Silverdocs 2012

Due to travel, I only managed to catch the last half of Silverdocs. This meant that I only got to see three docs.

The Queen of Versailles - follows a billionaire family as they announce plans to build the biggest house in America (>90K sq. feet) and then the recession hits and things take a turn for the worse. A fairly light look at a former beauty queen who is now the wife of a timeshare condo mogul, her family of hers and adopted children, the hired help that are desperately trying to save money to aid family members back home, and the empire itself as it begins to crumble.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2125666/

We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists - I should have liked this more. This story of the rise of 4Chan, and Anonymous, and distributed hacking, and political movements. But this is not quite If A Tree Falls, it's far too one-sided, and not objective enough and it focuses too much on the superficial. Worse, there were actual revolutions going on, some aided in part by social networking that did manage to make change. Going after Scientology? Is that Anonymous's big claim to fame?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2177843/

Detropia - this was the best doc I saw at Silverdocs this year. Not a Michael Moore expose. Not an objective analysis of what Detroit is, and where it came from. This doc is atmospheric, what Detroit looks and feels like right now. Some good, some bad. There are some hard questions that get asked and no real answers are offered. Excellent cinematography.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2125490/