These protests, as most of us already know, were met with vicious hatred and violence upon arrival in Southern cities. Literally 100 years after the start of the Civil War, suspicion of Northern aggression still festered in the minds of some Southerners, or at least in those of the uneducated and ignorant. The ensuing events are portrayed beautifully, and told by many of those who were actually involved, on both sides.

Our Civil Rights movement is apropos in another sense, one that is of immediate contemporary relevance – The Arab Spring. It’s been fascinating to follow the news of the last 5 or 6 months in the Middle East, as Arab populations rise up against their repressive dictators, who pay them $1 a day, while pocketing billions. Many of these protesters have followed the Gandhian dictum (also used by CORE) of non-violent protest; and yet we are playing witness to power and money being an even more brutalizing force than racism.

The Kennedy administration was sufficiently galvanized by the movement to declare, via the Interstate Commerce Commission and Bobby Kennedy, an end to bus and railway segregation. For more on Civil Rights, be sure to rent the indispensable and riveting Eyes on the Prize, just recently available on DVD. – [DVD]

Documentary

Not Rated

DVD Release Date: 5/17/11

Marwencol

Director Jeff Malmberg, to his credit, avoids making himself a character* in Mark’s story, distinguishing Marwencol from other recent docs (i.e. Winnebago Man) which have similar subjects. His film unfolds and unravels like a satisfying mystery, letting Mark do most of the talking, and waiting to reveal more intimate details of his life, including the apparent cause of his assault. Nor, as the film chronicles, is Malmberg the only one to see past the superficial “grown man playing with dolls” story. Hogancamp’s work, while created for his own private benefit, might easily be called art, and has attracted the attention of gallery owners in New York. Malmberg follows Mark’s foray into their world, and the personal challenges and opportunities that journey presents for him. Marwencol raises many interesting questions without trying to answer them for us. The approach to its subject seems to be one of genuine curiosity and compassion.

* We do get a glimpse of the American G.I. doll that Mark has made to represent Malmberg, complete with combat camera and “PRESS”-emblazoned helmet. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Documentary

Not Rated

DVD Release Date: 4/12/11

Just because I say see it, don’t think I’m endorsing it as a “good” documentary. 

Waiting for Superman is horrifically one sided. While it seems simple to say “Schools are bad, I want to be on the side that opposes that,” education in this country is not a simple issue. Whether by design or happenstance, Waiting for Superman derides the teachers’ unions without giving them screen time to respond.

Now putting aside the lack of objectivity, let’s talk about how inspirational Waiting for Superman is. While examining the decline of education in this country, the filmmakers follow children across the country who are pinning their hopes on charter school lotteries. Kids with involved parents who believe their children won’t get an effective education in the mainstream system.

This is where this documentary excels, watching these kids who, even at first and second grade levels, can recognize their schools for failing institutions, sit through a lottery for what they conceive as the only shot for a future, is gut wrenching and so very real. And that is where Waiting for Superman becomes the movie worth talking about.  Interviews with teachers I’ve never heard of and Bill Gates, or fanciful animations that have become the norm since Michael Moore burst on the scene, they all leave a sort of polish behind that makes some of the more interesting facts presented seem questionable.

Just so there is no confusion, I am wholeheartedly saying see Waiting for Superman, I’m just saying don’t take it as gospel. But if you do take it as gospel, be sure to see the director’s previous education documentary First Year, about a group of first year teachers. It’s another good one. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Documentary

Rated PG

DVD Release Date: 2/15/11

Exit Through the Gift Shop

Thierry, as we get to know him, begins to feel less and less of a sane person. To quote Thierry, “I don’t know how to play chess, but to me, life is like a game of chess.” Exit Through the Gift Shop offers a lot of insight into the underground world of “street art” however, from what seems to be an unending amount of “in-the-act” tagging footage, interesting interviews, and strange humor. If you’re expecting a graffiti documentary, watch Style Wars. Exit Through the Gift Shop is more of a self-portrait on a modern “artist”.  This is a solid film with a fast pace that only slightly loses steam at the end. - [DVD]

Documentary/Comedy

Rated R

A documentary is not the gospel, yet they’re treated most times as absolute truth. Sadly, most historical dramatizations committed to film are treated this way. Witness Oliver Stone’s JFK. We feel that “fact” is presented before us on the screen, that in no way is there an agenda from the filmmaker. We may feel a documentary by definition is supposed to be the flicking on of a camera for an unbiased observation of a subject, but there’s at least one if not many visions fashioning it; there’s a message the filmmaker intends to impart to you and to bandy around the term “objective opinion” doesn’t ever absolve it enough to be carved into even the softest sandstone.

With this perhaps harsh opening admonishment, but remembering what a joke the word ”embedded” became during the Iraq war, Restrepo is a film very much worth seeing.

Named for a comrade killed early in the 2007 deployment of Second Platoon Battle Company to the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan, and made by writer/journalist Sebastian Junger and photographer Tim Hetherington, Restrepo is also the name of the outpost set up by these soldiers to police some of the most dangerous real estate in this part of the world. As the film’s tag line says, “One Platoon, One Valley, One Year,” and Hetherington and Junger stick to that and stick to the platoon, eating dirt and damage alongside these men.

In its 93 minutes, Restrepo shows you much of what you may already know about America’s soldiers. There’s machismo, bone-headededness, goofing off, sexism, camaraderie, bravery, cynicism and sometimes even poetry. But in this film no “by-jingo” bells are rung and it’s not poetry of war’s glory. These are tough guys until they’re scared, just doing the job when a walkie talkie conversation ends in a cold joke. Not the adrenaline-junkie mercenaries of over-the-top action flicks, but admitting how crushing boredom makes them crave a firefight.

Through it all Hetherington and Junger show the right kind of journalistic restraint. The work of war is grim enough, and debate still goes on over how much of its bloody carnage should be shown on the nightly news. Anything here above and beyond the men telling their own stories would be voyeuristic and disrespectful at best. This film is sobering, not shocking. Politics? It’s the day-to-day five mile radius politics of being on the ground in Afghanistan. The socioeconomic reasons presented for why these men are here? They decided to do it.

If you watch the deleted scenes on the DVD, the first paragraph should make its point. Anything other than what’s on the screen makes it different in tone and intent. There’s nothing wrong with honing and editing and the filmmakers should be commended for the end result. When a documentary is treated as the most truthful grail and is really just strident posturing and manipulation, those films and that attitude do the story told in Restrepo a disservice.

To avoid that disservice and in light of the opening quote from a soldier in the film, anyone who’s never been a soldier always wonders, “Who would want this job? But would I be able to do it?” - [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Documentary/War

Rated R

DVD Release Date: 12/7/10

Let me back up. The writer-director, Tom DiCillo, previously gave us two great (well one great and one very good) movies with Living in Oblivion and Box of Moonlight. Living in Oblivion was of course his masterpiece and you should see it right away if you haven’t already. Box of Moonlight is an early Sam Rockwell film, starring John Turturro as well. And here with this Doors documentary, DiCillo does an excellent job of answering the most interesting questions about Jim and the other band members, and balancing performance footage quite beautifully with clips from the movie Jim shot when he was a film student, and Johnny Depp‘s narration. Depp has taken some flack from the critics for being too flat in his delivery, but it worked for me. The focus is definitely on Jim, but others in the group also get some attention: who knew that it was Robbie Krieger who penned “Light My Fire” after playing guitar for only six months?

So When You’re Strange is a chronicle of the band from its inception to its dissolution. It’s well made and engaging, especially for a fan. I’m not sure if a non-fan or someone not familiar with the music would love it as much as I did, so I’ll be interested to hear viewer feedback. And see this movie as soon as possible because, as the song goes, “The future’s uncertain—the end is always near.” – [DVD]

Documentary/Music

Rated R

The September Issue chronicles the run-up to the 2007 Fall fashion issue for Vogue magazine, and to paraphrase, “I don’t know fashion, but I know what I like” is never truer than in this film. Whatever shade will be the new black this season is decided by Anna Wintour, editor in chief at Vogue magazine for over two decades. That so much of this multibillion dollar industry is decided by a woman whose credentials seem to be a modeling career in her youth and first job in a London boutique attained by her father, an editor of the Evening Standard, then bulldozing her way up the ladder and dismissing underlings right and left only perpetuates the idea of mediocrity with a chip on its shoulder, and an upper class jumpstart rising even higher. Breathless coworkers and industry insiders testify to Wintour seeing trends in fashion first and even creating them but other than saying “I don’t like that” and saying it a lot, she does nothing that can be viewed as creative. That’s left to long-suffering senior fashion editor Grace Coddington, the surprising heroine of the film, herself getting her start modeling in swinging 60’s London but then remaining hands-on and retaining a sense of whimsy in her work. Though galled at Wintour’s decisions, Grace presses on delivering last minute brilliance for the issue and the impression you’re left with is that she does it time and again.

The trailers for this film imply that you’ll see how close to the bone Meryl Streep’s performance was in The Devil Wears Prada and the titillating, catty asides that turn Project Runway’s gears. Wintour herself says most people are afraid of fashion, so how does fashion’s feather boa castle remain standing? Just this side of fawning, the film glitzes along a timeline of stressed-out assistants to the pressing of the 840 page gospel of chic. Again, like fashion itself, the film never shows the real anything of the industry let alone the real Anna Wintour, but interesting chinks in her armor abound. The flinty look of insecurity as she talks about what the other members of her family do and how they feel about her career and the unabashed look of affection she gives her daughter Bee show Wintour as a person unguarded.

Entertaining, yes, but the filmic equivalent of unraveling the seams of the empress’s new clothes, not quite. Don’t feel the need to color coordinate as you sit down to watch. - [DVD]

Documentary

Rated PG-13

DVD Release Date: 2/23/10

In No Impact Man writer/blogger Colin Beavan decides he and his family will make no carbon impact on the environment for a year, cutting off electricity, only shopping locally, no new purchases, no toilet paper, etc. His altruism has a mixed message since this will be the basis for his next book. Leavened by his questioning his own motives throughout the film, his “madness” only the kvetching angst of warmed-over liberal guilt, he cops to all this but then passive/aggressively nudges his wife Michelle Conlin along on this eco-adventure. From the outset it’s obvious this year will affect Michelle and their 2-year-old daughter Isabella the most. A case of one person’s quest is another’s “where’s my latte?” since Michelle does like her iced espresso and shopping excursions.

The film and project feel only half thought out. Colin has a timeline and has done research, but Michelle is always caught a little off guard when each step is sprung on her. She works at Business Week so how did they press her suits? Witness the refrigeration experiment, and was doing the laundry in the bathtub that much fun every time? There’s never a point where either wants to rend their American Apparel clothing in frustration, but the ability to suffer setbacks with good grace and courtesy only means you’d never be on “real” reality TV and it’s a little hard to sympathize with people trying something like this who have good jobs and live in New York City. It’s been said that if you really can’t afford to live organic or green, you’ll buy the Wonderbread when food needs to go on the table. There’s an impression of a loading of the dice in the message, that off camera it was all harder than they let on, yet the year seems to end up a series of small bumps by the light of beeswax candles on the fair trade/greenhouse gas-limiting road.

Michelle and Colin are an easy-going couple, intelligent and good natured, trying a different direction for their lives. Colin is insufferable one moment then insightful and humbled the next, as we all can be. He’s genuinely enthused, especially when talking with young people about the project, and they’ve made permanent changes in their lives. He’s in no way the worst example for a cause, but in the end it’s preaching to the converted. At least it’s done without a Michael Moore solar-powered bullhorn. – [DVD]

Documentary

Not Rated

DVD Release Date: 1/19/10

In this documentary, Jimmy Page, the Edge, and Jack White are brought together to discuss the electric guitar. All three have had successful careers, both monetarily and artistically, and in doing so all have spent those careers trying to transcend and exploit the limitations of the electric guitar. And it is an instrument with limitations and, depending on what your ears respond to, those limitations can be as sublime as they are idiosyncratic. Each of these players in their own way, if you listen and I mean really listen to music, has skewed their contributions into the sonically poetic.

Director David Guggenheim travels with each as they explain how their artistic identity came to be, then he has them sit down in a funky, comfortable environs and they talk. These are three very different artists, each from a very different era in popular culture. There are history, opinions and personal anecdotes told. There are no 20 minute solos or, in my opinion, a tiresome espousal on proper music theory. What you get from these three craftsmen is love and respect for the tool of their trade, that seemingly from when they picked up their first guitar, was the missing component of their DNA. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Documentary/Music

Rated PG

DVD Release Date: 12/22/09

Dolphin culling for the international oceanic entertainment industry takes place in Taiji, Japan. Only young female bottlenose dolphins are chosen. Because dolphins are perceived to enjoy interactions with humans, supplying dolphins for theme park life is sanctioned and extremely lucrative. It’s a very rational basis for a business.

This is The Cove in a nutshell. What are the consequences of this rationale, not just for another species, but ourselves?

Ric O’Barry, who captured and trained dolphins in the 60′s for the television series Flipper, over time and much soul searching realized that this isn’t how these creatures were meant to live. They exist in a constant state of stress in captivity. He now spends his life as an advocate for closing down this industry, but in Taiji he discovered something worse than capturing and selling a few dolphins. What he and filmmaker Louis Psihoyos, a National Geographic photographer and writer, find and how they show it to the world make for a fine film, more nuts and bolts investigative journalism than enviro-rant.

There’s been criticism of the film, of course, surprisingly from people on the same side as O’Barry saying it didn’t address animal rights across the globe, especially American attitudes towards all species that are exploited. These critics, bloggers mainly, have slipped into their own rationale that we have to be deeply concerned all the time about all things and it needs to be shown every moment.

But a filmmaker’s rationale is this: I have one story to tell. Interesting, unexpected things will happen, questions will be raised but other people will have to address them. My focus is this subject, this event and this alone is what I’m committed to. Devoid of Michael Moore‘s ham-standing, Psihoyos gets down to the business of here’s what we’ve seen, here’s what we believe and here’s how we’ll get the job done.

Throwing emotion into a rationale can skew it towards failure, usually because anger or fear is at the core of the reasoning. The Cove does have emotion as a touchstone of its rationale, but that emotion is more guilt at human hubris and folly and a need to make amends. – [DVD]

Documentary

Rated PG-13

DVD Release Date: 12/8/09