** "I do my best to complete the puzzle of Benita's story - in the end I'd like to think that I gave her universal resonance, I like to think I gave her a legacy, I like to think I completed the story that she wanted to tell..."
Alan Berliner Talks Benita. For those whom the holiday may be less euphoric than intensifying the already emotionally fragile and alienated among us, Berliner's dedication of this documentary to his late collaborator, the extraordinary artist and filmmaker Benita Raphan who took her own life just after the holidays five years ago - is both a devastating and deeply eloquent tribute. And in exploring by extension the case of artists struggling in the world, a film in search of a life lost, and why...
The filmmaker explores as well, Letter To The Editor, his back to the future love letter documentary dedicated to the death of print newspapers today, succumbing to digital age media. And whose symbolic obituary Berliner compiled somewhat unbeknownst to him during the process - in a treasure trove of gathered material from the NY Times for decades.
** "Santa Claus makes more sense..."
Pacifica Host Garland Nixon with the latest Christmas Eve crime scenes investigative news from strange places. Referencing lithium, gold, oil, pirate ships and The Beverly Hillbillies; Obama, Ukraine and WMD; Hitler, Napoleon, Paul Roberson and Dubois; sheep, wolves and puppets - and multi-million dollar satchels of government money falling out of a fleeing truck...
Photo: Hearing radio for the first time in the rural Soviet Union...
Plus...Paris Correspondent Professor Dennis Broe in a new cross-continental Arts Express intimate conversation episode. As the culture and media critic as well as novelist dissects socio-politically the way things are - and the importance of independent radio all over the globe. Stay tuned, and all will be revealed...