Although Joan Crawford had a reputation, whether deserved or not, as dislikable, she thoroughly charmed the writer of Not the Girl Next Door: Joan Crawford, A Personal Biography (published by Simon & Schuster). Author Charlotte Chandler questions li

If all goes well for Barack Obama, the U.S. may finally elect a black president, but other countries have been far in advance of America in elevating minorities to high office. Great Britain, for one example, had a Jewish prime minister as early as 1868

Searching for evidence of the Ice Age in Death Valley may sound paradoxical, but to find that evidence is proof that the world’s climate was once vastly different than it has been since humans have kept records. The documentary “A Global Warning?” remin

As a clock ticks off the seconds, the camera stares as a pair of college roommates, Gabita and Otilia, engage in an apparently ordinary conversation. The camera slowly pulls back to reveal a narrow, cramped dorm room at the opening of 4 Months, 3 Weeks

Latinos have lived within the present boundary of the United States before the U.S. existed and were here a century before the Anglos waded ashore at Plymouth Rock. Lately the Latino tide has risen, making them America’s major minority and sparking cont

Civilization was built on the backs of slaves. As the documentary “Prince Among Slaves” rightly points out, slavery, serfdom and other forms of involuntary servitude were common the world over, but the slave system established in the New World by Europe

Director Otto Preminger (1906-1986) was a Jewish refugee from Vienna whose Hollywood career began with screen roles where he played Nazis. Some of the cast and crew who later worked with him over the course of some 35 films found him a bit Teutonic in r

Thirty years is a long time for any event and a 30th anniversary gives reason to pause and take stock. This year the Latin American Film Series marks its 30th birthday with 12 feature-length films from Argentina, Ecuador, Uruguay, Bolivia, Mexico, Colum

The opening images are the tip-off—the unseen hands spray-painting yard sale LPs to look like gold records fit for a scam artist’s walls. The scammers in Great World of Sound work for a vanity record company posing as the real deal. The label pretends t

Tom Brokaw popularized the idea of “the Greatest Generation” and more recently the amiable news anchor has focused on his own generation. The History Channel documentary “1968 With Tom Brokaw,” out now on DVD, examines a year that virtually everyone agr