VARIETY: Adjust Your Color: The Truth of Petey Greene (Documentary) By JOE LEYDON A Pelagius Films production. Produced by Bob Demars, Terence Greene, Loren Mendell. Executive producers, Joe Fries, Joey Rappa. Co-producer, Vic Doumani. Directed, written by Loren Mendell. With: Chuck Brown, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marion Barry Jr., Dewey HHoughes, Robert oks. Narrator: Don Cheadle. With "Adjust Your Color: The Truth of Petey Greene," an admiring and often amusing portrait of the late Washington , D.C. , radio and TV talkshow host, documaker Loren Mendell ("Bad Boys of Summer") offers a useful companion piece to "Talk to Me," Kasi Lemmons' 2007 dramatic feature based on Greene's life and career. During the era of repertory revival cinemas, the two pics would have been a natural double bill. These days, however, Mendell's doc is more likely to appear solo on fest and cable skeds. Capably narrated by Don Cheadle, who played Greene in Lemmons' pic, "Adjust Your Color" celebrates its subject as a purposefully outrageous entertainer and social activist, an African-American firebrand whose blunt-spoken rapping, rhyming and raving clearly inspired later generations of hip-hop artists and shock jocks. Chief among the latter: Howard Stern, who appears (wearing blackface!) in one of many choice clips from Greene's TV show. From 1967-83, Greene was a D.C. superstar, garrulously lampooning the foibles of both blacks and whites with equal-opportunity gusto and casually peppering his rants with racially charged epithets. At the same time, he preached a gospel of self-reliance and self-determination, frequently referring to his own past as a criminal and drug addict while sounding cautionary notes. (Pic duly notes that he prepared for his career by riffing on the prison PA system while serving time for armed robbery in the early '60s.) Greene attracted thousands of loyal fans with his uninhibited antics, and used his influence to help calm the city during violent upheavals in the wake of the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King. Ultimately, he achieved such prominence that city government figures -- and, occasionally, White House advisers -- would routinely appear on TV with him. "Adjust Your Color" acknowledges that Greene never evolved into a national figure, but suggests that, deep down, he didn't really want to. (Dewey Hughes, his former manager, recalls how Greene blew off a career-advancing opportunity to appear on Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show.") Concise and technically proficient, Mendell's doc persuasively makes a case for viewing Petey Greene as, at the very least, some kind of local hero. Camera (color/B&W), Nikolas Dylan Rossi, Mendell; editors, Carl Cramer, William Haugse; music, Dennis Hamlin; sound, Rodney Newman. Reviewed on DVD, Houston, Jan. 19, 2008. (In Slamdance Film Festival -- Special Screenings.) Running time: 60 MIN. Film Threat: Adjust Your Color: The Truth of Petey Greene By RORY L. ARONSKY (2008-01-23) 2008, Un-rated, 52 minutes, Pelagius Films In his first solo effort since exploring the struggles of baseball player prisoners at San Quentin (³Bad Boys of Summer²), rooster fighting (³Cockfight²), immigrant baseball players (³Change Up²), and arm wrestling while paralyzed on one side of the body (³One Strong Arm²), all with filmmaker Tiller Russell, Loren Mendell pores over the life and unique times of Petey Greene, the Washington , D.C. radio host and TV personality recently portrayed by Don Cheadle in ³Talk to Me.² Mendell is not the only one thinking about Petey, and seeing how far his influence stretched, and putting forth the lessons to be learned and lived by Greene¹s example. He¹s gathered together a community of names and faces, such as Sugar Ray Leonard, who appeared on Greene¹s radio show at 14 years old, touted by Greene as one to win a gold medal. He¹s lucky to have Don Cheadle narrate, as Cheadle joins in the reverent awe toward Greene, each word spoken by him out of a deep respect and he most certainly has that. After all, playing a man like Greene, one who brought the real parts of Washington, D.C. together after the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., just by talking on the radio, that¹s got to be an unforgettable experience. Mendell captures exactly who Greene was just in the title alone. ³Adjust Your Color: The Truth of Petey Greene.² No way should you think that there¹s going to be some expose looking at those unseemly aspects of Greene¹s life. Because depending on what kind of person you are, there¹s a lot that might look unseemly. And had Mendell intended that---and this is most interesting---then the ³of² in the title, would have been ³about² instead. The truth of Petey Greene is that he wanted people to know what he felt, what he thought about the state of the Washington , D.C. he lived in. And Greene wanted people to adjust their color, to see what he saw. I don¹t think he expected them to agree with it, but just to see that the problems he saw were there, were rampant, and there needed to be change. He challenged politicians. If a politician grew uncomfortable with the line of questioning coming from Greene, then Greene knew that that politician was a fake and a phony, according to Dewey Hughes, Greene¹s former manager. Through his opinions, he told people to speak their minds, to never hide what they truly feel. The life of Petey Greene should be learned by teenagers in middle school and high school, that no matter what your circumstances are in life, you can get up and try to better yourself and your family and those around you. Perhaps not that grandiose right away, but you can start with yourself. Greene was raised by his grandmother, whom he worshipped for giving him life that led him to speak out to the people he wanted to help the most, and then went into the Army; was discharged for drug abuse; did a 10-year stint in prison for armed robbery and came out, vowing never to return to prison. And he didn¹t. Mendell¹s greatest strength, as a co-director of photography with Nickolas Rossi, and as director, is a few moments of Greene¹s radio show on the soundtrack, set against panoramic views of modern-day D.C., to demonstrate how far his voice reached and how many people listened and watched, from radio to television, from the late 1960s until Greene¹s death. Those people who listened may not be there anymore, but Greene still is, through the United Planning Organization community center that bears his name, populated by good-hearted souls looking to help out those desperately in need, to make life better and more promising. This is the kind of documentary that should be picked up by a label like Docurama, on two discs, with audio commentary, extra footage from ³Petey Green¹s Washington,² (if there is any outside of what¹s here) and more interviews with Hughes, former Washington D.C. mayor Marion Barry, sportcaster James T. Brown and others. As if the film itself isn¹t already an involving experience, this DVD set could be just like Greene himself sitting in your living room and telling you what needs to be done in D.C. Hello? Docurama? I know you¹re out there! You can¹t hide behind that quality name. Get to it!