On September 6th, 1972, five politically motivated Virgin Islanders murdered eight people at the Rockefeller-owned Fountain Valley Golf Course on the island of Saint Croix. Dubbed the Fountain Valley Massacre, the killings put the entire island on lockdown, and after a contentious trial, all five of the defendants were convicted. But on New Years Eve 1984, the group’s ostensible leader Ishmael Muslim Ali (formerly Labeet) hijacked an American Airlines plane and took asylum in Cuba where he still resides today. Now, award-winning director Jamie Kastner goes in depth into the murders, the subsequent trial, and the hijacking in his new documentary “The Skyjacker’s Tale,” which also features Ali’s first interview ever about the catastrophic events. Watch an exclusive clip from the film below.
Read More: Tiff Reveals First Slate of 2016 Titles, Including ‘Magnificent Seven,’ ‘American Honey,’ ‘La La Land’ and ‘Birth of A Nation’
Kastner is best known for...
Read More: Tiff Reveals First Slate of 2016 Titles, Including ‘Magnificent Seven,’ ‘American Honey,’ ‘La La Land’ and ‘Birth of A Nation’
Kastner is best known for...
- 9/6/2016
- by Vikram Murthi
- Indiewire
When filmmaker Jamie Kastner approached Bravo producer Charlotte Engel about making a documentary about the playwright Harold Pinter, Engel (rightly?) responded, “Nobody gives a shit about Harold Pinter anymore, how about a film on disco?” Kastner said, “Ok.” And The Secret Disco Revolution was born. What arises is Kastner’s examination of the disco movement as he muses (along with the interviewees) on whether this movement was sheer frivolity or an actual revolution.
By 1969, amidst race riots and the Stonewall raid, the civil rights and gay pride movements were in nascent form seeking more exposure and traction. R&B music was becoming overly politicized, too preachy and not very fun. And women were beginning to celebrate the female orgasm. Thus, as narrator Peter Keleghan puts it, the “masterminds” created disco.
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By 1969, amidst race riots and the Stonewall raid, the civil rights and gay pride movements were in nascent form seeking more exposure and traction. R&B music was becoming overly politicized, too preachy and not very fun. And women were beginning to celebrate the female orgasm. Thus, as narrator Peter Keleghan puts it, the “masterminds” created disco.
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- 6/28/2013
- by John Keith
- JustPressPlay.net
Might what we know as Disco actually contain hidden meanings, despite attempts by "revisionists" to re-shape it as as a misunderstood culture of protest? Through interviews with the likes of Gloria Gaynor, The Village People, Kool and the Gang, and others, along with a goldmine of stock footage and speculative reenactments, The Secret Disco Revolution presents a comical investigation into disco and its "mysterious longevity." A glittery pop journey into the moral-political-aesthetic soul of Disco, the most famously flakey pop form that will not die. From the current “silent disco” craze to evergreen concert queen Donna Summer, filmmaker Jamie Kastner bops verite-style from...
- 6/28/2013
- by Tambay A. Obenson
- ShadowAndAct
There's a brain-frying moment in writer-director Jamie Kastner's flawed, mildly entertaining documentary The Secret Disco Revolution in which members of the Village People vehemently deny that double entendres run rampant in songs like "In the Navy" and "Ymca." "They were just party songs," insists the exasperated Construction Worker. "There was no innuendo." Group delusion turns mean-spirited when the Native American sniffs, "Those guys [songwriter-producer Henri Belolo and the group's late impresario, Jacques Morali] couldn't write a double entendre." Cut to Belolo explaining that the late, openly gay Morali definitely and pointedly worked to bring post-Stonewall liberated queer maleness to the mainstream with his most popular creation. That moment crackles in the film,...
- 6/27/2013
- Village Voice
Check out what's new to rent and own this week on the various streaming services such as cable On Demand, Amazon, iTunes, Vudu, and, of course, Netflix. Cable On Demand: Same-day-as-disc releases, older titles and pre-theatrical exclusives for rent, priced from $3-$10, in 24- or 48-hour periods Dark Skies (horror; Keri Russell, Josh Hamilton; rated PG-13) Lore (Australian-German WWII drama; Saskia Rosendahl, Kai Malina; not rated) Hammer of the Gods (action; Charlie Bewley, Clive Standen; available May 30 before limited theatrical release on July 5; rated R) The Secret Disco Revolution (documentary; the Village People, Gloria Gaynor; available now before limited theatrical release in June; unrated) Streaming/Digital Download: Rent from $4-$7 or own from...
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- 5/28/2013
- by Robert B. DeSalvo
- Movies.com
Screen Media Films has acquired U.S. theatrical rights to Jamie Kastner’s “The Secret Disco Revolution.” The company plans a June theatrical release. Gloria Gaynor, Village People, Kool and the Gang, Kc and the Sunshine Band and more appear in the documentary about the birth of disco in the ’70s and the part the music movement played in the liberation of gays, blacks and women. The movie includes footage and classic songs of the era such as “Boogie Fever," “Macho Man," “I Will Survive” and “It’s Raining Men.” Read More: Tiff Capsule Review: 'The Secret Disco Revolution' Kastner also wrote and produced the project. “For anyone that grew up with disco this film will transport you back in time while filling in the blanks to what you didn’t even realize was happening around you," said Screen Media Films president Suzanne Blech. “If you weren’t around at the.
- 11/19/2012
- by Jay A. Fernandez
- Indiewire
So it turns out that disco was actually a revolutionary tool that ended the oppression of women and black and gay people in the Us. Who knew?
I like disco as much as the next person, which is to say I like it at night, in moderate helpings, and only when accompanied by spirits. Disco has long been the musical genre to caricature rather than savour, best enjoyed in the background on hazy nights out rather than as a legitimate musical experience. So presented with the opportunity to sit through a two-hour disco documentary at the London film festival, I was a bit circumspect.
But from the first bar of that sour-sweet high-octane disco beat, I was hooked. This is because The Secret Disco Revolution is no ordinary history lesson about the 70s craze. Rather than simply charting the rise and fall of disco to a thumping soundtrack, the film...
I like disco as much as the next person, which is to say I like it at night, in moderate helpings, and only when accompanied by spirits. Disco has long been the musical genre to caricature rather than savour, best enjoyed in the background on hazy nights out rather than as a legitimate musical experience. So presented with the opportunity to sit through a two-hour disco documentary at the London film festival, I was a bit circumspect.
But from the first bar of that sour-sweet high-octane disco beat, I was hooked. This is because The Secret Disco Revolution is no ordinary history lesson about the 70s craze. Rather than simply charting the rise and fall of disco to a thumping soundtrack, the film...
- 10/26/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
Dead as disco – the term is a statement that a trend was over, and deserved to be. Yet disco memories are alive enough to inspire “The Secret Disco Revolution,” which exhumes the music and style from dance records of the 1970’s and follows the genre’s short life up to the “Disco Sucks” gathering at Comiskey Park in Chicago in 1979 that blew up disco records. The archival vault is huge, full of music and footage. Now there’s also plenty of academic research on the phenomenon. It’s all there in Jamie Kastner’s documentary. Disco is traced to the Swing Kids, who were Germans expressing their opposition to the Nazis by dancing to jazz. That’s a stretch. But it’s credible, as we’re told, that Donna Summer’s “Love to Love You, Baby,” was “the musical expression of the feminist critique of three-minute sex,” and that the...
- 9/11/2012
- by David D'Arcy
- Indiewire
Above: Ernie Gehr's Auto-Collider Xv.
The vast bulk of Tiff's 2012 has been announced and listed here, below. We'll be updating the lineup with the previous films announced, as well as updating links to specific films for more information on them in the coming days. Of particular note is that the Wavelengths and Visions programs have been combined to create what is undoubtedly the most interesting section of the festival. Stay tuned, too, for our own on the ground coverage of Tiff.
Galas
A Royal Affair (Nikolai Arcel, Demark/Sweden/Czech Republic/Germany)
Argo (Ben Affleck, USA)
The Company You Keep (Robert Redford, USA)
Dangerous Liaisons (Hur Jin-ho, China)
Emperor (Peter Webber, Japan/USA)
English Vinglish (Gauri Shinde, India)
Free Angela & All Political Prisoners (Shola Lynch)
Great Expectations (Mike Newell, UK)
Hyde Park on Hudson (Roger Michell, UK)
Inescapable (Ruba Nadda, Canada)
Jayne Mansfield's Car (Billy Bob Thorton, USA/Russia)
Looper (Rian Johnson,...
The vast bulk of Tiff's 2012 has been announced and listed here, below. We'll be updating the lineup with the previous films announced, as well as updating links to specific films for more information on them in the coming days. Of particular note is that the Wavelengths and Visions programs have been combined to create what is undoubtedly the most interesting section of the festival. Stay tuned, too, for our own on the ground coverage of Tiff.
Galas
A Royal Affair (Nikolai Arcel, Demark/Sweden/Czech Republic/Germany)
Argo (Ben Affleck, USA)
The Company You Keep (Robert Redford, USA)
Dangerous Liaisons (Hur Jin-ho, China)
Emperor (Peter Webber, Japan/USA)
English Vinglish (Gauri Shinde, India)
Free Angela & All Political Prisoners (Shola Lynch)
Great Expectations (Mike Newell, UK)
Hyde Park on Hudson (Roger Michell, UK)
Inescapable (Ruba Nadda, Canada)
Jayne Mansfield's Car (Billy Bob Thorton, USA/Russia)
Looper (Rian Johnson,...
- 8/22/2012
- MUBI
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