Hollywood on the Hudson Blog presents its Golden Lady Liberty Film Award for the "Best Documentary Film 2008" to Bill Maher's "Religulous" for best expression of truth, liberty and freedom of speech in film, combined with excellence in film making, directing, editing, sound track and film production.

Congratulations Bill and thank you for bringing us your intensely thought provoking film "Religulous" - it's everything you always wanted to know about religion but were afraid to ask and a masterpiece film. I sense that Our Creator God would want us to ask questions as we are given free will to choose what to believe (or to not believe). I am grateful that Bill Maher asks people and religious leaders the most challenging questions about their religious beliefs in a very amusing way.

I found myself laughing at that which I could never imagine myself finding hysterically funny.

On a whirlwind spiritual journey, a few of the places that "Religulous" and Bill Maher takes us to are the real Holy Land in Jerusalem, the "Holyland Experience" theme park in Orlando, FL and the Vatican in Rome, Italy. Surprisingly, a Vatican Priest that Bill Maher speaks with was in agreement with most everything that Bill talked about. Maher not only speaks to the religiously inclined but also interviews a neuroscientist for his views on the religious mind.

"Religulous" makes it clear that we don't have to wait for the Armegeddon at the "End Times" that Scripture speaks about because mankind has developed the ability to annihilate civilization as we know it with nuclear weapons.

"Religulous" is a highly entertaining and informative film not to be missed, but it's not for the religiously faint of heart. Run to see it now!

Marla LaRue, Hollywood on the Hudson Blogzine, editor

Sept. 17 - Sept 19, 2008: "Hollywood on the Hudson" - Film Making in NY

The Museum of Modern Art [MOMA] is hosting The Hollywood on the Hudson Film Festival from September 17 to September 19, 2008.
Don't miss this event inspired by Richard Koszarski's book, Hollywood on the Hudson: Film and Television in New York from Griffith to Sarnoff.
For complete information, visit the Museum of Modern Art's website:
http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/film_exhibitions.php?id=10043&ref=calendar#screenings

The forth coming screenings for 10 original Hollywood on the Hudson Films include:

1. The Green Goddess (1923) - Sidney Olcott, director; play by Willima Archer; acting by George Arliss. Filmed at the Bronx Biograph studio. Screening courtesy UCLA Film and Telelvison Archive. Silent with music accompaniment.
2. Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde (1920) - John Robertson, director; based on the novel by Robert Louis Stevenson; acting by John Barrymore. Filmed at Paramount's Amsterdam Opera House studio on West Forty-fourth Street; from the George Eastman House Motion Picture Collection. Silent, with musical accompaniment.
3. Love 'Em and Leave 'Em (1926) - Frank Tuttle, director; based on a play by John Weaver & George Abbott; with Evelyn Brent, actress. Paramount Astoria Studios.
4. Enchantment (1921) Robert Vignola, director; based on a story by Frank R. Adams; with Marion Davies acting. Screening courtesy The Library of Congress. Silent, with musical accompaniment.
5. While New York Sleeps (1920) - Charles Brabin, director. Filmed at the new Fox studio on West Fifty-fifth Street and various New York locations. Silent, with musical accompaniment.
6. The Letter (1929) - Jean De Limur & Monta Bell, directors; based on the play by W. Somerset Maugham. This is the first talking feature film made in New York. Courtesy The Library of Congress.
7. Way Down East (1920) - D. W. Griffith director; based on a play by Lottie Blair Parker; with Lillian Gish, actress. Griffith abandoned Hollywood in 1919, to film this at his new studio in Mamaroneck. Silent, with musical accompaniment.
8. The Struggle (1931) - D. W. Griffith., director (his last film); written by John Emerson & Anita Loos; with Hal Skelly, actor. A NY indie production filmed at the old Edison studio and on the streets of the Bronx.
9. Janice Meredith (1924) - E. Mason Hopper, director; with Marion Davies, Harrison Ford and others. Courtesy The Library of Congress. Silent, with musical accompaniment.
10. Monsieur Beaucaire (1924) - Sidney Olcott, director; based on the novel by Booth Tarkington; with Rudolph Valentino, actor.

This event is co-organized by Laurence Kardish, MOMA Senior Curator, Department of Film, and Richard Koszarski, on whose book, ("Hollywood on the Hudson: Film and Television in New York from Griffith to Sarnoff"), the exhibition is based.
For ticket information goto http://www.moma.org/visit_moma/admissions.html#filmtickets

Marla LaRue, editor