Harry Pallenberg

Women in Boxes

Phil Noyes, Harry Pallenberg

Women in Boxes is the first film to uncover the story of the Unsung Hero behind the magician. The devoted, if not masochistic Magic Assistant who distorts her body into impossible positions while the magician cuts her in pieces, stabs her, sets her on fire, crushes her, makes her disappear, then restores her to life with a dramatic "Taa Daa!" and takes a bow to wild applause. Who is the woman who would subject herself to such torture, not to mention, the Magician's Ego? Are these women just bimbos parading around in skimpy clothes? Or are they the real magic behind the Illusionist? Heretofore sworn to secrecy, this tough yet feminine group opened their homes, hearts and lives for the filmmakers and gave an insider's view of love, life and magic family values.

Shotgun Freeway

Morgan Neville, Harry Pallenberg

Joan Didion, James Ellroy

Before "L.A. Confidential", there was "Shotgun Freeway" -- the groundbreaking 1995 documentary about Los Angeles coming to grips with it's own history. Against a backdrop of never-before-seen archival footage, Shotgun Freeway presents a diverse group of "Angelinos" who guide the film through their own past as well as the city's. We get crime scribe James Ellroy reliving his youth as a burglar, Actor/writer Buck Henry's tour of Hollywood fakery, Jazzman Buddy Collette's trip down Central Avenue, Historian Mike Davis' tour of LA's eventual Armageddon, and writer Joan Didion's take on LA's own ephemerality. From the Beaches to the Valley, "Shotgun Freeway" will show you a Los Angeles you never knew existed.