A New Mexico company’s hard-fought attempts to convert its cattle plant to a horse slaughterhouse was dealt a series of new blows Monday, with the state denying its wastewater permit and actor Robert Redford, former Gov. Bill Richardson and the state attorney general announcing plans to intervene in a lawsuit seeking to block a return to domestic horse slaughter. …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
By Gene Daily
There is a new Robert Redford movie out called “The Company You Keep.” For old people like me, it reminds me of the lessons taught in our youth. We were taught that you will be judged by the company you keep. For me, that phrase “the company you keep” was conveyed forcefully, especially by my Grandmother, the guiding influence on my life till her death.
For her, and many like her, it was imperative to surround yourself with people who would enrich your standing in the community. Your word, given over a handshake, was suppose to be stronger than any contract. To her, the only encumbrance upon that theory was your reputation, and your reputation was greatly impacted for the good or for the bad dependent upon The Company You Keep. Your previous conduct, added to those you were known to associate with and by your previous record of keeping your word, summed up how the small town I lived in saw you as a person. Thankfully, in my small town USA, your family background, while it played a part in how others perceived you, was limited as so many of us were economically regarded as poor but happy.
It seems to me that this ethic has lost most of its impact upon those who are now in the administration. In part, I suppose, this is part and parcel of growing up in what is now considered flyover country, a portion of the country whose opinion matters very little to those from the power centers such as Washington, LA, New York, and (lest we forget) Chicago. We must remember that the President matured in his political standing, surrounded and influenced by those leaders of the enlightened few in Chicago.
Perhaps we should again look at those enlightened few who have so influenced our “Great Leader” to find how this may have impacted his thoughts and actions since his arrival in the most powerful position in the world. What were their aims and motivations? What does history say about their reputations? And how should he be viewed in light of The Company He Keeps?
Bill Ayers, about whom there has been much comment but very little context, has admitted that he hosted Obama’s political coming-out party. Ayers is also a self-described revolutionary and an unrepentant terrorist. His only regret, according to his own lips, is they did not do enough bombing and other direct action. He was part of the Weather Underground Movement, around which the movie “The Company You Keep” is based. Part fiction and part fact, the movie conveniently leaves out their close ties to the Black Panthers Party and their group’s declaration of war against the United States. Bill Ayers was a founding member and leader of this group along with his wife Bernadine Dohrn. They were but two of the members who split from the Students For A Democratic Society, the original group founded upon the principles of bringing about a revolution in the USA and creating a communist society
From: http://www.westernjournalism.com/the-company-you-keep/
A Paris court has ruled to allow an auction of dozens of Native American tribal masks opposed by the Hopi tribe and its supporters including actor Robert Redford, and despite the U.S. government‘s plea for the sale to be delayed.
The potentially landmark decision with transatlantic repercussions means the planned sale can go ahead across town later Friday.
The auctioneer argued that blocking the sale would have tremendous implications and potentially force French museums to empty their collections. Arizona’s Hopi Indians insist the masks were stolen spiritual vessels — and want them back.
The striking masks feature surreal faces made from wood, leather, horse hair and feathers, painted in vivid colors.
The U.S. Ambassador to France on Thursday asked the French government and the auction house to delay the sale.
From: http://feeds.foxnews.com/~r/foxnews/world/~3/SDCXHqPq82w/
From the perspective of someone who never lived through it, there’s something romantic about the political idealism of the 1960s and ’70s. It seemed to be a time when there was great power in the voices of passionate young people, who would frequently storm the castle to have their say. The films of that time too, held real movie stars. Not just perfect-looking celebrities, but unique actors such as Robert De Niro, Diane Keaton, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino, Barbra Streisand, Robert Redford… icons of the screen who are unlike anyone we see working today. That’s probably why many of them are still working today.
Including Robert Redford, whose ninth film as a director, The Company You Keep, pairs old school movie actors with a story about radical ’70s protestors. The film is based on a novel by Neil Gordon, and tells a fictionalized account of the members of a real anti-war movement called the Weather Underground. As old news footage tells us at the beginning of the film, members of the Weather Underground were charged with plotting to blow up government buildings and for the accidental death of a security guard in a bank robbery gone awry.
Oscar winner Robert Redford talked about his role in the upcoming Captain America: The Winter Soldier while doing press his new movie, The Company You Keep.
Redfiord told ComingSoon that he plays ” the head of S.H.I.E.L.D.” Rumor has it his character’s name is Pierce.
Hero Worship: Redford in Captain America 2
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at IGN Movies
I don’t know if you guys know this, but one of the greatest things in the history of superheroes happened today (no, not the new ‘60s Batman comic, but that’s sweet too). The Natural, actor supreme, independent film champion, the Sundance Kid, and all-around American icon Robert Redford is in talks to be in Marvel’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
The report tells us that Redford will play a senior role within S.H.I.E.L.D. Of course, the Marvel Movie Universe has established that Sam Jackson’s Nick Fury is the Executive Director of the organization, but that doesn’t mean Redford’s character couldn’t be a former Director or someone in a lateral position. But since we don’t really know, I thought it’d be a fun change of pace for this column to speculate my heart out.
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at IGN Movies
Word has it that Hollywood icon Robert Redford is “in discussions” to join the cast of Marvel’s Captain America: The First Avenger. Marvel, how far you’ve come!
If he takes the job, Redford will play “a senior leadership role in S.H.I.E.L.D.” How senior, though? Isn’t Sam Jackson’s Nick Fury the boss of that super-spy agency? But how could Redford take orders from Jackson onscreen? That just doesn’t work.
Anyway, this report comes from Deadline, who speculate that Redford’s character would be likely to show up in other Marvel films just as Jackson has since his debut as Fury in Iron Man.
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at IGN Movies
By hnn
CHICAGO — She inspired a novel and a movie starring Robert Redford when in 1949 she lured a major league ballplayer she’d never met into a hotel room with a cryptic note and shot him, nearly killing him.
After the headlines faded, Ruth Ann Steinhagen did something else just as surprising: She disappeared into obscurity, living a quiet life unnoticed in Chicago until now, more than a half century later, when news broke that she had died three months earlier.
The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed Friday that Steinhagen passed away of natural causes on Dec. 29, at the age of 83. First reported by the Chicago Tribune last week, her identity was a surprise even to the morgue employees who knew about the 1984 movie “The Natural,” in which she was portrayed by actress Barbara Hershey….
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Source: FULL ARTICLE at History News Network – George Mason University
By Matt Cantor 
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home
By The Huffington Post News Editors
NEW YORK — The scene: a Manhattan art-house theater. The cause: a campaign against the gas drilling process known as fracking that’s being led by more than 100 celebrities, including Yoko Ono, Sean Lennon, Robert Redford, Mark Ruffalo and Mario Batali.
Outside, demonstrators in hazmat suits circle the theater. Inside, actress Scarlett Johansson attends a benefit screening of “Gasland,” the documentary film that has become the movement’s manifesto. Johansson tells The Associated Press that her “Avengers” co-star Ruffalo introduced her to the cause, and that she found the film “incredibly shocking.”
Read More…
More on Celebrity Activism
By Annalisa Solari Ever since Mr. F. Scott Fitzgerald created the legendary character Jay Gatsby, his casual cool sophistication and style has been something that men covet and women swoon over. Not surprisingly, the eternally dapper Robert Redford played the role of Gatsby in the movie rendition in the 1970’s and the remake scheduled to hit theaters this summer will star hunky heartthrob Leonardo DiCaprio. It is not good looks alone that make these men so desirable, as they both display an extra edge and masculine charm that has set them above the rest. The same can be said for the luxury collection by Robert Talbott inspired by The Great Gatsby….
via JustLuxe.com …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at JustLuxe: FineLiving
By Dorothy Pomerantz, Forbes Staff It’s going to be in the 80s today here in Los Angeles, but the real heat is in Park City, Utah, where the annual Sundance Film Festival is taking place. Robert Redford‘s celebration of all thing indie has been the launching pad for movies like Memento, Little Miss Sunshine and Big Night. Going into this year’s festival, many predicted a quiet market but there have already been some huge deals. Here’s a look at what you need to know coming out of Sundance.
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Forbes Latest
Film festivals can get off to a slow start. All that planning, all that travel booking for stars coming to pillage the gift suites, then everyone stands around waiting for a single movie, that big opening-night premiere, to get things rolling.
It’s a lot to ask of one movie to set a tone for scores of films to follow over a week and a half. The Cannes Film Festival practically put itself on suicide watch in 2008 by opening with the bleak plague drama “Blindness.” A year later, Cannes organizers lightened up and started with the warm-hearted animated tale “Up.”
The Sundance Film Festival, which begins Thursday, used to face a similar dilemma. How do you pick that one film to stand as torchbearer for the 120 movies to come?
Three years ago, Sundance founder Robert Redford and festival director John Cooper scrapped the glitzy opening-night premiere and jumped right into the competition lineup, the films that make up the heart of the independent-cinema showcase. Day one at Sundance now presents four features — one each from its main competitions of U.S. and world dramatic films and documentaries — plus a program of short films.
“It should not be one-size-fits-all. We decided we did not want everything to be centered on just the opening-night film,” Redford said. “We wanted to create as many spaces as possible to get the festival rolling. Let’s avoid a red-carpet, avoid anything that suggests this is the main event.”
Instead of one star-studded premiere, five separate screenings that give audiences a sampling of the diversity that Sundance is all about.
“We look collectively at those films to set the tone for what’s going to be unfolding over the next 10 days,” said festival programming director Trevor Groth. “It’s a pretty varied selection, so you do get a sense of the kind of different elements that make up the festival.”
Here’s a look at Sundance’s day-one feature films:
— “MAY IN THE SUMMER,” U.S. dramatic competition: Filmmaker Cherien Dabis, whose immigrant drama “Amreeka” premiered at Sundance in 2009, returns with a new star: Herself. In her acting debut, writer-director Dabis plays an American woman reuniting with her family in Jordan to plan her wedding — and rethinking marriage as she copes with dysfunctional relatives.
Dabis said that after “Amreeka,” people kept asking her if she wanted to act, and another director even cast her in a film. Unable to find just the right actress, Dabis put herself through the entire audition process and decided she was the woman to play the part.
Introducing “Amreeka” to Sundance audiences was one thing. Starting the festival is another.
Any opening-night jitters?
“Yes! I was so stunned when Cooper told me, and the first thing I thought was holy cow, day one. That’s a big responsibility. It is definitely nerve-racking,” Dabis said. “It’ll be a slightly different experience as a day-one film. It’s kind of nice, because it’s challenging me a little bit to go there and be ready to open the festival in a way, at least open the dramatic competition.”
— “TWENTY FEET FROM STARDOM,” U.S. documentary competition: Morgan Neville, whose 2011 Sundance entry “Troubadours” centered on superstars such as James Taylor, Carole King, Jackson Browne and Joni Mitchell, now looks at the hired hands — backup singers whose oohs and aahs prop up the voices at center stage.
What would music be without them?
“It would be out of tune,” Neville said. “Backup singers do a lot more than they get credit for, and particularly in the pop world, backup singers paper over a lot of mistakes when it comes to singing live. To me, it’s also like a whole dimension of soul and call and response in a way. A single singer is telling a singular story, but when you have backup singers, it’s a community, so you’re dealing with a much different, more compelling dynamic.”
— “CRYSTAL FAIRY,” world dramatic competition: It’s road-trip time for writer-director Sebastian Silva — who came to Sundance with 2009’s “The Maid” and 2011’s “Old Cats” and has a second festival film this time, the midnight chiller “Magic Magic.”
Silva’s day-one premiere stars Michael Cera as a smug, judgmental American who invites a free spirit calling herself Crystal Fairy (Gaby Hoffmann) on a mescaline quest through the Chilean desert, where he learns to shed his self-righteousness and she comes to accept her real self and leave the pixie behind.
So the keys to happiness are drugs and travel?
“Calling it a crowd-pleasing druggie road trip would be a very, very superficial take on it,” Silva said. “‘Crystal Fairy‘ is a great film for opening night, because it sort of lifts up your spirits. It’s a really fresh experience, and I think it’s a non-pretentious movie. But it’s not necessarily a happy ending, things are not necessarily happy and joyful. But it feels very real, and you sort of learn to be compassionate yourself as you go through the movie.”
— “WHO IS DAYANI CRISTAL?”, world documentary competition: First-time director Marc Silver and producer Gael Garcia Bernal dig into the mystery of a body found rotting in the Arizona desert, bearing a tattoo that reads “Dayani Cristal.”
Weaving between documentary segments and sequences featuring Bernal retracing the dangerous route many Mexicans take to reach the United States, they try to put a human face on a man who otherwise would have been another anonymous victim of the immigration battle.
So who is Dayani Cristal?
Something of an Everyman for millions who dream of a better life.
“What that body in the desert told me is why leave people leave home, how dangerous the journey is,” Silver said. “To rehumanize somebody who was dead and didn’t have an identity, and by the end of the film, you know him and his family, that really is the heart of the film. It’s a metaphor for many immigrants all over the planet.”
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Online:
https://www.sundance.org/festival
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News
