Tim Schwab, Ric Burns & Hubert Sauper on THE SOUNDS OF FILM

THE NATION’S Tim Schwab, Director Ric Burns and Director Hubert Sauper Join Tom Needham on THE SOUNDS OF FILM.

Tim Schwab’s reporting sheds a light on the Gates Foundation’s two billion dollars in ‘charitable’ donations to private businesses, and documents how their endowment generates far more income than it gives away. He writes about the foundation’s hundreds of millions invested in companies working on Covid-19, putting it in a position to generate windfall revenues. He also offers a critique of the foundation's highest-profile research project, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which holds near-monopoly power over global/public health.

Ric Burns also joins Tom Needham on the SOUNDS OF FILM to discuss his movie OLIVER SACKS: HIS OWN LIFE.

For decades, Oliver Sacks, M.D. captured the imagination of the public with his eloquently written case studies of cognitive disorders. Despite sharing with the world one revelation after another about the intricacies, idiosyncrasies, and amazements of the human mind, Sacks remained private for much of his life, specifically about his struggles growing up gay in the repressive England of the 1950s. In Ric Burns's fascinating documentary, we get to know Sacks, from his childhood years with a schizophrenic older brother, to his years as a champion bodybuilder and motorcycle aficionado, and to his remarkable accomplishments as one of our foremost neurologists. His groundbreaking work on patients with the sleeping sickness encephalitis lethargica became the basis for his book Awakenings, and the memorable, award-winning film, AWAKENINGS starring Robin Williams.

The latest documentary from Oscar-nominated director Hubert Sauper is a creative portrait of "utopian" Cuba and its resilient people a century after the explosion of the USS Maine in Havana, the event that ushered in the American Empire alongside a modern form of world conquest: cinema itself.

Hubert Sauper, the director of Sundance winner WE COME AS FRIENDS and the Oscar-nominated DARWIN'S NIGHTMARE, will be talking about EPICENTRO, an immersive and metaphorical portrait of post-colonial Cuba. This explosion of the USS Maine ended Spanish colonial dominance in the Americas and ushered in the era of the American Empire. At the same time and place, a powerful tool of conquest was born: cinema as propaganda. In EPICENTRO, Sauper explores a century of interventionism and myth-making together with the extraordinary people of Havana - particularly its children, who he calls "young prophets." The film launches in virtual cinemas through Kino Marquee starting Friday, August 28.

Sauper is known for his socio-political documentary films which have garnered over fifty major international prizes including at Berlin, Venice, Sundance, the European Film Academy Award, the Austrian Academy Award, as well as the French "Cesar." He received an Academy Award nomination for DARWIN'S NIGHTMARE (2004), a documentary spotlighting the environmental impact of the fishing industry in the fragile Tanzanian ecosystem, and was last at Sundance with WE COME AS FRIENDS (2014), which focuses on the war conflict among the Sudanese and was awarded a Special Jury Award at the festival.

THE SOUNDS OF FILM is the nation’s longest running film, music and ideas themed radio show. For over 30 years, the program has delivered a popular mix of interviews and music to listeners all over Long Island, parts of Connecticut and streaming live worldwide on the internet. Past people interviewed for the show include Glenn Greenwald, Josh Fox, Katrina vanden Heuvel, Nile Rodgers, Chuck D, Cheech & Chong, Laurie Anderson, Wayne Wang, Scott Adams, Dionne Warwick, Whit Stillman and Pam Grier.

Worldwide listeners can tune into the SOUNDS OF FILM internet livestream on Thursday at 6 pm EST at wusb.fm.