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mintskoal posted:Not sure if this is of any interest, but Gideon's Army is about public defenders in the south. It's infuriating but excellent. It looks interesting, thanks!
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Mar 18, 2015 16:54
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Viginti posted:People praise the movie as an example of ambiguity, of the fact that there are no facts, that you can never truly know the truth and it can operate as that, but I don't believe that was the intention for the film going in. It's hard to nail it down, but there's something very troubling about the way that the movie is made. I wa going to disagree with you ... but after some thought I mostly agree. Capturing the Friedmans is enthralling because nothing makes sense and facts seem set against each other. But I think you're right in that the film-maker believes Jesse is innocent. And I'm inclined to agree with him: some of the allegations veer into the realm of fantasy. I'm not sure there's any way to objectively present such a story, or that the film would be better if it explicitly catered to objectivity. In other doco news, I finished Leviathan. Amazing but not something that I would recommend or repeat.
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Mar 18, 2015 23:13
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My natural inclination is also to side with Jesse, because the charges laid against him - like anal leapfrogging, which just sounds logistically like more trouble than its worth - are ludicrous and the evidence for them entirely circumstantial. However my opinion is based primarily on the facts present in the film and the way it presents them; whereas, if you were to read any of the reporing done on the case recently people seem absolutely certain that he did commit some of the crimes he was accused of, not all of them, not the more ludicrous ones, but some. That's where it becomes problematic that Jarecki feigns objectivity: if he came out and said, or even suggested, that he felt this guy was innocent we could view the film with a more critical eye, but instead he plays it more innocuously, tempting us to be more accepting that these are 'the' facts, not 'his' facts. It's a really difficult issue, and I don't know what the right answer is, but I can't help but feel that he handled presenting the truth poorly, and now with The Jinx he seems to have again crossed the line from honestly reconstructing the story to simply telling one of his own creation. Which, again, still makes for fascinating viewing but I don't know if I can stomach it that easily.
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Mar 19, 2015 00:29
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Here's a couple absolute masterpieces I found on Youtube. gently caress Off! Images of Finland https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_M3cDl8q1Y Everyday Life in a Syrian Village https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQWJs4lWxqY
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Mar 19, 2015 02:32
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GreyPowerVan posted:Anyone seen decent documentaries lately that would be of interest to people in social services? Alive Inside was good, as was Living on One Dollar in a different way. It's probably been at LEAST a month since I posted Streetwise, so what the hell. I have a buddy getting his master's in public health/social work and he used parts of it in a presentation he did. He worked in child services for years (goddamn champion) and said he's blown away by how much his classmates are squeamish about the people they're there to help. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lTQgfXb87k
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Mar 19, 2015 14:50
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Streetwise is essential viewing!
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Mar 19, 2015 18:38
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Streetwise/Black Tar Heroin are a good double feature.
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Mar 19, 2015 18:45
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Are there any good documentaries on Prince that were actually finished and released? The only stuff I can find seems to be guys talking about how they were planning on making one but were denied by the man himself.
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Mar 21, 2015 20:30
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Shiny Llama posted:Are there any good documentaries on Prince that were actually finished and released? Here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGqUwr9j8Zc
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Mar 21, 2015 21:11
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Buck is a solid Netflix recommendation. A profile of Buck Brannaman, perhaps the most well known horse-tamer in the US who not only informed the fictionalized "Horse Whisperer" book but was also recruited by Robert Redford for the film as both trainer and riding double for Redford. As someone with no real interest in horses the movie was a fascinating look at someone who is not only exceptionally in tune with animals but also their owners. It dives into Buck's traumatic childhood and follows him giving horse training lessons all over the US, climaxing with him having to face an unbelievably aggressive colt. Much better than I would've thought with a gentle story and great moments of emotion. Give it 10 minutes and if the scenes of him training are as transfixing for you as they were for me then you'll like it.
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Mar 22, 2015 04:06
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Shiny Llama posted:Are there any good documentaries on Prince that were actually finished and released? The BBC broadcast this radio documentary Hunting for Prince's Vault yesterday. Haven't listened myself yet.
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Mar 22, 2015 12:18
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Shiny Llama posted:Are there any good documentaries on Prince that were actually finished and released? There's "The Prince of Paisley Park" and what I think was called "Prince in the 80's" but they can be hard to find online. Those are the only 2 I've seen. Amazon turns up these: http://www.amazon.com/Prince-Glory-Years-Documentary-Review/dp/B000W7M1I0
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Mar 22, 2015 13:13
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Prince is definitely going to have a Searching for Sugar Man style doc made about him when (if?) he dies.
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Mar 22, 2015 15:14
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A friend of mine used to work at one of Prince's music distributors, he really was as eccentric as every Kevin Smith story said he was.
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Mar 22, 2015 17:00
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Purple Rain isn't a good enough Prince documentary??
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Mar 22, 2015 21:17
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Just watched Levitated Mass on Netflix. Loved it. Taught me about an artist I woefully didn't know about, showed me a cool story I somehow missed (from the 2011/2012 years) and was just a cool example of awesome logistical planning and execution. Really cool. Also really touching, enlightening and fun to watch. I highly recommend it.
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Mar 23, 2015 01:14
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Tactical Grace posted:The BBC broadcast this radio documentary Hunting for Prince's Vault yesterday. Haven't listened myself yet. Thanks for this (and all the responses) - now I have something to listen to on my commute tomorrow.
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Mar 23, 2015 19:56
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Pretty sure everybody loves Louis Theroux, so a heads up: his new series started yesterday, looking at a mental institution housing those who were found not guilty by reason of insanity. Was good. Second part next week, then a third ep on a different subject: transgender kids and teenagers.
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Mar 23, 2015 20:06
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fenix down posted:Streetwise is essential viewing! Wow, that was surprisingly shocking. Thanks for the recommendation Dr.Caligari fucked around with this message at 12:48 on Mar 25, 2015 |
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Mar 25, 2015 12:43
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This is a reminder that tomorrow (Sunday) HBO broadcasts Going Clear, the scathing documentary about the Church of Scientology I knew that a friend of mine was an ex-scientologist, but today I just found out that her mom is one of the subjects of the documentary. http://tonyortega.org/2015/03/27/going-clear-spanky-taylor-on-john-travolta-priscilla-presley-and-escaping-scientology/
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Mar 29, 2015 06:33
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I had no luck using Search to find this doc anywhere in the thread (or on the forums at all), but considering the popularity of the previous documentary on the same subject by the director I'd bet I just hosed up somewhere. I figured I'd play it safe though and possibly beat the dead horse, given how much I enjoyed this one. From the director of The Union: The Culture High https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHHABptIuIs Synopsis posted:"The Culture High" tears into the very fibre of modern day marijuana prohibition to reveal the truth behind the arguments and motives governing both those who support and those who oppose the existing pot laws. With budgets to fight the war reaching billions and arrests for simple possession skyrocketing to nearly a million annually, the debate over marijuana's legality has reached epic proportions. Top celebrities, former undercover agents, university professors and a slew of unforgettable characters from all points of view come together for an amusing yet insightful portrait of cannabis prohibition and the grasp it has on society as a whole.  as gently caress but it's sadly more real than I thought.
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Mar 29, 2015 16:34
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If you're a fan of Roger Ebert, definitely check out Life Itself on Netflix. It's a nice little overview of his life and career as well as an intimate look at what his life was like, and how his passion continued, even in the last months before his death.
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Mar 29, 2015 23:55
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Locke Dunnegan posted:I had no luck using Search to find this doc anywhere in the thread (or on the forums at all), but considering the popularity of the previous documentary on the same subject by the director I'd bet I just hosed up somewhere. I figured I'd play it safe though and possibly beat the dead horse, given how much I enjoyed this one. From the director of The Union: I agree with the ideas in general but I don't think it's a particularly good documentary overall. It seems like they just hashed together a bunch of interview footage/news clips of politicians and bureaucrats saying things/B roll of weed and random cityscapes shot in high FPS with nice equipment at wide apertures with shifting focus to add a veneer of pretty images. Throw in some decent color grading and whatever you call that particular style of piano music used to underscore that this is about some sort of important social issue that we need to address, then ship a final product without much regard for structure or pacing. The House I Live In already did the same thing and did a better job. Edit: also anything unironically presenting clips from RT as legitimate media loses points--major players in western mass media aren't without fault, but lol if the best you can come up with in contrast to that is RT. Qtotonibudinibudet fucked around with this message at 02:28 on Mar 30, 2015 |
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Mar 30, 2015 02:03
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Resistance is on Netflix, not exactly a gloriously produced Movie but as someone who has had a MRSA infection the subject matter is alarming and a bit horrifying. From the films webpage: Antibiotics were first massed-produced in the 1940s. Their ability to fight and kill bacteria revolutionized medicine and had profound effects on everything from agriculture to war. After less than 80 years, however, these miracle drugs are failing. Resistant infections kill hundreds of thousands of people around the world each year, and there are now dozens of so-called Superbugs each with its own challenges and costs. How did this happen? Using microscopic footage, harrowing personal stories, and expert insights RESISTANCE clarifies the problem of antibiotic resistance, how we got to this point, and what we can do to turn the tide.
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Mar 30, 2015 03:54
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annapacketstormaya posted:I agree with the ideas in general but I don't think it's a particularly good documentary overall. I don't know, I don't feel that way at all. I studied enough Sociology and social problems in college to have a minor, which I know isn't much, but it also gave me an appetite for keeping fairly up-to-date with this kind of stuff, and even then I didn't know a good amount of the information that was presented in the documentary. I knew that cannabis prohibition is a very recent and unique phenomenon in all of human history, but I didn't know that it was the main driver for the entirety of the War on Drugs, and that it is the main reason it continues to this day. I also didn't know that the government is giving out patents for medicinal uses of cannabis, because I figured them considering it a Class A substance would preclude that. Maybe that other documentary you mentioned covers that and more, but this at least doesn't seem like canned, obvious information to me.
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Mar 30, 2015 04:12
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Going clear was a pretty crazy documentary.
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Mar 30, 2015 07:48
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The REAL Goobusters posted:Going clear was a pretty crazy documentary.  For anyone who followed most of the news about Scientology for the past few years, most of the history of Scientology stuff was nothing new. But holy poo poo, the personal stories are devastating. I had to wipe away a few tears. Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 10:30 on Mar 30, 2015 |
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Mar 30, 2015 08:56
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Locke Dunnegan posted:I don't know, I don't feel that way at all. I studied enough Sociology and social problems in college to have a minor, which I know isn't much, but it also gave me an appetite for keeping fairly up-to-date with this kind of stuff, and even then I didn't know a good amount of the information that was presented in the documentary. I knew that cannabis prohibition is a very recent and unique phenomenon in all of human history, but I didn't know that it was the main driver for the entirety of the War on Drugs, and that it is the main reason it continues to this day. I also didn't know that the government is giving out patents for medicinal uses of cannabis, because I figured them considering it a Class A substance would preclude that. That's it, essentially. It's not lacking in information,and it's not presenting information that is contradicted by or ignored by mainstream sources, but The House I Live In makes better use of its medium is more cohesive argument against the drug war.
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Mar 30, 2015 09:41
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Steve Yun posted:
I had seen and read some stuff like the Tom cruise video, the xenu poo poo. But holy gently caress I had never seen the conferences they would have especially that huge rear end one after they declared victory over the IRS. That is seriously some hosed up poo poo. Also never heard of the hole. It's so hosed up.
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Mar 30, 2015 11:46
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Yeah I knew just about everything the doc had in it but I'd never seen it all together like that. What a bunch of scamming maniacs. I kind of feel bad for people like Travolta and Cruise since they have the status to totally damage the church but either completely buy into it (Cruise) or are effectively being blackmailed into playing along (Travolta). And yeah, the conventions had a pretty hosed up Nazi-rally feel to them. I really hope they make some huge mistake along the way or the IRS grows its balls back and goes after them properly this time. I can't wait to see how it all falls apart.
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Mar 30, 2015 16:23
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I can't wait for the inevitable documentary detailing Scientology's collapse from the perspective of Travolta or Cruise.
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Mar 30, 2015 16:42
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If you enjoyed the doc I highly recommend reading the book by Lawrence Wright. It goes in to much, much more detail about just how hosed Scientology is. The film was fantastic too.
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Mar 30, 2015 19:56
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Eh, I was pretty disappointed with Going Clear. It was a bit of a mess structurally, a blatantly biased attack piece and overall a bit puerile. I'm not, nor have I ever considered, being a xenutoligist but I do find the hatred towards them to be problematic, every single accusation made in this film could and should also be made about Catholicism, Christianity, Islam, any of the 'accepted' religions really. I was hoping that Gibney would get beyond the shocking tabloid stories and shiny celebrity cameos to look more at the psychology under-riding these cults and religions, to use scientology as a single example of a larger phenomena but it never really tried to do that, or to tread new ground in general. Given all the hype I had hoped that they would take a less simplistic view than the usual 'This poo poo's weird!' but alas, that's what you get from Four-films-a-year Gibney. On the other hand, the music was cool. Just enough of The Master in there, very alien and upsetting. Might try to find an OST.
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Mar 31, 2015 13:05
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Oh boy. I was waiting for someone to bring up the "it's no worse than any other religion" point. How naive do you have to be to actually believe that? I'm not talking the Catholic Church or Islam of 1000 years ago, we all know the bad poo poo that happened then, I'm talking about in this day and age people actually think Scientology in any way resembles religions whose central teachings are about peace and harmony. I'm not even a religious person, but I gotta defend them here.....they are not money-making schemes designed to hoard cash and bleed you dry and they don't excommunicate you if you don't cut off contact with people who don't follow the religion. Also, no slave labor, no paramilitary organization within the church, and no blackmail folders kept on each member. Every religion has awful people in it (see: catholic priests molesting children, jihadists) but they are actually breaking the laws of their own religion. On the other hand, every awful thing in Scientology is by design.
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Mar 31, 2015 16:41
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One new thing I learned from Going Clear is holy poo poo L. Ron Hubbard has the scariest mouth I have ever seen.
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Mar 31, 2015 17:07
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Too bad they didn't mention anything about the people who have, indirectly in most cases, been killed by scientologists through things like locking sick people up with no access to (real) doctors or medicine and pushing depressed people enough for them to kill themselves and calling them weak to boot because they couldn't shake their depression through means prescribed by scientology.
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Mar 31, 2015 17:14
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"This film should be made about Christianity" kinda rings hollow when Mea Maxima Culpa exists It felt like pretty standard Gibney, really. He can basically just apply his usual shtick and come out the other side with a very enjoyable & watchable doc, but without creating something truly great. But hey, I haven't hit saturation with him yet, so I'm perfectly fine with that. (And poo poo, Ken Burns made a career doing much the same, albeit in his own distinct style and, uh, better)
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Mar 31, 2015 17:25
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Oh, no wonder it reminded me of Smartest Guys In The Room, he fuckin directed that too.
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Mar 31, 2015 18:05
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Viginti posted:Eh, I was pretty disappointed with Going Clear. It was a bit of a mess structurally, a blatantly biased attack piece and overall a bit puerile. I'm not, nor have I ever considered, being a xenutoligist but I do find the hatred towards them to be problematic, every single accusation made in this film could and should also be made about Catholicism, Christianity, Islam, any of the 'accepted' religions really. I was hoping that Gibney would get beyond the shocking tabloid stories and shiny celebrity cameos to look more at the psychology under-riding these cults and religions, to use scientology as a single example of a larger phenomena but it never really tried to do that, or to tread new ground in general. Given all the hype I had hoped that they would take a less simplistic view than the usual 'This poo poo's weird!' but alas, that's what you get from Four-films-a-year Gibney. Lmao I was waiting for this
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Mar 31, 2015 18:14
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Viginti posted:Eh, I was pretty disappointed with Going Clear. It was a bit of a mess structurally, a blatantly biased attack piece and overall a bit puerile. I'm not, nor have I ever considered, being a xenutoligist but I do find the hatred towards them to be problematic, every single accusation made in this film could and should also be made about Catholicism, Christianity, Islam, any of the 'accepted' religions really. I was hoping that Gibney would get beyond the shocking tabloid stories and shiny celebrity cameos to look more at the psychology under-riding these cults and religions, to use scientology as a single example of a larger phenomena but it never really tried to do that, or to tread new ground in general. Given all the hype I had hoped that they would take a less simplistic view than the usual 'This poo poo's weird!' but alas, that's what you get from Four-films-a-year Gibney. Again, I'll just suggest reading the book. The documentary really focused on the horror stories and other events that make for good TV. The book covers the history of Scientology and how it evolved from LRH's pulp fiction to a religion based on some of his sci-fi novels.
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Mar 31, 2015 18:18
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