"Under the Eightball"

Hi friends,
I found an article in the New York Times that I think all of you will find interesting. It concerns a new documentary movie. I hadn't heard about it prior to this article. I hope some of you will watch this movie and comment back to us so we can learn about it.

Be well,
Richard
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December 16, 2009
MOVIE REVIEW | 'UNDER THE EIGHTBALL'
On the Nightmare Trail of Lyme Disease
By JEANNETTE CATSOULIS

Defensible anger becomes indefensible incoherence in “Under the Eightball,” a heartfelt documentary that twists an emotional journey into an anti-establishment tirade.

Written and directed by Timothy Grey and Breanne Russell, the film chronicles their 18-month investigation into the diagnosis and treatment of Mr. Grey’s younger sister, Lori Hall-Steele, who died of Lyme disease in Michigan in 2008. As the filmmakers track the history and politics of the disease, test for environmental causes and watch over the patient’s decline, the first half of the film envelops us in a tender, visually compelling cocoon.

Then things fall apart, so fast and so furiously that it’s impossible to know where verifiable science leaves off, and conspiracy theory begins. Propelled by rage and a string of interviews — with doctors, scientists, authors — the film lurches from Project Paperclip (which welcomed German scientists, including bio-warfare specialists, to the United States after World War II) to the Plum Island Animal Disease Center, from contaminated wells to Japanese germ-warfare experiments.

Taking aim against multiple villains — including Dow Chemical and the health and pharmaceutical industries — and appearing to parallel Ms. Steele’s lack of appropriate treatment with the government’s notorious Tuskegee experiments with black men and syphilis, the directors skid off the rails so extravagantly that there is no going back.

Unfolding like two very different films, “Under the Eightball” undergoes a midpoint conversion from fascinating bug hunt to nightmarish lecture. In the end, critical questions may remain unanswered, but Mr. Grey’s grief and frustration are incontestable.

UNDER THE EIGHTBALL

Opens on Wednesday in Manhattan.

Written, directed and edited by Timothy Grey and Breanne Russell; directors of photography, Mr. Grey and D C Hayden; music by Mr. Grey and Gabe Clark; produced by Justin Blake; released by Andalusian Dogs. At the IFC Center, 323 Avenue of the Americas, at Third Street, Greenwich Village. Running time: 2 hours. This film is not rated.
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