"Go Further" Film Premier
Open Harvest sponsors the premier of "Go Further", premiering October 15-24, 2004 at The Mary Riepma Ross Film Theater. Director Ron Mann will be speaking at the theater October 22 and 23. See www.theross.org for schedule.
Synopsis
Calling his new movie an "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test on Tofu", award-winning documentary director Ron Mann (Grass, Twist) joins actor/activist Woody Harrelson as he pilots a hemp-fuelled bus on an eco-consciousness raising incursion down the beautiful Pacific Coast.Outline
"Go Further", the new film by award-winning documentary filmmaker Ron Mann, explores the idea that the single individual is the key to large-scale transformational change.The film follows actor Woody Harrelson as he takes a small group of friends on a bio-fuelled bus-ride down the Pacific Coast Highway. Their goal? To show the people they encounter that there are viable alternatives to our habitual, environmentally-destructive behaviors.
The travellers include a yoga-teacher, a raw food chef, a hemp-activist, a junk-food addict, and a college student who suspends her life to impulsively hop aboard. We see the hostility these pilgrims encounter, and watch as their ideas are challenged from within and without.
We meet an entrepreneur who runs a paper company that does not harm trees; an organic farmer who believes Nature is his partner; a man who teaches environmental activists to use humor as a strategic weapon. And throughout, we see Harrelson test his belief that the transformation of our planet begins with the small personal transformations that are within the grasp of each and every one of us, after which... we'll go further.
Ron Mann
Toronto filmmaker Ron Mann, one of Canada's foremost documentary filmmakers, is appearing at screenings of his films at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center on Friday and Saturday, October 22 and 23.Mann established his international reputation while in his twenties with a series of award-winning theatrical documentaries. He has been a festival and critics favorite since his first feature Imagine the Sound (1981). Mann's exuberant films, whether on jazz, comics, rock 'n' roll dance or marijuana are meticulously researched pop histories.
His latest feature-length documentary Go Further, which follows actor and activist Woody Harrelson as he takes to the open road on his "Simple Organic Living Tour", opens at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center on Friday, October 15 and continues through Thursday, October 28.
During his visit, the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center will feature four more of his critically acclaimed documentary films: Poetry in Motion, Comic Book Confidential, Twist, and Grass. Show times and complete schedules are available at www.TheRoss.org, by consulting your newspaper, or by calling the MRRMAC film information line at 402.472.5353.
The Nebraska Arts Council, a state agency, has supported the programs of this organization through its matching grants program funded by the Nebraska Legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency. For more information, call the Nebraska Arts Council at 402/595-2122.
Ron Mann's appearance at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln campus is made possible with support from the Hixson-Lied Endowment.
Mann's first feature, Imagine the Sound (1981) (Best Documentary, Chicago Film Festival) brings together, in interviews and performance, the prime innovators of the once-controversial free jazz movement of the 60's.
Poetry in Motion (1982) (Best Documentary, Chicago Film Festival), continues the tradition with a frenetically paced performance marathon of 24 talents of the contemporary poetry scene, including such alternative cultural luminaries as Charles Bukowski, William S. Burroughs and John Cage.
Third in the series, Comic Book Confidential (1988) (Genie, Best Feature Length Documentary; Blue Ribbon Award, American Film and Video Awards) combines a history of the comic book with a look at the work of 23 of the art form's most respected practitioners, including Will Eisner, Bill Gaines, Lynda Barry and Robert Crumb.
Twist (1992) mixes interviews with rare and often hilarious archival footage to chronicle the evolution of rock and roll dance. More than just a "rockumentary", Twist is ultimately a movie about the changes experienced by the baby-boom generation.
Dream Tower (1994) a portrait of Toronto's infamous Rochdale College: an experimental living environment that came to symbolize the best and the worst of what the 60's had to offer.
Grass (1999) (Genie Award for Best Documentary) presents a humorous and surprisingly balanced history of recreational marijuana use in the late 20th century.
In addition to his films, Ron Mann has produced the ground-breaking CD-ROMs Poetry in Motion I and Comic Book Confidential, Poetry in Motion II and Painters Painting.
Ron is currently working on a new feature-length documentary about Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, cartoonist and hot rod designer, called Confessions of a Hot Roddin', Pinstripin', Kustomizin' Teenage Icon.
In addition to his films, Mann also pioneered the development of movies on CD-ROM, for the Voyager Company.