DVD Dossier Blog: New Releases, Street Dates, Movie Reviews and Commentary

Art Folks Say Kid's Paintings Might Be A Hoax

An Official Selection of both the 2007 Toronto Film Festival and the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, "My Kid Could Paint That" documents the rise and fall of four-year old artist Marla Olmstead. The film will be brought to DVD on March 4th by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

In this thought-provoking documentary, Director Amir-Bar-Lev tracks the overnight celebrity of little Marla Olmstead, a toddler who creates gallery-worthy paintings on the dining room table of her family home.

According to her parents, Mark and Laura Olmstead, Marla began painting when she was only two. By the time she was four, her work had been exhibited at a gallery and she was profiled in The New York Times. Critics compared her work with Jackson Pollock’s and sales of her paintings reached $300,000.

But, sadly, the bubble burst.

When a 2005 profile by “60 Minutes” suggested that Marla had help making her paintings, the finger is pointed at her father, an amateur artist and night manager at Frito Lay. Almost overnight, her family is ensnared in a web of accusation and denial - with the burden of proof placed squarely in their lap.

Is Marla a child prodigy or an innocent victim of a hoax?

Bonus features will include deleted scenes, a mini-documentary with Michael Kimmelman, chief art critic for the New York Times, follow-up interviews and a Q & A from the Sundance Film Festival.

The Suggested Retail Price will be $24.96, although this should be widely available for less than nineteen dollars.

Pre-order "My Kid Could Paint That" now and save 25%.

A Documentary You Can't Refuse

Warner Home Video will bring "Brando: The Documentary" to DVD on October 9th.

This critically-acclaimed  documentary premiered on Turner Classic Movies in May and pieces together decades of Brando’s performances with rare, never-before-seen footage and a series of original, in-depth interviews with family members, childhood friends and a host of his Hollywood peers and co-stars, including Johnny Depp, Robert Duvall, Jane Fonda, Dennis Hopper, Edward Norton, Al Pacino, Sean Penn, Martin Scorsese, John Travolta and Jon Voight.

The result is a captivating look at Marlon Brando, one of the most legendary talents of the 20th century.

"Brando" will be released as a 2-Disc set at the Suggested Retail Price of $19.97, but we expect most stores will be selling this for about $15.00.

Pre-order "Brando: The Documentary" now and save 25%.

Time To Retool Reliance On Fossil Fuel

"A Crude Awakening," from award-winning European journalists and filmmakers Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack, tells the story of how our civilization's addiction to oil has put it on a collision course with geology.

The film will come to DVD on July 31st, distributed by Docurama.

This intensively-researched documentary drills deep into the uncomfortable realities of a world that is both addicted to fossil fuels and blissfully unaware of the looming "peak oil" crisis.

For 150 years, "black gold" has fueled unparalleled prosperity, but soon, the world's oil fields will be depleted, and we'll all be in for "A Crude Awakening." Visiting with the world's top experts, the film arrives at a startling, but logical conclusion - our industrial society, built on cheap and readily available oil, must be completely re-imagined and overhauled in order to survive.

Supported by a powerful mix of archival footage, NASA shots of burning oil fields, historical film excerpts and a score by Phillip Glass, "A Crude Awakening" guides viewers on a frightening journey of discovery -  from Houston and London to Central Asia's secretive republic of Azerbaijan.

The film includes in-depth interviews with retired British petroleum geologist Colin Campbell, chairman and CEO of Simmons & Company International and a prominent oil-industry insider Matt Simmons, House Representative (R) Roscoe Bartlett, physicist and educator David Goodstein, lawyer and author Matt Savinar, political science professor and scholar Terry Lynn Karl, former acting secretary general of OPEC and Iraqi oil minister Fadhil Chalabi, ex-CIA official and Bush Administration adviser Robert Ebel and many others, as conventional wisdom about this looming crisis is debunked, putting the very future of our industrialized planet in doubt.

The Suggested Retail Price will be $26.95, but most stores will be selling this for about twenty bucks.

Pre-order "A Crude Awakening" now and save 26%.

Guitar Star

The legendary Les Paul, father of the solid-body electric guitar, inventor of overdubbing and multi-track recording, king of the '50s pop charts, rock 'n' roll pioneer, tells his own rags-to-riches story in "Chasing Sound: Les Paul At 90," a performance-documentary by filmmakers John Paulson and James Arnts.

The film, to be distributed by Koch Vision, will debut on DVD August 14th, following its July 11th national TV premiere on the PBS "American Masters" series.

With the help of B.B. King, Bonnie Raitt, Jeff Beck and Tony Bennett, along with industry pioneer Ahmet Ertegun, Les Paul narrates his life story in this new documentary. The soundtrack features his "greatest hits" with rare and exclusive performances by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, Elvis Presley and many others.

The "Chasing Sound: Les Paul At 90" DVD will contain over 90 minutes of bonus material exclusive to the home video and not part of the "American Masters" program. Included will be extended footage of Les at his 90th Birthday Celebration jamming with notable guests: Tony Bennett, Keith Richards, Steve Miller, Tommy Emmanuel, Merle Haggard, Kay Starr, Chet Atkins, and others, recorded live at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City.

Also included will be a discussion with Paul about his pioneering inventions, a featurette about Gibson Guitars and the Les Paul model that made the company famous, and rare television appearances from the early '50s.

The film will be presented in widescreen with audio in English (Dolby 5.1).

The Suggested Retail Price will be $24.98.

Pre-order "Chasing Sound: Les Paul At 90" now and save 10%.

What Began In The Sudan Ends With An American Plan

"God Grew Tired Of Us" will arrive on DVD August 14th, distributed by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Narrated by Nicole Kidman, "God Grew Tired Of Us" won the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, the Canal Plus Prize at the 32nd Deauville Festival of American Film, and is "recommended family entertainment" by the Dove Foundation.

The documentary explores the indomitable spirit of three "Lost Boys" from the Sudan who are forced to leave their homeland due to a tumultuous civil war. The film chronicles their triumph over seemingly insurmountable adversities and a relocation to America, where they build active and fulfilling new lives but remain deeply committed to helping friends and family left behind.

Orphaned by a tumultuous civil war and traveling barefoot across the sub-Saharan desert, John Bul Dau, Daniel Abol Pach and Panther Blor were among the 25,000 "Lost Boys" (ages 3 to 13) who fled villages, formed surrogate families and sought refuge from famine, disease, wild animals and attacks from rebel soldiers.

Named by a journalist after Peter Pan's posse of orphans who protected and provided for each other, the "Lost Boys" traveled together for five years and against all odds crossed into the UN's refugee camp in Kakuma, Kenya. A journey's end for some, it was only the beginning for John, Daniel and Panther, who along with 3800 other young survivors, were selected to re-settle in the United States.

Special features will include commentary from the director Christopher Dillon Quinn and the the "Lost Boys," deleted scenes, outtakes and two featurettes: *Lost Girls of Sudan" and "Where are they Now?"

This award-winning, critically acclaimed film was produced by the actors Brad Pitt and Dermot Mulroney and will be presented on DVD in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) with audio in English (Dolby 5.1), along with subtitles in English and Spanish.

The Suggested Retail Price will be $24.96, although most stores will be selling this for less than nineteen dollars.

Pre-order "God Grew Tired Of Us" now and save 25%.

"Welcome Back" To John Sebastian & His Lovin' Pack

During the 1960's music from the British Invasion topped the charts but one New York folk band proved that the new revolution was not the only source for popular music.

In August of 1965, The Lovin' Spoonful, made up of John Sebastian, Joseph Campbell Butler, Steve Boone and Zal Yanovsky, made music history with their first single debut of "Do You Believe in Magic." The song instantly became a smash hit and made the quartet a household name across the nation.

More than four decades later, the band's impact on popular music will be celebrated with the DVD premiere of "Do You Believe In Magic: The Music Of John Sebastian & The Lovin' Spoonful," distributed by SRO Entertainment.

Currently airing on public television stations and due on DVD July 31st, the program is hosted by John Sebastian himself and presents an in-depth profile of the band, its members and their music. The program features ten full-length classic TV performances of their chart-topping hits and bonus features on the DVD will include interviews, tributes and commentary with Sebastian.

This nostalgic DVD will include the group's original performances of their most popular songs: "Do You Believe In Magic," "You Didn't Have to Be So Nice," "Daydream," "Did You Ever Have To Make Up Your Mind," "Rain On The Roof," "Summer In The City," "Nashville Cats," "She's Still a Mystery," "Darling Be Home Soon," plus John Sebastian's solo performance of "Welcome Back," the theme somg from the '70s sitcom "Welcome Back, Kotter."

The Suggested Retail Price will be  $19.99.

Pre-order "Do You Believe In Magic: The Music Of John Sebastian & The Lovin' Spoonful" now and save 10%.

Victor's Missing; Those He Knew Start Reminiscing

Montreal filmmaker Sophie Deraspe's first feature, "Missing Victor Pellerin" will hit store shelves on June 5th, the first of many original indie titles to be released by Atopia.

"Missing Victor Pellerin" is the story of a young painter and darling of the art scene who, in 1990, burns his work and disappears without a trace. Fifteen years later, Deraspe revisits the events that led to his disappearance, meeting the people who knew him, and who succumbed to his troubled personality.

Alternating between documentary and cinema vérité, "Missing Victor Pellerin" takes a close look at this charismatic character, exploring the contradictory points of view of those who knew him.

"Missing Victor Pellerin" has played in numerous international festivals and received a Special Mention by the Jury for it's unique and innovative directorial style at the 35th Festival of New Cinema in Montreal.

The film will be presented in widescreen with audio and subtitles in French and English, along with separate audio commentaries (in both French and English) with director Sophie Deraspe and members of the cast and crew.

The Suggested Retail price will be $24.98, although most stores will be selling this for about $17.00. If yours is not among them, then shop here.

Pre-order "Missing Victor Pellerin" now and save 32%.

The Derivation of Blaxploitation

Image Entertainment will bring "How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (And Enjoy It)" to DVD June 5th. The film, a feature-length documentary on the American black cultural icon Melvin Van Peebles, also airs tonight on IFC at 10:30 PM ET.

Humorous, serious and incisive, "How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (And Enjoy It)" vividly recounts Melvin Van Peebles' life through interviews with colleagues, contemporaries, critics, family, and friends.

Utilizing archival footage, the film constructs a gripping narrative of a restless artist in an often unforgiving world, and reveals that the 74-year old Van Peebles is still a vital creative force who shows no signs of slowing down.

Van Peebles is a filmmaker with a history that's as fascinating as any of his motion pictures. This award-winning documentary (which includes interviews with Spike Lee, Mario Van Peebles, Gil Scott-Heron, Gordon Parks and others) is a carefully-crafted tale of how Van Peebles ended up making one of the most controversial movies in American history, "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song," the film that sparked the Blaxploitation era in Hollywood.

The film premiered in 2005 at the Full Frame Documentary Festival and was also screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, the Los Angeles Film Festival, and the Chicago International Film Festival and at the 2006 Film Forum in New York.

Special features on the DVD will include Van Peebles' Channel 5 TV News Commentaries (New York City, 1985), and Roadkill Featuring Brer Soul: Live at Fez (New York City, 1998), performing Van Peebles' songs "You Cut Up the Clothes in the Closet of My Dreams" and "Lilly Done the Zampoughi Everytime I Pulled Her Coattail".

The Suggested Retail Price will be $19.99.

Pre-order "How to Eat Your Watermelon in White Company (And Enjoy It)" now and save 10%.

Ahmad Squad

Just in time for Father's Day, Warner Home Video and the National Basketball Association will team up to provide an exclusive "all-access pass" to your favorite NBA players and teams.

"NBA All-Access with Ahmad Rashad," debuting on June 5th, will take an in-depth look at the real-life drama and intriguing stories of the most fascinating teams, players and coaches in the NBA.

Hosted by Ahmad Rashad, this new DVD will take you on a journey prior to the start of training camp, all the way to the celebration of an NBA Championship, going beyond the bright lights of the arena into the huddles and behind the locker room doors.

"NBA All-Access with Ahmad Rashad" documents a typical NBA game day by following the Milwaukee Bucks for an entire day, leading up to a game that night against the Phoenix Suns.

The DVD will include scenes with NBA superstars Ben Gordon of the Chicago Bulls, Jason Terry of the Dallas Mavericks, Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets and Allen Iverson of the Denver Nuggets (among many  others).

A complete list of DVD features follows after the jump.

The Suggested Retail Price will be $19.98.

Pre-order "NBA All-Access with Ahmad Rashad" now and save 10%.

The Biology of Theology

Susan Sarandon narrates the feature-length documentary "Secrets of the Code," debuting on DVD June 5th from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

Based on writer Dan Burstein's best-selling book of the same name, this documentary looks at the controversy in the bestselling novel and blockbuster film "The Da Vinci Code" and explores of some of the world's greatest mysteries.

The documentary examines the importance of religion in today's world and also tours the mysteries surrounding the ancient signs and symbols, the true identity of Mary Magdalene, Leonardo da Vinci, the Gnostic Gospels, the meaning of the search for the Holy Grail in history, and the facts concerning the so-called secret societies including the Freemasons, Priory of Sion and Opus Dei.

The film includes interviews and commentary by renowned scholars, theologians, scientists and historians, including Timothy Freke, Richard Leigh, Sean Martin and Elaine Pagels.

The film will be presented in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) with audio in English (Dolby 5.1), along with English and French subtitles.

The Suggested Retail Price will be $24.96.

Pre-order "Secrets of the Code" now and save 12%.

Stories That Made The Decade

MPI Home Video brings "The Fabulous '60s" - a series of TV documentaries narrated by the late Peter Jennings - to DVD today.

"The Fabulous '60s" takes a kaleidoscopic look back at this most turbulent of decades, ten years that began in hope with man’s exploration of space and the election of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, youngest President of the United States… and ended in a welter of Cold War intrigue, political assassination, civil unrest, student demonstration and U.S. involvement in unpopular war.

This year-by-year scrapbook is presented in a 4-Disc boxed set.

The Suggested Retail Price is $39.98.

The Bureaucracy & Hypocrisy Of Democracy

The controversial and acclaimed HBO documentary "Hacking Democracy," already widely distributed for free on the internet (although Google Video no longer has it), will arrive on DVD tomorrow from Docurama Films.

For years, the rallying cry to American citizens has been "Every vote counts," but since 2000, Americans have had to wonder what happens to their votes after they've been cast.

"Hacking Democracy" suggests the possibility that our votes may be tampered with even before we enter the polls. Following grandmother and literary publicist turned election-reform activist Bev Harris as she unearths hundreds of incidents of mishandled voting information, the film puts the system to the test, with extremely unsettling results.

In 2002, the Seattle-based Harris queried local officials as to why they had acquired electronic touch screen systems for their elections. Unsatisfied with the explanation, she set out to learn about electronic voting machines on her own.

In the course of her research - which took her from the trash cans of Texas to the secretary of state of Florida - she uncovered hundreds of reported discrepancies and incidents of voting mismanagement. She also stumbled across an "online library" of the Diebold Corporation, the company responsible for counting approximately 40% of the votes nationwide in 2000. And it was here that she discovered a treasure trove of proprietary information about the "secretive" inner-workings of the company's supposedly fail-safe voting system.

Realizing that the issue reached far beyond her county, she drew on the expertise of computer science experts, politicians and activists and quickly discovered that election tampering can go far beyond failing to count votes or electoral ineptitude.

David Dill, professor of computer science at Stanford, says the problem is that there are "lots of people involved in writing the software, and lots of people who could have touched the software before it went into that machine. If one of those people put something malicious in the software and it's distributed to all of the machines, then that one person could be responsible for changing tens of thousands of votes, maybe even hundreds of thousands, across the country."

Originally aired on HBO last November, "Hacking Democracy" has met with favorable response from critics and audiences alike, and ruffled the feathers of David Byrd, the president of Diebold Election Systems, Inc., who wrote to HBO asking them to remove the show from its schedule.

Electronic voting machines count about 87% of the votes casts in America today... regardless of whether you hail from a Red state or a Blue state, there is no doubt that this investigation has far-reaching implications for all Americans.

The Suggested Retail Price for "Hacking Democracy" is a hefty $26.95, with few discounts, which suggests that they may expect this film will have greater success as a rental, rather than as a sell-through title.

Torture In Iraq: Approved Or Ad Hoc?

In Rory Kennedy's eye-opening documentary "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib," unsettling photos, graphic news footage and eyewitness accounts tell the story of abuse and torture at Iraq's notorious Abu Ghraib prison.

"Ghosts of Abu Ghraib," due on June 5th from HBO Video, is the first film covering the widely reported events at the Baghdad Correctional Facility, featuring actual testimony from the abusers, witnesses and Iraqi victims themselves.

This unsettling and powerful film premiered on HBO in February to great critical acclaim and was honored as an Official Selection during the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.  On DVD, "The Ghosts of Abu Ghraib" will feature a new audio commentary by Kennedy and over 30 minutes of never-before-seen footage.

In April 2004, numerous accounts of prisoner mistreatment at Abu Ghraib prison surfaced, stunning the public and further damaging the credibility and public image of the United States and its allies. While the White House and Pentagon claimed that the situation at Abu Ghraib was "a kind of animal house on the night shift," other on-site participants and observers maintain that the abuses at Abu Ghraib were part of a general pattern of a "gloves off" interrogation policy that had been put in place after 9/11.

In "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib," from HBO Documentary Films, Rory Kennedy looks beyond the headlines to investigate the psychological and political context in which torture occurred, through first-time interviews with Iraqi victims and guards directly involved in torture at the prison.

"It's easy to sit back in America or in different countries and say, 'Oh, I would have never done that,' but, until you've been there, let's be realistic: You don't know what you would have done." - Abu Ghraib MP

The familiar and disturbing pictures of torture at Abu Ghraib raise many disturbing questions: How did torture become an accepted practice at the facility? Did U.S. government policies make it possible? How much damage has the aftermath had on America's credibility as a defender of freedom and human rights around the world?

Ultimately, the film raises serious questions about what happened, why it happened and whether it was an isolated incident, as the government continues to maintain. With "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib," you'll have the opportunity to look beyond the headlines to investigate the real-world ramifications of this intensely troubling, eye-opening and relevant subject.

The film will be presented in widescreen (1:66:1) with audio in English.

The Suggested Retail Price will be $24.98.

Pre-order "Ghosts of Abu Ghraib" now and save 10%.

What Father Taught Her Is Filmed By Daughter

New Yorker Films will bring the acclaimed documentary "My Father, The Genius" to DVD on April 10th.

The film explores the life of lesser-known green architect Glen Howard Small and the framework within which he has built his career and family. Director and daughter Lucia Small cleverly examines the subject matter with wit and humor.

When estranged father, dreamer, and visionary architect bequeaths his daughter the task of writing his biography, she answers instead with a provocative film about his precarious career and thorny private life.

At 31, Glen Howard Small was a rising star. At 61, he can barely pay his bills. Filmmaker Lucia Small digs deep to explore the delicate tension between her father's obligations to family and his long passion to "save the world through architecture."

Pre-order My Father, The Genius" now and save 30%.

Passionate Doc Shares Secrets of Iraq

Laura Poitras' poignant documentary, "My Country, My Country," will arrive on DVD March 20th from Zeitgeist Films.

Ripped from today's headlines, "My Country, My Country" takes you deep inside the heart of war-torn Iraq in the months before the January 2005 elections. Nominated for Best Documentary Feature at this year's Academy Awards and Independent Spirit Awards, the film is a powerful portrait of the crisis in Iraq.

"My Country, My Country" delves behind the headlines on Fox or CNN to deliver real insight into the Iraqi state of mind and its citizens' reactions to the American presence in their country.

Working alone in Iraq over eight months, American filmmaker Laura Poitras follows Iraqi physician Dr. Riyadh, father of six and Sunni political candidate. An outspoken critic of the occupation, Dr. Riyadh is equally passionate about building democracy in Iraq. Yet all around him he sees only chaos, as his waiting room fills each day with patients suffering the physical and mental effects of ever-increasing violence.

Dramatically interwoven into his personal journey is the landscape of U.S. military occupation, Australian private security contractors, and the U.N. officials who orchestrated the elections. "My Country, My Country" captures the downward spiral of one man caught in the tragic contradictions of the Iraqi occupation and its project to spread democracy in the Middle East.

The film will be presented on DVD in anamorphic widescreen (1.85:1) with audio in Arabic, English and Kurdish, along with English subtitles.

Bonus extras will include the theatrical trailer, production notes and updates and "Abu Ghraib Inspection," a featurette incorporating additional footage from the notorious prison.

The Suggested Retail Price will be $26.99.

Pre-order 'My Country, My Country" now and save 10%.

Art World In Shock Over Mock Pollock

When a 73-year-old former long-haul truck driver with an eighth grade education bought a painting in a thrift shop for five dollars, she didn't know that it would pit her against the most powerful people in the art community – and perhaps forever change the way art is authenticated around the world.

"Who The #$&% Is Jackson Pollock?," due on DVD on May 1st from New Line Home Entertainment, documents a 15-year war with the art world’s inner circle, lifts the veil on how art is bought and sold in America and introduces audiences to the funny, profane and unforgettable Teri Horton.

When Horton bought a painting in a thrift shop, she was stunned when a friend told her that it looked like an original Jackson Pollock and could be worth millions. Working with a leading forensic scientist, Teri learned that a fingerprint on the back of her canvas matched a fingerprint found on a can of paint in Jackson Pollock's studio.

More research showed that paint on the floor of Pollock's studio matched the paint on Teri's canvas. Realizing that a Pollock painting the size of hers was worth upwards of $50 million, Teri thought she had won the lottery.

“Not so fast,” the art establishment answered, proclaiming her painting worthless.

This feature-length documentary captures the 15-year debate between the world’s most prestigious art collectors, authenticators and experts and the feisty, 73 year-old grandma who would not give up.

The film will be presented in widescreen (2.35:1) with audio in English (Dolby Digital 5.1 and 2.0 Stereo Surround), along with closed captions and English and Spanish subtitles.

Written, produced and directed by Harry Moses, an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning "60 Minutes" veteran, "Who The #$&% Is Jackson Pollock?" will be available for the Suggested Retail Price of $27.95.

But who pays retail?

We expect this to go for about twenty dollars in most stores.

Pre-order "Who The #$&% Is Jackson Pollock?" now and save 28%.

You Have A Right To Be Pissed After You're Downsized & Dismissed

When actress Annabelle Gurwitch was fired from a play by Woody Allen she wondered how she would cope with being fired by a cultural icon. Turning to friends in show business, like Tim Allen, Andy Dick, Sarah Silverman and others, she was assured she was not alone.

Once the subject had been broached, everyone she knew from her rabbi and gynecologists to her colleagues had advice and shared their own accounts of getting the boot. Gurwitch parlayed these stories into a book, a play and a film called "Fired!," which will be released on DVD May 15th by Shout! Factory.

Also appearing in the film - and sharing their stories - are Andy Borowitz, David Cross, Tate Donovan, Illeana Douglas, Jeff Garlin, Judy Gold , Stephen Guirgis, Richard Kind, Anne Meara, Bob Odenkirk, Robert Reich, Jeffrey Ross, Harry Shearer, Ben Stein, Fisher Stevens, Paul F. Thompkins and Fred Willard.

The Suggested Retail Price will be $19.98, but most stores will knock a dollar or two off that SRP.

Pre-order "Fired!" now and save 10%.

Criterion Comes To Grips With Forgotten Films; Ships Eclipse

The Criterion Collection will launch its new "Eclipse" line of DVDs on March 27th with the release of the 5-Disc boxed set, "Early Bergman." This will be followed in April with a 6-Disc set called "The Documentaries of Louis Malle."

The mission statement for the new line says that "Eclipse presents a selection of lost, forgotten, or overshadowed films in simple, affordable editions. Each series is a brief cinematheque retrospective for the adventurous home viewer."

Each month, Eclipse will present a short series, usually three to five films, focusing on a particular director or theme. There will be no supplements and the master materials will be the best available, but they won't be full Criterion restorations.

Suggested Retail Prices should hover around $15 per disc.

"The goal is to make these films available, to make sure that Criterion's own work style doesn't contribute to the continuing unavailability of these films," said Peter Becker, President of the Criterion Collection in a prepared statement.

"Once our producers and restoration crew get started on a Criterion edition, the project takes on a life of its own. Months later, with a little luck, we'll have something really special to show for it, but at that rate we can't make a dent in the number of important unreleased films that we'd like people to be able to see."

The series will present rarely seen films such as "The Documentaries of Louis Male" - due out April 24th - and works from Mizoguchi, Naruse, Ozu, and Raymond Bernard, as well as filmmakers equally as important, if not as well known.

A complete rundown of the films included in the first two boxed sets follows after the jump.

"Early Bergman" will carry a Suggested Retail Price of $69.95, while the "Louis Male" documentary set  will go for $79.95. But like we always say, these prices are only suggestions. Actual "street prices" will vary, but could be as low as $63.00 and $56.00, respectively.

Pre-order "Early Bergman" now and save 10%.

Pre-order "The Documentaries of Louis Malle" now and save 30%.

Auto Erotica

Shout! Factory's new boxed set of public television's popular "Great Cars" series will arrive on February 27th.

It's the definitive home video experience for the automotive enthusiast, boasting more than nine hours of rare historical and documentary footage. The series delves into the history of the world's fastest, most expensive and most beloved automobiles, as well as the pioneering captains of industry who created them.

The stories of "Great Cars" are tales of money, power and some of the most inspired business leaders of the 20th Century: Henry Ford, Enzo Ferrari and Dr. Ferdinand Porsche.  Each program of the series profiles an individual car brand, including Corvette, Mustang, Cobra, GT-40, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz, Silver Arrows, BMW, Ferrari and Alfa Romeo. 

"Great Cars" examines why each car was designed, what the manufacturers tried to achieve and what impact the auto had upon society and our lives. 

Each disc will arrive loaded with extensive bonus material for each car, including newly-created featurettes, rare archive footage, vintage promotional films, home movies from the likes of Ferrari and  Porsche, and an exclusive look at future models and million-dollar concept cars.

A complete disc-by-disc breakdown appears after the jump.

The Suggested Retail Price on this one will be $44.98.

Pre-order "Great Cars" now and save 10%.

Not Too Long Ago In Ohio...

IFC Films and Genius Products will bring "...So Goes the Nation" to DVD next Tuesday, February 13th. The film is a riveting documentary that explores the way in which we elect our leaders.

Directed by James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo, "...So Goes the Nation" examines America's tumultuous electoral process through the eyes of diverse politicians, activists, and voters including actors Matt Dillon, Steve Buscemi, Hillary Swank, Fisher Stevens, Brendan Fraser and Joe Pantoliano.

The 2004 presidential election between George W. Bush and John Kerry provides the stage, showing how the voting public is manipulated by both parties' leaders and their political marketing machines. Political activism and the thoughts of voters themselves are revealed in the ultimate cross-section state: Ohio.

Politicos (from both sides of the aisle) appearing in the film include Bush and Kerry, Paul Begala, Ed Gillespie, Terry McAuliffe, Mary Beth Cahill and Ken Mehlman.

"...So Goes the Nation" was an Official Selection at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival.

On DVD, the film will be presented in widescreen, with audio in English.

The Suggested Retail Price will be $24.95, but most stores will be selling this for about $17.00.

Pre-order "...So Goes the Nation" now and save 32%.