Silverdocs 2011

Only managed to catch 4 docs this year.

BEATS, RHYMES & LIFE: THE TRAVELS OF A TRIBE CALLED QUEST

This is fan doc made by Michael Rapaport that starts with the band playing in LA in 2008, then traces their foundation with Q-Tip, Phyfe Dawg, Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and sometimes Jarobi in Queens and tracks the band as they release innovative album after album only to have the band disintegrate in 1998. The tension between certain band members and the creative force that produces such innovative hip hop elevates this above most fan docs.

NPR mediator, director Michael Rapaport, and ATCQ member Phyfe Dawg at Q&A

DRAGONSLAYER

A year in the life documentary of skateboarder Screech. This won the grand jury prize at SXSW, but I was less than impressed. It uses imagery captured with a Flip camera given to the skater, and follows his breakup with the mother of his child, his journey of discovery, and eventual growth into something better.

Director Tristan Patterson

RESURRECT DEAD: THE MYSTERY OF THE TOYNBEE TILES

This one is really quite fascinating. A series of embedded tiles are found in the asphalts and streets on the east coast of the U.S. and few South American cities. The tiles typically say:

TOYNBEE IDEA

IN Kubrick's 2001

RESURRECT DEAD

ON PLANET JUPITER.

The strange message and link to a famous movie had me hooked. What does the message mean, who places the tiles, and why? The doc follows a trio of obsessive fans who are determined to solve the mystery. The surprising discoveries they make and the deeper meaning are satisfying beyond just the resolution of an unsolved puzzle.

Some of the mystery solvers and director.

LIFE IN A DAY

Producers Tony and Ridley Scott and directed by Kevin McDonald, the true star is the editor. The idea was that people all over the world would film themselves for one day, July 24, 2010, answer a few simple questions, and then submit the films. Screening 3500 hours of footage to find 90 minutes that can be put into a cohesive hole is why the editor and his team deserve some sort of superhuman award. There are surprising revelations, and the whole movie reminds me of Post Secret, the famous internet web site. But what really tweaks the imagination is what was left on the cutting room floor (the joke was that the DVD would have 3499 hours of 'extras'). A fascinating if not entirely random look at humanity.

Two contributors, editor Joe Walker, and Silverdocs personnel.

International Documentary Challenge

Congrats to the 12 finalists.

My film did not make it, unfortunately, so I may try to put it online at some point.

Or, I may actually edit it some more.

International Documentary Challenge

I signed up for the Doc Challenge.

It is like the 48 Hour Film Project except that:

1) it's a documentary
2) it's 5 days

Depending on the genre I get and the theme, I may be doing this virtually. There, I may be knocking on some pixelated doors this weekend.

More Docs

I. South of the Border
Oliver Stone premiered his new doc, South of the Border, an admittedly biased look at South American leaders, Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, Lula de Silva, and Castro. Although Stone admits the bias, there were some interesting information in terms of a pan South American wave of new leaders who are not beholden to American interests and have flat out said no to institutions such as the IMF.

The most interesting part was the post movie discussion, especially with a particular academic pointing out some of the flaws in the film, only to be countered by Stone and other academics. Originally shot for TV, it appears to have received strong approval and has now been picked up for wider distribution.














II. Circo
A great doc shot by a lone filmmaker about a traveling family that has a long history of a circus family and what a hard life it is. A fascinating look at a hard life, family strife, constant migration for work, and how the strong history of circuses in Mexico is changing in today's world.

III. Barbershop Punk
A really important topic, net neutrality, and a man who fought the system. Unfortunately, this doc is so poorly done that I almost walked out of the theater. Only my fascination with the topic kept me in my seat. This could have been so much more.

IV. Into Eternity
This is a very cool, and almost surreal documentary film. It deals with the fact that Finland has created a repository deep in the bedrock to store nuclear waste up to 100 000 years into the future. The filmmaker asks the question, "can you trust our future descendants", and "should we tell our grandchildren about what we've buried". The answers from those involved with the creation and functioning of the facility are absolutely fascinating when we realize that what we've created will likely affect humans so far into the future that we do not even know if they will share our concerns, language, culture, etc. How do you warn your great(X 50 000) grandchildren not to touch the stove?

V. Waste land
The best for last. This is truly one of the best documentary films I've watched in the last 5 years. A filmmaker challenges a very wealthy rags to riches Brazilian artist, Vik Muniz, to use his power for transformation. A multi year art project takes him to the largest landfill site in Rio de Janeiro where we find a union of recyclists who search the trash dumped every day from the city, picking for recyclable materials and turning them into their daily wages. The artist interviews and photographs a number of these hard scrabble workers, turns their photos into art creations with the help of those photographed using recylable materials they themselves collected, and auctions off the art pieces in places like London with the proceeds going to the individuals and the collective workers. This is one of the most inspirational documentaries about the power of art to transform I have ever seen. I CANNOT RECOMMEND THIS ENOUGH!

Freakonomics

The book was a smash hit that looked at some intriguing statistical analyses of sociologial phenomena by economist Steven Levitt and journalist Stephen Dubner (subtitled: A rogue economist explores the hidden side of everything).

The movie tries to do the same. Featuring an ensemble of directors (Heidi Ewing, Alex Gibney, Seth Gordon, Rachel Grady, Eugene Jarecki, and Morgan Spurlock) looking at different stories of statistics from the book along with some new topics such as the aptly titled "Can you bribe a 9th grader to succeed", the movie attempts to balance both the entertaining and the intriguing and insightful.

Unfortunately, I thought it would make a nice TV episode on public television. The best minisode is the one that deals with the most controversial topic from the book, the link between abortion and crime, and is directed by Eugene Jarecki. It did a fantastic job of creatively showing a very heavy topic. It is too bad that the rest of the movie was not like it as the stark contrasts in creative styles from the different directors work against the whole rather than for it.

It would have been nice to see the movie explore beyond the book, to delve more deeply into the topic. But as one minisode tells it, the difference between the surface, (Tatamae) and the truth (Honne) is often great. Unfortunately, this movie never crosses that boundary and left me dissatisfied.

Expect to see it this in fall in theaters.

Silverdocs blog.

Exit Through The Gift Shop

Purportedly a movie that started off as a documentary of street art by the filmmaker Thierry Guetta, this film morphs into an examination of what happens when the documentarian drinks deep from the Kool-Aid and the filmmaker turns into a street artist himself.

The twist when Thierry meets the famous and secretive street artists, Banksy, and begins filming his artistic activities, to when his hastily put together documentary does not meet expectations to his transformation into Mr. BrainWash is just as fascinating as the documentary We Live In Public.

Is it art? Documentary? Recreation? Fantasy? Commentary?
Is the snake eating itself.

Who cares, the ride is worth the price of admission.

Exit Through The Gift Shop
imdb

Listening To Morgan Spurlock

Tell the tale of how he was evicted from his apartment and ended up living in a hammock at night at his workplace, and going deeper and deeper into debt all during the dotcom bust, which happened prior to getting the idea that spawned Super Size Me, was awe inspiring, motivational, and hilarious.











Director of Super Size Me, Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden, and one of the creative forces behind the FX TV series 30 Days, Spurlock is definitely a unique character who was introduced as possibly one of the few people to have their creative output actually make a difference in the world: alluding to the aftermath of Super Size Me that saw improvements at some fast food restaurants.

Apparently his next film is an adaptation of the book Freakonomics along with other documentary filmmakers, including Alex Gibney. I cannot wait!

Watch RIP: A Remix Manifesto

On Pitchfork TV.



Previously discussed here.

Watch The Second Skin Doc

On WarCry Network (via HULU). The doc covers MMORPGS and virtual worlds and the people who play and inhabit them.

The Art of Documentary

Capturing Reality is a documentary about documentaries. And documentarians. Brilliant!

Clips of Errol Morris talking about interviewing Robert McNamara.

Three Great Docs

At Silverdocs:

Sacred Places - is about a local cinema club in a ghetto in Africa that surprisingly has a lot to say about the state of movie distribution, theaters, African cinema, and the film loving public. Brief info.

Blood Trail - a great piece on a naive and idealistic photojournalist who travels to Sarajevo, Chechnya, Iraq, and other war torn places, and his self reflective journey as he comes to deal with the images he's captured. Some extremely disturbing photos and Robert King's completely honest assessment of himself really elevates this film.

Winnebago Man - a viral video compiled of outtakes of a spokesperson for the Winnebago company during an industrial shoot becomes known as The Angriest Man In The World and hits epic proportions on YouTube. One documentarian decides to track the man down to see what the story is. Surprisingly, Jack Rebney who comes across as an extreme misanthrope in the viral video and upon first meeting, turns out to be an extremely thoughtful, if still angry, 76 year old man. The best part was the Q&A afterwards when the director phones Jack on his iPhone and puts the phone up to the microphone for Jack to hear the applause of the audience and to spout forth.

Surprisingly, these three films all have a common theme of the power of images and how they transform people's daily lives, some for the better, some for the worse.

Silverdocs winners announced and I did not even have time to watch any of these. Will have to add to the queue.

Apparently Machinima Is Still Cool

And the fad just won't die. Two examples:

Waltz With Bashir used animation for most of the length of the documentary. Perhaps they should have done a mixed format like this machinima "The Rescue Of The Lost Battalion" which utilizes footage from the Go For Broke National Education Center along with machinima clips from The Movies.

Noted because the makers will be at this upcoming conference in LA.



The other is a combination of the Max Payne story and World of Warcraft into a 25 minute machinima made by Blackhand Pictures.

Prologue:


Max Payne - Noir Undercity Prologue from Varath on Vimeo.

Episode 1:


Max Payne - Noir Undercity Chapter 1: The Darkness Inside from Varath on Vimeo.

It's even got the self referential film noir clips playing on the TVs that were inside the game Max Payne! Great fun! I haven't seen the Max Payne movie, but this is probably much better.

I'm telling you, this thing has got legs.

Beware The Eyeborg

It's amazing what filmmakers will go through in order to get a film made, but giving up an eye is a hard pill to swallow.

But in all seriousness, the eyeborg project is an interesting idea (embedding a wireless camera where someone's damaged eye used to be). Enabling the disabled? Progress to making the sightless see again? Or just pushing us towards the 24/7 surveillance society where every person is an eye node in a vast connected network?

More at Wired.

Two Docs

Both dealing with very horrific experiences but in different ways.

Waltz with Bashir is getting numerous awards and buzz, some of it due to the unusual nature of it being an animated documentary (Wikipedia, IMDB, web). It explores the remembered, misremembered, and forgotten experiences of Israeli soldiers during the invasion of Lebanon and the Sabra and Shatila massacres. The name Bashir in the title refers to the Phalangist leader Bashir Gemayel whose assassination led in part to the tragedy explored in the film.













Trouble the Water (IMDB, web) is another doc dealing with tragedy: Hurricane Katrina and the vicious aftermath. Using footage shot by a survivor (Kim Rivers Roberts) who decided to stay when the storm hits, the film shows the utter devastation caused by the natural force of the hurricane. As we all know, the destruction caused by human ignorance, neglect, unpreparedness, and hubris turns out to be far greater. Following the survivors both during and after the storm results in a fantastic story that everyone in America should see.













Of the two I think Trouble the Water is the better film. Bashir deals with horrific experiences, but in the reliving and retelling of them. There appears to be no consequences to the exploration of memories of a horrific event, and apparently little long term repercussions to those who witnessed them besides bad dreams and memory gaps. In Trouble the Water, the repercussions are real and immediate, both good and bad. Although the plight of poverty and racism taints the entire Katrina event, there still appears in this film a thread of hope. Bashir never transcends its animated reimaginings, and in fact, abandons the them at the end, something that I think arguably concedes that the way they were used is flawed.

Still, I highly recommend both films. Both are nominated for Oscars, although in different categories, so they both could win.

Virtual World Documentary

Two documentaries I found out about recently, both having to do with virtual worlds.

This trailer for "Second Skin", is about some of the interesting events going on in virtual worlds (dating, addiction, gold farming, etc.). The trailer shows a lot of scenes from World of Warcraft.

This series, "Wonderland", from the BBC is about cheating in a virtual world (seems to be about Second Life).

Virtual worlds are beginning to have a very real impact on other media. The topic of virtual worlds is becoming more frequent in broadcast television (let alone cable TV) and not just in journalistic or documentary settings. I've now seen several episodes of sitcoms or copudramas referring to SL or WoW.

I can see where this is going

Making Of The Shining

Excellent four part on YouTube of the making of The Shining shot by Kubrick's daughter (via Kottke). The parts where the actors are discussing Kubrick are absolutely right on the mark.

My favorite part from Jack Nicholson:

Anything you do as many times as a successful actor you can't have one set of theories. You know, you can go many years saying "I'm going to get this thing real, you know, because they really haven't seen it real". You know, they just keep seeing one fashion of unreal after the other that passes as real. And, you go mad with realism. And then you come up against somebody like Stanely who says "yah it's real, but it's not interesting".

The improvisation was pretty fascinating as well.

Part one.
Part two.
Part three.
Part four.