After a vicious attack left him brain-damaged and broke, Mark Hogancamp seeks recovery in “Marwencol,” a 1/6th scale World War II-era town he created in his backyard. He populated it with military figurines and Barbie dolls representing World War II personages like Patton, as well as stand-ins for himself, his friends and his family. Finally, he dusted off an old camera and used it to capture staged events ranging from pitched battles between occupying German and American forces to cat-fights in the town bar. Jeremy Butler, film professor at UA says, “Tuscaloosa is lucky to get “Marwencol,” a unique and [...]
"Not My Son," a documentary by my colleagues Dwight Cammeron and Ginger Jolly from the University of Alabama Center for Public Television and Radio will be broadcast on Alabama Public Television several times during the month of November. The broadcast premiere of the award-winning documentary will be Tuesday, November 16th at 8:00 p.m. Encore presentations will be on Monday, November 22 at 10:00 p.m. and Tuesday, November 23 at 1:00 a.m. The one hour documentary follows Birmingham’s Carolyn Johnson-Turner and her Parents Against Violence group over the course of several months. According to Johnson-Turner, she will never recover from her [...]
One of my favorite documentary films from the past few years will be shown at the Bama Theatre in Tuscaloosa at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 12th. I had the pleasure of seeing “Darius Goes West” at the Oxford Film Festival several years ago. This film is great not because of its production techniques but because of its moving message. Darius Weems, who has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, travels across the country with eleven friends on a mission to get his wheelchair customized by MTV’s “Pimp My Ride.” Internet Movie Database Darius’ brother, who also had Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, died at [...]
My colleagues Dwight Cammeron and Ginger Jolly shared their new documentary, "Not My Son" with its first audience on Saturday, January 23rd at Woodland Park Church of Christ in Birmingham, Alabama. Over 800 people attended the standing room only event. Documentary participants from the Parents Against Violence Foundation were present to answer questions from the audience. Click on images to enlarge them. For more information, visit: http://www.cptr.org/notmyson
