Irish rockers U2 stood astride the music world as the 1980s gave way to a new decade. What casual fans couldn’t know was how close the band was from becoming, in the words of lead singer Bono, one of music’s biggest clichés.

They were talking about breaking up over “artistic differences.”

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The new Showtime documentary ‘From the Sky Down,’ debuting at 8 p.m. EST Oct. 29, recalls how the band’s 1991 album ‘Achtung Baby’ restored their faith in each other while cementing their rock god status.

The film may not convert those immune to the band’s arena rock anthems or those who find their socially conscious pose hypocritical given their affinity for tax shelters.

Frankly, director Davis Guggenheim (‘An Inconvenient Truth,’ ‘Waiting for ‘Superman”) isn’t interested in expanding the band’s fan base nor exploring universal themes. It’s a portrait of a band in crisis, one which focuses like a laser on how the U2 sound came to be.

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Last year, even as education reformers all across the country were turning cartwheels in celebration of Davis Guggenheim’s “Waiting for ‘Superman,’” I remained skeptical. I’ve been keeping tabs on the teacher unions for years, and understand how they work hand-in-glove with the Democratic Party. Since Guggenheim is a well-known liberal (who famously directed Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”), I was certain that “Superman” would tiptoe around the destructive influence Big Labor has on the education system.

Last fall, during some down time on a business trip to New York City, I finally gave in and bought a $13 ticket at a Times Square movie theater to watch “Waiting for ‘Superman.’” I was pleasantly surprised.

I’d gone in expecting Guggenheim to make excuses for the state of public education. Instead, Guggenheim grabbed the whole thing by the throat and didn’t let go.

He told stories of children who were victimized by a system that puts adults first. He told of union campaign contributions that go to politicians who, in turn, act as the teacher unions’ political puppets. He showed rowdy union rallies and rubber rooms and classrooms that were out of control.

I marveled that a mainstream (liberal) movie maker was exposing the sorry state of public education and the destructive nature of the well-heeled teacher unions.

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Each morning, wanting to believe in our schools, we take a leap of faith. —Davis Guggenheim 

Many moviegoers are upset that Waiting for “Superman” did not get an Oscar nomination.  I’m not.  I don’t need the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences to validate what I already know: our children’s education is in dire need of reform.  It is the sad truth in America today and if you don’t believe it, then please stop reading this piece.  I mean it.  Do some research and then rejoin the conversation.  

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Director, Davis Guggenheim, immediately grabbed my attention with his opening voiceover.  For several years now, I’ve been taking that same leap of faith as I drop my son off at his public elementary school in the Los Angeles Unified School District.  I turned a blind eye to the fact that LAUSD’s own report card shows that only 55% of its 5th graders are proficient at math and only 48% are proficient at reading.   For some reason, I believed they would be able to properly educate my son.  I was wrong.  Fortunately, like Guggenheim, I have options.  My husband and I have decided to home school our son.  This is where America is split—there are families that don’t have options.  In that sense, we are not equal.  However, I believe that there should be opportunity and choices—especially when it comes to raising the future of America. 

Instead of talking about why the film was snubbed, let’s talk about why this is the most important film of my child’s generation.  Could you imagine if every adult in America watched this movie?  They would take to the streets and protest the injustice that is being done to our children.  Apparently, not enough people have seen it and they are, instead, busy taking to the streets to protect the public unions that are among the primary reasons these kids can’t get a decent education.  Priorities people!  Our children should be our greatest priority—not job security and not the collective bargaining that gives job security to awful teachers. 

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Liberal Oscar-winner (“An Inconvenient Truth”) Davis Guggenheim’s latest, “Waiting For Superman,” didn’t score an Oscar nomination. The cover story being floated is that it may contain inaccuracies. However, a look at several of the documentaries that were nominated demonstrates what a farce that charge is.

Guggenheim’s real crime was breaking with liberal dogma. The documentary takes on unions and is supportive of Charter schools. Significant issues with documentaries that were nominated makes it glaringly obvious that propaganda trumps facts and reality, even when it comes to documentaries in Hollywood:

What he found in his two years of researching “Waiting for Superman” (with co-producer Lesley Chilcott) was that a lot of schools aren’t right for any kids — neither the dull ones who need gentle prods to move competently from K to 12, nor the underprivileged bright ones who could be the Geoffrey Canadas of the future, if only a good charter school had enough slots to accept them all.

“Exit Through the Gift Shop” received a nomination despite many published concerns as to whether the film is even based upon reality, or simply a work of art. To invoke Al Gore, there seems to be no real consensus as to whether it even qualifies as a documentary. Clearly the academy was more captivated by the subject matter, street art, than concerns over a film’s reputation for integrity:

Much of the controversy surrounding the street art documentary Exit Through the Gift Shop surrounds whether the movie is real, or a prank. At ZUG, pranks and hoaxes are our business; after careful analysis, here’s our best guess.

IS THE MOVIE A PRANK? Yes and no. We think it starts out as a legitimate documentary, with Guetta intending to create a film about street artists. But it eventually becomes clear that he is a very bad filmmaker, and that is where the story begins to diverge from reality.

SO IF GUETTA IS SINCERE IN THE FIRST PART, AND ACTING IN THE SECOND PART, IS HE JUST A REALLY GOOD ACTOR? That part, admittedly, is a bit of a mystery.

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It’s never a good day when one of the most wicked organizations on the planet is pleased by anything. But how could America’s teachers unions not have been thrilled with the news that Davis Guggenheim’s damning indictment of the devastation they have brought down upon America’s public school system and millions upon millions of children was snubbed by the Academy this morning?

Objectively, from a pure documentary filmmaking point of view, “Waiting for Superman” is a superbly crafted piece of cinematic advocacy that not only displays great humanity for its subjects but also effortlessly takes the audience through a complex argument. That is what great documentaries do and as someone who has openly praised Michael Moore’s films, unlike some, I can park my politics at the door when it comes to judging the quality of the work based on objective merits. Furthermore, “Superman” is incredibly persuasive in making its case for charter schools and against the abomination of public school teacher tenure. With compassion and an intellectual scalpel, Guggenheim finally puts to rest the liberal lie that “certain” kids can’t learn and that public schools lack funding. 

“Superman” is both a Road to Damscus moment for its creator, a liberal who won the Academy-Award for directing Al Gore’s Global Warming nonsense “An Inconvenient Truth,” and a stake in the heart of the borderline racist myths perpetuated by teachers unions, the Democratic politicians beholden to them, and a media unwilling to upset that cozy narrative even as millions of impoverished inner-city kids are doomed to failure year in and year out. Going in with one set of beliefs and coming out with another, Guggenheim discovered and had the moral courage to tell the world that in schools free from the appalling manipulations of astonishingly selfish teachers unions, poor, black children can learn. Someone just has to give enough of a damn to worry about the fate of innocent children more than how much they’re being overpaid to fail.

The film’s single most persuasive element, however, is Guggenheim himself, a card carrying, bona fide lefty. As I mentioned in my review, the film is a Nixon goes to China moment. A conservative making the exact same documentary would’ve been completely ignored. These truths needed to be told by a man like Guggenheim and now I fear he’s learning another truth — the price a political apostate pays in Hollywood for straying off  the liberal plantation.

To their great credit, even film critics nominated and awarded ”Waiting for Superman” with the prize for this year’s best documentary. (more…)

I sat down with Davis Guggenheim recently when he came to Washington, D.C. to promote his new documentary, “Waiting for ‘Superman,” a compelling, revealing look at what’s wrong with education in America (see John Nolte’s review of the film). 

For those who’ve seen it, one of the most striking things about the film is that it comes from the man behind “An Inconvenient Truth.” So how did the guy who is known for making a film championed by liberals just make a film that trashes one of the biggest supporters of liberal candidates? That’s what I wanted to find out. 

“I grew up in northwest,” Guggenheim began, speaking of his home in North West D.C. “When I was just a kindergartner, I remember asking my mom, ‘Why do I take a bus across the Potomac into Virginia’” to go to school. His mother’s response: “Because the schools in D.C. are broken.” 

And they still are, 40 years later, he pointed out. And not just in D.C., but across the nation. “40 years later I’m driving my kids past two public schools to a private school,” he said. As a supporter of public education, he won’t send his own kids to a public school because he fears they won’t receive a good education. It’s these facts that drove him to make this film. 

I asked him about the political differences in the two films, “An Inconvenient Truth” and “Waiting for ‘Superman.’” Both stories focus on an issue bogged down by legislation and talking points. But both focus on something else: people.  (more…)

“It’s like turning the lights off in the middle of heart surgery.”

That’s how director Davis Guggenheim described the recent resignation of D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee in a recent interview with conservative talk show host Michael Medved. Rhee resigned after her political patron, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty, lost the Democratic primary in his re-election bid. Rather than deal with a boss whose support for strong school reform is less pronounced, Rhee will be leaving her position at the end of the month. Her departure is particularly tragic considering that her remarkable work is now being highlighted nationwide in Guggenheim’s film “Waiting for Superman.”

The title for the new documentary comes from one of the educators (Geoffrey Canada) featured in it. In his youth, Canada believed Superman existed and was saddened when told that wasn’t the case. Superman, he eventually realized, only existed in a fantasy world. For students who face disappointment and distress in our school system today, as things stand today, there is no one superman who will arrive to save them and fix the failures of public education.

“Waiting for Superman” explores the lives of several students who are trying to make it through the public school system. Many of these students are stuck in a system that does not work and they are forced into inferior schools where their opportunities for success after graduation are limited. One parent talks about the importance of her child having a career versus a job. She knows the difference between the two as she knows the difference between sending her child to a good school and a mediocre one. (more…)

What happens to an artist whose creative peak has long past? That is the question which looms like a sustained E chord over the new documentary It Might Get Loud, a strange and wonderful cinematic ode to the electric guitar by director Davis Guggenheim. whose previous credits include An Inconvenient Truth (don’t hold that against him).

It Might Get Loud’s central conceit is simple and elegant in principle, but surprisingly messy and complex on screen: Take three eminent guitarists of differing styles and generations, interview them individually, get them to open up about their relationship with their instrument and then, for the film’s climax, throw them together on a sound-stage surrounded by guitars and see what happens.

Guggenheim’s choice of guitarists is a surprising one that somehow makes sense; Jack White of The White Stripes and The Raconteurs (in his 30’s), The Edge of U2 (in his 40’s), and Jimmy Page of The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin (in his 60’s). (more…)

The sweet pretty things are in bed now of course. The city fathers, they’re trying to endorse, the reincarnation of Paul Revere’s horse. But the town has no need to be nervous. The ghost of Belle Starr, she hands down her wits, to Jezebel the nun, she violently knits. A bald wig for Jack the Ripper who sits, at the head of the Chamber of Commerce.

Mama’s in the factory, she ain’t got no shoes. Daddy’s in the alley, he’s lookin’ for food; I’m in the kitchen with the tombstone blues. “Tombstone Blues” – Bob Dylan

Perhaps the sudden death of pop icon Michael Jackson had many Hollywood stars contemplating their own future obituaries. But the industry, which has been strongly committed to promoting the dangers of man-made global warming, was strangely silent on the Waxman-Markey bill which squeaked though the House last week. The United States economy, i.e., actual real human beings who live in America, continues to suffer from the enormous Obama-lead government’s allocation of resources by massive deficit spending and taxes. The axis of deception changes with each specific fiscal proposal. (more…)