Despite the critical hype around some recent foreign films, movies from abroad bring in only a tiny fraction of box-office revenues. Once upon a time foreign films were much more popular in American theaters. On The Media's Paul Ingles looks back at the heyday of foreign films and gives a ...

In 1998, James Byrd Jr., an African American man, was chained to a truck and dragged to death by three white men in Jasper, Texas. This week, PBS revisited the racially-motivated murder by airing a documentary called "The Two Towns of Jasper." It's the product of a collaboration between two ...

An armload of big-ticket Hollywood talent, including some of the folks who brought us Star Trek and the Shawshank Redemption, have signed on to bring American-style programs, and through them presumably, American-style values to the Muslim world. The programs will be funneled through a non-profit group called Al Haqiqa (which ...

Filmmaker Michael Moore gained fame with the 1989 movie "Roger and Me," a look at the closing of the GM plants in Flint, Michigan. He was denied an academy award nomination for best documentary either because the film was too anti-establishment (his explanation) or, as it later came out, because ...

Shot at the actual scenes of the mass murders of the 1994 Rwandan genocide, "100 Days in Rwanda" is a new film about the horror that took place there. Before "100 Days," director and co-producer Nick Hughes had already made documentaries about the genocide—but in this new endeavor, he and ...

While the Harry Potter tour may not be so accessible for young fans in the States, studios have found other ways to satisfy American fans who want more than the celluloid experience. OTM special correspondent Frank Brindle reports.

Through the magic of the huge movie opening this weekend, everyone’s favorite boy wizard is coming to a theatre near you. But seeing Harry Potter on the big screen still isn’t close enough for everyone. The Harry Potter tour in England takes the most devoted of fans to the locations ...

Independent filmmakers: optimistic or short-changed? Bob speaks with the Burton sisters-- producers from the new independent film "Manna from Heaven"-and Harry Shearer-writer and director of independent flick "The Teddy Bear's Picnic"-about their ideas on how independent films will sink or swim when faced with the ever-present challenge of distribution.

Fifty years ago, post-war America witnessed the birth of pop-luxe and theretofore unsurpassed commercial culture. One example of the boom in disposable income and entertainment-related spending came in the form of the 1952 film "This is Cinerama"-a movie which would introduce viewers to what was then the largest movie screen ...

Breakthroughs in technology have been a boon to filmmakers, but as software prices go down and become more accessible, the same breakthroughs have also become something of a bane. Family-friendly companies now offer services to edit sex, violence, or rough language out of films. Brooke talks to filmmaker and Director's ...

Thanks to the Internet, soon film buffs won't have to fly to Portland and Cannes to see all those independent films that didn't make it to the local Blockbuster. Subscribers of the new film club Film Movement will able to view first-run independent films in the comfort of their living ...

Saving Private Ryan was called an accurate depiction of war and a throwback to the great WWII films of the fifties. It’s also quite a page-turner. Max Allan Collins wrote the novel based on Speilberg’s film. He also wrote the novelization of Road to Perdition, which is kind of weird, ...

Films in India are routinely censored if there’s too much sex or violence. But now Indian officials are censoring a documentary for its anti-nationalist message. Bob talks to Anand Patwardhan, director of War and Peace.

There are two types of Native Americans on Hollywood sets: the scalping savage of Westerns, and the noble spiritual guide of more recent films. Luckily, Tinseltown isn’t the only place making movies. OTM’s Paul Ingles finds out how Hollywood holds up against independent releases in representing Native Americans.

Everyone has a sense of what it takes to pitch a movie to a studio executive: talk fast, compare it to two earlier blockbusters, and, if at all possible, think sequel. But that’s just the 9/10ths of it. In a groundbreaking report - think Watergate meets Tailwind - OTM’s Rex ...

There are 500 to 1500 film festivals worldwide. Some festivals turn small towns into film distribution factories, while others are salutes to specific genres, like silent flicks, while still others bring the blockbusters of Hollywood to isolated parts of the world. Bob talks with Los Angeles Times critic Kenneth Turan, ...

Police officers depicted on television often come with standard issue halos, but cops in movies have a grittier, less-than-saintly edge to them. Good or bad, though, one staple of all police dramas is that cops have to break the rules sometimes in order for justice to be served. Brooke talks ...

George Lucas’ epic saga of light sabers, death stars and ewoks is the popularized restoration of a timeless arc of storytelling: the myth. Actually, Star Wars has less to do with Lucas’ intense interest in comparative mythology than in the science fiction he read growing up. So argues Salon.com writer ...

Sports network ESPN’s original movie debut this weekend features a red-sweater-clad Brian Dennehy tossing around swears and chairs in his portrayal of controversial college basketball coach Bobby Knight. Does this fictional account of a newsmaker ESPN frequently covers taint the journalistic integrity of the sports news station? Bob asks ESPN ...

Shortly after the brutal, racially motivated murder of James Byrd in Jasper, Texas, a film crew came to town to document the lives of the residents. The filmmakers split the crews and those they interviewed along racial lines in order to capture the dueling perspectives in the small southern town. ...