(BY ALI NADERZAD) SONY CLASSICS will release Man From Plains, Jonathan Demme’s new doc about Jimmy Carter’s U.S. tour to promote his new book “Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid.” It’s an intriguing project for several reasons: firstly, because of its subject. Jimmy Carter was known as our foreign affairs president, brokering deals with heads of state and helping extinguish conflicts abroad–the Executive branch usually confers these duties on others in the cabinet. Man from Plains looks at both the private and public sides of Carter as he pursues what has already proven to be a deeply divisive issue: the Palestinian issue. Demme, an often underestimated director who directed The Agronomist (about an outspoken Haitian radio journalist and human rights activist) and other documentaries about unflinching leaders–in addition to his well-received and widely watched features films like Manchurian Candidate, Silence of the Lambs and Philadelphia–hails from the same school of soft-core Americana as Quentin Tarantino, ie, where the underbelly of the American soul is exposed through kindly eyes. Demme seems like an activist at heart, or at least sporadically during his career, which likely further establishes his motivation to do the Carter doc. Man From Plains will be released on October 19th. © 2007 Ali Naderzad