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[[tmz:video id="0_4wwl02pf"]] Legendary trainer Freddie Roach has a potentially lifesaving tip for Rev. Jesse Jackson in the wake of his Parkinson's diagnosis -- strap on the gloves and start boxing!! Freddie's speaking from personal experience ... conquering Parkinson's for over 3 decades with the help of hand-eye coordination drills (Aka hitting and holding mitts). "Boxing probably saved my life," Roach told TMZ Sports at his Wild Card Boxing gym in L.A. Jackson says he's gonna do whatever it...

[[tmz:video id="0_ucuq1bs6"]] Conor McGregor might have to wait ... another huge fighter says he's gonna take a chunk out of Floyd Mayweather's ass if he returns, and this guy is a boxing superstar. The guy is Wbc super welterweight champ Jermell Charlo, who's fresh off a devastating first round knockout of Erickson Lubin a couple of weeks ago. Charlo hit the Lakers game Thursday night with Brandon Watson -- co-owner of the Team Watson Boxing Gym in L.

Joe Carman has a face made for the movies, but it’s not a pretty one. With an unkempt beard and tired eyes, he looks like he’s trapped in the headlights of a world that won’t cut him a break. The 40-year-old Seattle figure at the center of “The Cage Fighter” is a broken man defeated by every aspect of his life. Still, he does what he can to bury his troubles with macho swagger whenever he steps into the ring, engaging in the competitive mixed martial arts fighting that his family has urged him to quit. Carman’s persistence is at once inspiring and tragic, a bloodied metaphor for battling forward against impossible odds.

The feature-length debut of director Jeff Unay, “The Cage Fighter” hails from a tradition of intimate cinema verité that encompasses so many details from the lives of its subject that it may as well be a scripted drama.

Episode 6 of American Doers, a new 12-part video series featuring original thinkers, innovators, craftspeople, risk-takers and artisans across the United States.

A boxing gym in Detroit, Michigan, is offering more than just fun in the ring.

Along with math and reading camps, computer programming classes and a kitchen to make sure that no kid goes home hungry, the youth program also features a music studio complete with instruments.

The founder of the Downtown Boxing Gym, Khali Sweeney, says his team is in the midst of remodeling the the space into a real studio. A sign at the front door to...

Episode 6 of American Doers, a new 12-part video series featuring original thinkers, innovators, craftspeople, risk-takers and artisans across the United States.

As a kid in Detroit, Michigan, Khali Sweeney says he was heading down a bad path until he found boxing.

“I got into boxing because I was getting into so many fights,” he tells People. “I fell in love with it from there. I’m from here so I belong to this.”

In 2007, he founded the Downtown Boxing Gym Youth Program so that he could help others get back on track.

For more American Doers, go to americandoers.people.

Episode 6 of American Doers, a new 12-part video series featuring original thinkers, innovators, craftspeople, risk-takers and artisans across the United States.

The Downtown Boxing Gym Youth Program in Detroit, Michigan, has a simple motto: Books before boxing.

The organization, founded in 2007, gets kids off the streets but before they get to jump in the ring, homework comes first.

They also have math and reading camps, computer programming classes and a kitchen to make sure that no kid goes home hungry.

“If you were a kid in the hood, you tell all of your buddies you’re going to an after...

Floyd Mayweather is being sued over a frightening head-on collision involving his kids -- and Justin Bieber -- even though the boxer was on a red carpet when the accident went down. We broke the story ... Floyd's kids were in a vehicle that slammed into another car in L.A. back in June while Floyd was at the Bet Awards. Justin Bieber happened to be in the area at the time of the crash and...

Madonna is being hailed as a Hero in the boxing community ... so says boxing Hall of Famer Tommy "The Hitman" Hearns who's praising the singer for saving a Detroit boxing gym Fyi -- Madge recently returned from a trip to Detroit and announced she'd be making "significant" donations to 3 organizations ... including the Downtown Youth Boxing Gym. Madonna says she was super-impressed with the programs at the gym that have helped it achieve a 100% graduation rate.

Over the years, veteran documentarian Frederick Wiseman has covered what sometimes feels like almost kind of institution and every aspect of life in America (and occasionally, life abroad too). "Titicut Follies," "Juvenile Court," "Zoo," "Racetrack," "Central Park," "Public Housing," "Boxing Gym," a pair of movies focusing on teen education, and many, many more, he's covered the gamut. Now, aged 83, Wiseman, like Rodney Dangerfield before him, is going Back To School... Having already tackled "High School" some time back, the director has graduated with "At Berkeley," an expansive, lengthy (a touch over four hours) and totally brilliant film taking a look behind the scenes of California's legendary institutions, from the school's professors and administrative staff to the students of almost every stripe. Presented, as ever with the director's work, without narration, much in the way of score, or even on-screen captions, the film picks up at something of a crisis point in the.

Photo courtesy of Zipporah Films.

Frederick Wiseman's broad canvas epic At Berkeley, a bipartite portrait of the complex, living organism that is a public university in California, is a characteristically wide-ranging yet pinpoint exploration of the dynamic between people and an organization. "Education" in 2010, when the documentary was filmed, is what unites the system with its participants, a large and abstract calling awkwardly defined in the film's first scene by a teacher trying to explain what makes the mission of the University of California Berkeley different from that of East Coast Ivy League school. The term is replete with meanings moral, ideal, practical, and theoretical, and is only further complicated by Wiseman splitting his story between the administrators meeting and discussing budgets, tuition, campus policing, tenure policies and teachers benefits, and classrooms where the students engage with a range of topics from poetry and political science leadership to institutional racism and advanced astronomy.

Over the years, veteran documentarian Frederick Wiseman has covered what sometimes feels like almost kind of institution and every aspect of life in America (and occasionally, life abroad too). "Titicut Follies," "Juvenile Court," "Zoo," "Racetrack," "Central Park," "Public Housing," "Boxing Gym," a pair of movies focusing on teen education, and many, many more, he's covered the gamut. Now, aged 83, Wiseman, like Rodney Dangerfield before him, is going Back To School... Having already tackled "High School" some time back, the director has graduated with "At Berkeley," an expansive, lengthy (a touch over four hours) and totally brilliant film taking a look behind the scenes of California's legendary institutions, from the school's professors and administrative staff to the students of almost every stripe. Presented, as ever with the director's work, without narration, much in the way of score, or even on-screen captions, the film picks up at something of a crisis point in the.

#49. Frederick Wiseman’s At Berkeley

Gist: “For the past five weeks, with over 100 hours of film footage, famed documentarian Frederick Wiseman has been working to make Uc Berkeley the subject of his 39th film…[and he] expects to continue working for another five weeks, collecting a total of 200 to 250 hours worth of material.” – September, 2010. Originally drawn to Uc Berkeley’s academic reputation and complexity, Wiseman intends for this documentary – the first made about the campus – to place “particular emphasis” on the management of the university, his footage ranging from freshmen moving into dorms to football games to department meetings.

Prediction: Made to be aired on PBS, we wouldn’t be at all surprised to see the great documentarian return to the Fortnight, where his 2010 Boxing Gym had its premiere. Wiseman doesn’t seem to be very picky with his festival, unveiling his films pretty much wherever is most convenient (La Danse bowed in Venice,...

We've a week to go before SXSW starts and there's plenty to do in Austin right now. To start, there are two (!) Rolling Roadshows on Saturday, the first of which puts the rolling in roadshow, because to enjoy Pee Wee's Big Adventure you must cycle from Alamo Drafthouse on Slaughter Lane to the Veloway. The other, well, the Funky Chicken Coop Tour is bringing the doc Mad City Chickens to Callahan’s General Store in Bastrop. On Tuesday, the Klru co-sponsored Community Cinema Series at the Apl Windsor Park Branch is showing Revenge Of The Electric Car. This free series features light refreshments and post-film discussions with relevant organizations.

All this week, Violet Crown has added special screenings of Oscar-winning films to its schedule, including Beginners and Tree of Life; check their website for times. And as Alamo Drafthouse on Slaughter Lane prepares to officially open, it's training up all its staff,...

Chicago – Frederick Wiseman doesn’t pretend to be an expert on the locations that he explores in his documentaries. It’s his meticulous attention to detail during production that makes the audience feel as if they are truly immersed in the environment of Wiseman’s films. Only during the editing process does the director find the meaning within the images.

Wiseman’s approach to nonfiction cinema is utterly organic and often very revealing. His formidable filmography, comprised of 37 documentaries and two fiction works, began with 1967’s “Titticut Follies,” which took a brutally frank and vital look at the abuse inside the Massachusetts Correctional Institution Bridgewater. The director’s repeated study of disturbing subject matter led some of his peers, such as Errol Morris, to deem his work “misanthropic,” but Wiseman insists that’s not the case. His latest film, “Crazy Horse,” pays exuberant tribute to the dancers of the titular...

The New Year can be as much a time to reflect as it can be to project into the future. Some see the act of looking back as an integral part of moving forward. But on a brisk afternoon in Cambridge the day before New Year’s Eve, Frederick Wiseman resists this notion. The legendary documentary filmmaker has been making roughly one film a year since 1967, only taking breaks when funding difficulties, or in this case critical recognition, require him to do so.

Tomorrow night Wiseman is receiving the Legacy Award at the annual Cinema Eye Honors for his debut film Titicut Follies, which observed the appalling conditions at the State Prison for the Criminally Insane at Bridgewater, Massachusetts. Though completed in 1967, the film was withheld from the general public until 1991 due to its alleged violation of the inmates’ privacy. More compromising for the prosecuting government of Massachusetts, however, was...

Berlin's festival of American independent film, Unknown Pleasures, runs from January 1 through 15 at the Babylon, and co-programmers Hannes Brühwiler and Andrew Grant have put together a lineup for this fourth edition that's a little more adventurous that the first three:

Dustin Guy Defa's Bad Fever Sean Durkin's Martha Marcy May Marlene Todd Haynes's Mildred Pierce Monty Hellman's Road to Nowhere Azazel Jacobs's Terri Aaron Katz's Cold Weather Laurel Nakadate's The Wolf Knife Mike Ott's Littlerock Tristan Patterson's Dragonslayer Matt Porterfield's Putty Hill Peter Bo Rappmund's Psychohydrography Lee Anne Schmitt's The Last Buffalo Hunt Joe Swanberg's Silver Bullets Sophia Takel's Green Frederick Wiseman's Boxing Gym Zach Weintraub's Bummer Summer

There are also two special programs, one highlighting Martin Scorsese's recent documentaries (George Harrison: Living in the Material World, A Letter to Elia and Public Speaking). And for the other,...

Trailers are an under-appreciated art form insofar that many times they’re seen as vehicles for showing footage, explaining films away, or showing their hand about what moviegoers can expect. Foreign, domestic, independent, big budget: I celebrate all levels of trailers and hopefully this column will satisfactorily give you a baseline of what beta wave I’m operating on, because what better way to hone your skills as a thoughtful moviegoer than by deconstructing these little pieces of advertising? Some of the best authors will tell you that writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a long one, that you have to weigh every sentence. What better medium to see how this theory plays itself out beyond that than with movie trailers? Keloid Trailer Give it up for Blr. Long after we've come to know the pentaverate as The Queen, The Vatican, The Gettes, The Rothchilds and...

Frederick Wiseman will cross the 82-year-old mark next year and the man is still churning out documentaries. After delivering two the best in the genre with his debut Titticut Follies and the follow-up High School, he continues with career that has produced over forty films. His latest, Boxing Gym, premiered at Cannes, Toronto and New York Film Festivals last year, and he already has another one.

Crazy Horse will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in a few weeks, as well as Venice, Nyff and London, and we have the first Nsfw trailer. The documentary marks Wiseman’s first foray into shooting digitally after a life of 16mm. It takes a look at Le Crazy Horse de Paris, “a landmark that has prided itself as the best nude dancing show in the world since 1951.” It appears as though the dedicated choreographer Philippe Decouflé will be the main focus as...

Well it was extremely hard to narrow down the last five films. I still have about ten others I would love to see at the Toronto International Film Festival, but there is only so much free time in my schedule. There is a ton of great documentaries that didn’t make my list, but I’m looking to Sos contributor and documentary expert Michael Waldman to cover those films come festival time. In the meantime here is the last batch of films I intend on trying to see while I will be in Toronto.

21 - Crazy Horse

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Documentary master Frederick Wiseman (La Danse, Boxing Gym) goes inside Paris’s Crazy Horse cabaret, the most famous nude dance show in the world, offering audiences an all access look behind the scenes. The cabaret is one of the most mythic and colourful places dedicated to women, and through the years has...

Documentary master Frederick Wiseman (La Danse, Boxing Gym) goes inside Paris’s Crazy Horse cabaret, the most famous nude dance show in the world, offering audiences an all access look behind the scenes. The cabaret is one of the most mythic and colorful places dedicated to women, and through the years has become a must see for tourists ranking alongside the Eiffel tower. The film shows us the rehearsals and the unveiling of the upcoming show. Here is the trailer. The film will premiere at Tiff next month. Enjoy!

Via Twitch...

Sure to get tongues wagging, Frederick Wiseman's Crazy Horse offers audiences an all access look behind the scenes of the infamous Paris nightclub of the same name.Documentary master Frederick Wiseman (La Danse, Boxing Gym) spent ten weeks exploring the legendary Parisian cabaret club Crazy Horse, which boasts the greatest and most chic nude dancing in the world. Founded in 1951, the club has become a Parisian nightlife "must" for any visitor, ranking alongside the Eiffel tower and the Louvre. Wiseman‟s impeccable eye allows us to enter into this intriguing international temple of the Parisian club world and to discover what makes the Crazy Horse tick: elegance, perfectionism and a grueling schedule. The film follows the rehearsals, backstage preparations and performances for a new show,...

The Toronto International Film Festival has released the complete line-up of their impressive documentary slate which include new works from directors such as Morgan Spurlock, Werner Herzog and Alex Gibney. Herzog explores a triple homicide case in Texas in Into the Abyss; Morgan Spurlock follows fans to San Diego’s Comic-Con in Comic-Con: Episode IV – A Fan’s Hope; Jessica Yu delivers a wake-up call about the world’s water supply in Last Call at the Oasis; and Nick Broomfield visits Wasilla, Alaska in his search for the ‘real’ Sarah Palin in Sarah Palin – You Betcha! Here is the complete line-up. Enjoy

Masters

Pina Wim Wenders, Germany/France

Canadian Premiere

German master filmmaker Wim Wenders shoots in 3D to capture the brilliantly inventive dance world of Pina Bausch and her company, Tanztheater Wuppertal. Excerpts from many of her most famous pieces are shot outside in the streets and parks of...

A week after the announcement of the first, and largest, wave of films added to this year’s Toronto International Film Festival slate, the festival is now finally rounding out its list, with some of the most interesting additions yet.

Criterion Collection fans will again see a few of their more beloved filmmakers involved here, as Wim Wenders will be bowing his latest film, Pina, during the festival, as will Werner Herzog (not truly a Criterion Collection approved filmmaker, but we’ll count it). Herzog will be bringing his new documentary, Into The Abyss, which looks at those behind at triple homicide, including one man who is on death row and will be put to death just days after speaking with the filmmaker.

Other additions include Ron Fricke’s Baraka follow up, Samsara, Nick Broomfield’s surely controversial documentary Sarah Palin – You Betcha!, and documentaries from Alex Gibney and Morgan Spurlock.

Shawn Ashmore, Ashley Bell, Shannyn Sossamon, Dominic Monaghan and Cory Hardrict in The Day

Photo: Content Media The 2011 Toronto International Film Festival announced 56 more movies added to its festival line-up this year with selections in the Vanguard, Midnight Madness, Documentaries, City to City and Tiff Kids programs. And to be honest, the line-up is filled with titles, most of which are absolutely new to me.

I have seen one of the films under the Vanguard banner, a selection of young and cutting edge features and I've heard of Joachim Trier's Oslo, August 31, Ben Wheatley's Kill List (watch the trailer to the right) was a hit at South by Southwest earlier this year and the documentary selections include familiar names such as Werner Herzog, Morgan Spurlock, Jonathan Demme, Alex Gibney and Wim Wenders, the latter of which is delivering a 3D documentary centered on the dance world of Pina Bausch and her company.

Now that we're done salivating over the unveiling of the Gala and Special Presentation screenings for 2011 Toronto Int. Film Festival, we now put our attention on the official selection of the Venice Film Festival sidebar know as Venice Days. Director Giorgio Gosetti has mounted an edition that includes some gem auteurs and newbie filmmakers we've been keeping tabs on for the better half of 2010/2011. For the most part consists of French productions and of the "12 feature films in the Official Selection, three Special Events, one short opening film and two special collaborations," Lou Ye's Love and Bruises - a film that was a tad not ready for Cannes is indeed ready to go on the Lido. We've been thinking great things about the film the moment Tahar Rahim was announced as the lead, hot tempered character. The second name that sticks out is vet documentarian Frederick Wiseman who last explored...

Updated through 6/10.

Colin Beckett: "Whether by design or circumstance, this June has become Thai Cinema Month in New York, with an array of the city's art houses and museums boasting otherwise hard-to-see gems from the Thai film renaissance that began in the late 1990s. But the biggest cause for celebration is the belated arrival of two films by Uruphong Raksasad — Agrarian Utopia (2009), running at Anthology Film Archives June 10 - 15, and Stories from the North (2006), which plays Museum of the Moving Image on June 5 [this afternoon at 3] — whose formal ingenuity and geopolitical urgency make the familiar generalizations about national cinemas seem quaint, if not willfully narrow."

Updates, 6/10: For Michael Joshua Rowin, writing for Artforum, "here is an undeniably stunning work of visual art, a premiere example of the equal footing hi-def digital video now holds with celluloid filmmaking. Acting as his own cinematographer, Uruphong finds intimate wonder in lush, verdant hills; in twilights...

In a city often derided as art-phobic and money-obsessed, the Hong Kong International Film Festival provides an annual opportunity for local audiences to contextualize their own regional cinema alongside the breadth of international contemporary filmmaking. While the glitz of the Hk movie industry is paraded in various galas and a high-wattage opening award ceremony, the programmers have left plenty of room throughout the festival’s seventeen days of screenings for the usual arthouse suspects, student-director and avant-garde showcases, and a strong focus on new Chinese-language cinema. With this diverse slate spread out across multiplex theaters throughout the city, it’s surprising that Hkiff also manages to maintain a certain level of coherence, partly due to the atmosphere created by what seems to be a dedicated viewership and the visibility of well-known Sinophone cinephiles like Tony Rayns and David Bordwell. Since I had just four whole days in the city, I...

Agnes Poirier meets Frederick Wiseman in Paris in spring to discuss his latest documentary Boxing Gym and to discover more about his unique cinematic style and philosophy.

From his directorial debut, Titicut Follies, onwards Wiseman has created a sub-genre of observational social documentary dedicated to capturing the inner workings of institutions.

He has, over four decades, documented schools, hospitals, military facilities and cultural organisations.

His latest film captures the particular culture of a boxing community in Texas and Agnes explores with Wiseman his preoccupation with human and institutional violence.

Jason PhippsAgnès Poirier...

As Oscar weekend begins, it's worth noting, as many bloggers like to do, how many great filmmakers have never won Academy Awards. Documentary legends Frederick Wiseman and Da Pennebaker are among them, and each released new films last year. But they were both considered "light" works for their talents. I nevertheless consider Wiseman's Boxing Gym to be one of the best docs of 2010, while Pennabaker's latest, Kings of Pastry, is definitely on the insubstantial side of his career. At 85 years old (you wouldn't know it, if you've seen him in person recently), he's at least still working. But I don't think I'd recommend it to people who aren't total foodies or Pennebaker fanatics, and even then it's likely too unrecognizable in style to his direct-cinema classics that even devotees may be a little disappointed.

Read the Rest of the Review at Christopher Campbell's Documentary Blog, Nothing But the Doc.

The 8th annual Big Sky Documentary Film Festival is all set to run for ten days this Feb. 11-20 in Missoula, Montana. This year, the fest will have a whopping 140 film programs, a growth that necessitates an expansion from its regular home at the Historic Wilma Theatre — where it will occupy two screens — to also feature screenings at the former Pipestone Mountaineering store.

Special events at the fest include a free opening night screening of How to Die in Oregon sponsored by HBO Documentary Films. The film, directed by Peter D. Richardson, examines the impact the legalization of physician-assisted suicide has had on the state. (In 1994, Oregon was the first state to legalize the practice.)

Also, indie rock band Yo La Tengo will perform their acclaimed live score of the films of pioneering French underwater documentary film director Jean Painlevé, something they have done for other film festivals all over the world.

Film critics by definition are contrarians, so naturally, if you gather seven in a room, there will be few points of agreement. So it is with Top 10 Films of 2010 as drawn up by seven film critics for "The Hollywood Reporter," six U.S.-based and one overseas reviewer who keeps up with domestic releases.No film made everyone's list. There was only limited agreement over the No. 1 film. Three fingered Christopher Nolan's strikingly original "Inception." Two others picked David Fincher's Facebook tale, "The Social Network."The remaining votes were divided between Olivier Assayas' "Carlos," about the infamous terrorist known by that moniker, and Tom Hooper's "The King's Speech," a film many pundits see as an Oscar frontrunner.The closest area of agreement came with "The Social Network." It made six out of seven Best 10 lists.

Southpaw, The Fighter, Real Steel ... in these troubled times we can take comfort in a raft of films about battling underdogs

It shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody that Eminem is making another film – after making such a splash in 8 Mile eight years ago he's been soundly overtaken in the acting rapper stakes by everyone from Ludacris to Common to Lil Bow Wow – and nor should it be a surprise that he's got his eyes on a boxing film. As reported yesterday, Eminem's comeback vehicle will be Southpaw, the story of a boxer trying to fight his way back to glory after the world stops believing in him.

It isn't a surprise for a couple of reasons. First is Eminem himself. This is clearly a genre that he has great affection for – 8 Mile was basically a boxing movie where all the fighting just happened to be replaced with scenes...

Last weekend, two very different but quite excellent filmmakers were in town to show some of their latest documentary work. Both were actually here on Sunday so you could dash across town and make a double-feature of it, but I decided to do it the easy way. On Saturday, I went to Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar for a screening of locally shot Boxing Gym with director Frederick Wiseman in attendance, and on Sunday, I was at the Lbj Museum to watch an excerpt from Spike Lee's four-hour documentary for HBO, If God Is Willing and da Creek Don't Rise.

Wiseman was originally only scheduled to be at two Alamo screenings on Sunday: Boxing Gym and his 1967 film Titicut Follies. The Sunday night showing of Boxing Gym, sponsored by Austin Film Society, sold out awfully quickly. Fortunately, he agreed to attend two of the screenings on Saturday, so some...

Looking for a good movie to watch in an Austin theater this weekend? Here are the movies opening locally this week -- a nice mix of indies and wide releases.

Movies We've Seen:

Boxing Gym -- Premiering at Cannes and screening at Aff, this documentary by Frederick Wiseman about Richard Lord's Gym on N. Lamar and the people training there gets a week-long run in town. Wiseman last brought us inside La danse - Le ballet de l'Opéra de Paris. Read Jette's review from Cinematical for details. Special news: We just learned that Wiseman and Lord will be doing two Q&As at the 4:25 and 7 pm screenings on Saturday, and tickets are still available ... which is great since the Sunday screening with Wiseman is sold out. (Alamo South Lamar)

Morning Glory -- It's hard not to be reminded of Broadcast News. Writer Aline Brosh McKenna is responsible for...

Frederick Wiseman brings his new film

Boxing Gym

to South Lamar starting November 12

Advance tickets available here

Acclaimed documentarian Frederick Wiseman, who brought us the Verité masterpieces High School, Law And Order, Titicut Follies, and, recently, La Danse, is coming to open his new film, Boxing Gym, in Austin. Boxing Gym presents a fly-on-the-wall perspective of Lord’s Gym, the legendary Austin training room owned by Richard Lord. The film is beautiful and will set you in a trance.

We’re opening the film on Friday, and to celebrate we’ll be having special guests all weekend long!

On Friday at the 4:05 and 7:00 showings, Richard Lord will be live!

On Saturday at the 4:25 and 7:00 times, Lord will be joined by Frederick Wiseman as well!

And, perhaps most excitingly, on Sunday at 4:00, Wiseman will be presenting one of his most challenging and enduring works, Titicut Follies.

"You've got to ask yourself one question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" —Dirty Harry (Don Siegel, 1971)

***

"Dead or alive, you're coming with me." —Robocop (Paul Verhoeven, 1987)

***

"Ah, well, we got a little problem here. Uh, apparently this lady got a cab here to 8011 East 24th, and, uh, she didn’t, the cab driver didn’t have any change. So when the, when the cab arrived here it was a dollar ten cent. So then he goes 27th and two, I mean 27th here and Charlotte somewhere to get some change and drives back around here, and he wants her to pay that extra forty cent or something for him going to having to get the change, and she doesn’t want to pay that. Which I could understand." —Law and Order (Frederick Wiseman, 1969)

***

Documentary filmmaker Frederick Wiseman was recently the subject of a retrospective at New York's Museum of Modern Art.

Craig here from Dark Eye Socket with my Lff wrap-up.

As of tonight the BFI London Film Festival is done for another year. It's been a stellar year all told, if the surplus of reports are to be believed. And I'd willingly add a further approving nod to the list. I didn't manage to see everything I wanted (juggling festival times and dates with travel arrangements is an art – one that's open to fateful intervention...and multiple tube delays), but what I saw was on the whole a bumper crop. Roll on next year, I say. Here are five previous reviews, selected from the films I saw: Uncle Boonmee, A Screaming Man, Winter Vacation, Rare Exports and What I Love the Most. And below are five final mini reviews of a few festival highlights.

Thomas Vinterberg introduced his new film, Submarino, in a cheeky fashion: “if all goes well, you...

While the studios continued to see overwhelmingly strong October openings with the huge debut of "Paranormal Activity 2", the specialty market had a relatively slow weekend. According to estimates provided by Rentrak earlier today, Zipporah Films' release of Frederick Wiseman's acclaimed doc "Boxing Gym" led new releases. The film - a portrait of an Austin gym run by former professional boxer Richard Lord - debuted at the IFC Center in ...

Like all of Frederick Wiseman's films, his latest has a title that seems to say it all: "Boxing Gym" is basically an hour-and-a-half of sights and sounds from an Austin area boxing gym. As usual, though, there's more going on here. In presenting glimpses of different trainees - be they kids enjoying a fun sport, ordinary folks getting a workout, or actual fighters preparing for their next bout - "Boxing Gym" takes on a meditative quality, but that mesmerizing quality is eventually breached when the real-life violence of the Virginia Tech massacre thousands of miles away intrudes on the boxers' world and becomes a point of discussion.

The legendary director, whose films include such classics as "Titicut Follies," "High School," and "Public Housing," has made the exploration of the nature of American institutions his great artistic project, and the boxing gym is a manifestation of one way violence presents itself in ordinary American life,...

Good things come to those who wait and for those who feel as though they've suffered through a year of largely uninspired films up to now will likely breathe a sigh of relief at the sound of names like Darren Aronofsky, Sofia Coppola and Peter Weir. 'Tis the season for Jim Carrey to take a pay cut to star in a gay romance like "I Love You Phillip Morris" or Javier Bardem is whispering sweet nothings to spirits in Alejandro Gonzalez Inarittu's "Biutiful" rather than Julia Roberts.

There is the naughty -- Kristen Stewart stripping in "Welcome to the Rileys," the would-be terrorists of the Brit comedy "Four Lions," or the evil Santa in "Rare Exports" -- and the nice -- the tap-dancing lovers in "Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench," the glory of James Franco's daredevil surviving "127 Hours" and Colin Firth's verbally-challenged royal conquering his stutter in "The King's Speech.

Frederick Wiseman's latest film, "Boxing Gym"—opening Friday at New York’s IFC Center—takes on, as its subject, a boxing gym in Austin, Texas. Within the gym, Wiseman uncovers a cultural melting pot in a milieu that functions as both a haven from, and an extension of, the outside world for those who work and train there. And, coming on the heels of his most recent feature, "La Danse: The Paris Opera Ballet" (2009), "Boxing Gym" continues his fascination...

Say this for Frederick Wiseman: No one is ever going to accuse one of his documentaries of being fake, or a hoax. Wiseman’s latest film, Boxing Gym, adheres to the same vérité principles he’s been following since the ’60s. He settles into one place—in this case, an Austin, Texas gym where amateurs, pros, and hobbyists of all ages and ethnicities practice footwork and jabs—and just takes in the action and conversations, without trying to guide the action or even ask any questions. In keeping with its subject matter, Boxing Gym is a little faster-paced and ...

Each week here at indieWIRE, five recommendations for theatrical viewing pleasure are being offered up, tackling everything from new releases, to film festivals, to curated series, and events around North America. This week, John Waters discusses "the most shocking film ever made," Frederick Wiseman's latest doc hits theaters, German cinema has its fourth annual showcase in Los Angeles, and more: 1. "Boxing Gym" (criticWIRE page) Documentary filmmaking titan Frederick Wiseman follows ...

Documentaries like Boxing Gym are a refreshing rarity. Frederick Wiseman sticks to what his camera sees: a tiny gym in Austin, Texas where people from all walks of life come to train and box. From moms with newborn babies who sleep ringside, to teenage boys who come eager for their first fight, Lord's Gym serves as a melting pot for Austinites in search of a place to learn to box, unknowingly creating a sense of community. With films ranging in subject matter from ballet to ballistic missiles, the eighty-year-old director has made a career out of his incisive observations of institutions, and taken together, his work provides a stirring portrait of America (and some other places, as well). His 1967 film about the criminally insane, Titicut Follies, was banned and an American judge threatened to burn the negatives for its content. His 38 films have won the most prestigious of awards, ...

Documentaries like Boxing Gym are a refreshing rarity. Frederick Wiseman sticks to what his camera sees: a tiny gym in Austin, Texas where people from all walks of life come to train and box. From moms with newborn babies who sleep ringside, to teenage boys who come eager for their first fight, Lord's Gym serves as a melting pot for Austinites in search of a place to learn to box, unknowingly creating a sense of community. With films ranging in subject matter from ballet to ballistic missiles, Wiseman has made a career out of his incisive observations of institutions, and taken together, his work provides a stirring portrait of America (and some other places, as well). His 1967 film about the criminally insane, Titicut Follies, was banned and an American judge threatened to burn the negatives for its content. His 30 films have won the most prestigious of awards, as has ...

Boxing matches have been captured on film practically since the birth of the medium, which may explain the primal thrill of Frederick Wiseman’s “Boxing Gym.” The legendary documentarian’s latest portrait takes place in Lord’s Gym, the scrappy Austin establishment run by former professional boxer Richard Lord. A somber, focused instructor, Lord’s momentum spreads to his disciples. The opening sequence, a noisy montage of hands punching bags and feet squeaking across the floor, never really ends until the final shot. Wiseman, credited not only as director but as producer, editor and sound guy, makes the gym’s rhythm of motion and chatter…...

Austin Film Festival takes the "Austin" part of its name seriously, with an entire category of local films. It may seem obvious that Austin-connected movies will be in the Austin Screens category, but those aren't the only local features you'll find at the fest. We've got all the features with Austin connections listed below. Debbie will be highlighting some of the Austin short films in a preview coming up soon.

Boxing Gym (directed by Frederick Wiseman. Regional Premiere) -- Just announced on Monday, this documentary is about as local as you can get, as it's about a gym up on North Lamar. Former boxer and gym owner Richard Lord and his boxing gym regulars are featured in Wiseman's testament to community institutions.

Burned: Life in and Out of Texas Youth Prisons (directed by Emily Pyle. Austin Screens) -- Two young convicts are the focus of this documentary that questions the...

It's been an unusually exciting afternoon here at Slackerwood headquarters, and no, it's not because the Saints won. Austin Film Festival has announced its Centerpiece film for 2010 as well as a Tbd selection that I have been waiting to see for months and months and some other additions/changes to the schedule.

The Company Men will be Aff's Centerpiece film, screening on Saturday, Oct. 23 at 6 pm at the Paramount. Writer/director John Wells will attend. He's currently the president of WGA West, and after the movie, former WGA West President Dan Petrie, Jr. will moderate a Q&A with Wells. The Company Men is about three guys working for a company that's seriously downsizing, and the cast is truly stellar: Tommy Lee Jones, Ben Affleck, Chris Cooper and Kevin Costner.

Another new title announced for the festival is Frederick Wiseman's documentary Boxing Gym, which premiered at Cannes this year.

Filed under: Documentaries, Columns, Cinematical

In addition to the portraits of famous artists I wrote about two weeks ago, this year's New York Film Festival features a trio of documentaries centered on specific places. One film takes us inside a boxing gym for a timeless and objective, "fly on the wall" perspective on the pugilist sport and some of its enthusiasts. Another puts us across from The Mets' Citi Field, to the chop shops of Willets Field, Queens. And the last is a trip through the British countryside in the form of an essay film filled with both historical and contemporary commentary. Their titles, in respective order: 'Boxing Gym,' 'Foreign Parts,' and 'Robinson in Ruins.'

Documentary legend Frederick Wiseman follows his previous film, the Paris Opera Ballet-set 'La Danse,' with a sort of companion piece in 'Boxing Gym.' This one brings the filmmaker's typical non-narrative,...

Apart from the classic auteurs in the Special Presentations section, the 39th Festival du nouveau cinéma will be filled to the gills in new works from across the globe. I view the extremely popular film festival as sort of a B-side for film festival circuit items that generally find a spot in a major film fest such as Cannes and afterwards would normally fall through the cracks. Think the Nyff's much wilder, Canadian cousin. Over 295 films - this includes shorts, fiction and documentary, animation, retrospectives, tributes, professional panels, outdoor interactive installations, the festival which takes place between the 13th to the 24th of October, furiously promotes not only world talent, but local French Canadian filmmakers. Among the notable titles, we have Michelangelo Frammartino's Le Quattro volte, Olivier Assayas' Carlos and Alex de la Iglesia's The Last Circus and Wang Bing will be in town for a Master Class for Venice-winning The Ditch.