Obama announces changes to birth control rule. Carmen Trutanich announces he'll run for Los Angeles District Attorney position. A Korean-American storyteller drifts between two worlds. KPCC film critics Andy Klein, Claudia Puig and Charles Solomon join Larry to review the week’s new film releases, including Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Safe House, The Vow, The Oscar Nominated Short Films and more. TGI-FilmWeek! Visionary filmmaker Douglas Trumbull on “Tree of Life,” “2001,” and Natalie Wood.
White House seeks to appease Catholics on birth control coverage
President Obama today answered blistering criticism of the 3-week old policy forcing religious employers to pay for employees' birth control. Speaking from the White House, Obama said, "Religious liberty will be protected and a law that requires free preventative care will not discriminate against women."
A statement from the White House explains how it will work: "The policy ... ensures that if a woman works for religious employers with objections to providing contraceptive services as part of its health plan, the religious employer will not be required to provide contraception coverage, but her insurance company will be required to offer contraceptive care free of charge."
At least one leading Catholic organization supported the new accommodation, as did Planned Parenthood on the other side of the spectrum. Still, not all Catholic groups are pleased and conservatives continue to lambast the president. The original rule was called an unconscionable violation of the Catholic faith.
WEIGH IN:
Does this accommodation change things? Will today's compromise quiet the political storm?
Guests:
Jamie Court, President of Consumer Watchdog, a consumer rights advocacy organization. Court is also author of “Corporateering: How Corporate Power Steals Your Personal Freedom . . .And What You Can Do About It”
Amy Ridenour, Chairman of the National Center for Public Policy Research
Trutanich officially enters DA race
Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich made it official yesterday that he’s running for L.A. County District Attorney. Sheriff Lee Baca's name appears on a website devoted to drafting Trutanich to succeed current D.A. Steve Cooley, who is stepping down after three terms.
Although Cooley endorsed Trutanich for the City Attorney position in 2009, he’s backing one of his top deputies, Jackie Lacey, to succeed him. Even before Trutanich made his candidacy official, he was getting criticized for reneging on a promise during his last campaign not to seek higher office. Trutanich thinks of himself more as “The Dude” than a politician.
WEIGH IN:
Why did he go back on his promise not to finish out his term as City Attorney? What does he want to do as District Attorney? Can he be trusted to enforce environmental laws, given that he represented environmental polluters when he was in private practice? Larry talk with Trutanich about his agenda.
Guest:
Carmen Trutanich, Los Angeles City Attorney; candidate for Los Angeles County District Attorney
A Korean-American storyteller drifts between two worlds
Author Krys Lee came to the United States from Korea with her parents when she was young and grew up in California, Washington State and England. As part of a wave of her reverse migration, she moved back to Seoul, South Korea and has spent many years rediscovering the language, culture and values of her family’s fractured heritage.
Her new book “Drifting House” is a collection of short stories that portray life in South Korea, North Korea and life as a Korean-American in the US. She uses nuanced characters to shed light on the difficulties of living an unanchored, unmoored existence in America and Korea – hence the book’s title. In Korea, she tells stories of people whose lives are threatened by civil strife, a military state and the fallout that split Korea apart. In America, the stories are set in small, cramped apartments and empty malls of Koreatowns where families struggle to forge new futures from old, broken pasts.
Lee’s unique point of view on life in a far part of the East and the West offers insight into how political corruption can take a personal, psychological turn, leaving us disillusioned with what we call home.
Guest:
Krys Lee, author of "Drifting House" (Viking)
FilmWeek: Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Safe House, The Vow, The Oscar Nominated Short Films and more
KPCC film critics Andy Klein, Claudia Puig and Charles Solomon join Larry to review the week’s new film releases, including Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, Safe House, The Vow, The Oscar Nominated Short Films and more. TGI-FilmWeek!
Guests:
Andy Klein, film critic for KPCC and the L.A. Times Community Papers
Claudia Puig, film critic for KPCC and USA Today
Charles Solomon, animation critic for KPCC and historian for amazon.com
Visionary filmmaker Douglas Trumbull on “Tree of Life,” “2001,” and Natalie Wood
Iconic directors such as Stanley Kubrick, Steven Spielberg and Terrence Malick don’t make movie magic all their own. Visual effects whiz Douglas Trumbull helped them craft the most visually stunning films of all time, and of this past year.
Trumbull worked most recently with Malick on the Oscar-nominated “Tree of Life.” It’s up for Best Picture, Directing and Cinematography. Trumbull’s blockbuster credits also include Kubrick’s ground-breaking “2001: A Space Odyssey,” Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner,” Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and of course a director credit for “Brainstorm” starring Christopher Walken and the late Natalie Wood. It’s a tremendous roster of achievements which is why the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences is honoring Trumbull this weekend. He will be presented the Gordon E. Sawyer Award for a “lifetime of technical contributions and leadership in the motion picture industry.”
Even though he’s a three-time Academy Award nominee for Visual Effects and received a Sci-Tech award, Trumbull is not done yet. He wants to transform movie viewing into a “hypercinematic” experience. New screen design and film techniques can immerse the audience in film, he believes. As futuristic and sci-fi as Trumbull’s work is, for “Tree of Life” he and Malick used organic methods to help create gorgeous renditions of supernovas, meteors and nothing less than the creation of the universe.
WEIGH IN:
Why did the filmmakers eschew computer-generated imagery on “Tree of Life?” How did they create those beautiful sequences? What were Trumbull’s favorite films? How will he transform movie viewing? What was his reaction to the brief blip in the Natalie Wood’s case late last year?
Guest:
Douglas Trumbull, Visual Effects Consultant, “Tree of Life;” Recipient of the Gordon E. Sawyer Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences for a lifetime of achievement.