you always, when you wrote it, did you think to yourself, oh this would be a nice movie. >> no, you know what, back then i was just a kid. nobody knew who i wasment i was just grateful to get published. and for a few people who were not related to me to buy copies of it. the idea that it would turn into this huge thing, you know, big best-seller, et cetera, et cetera, winning prizes and eventually-- it took 30 years to make the film. >> jon: that is about right, hollywood year, 30 years. now you went-- when they came to you, did someone come to you and say we would like to take this film, and we would -- and for those of you who don't know the story it is a boy in a boat with a tiger and-- do i have this right? >> no, that's another one. >> jon: that say different one. anyway he wins a game show worth a million dollars-- (laughter) and -- >> that is also not right. >> jon: you know, i am afraid i will have to look at my notes. >> would you like me to help you out. >> jon: please t

he and powell jobs screened the film for congress. it is called "the dream is now." >> i'm undocumented. >> i'm undocumented. >> i'm undocumented, unafraid and unashamed. >> there is movement on both sides. there is enough acknowledgment that this is a time when we can get serious legislation passed. so that's why we are willing to raise our voices to pledge so much time and passion and energy towards helping in any way we can to get this done. >> do you care how they come to it?