Release Date: 09/16/2008
Label/Distributor: New Yorker Films Video / Cinema Guild
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Prebook DVD: 08/20/2008
Retail Price: $29.95
Genre: Documentary Cast: Willie Nelson,Robert Redford,Ann Richards,Henry Fistar Brooks,Gary Bradley
Running Time: 93
DVD Video Options: Color,DVD-Video,Letterboxed,NTSC,Widescreen
DVD Audio Options: English;Original Language
DVD Extras: - AUDIO COMMENTARY by Director Laura Dunn
- SECOND AUDIO COMMENTARY by Producer & Motion Graphics Designer Jef Sewell, Cinematographer Lee Daniel and Sound Designer Tom Hammond
- THEATRICAL TRAILER
- ENGLISH 5.1 SOUNDTRACK
- ESSAY BY FILM CRITIC DENNIS LIM
- SCENE SELECTIONS
UPC Code: 717119114848
The American dream of owning a house with a white picket fence goes head-to-head with environmental sustainability in this urgent, beautifully crafted documentary. When an ambitious real estate developer sets out to transform thousands of acres of pristine hill country around Austin, Texas into a suburban development threatening a nearby natural spring and local treasure the community fights back. In the conflict that ensues, we see in miniature the struggle between development and preservation that today plays out in cities and towns across the country. A work of stunning visual beauty and epic scope, The Unforeseen is a grand meditation on the destruction of the natural world in pursuit of an often fleeting dream.
Special Features:
- AUDIO COMMENTARY by Director Laura Dunn
- SECOND AUDIO COMMENTARY by Producer & Motion Graphics Designer Jef Sewell, Cinematographer Lee Daniel and Sound Designer Tom Hammond
- THEATRICAL TRAILER
- ENGLISH 5.1 SOUNDTRACK
- ESSAY BY FILM CRITIC DENNIS LIM
- SCENE SELECTIONS
The Unforeseen
By Ed Grant -- Video Business, 8/11/2008
NEW YORKERStreet: Sept. 16
Prebook: Aug. 20
> Earnest study of a land-development battle in Texas.
A case that pitted developers and land-owners against environmentalists and politicians in Austin, Texas, is the focus of this sober-minded documentary. The situation, in which a beloved area called Barton Springs was prepared for development, is intended to serve as a microcosm of the land-development situation in the U.S. over the last decade, and it confronts larger issues by introducing much data about central Texas development troubles. The result is a documentary that looks gorgeous when depicting the joys of untouched Texas territory, but will prove slow-going for those who aren’t inherently interested in the issue at hand.
Shelf Talk: Environmentalists and Texans will be most receptive to Unforeseen, but the film also will attract viewers thanks to the prominently featured names of its executive producers, Terrence Malick and Robert Redford (who also serves as a talking head on screen). This Sundance Channel original film also will garner interest once it begins its run on cable.
Documentary, color, NR (mature themes, language), 93 min., DVD $29.95Extras: director and crew commentaries, featurette
Director: Laura Dunn
First Run: L, March 2008, <$1 mil.
