Category Archives: Cinema production

Movies Inspiring Kindness

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movie-heart

 

“There’s always room for a story that can transport people to another place.”  ― J.K. Rowling

 

Happy Film Friday, everybody! In keeping with this weeks theme of kindness on All Things Fulfilling, we will be shedding the spotlight on films with heart. Some of these movies are lesser known and you can read a short synopsis of each of them through an article listed at the end of this writing.

 

How many of these movies have you seen in your lifetime?

  • The Butter Cream Gang
  • The Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story
  • Friendships Field
  • Good Morning Miss Dove
  • Because of Winn-Dixie
  • Dear God
  • The Miracle of the Cards

This is a partial list, to see a description of each one and the full list of movies and TV shows that inspire kindness, please visit the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation website.

See you back here on Monday on All Things Fulfilling.

Film of Redemption and Hope

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“He conquers who endures.” – Persius

I remember the day in August, 2010 when I was glued to the television as I watched a compelling news story unfold. A group of  33 workers in Chile were trapped due to a mine blast. These miners put their lives in danger every single day all for the sake of bringing gold and copper out from underground into the marketplace. I watched with rapt attention as experts in the field worked around the clock to save their lives.

The 33There is now a movie based on this story called The 33. It was released in theatres on November 13. Many of the details that could not be covered in short news clips I am sure are in the cinema release. What I had forgotten until I read the review of this movie is that the men were trapped underground for 69 days. Imagine that!

The moral of this survival-against-all-odds story is to never give up. This is a good movie for families, however, I would warn against young children watching this movie. It may be too unsettling and disturbing.

To watch a movie trailer or to read reviews and more about this movie, please visit this website.

 

Have a good weekend everyone! See you on All Things Fulfilling on Monday.

This blog is brought to you by Sue Batton Leonard, the author of the EVVY award-winning book, Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected and Lessons of Heart & Soul.

 

Movies Adapted from Memoirs

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Movie-making is telling a story with the best technology at your disposal. ~ Tom Hanks

On this Film Friday, we will be looking at some of the best movies that have been adapted from memoirs.

According to an article written by Emily Temple on Flavorwire.com, it’s a delicate thing turning a memoir into a successful movie. Since film is another form of storytelling, you’d think it’d be easy but something is often lost in the translation when you move away from the first person prose of a narrative to a third person medium.

The following movies are some of the best memoir to movie adaptations. If you feel like watching a movie this weekend, perhaps watching a few of these films will give you a little insight into what a good memoir to movie adaptation looks like:

  • My Week with Marilyn
  • Motorcycle Diaries
  • The Pianist
  • Persepolis
  • The Diving Bell and Butterfly
  • October Sky
  • 127 Hours
  • An Education
  • The Boys Life
  • A Mighty Heart

To see a short summary of each of these movies, follow this link to Flavorwire.com.

outdoors movies

Have a great weekend and see you on Monday. Next week on All Things Fulfilling we will be celebrating life, independence and summer. Join us!

This blog is brought to you by award-winning memoirist, Sue Batton Leonard. Click here for information on her publications.

Film Friday: Katzenberg on Movies

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Some time ago on All Things Fulfilling, I wrote about the power of movies as art to heal. Today we will be focusing on changes in the filmmaking industry which may make movie going easier as our population ages.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, the Dreamworks Animation Chief gave a talk about a year ago at the Beverly Hills’ Milken Global Conference on the Entrepreneurial Leadership in the Corporate World panel. He spoke of his opinions of how the movie industry is going to change in coming years. With the ability of “the cloud” being able to hold a vast amount of content, the window for seeing movies at the theatre will become three weeks. The period of time when receipts are highest for even the biggest blockbuster.

At-the-Movies_Sanctuary-GraphicWhat does all this mean? If you wish to see movies in the big screen, don’t delay. Their runs in the theatre will be much shorter. After that if you want to see a movie, you can pay to watch it on your computer, i-phone or in your home theatre. Depending on the size platform you are using to view the movie, the prices will vary. The larger your screen the higher the price. Interesting concept, and these changes have already begun to take place. Read the full article, it is interesting.

That is the latest development in the world of film and e-commerce has it’s advantages for seniors. If it is not possible to go to the movies there are now a variety of ways of to watch the latest films in the comfort of a living room. That’s all for this Film Friday.

On Sunday I will be posting a story on All Things Fulfilling as a tribute to my dad in honor of Fathers Day. See you then!

This blog is brought to you by the award-winning author, Sue Batton Leonard.

 

 

Film Friday: Paper Towns

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Coming this Summer! Paper Towns

Paper TownsJohn Green’s novel Paper Towns ended up #5 on the New York Times Best Selling Books List and now this part mystery/part coming of age story will be coming to the big screen.

The story is about a young teenage boy who moves next door to a girl who he finds confusing and perplexing. When she disappears she leaves behind clues to her where-abouts. Quentin, her neighbor, and his friends are sent on chase to find her. Will  finding her end up in some kind of a life altering event?

The story is written by the author of No Fault in the Stars and the cast of the movie includes Nat Wolff (Quentin), Cara Delevingne (Margo), Halston Sage (Lacey). “Paper Towns debuted at #5 on the New York Times bestseller list and won the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Mystery.

To read more about this movie which could be this summer’s blockbuster.

See you back here on All Things Fulfilling on Monday.  Have a great weekend.

This blog is brought to you by award-winning author Sue Batton Leonard.

Gods, Generals and Irish Ballad

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May the sound of happy music, And the lilt of Irish laughter, fill your heart with gladness, that stays forever after. ~ Unknown

Happy St. Patty’s Day. Today’s blog is about an Irish ballad called Kathleen Mavourneen. The composer of the song is someone who I hold near and to my heart, even though I am several generations removed from him. I only know him through my father’s side of our family story.

A rendition of  Kathleen Mavourneen was filmed as part of the movie Gods & Generals but unfortunately it got cut in the editing process. The story take place during the Civil War era and it was filmed in many different places in the region where I grew up. Scenery from throughout the mid-Atlantic States of Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and at the site of the battle of  Antietam are in the movie. The film is based on the book by Jeffrey Shaara.

If you wish to learn more about my ancestor’s connection to the ballad Kathleen Mavourneen check out Gift of a Lifetime: Finding Fulfilling Things in the Unexpected. You can read all about it in Chapter 16, My Beloved.

Have a great St. Patricks Day, everyone! And remember to go out and ~

make your own luck!

This blog is brought to you by award-winning author Sue Batton Leonard.

 

Film Friday: Movies of the 1960s

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“Nostalgia is a file that removes the rough edges from the good old days.” ~ Doug Larson

If you remember shows like Mickey Mouse, Bozo the Clown, Captain Kangaroo, Ozzie & Harriet and Leave it to Beaver you are probably among the first generation of American children to be raised by television.

old movie projector from 1950s. jpg

You’ll also remember what it was like watching a movie back in the 1950s and 1960s. Just setting up the film screen and the projector in the living room was a big production. Then there were the challenges of the film getting messed up in the projector when it malfunctioned – piles of film, knotted and tangled on the floor.

It was a different experience than in today’s world of digital filmmaking, where watching a movie entails the ease of slipping a disc into a DVD player which projects a movie through a computer or television screen.  Convenient and hassle-free!

 

If you are a baby boomer, you can relate to some of my favorite movies from the 1960s like:

  • Lilies of the Field
  • To Sir with Love

Oh how I loved Sidney Poitier in those two films.

Then there were my Disney Favorites from the same decade:

  • My Fair Lady
  • Mary Poppins
  • The Sound of Music

Let’s not forget some of the Westerns that the boys and men in the family liked such as:

  • The Guns of Navarone
  • How the West was Won

And the Jerry Lewis movies brought us such memorable characters and silliness that the scenes will be forever etched in our memories from films like:

  • The Nutty Professor
  • The Patsy

Mills-Hayley-Pollyanna_04

Remember Hayley Mills in Pollyanna? Oh, how I have the most heartwarming memories of my cousin, my twin sister and me seeing that movie together with our mothers at the Flynn Theatre in Burlington, Vermont when we were on vacation.

I love revisiting the old television and movies from the era of my childhood – the 1950s and 1960s. When was the last time you stepped back in time and reread a book from your past or watched an old favorite movie? It’s a blast! Movies from almost every era can be located through the Internet Movie Database http://www.imdb.com.

 

Have a great weekend and do return to All Things Fulfilling on Monday.

 

Gatsby Groupies

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 “Show me a hero, and I’ll write you a tragedy.” ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald

gatsbyI feel as if I am becoming a Gatsby groupie! Today I walked into the Bud Werner Library, and saw a display case announcing the next One Book Steamboat (a community read). It is The Great Gatsby. “I’m in,” I thought, as I proceeded to the DVDs and took out the 2000 production of The Great Gatsby movie by A & E Television Networks. Then I wandered over the computer and put in a reserve for a copy of the book by the same title.

I guess I haven’t had enough of the Fitzgeralds, the Jazz Age and the Long Island social elite even though last summer on my vacation, I took in the movie The Great Gatsby with my sister and I also hawked my mother’s copy of  Zelda and read it.

Truthfully, I was disappointed in the latest rendition of the movie, with Leonardo DiCaprio. The visual effects, I felt, were so over the top and frantic that it distracted me from being able to absorb the tragic tale of wealth and entitlement. The telling essence of Jay Gatsby’s character weaknesses were lost in the visual chaos of the movie, rather being told by the dialogue of the story.

The book Zelda, for me, provided much better insight into the psyche of an artist who “never wanted to give in or give up” despite failure and rejection. The narrative told an up-close and personal story of the relationship between wife and husband, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald and it gave historical perspective into their friendships with other contemporaries (filmmakers, writers and artists) from the era.

As a lead-up to the community discussion of the novel, on October 10th, the latest Leo Dicaprio version of “Gatsby” will be aired at the Bud Werner Library. I’ll probably skip it. But then again, perhaps with a second look I might have a different opinion. But I hope not to miss what will probably be a very fulfilling discussion on Monday, October 21st.  It will be led by the English teachers of SteamboatHigh School. I hope students are required to join in and read this classic novel.  For more information, please follow this link. http://www.steamboatlibrary.org/events/one-book-steamboat

Come on back tomorrow to All Things Fulfilling. This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

Film Friday: Teaching Emerging Filmmakers

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new day films “One of the privileges of being a filmmaker is the opportunity to remain a kind of perpetual student.”  – Edward Zwick

Are you an educator who teaches emerging young filmmakers? The other day I came across a film distribution company that may not be known to visitors who frequent All Things Fulfilling for news about independent filmmaking.

New Day Films is a filmmaker-run distribution company providing award-winning films to educators since 1971. This on-line site “delivers over 230 titles that illuminate, challenge and inspire.”  Many of the films can be digitally streamed directly from the website or delivered in DVD or VHS format.

willard van dykeSince the genre of documentary film is particularly interesting to me, I was drawn to a film called Conversations with Willard Van Dyke. http://www.newday.com/films/Conversations_with_WVD.html. In this film, Van Dyke discusses his belief that “films have the power of film to change the world.”  The man behind his films, Willard Van Dyke, “became synonymous with social documentary in the U.S.”

During his lifetime (1906 – 1986), Van Dyke painted portraitures of Americans, through the medium of film, who made their living through hard labor everyday such as steelworkers, cottonpickers and machinists. The Depression, he said, made an everlasting impression on him.Click for info & ordering Willard Van Dyke’s film

Van Dyke was director of the Department of Film at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) from 1965 to 1974. He also began the film department at the State University of New York in Purchase.  In 1978, he received the prestigious George Eastman Award, given by George Eastman House for distinguished contribution to the art of film. 

New Day Films distributes films on many social issue topics, among them:

  • Aging & Gerontology
  • Media, Art & Culture
  • Religion & Theology
  • African-American
  • Multi-Cultural
  • Children & Family issues
  • Sociology
  • Native American Studies

Film educators and film historians may find the perfect film they are looking for to use in the classroom on the website http://www.newday.com.  Check it out.

See you Monday. This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com.

Film Friday: Romance

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Love never gives up, never loses faith, always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance ~ from the Bible

This Film Friday I thought we would focus on romantic comedies.

Here are a list of twenty of the most popular romance movies from 2012. http://www.movie-moron.com/?p=20914. I am pondering over which one my husband and I might enjoy seeing tonight the most. Will it be The Vow,Click for Info & Ordering Perfect Sense Click here for Info & Ordering, The Lucky One Click Here for Info & Ordering or What to Expect When You Are Expecting Click here for info & ordering or shall it be something else?

Indeed, to survive a long term marriage, humor is important as well as devotion that just doesn’t quit, even if the other person in the relationship might be driving you crazy. And believe me, that happens in holy  matrimony.

Heart-shaped-waffles-490x329Today my husband & I celebrate our 33rd wedding anniversary. I ‘m going to share this very short video with my husband, as we sit down to eat our “Eggos” for breakfast. He hasn’t seen it. It’s called My Waffle Wedded Wife.  It’s a good way to start the morning! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3E9U3GDrmI

Do Return to All Things Fulfilling on Monday. This blog brought to you by www.CornerstoneFulfillmentService.com  The place where independent thoughts, words and views are all part of the business.