Author Topic: Documentary recs  (Read 104425 times)

SJK

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Re: Documentary recs
« Reply #45 on: June 17, 2010, 09:04:54 PM »
I could recommend, "Our Daily Bread".

Ooh, this is right up my alley. Thanks for mentioning it. It's now on my list! It looks a bit like the Edward Burtynsky doc, Manufactured Landscapes.

I travel and live abroad for work quite often. Sometimes I get to visit a city, not for the purpose of work. NYC is a city I have visited a few times. I often find myself wandering around aimlessly, as is my wont! This time I happened to stumble upon a small theater somewhere in lower Manhattan on an overcast afternoon, showing Manufactured Landscapes. Without any information about the film I decided to watch it. 90minutes later, my face had melted all over the theater floor. Wow.

JonFromMaplewood

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Re: Documentary recs
« Reply #46 on: June 18, 2010, 12:37:35 PM »

It looks a bit like the Edward Burtynsky doc, Manufactured Landscapes.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie5SJ39LsDg[/youtube]


I will not be seeing this. Too scary, and I am sheeple.  Food Inc almost killed me.
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ChrisRawk

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Re: Documentary recs
« Reply #47 on: June 19, 2010, 12:25:45 PM »
Any of you guys check out I AM COMIC yet?  They've been showing it on Showtime and it's pretty great.
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Chris L

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Re: Documentary recs
« Reply #48 on: June 20, 2010, 12:02:13 AM »
I haven't seen COLLAPSE or BURMA VJ yet but I've been anticipating them for a while and they're both released on dvd Tuesday.

I recommend both, highly. Collapse is very Morris-esque.

I watched Collapse.  I'd go a little further than Morris-esque and say that Chris Smith completely rips off Morris' current style.

Still, Ruppert is a riveting subject.  I certainly have misgivings about him (especially from what I know of his 9/11 theories) but for quite a while it's been hard for me to see how things won't work out more or less as tragically and traumatically as he describes them.

fonpr

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Re: Documentary recs
« Reply #49 on: June 20, 2010, 12:16:29 AM »
I haven't seen COLLAPSE or BURMA VJ yet but I've been anticipating them for a while and they're both released on dvd Tuesday.

I recommend both, highly. Collapse is very Morris-esque.

I watched Collapse.  I'd go a little further than Morris-esque and say that Chris Smith completely rips off Morris' current style.

Still, Ruppert is a riveting subject.  I certainly have misgivings about him (especially from what I know of his 9/11 theories) but for quite a while it's been hard for me to see how things won't work out more or less as tragically and traumatically as he describes them.

From the Wilderness was a site I frequented quite often, several years ago.  
Michael Ruppert doesn't get everything right.  Who does?  But, when I was reading him, I was impressed that his predictions were a great deal more reliable than mainstream commentators.  He had/has some very serious inside connections.

He has a wild and scary back story as well as I recall.  
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Martin

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Re: Documentary recs
« Reply #50 on: June 20, 2010, 07:49:16 AM »
But what is interesting to me is that (slight spoiler) the Collapse is both the one Ruppert describes, and his own. If it had just been one Don Quijote-like character sitting there with his theories ranging from sane-to-conspiratorial, I don't think I would've been as engrossed. But Ruppert's own narrative follows his own metaphor, and I think that gives the film its edge.

Bryan

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Re: Documentary recs
« Reply #51 on: June 20, 2010, 10:09:09 AM »
I watched "The Real Dirt About Farmer John" last night - my food politics obsession continues. It's better than I thought it would be, mostly because there's a ton of lovely family footage dating back to the 50s. And the guy does have an interesting story:

In short, he was heir to a multi-generational family farm. He got his mind blown by the hippie movement at college, then his father died, so he inherited the farm in his early 20s. He turned it into an experimental commune for years, and wound up being an early victim of the farm crisis in North America. He went through a wilderness period, and over the years developed a new model for economically viable small-scale farming.

More fuel for my grudging belief that the hippies were right about a lot of the important stuff, and possibly a partial antidote to the more pessimistic docs like Food Inc., and Collapse.

Omar

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Re: Documentary recs
« Reply #52 on: June 20, 2010, 12:36:32 PM »
"Murder on a Sunday Morning" and "The Staircase" by Jean-Xavier de Lestrade are two of my favorites, because they are almost unbelievable stories.

I've seen The Staircase three times.  Mesmerizing stuff.  Murder on a Sunday Morning is also the name of the hardcore group I was in circa 1990-1992.  MOASM 4 eva.
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fonpr

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Re: Documentary recs
« Reply #53 on: June 20, 2010, 12:46:22 PM »
I watched "The Real Dirt About Farmer John" last night
More fuel for my grudging belief that the hippies were right about a lot of the important stuff, and possibly a partial antidote to the more pessimistic docs like Food Inc., and Collapse.

More fuel for my grudging belief that the hippies were right about a lot of the important stuff

I hope Milton Buffcoat reads this perspicacious perception.

I assume you are up on Michael Pollan.  

I would like to also suggest you investigate Helen and Scott Nearing,  Wendell Berry and Frances Moore Lappé.

Also, Mad John from Ogden's Nut Gone Flake.

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Bryan

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Re: Documentary recs
« Reply #54 on: June 20, 2010, 03:16:36 PM »
I assume your are up on Michael Pollan. 

I would like to also suggest you investigate Helen and Scott Nearing,  Wendell Berry and Frances Moore Lappé.

Also, Mad John from Ogden's Nut Gone Flake.

Media Squat!

Yep, of course I'm familiar with Pollan, and with Wendell Berry, too. I don't really know the others you mention, but I will definitely check them out.

Christina

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Re: Documentary recs
« Reply #55 on: June 20, 2010, 03:27:48 PM »
I assume your are up on Michael Pollan. 

I would like to also suggest you investigate Helen and Scott Nearing,  Wendell Berry and Frances Moore Lappé.

Also, Mad John from Ogden's Nut Gone Flake.

Media Squat!

Yep, of course I'm familiar with Pollan, and with Wendell Berry, too. I don't really know the others you mention, but I will definitely check them out.

Have you read:

Stuffed & Starved - Raj Patel?

Animal Vegetable Miracle - Kingsolver?

What to Eat - Marion Nestle (or any others by her)?
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Sarah

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Re: Documentary recs
« Reply #56 on: June 20, 2010, 05:22:13 PM »
Of course the hippies were right about a lot of the important stuff.  Unfortunately it doesn't matter how right you are when the rightness is contingent on people behaving decently.

fonpr

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Re: Documentary recs
« Reply #57 on: June 20, 2010, 07:38:36 PM »
Of course the hippies were right about a lot of the important stuff.  Unfortunately it doesn't matter how right you are when the rightness is contingent on people behaving decently.

Oh, Sarah.

You are so cynical and correct!
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Ojingeo

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Re: Documentary recs
« Reply #58 on: June 21, 2010, 12:09:31 AM »
All of Herzog's documentaries are amazing. I own the boxset that came out a few years ago and it was one of best purchases I've ever made. Land of Silence and Darkness is one of the best movies he ever made.

I second all the early Errol Morris recommendations, particularly Gates of Heaven and Vernon, Florida. His early movies are pitch perfect. The Thin Blue Line and Dr. Death also stellar.

Crumb is very good. As is Finding the Friedmans. I think the filmmakers treated the disturbing stuff pretty well.

I second or third Dig!. One of my most favorite music docs. I recently watched 30th Century Man, the doc on Scott Walker; it wasn't a brilliant doc, but it's about Scott Walker and so it's essential. It's great watching Brian Eno relent (with good humor) and admit that Roxy Music and Talking Heads never did anything better than the first half of Nite Flights.

Fearless Freaks is good too. I'm not a Flaming Lips fan, but it's a good music doc. (I suppose music docs could be a separate thread. But what the hell do I care.)

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JonFromMaplewood

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Re: Documentary recs
« Reply #59 on: June 21, 2010, 12:32:03 AM »
Documentary I do NOT recommend:

Kurt and Courtney
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