Recommend A Documentary Thread

[DevO]

I am downloading a lot of shows and movies and I could use some more suggestions. I'll start out with one that I watched last night. I may have heard about it from someone on here (can't remember)..

WHY WE FIGHT

Official Website

IMDB listing

Plot Summary from IMDB: He may have been the ultimate icon of 1950s conformity and postwar complacency, but Dwight D. Eisenhower was an iconoclast, visionary, and the Cassandra of the New World Order. Upon departing his presidency, Eisenhower issued a stern, cogent warning about the burgeoning "military industrial complex," foretelling with ominous clarity the state of the world in 2004 with its incestuous entanglement of political, corporate, and Defense Department interests.

Available at a movie store or bit torrent site near you!

[TheGoodRev]

Beanland: Rising from the Riverbed

Here's a post I made about this movie more than a year ago, and here's what I said:

So the film, called Rising from the Riverbed talks all about Beanland, a band which included JoJo Hermann and George McConnell [both now of Widespread Panic] on keys and guitar, respectively. I don't know if any of you had ever heard of these guys, but I never had. They seem to have been just an unstoppable force, especially during the last years of their time together before JoJo left. The doc chronicles the band as it grew from a bunch of guys jamming, to the band that virtually spawned the sort-of Deadhead blues subgenre that's been happening in the south for 20 years now. Tons and tons of people from the scene make appearances to talk about the band, the most insightful of which is by far producer Jim Dickinson. The disc came with an audio CD that's a tribute record, haven't listened yet but will. Had to order the DVD from the site, was linked to it originally from the North Mississippi Allstars board [Dickinson's sons Luther and Cody are 2/3rds of that band].

To be honest? Their sound, groove and general atmosphere really makes me think of the Fat Cats. It's a great flick, I recommend'er if the Southern rock/jam/blues scene is your thing. Dig the site, there's loads of good press there. But hey, the Rev's tellin ya it's good over here, what more do you need, mie polpette piccanti del testicolo?

Ok, I don't know what I was going for at the end there, but it's a good flick. You can pick it up at www.risingfromtheriverbed.com; Beanland also has a website up at www.beanland.net.

[Hux]

If you haven't seen this one...

[Calamity Jane]

and verging away from music,

an awesome doc that still haunts me:

"The Girl Next Door" about a small-town girl who ends up in the "adult film" industry. Really cool (and not just a little titillating) story. Kinda the documentary version of "Boogie Nights" told from a female perspective.

wanted to post a link, but it;s blocked from work.

[bradm]

Is this the one, CJ?

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0189553/

There are a quite a few movies with the same title.

Aloha,

Brad

[thatpatguy]

Scratch - 2001

Official Site

IMDB

While rappers may be the most visible musical exponents of hip-hop culture, it's the DJs (or "turntablists," as some prefer to be called) who generate the funky beats and cut-and-paste musical structures that have made hip-hop the dominant musical phenomena of the past 20 years. Scratch is a documentary that examines the role of the DJ in hip-hop music, from the pioneering work of old school hip-hop artists like Afrika Bambaata and Jazzy Jay to contemporary masters like noted trip-hop musician DJ Shadow and award-winning turntablist group Invisibl Skratch Piklz. The film also explores how DJs turned the turntable into a musical instrument, the increasingly elaborate techniques involved in "scratching" (manipulating vinyl discs, turntables, and tone arms to produce different sonic effects), and how different turntablists dig up the rare and elusive LPs from which they draw the samples that they craft into new songs. Scratch was directed by Doug Pray, who previously examined a different musical phenomenon -- the Seattle rock scene that spawned the grunge explosion -- in his film Hype!. -- Mark Deming (allmovie.com)

[Booche]

[Booche]

Oh yeah, CJ is talking about this. Its fantastic.

[timouse]

The Corporation.

I know that this film has been talked about before, and i'm also aware that it bored many of you to tears. well fill up on coffee and watch it, it's very much worth it.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

I was just thinking about this one this morning, when CJ told me about a group of vigilante housewives in the States who have baiting Muslims on the internet and then calling them in to the FBI et al. -

(BBC, 1997)

At 6 hours, it's a pretty in-depth and unsettling account of how ordinary people can generate bewildering amounts of violence, hatred, and chaos - i.e., it wasn't just the high-profile figures in the movement that carried the responsibility for what happened. Some of the interviews still make me reel. Because the Nazis kept such meticulous records, the filmmakers were able to track down people who'd called in the SS to rat out their neighbours, whom they suspected of being Jewish or subversive in some way. When confronted with the evidence, their only response is to wonder why it was "all being dragged up again after so many years." There are also clips with people recalling their experiences in the Hitler Youth, as well as descriptions of how people in ordinary pencil-pushing jobs, like mail-room clerks, became instrumental in setting policies like the Final Solution into play.

[meggo]

d_rawk and i watched this awhile ago. i really, really enjoyed it!

The Take

from http://www.thetake.org/synopsis.php

In suburban Buenos Aires, thirty unemployed auto-parts workers walk into their idle factory, roll out sleeping mats and refuse to leave.

All they want is to re-start the silent machines. But this simple act - The Take - has the power to turn the globalization debate on its head.

In the wake of Argentina's dramatic economic collapse in 2001, Latin America's most prosperous middle class finds itself in a ghost town of abandoned factories and mass unemployment. The Forja auto plant lies dormant until its former employees take action. They're part of a daring new movement of workers who are occupying bankrupt businesses and creating jobs in the ruins of the failed system.

But Freddy, the president of the new worker's co-operative, and Lalo, the political powerhouse from the Movement of Recovered Companies, know that their success is far from secure. Like every workplace occupation, they have to run the gauntlet of courts, cops and politicians who can either give their project legal protection or violently evict them from the factory.

The story of the workers' struggle is set against the dramatic backdrop of a crucial presidential election in Argentina, in which the architect of the economic collapse, Carlos Menem, is the front-runner. His cronies, the former owners, are circling: if he wins, they'll take back the companies that the movement has worked so hard to revive.

Armed only with slingshots and an abiding faith in shop-floor democracy, the workers face off against the bosses, bankers and a whole system that sees their beloved factories as nothing more than scrap metal for sale.

With The Take, director Avi Lewis, one of Canada's most outspoken journalists, and writer Naomi Klein, author of the international bestseller No Logo, champion a radical economic manifesto for the 21st century. But what shines through in the film is the simple drama of workers' lives and their struggle: the demand for dignity and the searing injustice of dignity denied.

[Basher]

America Undercover: Small Town Ecstasy

http://www.culturevulture.net/Television/SmallTownEcstasy.htm

The HBO documentary series America Undercover spends 90 minutes at a stretch wallowing in the shallower puddles of human existence. Typically, the show’s producers find an individual or a group in some sort of crisis, often involving illegality of one stripe or another. The goal is titillation, with education a low second priority—there’s honestly little to be learned from the people documented on the series.

Small Town Ecstasy breaks with the general tone of America Undercover’s prior films, in that it is actually possible to come away with a variety of valuable insights from the story on offer. The show is about Scott, a 40-year-old divorced father, and his four children—Job (20), Craig (18), Heather (15) and Sam (13). Scott has been introduced to the rave scene, and Ecstasy, by Craig. The two of them go out on the weekends, with some of Craig’s friends, and stay up all night, dancing in a drug-fueled trance. Occasionally, they bring Heather and Sam along.

Scott is a weird guy. More than a little geeky already, his enthusiasm for this new lifestyle makes him seem mildly retarded sometimes. It’s entirely possible there’s a lot we’re not seeing, though, because his son seems to respect him and treat him as a legitimate authority figure. There’s none of the embarrassment teenagers often feel for parents who try to act hip to their kids’ interests.

At one point, Scott is seen at his job, which appears to be either construction, lumberjacking, or tree surgery. (In any case, it involves a bulldozer, a chainsaw, and trees.) He says, quite emphatically, that he never takes Ecstasy when he’s working. He also mentions, at another point, that he pays all his bills and is a responsible person. So, if anything, he’s a good example to the kids of how recreational drug use can be managed, without the automatic and irrevocable destruction emphasized in most mainstream media.

He’s also still aware of his role as a protector. One lengthy sequence documents a party at which Sam and Heather want to take Ecstasy for the first time. Scott is there, and is already “rolling†(his term) himself, but forbids the drug to the children. He gives them money, though, and they buy it from a fellow partygoer. When Scott finds out, he doesn’t yell at them, though he’s clearly disappointed. Instead, he stays close by them for the rest of the night, guiding them through the experience. In its own way, it’s about the best job of parenting he could have done, under the circumstances.

Scott’s ex-wife is not as understanding as the filmmakers. When she reads one of her daughter’s letters (why she was intruding on her child’s mail is never explained) and finds out about the drug use, she calls the sheriff, and Scott is arrested for drug possession. (The show ends without any resolution regarding his fate.) The film’s second half revolves around his legal problems, the extremely limited, supervised custody he’s grudgingly granted, and the tear-stained faces of his children, who want to see him as much as he wants to see them.

The filmmakers are clearly biased towards Scott. He’s the one they’re following around with the cameras; his ex-wife is only seen in a series of Dateline-style talking-head interviews that appear to have been shot in one sitting. (She also turns up at a family breakfast at the tail end of the documentary.) Small Town Ecstasy isn’t advocating drug use, though, any more than it’s attempting to hector its viewers about the dangers. What it seems to be saying is, people do drugs. Sometimes their lives fall apart, but that can’t always be attributed to the pollutants in their bloodstream. After all, Scott and his wife divorced before filming began, and long before he ever tried Ecstasy. Exactly what caused the split is never disclosed; all that’s offered is a brief mention that the couple’s “dreams†were no longer the same.

In fact, this documentary has very little to say about drugs. It’s really all about this family’s relationships. It’s worth watching not to learn how to tell if a child is using drugs (the goal of just about every other “drug-related†TV-movie in the world), but to learn how to be a good parent. Scott is, for the most part, a pretty good parent.

- Phil Freeman

[scottieking]

Two recommendations:

Control Room - 2004 - An awesome look at Al-Jareeza and the coverage of the Iraq War

The End of Suburbia - 2004 - A documentary on the coming End of Oil and its effect on big box lifestyles

I use both of these in my politics class

Oh and this is good if you have time for a three parter.

The Power of Nightmares - BBC- 2005 - All about the similiarites in the use of fear to control in both Western and Islamic societies.

[backbacon]

This one has some magnificant scenes. Hard to believe they are real:

Volcanoes of the Deep

From IMBD:

Genre: Short / Documentary

Tagline: 12,000 feet down, life is erupting

Plot Outline: Alvin, a deep-sea mechanized probe, makes a voyage some 12,000 feet underwater to explore the Azores, a constantly-erupting volcanic rift between Europe and North America.

User Comments: The most impressive. spectacular, absolutely incredible Imax film ever made.

[shitidiot]

1)The Power of Nightmares:The Rise of the Politics of Fear; Part I: Baby It's Cold Outside, Part II: The Phantom Victory, Part III: The Shadows in the Cave

This is a superb 3-part BBC documentary about how gov'ts overblow

threats to create "nightmares" which can then be used for domestic

purposes/control. It traces the US neo-cons back to the Cold War days

and examines how both the neo-cons and Islamic fundamentalists falsely

claim credit for destroying the overblown threat of the USSR. The film

then examines the so-called War on Terror (WoT). It includes

outstanding "evidence" of the terrorist "sleeper cell" trials in the US

(you have to watch and see this evidence to believe it!!). This is an

extremely well done, insightful look at the post-9/11 reactions by the

US and UK and will challenge propaganda about the WoT (e.g. the US

gov't named Al Queda not Bin Laden; nuclear scientists and the Pentagon

both say a "dirty bomb" would most likely not kill anyone) with

reasoned and well-sourced logic and arguments.

For more information, see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/3755686.stm

The first episode is not the most exciting, since it does the

historical background to set up the last two episodes. (You can get

the gist of the entire documentary just by watching the last two.

Viewing the BBC's link above will give some add'l info.) Few can claim

to know about the clash of the US/west versus Muslim fundamentalism and

the interaction of US politics in that clash without seeing this video

-- it's that good!

2) The God Who Wasn't There

http://www.thegodmovie.com/

[Blane]

The Take was directed by Naomi Klein's husband. Apparently very good.

I showed this one to my Globalization and Education class and they quite liked it:

Life and Debt (2001)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0284262/

A really interesting study of jamaica and the impact of IMF/WOrld Bank policies there.

[Velvet]

Project Grizzly.

[Jaimoe]

The Corporation.

I know that this film has been talked about before, and i'm also aware that it bored many of you to tears. well fill up on coffee and watch it, it's very much worth it.

It's really well done, but needs to lose about 30 minutes. It was better seen when TVO showed it over the course of a few days.

[Jaimoe]

[d_rawk]

I almost never forgave Avi Lewis for marrying Naomi Klein. She was s'posed to be mine, dammit!

"Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter Jr.", is an odd little film with a grand moral. The film starts out profiling "execution technologist" Fred Leuchter, a man who made significant modifications to the electric chair, with the expressed aim of making executions "more humane". As word of his prowess spreads, he is asked to work on other such technologies, such as lethal injections suites, gas chambers, and gallows. But what starts out as a quirky look at an oddball character, in the vein of Morris' "Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control", soon takes on a darker, more menacing hue as Leuchter is (willingly) sucked into a world he doesn't really understand. What results is a classical tragedy of our hero, such as he is, being destroyed by his own hubris, and yet, at the end, we feel he got exactly what he deserved.

Leuchter, having made his reputation as America's leading execution technologist, is contracted by noted German-Canadian Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel to produce a report to be used in one of his many legal trials. Zundel pays for Leuchter to travel to the concentration camps of Europe, including Auschwitz, and provide his professional opinion on whether there were gas chambers there. Leuchter, having been led to believe that he can do this by his past ability to take on work for which he is singularly unqualified, makes the trip and, as Morris makes devastatingly clear, completely bollixes up, concluding that there were no gas chambers at Auschwitz. The scenes of Leuchter at Auschwitz, videotaped by the trip members themselves, chipping away at the bricks of the dilapidated concentration camp, are appalling."

[afro poppa]

I like Ken Burns' History of Jazz and History of Baseball...we watched a few episodes at my History of Jazz course in university and they were fantastic at giving us a good view of what we were actually learning. As for the baseball, I am just really into baseball, so it was extremely interesting.

[Dr_Evil_Mouse]

A great doc I've used clips from a couple of times for courses -

(of Monty Python fame)

Jones is a medievalist of high calibre, and brings to the history of the Crusades some dry insight into the depravity of the people who undertook it.

[Mr. Photogeek]

I LOVE documentories...here are a few of my fav's from the last few years...probably a lot missing (or have already been mentioned), but off the top of my head (with a little help from Amazon...

One of my favorite "sports" documentories of all time..."Ali, bumba yay"!

I quite liked this one...all about the ballroom dancing classes taken by inner-city kids in New York

Simply one of the most visually stunning movies of all time...fantastic soundtrack too...

A little long, but still holds up as one of my favorites...just came out on DVD recently too...a Criterion Collection taboot...

One of the funniest movies ever...and you really start to feel for these guys...a must must see!

Here's one that I haven't seen that I really hope to catch this summer:

[Calamity Jane]

THE POWER OF NIGHTMARES

MR DEATH

THE TAKE

THE END OF SUBURBIA

AMERICA UNDERCOVER: SMALL TOEN ECSTASY

Now all on my radar and desperate to see 'em BUT I'm such a nerd (or rather, not the right kind of nerd) that I don't know how to find this stuff online...and the Ottawa Public Library doesn't have them. Anyone feel like 'learning me a little sumthin'?...please drop me a PT with fairly clear step by step instructions of what I need to do "bit torrent"

your time is much appreciated and I'll offer an 'in-kind' educational exchange of some sort, or take the cop-out and buy a pitcher of booze!

[Esau.]

Doesn't get an easier then this...

http://www.dessent.net/btfaq/