The D-Word: Recommended Documentaries

Professional

Keith O'Shea

Thu 17 Mar 2011 •

'Darwin's Nightmare', one of the most frightening films I've seen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwVgLi0cvfo

Professional

Keith O'Shea

Thu 17 Mar 2011 •

'To see if I'm smiling', caught this late one night by chance and was bewildered that it had not been on earlier and promoted.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZPg3RairUk

Professional

Nick Higgins

Thu 17 Mar 2011 •

LIFE AND DEBT is great if you want to see how the world really works for most of it's inhabitants

Host

John Burgan

Thu 17 Mar 2011 •

In reply to Thomas Papapetros's post on Thu 17 Mar 2011 :

Never heard of this till now. Sounds like a controversial choice many different versions too.

Enthusiast

Mascha Poppenk-Bouwens

Fri 18 Mar 2011 •

'Grown in Detroit', check out the trailer and witness that good things can come out of bad things...

www.grownindetroitmoviecom

Host

Ben Kempas

Fri 18 Mar 2011 •

Mascha, as mentioned above, please do not use this topic to promote your own work.

Professional

Jason Osder

Fri 18 Mar 2011 •

For my money, it is hard to beat 2008 Oscar winner MAN ON WIRE.

Host

Doug Block

Fri 18 Mar 2011 •

In reply to Mascha Poppenk-Bouwens's post on Fri 18 Mar 2011 :

Folks, from here on we'll simply delete any post with a self-promotional angle to it. So don't even bother.

Professional

Jo-Anne Velin

Sat 19 Mar 2011 •

Mon tout petit/Mein Kleines Kind, Katja Baumgarten. The midwife carries her child to term knowing well ahead s/he will not survive long. She made her own film about this.

download – www.viktoria11.de

Host

Erica Ginsberg

Sun 20 Mar 2011 •

One of my faves is Heddy Honigmann's THE UNDERGROUND ORCHESTRA. Unfortunately no online trailer or way to get the film other than at the institutional rate on Icarus. which is not very realistic for a filmmaker who just wants to check out the work of another filmmaker. But if you want to see it and other films of hers on DVD, there is a Facebook movement

Professional

Suree Towfighnia

Sun 20 Mar 2011 •

Thanks for starting this thread, Doug.
The film that's impressed me lately is Gasland- I sort of avoided it for awhile, but after a few minutes of screening it, I was hooked. Another story of lighting your water on fire from local natural gas mining. A must see for those interested in the feasibility of this "clean and terrorist free" energy. And there's banjo!
But an all time favorite –that sadly I can't find on DVD (anyone know how I can get a copy?) is Two Towns of Jaspar-innovative in approach (one black crew/one white crew) and deep in exploring race in contemporary America.
So many others to save for another time...

Professional

David Herman

Sun 20 Mar 2011 •

My Favourite is Last Train. Wish I could be rapped on the knuckles for self promotion on that one. Would die a happy man.

Host

Doug Block

Sun 20 Mar 2011 •

Assume you mean Last Train Home, sir. I agree, it's a great doc.

Host

Ben Kempas

Sun 20 Mar 2011 •

In this context, Why documentaries matter by Nick Fraser in today's Observer.
Includes his all-time favourite docs, and many people posted theirs in response. Well, we did it first... Which are YOURS?

Professional

jade wu

Sun 20 Mar 2011 •

Up the Yangtze. Lin was Yung's DP on Yangtze film prior to making Last Train Home. Stunning cinematography in both. The stories: very well told. Considering the circumstances under which they filmed, both are one of many that are top on my list.

Also loved the incredible archival in John Walter's Theater of War.

Professional

David Herman

Sun 20 Mar 2011 •

Doug, famous docs are allowed shortcut names. I often talk about that famous doc I saw in New York – The Kids.

Host

Doug Block

Sun 20 Mar 2011 •

The Kid Stays In the Picture? The Kids Are Alright? My Kid Could Paint That? The Kids Grow Up?

Just saying this is a topic open to the general public, so we shouldn't assume anyone is familiar with our recommended films, much less their shortcut names.

Edited Sun 20 Mar 2011 by Doug Block

Professional

David Herman

Sun 20 Mar 2011 •

Humbly stand corrected.

Enthusiast

Mascha Poppenk-Bouwens

Mon 21 Mar 2011 •

Ben & Doug,

Don't know how to delete the post... sorry!

Mascha!

Host

Doug Block

Mon 21 Mar 2011 •

We'll let it slide this one time, Mascha. Mostly to serve as an example to others ;-) Don't let this keep you from participating, though. What other doc do you recommend, particularly one from the Netherlands?

Edited Mon 21 Mar 2011 by Doug Block

Enthusiast

Mascha Poppenk-Bouwens

Tue 22 Mar 2011 •

A Blooming Business (http://www.newtonfilm.nl/blooming_business) and California Dreaming (http://tegenlicht.vpro.nl/afleveringen/2010-2011/california-dreaming.html) come to mind but how does that differ from telling people about your own independent documentary?

Enthusiast

Mascha Poppenk-Bouwens

Tue 22 Mar 2011 •

Floored (http://flooredthemovie.com), My name is Smith (http://mynameissmith.com/) by James Smith and all the films by Ashley Sabin and David Redmond at (http://www.carnivalesquefilms.com/) so...?!

Host

Doug Block

Tue 22 Mar 2011 •

It's a far different thing recommending someone else's doc that you admired than to recommend your own. Whether yours is a good film or not, it then becomes an act of self-promotion.

Host

Ben Kempas

Wed 23 Mar 2011 •

Guys, we'll soon open a public topic dedicated to self-promotion.

For now, let's remember Richard Leacock who died in Paris today, aged 89. And let's recommend his films as well as the campaign to have his memoir published.

Host

Ben Kempas

Wed 23 Mar 2011 •

Leacock's lessons...

Edited Wed 23 Mar 2011 by Ben Kempas

Professional

James Longley

Thu 24 Mar 2011 •

Jazz Dance. Just pure perfection.

Professional

Stephanie Vevers

Fri 25 Mar 2011 •

In reply to Erica Ginsberg's post on Sun 20 Mar 2011 :

Heddy Honigman website:
http://www.heddy-honigmann.nl/hhonigmann/index.php

Maybe not her newer films but at least 3 other Heddy Honigmann films now available on Netflix: Dutch Junkies (2007), Forever (2006) and O Amor Natural (1996)
http://www.netflix.com/RoleDisplay/Heddy_Honigmann/20007137
and as a DVD boxed set also: http://www.fnac.pt/Antologia-de-Heddy-Honigrann-sem-especificar/a30230?PID=7&Mn=-1&Ra=-3&To=0&Nu=1&Fr=0

Her facebook page: facebook.com/heddy.honigmann .

Meanwhile Icarus Films has 2 competing facebook pages for her, from their own angle.

Edited Fri 25 Mar 2011 by Stephanie Vevers

Professional

Piers Sanderson

Sat 26 Mar 2011 •

I loved Pawel Pawlikowski's films Serbian Epics and Tripping with Zironophsky, shame that he only does fiction now. Here is a timecoded clip from a scene of Serbian Epics when Radovan Karadzic sees his mother
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WioAOCB3TA

Edited Tue 29 Mar 2011 by John Burgan

Professional

Suree Towfighnia

Mon 28 Mar 2011 •

Straight, No Chaser. A beautiful Thelonuis Monk story with mostly "found" footage and Charlotte Zwerin as an editor. It's a true testament to the power of the edit to create something from discovered footage years later. Aside, from that, it's awesome to see inside the genius. Same with Charles Mingus, 1968...follows him through his eviction from his apartment/studio. Found it on vimeo

http://vimeo.com/10769018

Edited Tue 29 Mar 2011 by John Burgan

Host

John Burgan

Tue 29 Mar 2011 •

In reply to Ben Kempas's post on Wed 23 Mar 2011 :

Leacock's obituary and also a piece by filmmaker/scholar Brian Winston

Show hidden content

Remembering Richard Leacock
By Brian Winston

photo: G. Andrew Boyd
Here is how The (London) Guardian obituary of Richard Leacock, who died in Paris, March 23, 2011, began:

If you remember the 1960s, you may well remember the documentary films shot by Richard Leacock, notably Monterey Pop (1968)…… Leacock, who has died aged 89, was one of six cinematographers on the film – including its director, DA Pennebaker – and had already established himself as a leading figure in the “direct cinema” movement, the American version of cinéma vérité.

Not, perhaps, how any who know anything about the documentary would situate Leacock. There is, though, a reason for quoting this frankly absurd take on the life of one of the most crucial pioneering figures: it speaks to a far too common view. Even if people better understand the relationship between direct cinema and cinéma vérité, they are likely to downgrade Leacock’s foundational contribution to the development of the observational documentary, his greatness as a cinematographer and the warmth of his humanity. Moreover, as Flaherty’s camera operator on Louisiana Story, he was the last living direct link to film documentary’s roots.

Why this comparative marginalization, then?

Well, for one thing, Ricky had the otherworldly insouciance that sometimes comes with being a scion of the eccentric edge of the English upper-class. His family were descended from 16th century French Huguenot protestant refugees and his father was a veritable oxymoron, a communist plantation owner growing bananas in the Canary Islands. Ricky, born in 1921, was educated at experimental (and very expensive) English private schools. Not for him, then, the obsessive petty bourgeois hoarding of the images he captured, the threat of writs if anybody tried to reproduce them; he somehow finished up, with rather lordly disdain, owning the copyright to barely any of his work. Nor was he given to the endless self-promotion which can so entrance the scholarly gullible. Moreover, Ricky became, essentially, a film professor, as sure a way to obscurity as any and his achievements were in consequence, of course, obfuscated. These, though, were, without question, monumental. He is the emblematic American figure in documentary’s observational turn of the late 1950s and early ’60s.

His privileged background had given him an education unconventional enough to expose him — at school in England (!), private (!!), in the early 1930s (!!!) — to films such as Turin’s Turksib. He also had the wherewithal to take up the expensive hobby of filmmaking as a teenager. His first finished work, Canary Bananas, was a poetic impression of his home made to convey to his schoolmates, who were intrigued by his exotic background, an impression of where he came from. In what was to become his motto for the documentary, he wanted, he said, for them to gain ‘the feeling of being there’. His biology master had also taken him, aged 17, to film an expedition to the Galapagos – not your average school outing then or, indeed, now. And he had met Robert Flaherty who was visiting his daughters who also attended the school. He screened Canary Bananas for Flaherty and Flaherty promised that they would work together someday. The promise was kept in 1946 when Flaherty, remembering the school-kid’s movie, hired him to be the cinematographer on Louisiana Story. Having attended Harvard where he studies physics, Leacock served in the American army during the Second World War as a newsreel cameraman, but Flaherty did not bother with that – just Canary Bananas had stuck in his mind.

A happy moment at VEXV in 2008. (photo courtesy of Ohad Landesman)
After the war, giving the audience ‘the feeling of being there’ was to be, increasingly, the driver that fueled both his impulse to carry the camera and his central contribution to the technological development of film, the synchronization mechanism between camera and tape-recorder. I used to think that the following quotation, taken from an interview given to Gideon Backmann at the time of Primary, held the clue to his motivation:

Already when we were working on Louisiana Story, I saw that when we were using small cameras, we had tremendous flexibility, we could do anything we wanted, and get a wonderful sense of cinema…. [Shooting synch, though,] We could no longer watch things as they developed, we had to impose ourselves to such an extent upon everything that happened before us, that everything sort of died.

Blowing out 87 at VEXV in 2008. (photo courtesy of Barbara Evans)
At Visible Evidence XV in Lincoln, where we celebrated his 87th birthday in 2008, he told another story.

He explained that the oppressive nature of conventional documentary filmmaking had really struck him was when he was preparing to shoot Bernstein in Israel in 1958. He had set up the gear in the concert hall – this is in essence a concert film – when he found himself in Bernstein’s hotel suite. The Israelis were eager to hear about West Side Story, which had just opened to a sensational reception in New York. Sitting at the piano the hotel had provided for the room, Bernstein and his wife, Felicia, did the whole score. Ricky watched, frustrated, his stand-camera locked away in the concert-hall.

But he had already by this point begun to lay out his response to this frustration. Two films he made in 1954 demonstrate his direction of travel. In Jazz Dance the camera was hand-held but the film was shot silent. The synch was faux. In Toby and the Tall Corn which he shot for Willard van Dyke (another link to the first generation) he actually managed some hand-held synch.

Toby was to be crucial. This was the film that inspired journalist Robert Drew, a Time-Life reporter eager to breath new life into the March of Time newsreel operation, to seek Leacock out. From that connection came Primary in 1960 in which Leacock hand-held a 16mm version of the square studio synch camera, developed by Walter Bach for the burgeoning US TV news industry. This Bach-Auricon combined picture-and-sound camera was but a first step to the sep-mag standard of an Éclair or Arri BL plus Nagra. Ricky’s contribution to this development was to take the crystal from a Bulova electronic watch, then new to market, and use it as the control enabling the physically separate camera to run in synch with the Nagra. Breaking the umbilical cord between camera and recorder significantly increased the flexibility of the system and its unobtrusiveness.

This was the most enduring of Leacock’s technical innovations as his life long fascination with the machinery of image capture otherwise sometimes led him up blind allies – 8mm sep-mag for example. The coming of the miniature digitized video-camera delighted him, although he could not resist messing about it. For example, his last intervention was a home-made mike that could be converted from directional to omni-directional at the flick of switch. The crystal control though, was the real winner. It was at the heart of the rigs that became the standard for documentary filming until the arrival of equally portable single system broadcast-standard video equipment a quarter of a century later.

I want to remember something else about Primary, though. Although the outcomes are quite opposite to each other, there is something common to both the un-filmed Bernstein hotel room in 1958 and the filmed (famously with an Auricon Ricky was resting on the arm of the chair he was sat in) Kennedy hotel suite two years later: Ricky’s personal relationship to these protagonists.

He knew Bernstein, for instance, from Harvard days when Lenny was the pianist at silent movie screenings of the university film club. And he also knew John Kennedy personally. He knew lots and lots of people – and not just the famous. He was a man of strong opinions and much of the dogme surrounding Direct Cinema came from him, but I have a distinct impression Ricky never filmed anybody he didn’t like – small-time police chiefs wondering whether their town councils would stand for them buying some bazookas; fundamentalist Christians who spent their Sunday mornings vomiting up the devil; deranged race-car drivers. In fact, Leacock’s humanity, which was sometimes contradicted by vigour of his conversation, was suffused by a certain radicalism. Ricky shared the family politics. For example, he was involved in establishing IATSE after the war and then in fighting for the Union to be colour blind. Yet the politics took second place to the care he brought to filmmaking. All humanity from Nehru, say, to a KKK wizard were captured but not skewered.

Perhaps the best example of this is Happy Mother’s Day, a film on the lunacies surrounding the birth of quintuplets in a small South Dakota town. Leacock, it is quite clear from the footage, becomes the placid mom’s co-conspirator in viewing the attendant brouhaha with jaundiced eye. His was an elusive talent in this regard – not merely the charm that the documentarist needs to win trust and co-operation but the empathy that conditions the images the filmmaker captures. The line between this human sympathy and intrusive voyeurism is difficult to draw and infinitely permeable, but Ricky was always on the right side of it.

And he was, above all, let it not be forgotten, a great cinematographer. The opening sequence of that paean of praise to oil-exploration, Louisiana Story, remains so exquisite that one struggles to remember who paid for it to be made. The fleeting gestures that reveal character, the complete mastery of the technology, the instinct that led him to be always in the right place — his ambition for the documentary might have been overstated and film will never really give us the ‘feeling of being there’; but it can offer incontrovertible proof that Ricky Leacock, for more than half a century, was there, bearing witness.

Brian Winston

March 28, 2011

Professional

Tim VandeSteeg

Tue 29 Mar 2011 •

There are so many... FACING ALI & also love the ESPN Series 30 in 30, a collection of sport documentaries.

Docs Rock!

Host

John Burgan

Tue 29 Mar 2011 •

Here's a link to the ESPN series Tim (those of us outside the US won't necessarily know ESPN)

Professional

Nadia Awad

Wed 30 Mar 2011 •

I have NOT seen this doc, but am so blown away by the scene select and the process that I thought I would share. This is The Arbor by Clio Barnard. She created the film out of audio interviews which actors then lip-synched to, verbatim, while acting. It is supposed to screen in NYC sometime this month and am definitely going.

http://www.artangel.org.uk//projects/2010/the_arbor/video_clip/a_scene_from_the_arbor

Edited Wed 30 Mar 2011 by Nadia Awad

Host

Doug Block

Wed 30 Mar 2011 •

Agree, Nadia. Looks fascinating.

Professional

Alessandro Gallo

Thu 31 Mar 2011 •

I loved http://www.kinshasa-symphony.com/index.php?id=8&L=0
for cinematography and characters.

Professional

Jason Perdue

Fri 1 Apr 2011 •

I was just about to post about The Arbor in Doc Films. It's playing at SF Int'l later this month. Can't wait to see it.

And thanks for the recommend on Kinshasa Symphony as it's playing close by next weekend and I wasn't planning to see it.

Edited Fri 1 Apr 2011 by Jason Perdue

Professional

Papagena Robbins

Sat 2 Apr 2011 •

I recently saw Brian Winston speak in support of a (very expensive) documentary on Robert Flaherty, ‘A Boatload of Wild Irishmen,’ for which he wrote the script. There is a little interview with Leacock in the film where he talks about working as Flaherty's cameraman on "Louisiana Story." Leacock's career was a truly expansive one.

Here's a link to Leacock's recollection of this experience of working with Flaherty from his website:

http://www.richardleacock.com/21188/On-Working-With-Robert-and-Frances-Flaherty

RIP

Professional

Jason Perdue

Sat 2 Apr 2011 •

Hi Poppy. Glad to see you here.

Professional

Ellen Brodsky

Sun 3 Apr 2011 •

In reply to Alessandro Gallo's post on Thu 31 Mar 2011 : Thanks for letting me know about the Kinshasa Film. I lived in the Congo for 2 yrs (85-87) and have just now put my name on the waiting list for the DVD. It looks incredible.

Professional

John Frisbie

Tue 5 Apr 2011 •

Brett Morgan did one of the ESPN 30 On 30 pieces about the historic day in sports in which OJ was chased through LA, the NBA Finals were taking place and Arnold Palmer was playing his last round of golf. Good storytelling and he only used available footage. Also, just watched 'Weather Underground' – couldn't believe how well-paced it was. A few holes, but it moves so well.

Professional

Charlotte Lagarde

Sun 10 Apr 2011 •

In reply to Suree Towfighnia's post on Mon 28 Mar 2011 :

One of my favorite music doc for sure!

Professional

Charlotte Lagarde

Sun 10 Apr 2011 •

In reply to Nadia Awad's post on Wed 30 Mar 2011 :
The Arbor is incredible. I saw it at MOMA, very intimate.It will open at Film Forum in NY 4/27
http://www.filmforum.org/films/arbor.html

Professional

James Longley

Sun 10 Apr 2011 •

I finally saw Inside Job this evening. Very worthy film – does a good job of laying out the financial crisis and its roots. I hope everyone sees it. However, style-wise I felt the same kind of sinking feeling I get in so many issue docs these days – a kind of Inconvenient Truth slideshow malaise, where all cinematic feeling is lost. Honestly, though, I am at a loss to imagine how else he might have made this particular doc-as-indictment film, so I probably shouldn't complain too loudly. It's another one of those movies I hope other people watch, even though I feel it continues the trend of documentary-as-lecture that has been degrading the genre from the point of view of cinematic experience over the last decade or so. It was a film you could have playing in the living room while you make dinner in the kitchen without missing much.

Edited Sun 10 Apr 2011 by James Longley

Professional

Alessandro Gallo

Mon 11 Apr 2011 •

In reply to Ellen Brodsky's post on Sun 3 Apr 2011 :
Happy to hear this, i am pretty sure you gonna love this film.

Professional

James Longley

Mon 11 Apr 2011 •

In reply to James Longley's post on Sun 10 Apr 2011 :

By contrast, Armadillo was great. A very strong work of documentary cinema about foreign troops in Afghanistan, at last. I hope it gets a wide release.

Professional

Alessandro Gallo

Mon 11 Apr 2011 •

In reply to James Longley's post on Mon 11 Apr 2011 :
I absolutely agree with you, i saw it and i was quite impressed.

Host

Doug Block

Mon 11 Apr 2011 •

I've rsvp'd for a preview screening of Armadillo this Wed night. Very eager to see it.

Host

John Burgan

Mon 18 Apr 2011 •

Death by plastic? This powerful short film was recently produced and shot by D-Worder Riley Morton.

Edited Mon 18 Apr 2011 by John Burgan

Professional

Sahand Sahebdivani

Tue 19 Apr 2011 •

Thanks for making that Riley. Thanks for sharing it, John.

Professional

Barbara Rick

Wed 20 Apr 2011 •

Thoroughly enamored by the Bill Cunningham New York film. Best doc I have seen in a very long time.

Host

Doug Block

Wed 20 Apr 2011 •

Been eager to see it. Where is it playing? I missed it at the Film Forum.

Professional

Barbara Rick

Wed 20 Apr 2011 •

It's now at IFC and City Cinemas East Village.. and a couple of other places. Really worth seeing in my book.

Professional

Christopher Wong

Thu 21 Apr 2011 •

In reply to James Longley's post on Sun 10 Apr 2011 :

i just watched INSIDE JOB, and i must say... yawwwwwnnnnn! i was really looking forward to it, but it was just so uncinematic and uninspiring. i suppose if one had their head in the sand for the past few years – or stuck in Pakistan/Iran – and had no knowledge of the financial crisis already, then it could have been educational. but having listened to This American Life's radio series on the crisis, and having read a whole bunch of newspaper articles on the same, it just did not add anything new.

i really think it is regrettable that an unimaginative doc like INSIDE JOB gets nominated for an oscar, but films like LAST TRAIN HOME and THE OATH get left behind.

Professional

James Longley

Thu 21 Apr 2011 •

Heh. You know, even when in Pakistan I still listen to TAL and Planet Money podcasts every week. I also went through several books on the subject, including the highly recommended The Big Short as well as The Black Swan and 13 Bankers and also The Quants just for fun. But still, even though I thought Inside Job was cinematically standard and even dullish, it was still a film I'm happy got made – and I know people who only really got their heads around the financial crisis after watching it. Not everybody is a public radio policy wonk. That said, I also wish that The Oath had been nominated.

Professional

Danielle Beverly

Thu 21 Apr 2011 •

The Oath is brilliant. Laura Poitras is fearless. So bummed she was not nominated.

Host

John Burgan

Thu 21 Apr 2011 •

Here is what will probably be Tim Hertherington's last film (he just died while shooting a project in Libya). Harrowing and poignant.

Edited Sat 23 Apr 2011 by John Burgan

Host

John Burgan

Sun 24 Apr 2011 •

Docalliance has a wide range of docs online (legally, unlike many portals), some to download at small cost or even free, others streamed:

From April 18 to May 2, you can watch five unique, multiply awarded documentary films by Polish director Marcel Łoziński for free. Enjoy the best of the past twenty years of a filmmaker who is “trying to influence the reality around him while following the outcome with openness”.

Enthusiast

Christian Polli

Fri 6 May 2011 •

I don't know if any of you have seen Catfish, but it was really interesting. I watched it the other day and found it to be mildly creepy and I certainly did not expect the ending.

Professional

Jason Perdue

Fri 6 May 2011 •

I saw several great docs at SF Int'l this year, but the one I was moved enough to come here to post about it was BUCK, Audience winner at Sundance. I think it's getting a release soon. Don't miss it.

Professional

Marth Christensen

Sat 7 May 2011 •

SIFF is showing Buck June 8 (SIFF Cinema) and June 9 (Kirkland).

Professional

Jennifer Gli

Sun 8 May 2011 •

In reply to John Burgan's post on Sun 17 Apr 2011 :

Heart-breaking, but great work. Any plans to do a feature length doc on this subject?

Host

John Burgan

Tue 10 May 2011 •

Academy-Award nominated filmmaker (and long time member of The D-Word) James Longley (IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS) has made his 2002 documentary GAZA STRIP available for free online in its entirety:

Edited Tue 10 May 2011 by John Burgan

Professional

Kurt Engfehr

Tue 17 May 2011 •

great little film about the Salton Sea and the strange community that used to surround it and what's left of it.

Professional

Jason Osder

Tue 17 May 2011 •

Working on a crash course with a motivated student, I noticed how many great docs are on Netflix streaming these days. Thought I'd share a sample here:

Harlan County USA
Last Train Home
Man on Wire
When We Were Kings
It Might Get Loud
The Oath
Marwencol

Professional

John Frisbie

Wed 25 May 2011 •

In reply to James Longley's post on Sun 10 Apr 2011 : I agree. It muckracks to the point that it glosses over some of the real story. but, too, i wonder how else it might have been done.

Professional

John Frisbie

Wed 25 May 2011 •

I tend to get on a high after seeing a great movie – but Last Train Home was a masterpiece.

Professional

Fiona Otway

Wed 25 May 2011 •

In reply to Kurt Engfehr's post on Tue 17 May 2011 :

Some gorgeous footage in there... I've seen several docs popping up about the Salton Sea lately... Here's one I'm eager to check out:

Professional

Marth Christensen

Thu 2 Jun 2011 •

Just finished "Genghis Blues", re: Paul Pena and Tuvan throatsinging (netflix). It is great! I swear I put it on my queue because of something I recently read here, but can't find the posting. I read Fyneman's "Tuva or Bust!" years ago. I'm sure I have the companion record somewhere around the house.

Host

Marj Safinia

Thu 2 Jun 2011 •

It's one of my favs!

Professional

Jason Osder

Thu 2 Jun 2011 •

Yes!

Professional

Barbara Rick

Sun 12 Jun 2011 •

Thoroughly enjoyed Page One. Caught it recently at a special screening at a brunch event for Film Forum supporters. David Carr and Brian Stelter are brilliant. As a lifelong journalist, it thrilled me. Two of my favorite docs this year take place behind-the-scenes at The Times– this one and Bill Cunningham NY.

Professional

Danielle Beverly

Sun 12 Jun 2011 •

Barbara, the trailer reads like a fiction. The soundbites are phenomenal.

Professional

Barbara Rick

Sun 12 Jun 2011 •

Loved it, Danielle.

Professional

Kurt Engfehr

Tue 14 Jun 2011 •

here's a newfangled 'interactive documentary' supported by our good friends from the north, the NFB. it's a look at a small town in Canada that was closed! http://pinepoint.nfb.ca/#/pinepoint

it's part photo album, documentary and oral history. real interesting stuff.

Professional

Marth Christensen

Tue 14 Jun 2011 •

That is FASCINATING! Thanks.

Enthusiast

Scheffee Wilson

Tue 14 Jun 2011 •

1. Capitalism: A Love Story
2.

Enthusiast

Kate Imbach

Thu 16 Jun 2011 •

In reply to Kurt Engfehr's post on Tue 14 Jun 2011 :

how interesting! thanks for the rec!

Professional

Reid B. Kimball

Sat 18 Jun 2011 •

Hi everyone,

Not sure if I should ask here or somewhere else. I'm wondering if anyone knows of a "first person" documentary film? Meaning, the film is about a person but it is filmed from their perspective. For example, I'm the director, the film is about my story and I film everything from my view.

Edited Sat 18 Jun 2011 by Reid B. Kimball

Professional

Ramona Diaz

Sat 18 Jun 2011 •

There's a whole slew but a seminal work in this genre is Ross McElwee's Sherman's March.

Professional

Eliaichi Kimaro

Sun 19 Jun 2011 •

In reply to Reid B. Kimball's post on Sat 18 Jun 2011 :
Hi Reid, I know this isn't the place for self-promo, but in answer to your question, my film A Lot Like You is a first person doc...

Professional

Reid B. Kimball

Sun 19 Jun 2011 •

Yay! Thank you Ramona and Eliaichi, I will check both of these out today.

Host

Ben Kempas

Sun 19 Jun 2011 •

Well, most of the films directed by D-Word founder Doug Block are first-person docs...

Professional

Jo-Anne Velin

Mon 20 Jun 2011 •

In reply to Reid B. Kimball's post on Sun 19 Jun 2011 :

Tarnation.

Professional

Nick Verbitsky

Wed 6 Jul 2011 •

My pick would be AMERICAN HARDCORE.

As a lifelong music freak (and former employee of WNEW-FM NYC, the world's GREATEST rock station ever) it moved me in ways no other film has. I always thought punk rock was noise, but this film really got me into the artistry of it, the characters involved, and after I watched it, I bought more songs on iTunes than I had in a long time by bands I never knew much about-Bad Brains, Dead Boys, Minor Threat, etc.

Most touching of all was the story of how Johnny Ramone stole Joey's girlfriend and married her-it was a scar the shy/sociall awkward Joey carried with him until he died-really showed that these artists are dimensional and above all, very human. I couldn't recommend this film more highly.....

Professional

John Gyovai

Tue 12 Jul 2011 •

Got to give it up to just a few of my favorite films with the word "Devil" in the title: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qtFPOxDMs4

Professional

John Gyovai

Tue 12 Jul 2011 •

Part II: The Devil's Miner
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uqk-Scp6Lw8

Professional

Piers Sanderson

Wed 20 Jul 2011 •

I have just watched Danfung Dennis's 'Hell and BAck Again' – WOW! It raises the bar for camera and editing. In the recent glut of war docs this one really holds its own.

Enthusiast

Sam Gaty

Thu 21 Jul 2011 •

I'll re-rec IRAQ IN FRAGMENTS and add a few others to the list:

THE GLEANERS AND I (Anges Varda)
F IS FOR FAKE (Orson Wells)
MONDO VINO (Jonathan Nossiter)
GASLAND (Josh Fox)
THE UP SERIES (Michael Apted)

Professional

kesang choki

Wed 31 Aug 2011 •

Hi Reid! i would recommend, "The Gleaners and I" and the "Queen and I"In reply to Reid B. Kimball's post on Sat 18 Jun 2011 :

Host

John Burgan

Wed 31 Aug 2011 •

Alternative list compiled by London doc producer John Wyver to the current Morgan Spurlock/Current TV series: 50 (more) docs before you die

Professional

Michael B. McGee

Wed 14 Sep 2011 •

In reply to Scheffee Wilson's post on Tue 14 Jun 2011 :

+1 on Capitalsim: A Love Story

unbelievably heartbreaking.

Host

Ben Kempas

Sun 18 Sep 2011 •

D-Worders may remember that we did a special topic two years ago on the controversy surrounding the release of Fredrik Gertten's film, BANANAS!*.

For those of you who (like me) didn't have a chance to see the film on the festival circuit, you can now watch it on Distrify – and finally make up your own minds.

Highly recommended!

Professional

Jo-Anne Velin

Mon 19 Sep 2011 •

Congratulations to distrify for having Bananas on the platform (which is looking terrific, by the way – I always loved the triangles as their logo)!

Host

Ben Kempas

Mon 19 Sep 2011 •

It's more of a matter of Dogwoof partnering with Distrify for their entire online distribution. Fredrik didn't even know BANANAS!* was up there. :-)

I#m just wondering if the above rental works anywhere or whether it's been geo-blocked for UK availability only?

Professional

Eli Brown

Mon 19 Sep 2011 •

I clicked on the rent and it put a "sign up for email notification for when it's available in your area" notice. So, I think it is geo-blocking...

Professional

Pablo Alvarez

Wed 21 Sep 2011 •

Yeah, I did too and that sign-up notice appeared and that made me not want to continue. I sort of tune off sites that ask for my emails for basic access.. was that just because of geo-blocking? or do users have to register to watch a film?

Host

Ben Kempas

Wed 21 Sep 2011 •

Eli – At the moment, it's even doing that here in the UK although Dogwoof is a UK distributor. I've emailed Peter to find out.

Pablo – What do you mean, "for basic access"? You need to register in order to make a purchase (VoD or DVD) or to access your previous VoD purchase. You don't need to register to watch the trailer.

Host

Ben Kempas

Wed 21 Sep 2011 •

Update: the bug is fixed, but the film may still not be available in all territories. (You might have to empty your cache before you try again.)

Professional

Pablo Alvarez

Thu 22 Sep 2011 •

In reply to Ben Kempas's post on Wed 21 Sep 2011 :

Fair enough.. I guess I just sort of expected to be directed to a page with a slot for a credit card number and then to the film in two simple steps. Its a great service, don't get me wrong... Thing is i just unconsciously seem to close pages that ask for email addresses up front..

Host

John Burgan

Sat 10 Dec 2011 •

Glass is a 1958 Dutch short documentary film by director and producer Bert Haanstra. The film won the Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject in 1959. (thanks to my former student Anna in Barcelona for sending this)

Edited Sat 10 Dec 2011 by John Burgan