The Point Radio: UNITY Brings A Message To The Movies

This week you have a chance tho catch a unique cinematic experience when the long awaited documentary debuts in theaters for one day only. Writer/Director Shaun Monson talks about his long struggle to get his work on the screen and his list of nearly 100 celebrity narrators. To see this film in it’s one day event (Wednesday August 12th) go here for a location near you. Plus it’s the biggest twist on reality dating shows. VH1’s DATING NAKED and this season’s bachelor talks about how he is coping.

In a few days, TV’s funniest (and smartest) ladies, Lennon Parham and Jessica St. Clair from PLAYING HOUSE join us. Be sure and follow us on Twitter now here.

Transcript

the point radio. It's my crop. place in just about 24 hours. It involves a documentary called unity and we've got the full story for you. Plus, if

you think you've seen it all in reality dating well now you really are going to see it all the age one has dating naked and we've got the guy who

pretty much is the center of all of it. Let's get to the point. This is the point. The point radio get the point. Radio get the point radio.

There's a special cinematic event this week that involves a really unique documentary. The documentary is called unity and it features 100 celebrity

narrators and it took over seven years to get to the big screen. The guy behind all that is Sean Munson who told me a little bit about the project. It's really a

study in perceptions in opposites in conflict. I mean the film is titled unity but there's a great deal in the film that talks about this

unity and what it will take for humankind to get past perceiving these opposites in one another because life has always been expressed this way.

All this variety has always been here. There's no revelation and no matter what great strides we take to create the things we come up with and our

technology and so on we are still quite savage and barbaric and almost Neanderthal with each other. So the film is asking the viewer

why we can't seem to break past that in the way we've broken past in so many other areas. Where did the idea first come from? I don't know. I mean I've

been working on it for years. I don't know if it was the iPhone 2 or 3 or 4 or whatever I had in my pocket at the time but I remember thinking this is just

a marvel. This is incredible. But I don't think this is going to bring us world peace. And you can go to yoga. You can be vegan. You can be any number of

things. And I thought that's not going to bring world peace. Nothing that struck me that nothing we come up with is going to bring us world peace. It had

to be some sort of inner shift that would occur and we would see the same world we're in now but we'd see it completely differently. And that was sort

of the spark of either a book or a film and I chose to make it into a film. So what does he think will surprise people most when they see the film?

Well, you know, we all come by honestly. We all come by honestly. We're raised in a certain part of the world in a certain culture and things are

taught to us. And then what happens is which is totally fine. Nothing wrong with that but we begin to identify. We begin to have an identity with

your nationality, your race, your religion, your politics. And it can go on and on to I'm a college graduate, I'm a homeowner, I'm a business

owner, etc. And you begin to have these identities so that when you look outside that identity, outside that preference, it might feel

uncomfortable because we prefer the in-group and the out-group is sort of over there but the film is asking us to no longer have an in-group but

to embrace all of it, the out-group. And it seems like a fierce, tall order but it really isn't. It's simple. It's basically the golden rule, you

know, be kind. I mean, that's essentially what it is. As a writer and director, what does he hope that the audience takes away from the experience?

Well, there's a line in the film. It's even on our poster. It says not the same but equal. I think that line alone will be potentially challenging enough

because we obviously we know we're not the same but that equal part. I think whether we care to admit it or not, we like that there is an inequality

because that means that somebody or something is above another, is a little better than another and therefore you can either suppress, oppress, exercise, dominion over

what have you over the lesser. So, you know, people might come out going not the same but equal and maybe wrestle with that a little bit but it might just plant a

seed, you know, an initial seed of going beyond, you know, duality and something being less than another. Again, Unity has an unprecedented

100 celebrity narrators. That includes some names you're probably familiar with. Well, just to name a few, I mean, we have Joaquin Phoenix and Jessica

Chastain, Dr. Dre, Eckhart Tolle, Helen Mirren, Marion Cotillard, Jeffrey Rush, Aaron Paul, Moby. I mean, the idea was instead of a single narrator, which is more

traditional and there's nothing wrong with that, of course, but the idea being Unity, what if we had voices constantly changing, ever shifting and moving almost

like the voices were like a river flowing and the narrative became a chorus. The narrative itself like music became a symphony, not a single note. It just took years

to do that part of it and to edit those voices together. This week the film will debut for one day only in theaters around the country, but if you

missed that particular event, when can you see Unity? Well, it'll eventually be on iTunes in the fall, probably November, but it's a very unique

theatrical release that they're doing, which is a one-day sort of event cinema, they call it, and it's on over a thousand screens worldwide. And the idea

is almost like a concert. It's a one-time only thing, and so if one can, you try to schedule and coordinate so you can make it there and see it in a theater,

see it uninterrupted, in an uninterrupted feeling surrounded by strangers, but in a communal setting. That'll be probably more powerful than any home-building

experience, which of course is where it will end up and live forever more after that. Again, the one-day cinematic event with Unity takes place

tomorrow, August the 12th. Check for theaters in your area, and again, keep an eye out for Unity when it hits video on demand later this year.

A hot summer in the comic book stores, but not so hot for DC. All that and more as we check the latest in pop culture. One of the most buzzed about shows of the

summer got a vote of approval. Netflix has given another season. To Sense8, the second season will begin sometime early in 2016 on the streaming service. Over the

weekend at the TCA, the critics spoke and they handed out some awards to giving one to Amy Schumer for individual achievement in comedy and to her

Comedy Central Inside Amy Schumer show as the best comedy program award. Other wonders included Mad Men's Jon Hamm, AMC's Better Call Saul, and FX's The

Americans. Also at the TCA, FX made a few announcements of interest, including another season for The Strain that'll debut next year. And they also

set the premiere date for the new Kurt Sunner drama, The Bastard Executioner, that'll debut on that work on September the 15th. Comic stores in July were pretty

much dominated by Marvel once again, big titles of course being Star Wars and Secret Wars. But a couple of interesting notes when we look at the sales, including

an appearance from Archie. We'll go over all those numbers, including the graphic novel sales too, coming up in a bit. As another big sales winner more

than likely on the way for Marvel, that'll be Invincible Iron Man set to hit stores in October and Marvel's pushing to make sure it gets there, with

preview pages all over the Internet and in-store parties tied to a month-long promotion for comic book stores. There's some cool giveaways tied into

the parties, including a Dead Bull sketch variant and a Build Your Own Iron Man promotion as well. Check with your retailers to find out if they're involved.

The book is set to hit stores on October the 7th. Marvel's Hot Summer in the comic stores didn't translate to the movie theaters, at least in the case of

Fantastic Four, which debuted with one of the lowest weekends ever for a Marvel movie, tying it pretty close to what happened with Ghost Rider Spirit of

Vengeance a few years ago. Mission Impossible, of course, the number one movie of the weekend in Fantastic Four came in with just $26.2 million in

ticket sales. Overall, movies were down this weekend when compared to the same time in 2014. Looking at the stats, it was last year that we had the

Turtles movie in theaters debuting with about $65 million and Guardians of the Galaxy right behind it with another good weekend for that film at

42 million. Overall, with this weekend compared to last year, showed a 30% deficit. But it comes to reality dating shows. Well, it's not hard to find one

when you turn on the television. However, there is one that has a little bit different twist, and that's dating naked from VH one. Yep, that's exactly what

the title says. We talked to this season's Bachelor Chris about just what the show is. Yeah, so it's a little different twist this season. You know,

there's two main daters. Bachelorette, Carrie and myself, the Bachelor, and we date through 10 weeks. We date, we date two, we go on two dates per

episode, and we carry over a date from the prior episode. And out of the three people, we pick one to go to the next. And eventually, 10 weeks down the

road, we, you know, we hopefully end up with one. And this is… It's weird, dude. We're naked. It's totally weird. It's a blind date. And, you

know, we've never met before. Nobody knows what to expect. You don't know what the date is. You know, you don't know what kind of person you're about to

look at. And, I mean, you're naked. So, yeah, it's just super weird. So how did Chris get involved with this? Totally random. I recently moved to

San Diego and started a business down there, and I got a financial consulting business, which is completely different from dating naked. And I got a

random phone call. Somebody said, hey, would you be interested? And I took a look at it, thought about it for a little bit, and I said, let's go.

Let's do it. Why not? So that's how it all happened. So walking in front of the cameras, having a date and being naked, how'd that work out? It was bizarre. I'll

tell you what, like the first two to three episodes, I was juggling so much. I mean, the fact that dating publicly, the fact that I'm naked, and the

fact that I'm, you know, I'm these blind dates, I'm essentially, you don't have to be this charming, charismatic guy, you know, in a public

setting day in and day out. Not to mention, you know, you got to win them over and you got to bring them back to the house where there's three girls and

they're all fighting with each other. It's chaotic, you know, juggling it. There's a ton going on besides the nakedness. Still, even though there's no

clothes, there's plenty of drama. I mean, it's wild. You know, I come, I came from a house of four boys, you know, all this estrogen flying around

and claws and screaming and yeah, that was totally new. It was overwhelming. I mean, there's so much, there's so much to juggle besides the fact that

you're all uncomfortable and you're all in a completely new atmosphere. I mean, it's just, it's black. It's completely black. When it came to the

different dates on the show, Chris said each one was a little different. I mean, absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, there was all different personalities,

shapes, sizes, backgrounds, ethnicities. So I never knew what to expect. And, you know, certainly some of you didn't, some gave me a full sprint and

jumped up on like, you gave me a hug, like immediately. Others were really timid, you know, you had to kind of break them in and make sure they're comfortable.

So I mean, it was totally different, total range of personalities. In the reality world, obviously the goal is for a little romance to blossom. So

did things happen a little quicker in this situation? You know, I would say, believe it or not, I know it's crazy. It didn't really have a

tremendous effect on speeding up the process of jumping into the sack or not. Honestly, it was still getting to know somebody. Yeah, you were naked.

I think, if anything, I mean, it was just, you definitely got to know the person better quicker. You know, you definitely had deeper conversations than you

normally would, but I think that had to do with the timing. You know, you just had a, I had a short amount of time to get to know somebody, you know, rather

than being completely naked. See, Chris and a lot more too on Dating Naked, Playing for Geebs, new episodes every Wednesday on VH1.

The point, the point. It's been a hot summer, especially for Marvel with comic sales in the comic stores. But when you look at the numbers

overall, still there's a little bit of a dip when compared to where we were in 2014. Comics sold in comic stores in July were down about 4.67% when

compared to last summer. However, when you look at 2015 as a whole, comic sales are pretty much up, almost 17%, again, when compared to the first half of 2014.

DC had their weakest month in, well, a few years and a surprise from Archie too in the top 10. At number 10 for the best-selling comics, Guardians of No. 1 from

Marvel, Age of Apocalypse No. 1 at No. 9, Amazing Spider-Man, Renew Your Vows No. 2 came in at No. 8. No. 7 best-selling comic, first

issue of the rebooted Archie from Mark Wade. At No. 6, Darth Vader No. 7, DC comes in at No. 5 with Batman No. 42. At No. 4, Star Wars No. 7, first issue of

Civil War was a No. 3 best-selling comic. Star Wars Landau No. 1 was No. 2 and the No. 1 best-seller in comic stores in July, Secret Wars No. 4 from

Marvel. I've done some for the podcast, but when we're back, I'm bringing along two of my favorite people on the planet. Lennon Parham and

Jessica St. Clair from Playing House on USA are back to talk about how they fought hard and won to get a second season of the comedy back on television.

All that and more on websites like ComicMix.com, also on GetThePointRadio.com, and, of course, in the iTunes podcast directory. Please subscribe. We

love for you to do that. We also like it when you follow us on social media. Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook is where you'll find us, all under the point radio.

See you back here in a few days. GetThePointRadio.com