(shameless self-promotion time!) New Interview with 20 Feet from Stardom director Morgan Neville

Unsung Heroes: 'Twenty Feet from Stardom' Hails the Singers behind the Hits
by Ron Deutsch
Documentary Magazine, Summer 2013

For nearly two decades, Morgan Neville has defined himself as one of the most prolific documentary producer/directors of American pop culture. Beginning with his 1995 film Shotgun Freeway, which imagined a history of Los Angeles through the eyes of its denizens like James Elroy and Buck Henry, Neville has explored the lives and work of such artists as Muddy Waters, Hank Williams, James Brown, James Taylor, Iggy Pop and a host of others. His latest film,Twenty Feet from Stardom, profiles the unsung songstresses of rock 'n' roll—the backup singers you've heard but not heard of.

"What I realized early on is that telling the unfamiliar story behind the familiar is something that has always been of interest to me," Neville maintains. "Even going back to Shotgun Freeway. It was a way of retelling LA history from a kind of microscopic point of view. Everybody has an idea of Hollywood or LA history, but let's find out what the invisible history is about it, so when you think about LA, you will think about it differently.

"That's certainly been happening with Twenty Feet from Stardom," Neville continues. "It changed how I hear music and hopefully it changes the way others will. I spent a couple of years while working on this with the radio on, suddenly hearing vocals in songs I've heard a thousand times and realizing just how they were constructed and how important those background vocals were. Being able to take a song and share it anew—I love that. It just adds so much more depth to things we take for granted."

more....

Here's an Article/Interview with me at a French Food/Movie site

A few months ago, I connected with a woman in France who writes about film and food, Claire Dixsaut. Claire has written several cookbooks (unfortunately, not available in English) pairing food and movies, including ones on James Bond movies, Mafia movies, and her new book on Chaplain films!


So Claire asked if she could interview me and that I should pick a handful of films, offer a food connection, and why I chose the film. She has translated what I wrote into French and it is now posted on her website, CineMiam. So, if you parlez francais, do check it out!

Mes films préférés: Ron Deutsch, “Chef du Cinéma”
10 Septembre 2012

CinéMiam inaugure aujourd’hui une série d’entretiens exclusifs. À des personnalités du cinéma, des chefs, des cinéphiles gastronomes, nous avons posé une seule question : quels sont vos films gourmands préférés ?

Notre première victime se nomme Ron Deutsch. Il anime depuis deux ans les cours de cuisine ”Chef du Cinéma” où les apprentis cuisiniers planchent sur un menu inspiré d’un film. En ce moment, par exemple, si l’on réside du côté d’Austin (Texas), on peut s’inscrire pour un menu roumain tiré de Frankenstein Junior....

en savoir plus....

(shameless self-promotion time again).... Two New Interviews @ Documentary Magazine

Yes, I've been busy....

Here we have two new articles over at Documentary magazine.

First up, is my interview with Keanu Reeves & Chris Kenneally about Side by Side, a documentary about "the end of film," they made.


Next is my interview with Mads Brugger, the director/star of The Ambassador.


Enjoy!

(shameless self-promotion time again....) National Geographic World Music

Here's links to these articles/interviews I just did on assignment for National Geographic while up here in Montreal.



The first is just an overview of the Festival International de Jazz de Montreal, followed by a series of interviews with some of the world music artists that played there.

Algerian singer/songwriter Souad Massi;
Venezuelan group Los Amigos Invisibles;
Sidi Touré from Mali;
and the lovely Lila Downs.

Enjoy....

For the Love of Film: The Film Preservation Blogathon III

What is this?

I am proud to take part in this year's For the Love of Film: The Film Preservation Blogathon. What that means is they=we=you are gonna be raising funds for the National Film Preservation Foundation's (NFPF) project, The White Shadow this week.

The White Shadow is a 1923 film "officially" directed by Graham Cutts but was the first film to be written and assistant-directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Long considered lost, the first three reels were discovered in a collection of unidentified American nitrate prints that had been safeguarded at a New Zealand archive since 1989. You can read more about the discovery of the film here.

From Ferdy on Film: "The good people at NFPF are committed to making many of the films they have rescued available for cost-free viewing by streaming them on their website. But online hosting ain’t cheap. NFPF estimates that it will cost $15,000 to stream The White Shadow for four months and record the score. It is the mission of this year’s For the Love of Film Blogathon to raise that money so that anyone with access to a computer can watch this amazing early film that offered Hitchcock a chance to learn his craft, with a score that does it justice."

The goal, as mentioned, is to raise $15,000 to stream this three-reel fragment online, free to all... and to record the score by composer Michael Mortilla.

Just click the image above and you can donate. Thanks!

Now.... As part of the Blogathon, all the participants (over 100 film blogs!) are offering posts on Sir Alfred. So, if you CLICK HERE, you'll be offered a choice of not one, but THREE! Hitchcock posts I've done (The Lady Vanishes, North by Northwest & The Birds), each with a tantalizing recipe to cook which will enhance your viewing pleasure. (Actually, you can read all three - it's more of a buffet than a single prix fixe thang.)

As Sir Alfred once said: “I'm not a heavy eater. I'm just heavy, and I eat.”

For other bloggers involved in the Blogathon this week - for those added Monday & Tuesday visit HERE, for those added today & tomorrow - click here.

As always, cook, watch, eat & enjoy!

(shameless self-promotion time again).... Here's my interview with director Kevin MacDonald on his Bob Marley documentary

Catch a Legend: Marley on Screen
By Ron Deutsch

Documentary.org, April 2012

Since Bob Marley's untimely death at the age of 36 from cancer in 1981, there have been numerous film projects announced. They have included unproduced narrative films--one to star Jamie Foxx, and another written by Lizzie Borden (Working Girls)--as well as several documentaries that ran in theaters and aired on television. The history of the upcoming Marley began in 2008 when Martin Scorsese announced he would be working with the Marley family; the film was originally slated to be released in February 2010 to coincide with Marley's 65th birthday. Scorsese bowed out shortly thereafter and Jonathan Demme was then in the director's chair, with the same announced release date. Demme apparently came very close to completing his film, but told Spinner in September 2009, "Profound creative differences emerged in the course of the editing. I ended up with a film I adore but unfortunately my love is not shared by the people who paid for it. So we have all got our heads together to find the most positive way to deal with that impasse. I hope we do because I loved making it."

But that impasse was never passed. Fast forward to February 2011, when it was announced that director Kevin Macdonald had started over with a new documentary on the life of the Reggae star. In addition to his Academy Award-winning films One Day in September and The Last King of Scotland, Macdonald has made documentaries on the famous, the infamous and the obscure--from silent film villain Eric Campbell to real life Nazi villain Klaus Barbie; and from British documentary filmmaker Humphrey Jennings to American documentarian Errol Morris.

Read the rest of the article here....

Chef du Cinema on TV... Again!!!

No, I didn't get arrested. Apparently, they put people on television for other reasons as well.



So as you'll see I'm on promoting this weekend's class on Singin' in the Rain... and all I had to do was cook, not sing nor dance, thank you.

the story so far..... (updated)

A year ago, because I was getting a little attention thanks to an article in USA Today, I decided that six months into this adventure I should write something for people coming to this site for the first time. And now I've decided to update that post.

If you walk up to a stranger, pretty much anywhere in the world, and ask them two questions: “Do you like food?” and “Do you like movies?” The majority of them would answer yes to both. Eating and watching movies have a lot in common. Maybe that’s why they go so well together. No matter where in the world you find a movie theater, there's someone selling some kind of food to munch on when the lights go down. And there's nothing like snuggling up with a good movie and a home-cooked meal. This is the basic concept of Chef du Cinema – pairing great movies with great food.

(shameless self-promotion time again....) New Article I wrote for Documentary Magazine

Here's a new article I did you might enjoy. You might also enjoy the film, it's worth watching for sure.

'Undefeated' Puts Producer Ed Cunningham Back in the Game
by Ron Deutsch
http://www.documentary.org/node/25946

If you typically spend your leisure time watching documentaries, you might know Ed Cunningham as the producer of films such as King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters. But if you typically watch ESPN, you might know Ed Cunningham as a former offensive lineman with the Arizona Cardinals and Seattle Seahawks, and for several years one of ESPN's on-air college football analysts.

Like the Redesign?

I was doing that staring at the computer screen last night just surfing. no big plan. just surfing.

I found myself looking at several Blogger template websites and I suddenly realized that I should give the web site a little update. The original design I made like the week after the first class and while I found it amusing it was time to make some changes.

So I decided to think about it more in the morning, but instead it had me tossing and turning all night until I jumped right out of bed and had a plan and began to implement it. I finally crashed about dawn and then woke up about five hours later and went right back at it. There really needs to be a good CSS editor on the market. I guess developers have figured out if they DID make on, it would soon put them out of highly paid work. And someone's got to keep the economy going, right?

But I did as best I could. Hope you like it too.


one last peek...

(shameless self-promotion time again) Great article about a great new movie....

This article was written by one our great American journalists... me. But seriously GO SEE THIS MOVIE!


Make It Funky: 'Thunder Soul' Celebrates a High School Impresario
by Ron Deutsch
http://www.documentary.org/node/24254

1969 was a watershed year in America. Richard Nixon took the reigns of the US presidency. It was the year of Woodstock, the Chicago 8 trial, the Stonewall riots and Charles Manson's murder spree. Sesame Street debuted, and the Beatles played their last concert, on a London rooftop. It was also the year in which 55-year-old Conrad "Prof" O. Johnson went to Kashmere High School, in a rough section of Houston known as "the Bloody 5th" Ward, to teach music and lead the school stage band. Johnson needed to reach these kids, and it wasn't going to be through teaching them Tommy Dorsey or even Duke Ellington tunes. So he began incorporating funk and soul arrangements. The experiment worked. Not only were his students inspired, but they won national awards, played internationally and continued to do so until Johnson retired in 1978.

Just a little self-promotion.... American Grindhouse DVD

For those of you interested in such things, there are about 20 minutes of never before seen interviews I did in the 1980's with "the Godfather of Gore" Herschell Gordon Lewis & producer David F. Friedman (two of the nicest guys I've had the privilege of meeting) included as a DVD extra on the soon-to-be-released DVD of Elijah Drenner's documentary American Grindhouse on July 26th.

one reason I love living in austin....

For those of you who don't live in Austin, I feel your pain. I fear going to movies anywhere outside of my zip code as a lovely couple just over a decade ago began with a small theater showing movies they love, serving food at that theater, and offering good times for movie lovers. The only rule they had was "to keep your big mouth shut during the movie." Eventually that rule evolved to including people who can't seem to understand that talking on your cell phone during a movie makes you an a$$hole. And finally, adding texting to that.

a little bonus....

I'm running a bit late on my schedule of putting up my post for the Vietnam leg of this trip, but it should be ready shortly.

Meanwhile, here's a little video I shot of the best place to get Pho Bo, Ha Noi style in town. Even Mr. Smug TV Travel Food Guy ate here on his episode about Ha Noi. But that's not why I went there, it's a favorite of locals. I took a little cooking class while in Ha Noi and hopefully can recreate this back home. But I'll have another Ha Noi specialty for the movie. Stay tuned....

Our story so far.....

If this is your first time here, let me welcome you.

If you've been here before, you're probably asking: "why is he writing this?"

What's going on is, first off - I'm on a trip to Southeast Asia, and second off - USA Today telephoned a week before I left asking if I could put together three recipes based on three of the ten (I'm sorry, but how lame is it that they went from five to ten?) Best Picture Oscar nominees for an article which is appearing sometime in the next 24 hours from now. And so I thought I should write something and get it ready to post since I'm not going to have great Internet access nor will I have time to write much right when this thing hits the newstands. Why do I care? Because I'd like to give some new folks who might be arriving based on that article, a quick summary of what the heck this is that I'm doing so you won't have to weed through all my ramblings to figure it out.

So... Our story so far.