Year: 2014

I’m pleased to announce that the July edition of New Age News magazine containing my first article, Conscious Creation and the Silver Screen, is now available from the iTunes Store! Check out this jam-packed issue by clicking here ...

“Ivory Tower” (2014). Featured Experts: Richard Arum, Bennet Bergman, Jamshed Bharucha, David Boone, Brooke Brewster, Governor Jerry Brown, Kyrie Byer, Anthony Carnevale, Clayton Christensen, Michael Crow, Andrew Delbanco, Bob Estrin, Drew Faust, Stefanie Gray, John Hennessy, Anya Kamenetz, Daphne Koller, David Malan, Amirah Mitchell, Michael Roth, Lisa Rucinski, Victoria Sobel, Elizabeth Stark, Catherine Stevens, John Stuart, Peter Thiel, Sebastian Thurn, Ben Weeks. Director: Andrew Rossi. Writer: Andrew Rossi. Web site. Trailer. “Fed Up” (2014). Narrator: Katie Couric. Featured Experts: Kelly Brownell, President Bill Clinton, Senator Tom Harkin, Mark Hyman, David Kessler, Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, Robert Lustig, Michael Pollan, Michele Simon, Margo Wootan. Director: Stephanie Soechtig. Writers: Mark Monroe and Stephanie Soechtig. Web site. Trailer. Our everyday existence has many components that we consider essential for our personal growth, if not our very survival. Many times, however, we take these things for granted, giving little thought to them, including why they’ve taken the forms that they have (or that we’ve had a substantial hand in their realization). So, when these creations start to go awry, we’re often befuddled at how they’ve materialized as they have. “Why,” we rhetorically ask ourselves, “have these staples of existence assumed such unsuitable forms?” That’s a heady ...

“The Grand Seduction” (2014). Cast: Brendan Gleeson, Taylor Kitsch, Gordon Pinsent, Liane Balaban, Mark Critch, Mary Walsh, Matt Watts, Anna Hopkins (voice). Director: Don McKellar. Screenplay: Michael Dowse and Ken Scott. Web site. Trailer. Working together for the common good can be quite a challenge, especially when the deck seems stacked against us. However, with proper focus and intent, amazing results are possible as the residents of a small Canadian town find out for themselves in the delightful new comedy, “The Grand Seduction.” The tiny port town of Tickle Head, Newfoundland is a shadow of its former self. With the collapse of the cod industry, the once-proud village of hard-working fishermen, regrettably, has been reduced to a community of aging, unemployed welfare recipients. The locals begrudgingly accept their monthly government support checks to sustain themselves, but they’d much rather be earning their keep if the opportunity were to present itself. They hold out hope that something good will happen, but it seems like the odds are perpetually stacked against them. A glimmer of hope emerges, however, when the community learns it could be in line to become the site of a new petroleum product recycling plant. There’s just one catch ...

“Words and Pictures” (2013 production, 2014 release). Cast: Clive Owen, Juliette Binoche, Bruce Davison, Valerie Tian, Adam DiMarco, Josh Ssettuba, Willem Jacobson, Navid Negahban, Amy Brenneman, Janet Kidder, Christian Scheider, Andrew McIlroy. Director: Fred Schepisi. Screenplay: Gerald DiPego. Web site. Trailer. The call to create is a powerful force. Just ask any artist (or any devoted conscious creator), and you’ll see the passion that arises from within their souls. But what happens when those manifestation abilities come under fire? How do we carry on? Those are the challenges faced by a duo of impaired artists in director Fred Schepisi’s charming new romantic comedy, “Words and Pictures.” Which is more powerful – words or pictures? That’s a question that artists, philosophers and academicians have debated for eons. It’s also one that the students of an upscale prep school are grappling with thanks to the inspiration provided by two of their teachers, long-tenured English instructor Jack Marcus (Clive Owen) and newly arrived arts teacher Dina Delsanto (Juliette Binoche). But the friendly academic rivalry stoked by these two passionate advocates tells only part of the story of their relationship; there’s a lot more going on between these playfully feisty combatants. As the spirited ...

I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be back on the radio this weekend, when I’ll be a guest on “Tell Me Your Story,” with host Richard Dugan, on KZSB AM 1290 in Santa Barbara, CA. The broadcast airs Sunday June 22 at its new time, 10 pm ET, 7 pm PT, on KZSB’s web site or on the host’s web site. And, if you can’t catch the show on Sunday, listen to an expanded rebroadcast of the interview on Monday June 23 at 8 pm ET, 5 pm PT, on A2Zen.fm. Tune in for some lively chat! ...

Courtesy of my alma mater’s WordPress page: http://maxwellalumni.wordpress.com/2014/06/07/brent-marchant-78-ba-hist-publishes-his-second-book-consciously-created-cinema/ Thanks, Maxwell! ...