The U.S. has Errol Morris and Michael Moore, but if you want see how the Euros handle this documentary stuff (and we don't mean Swedish soft porn), take a trip out to Santa Monica next week for the Aero Eurodocs Festival at the Aero Theater Oct. 16-22.

This eclectic 11 film showcase featuring 10 Los Angeles premieres of new European produced documentaries, including Sung-Hyung Cho's stirring yet comical "Full Metal Village," is an opportunity to journey into unfamiliar cultures and subcultures and to meet some unique individuals as viewed through a contemporary European lens. At the core of these films, are the stories of citizens of the world making their way in the 21st century -- following or breaking tradition in human experiences that by far supersede geographic borders.

The festival will be presented American Cinematheque in collaboration with International Documentary Association and European Languages and Movies in America with the support of the consulates of Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Romania, Sweden, Switzerland, the Principality of Liechtenstein, Goethe Institute-Los Angeles, the Italian Film Commission and the UK Film Council U.S.

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Participant Media, which produced Al Gore's "Inconvenient Truth," and Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) will host an unprecedented screening for health professional students at 27 U.S. medical schools of Errol Morris' award-winning documentary "Standard Operating Procedure" on Monday, Oct. 6.

The simultaneous digital screening will take place at 7 p.m. (EST), followed by an online town hall-style question-and-answer session with writer/director Morris and Farnoosh Hashemian, author of PHR’s "Broken Laws, Broken Lives: Medical Evidence of US Torture and Its Impact."

The participating schools include: Albert Einstein University; Boston University; Brown Medical School; Butler University; Case Western; Chicago Medical School; Columbia Medical School; Weill Cornell; Dartmouth; Emory; George Washington University School of Medicine; Harvard Medical School; Indiana University; Johns Hopkins; Kansas University; Philadelphia College of Medicine; Rush University; St. George’s University; Tufts University; University of Michigan; University of Minnesota; University of Rochester; University of Texas, San Antonio; University of Texas, Dallas; University of Utah; Washington University; and Wright State.

For more information, see press release below:

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Quoting a press release, DHD reports: "Slacker Uprising tracks Moore's 62-city visits to the swing states during the 2004 Presidential election. Moore's goal four years ago when Slacker Uprising was filmed was to convince millions of non-voting "slackers" -- mostly between the ages of 18-29 -- to give voting a try. To encourage the slackers to show up, they were offered a clean change of underwear, free Ramen noodles, and a promise that no event would start before noon and no politician would be allowed to speak. These enticements filled basketball arenas and football stadiums every night on the "Slacker Uprising Tour." The 97-minute film will be available for a high-resolution, free download to any North American resident beginning on September 23 at the pic's website, www.slackeruprising.com."

Yeah, we thought it was one of the phish emails too. It's not. This comes to us via The D-Word.

American documentary filmmaker detained in Port Harcourt, Nigeria

NEW YORK, September 2, 2008 - Andrew Berends, an established, award-winning American filmmaker and journalist from New York, was detained Sunday August 31st by the Nigerian military along with his translator, Samuel George, and Joe Bussio, the manager of a local bar. Andrew entered Nigeria legally in April 2008 to complete a documentary film.

Andrew was held in custody without food, sleep, or representation, and with limited water for 36 hours. He was questioned by the army, the police, and the State Security Services in Port Harcourt. He was then temporarily released, with an order to the SSS office at 9AM Tuesday morning. The State Security Services has confiscated his passport and personal property. Andrew's translator, Samuel George, remained in custody over night.

The US State Department is aware of the situation, and an attorney has been retained on Andrew's behalf. We, Andrew's friends, family, and colleagues, are deeply concerned that he has been held without cause and are calling for his safe treatment and immediate release.

Anyone wishing to assist further should go here or call their representatives.

The two-hour Presidential candidate documentaries , according to the Hollywood Reporter, were through the roof and then some earlier this week.

On Monday, the Barack Obama doc -- hosted by Bill Hemmer -- averaged 2.3 million viewers, according to Nielsen Research.

The next night on the John McCain doc, more than 2.6 million viewers took a look.

Both nights watched the docs club the competition, including MSNBC's Countdown with 1.1 million viewers, CNN's Election Center with 687,000 tuning in and even the show they were displacing, "The O'Reilly Factor," which averages just about 2.2 million.

FBLA isn't sure whether to congratulate Fox for creating incisive documentaries about relevant topics. Or to shudder.

Two hard-hitting???? documentaries about Presidential contenders Barack Obama and John McCain will be unveiled next week on which arch network?

Of course, it's Fox. And of course, the docs will be tilted where?

Well, to the right.

As always with Fox, whether it's Bill O'Reilly or everyman former CNN news host Bill Hemmer, the Fox right-wing slant is always somewhere to be seen.

The docs will run on Monday and Tuesday, in place of the O'Reilly show.

Hemmer summed it up in the Hollywood Reporter: "The voters are evaluating these men, Obama and McCain, and I believe these documentaries are terrific learning tools by which people can watch and learn, discuss and decide," he said.

Has he been drinking the water there?

Scientology, never a religion that takes anything sitting down, responded to the $250 million lawsuit and the idle chatter about its ranks, by putting out its own answer -- on video.

Steven Spielberg better watch out.

Citizen McCaw captures the conflict between top editor Jerry Roberts and vindictive and heavy handed owner Wendy McCaw.

The synopsis on their site states:

The film chronicles events since July 2006, when editor Jerry Roberts and five of his colleagues quit the Santa Barbara News-Press, citing owner and Co-publisher Wendy McCaw's abandonment of journalistic ethics, which McCaw denied. Since then, McCaw and dozens of her former staffers have been engaged in a fierce clash of wills that raises important national questions of journalistic ethics and media ownership.

Citizen McCaw is a cautionary tale, not only about the perils of a newspaper owner run amok, but of what can happen when one very wealthy and vindictive individual decides to use the legal system to inflict a living hell on mortals of lesser means.

And concludes:

Citizen McCaw is the scariest film involving journalists since Zodiac.

Not to lessen the tale of horror that Citizen McCaw most surely is, but we think Diaz may not actually have seen Dan in Real Life. Much more scary - for so many more reasons than Zodiac. For one, the antagonist in Zodiac is much more likable.

Ben Stein's Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is turning into his own personal Battlefield Earth. Pun and implications intended. Word on the street is - it stinks. But the reviews are worth the price of admission.

Anyway, in the documentary they use John Lennon's "Imagine." Not realizing that it was used without permission (maybe someone was expelled from Copyright Law 101) blogger James Boyce swiftly blamed Yoko Ono.

For those of you keeping score at home: Darwin is to blame for the Holocaust and Yoko is to blame for everything else.

Got it? Us neither.

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed Ben Stein's mockumentary...er movie about how people that believe in Intelligent Design are being persecuted.

Uhm. Duke University strippers come to mind...

For the record: we've never used the term 'big science' with a straight face and really don't recommend the practice.

It's being released tomorrow in over 1000 theaters nation wide. A huge release for a documentary.

The premise, reportedly of the film is that evolution doesn't hold up under honest scrutiny. Appropriate from a film that refused screenings by (drumroll) critics!

We had no idea that a former Nixon speech writer and lawyer would have such whacked out political views. We're shocked.