Filmography
Unless otherwise noted, films are filmed, co-produced and edited by Brian Huberman.
Edward Hugetz is co-producer and editor and Cynthia Wolf is sound recordist and Assistant to Producer.
Most films available for purchase on DVD. Visit the “Shoot us a note” page to order.
Index (click titles to skip to description)
Who Killed the Fourth Ward?
Sam Houston’s Retreat
To Put Away the Gods
Who’ll Stand with the Fourth Ward?
Last Night at the Alamo
John Wayne’s “The Alamo,” The Documentary
The Last Days of Charles/Kathryn
The De la Peña Diary
Where is my family? (Holocaust survivor interviews)
The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Documentary
Citizen Provacateur: Ray Hill’s Texas Prison Show
Who Killed the Fourth Ward?
(1978)
Documentary
Originally founded as Freedman’s Town after the Civil War, The Fourth Ward is one of the oldest and most culturally significant black communities in Houston, Texas. In the 1970s, the city along with big business interests planned to redevelop the Fourth Ward in order to revitalize the dilapidated real estate and freshen the image of downtown Houston. The price of progress in this case would be the removal of many poor black families. The film explores a complex series of encounters with elected city officials, businessmen and the people of Fourth Ward in order to better understand how a city like Houston works. Who makes the decisions about where resources are spent and so determines the growth and wealth of the community.
Behind the scenes:
“That was the shade that we advanced into. And from that came larger issues: what are the forces at work in our democracy — in our community? Do the poor have any control over their destiny? There’s no simple solution offered. The viewer is taken through a three-hour journey in pure cinéma vérité fashion. That’s a filmmaking term not often used correctly. The original form was established in the 1960 film, Chronicle of a Summer, by Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin. Unlike its neighbor, observational filmmaking or direct cinema, in cinéma vérité the filmmaker is the protagonist. James Blue’s journey into the Fourth Ward provides a series of experiences for the audience to access this strange world. It can be a scary journey when Blue is put on the spot by challenging questions about, poverty, failure and race.” –B.H.
Production details:
Produced by James Blue
Co-produced and Filmed by Brian Huberman
Co-produced, Editor and sound recordist, Ed Hugetz
Screenings: Global Village Festival, New York; Grierson Documentary Seminar, Canada; Canberra Ethnographic Film Festival, Australia; Televised on PBS
Three one hour episodes. Super 8 mm film transferred to Video tape.
Sam Houston’s Retreat
(1980)
Docu-drama with James Blue as Sam Houston, or “History that appeals to the imagination.” – J.Frank Dobie, Texas Folklorist
Sam Houston’s Retreat is a film about making a historical film. Historical markers located along the roads in Texas began my interest in the project, which was eventually filmed on actual historical sites using letters, newspapers and diaries instead of a conventional script. The film is about heroes and leaders and is structured in three parts.
Part one: History, the Game:
A playful section about the reenactment of the battle of San Jacinto, the battle that made Houston a hero. With a handful of reenactors from the Texas Army and a cutting horse called Crimbo we walked the ground at San Jacinto.
Part two: History, the Investigation:
Explores the conspiracy theory that Houston was working in cooperation with President Andrew Jackson to make it appear to the world that Mexico was attempting to invade the United States.
Part three: History, the challenge:
To believe, the film demands that the audience recognize the difference between the self-destructive heroism of the Alamo and the more calculating heroism of Houston, who in the end helped to bring about a new nation. The final image of the film shows Houston spitting tobacco juice. A contemptuous and defiant gesture reflecting the anger of all leaders.
Behind the scenes:
“I guess you could say, reflecting back on it, that the film examined the idea of heroism from our vantage point in the time of Richard Nixon. Watergate was just a couple of years back when we started that film. That had caused quite a cloud.” –B.H.
Production details:
44 mins. Super 8 MM film transferred to video tape.
To Put Away the Gods
(1989)
Documentary
Synopsis: The Lacandon Maya Indians live in the rain forest of Chiapas, Mexico, where they survive by combining both traditional and non-traditional ways. The central character of the film is Old Chan K’in who continues to work his slash-burn fields, worship his own Gods while at the same time he travels by truck and takes advantage of modern medicine. His sons appear more interested in the ways of outsiders and the old men of their community believe that once they are dead that the young will put away their Gods for the last time.
This is not another ethnographic documentary bemoaning the passing of a traditional society. It is a film full of humor that expresses the ease with which the Lacandon face the intrusions of lumber companies, technology and, in general, the unforgiving pace of an encroaching modern world. The ease with which Old Chan K’in absorbs the modern narrative into his own traditional story makes him an early post-modern human being.
Behind the scenes:
“I remember during a long walk filming the anthropologist chatting with Old Chan K’in; at one point he asks the Old man, ‘What did the gods tell you in the old days?’ Old Chan K’in responds: ‘Not much. Don’t worry. Drink beer. Don’t get angry.’” –B.H.
Production details:
90 mins. Documentary. Super 8 MM film transferred to video tape.
Produced with a grant from the Texas Committee for the Humanities
Screenings: Royal Anthropological Institute, London; Nordic Anthropological Film Fest, Norway; Televised on PBS.
Who’ll Stand With the Fourth Ward?
(1984)
Documentary
Almost a decade after making Who Killed Fourth Ward? BH Productions are invited by Houston’s PBS affiliate, KUHT-TV to update the story. The city and big business working together had plans to demolish and rebuild the area. The man we were directed to in our filming was Lynwood Johnson. Once a member of the middle class, he had lost his job due to illness and eventually had fallen through all the democratic safety nets, ending up in public housing.
Living in Allen Parkway Village (a run down public housing project in Houston’s Fourth Ward) Johnson determined to fight the forces of exploitation disguised as progress, even if it meant fighting the battle alone.
Behind the scenes:
“During the editing of this film, Sam Peckinpah the Hollywood action director stopped by. Peckinpah was unimpressed by Lynwood Johnson, ‘This is your hero?’ he said with some irony intended. I explained to him that Lynwood was taking a stand where eight years before no one had had the courage to do so. Peckinpah look on Johnson with new eyes…those of the tried gunfighter who can still admire the courage of a fellow warrior.
“There’s a heroic quality to this lone figure battling the forces of big business and city hall. At the time, Allen Parkway village was inhabited predominantly by Indo-Chinese people who spoke five different languages. Can you imagine what it’s like to hold a meeting with that constituency?
“The town-hall meetings we revere when we think of the foundations of democracy were exclusively attended by well-educated white men. …There is a great moment where the tenants of Allen Parkway Village have got to take a vote on whether or not they are going to take a stand. They have to vote. But how can they communicate? Finally they find somebody to bridge the language gap: a teenage girl. But all these patriarchal cultures have a problem accepting the information from her.
“The final scene with city officials is a terrible tragedy because Lynwood—in the final hearing—doesn’t have all the necessary paper work. The city publicly humiliates him. He loses—but we all lose in that moment. There’s only so much an individual can be expected to do.” –B.H.
Production details:
120 mins. 3/4″ U-matic Video tape
Screenings: Televised on PBS
Last Night at the Alamo
(1984)
Feature Film; Alamo Films Ltd./Cinecom/October Films
A contemporary drama set in modern day Houston. The Alamo is a local bar on the Eastside of town—soon to be demolished. A group of rednecks take their last stand, with a good long drink.
Behind the scenes:
“The building where we filmed it is still there — not far from the Maxwell House coffee factory [near the East End of Houston].” –B.H.
Directed by Eagle Pennel
Written by Kim Henkel
Cinematography by Brian Huberman
Screenings: New York Film Festival; Special Jury Prize, USA Film Festival (Sundance) Telluride, Berlin, Edinburgh and many other int’l film festivals.
John Wayne’s “The Alamo,” The Documentary
(1992)
Worldwide distribution with MGM Home Video
Screenings: South by Southwest Film and Video Conference, finalist
The Last Days of Charles/Kathryn
(1995)
Documentary
Screenings: The New York International Independent Film & Video Festival, The East Village Theater; Award-winner, Sinking Creek Film Festival; Televised on PBS.
The Return of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Documentary
(1996)
Documentary of the making of Kim Henkel’s remake of the classic Texas horror flick, starring Matthew McConaughey and Renee Zellweger.
The De la Peña Diary
(2000)
Documentary
Funded by the Summerlee Foundation. Premier UT Austin, April 2000.
PBS screening, March 2001. KUHT-TV PBS Houston screening, February 2004.
Where is My Family?
(2003)
Documentary
Distributed at the Holocaust Museum in Houston;
Spanish version: “Donde esta mi familia?”
Citizen Provocateur: Ray Hill’s Texas Prison Show
(2007)
Documentary
Screenings: Q-Fest, Houston; Tacoma Film Festival
