Center Stage

Tia Lessin and Carl Deal Come Center Stage to Talk About "Trouble the Water"

Join Mark Gordon as he takes you Center Stage with filmmakers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal. They will be discussing their new documentary "Trouble the Water." Tuesday, August 12th at 7PM (PST) on KXLU Los Angeles, 88.9 FM and streaming at www.kxlu.com

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival, Trouble the Water is directed and produced by Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine producers Tia Lessin and Carl Deal. The film tells the story of an aspiring rap artist and her streetwise husband, trapped in New Orleans by deadly floodwaters, who survive the storm and then seize a chance for a new beginning. It’s a redemptive tale of self-described street hustlers who become heroes that takes you inside Hurricane Katrina in a way never before seen on screen.

Trouble the Water opens the day before Katrina makes landfall, just blocks away from the French Quarter but far from the New Orleans that tourists know. Kimberly Rivers Roberts is turning her video camera on herself and her 9th Ward neighbors trapped in the city. “It’s going to be a day to remember,” Kim says excitedly into her new camera as the storm is brewing. It’s her first time shooting video and it’s rough, jumpy but dense with reality. Kim’s playful home-grown newscast tone grinds against the audience’s knowledge that hell is just hours away. There is no way for the audience to warn her. And for New Orleans’ poor, there is nowhere to run.

As the hurricane begins to rage and the floodwaters fill their world and the screen, Kim and her husband Scott continue to film, documenting their harrowing voyage to higher ground and dramatic rescues of friends and neighbors.

Intertwining Kim and Scott’s insider’s view of Katrina and powerful video with a mix of verite and in-your-face filmmaking, Deal and Lessin follow their story through the storm and its aftermath, and into a new life. Along the way, they discover Kim’s musical talent as rap artist Black Kold Madina when she finds the only existing copy of her recorded music survived the storm with a relative in Memphis. Kim’s performance in that moment reveals not only devastating skills as a musician, but compacts her life story into explosive poetry that paints a devastating picture of poverty.

Learn more about the film

About Tia Lessin and Carl Deal

Tia Lessin is director and producer of Trouble the Water, her feature debut. Tia also directed and produced the documentary short Behind the Labels in partnership with Peter Gabriel’s human rights group Witness. She was awarded the Sidney Hillman Prize for Broadcast Journalism for the film about labor trafficking of Chinese and Filipina women garment workers.

Tia was a producer of Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, winner of the Palme d’Or, and Academy Award-winning Bowling for Columbine. Her other film credits include line producer on Martin Scorsese’s No Direction Home: Bob Dylan and coordinating producer on The Big One. She began her film career as associate producer of Charles Guggenheim’s Oscar-nominated Shadows of Hate. In television, Tia’s work as producer of the series The Awful Truth, which the Los Angeles Times called “the smartest and funniest show on television,” earned her two Emmy nominations and one arrest.

Tia is a Sundance Institute Fellow, an Open Society Institute Katrina Media Fellow, and was awarded the Women of Worth “Vision” Award by L’Oréal Paris and Women in Film.

Carl Deal was the Archival Producer for Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine, and has contributed to many other documentaries, including Sundance Festival favorites Murderball and God Grew Tired of Us, and John Pilger’s recent The War on Democracy. He previously worked as an international news producer and has reported from natural disasters and conflict zones throughout the U.S., Latin America, and in Iraq. Carl graduated from Columbia University’s School of Journalism, which awarded him the Sanders Social Justice Prize. Carl has authored reports for Greenpeace, Amnesty International and Public Citizen. He is a Sundance Institute Fellow and received the 2005 FOCAL International/Associated Press Library Award for best use of footage in a feature film.

Dorothy Fadiman Comes Center Stage to Talk about Stealing America: Vote by Vote

Join Mark Gordon as he tales you Center Stage with Dorothy Fadiman. They will be talking about her new film STEALING AMERICA: Vote by Vote Tuesday, August 12th at 7PM (PST) on KXLU Los Angeles, 88.9 FM and streaming at www.kxlu.com

Employing first-person accounts, extensive research and telling clips gleaned from the nightly news, Emmy Award-winning and Academy Award-nominated social issue filmmaker Dorothy Fadiman shines a spotlight on the gritty reality of the last decade’s most egregious incidents of U.S. electoral insecurity.

The last two presidential elections both came down to a relatively small number of votes, and in both elections the integrity of the voting process has been called into question. With the upcoming election looking to be similarly close, the time has come to ask the questions: what happened in 2000 and 2004; what has changed since; and what can be done to ensure a fair and honest tabulation of votes in 2008?

STEALING AMERICA: Vote by Vote brings together behind-the-scenes perspectives from the U.S. presidential election of 2004 – plus startling stories from key races in 1996, 2000, 2002 and 2006. Unbiased and nonpartisan, the film sheds light on a decade of vote counts that don't match votes cast – uncounted ballots, vote switching, under- votes and many other examples of election totals that warrant serious investigation.

If you would like to learn more about this film, visit the web site.

About Dorothy Fadiman, Producer/Director

Dorothy Fadiman has been producing media with a focus on social justice and human rights since 1976. Her film subjects have ranged from progressive education in WHY DO THESE KIDS LOVE SCHOOL? (produced with KTEH-TV) and progressive change for women in some of the least developed villages of India in WOMAN by WOMAN: New Hope for the Villages of India (produced with KQED-TV); to a three-film series on reproductive issues and a five-film series on AIDS in Ethiopia including From RISK to ACTION: Women and HIV/AIDS in Ethiopia. Fadiman has won more than 50 major awards, including an Emmy for her 1995 production FROM DANGER to DIGNITY: The Fight for Safe Abortion, and an Oscar nomination for Best Short Subject, as well as the Gold Medal from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for her 1992 production WHEN ABORTION WAS ILLEGAL: Untold Stories. Her films have been broadcast on PBS, and have been screened in many international venues. Fadiman’s new book, PRODUCING with PASSION: Making Films That Make a Difference was released in June, 2008.

Composer Mark Adler Comes Center Stage

Join Mark Gordon as he takes you Center Stage with Composer Mark Adler. Tuesday, August 12th at 7PM (PST) on KXLU Los Angeles, 88.9 FM and streaming at www.kxlu.com

About Mark Adler

Mark Adler brings to his work as a composer a broad background in both film and music. At age 16 he created an award-winning animated short, which the New York Museum of Modern Art acquired for its permanent archive collection. A year later, he was the recipient of an American Film Institute grant for his original screenplay. He studied piano privately for fifteen years, and was initially a music major. His return to music followed graduation from film school at UCLA, where he studied film scoring with David Raksin. In the late 1970s and early '80s, Mark played keyboards for a number of groups in Northern California, including a stint with the Heart of Gold Band, fronted by former Grateful Dead vocalist Donna Jean Godchaux.

Listen to sound clips from some of Mark Adler's recent projects

The 1980s were a renaissance for documentary film in the San Francisco Bay Area and Mark was soon scoring many of those projects. During this time, he also worked briefly as a music editor for such directors as Milos Forman, David Lynch, and Francis Ford Coppola. (His music editing credits include "Amadeus," "Blue Velvet," and "Godfather III").

Mark's feature film scores include Paramount Classics' "Focus," based on the novel by Arthur Miller and starring William H. Macy and Laura Dern, with the soundtrack released by Milan Records. He has been a regular at the Sundance Film Festival, having scored ten Sundance films over the years. These include the Miramax film "Picture Bride," which won the Audience Award in 1995. His soundtrack for that film was released by Virgin Records and the Main Title was featured in the 1997 compilation, "Miramax Films Greatest Hits." Other credits include the Wayne Wang films "Eat A Bowl of Tea" and "Life Is Cheap," numerous National Geographic Specials, and three Oscar-nominated feature documentaries. Recent feature projects include "Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing & Charm School," featuring Robert Carlyle, Marisa Tomei, John Goodman, and Mary Steenburgen. He just completed the score for "Bottle Shock," starring Alan Rickman, Chris Pine, Bill Pullman, Rachael Taylor and Freddy Rodriguez.

In 1999 he won a Primetime Emmy for his work on HBO's "The Rat Pack," which featured Ray Liotta, Joe Mantegna and Don Cheadle. Other TV movie scores include Hallmark Entertainment's "Forbidden Territory: Stanley's Search for Livingstone," starring Aidan Quinn and Nigel Hawthorne (for which he received a 1998 Primetime Emmy nomination), "Flowers For Algernon" starring Mathew Modine, and two Hallmark Hall of Fame productions. In 2000 he composed the new theme for the long-running PBS series, "American Experience."

He also wrote and produced source music for the Philip Kaufman films "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," and "Henry and June," and was involved as a producer in the recreation of indigenous Brazilian music for the Saul Zaentz production "At Play in the Fields of the Lord." He composed original music for "The Road To Memphis," directed by Richard Pearce as part of the Martin Scorsese-produced series, "The Blues." This range of experience has resulted in an eclectic musical style, often drawing on jazz, folk, world music, and traditional orchestral idioms.

Mark was co-chairman of the 2002 Film and Television Music State of the Art Conference, and is a vice-president of the Society of Composers and Lyricists. He is a past member of the Music Peer Group Executive Committee of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, and he currently serves on the National Awards Committee. As a performer, he can be heard playing piano on his scores for "Eat A Bowl of Tea?," "Picture Bride," "Focus," and "Marilyn Hotchkiss' Ballroom Dancing and Charm School."

Paul Weiland Comes Center Stage to talk about Sixty Six

Tune in  this Tuesday, August 5th as KXLU Los Angeles presents Center Stage with Mark Gordon featuring special guest filmmaker Paul Weiland.  He will be in studio to talk about his latest  film SIXTY SIX.  Center Stage with Mark Gordon airs Tuesday nights at 7PM (PST)  on 88.9 FM.

England, the summer of ’66 and the country is about to be consumed by World Cup Fever. For 12-year-old Bernie (GREGG SULKIN), the biggest day of his life is looming, the day he becomes a man - his Bar Mitzvah. However Bernie’s North London family seems a little distracted. His father Manny (EDDIE MARSAN) is concerned about the giant supermarket opening opposite his grocery shop, a business he shares with his more charismatic younger brother, Jimmy (PETER SERAFINOWICZ) -- and it’s making Manny’s bizarre obsessive compulsive disorder even worse than usual. Between worrying about Manny and Bernie’s older brother Alvie (BEN NEWTON), mother Esther (HELENA BONHAM CARTER) barely has time to notice her better behaved younger son, and the only attention Bernie ever gets from Alvie is a punch for stepping onto the wrong side of their shared bedroom. Bernie believes his Bar Mitzvah is about to change all this. He’ll no longer be the kid everyone ignores, and he envisions and begins to plan the perfect ceremony and reception, where everyone assembled will acknowledge his new status as a man. Unfortunately for Bernie, things don’t quite go according to plan.

First, Manny’s business fails, and suddenly the lavish hotel party that Bernie had been promised is replaced with a tiny affair in his parent’s front room. Worse than that though, the World Cup Final is scheduled for the same day as his Bar Mitzvah. Despite Bernie’s pleas, Manny and Esther won’t hear of moving the date, as “England will never get through to the final.” Bernie senses it’s not wise to push the issue with his increasingly neurotic parents, but he is panic-stricken. His only solace comes from his relationships with asthma specialist, Dr. Barrie (STEPHEN REA), and his blind Hebrew instructor, Rabbi Linov (RICHARD KATZ), who give Bernie life lessons reminding him what it really means to become a man.

Over the next few weeks, Bernie spends his spare time watching the World Cup like a hawk as England wins through the qualifying rounds, and ultimately earns a spot in the final against West Germany. Bernie’s worst nightmare has come true. Back at home things reach crisis point when the house catches fire and Manny’s life savings go up in smoke. Manny is so depressed he is prepared to walk out on his family. It’s only when Jimmy falls off a ladder and injures himself and impresses upon Manny his familial responsibilities that he finally pulls himself together.

The big day finally arrives and an excited hum spreads across the country - not so for Bernie. As he predicted, only a handful of relatives turn up to his Bar Mitzvah, and even they can’t hide their desperation to get back home to watch the match. Amidst the chaos and disappointment, Bernie decides enough is enough. He runs to the sanctuary of Dr. Barrie’s house only to discover that Dr. Barrie’s life isn’t so perfect either. Meanwhile, Manny and Esther discover their son’s meticulously laid plans for the biggest Bar Mitzvah ever, and realize how much this day meant to him. Manny decides to make it up to his son the only way he can - by taking him to the biggest celebration in England that day - the World Cup final. As father and son unite, they make a mad dash for Wembley and arrive just in time to see the final goal making Bernie’s Bar Mitzvah day one to remember.

Based on the real life experience of director Paul Weiland, SIXTY SIX is a coming-of-age comedy starring Eddie Marsan (Mission Impossible III, Vera Drake), Helena Bonham Carter (Charlie & The Chocolate Factory, Big Fish), Stephen Rea (V for Vendetta, Breakfast on Pluto), Catherine Tate, Peter Serafinowicz (Shaun Of The Dead), Geraldine Somerville, Richard Katz, Ben Newton and Gregg Sulkin.

SIXTY SIX is a First Independent Pictures and Working Title Films presentation of a WT2 production, a true...ish story directed by Paul Weiland from a screenplay by Peter Straughan & Bridget O’Connor. The film is produced by Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner and Elizabeth Karlsen with Richard Curtis and Natascha Wharton serving as executive producers. The creative team includes director of photography Daniel Landin, editor Paul Tothill (Pride & Prejudice), production designer Michael Howells (Nanny McPhee), and costume designer Rebecca Hale. The music is by Joby Talbot. SIXTY SIX was filmed on location in London and at Pinewood Studios.

Paul Weiland (Director) just directed the romantic comedy Made of Honor, starring Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan.  He began his career in 1973 as a copywriter at London advertising agents Collett Dickenson Pearce & Partners.  He worked briefly for the Alan Parker Film Company before setting up the Paul Weiland Film Company in 1980.  The company now represents eleven directors both in the UK and America, and is responsible for award winning commercials for clients including Hamlet Cigars, Heineken, British Telecom, Levis 501, Carlsberg, Walkers, and Coca Cola.  In 1988, he was voted top commercials director in Campaign’s Top 100 League Table.

   

In 1987, Weiland turned his attention to drama, and directed Anthony Minghella’s The Storyteller:  The Three Ravens, for Jim Henson Productions, starring Miranda Richardson, Jonathon Pryce, Joely Richardson and John Hurt.  He went on to direct Living With Dinosaurs in 1989, also for Jim Henson Productions with Michael Maloney and Juliet Stevenson, which won an Emmy Award for Best International Children’s Programme.  In 1990 he directed The Storyteller:  Daedalus & Icarus, again for Jim Henson Productions, starring Michael Gambon and Derek Jacobi.

    

In 1991, Weiland directed episodes of the Rowan Atkinson hit television series Mr Bean, and the charming Bernard and the Genie, a BBC Christmas special, starring Lenny Henry and Rowan Atkinson, which was nominated for a Royal Television Society Award.  He followed this by taking the helm of City Slickers II - The Legend of Curly’s  Gold, starring Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern, Jon Lovitz, and Jack Palance.  In 1997, he directed the romantic comedy Roseanna’s Grave, starring Jean Reno and Mercedes Reuhl.  The film won the Houston Film Festival Grand Award for Best Feature Film.  In 1999 he directed Rowan Atkinson, Miranda Richardson, Stephen Fry, Colin Firth and Kate Moss in Blackadder Back & Forth.

Weiland has continued to direct commercials whilst developing and directing feature films and, during his career, both as a copywriter and director, he has been recognised many times by the Design and Art Direction Awards, the British Television Advertising Awards, Clio, and Cannes.  In 1992 he was awarded the British Television Advertising Award (BTA) for Best TV Commercial of the Year (Schweppes), the Grand Prix de Press at Cannes (Heineken), and a BAFTA and BTA Award for Best Cinema Commercial (Fosters).  In 1993 he won the BTA Chairman’s Award for his outstanding contribution to the industry.  From 1994 to 1997 The Paul Weiland Film Company took the BTA Award for the Most Successful Production Company, and in 1997 the company was voted Campaign’s top production company of the year, and ranked second top production company in the world.  In 2002, the company was awarded the D & AD’s President’s Award at D & AD’s fortieth anniversary ceremony.  In 2003, Paul Weiland set up Contagious, a company to develop and produce film projects in partnership with David Barron.

Tuesday, July 22 on Center Stage with Mark Gordon

KXLU Los Angeles presents Center Stage with Mark Gordon featuring filmmaker James Marsh. He will be talking about his new documentary MAN ON WIRE.

A look at tightrope walker Philippe Petit's daring, but illegal, high-wire routine performed between New York City's World Trade Center's twin towers in 1974, what some consider, "the artistic crime of the century."

Center Stage with Mark Gordon airs Tuesday nights at 7PM (PST) on KXLU Los Angeles, 88.9 FM and on the web at www.kxlu.com

It's Mr. Winkle

On tonight's show I could not, for the life of me, remember the name of that little dog that wears the silly outfits. Laura sent me this photo. It's Mr Winkle.

Tuesday June 24th on Center Stage with Mark Gordon

KXLU Los Angeles proudly presents Center Stage with Mark Gordon featuring special guests bestselling author Harlan Coben (Tell No One) and filmmaker Dean Budnick (Wetlands Preserved: The Story of an Activist Nightclub). Center Stage with Mark Gordon airs Tuesday nights at 7PM (PST) on KXLU Los Angeles, 88.9 FM and streaming "live" ay www.kxlu.com

Trailer for Tell No One

Winner of the Edgar Award, Shamus Award and Anthony Award - the first author to win all three – international bestselling author Harlan Coben’s critically-acclaimed novels have been called “ingenious” (New York Times), “poignant and insightful” (Los Angeles Times), “consistently entertaining” (Houston Chronicle), “superb” (Chicago Tribune) and “must reading” (Philadelphia Inquirer). His most recent novels, THE WOODS, PROMISE ME, THE INNOCENT, JUST ONE LOOK, NO SECOND CHANCE, TELL NO ONE and GONE FOR GOOD have appeared on the top of all the major bestseller lists including the New York Times, London Times, Le Monde, Publishers Weekly, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal and USA TODAY -- and many others throughout the world. His books are published in thirty-seven languages around the globe and have been number one bestsellers in in nearly a dozen countries.

Harlan's novel TELL NO ONE has been turned into the commercial and critical smash hit French film NE LE DIS A PERSONNE, starring Francois Cluzet and Kristin Scott Thomas. The movie won the Lumiere (French Golden Globe) for best picture and was nominated for nine Cesars (French Oscar) and won four, including best actor, best director and best music. To see the English-subtitled trailer, click here and for stills and to see Harlan appearing in the film, visit our gallery page The movie will be released in the UK in the spring/summer 2007 and when we have an American release date, we will post it or sign up for the newsletter.

In his first books, Coben immersed himself in the exploits of sports agent Myron Bolitar. Critics loved the series, saying, “You race to turn pages…both suspenseful and often surprisingly funny” (People). After seven books Coben wanted to try something different. “I came up with a great idea that simply would not work for Myron,” says Coben. The result was the critically acclaimed New York Times bestseller TELL NO ONE, which became the most decorated thriller of 2001 – nominated for an Edgar, an Anthony, a Macavity, a Nero, and a Barry; winner of the Audie Award for Best Audio Mystery/Suspense Book (read by Steven Weber); and a #1 hardcover book on the Book Sense 76 list. Coben followed the success of TELL NO ONE with the blockbuster New York Times bestsellers GONE FOR GOOD (2002), NO SECOND CHANCE (2003), and JUST ONE LOOK (2004) and THE INNOCENT (2005). Bookspan, recognizing Coben’s broad international appeal, named NO SECOND CHANCE its first ever International Book of the Month in 2003 – the Main Selection in 15 different countries.

Coben was the first writer in more than a decade to be invited to write fiction for the NEW YORK TIMES op-ed page. His Father’s Day short story, THE KEY TO MY FATHER, appeared June 15, 2003.

Since his critically-acclaimed Myron Bolitar series debuted in 1995, Harlan Coben has won the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Allan Poe Award and was nominated for the Edgar two other times. Harlan also won the Anthony Award at the World Mystery Conference, was nominated for another Anthony Award, won the Shamus Award by the Private Eye Writers of America, was nominated for another Shamus, and was twice nominated for the Dilys Award by the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association.

In the United Kingdom, his novel ONE FALSE MOVE earned him the prestigious “Fresh Talent Award”, given annually by Great Britain's largest bookstore chain, W. H. Smith, and GONE FOR GOOD won the W. H. SMITH “Thumping Good Read” Award. In France, TELL NO ONE (NE LE DIS A PERSONE) won Le Grand Prix des Lectrices de Elle for fiction. His novels have been PEOPLE magazine Page-Turners of the Week and a Publishers Weekly Best of the Year pick.

Harlan was born in Newark, New Jersey. After graduating from Amherst College a political science major, Harlan worked in the travel industry. He now lives in New Jersey with his wife, Anne Armstrong-Coben MD, a pediatrician, and their four children.

Trailer for Wetlands Preserved: The Story of an Activist Nightclub

From 1989 to 2001, Wetlands Preserve in Tribeca was one of New York's most celebrated rock clubs, where it famously fused cutting-edge music with environmental activism. It's now credited with giving birth to the modern jam-band scene and launching the careers of Dave Matthews, Blues Traveler and Phish. Relix Magazine editor and filmmaker Dean Budnick chronicles the environmentally friendly club's legend with rare vintage concert footage and accounts from the club's former owners, rock critics, musicians and club regulars.

Coming June 17th to Center Stage with Mark Gordon

KXLU Los Angeles proudly presents Center Stage with Mark Gordon featuring special guests Michael Skolnick director of "Without the King," Daniel Karslake director of "For the Bible Tells Me So." and Meema Spadola director of "Our House: A Very Real Documentary About Kids of Gay & Lesbian Parents."

"Without the King"
Swaziland is the last absolute monarchy in the world and one of the few African countries that has never faced a civil war. This portrait of a nation in transition juxtaposes the opulent life of the royal family to the bare subsistence of Swazi citizens who are poised to fight for a better life.

For the Bible Tells Me So
We meet five Christian families, each with a gay or lesbian child. Parents talk about their marriages and church-going, their children's childhood and coming out, their reactions, and changes over time. The stories told by these nine parents and four adult children alternate with talking heads - Protestant and Jewish theologians - and with film clips of fundamentalist preachers and pundits and news clips of people in the street. They discuss scripture and biblical scholarship. A thesis of the film is that much of Christianity's homophobia represents a misreading of scripture, a denial of science, and an embrace of quack psychology. The families call for love.

Our House: A Very Real Documentary About Kids of Gay & Lesbian Parents
This film is a frank examination of the diverse experiences of children of gay and lesbian parents. The documentary profiles sixteen sons and daughters between the ages of four and twenty-three in five diverse families who are facing the usual highs and lows of growing up while encountering varied reactions from extended family, classmates, teachers, neighbors, and public officials.

What is it like to grow up with gay or lesbian parents? Today, there are millions of children in the United States who fit that description. These families are at the heart of debates in courtrooms, schools and places of worship around the country as Americans struggle to define “family values.”

Our House is a groundbreaking documentary that explores what it's like to grow up with gay or lesbian parents. Traveling to urban, rural and suburban communities in Arizona, Arkansas, New Jersey and New York, director Meema Spadola (the daughter of a lesbian mom and the director of Breasts: A Documentary) profiles the sons and daughters of five families - African American, Latino and white; Mormon, Christian, and Jewish - who illustrate some of the diversity of America’s gay and lesbian families.
WINNER- Outstanding Achievement Award- Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality

Dozens of gay couples wed in Calif. after ruling - Yahoo! News

By LISA LEFF, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 2 minutes ago

SAN FRANCISCO - Dozens of gay couples were married Monday night after California became the second state to allow same-sex nuptials, offering a preview of the euphoria and anger to come as gay couples from across the nation head west to wed.

Read the story

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080617/ap_on_re_us/gay_marriage

Coming June 9th to Center Stage with Mark Gordon

KXLU Los Angeles presents Center Stage with Mark Gordon featuring special guests Guillaume Canet director of “Tell No One,” Dean Budnick director of “Wetlands Preserved: The Story of An Activist Rock Club,” and members of the cast of the hit musical “A Chorus Line.”

Center Stage with Mark Gordon airs at 7PM (PST) on KXLU Los Angeles, 88.9 FM and streaming "live" at kxlu.com

“Tell No One”

The pediatrician Alexandre Beck misses his beloved wife Margot Beck, who was brutally murdered eight years ago when he was the prime suspect. When two bodies are found near where the corpse of Margot was dumped, the police reopen the case and Alex becomes suspect again

“Wetlands Preserved: The Story of An Activist Rock Club”

On February 16, 1989 Larry Bloch and a team of novices achieved something unique in a former Chineese-food warehouse just south of the Holland Tunnel in Manhattan. Not only did this inexperienced collective open a nightclub in the mostly-underdeveloped Tribeca region but they created one that fused music with activism in an all together distinctive manner

From 1989 to 2001, Wetlands Preserve in Tribeca was one of New York's most celebrated rock clubs, where it famously fused cutting-edge music with environmental activism. It's now credited with giving birth to the modern jam-band scene and launching the careers of Dave Matthews, Blues Traveler and Phish. Relix Magazine editor and filmmaker Dean Budnick chronicles the environmentally friendly club's legend with rare vintage concert footage and accounts from the club's former owners, rock critics, musicians and club regulars.

“A Chorus Line.”

In an empty theatre, on a bare stage, casting for a new Broadway musical is almost complete. For 17 dancers, this audition is the chance of a lifetime. It’s what they’ve worked for—with every drop of sweat, every hour of training, every day of their lives. It’s the one opportunity to do what they’ve always dreamed—to have the chance to dance.

“A Chorus Line is back, and it’s thrilling!”
-John Lahr, The New Yorker

This is A Chorus Line, the musical for everyone who’s ever had a dream and put it all on the line. Winner of nine Tony Awards, including “Best Musical” and the Pulitzer Prize for drama, this singular sensation is the longest-running American Broadway musical ever. Now A Chorus Line returns. Come meet the new generation of Broadway’s best.

Coming June 3rd to Center Stage with Mark Gordon

Tune in as KXLU Los Angeles presents Center Stage with Mark Gordon featuring special guests filmmakers Molly Bingham and Steve Connors. They will be talking about their new documentary MEETING RESISTANCE. Also on the show director Carlos Brooks with be talking about his feature film QUID PRO QUO.

What would you do if America was invaded? MEETING RESISTANCE raises the veil of anonymity surrounding the Iraqi insurgency by meeting face to face with individuals who are passionately engaged in the struggle, and documenting for the very first time, the sentiments experienced and actions taken by a nation's citizens when their homeland is occupied. Voices that have previously not been heard, male and female, speak candidly about their motivations, hopes and goals, revealing a kaleidoscope of human perspectives. Featuring reflective, yet fervent conversations with active insurgents, MEETING RESISTANCE is the missing puzzle piece in understanding the Iraq war. Directed by Steve Connors and Molly Bingham, this daring, eye-opening film provides unique insight into the personal narratives of people involved in the resistance exploding myth after myth about the war in Iraq and the Iraqis who participate. Through its unprecedented access to these clandestine groups, MEETING RESISTANCE focuses the spotlight on the "other side", clarifying why the violence in Iraq continues to this day and providing a deeper understanding of both the toll of occupation and the human condition of resistance.

STEVE CONNORS, Director

Steve Connors was born in Sheffield, England. He began taking photographs while serving as a British soldier in Northern Ireland in the early 1980s. After leaving the military in 1984 he worked for London newspapers and housing charities, but maintained a preference for photographing the quirkiness of British life.

At the end of 1989 Connors started traveling - first to Czechoslovakia as the communist government fell and then into Sri Lanka in 1990. Connors spent the early1990s covering the wars following the break-up of Yugoslavia and later spending time in Russia and the former Soviet Union as the euphoria of a new age gave way to the miserable realities of economic meltdown. Connors has worked for most of the worlds' newspapers and magazines including Time, Newsweek, The New York Times in the United States; The Guardian, The Observer and The Telegraph in London and in Europe he has worked for Der Spiegel, Stern and Paris Match among others.

Connors spent fifteen months from November 2001 on in Afghanistan. Starting during the invasion, he went to Iraq, and spent fourteen months there total, working ten months solidly on Meeting Resistance.

MEETING RESISTANCE is Connors' directorial debut.

MOLLY BINGHAM, Director

Molly Bingham was born in Kentucky and graduated from Harvard College in 1990. She began working as a photojournalist in earnest in 1994, traveling to Rwanda in the wake of the genocide. She spent a good amount of her energies for the following four years focused on the regional fallout of that event. Aside from her photojournalistic work, Bingham has also completed two special projects for Human Rights Watch - one on Burundi and another on small arms trafficking in Central Africa. From 1998 through 2001 Bingham worked as Official Photographer to the Office of the Vice President of the United States.

In 2001 Bingham returned to work in Central Africa, producing a story for the New York Times Sunday Magazine (published in August 2001) on the mineral "coltan" that is mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Washington on September 11 Bingham got some of the only close up pictures of the Pentagon, and followed the story of America's response to the 9/11 attacks to Afghanistan later in the fall. 2002 found Bingham in the Gaza Strip and Iran before heading to Iraq shortly before the US attack in March 2003. Bingham was detained for eight days by the Iraqi government security services and held in Abu Ghraib prison with four other westerners during the war, and released to Jordan in early April 2003. Bingham's first major written story - on the Iraqi resistance - was published in Vanity Fair in July 2004.

Bingham teamed up with Connors in August of 2003 to begin a film about who was behind the emerging post-war violence in Iraq.

ISAAC KNOTT is a Public Radio reporter in New York City who begins to recount a story about himself on the air. When he was eight, his mother and father died in an automobile accident that left him in a wheelchair.

Continuing his story, Isaac recounts how he recently received an anonymous tip from someone identified only as "Ancient Chinese Girl." She tells him a perfectly able-bodied man walked into an emergency ward downtown, and attempted to bribe a doctor into amputating his leg.
In the course of his investigation, he meets FIONA, the aforementioned Ancient Chinese Girl. Though she is neither ancient nor Chinese, she is nevertheless supremely attractive, and highly intelligent. For reasons she keeps to herself, Fiona guides Isaac to a netherworld of people afflicted with a perverse desire to be disabled.

Seduced by her beauty and intelligence -- Isaac is quick to suspect that Fiona herself may be a "wannabe." When he confronts her, she protests -- "I don't want to be paralyzed, I already am paralyzed. “Isaac realizes he must decipher the puzzle of her fantasy motivations before they manifest into an all-too-real, if not fatal, reality.

Along the way, he navigates a semi-surreal world of talismanic items like an antique Milwaukee Brace, a pair of shoes called "spectators," and a paralyzing chemical called "Ginger Jake." Events become increasingly extraordinary as Isaac discovers that Fiona does indeed have a terrible agenda -- one that resonates in long buried memories of his own past.

When he finally wakes from this strange dream that is Fiona, she is nowhere to be found. It is clear to Isaac, as he concludes his on-air story, that Fiona has left him with some disturbing questions about what it means to be injured, and what it means to be healed. More importantly she has shown him that perceptions and illusions are sometimes one and the same.