Documentary

FORMER Lenny Dykstra business manager, Dan Herman , has filed a complaint against former Fox 29 weatherman John Bolaris , after a text-message battle between the two resulted in Herman going to the Pennsylvania State Police. The dispute began when Herman, the owner of Chinga Chang Records, pitched a documentary called "Race in the Ring," about the 1982 fight between boxers Larry Holmes and Gerry Cooney . On June 28, 2012, Herman says he entered into a contract with Bolaris to narrate the documentary, in exchange for a one-fifth ownership of the film.

A startling and experimental documentary on the order of The Thin Blue Line, James Benning's Used Innocence enjoys its local premiere tonight at Doylestown's James-Lorah House Auditorium. Not even the convicted murderer can solve this murder mystery. Tonight, 7:30, Main & Broad Sts, Doylestown. CLOSELY WATCHED FILMS James-Lorah House Auditorium, Main & Broad Sts, Doylestown. Phone: 345-5663 or 297-8517. Tonight 7:30: Used Innocence, James Benning's structuralist documentary, in which the filmmaker becomes personally involved with the film's subject, a convicted murderer.

50 CHILDREN: THE RESCUE MISSION OF MR. AND MRS. KRAUS. 9 p.m. Monday, HBO. EVERY SO OFTEN, a documentary comes along with a story so good, it's easy to imagine it as a feature film. "50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus," which premieres on HBO on Monday to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, is one such documentary: It has the characters, the plot points, and most importantly, it has the goose bumps. Which makes it all the more remarkable that the story of Philadelphians Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus, who left their own two children behind to rescue 50 Jewish children from Nazi Europe, wasn't much talked about until recently.

NEW YORK had Max's Kansas City and CBGB's. Los Angeles boasted the Roxy. Liverpool, England, had its Cavern Club. Here in Philadelphia, the pre-eminent rock 'n' roll club for many moons was J.C. Dobbs, a long chute of a room and hangout on the "hippest street in town," a/k/a lower South Street. Hot and happening from 1975 to 1996, Dobbs was the place where local heroes such as Wilmington's George Thorogood and Robert Hazard were discovered, where bands like Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Oasis, Green Day and Rage Against the Machine kick-started a buzz, and solo talents like Sarah McLachlan and Beck first faced and conquered a Philly contingent.

Morgan Spurlock may be a supersized presence in the world of documentary, but he sounds like a guy who's ready to leave the genre behind. Certainly he doesn't want to do it forever. "I hope not," he said. "There are actually a couple of narrative films that I'm attached to right now. One is with Leonardo DiCaprio's company. It's kind of an Erin Brockovich-ish type movie. " Spurlock is promoting "POM Wonderful Presents the Greatest Movie Ever Sold," his documentary about product placement in Hollywood movies and new trends in advertising.

Members of the Abril family hover over their father, who is being kept alive by a respirator. "It's in our hands," says a son, "whether he will live or not. " "It's over, right?" asks another son, his question more of a plea. "It's over, right? There's nothing we can do for him?" "If we remove the respirator, it will seem like we are killing him," anguishes a daughter. "We will be burdened by guilty feelings, that we took him off. " The anguish of the Abril family comes at the beginning of a powerful and timely one-hour documentary airing at 10 tonight on Channel 12. WHOSE Death Is It, Anyway?

LOS ANGELES - One year ago, after putting in a full day of work at her local department store, Betsy DelValley got home and pulled out her video camera. It was July 24, 2010, the day YouTube launched an experimental project asking users of the social-media site worldwide to submit videos about what transpired in their lives over 24 hours. The best submissions would be culled together for a documentary film. DelValley, then 19, was intrigued by the undertaking. The problem was, nothing all that exciting had transpired on the day she was meant to film.

BACK IN THE DAY, when major league baseball resembled a half-vast plantation and teams owned players forever and a day, the Cardinals traded centerfielder Curt Flood to the Phillies. It was October 1969 and Flood got the news from the publicity guy, so far down the chain of command he rattled when he walked. Flood said, hell no, he won't go. What he actually said was, "In the history of man, there's no other profession except slavery where one man is tied to one owner for the rest of his life.

"THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE" makes the sardonic point that exoneration rarely gets the same frenzied publicity as conviction, and takes a small step toward redress. Its documentary subjects are the five boys-turned-men (Yusef Salaam, Korey Wise, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana, Antron McCray) railroaded in 1989 for the beating and rape of the so-called Central Park jogger, and of course there is much shame to be conferred in this story on police and prosecutors. They buried evidence, coerced confessions, and proceeded with prosecution even when it must have been obvious to them (the DNA didn't match)

Five movies in six years is no small feat. Five movies in six years when you're based in Philadelphia and dealing with the hard realities of indie filmmaking - money, time, distribution, marketing - is no small feat, either. And here Don Argott, Demian Fenton, and Sheena Joyce are happy to say they've had "a little bit of success. " They are the collaborative team behind Last Days Here, a wonderfully strange and affecting portrait of a heavy metal demigod's fall into the abyss, which opens Friday.

DeSean Jackson, who has built a career on creating highlights, has lived much of his life in front of a camera. The by-product is a new documentary, DeSean Jackson: The Making of a Father's Dream, compiled from thousands of hours of footage taken by his brother, Byron Jackson, since Jackson was a child. "At first, being young, I used to always tell him to stop filming me," Jackson said. "But [Bryon] used to tell me, 'One day, this is all going to be needed.' " Available Sunday for Father's Day on inDemand, the film is ostensibly about DeSean Jackson.

"THE TRIPTYCH" is the title of a new documentary co-directed by Barron Claiborne and Terence Nance , and produced by AfroPunk Pictures. The documentary explores the behind-the-canvas lives of three artists who run in the same circle but whose very different lives contribute to their work. The project came together when Nance, who was profiling unknown artists, teamed up with Claiborne, a self-taught photographer who was working on a similar project on better-known artists, including himself.

FORMER Lenny Dykstra business manager, Dan Herman , has filed a complaint against former Fox 29 weatherman John Bolaris , after a text-message battle between the two resulted in Herman going to the Pennsylvania State Police. The dispute began when Herman, the owner of Chinga Chang Records, pitched a documentary called "Race in the Ring," about the 1982 fight between boxers Larry Holmes and Gerry Cooney . On June 28, 2012, Herman says he entered into a contract with Bolaris to narrate the documentary, in exchange for a one-fifth ownership of the film.

THOUGH THE late-afternoon sun was beating down as he entered XFINITY Live! and he was surrounded by an overflow crowd in a small, upstairs room during a question-and-answer session with the media, Julius Erving still managed to do what he did for so many years as a player in Philadelphia - exude coolness. Dressed in a white shirt and white pants, brought together with a light tan jacket, Erving sat on a stool in front of those gathered and, with his long fingers endlessly wrapped around a microphone, talked about the upcoming documentary about him that premieres Monday on NBA TV, as well as other topics.

THE NEW documentary "Crafting a Nation" spends about an hour and a half fussing over exactly what makes America's craft beer so special. It's hard work by small businessmen. It's all-natural ingredients. It's fresh, locally made and produced with care for the environment. It's about overcoming the odds and the local building inspector. Apparently, though, it's not about actually drinking the stuff. Well-researched, beautifully photographed and set to the meaningful strum of an acoustic guitar, "Crafting a Nation" nevertheless manages to almost completely miss the key attraction of craft beer: It tastes good.

IT'S NO SECRET that a lot of legendary players have hooped it up at New York City playgrounds. On Wednesday, the documentary "Doin' it in the Park" opens in the Big Apple - a homage to the city's courts and players. As far as we know, no one has done a similar film about Philly, even though the city has a rich history of guys and girls who honed their skills in pickup games on asphalt courts. Players like (in no particular order), Wilt Chamberlain, Hank Gathers, Bo Kimble, Gene Banks, Bryant "Sad Eyes" Watson, Guy Rodgers, Earl Monroe, Walt Hazzard, Lewis "Black Magic" Lloyd, Aaron "AO" Owens, Randy Woods, Wali Jones, Lionel Simmons, Marilyn Stephens, Linda Page, Yolanda Laney and Debbie Lytle.

For all the talk about immigration, rarely does the conversation veer into why so many Latinos have come to the United States. Harvest of Empire attempts to fill in the gaps, and the reasons don't include some naive notion about streets being paved with gold. The documentary, based on the book by journalist Juan Gonzalez, makes a persuasive argument that immigration from Nicaragua, Mexico, Cuba, and other nations is the direct result of American maneuvering in Latin America. The film follows a pattern, looking at each country individually and hearing personal tales from immigrants before taking a deep dive into the history of that nation.

Movies The Great Gatsby See Steven Rea's preview on H2. Harvest of Empire This documentary attempts to draw a connection between past U.S. expansionist policy in Latin-America and the current immigration problems. Hava Negila: The Movie A documentary on the meaning and history of the popular Jewish song. Kiss of the Damned See Steven Rea's preview on H2. Midnight's Children See Steven Rea's preview on H2. Tyler Perry Presents We the Peeples Nothing goes as planned when a young man (Craig Robinson)

The Philadelphia region supports film festivals targeted to virtually every fan base and demographic, from gays and lesbians to Asian Americans and African Americans to horror geeks. Except, that is, for the region's growing Latino community. It's an oversight that local cineastes David Acosta and Beatriz Vieira are trying to remedy. "It has been such a void in the city and the region," said Vieira, vice president for philanthropic services at the Philadelphia Foundation. "And there is such a breadth of film and video work coming from Latin America and the Latin community in the United States.

Jason Osder was 11, a kid at the Miquon School, when the Philadelphia Police Department dropped a bomb on the MOVE house at 6221 Osage Ave. in West Philadelphia. It was May 13, 1985. By the end of the night, six adult members of the Afrocentric back-to-nature organization - long in conflict with city officials, with police, with neighbors - were dead. So were five children, trapped inside the house. And 60 other rowhouses in the surrounding area had been destroyed by a fire left unchecked.