FILM 1929: FYRE

FILM 1929: FYRE

TRIVIA: Fyre Media began with the Fyre app, where users could go to book talent. The idea for the Fyre Festival came about as a way to promote the app.

McFarland claimed to have purchased a Bahamian island, Norman’s Cay, formerly owned by Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar. One of the conditions was that Escobar’s name could not be used in the marketing of the event. When it appeared in the initial promo video, the Fyre crew was kicked off and left begging for a location two months before the festival was supposed to take place.

Kendall Jenner received a reported $250,000 to post once on Instagram about Fyre Festival

Celebs and influencers were offered free tickets and lodging in VIP villas but received keys to the promised luxury accommodation. Most villas simply did not exist on the Bahamian island of Great Exuma, McFarland and his team lost the keys to the ones they did rent.

As ticketholders and local merchants found out that the festival was officially canceled and vendors would not get paid, Fyre organizers fled for their lives.

Bahamian restaurant owner Maryann Rolle — who runs Exuma Point Resort shelled out approximately $50,000 of her savings to pay workers who were stiffed by Fyre.  Since then, she’s raised over $160,000 via a GoFundMe page.

(Some information found here.)

FILM 1242: ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM

TRIVIA: Among the protesters who disrupt the meeting with Jeff Skilling at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club is Marla Ruzicka, who was killed on 16 April 2005 in Iraq by a suicide bomber. She founded CIVIC (Campaign for Innocent Victims of Conflict) which worked to help the victims of the war in Iraq and she was a former Global Exchange activist.

FILM 1228: AN HONEST LIAR

An Honest Liar is a feature documentary about the world-famous magician, escape artist, and world-renowned enemy of deception, James 'The Amazing' Randi. The film brings to life Randi's intricate investigations that publicly exposed psychics, faith healers, and con-artists with quasi-religious fervor. A master deceiver who came out of the closet at the age of 81, Randi created fictional characters, fake psychics, and even turned his partner of 25 years, the artist Jose Alvarez, into a sham guru named Carlos. But when a shocking revelation in Randi's personal life is discovered, it isn't clear whether Randi is still the deceiver - or the deceived.

FILM 1150: F FOR FAKE

TRIVIA: Actress Oja Kodar, who appears in a muse-like fashion in this film, was Welles' real-life girlfriend at the time.

Hidden within a montage of footage of Howard Hughes is one brief shot of a man disembarking from a ship who looks similar to Hughes, but is actually actor Don Ameche.

An excerpt of Welles' legendary 1930s 'War of the Worlds' broadcast was recreated for this film; however none of the dialogue heard in the movie actually matches what was originally radio broadcast.