Movies matter – that is the message of Reel to Real, bell hooks’ classic collection of essays on film. They matter on a personal level, providing us with unforgettable moments, even life-changing experiences and they can confront us, too, with the most profound social issues of race, sex and class. Here bell hooks – one of America’s most celebrated and thrilling cultural critics – talks back to films that have moved and provoked her, from Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction to the work of Spike Lee. Including also her conversations with master filmmakers such as Charles Burnett and Julie Dash, Reel to Real is a must read for anyone who believes that movies are worth arguing about.

All too often, highly fictionalized cinematic depictions of the past are accepted as the unassailable truth by those unfamiliar with the "real" account. This book profiles sixty movies that portray actual moments in history, and compares the mythologized account of each event to what really happened. Movies chronicled include The Ten Commandments, Spartacus, A Man for All Seasons, Gladiator, Gandhi, Apollo 13, The Thin Red Line, Dances with Wolves, Braveheart, The Last Emperor, All the Presidents Men, Mutiny on the Bounty, Gone with the Wind, Bonnie & Clyde, Patton, and Elizabeth. Sanello also contrasts several historical figures with their filmed treatments, including Julius Caesar, Henry V, Christopher Columbus, Joan of Arc, Sir Thomas More, Jesus Christ, Catherine the Great, Sigmund Freud, and Harry Houdini. Lavishly illustrated with sixty film stills, Reel v. Real shows how a happening's genuine details are frequently reshaped and distorted by Hollywood's bottomless appetite for over-the-top flamboyance and melodrama.

Real trials and courtroom movies are made for each other. Lawyers are storytellers, courtrooms are theaters, and the trial process provides drama, surprise, suspense or comedy. This book will serve as a video guide to help you identify the courtroom movies you'd like to see. It ranks each of the films on a one- to four- gavel system, with four gavels for the classics. And it answers the questions you'll be asking as you see the films. Where does truth end and trickery begin? Can lawyers really pull rabbits out of hats with unexpected courtroom stunts? Did the trial process reveal the truth-or conceal it? How well do reel trials reflect real events? These are just some of the topics you'll encounter as the authors analyze over 200 courtroom movies, including such classics as To Kill a Mockingbird, My Cousin Vinny, 12 Angry Men, and The Trial of the Chicago 7. An index at the back of the book lists all of the films reviewed in the book. The book celebrates the courtroom genre that has intrigued viewers around the world. The authors will entertain and educate you on a fascinating journey through nine decades of reel law, lawyers and justice.

Americans have had a long-standing love affair with the wilderness. As cities grew and frontiers disappeared, film emerged to feed an insatiable curiosity about wildlife. The camera promised to bring us into contact with the animal world, undetected and unarmed. Yet the camera's penetration of this world has inevitably brought human artifice and technology into the picture as well. In the first major analysis of American nature films in the twentieth century, Gregg Mitman shows how our cultural values, scientific needs, and new technologies produced the images that have shaped our contemporary view of wildlife. Like the museum and the zoo, the nature film sought to recreate the experience of unspoiled nature while appealing to a popular audience, through a blend of scientific research and commercial promotion, education and entertainment, authenticity and artifice. Travelogue-expedition films, like Teddy Roosevelt's African safari, catered to upper- and middle-class patrons who were intrigued by the exotic and entertained by the thrill of big-game hunting and collecting. The proliferation of nature movies and television shows in the 1950s, such as Disney's True-Life Adventures and Marlin Perkins's Wild Kingdom, made nature familiar and accessible to America's baby-boom generation, fostering the environmental activism of the latter part of the twentieth century. Reel Nature reveals the shifting conventions of nature films and their enormous impact on our perceptions of, and politics about, the environment. Whether crafted to elicit thrills or to educate audiences about the real-life drama of threatened wildlife, nature films then and now reveal much about the yearnings of Americans to be both close to nature and yet distinctly apart.

REEL LIFE - REAL LIFE is a video guide with a difference. Whether you are looking for a movie that will help you probe the mysteries of love & sex, appreciate the demands & rewards of striving for personal fulfillment or face the challenges of serious illness, you will find guidance in these pages. The four authors, life-long film buffs, have pooled their professional experience in social work, education, & journalism to prepare more than 700 penetrating reviews of feature films. Including classics of the early cinema & the latest video releases, these movies provide valuable insights into 17 major life issues & situations, from aging to substance abuse. Other chapters include Family, Marriage & Divorce, Homosexuality, Friendship, Coming of Age, Prejudice, Violence & Rape, Feisty Women, Single Life, Taking a Stand, Mental Illness & War. The authors also offer their personal selection of "popcorn" movies - movies that promise pure entertainment for those moments when everyone longs to be transported by laughter, fantasy or adventure. Call Mary Ann Horenstein at 800-900-REEL for information or send a check for $12.95 plus $2.50 mailing costs to Fourth Write Press, P.O. Box 156, Kendall Park, NJ 08824-0156. Quantity discounts available.

Teenagers spend more time watching movies than they do in any other recreational activity. With this popular resource, youth leaders can present the foundations of Christian faith through a medium and teaching tool that teenagers know and love--the movies. Reel to Real: Making the Most of Movies with Youth uses the most popular and meaningful movies for youth as the basis for religious education. Every issue of Reel to Real offers: - Video Viewing charts that specify the recommended film clips and their location - The Fine Print, which details the legal, copyright, and licensing issues of using films in educational settings - A full-blown retreat based on the movies - The photocopiable Student Movie Pass, a parental consent form that can be customized to fit the specific needs of every youth group - Pause, a leader devotion section, which can easily be adapted for a movie-based session or youth devotion - and much more! Volume 2 Number 2 features Titanic, The Rainmaker, Places in the Heart, Sleepy Movie Sleepover: Sleepless in Seattle, While You Were Sleeping, and Sleeping Beauty; Sports Movie Marathon: Hoosiers, Rocky, and Rudy.

Martin Sohn-Rethel brings a lifetime of teaching film and media to bear on developing a new approach to analyzing the "realism" of the moving image