The Pulpmovies Trailer Park

Heckler is a comedic feature documentary exploring the increasingly critical world we live in. After starring in a film that was critically bashed, Jamie Kennedy takes on hecklers and critics and ask some interesting questions of people such as George Lucas, Bill Maher, Mike Ditka, Rob Zombie and many more. This fast moving, hilarious documentary pulls no punches as you see an uncensored look at just how nasty and mean the fight is between those in the spotlight and those in the dark.

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When Ossie Schectman, a Jewish kid from Brooklyn, made the first basket for the New York Knickerbockers back in 1946, who knew it was the precursor of today’s NBA? For Jewish immigrants, especially youth, sports played an important role in helping them assimilate. By the 1920s, almost all urban Jewish neighborhoods had a basketball team. When these teams evolved into professional leagues by the late 1940s, Jewish players and coaches led the way.

Though basketball was invented by Dr. James Naismith in Springfield MA, the game spread like wildfire through turn-of-the-century New York settlement houses and proved a perfect fit for urban Jewish kids. By the 1920s, basketball had become a staple of life in American Jewish communities, and many of the top teams grew out of these neighborhoods. The First Basket is the first comprehensive documentary to examine both the role that Jewish players had in the evolution of the game and the impact that basketball played in the assimilation of American Jews. The First Basket explores the profound influence that these Jewish pioneers had on the evolution of basketball as it grew from a game played with ash cans on tenement steps to the second most popular sport in the world.

In The First Basket, writer/producer/director David Vyorst and narrator Peter Riegert explore the little-known, yet very important, Jewish history of the game. Chock full of vivid anecdotes and distinctive characters, the film brings back famous as well as unsung basketball legends such as Red Auerbach, Red Holzman, Dolph Schayes, Red Sarachek, Barney Sedran, Eddie Gottleib, Abe Saperstein, Ossie Schectman (that above-mentioned kid from New York who scored the eponymous First Basket), Ralph Kaplowitz, Sammy Kaplan and many more. These legendary players of professional basketball became role models and heroes to generations of fans and changed the face and perception, to this very day, of Jews in all athletics.

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Pray the Devil Back to Hell is the gripping account of a group of brave women who demanded peace for Liberia, a nation torn to shreds by a decades-long civil war. The women’s historic achievement finds its voice in a narrative that intersperses interviews, archival images, and scenes of present-day Liberia together to recount the memories of a few of the women who were there.

In 2003, Liberia was a country devastated by decades of political dislocation, humanitarian crisis, and street-to-street urban warfare. Charles Taylor, then President of Liberia, had emptied the country’s pockets as creatively as any dictator in memory. His ascent to power led to the deaths of thousands of people and a nation in complete ruin.

Out of the wreckage, more than 2000 Christian and Muslim women throughout the country began to organize and banded together in an effort to bring an end to the fighting. At great personal risk, they protested creatively and persistently for peace in the worst days of brutal and protracted civil conflict.

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From the birth of a New York City downtown Ruso-disco phenomena, known as the Bulgarian Bar, to a non-stop touring marathon, with his band Gogol Bordello, Eugene Hütz takes us deep into his artistic foundation.

Gogol Bordello Non-Stop unfolds from 2001 to 2006, following Gogol’s steps from underground legends to international attention.

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In November of 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial court ruled gay marriage legal. Public outcry pushed conservative legislators to approve a constitutional amendment that would override the decision and take marriage away from the gay and lesbian couples but there is still hope.

Saving Marriage chronicles the two-year, long drama that unfolds as career politicians who stand up to their constituents and follow their hearts; seasoned lobbyists who see the dream of the gay rights movement suddenly within reach; and as the gay community spurs into action by an issue that could change their lives.

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In Black Metal: The Norwegian Legacy? Bill Zebub explores some of the subjects much deeper than usual.

The reason why the title includes the questionThe Norwegian Legacy? is that many Swedes have criticized Norwegian black metal for being inspired by Bathory, which was a Swedish band.

Expect to see plenty of amazing footage. But don’t expect to see a regurgitation of the same story repeated endlessly in false documentaries and by the charletans of the media.

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Filmed over three years, We Are Together tells the remarkable and moving story of a group of children who use music to overcome hardship and loss. It is the story of an orphanage, unlike one you’ve ever seen before, and of the drive of these remarkable young singers and their teachers to make it to London for a series of concerts.

Life has not been easy for 12-year-old Slindile, her siblings and her friends at the Agape Orphanage in South Africa, where most of the children have lost their parents to AIDS. But they are still kids and teenagers, bashful around boys, squabbling with each other. And when they lift their voices in song, something extraordinary happens.

As the kids at Agape orphanage continue to train for what they hope will be their big break, Slindile and her siblings are hit with more hard news - their oldest brother Sifiso, who has been sick for months, has AIDS.

With unforgettable kids, soaring music and a plot full of surprises, We Are Together arrives as a stirring and uplifting theatrical documentary.

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Once Upon a Time in Norway is an all-Norwegian documentary focusing on the early years of Norwegian Black Metal, from the start of Mayhem to the infamous period of the early nineties. It consists of interviews with Necrobutcher, Manheim, Messiah, Nocturno Culto, Tchort, Neddo, Gunnar Sauerman, Rolf Rasmussen, and others.

The film premiered at BIFF, the Bergen International Film Festival mid October 2007.

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Heavy Load is Lewes’ answer to the Ramones, a punk outfit subject to the inflammatory mix of ego, fantasy, and desire that fuels any emerging band. They’re also, uniquely, made up of musicians with and without learning disabilities, which makes the band’s survival a precarious negotiation between two different worlds: on the one hand the institutional timetable of day centres, work placements and social workers; on the other the chaotic slacker life of rehearsal rooms, studios and gigs.

Specialising in thrash covers of late 70’s punk – or punk versions of recent pop, Heavy Load is unlikely to have a top ten hit. ‘We like to take a classic song’ says guitarist Mick, ‘and crucify it’. Their cacophonic reinterpretation of Kylie’s Can’t Get You Out Of My Head possesses a frenzied anarchy that bears no resemblance to the disco original. Their howled version of the Troggs’ Wild Thing adds a psychotic menace that makes you forget that this was once a love song. On stage the band fizz with an energy that belies the expectations the world has of the ‘spaz’ or the ‘moron’ or the ‘idiot’. They survive through a combination of raucous energy, attitude and sheer volume.

Shot over two years when the band record their first album The Queen Mother’s Dead, the film is a comedy of conflicting ambitions capturing the sweat and romance of playing in a band as they move out of the ghetto of disability club nights to test whether their dreams can survive in the mainstream.

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Most twelve-year-olds are busy with friends, homework, and online chatting. So is Emily Hagins, but Emily found time to write and direct a feature-length zombie movie as well.

With the help of her mother as agent, crew, and biggest fan, Emily launches a two year adventure in genre filmmaking, complete with decapitations, disembowelments, and as many brain-sucking zombie sixth-graders as she can muster. Along the way, she battles the typical challenges of independent filmmaking. From budget shortfalls to self-doubt. And she does it all without a driver’s license.

Her journey is an enlightening look into a growing world of young moviemakers, bursting with enthusiasm and empowered by the digital age. Emily isn’t making her film for box office receipts. Her love of movies is the sole motivation. This is indie filmmaking at its purest.

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