In 2010, human rights reporter Mac McClelland went to Haiti to cover the lingering devastation of the earthquake. Back home, McClelland finds herself imagining vivid scenes of violence. She can’t sleep or stop crying. It becomes clear that she is suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after witnessing the epidemic of rape in that country and nearly suffering a rape herself.  This unfortunately (fortunately?) coincided with her meeting and making an immediate connection with a French gendarme named Nico, sent there as a UN peacekeeper.

This book is the result of an exhaustive, and exhausting, exploration of the condition we commonly associate with combat veterans.  The author makes clear that trauma is trauma no matter what form it takes, and that if it is left unresolved, can result in this psychologically and physically devastating illness.  It is a miracle that the author survived the sadness, dissociation, self-loathing, and violent fantasies to write this book.  That miracle was Nico, who was her lifeline, the man she wanted, whose love motivated her to seek healing rather than victimhood or death.

Starring Kevin Costner, Jennifer Garner, Denis Leary, Frank Langella. and Ellen Burstyn.

This is a very good sports film that could have been a whole lot better — better for what should have been left out. Putting aside the fact that this movie is a 109 minute commercial for the National Football League, which is to be expected, there was absolutely no need to periodically kill the momentum of the story of this tension-filled day with the domestic melodrama of a ridiculous pregnancy subplot. Exactly who the producers were trying to appeal to with this story line I have no idea.  At least they spared us the cliche scene of the woman with morning sickness throwing up.  If it’s important for you to see that, you can find it in the extras in the deleted scenes.  Frankly, I think Jennifer Garner deserves much better roles than The Pregnant Girlfriend, especially in a movie where such a character is superfluous.

After premiering at Hot Docs in 2013, and working its way though the world of digital downloads and on demand rentals, the DVD for this excellent documentary has finally become available.  And as you can probably tell, I’m quite excited about it.

The Unbelievers starts in Australia and follows renowned scientists Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss across the globe as they speak publicly about the importance of science and reason, encouraging others to cast off antiquated religious and, in the modern world, politically motivated approaches to important current issues.  The journey culminates in the Reason Rally in Washington D.C. in March 2012, which was billed as the largest gathering of the secular movement in world history. Besides Dawkins and Krauss, one of the more noteworthy speakers at this rally was for me as a fan of the TV show Mythbusters, Adam Savage. Continue reading →