May 2011

E M M Y   A N D   T E L L Y   W I N N E R
A L   R A S H O
MAKING DOCUMENTARY FILMS

Tuesday, May 24, 5:30-8:30pm
 The Lounge at Iwan Ries, 19 South Wabash

Cocktails at 5:30, presentation 6:00-6:30
followed by discussion and more cocktails.    
$40 includes drinks, two cigars, and sandwiches. 
 Reservations are required.

This talk is about objectivity and subjectivity in documentaries, with lots of visual examples..  "If a film is purely objective," says Al Rasho, "why bother?  It's way too much work not to present a point of view."  Documentaries are often called "nonfiction films."  John Grierson, who coined the phrase "documentary film," defined them as "the creative interpretation of actuality."  The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences includes in its definition of documentary film the phrase "either photographed in actual occurrence or reenacted."   Al Rasho believes that "the different between 'reenactment' and 'fiction' lies in the fact that fiction is invented.  In documentaries, reenactments are portrayals of real people, places, and events.  A newsreel may be a document, but it is not a documentary film.  A central idea must be present.  There must be all the ingredients of an integrated film of any kind---drama, conflict, an overall idea."  

Al Rasho, filmmaker/photojournalist, has over twenty-five years of media production experience. His work through LeMans Films, a Los Angeles based production-company specializing in sports-documentaries, was distributed throughout the United States and internationally. His goal-oriented and motivational films have been distributed by Paramount Pictures.  A 32-part series on the Human Life Span (from birth through death) is distributed in hundreds of colleges, universities and libraries throughout the United States and Australia, and is broadcast regularly on many domestic regional PBS stations.  He has produced hundreds of marketing and training films including food safety for the National Restaurant Association. He continues to work for the American Bar Association’s Educational Division to produce programs that foster the public’s understanding of the law.  He has been awarded over thirty national and international awards, including the gold plaque from the Chicago International Film Festival in the category of cinematography, for the National PBS program “Nubia and the Mysteries of Kush.” He has been nominated for regional Emmy four times and been honored twice.

About the Cigar Society of Chicago

ONE OF THE OLDEST AND greatest traditions of the city clubs of Chicago is the discussion of intellectual, social, legal, artistic, historical, scientific, musical, theatrical, and philosophical issues in the company of educated, bright, and appropriately provocative individuals, all under the beneficent influence of substantial amounts of tobacco and spirits.  The Cigar Society of Chicago embraces this tradition and extends it with its Informal Smokers, University Series lectures, and Cigar Society Dinners, in which cigars, and from time to time pipes and cigarettes, appear as an important component of our version of the classical symposium.  To be included in the Cigar Society's mailing list, write to the Secretary at CigarSociety@logicophilosophicus.org.