Documentaries

I saw Sicko by Michael Moore today and was horrified. And to think how many people are against Obamacare...

This incredible documentary about my comrade in peaceful arms, Derrick J, premiered tonight at midnight. Check out Derrick J's Victimless Crime Spree:

You can see the first and second trailers linked. You can play spot the giggan at a few places in the full docu.

Capturing The Friedmans is one of my favourite documentaries of all time.

Others include:

-The Thin Blue Line
-The Staircase (series)
-We Were Here (saw this in the cinema - whole auditorium crying at some points - truly devastating)
-Soul Power
-Wayne Ewing's Hunter Thompson movies
-Little Lady Fauntleroy (If you've not seen it, you MUST get a copy!)
-Secret Rulers of the World (series) by Jon Ronson (the accompanying book 'Them' is one of my favourite books ever written!)
-The Night James Brown Saved Boston (directed by David Leaf, of US Vs John Lennon fame)

I saw Crumb last weekend. I really recommend it to all you documentary and comics lovers. It was directed by Terry Zwigoff (produced by David Lynch) and took 6 years to make.

You know what's weird? I saw that movie a loooong time ago, when I was like 10, and I remember thinking it was really bizarre and stuff. Of course, I didn't understand what was going on really, but I was fascinated by the naked comics in the movie. That's a typical 10 year old, though, I guess.

I liked Crumb. I think he also was the model for Steve Buscemi's character in Ghost World.

You think Crumb's a freak. Then you meet his brother.

It's an odd sort of film.

franc tireur wrote:

I liked Crumb. I think he also was the model for Steve Buscemi's character in Ghost World.

I watched American Splendor last week too, thought it was really average.

Downloading a bunch of documentaries now, as recommended on the Louis Theroux page on Facebook:

- Raw Deal - A Question of Consent
- TV Junkie
- Deep Water
- Catfish

Anyone seen any of these?

Catfish is very good, Imke. Really recommend.

Catfish is awesome! Let me know what you think.

After that one, go out and watch Talhotblond.

I'm not sure why but Catfish seemed really obviously fake until it got to the end.

Then I was just confused. It felt like a movie where every actor is bad except for one who is amazing.

Wow, Catfish was great. So sad, it really unnerved me.

I thought Catfish was really sad. I felt bad for that lady. I think she was very tortured in her mind. I think it was really sweet how the guy ended up handling it with her. I don't know, I just felt so sad for her, because she clearly had given up things in her life that she loved and basically had left herself behind. She lost herself and was having a hard time getting back. She had created her own little fantasy world on Facebook. It's really strange what are minds do to comfort us.

Watching The Other F Word right now and really enjoying it.

I watched The Imposter last night, it was mind-boggling. 8/10!

I also got other documentaries like West of Memphis, Bully, How to Survive a Plague, and Samsara. Think I'll be watching a couple of them this weekend.

Oh man, been wanting to see The Impostor for a while. It looks brilliant. Will have to check netflix for it.

Yeah it's so good! We saw it in the cinema and it was excellent. I'm watching West of Memphis right now because it definitely isn't going to be in the cinema in Wales =/
Will buy it on DVD when it's released. Obsessed with this stuff.

They hardly show any documentaries at the movies here. Strange.

I've never seen a documentary at the cinema here, except for The Emperor's March. I recommend Ashes and Snow.

Some documentaries get in the cinema here. The Imposter is a British Film 4 one, so that helps it get some screens. I don't think the West of Memphis case is as well known over here and so probably wouldn't sell as many tickets as they want it to. It was amazing though, wish they would release it and give it chance.

Yay, I'm glad to hear it was good!

EDIT_
I would like to see these documentaries as well:

EDITEDIT_

So many good new documentaries!

I saw Children Underground today, about a few children living in subway stations in Bucharest. It made me cry a few times, when a 12-year-old said he used to love Biology when he was in school, and when a 16-year-old girl who passed for a boy so as not to get raped said she just wanted a friend by her side and that she didn't believe in love, but she believed in God, "because He's bigger". That boy also said he liked to read poems.

It's all subtitled in English, so if you have the time, I recommend it.

I watched Bully, I thought it was kind of crap. Everyone knows bullying is bad, it didn't bring anything new to the table, it was kind of a mess. I felt so bad for the kids affected by bullying but the film itself was nothing.

i want to see Marwencol soon

i think i saw that one too. it's been quite sometime ago. i don't know if i'm confusing my viewings, but this may be the one with the paint huffing? yes i think so.

*i agree. strongly recommended.

I'll try to find it.

Yup, that's the one.

I didn't think the documentary was bad, but you're right, there was nothing new about it.

I'm watching it right now. I'm so... so pissed off at this one teacher right now. The one that made the two kids shake hands. Her stupidity and ability to warp the fair-mindedness of that one kid just infuriates me. I had teachers like that. I got in a lot of trouble for yelling back at them.

Yeah the teachers are weird, there's a couple in there that I'm not sure are mentally up to the task of being teachers.

All I meant by "kind of crap" was really that it didn't seem fully formed as a documentary. I felt like it wasn't finished or something, it needed a better focus, it kind of looked at a lot of case of bullying of varying degrees and not at solutions or causes, so that it felt very flat over all. It was competent and the kids themselves moved me but the documentary makers didn;'t make a great film.

Oh gawd, and now she's trying to avoid taking care of an issue by saying that she's ridden on the bus, and that they were "good as gold." I keep wanting to slap the screen.

I sort of understand what you mean. I guess the point of it was just to make you aware of the lack of effort that comes into these situations. I mean, the cause is pretty obvious. Kids suck. Easy as that. But I don't think a documentary's job is to provide a solution. I actually prefer that they don't have an agenda beyond making people more aware.

Then again, I don't like documentaries very much, anyway. They state half-truths and put on sappy music to make them emotionally appealing. Not exactly a quality learning experience.

Yeah that teacher is delusional. I'd be furious if someone patronised me with that kind of shit.
The policeman pissed me off, too, who was talking about that girl with the gun and saying she shouldn't do that unless they were threatening her with knives or something? She's a child who didn't know what she was doing because she's too young and upset, it really pissed me off he wanted to ruin her life over that mistake. He was reeling off all the things she could be prosecuted for - kidnapping? come the fuck on. She needed help more than anything.

Yeah, that too! Fuck that guy.

Is Bully the one where that kid was getting raped and punched by his friend, until he got a girlfriend and she told him to kill him? I think it was directed by the guy who directed Kids. They were playing Mortal Kombat on acid at a public arcade and one of the boys hallucinated a baby in the game and threw up, and then they drove home on acid. And then the rapist made some girl watch a rape movie he made with his friend so she runs out of the house crying...So the father goes upstairs to see what that was all about and has a talk with his naked erect son about his ailing grades at school. Oh I remember now. Tully from Kids was in it but a little bit older and turned into a murdering hoodlum. What happened to Casper? Oh yeah he got AIDS. Sad. Bully was a sad movie.

You know what? I thought this was the movie thread, and didn't notice until AFTER I posted that, this thread is about documentaries and now I know what movie you're talking about and it's not at all the one I was just talking about I thought you were talking about.

Casper is deaded IRL.

Harold Hunter (the black skateboarder) is dead too.

sometimes when i'm sad, this makes me feel better:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSzHvRVE5uM

Watching the great Ken Burns doco series Prohibition :

Also strongly recommended, his series on Baseball.

Prohibition was great, i watched the whole thing.

Disagrees.

I just recently watched that. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

A short documentary I made called "Last Chance Garage", if anyone's interested:

Prohibition?

Or Auntie Mame?

How are you two guys ?

i love that and of course my eyes were watering.

I'll probably watch The Revisionaries when I get home today.

today, i was impressed by
Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987 or 1988)
my 19yr old son (who is developmentally delayed) actually came over and sat in my lap to watch it with me. it was probably all the dreamy music that kept him interested.