The countdown ticks down to the 62nd Annual Emmy Awards this evening. Host Jimmy Fallon is reaching out to the Twitter community to help introduce the night’s presenters in many of the top categories, where final voting is expected to be fierce. With Betty White already winning a 5th career Emmy for her memorable ‘Saturday Night Live’ performance, the Academy justly rewarded a living legend and a fan favorite. New this week on Amazon VOD and DVD (soon on iTunes) is a look at the life and career of another entertainment trailblazer – Gertrude Berg. Director Aviva Kempner’s YOO-HOO MRS. GOLDBERG puts the spotlight on the Best Actress Emmy award winner who took her talents as creator, writer and star of the long-running radio show The Goldbergs and produced one of television’s first-ever sitcoms. The woman who made Molly Goldberg a household name during the Great Depression and for many years after was the Lucy and Oprah of her time.
NEW THIS WEEK:
YOO-HOO, MRS. GOLDBERG
Offers a humorous, captivating tribute to one of the most successful and innovative women in American broadcasting history – Gertrude Berg. Includes interviews with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, actor Ed Asner, producers Norman Lear (All in the Family) and Gary David Goldberg (Family Ties), and NPR correspondent Susan Stamberg.
Available on Amazon VOD and DVD.
THE AGE OF STUPID
In the desolate future of 2055, an archivist (Pete Postlethwaite) combs through a vast collection of videos to learn what went wrong with the planet. His research points to the first decade of the century, when humans blithely ignored the warning signs of climate change. The footage he views is actually culled from real-life interviews conducted by the filmmaker, whose sharp — and darkly funny — insights populate this sobering documentary.
Available on Netflix, Amazon VOD and DVD.
PRIVATE (Drama)
A thrilling mystery based on the New York Times best-selling novels by Kate Brian. Reed Brennan can’t believe her good luck when she’s accepted to exclusive Easton Academy. Life on campus is an endless parade of cute boys, parties, and special privileges, but nothing at Easton is quite what it seems. With a dangerous romance, shocking discoveries and dark secrets ahead of her, Reed will be lucky if she survives her first semester.
Available on iTunes, Amazon VOD and DVD.
FREEDOM FRIES (Documentary)
A whimsical look at patriotism and consumerism in America. It explores the absurdity of many of the symbolic gestures that have recently pervaded our culture, such as the wasting of perfectly good French Wine.
OFF AND RUNNING (Documentary)
With white Jewish lesbians for parents and two adopted brothers, Brooklyn teen Avery, a local track star in high school, grew up in a unique and loving household. But Avery’s curiosity about her African-American roots compels her to contact her birth mother, thrusting her into a complicated exploration of race and identity that threatens to distance her from her family.
Available on iTunes.
FOUR SEASONS LODGE (Documentary)
Follow a group of Holocaust survivors during what may be their final summer together at a bungalow colony in the Catskill mountains. Directed by New York Times journalist Andrew Jacobs, with beautiful cinematography by a team of filmmakers including Albert Maysles, the verite film explores the power of friendship and the drive to find joy despite painful memories. It is a counterintuitive Holocaust documentary: a fusion of ribald humor, stories of unimaginable loss, the last of the Borscht Belt crooners, and a family made entirely of friends and lovers. The characters dance, flirt, and fight as the fate of their community hangs in the balance.
Available on iTunes.
THE TIGER NEXT DOOR (Documentary)
Tracks Dennis Hill over the months that follow a surprise government inspection as he fights to keep the animals he claims to love. It also uncovers the intricate web of commerce and government laxity that keep breeders like Hill in business. What finally becomes exposed is the widespread attitude that humans are indeed lords of the animal kingdom.
Available on iTunes.
