Film &amp; Television

A Filmmaker's Blind Ambition

By:

David Block has a hurt locker crammed with memories that he wants to share for Memorial Day. With low funds but high-octane energy, he has been pushing and promoting "Abandoned Heroes," his daring documentary of veterans facing more difficult wars at home than they did on battlefields, as disrespect and misunderstandings sometimes sear hearts harder than shrapnel. To that end,...

Film & Television

Lights! Cameras! ... Actors!

Spotlight on Center City for star talent? Here's the proof

By:

Michael Elkin

Does Aretha Franklin have an avatar in Rodney Robb? Better yet -- does Rodney Dangerfield? Fix him up with a skinny tie, a rumpled shirt, bug-out eyes, and I tell ya, I tell ya, that Rodney Robb gets no respect. Well, respect this: As owner/president of the Actors Center and Baby Boomers Talent Management, Robb can count among his alums...

Film & Television

Trying the 'Traitor'

"The Little Traitor" is a little treasure. A coming-of-age allegory about a young boy and a young nation, "Traitor" is seditiously seductive. It straps the story of a Jewish youngster accused of collaborating with a British officer during that nation's mandate control of Palestine around a lovely, funny rites of passage play for both the boy and the State of...

Film & Television

A Star With Roots

Could hair stylist Jonathan Antin be the tonsorial Simon "Scissorhands"?

By:

Michael Elkin

Gonna wash that man right out of your hair? What for? He's a keeper. And not only does the hair-styling industry know it; so does TV. Jonathan Antin's antics are familiar to those who coveted his breezy "Blowout," Bravo's tonsorial treat in which the stylist to the stars ran wild with audiences in pursuit of his daily dish and snips,...

Film & Television

Wrestling With Self-Acceptance

Love means never having to say you're ... sumo? With all due respect to the recently deceased author Erich Segal, love -- and self-image -- are a big part of the questions rolled around on the mat in the delightfully sumo-set arena of "A Matter of Size," the opening entry in the Israeli Film Festival, set to unspool on Feb...