Yeah, the American POWs in Japan wish every single day that they had it as bad as the Japanese in US internment camps during WW2, especially when they were being used for medical experiments or tortured to death. And the 300,000 Chinese civilians who were tortured or literally gang-raped to death by Japanese soldiers during WW2 (that's why it's called the "The Rape of Nanking", folks) REALLY wish they could change places with those hard-luck Japanese internment civilians in the US, who had three square meals, attended schools, enjoyed sizable dorms, and freedom within the premises. They even formed clubs for everything from Mahjong to Akutagawa's short stories. I'm not saying it was a picnic, but in a world war where many civilians were being tortured to death (like the Jews under Nazi occupation, or any civilian unlucky enough to be in a country occupied by the Japanese) or simply starving to death (many Soviet civilians), it was far, FAR from the worst privation. Besides which, of the 110,000 Japanese Americans interned at the time, it's estimated that a few hundred were in fact working as spies for the Japanese government. Also, I just read this on Wikipedia, but apparently "A secret U.S. government estimate said perhaps 3,500 ethnic Japanese in America were active supporters of the Japanese war effort. After the war, Japan said that 1,648 Japanese-American citizens had fought in Japan's Army. Other estimates set the number as high as 7,000." Yeah, letting all these guys run free during the most devastating, life-and-death war ever waged on the planet Earth sounds like a totally great idea! So excuse me if his life circumstances don't strike me as any more tragic than that of most people living during that time. Good call on "American Movie", but I think that second one deserves a pass, especially if it's another liberal guilt-trip. Focus- If you like watching brainless, shlocky documentaries occasionally, and don't mind seeing epic amounts of nudity and graphic violence, check out a documentary about brainless, shlocky movies; Not Quite Hollywood: The Story of Ozploitation Its hilarious over-praising of moderately entertaining shlock and tall tales from the set get annoying during the last 20 minutes, and it never goes in-depth, but it's got some great soundbytes and clips...just like any worthwhile B movie.
American Pimp Scathing, no-holds-barred documentary directed by the Hughes Brothers focuses on 30 pimps and how the enjoy The Life. This film thankfully and finally strips pimps of their outlaw glamour and exposes them for what they are: misogynist capitalism-swilling monsters. They do this by letting their subjects speak for themselves, and all it takes is a few sentences from any of these pigs to let loose a tidalwave of fearmongering. In a nice artsy touch, the Hughes Brothers make use of classic blaxpoitation archive clips of the flashy film representations with the digustingly cold reality of what is actually out there. You will NOT like these people, and you can bet the fucking farm on that one.
Completely agree with Crown Royal's assessment (except for the word "capitalism-swilling", since I don't even know what it means), and I second his recommendation of this documentary. The only thing I would add is how absolutely insane and hilarious their "sermons" on pimping are, providing countless moments laughter. At the same time, this amusement vanishes when this degenerate, subhuman scum talks about beating their women and taking all their money. I won't spoil it, but the end of the film features a very satisfying conclusion for one of its pimps. Anyways, it's available in its entirety on Youtube;
Thanks to Hulu, I was able to watch through one of my now favorite documentaries,Cosmos. A magnificent series in which the late great Carl Sagan attempts to explore all the mysteries of our universe from celestial phenomenon like pulsars, quasars, black holes, the cosmic calendars, time dilation to more terrestrial/biological concepts like evolution, manmade changes on the environment, The Doppler Effect etc. Intermixed are stories of past scientists like Galileo, Christiaan Huygens, Johannes Kepler as well as the Ancient Greeks like Democritus, Anaximander, Eratosthenes, and Aristarchus. It's heartbreaking at parts because of the either complete destruction of knowledge, such as the destruction the Library of Alexandria, the persecution of scientists like Kepler and anyone asseting the notion of a heliocentric solar system and having their works suppressed if not destroyed. In fact, if there is any show that will make you completely despise organized religion, this show will. Not to mention the fact of some scientists who would never get their work fully realized like Robert Goddard and rocket expeditions to Mars. It's also rather inspiring and hopeful. You get to look at Ancient Greek life at places like Samos. A place free from any considerable religious, militaristic, or political influence and was also a place where scientific advancement flourished. Which similarly happened in in the Netherlands in the 17th century. Especialli, when Dr. Sagan discusses future contact with extraterrestrials as well as the possibilty of space travel and colonization of other worlds. Produced in the 70s and broadcast in the 80s, it's obviously rather dated, but a truly magnificent show and anyone at all interested in science will be enamored with it.
Dude, I don't know why you tried to quasi-justify Japanese Internment based off of like a 2 sentence movie review, but I'll just guess you're Chinese and still have a sorespot. I'm sorry they killed your Grandpa. The thing is, everything you just looked up on Wikipedia doesn't matter-- and maybe I didn't encapsulate the movie very well-- but this is not a documentary just for condemning internment or trying to guilt-trip you. It wasn't even supposed to be about internment, and really it isn't-- it's just the defining event in this guy's life. It's a personal story, and it works because this homeless guy is so endearing and unique, the kind of person you'll see on the street and wonder about but never in a million years will you get to know him. And now you get to. But go ahead, blindly dismiss it, don't watch it and judge for yourself. Anything with Japenese internment in it isn't worth watching because those liberal faggots just want to make you feel bad, and it wasn't that big a deal anyway, we should only watch Holocaust movies because the Jews had it the worst. And lest I forget: good old Jesus Camp. If you haven't heard of it, it's about an evangelical youth camp, and you won't believe some of the shit that goes down. Highly entertaining once it gets started, and smartly edited for maximum effect... you'll probably say "what the fuck?" out loud at least once.
My take on Japanese internment obviously has nothing to do with your "movie review", but rather my own feelings on the matter from studying history and talking to people. My point was, if the central conceit of the work is "awwww...feel sorry for this poor old Japanese dude because he was once in an internment camp", I'm not buying it, for all the reasons mentioned above. The entire work, based on your description, hinges upon a certain level of guilt that the viewer already has about the matter. Since I don't have that, it does nothing for me. By the way! The civilians in mainland Japan after the war also had it worst than the Japanese in the US; many of their male relatives were dead, and many simple starved to death. Of all the horrible things that happened to civilians and combatants during WW2, I would say that old bum of yours got off pretty light. And actually, I'm Russian. Nice try, though. Yes, because the Chinese and Korean I mentioned being slaughtered and raped to death by the "Japenese" were "Jews", right? It is funny you still spell "Japanese" wrong after two whole posts, though.
Alright man, I don't want to clog this thread up, but I seriously have no idea what the fuck your point is in any of this. To me it seems like you're just going on an unwarranted tirade at the mention of JapAnese internment-- you or I could pick any movie somone's posted and say "I don't care about that," or "That subject matter is overplayed." Ok, cool. This is about documentaries, not a historical debate. It would be like if at the mention of Religulous I went on a rant about organized religion-- no one gives a shit what I think, we're sharing documentaries here. Your whole logic is just weird to me, like you're trying to make WWII into an atrocity contest. What difference does it make who had it worse then Japs in the US? That's probably just about everyone, OK, I get it... and so what? That's a different subject matter. Internment's importance is simply that it was an injustice instituted by OUR government. If you want to debate how big of an injustice, if was necessary, etc then cool, but why here? And why are you comparing it to every other massacre at the time?
Ahh another thread shit on, courtesy of Kimmaster. Take the focus, go off on a tangent and create circular arguments just for the sake of it. When's the next Russian film festival?
Haven't seen this posted yet, but it's a must see. Hell, it should be on the curriculum of all film schools on how NOT to make a movie. OVERNIGHT You've all heard about the Boondock Saints, right? Well, the guy who made that flick, Troy Duffy, is a retarded ego maniacal asshole who did a fantastic job of fucking himself over in Hollywood. This documentary is the trainwreck as it unfolds. It's quite spellbinding.
Duffy was a maniacal asshole alright, but so was the guy who discovered him, Harvey Weinstein, one of the most successful and powerful guys in Hollywood at the time. So what was the difference? Why did one succeed and the other fail? Anyways, glad you brought this one up. Here was my own take; Overnight (2003) A movie that really highlights my frustrations with most American documentaries. It follows the story of Troy Duffy, the writer and director of "The Boondock Saints", as he gets his script bought for $300k by Harvey Weinstein of Miramax, goes around being an egotistical asshole, and supposedly destroys his career. And yet, the documentary doesn't reveal the stuff that was truly interesting and important. Sure, Duffy was naive and talked a lot of shit...but that's true of most first-time writers and directors, too. (Most of it just isn't recorded by camera) Duffy was also rude and arrogant...but that describes a lot of successful people in Hollywood and business overall. So what was the exact action or set of events that hurt him so much? At what point did he burn his bridges? When and where? Him being an asshole to his music co-managers, (who, incidentally, were the directors of this film, with a major axe to grind) in no way alters his relationship with Miramax. So what gives? Or, was it something entirely different that caused his career to go downhill, with his personality being besides the point? After all, there are a lot of nice, polite people who have their film scripts stuck in Limbo, too. (Watch the much better, funnier documentary "Pitch" by the Kenny and Spenny people, for instance) Is this really a comeuppance at all, or just a life circumstance that Duffy, being so overconfident and egotistical, was less capable of overcoming? (Although one could argue he did just that, with the DVD sales of Boondock Saints) What I'm trying to convey is that there is a genuinely interesting story to tell here, not just "Guy is asshole, alienates people!". The only interesting part of the film was watching these Hollywood people interact with each other; the sick level of praise and ball-licking that goes on while they call each other worthless motherfuckers behind one anothers' backs. 42/100
This is very interesting stuff, because Herzog has a tendency for inventing scenes for his documentaries, saying that with invention one can reach a deeper level of truth than by merely sticking to the facts (which he calls ’the accountant’s truth’). An excerpt from his book Herzog on Herzog (a book-length interview with Paul Cronin): For example, in his documentary Lessons of Darkness, which deals with the burning oil fields of Kuwait after the Gulf War, there is a scene when in reality firefighters had to ignite a gushing oil well to prevent the oil from reaching other fires. In the movie, this reasoning is not mentioned, instead Herzog narrates the images of men setting fire to the oil well as: This ’interpretation’ is a really good elaboration on what I think is the theme of the movie, which is humanity’s impulse for destruction. Watching it with this in mind, the penguin scene can quite possibly be invented (the book doesn't mention it because it came out well before the movie), by using well-chosen camera angles and editing, plus the voiceover telling us what it’s supposed to mean. Herzog is a very fascinating filmmaker and personality, for those interested I recommend watching some of his films and/or reading the book mentioned above.
Word Wars Follows four scrabble players leading up to the national scrabble championship. Thoroughly enjoyable. Reminds me of King of Kong in that it examines an insular, competitive sub-culture that to the outside world seems nuts. These guys live and breath scrabble. The characters make the movie, especially the pot-smoking, cursing black dude. You'll be rooting for one of these four guys by the end.
Two Days In April An inside look at the process of getting drafted into the NFL, as can be shown through the eyes of four hopefuls. This documentary gives a great behind the scenes perspective of the biggest day of most NFL players' lives and the journey required to achieve their goal. Very well done and inspirational.
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room Coming from a business school background I found this doc hilarious. The fact that in the beginning everything they did was legal. They actually had the SEC's permission to declare "potential future revenue" on their 10-Ks. Then you have the Asian guy who got out early, married a stripper, and now owns 1/3 of Colorado. These guys were really creative in the most evil genius of ways. How else can you explain bribing power plant workers to create an artificial shortage of power? Evil genius. Their ultimate downfall was their short-sightedness. Their creative solutions to hiding their various illegalities were only short-term fixes. When lies pile up like that, eventually someone will find out. Religulous The ending monologue is brilliant. We don't just need more skeptics in areas of faith and politics, but in all aspects of life. There was a BBC Four doc I watched about a year ago on Quantum Mechanics. I wish I could remember what it was called, but it was fascinating. They showed how the Big Bang was possible by spontaneously creating force inside of a vacuum.
Dogtown and Z-boys A documentary about the 1970s Zephyr skateboarding team directed by one of the originals, Stacy Peralta. The Zephyr skate team consisted of a bunch of kids from Santa Monica who created a skating style similar to surfing and whose influence can be seen in modern skateboarding. They broke onto the scene in the Del Mar Nationals with their innovative style that was a complete 180 from the 1960s upright skating style. This documentary examines how the team came into existence and the how and why they created the new style. It also looks into the lives of several of the more popular and talented members. It's an interesting look into how some of the modern skating styles came to be (they were some of the first people skating pools and such) and it contains a ton of film by Craig Stecyk and photos by Glen Friedman.
You guys already hit a lot of my picks. American Movie, American Pimp, The Smartest Guys In the Room and Overnight are among my favorite films, period. I have a thing for big dreamers. I'll add The Kid Stays In the Picture, the admittedly delusional Hollywood anecdotes of ultra-macho super-mogul Robert Evans set to film clips and weird animations. Evans's audiobook has a massive cult following (whenever he tries to do an impression, the baby Jesus cries a single tear of joy), but I really dig the visuals here. My favorite movie about movies. This year, I loved Exit Through the Gift Shop, which starts as a documentary about Banksy and the street art scene but becomes something else entirely when the filmmaker decides to become a street artist himself. My favorite films are usually ones that I want to talk about for days after seeing them - I stupidly saw this alone, and walked out frustrated becasue I had so much I wanted to say. And Catfish is an enjoyably creepy and confusing film about online relationships that makes great use of web surfing as a visual form. It will be widely imitated.
In Pot We Trust If you're looking for glamourization, you've come to the wrong place. This is a straight-forward documentary about marijuana (in the style of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room): The moron stoners that want it legal simply to smoke it, the lobbyist that fights to make it legal, the cops and agents that bust it, and the people who actually medically depend on it (and as we find out, for very good reason). The movie does tend to swing to the left, but more often than not chooses fact over soapbox. It does show however, the idiocy of the members of government that do whatever it takes to keep it illegal while offering no debate to back up their words whatsoever. Somebody contact wardrobe, the emporer has no clothes.
Excellent movie by someone who was in the trenches from the very beginning. The archival footage is awesome since Peralta had access to so much original source material. Even if you don't like skateboarding, I highly recommend this movie. In the same vein, Riding Giants is another documentary by Stacy Peralta on the birth and origins of big wave surfing in the 50's and 60's. It has tons of outstanding amateur video footage featuring the true pioneers of the sport like Greg Noll and Jeff Clark, and the interviews combined give a really good idea of what it felt like to be in Hawaii and California as the big wave phenomenon took birth. If you liked Dogtown, you will definitely appreciate Riding Giants. One more on the action sports tip is Dust to Glory, a study on the Tecate SCORE Baja 1000 off-road race. It is directed by Dana Brown, who is the son of Bruce Brown (directed Endless Summer), and it follows different characters through their attempt at competing in the race as well as investigating the race's origins and history in Mexico. If you like racing of any type then this movie is right up your alley (no pun intended).
On the sports-doc tip, Hoop Dreams is one of the best and, even at 3 hours +, a real nailbiter. It follows two high-school ballers from Chicago who would give their left nuts to turn pro but keep hitting roadblocks. If you're interested in the collegiate sports-industrial complex or the unbelievable pressure on high school stars with no other prospects, it's mandatory. It's the anti-Rudy. It's also got great characters and some outstanding game footage.