rolling documentary thread 2010

Why not start with an 8-1/2 hour, 7-part doc about the fall of apartheid?

http://www.clarityfilms.org/joburg/index.html

http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/film/84744/have-you-heard-from-johannesburg-film-review

http://slantmagazine.com/film/review/have-you-heard-from-johannesburg/4764

So, did you see it?

"Even at the level of average-to-mediocre television, though, “Have You Heard” tells an amazing story. If you don’t know it, or you want reminding, the clumsy storytelling can be endured."
(NY Times)
^^^not a v good sign

in any case, this has been a fantastic year for documentaries

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aCZUb_dUGA

Have to say, was not overly enthralled with The Oath, but Prodigal Sons was better than I expected. (Still a little icky, tho.)

I thought THE OATH was pretty great! Felt really carefully crafted.

This, though, this is fucking awesome: http://www.gaslandthemovie.com/

It may have been the careful crafting that turned me off about it ... tbh, I almost would've rather watched him talk with the would-be recruits in that room on a closed-circuit monitor for an hour. Couldn't make a screening of Babies, unfor.

I saw Banksy's doc on Mr. Brainwash yesterday and enjoyed it quite a bit.

Def on my shortlist of to sees.

yes, that's also amazing

The MPAA has weighed in: "Babies" is rated PG "for cultural and maternal nudity".

Human Rights Watch fest is underway at Lincoln Center; this Afghan National Army doc was good enough to make me rather sick:

http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/2010/06/human-rights-watch-international-film-festival-2010-camp-victory-afghanistan/

http://filmlinc.com/wrt/onsale/hrw10.html

no

I never expect to meet your fucking I've-seen-every-doc-that's-never-been-released standards, Tapey.

Nero's Guests is better. The rest of HRW so far:

http://www.slantmagazine.com/house/tag/human-rights-watch-international-film-festival/

:(

well, I could ask you to be more expansive, but that hasn't turned out well here in the past!

e.g. ???

anyway, i can only talk positive on "rolling documentary 2010," so here's some positive. GasLand, a fantastic documentary that premiered at Sundance, plays on HBO Monday night, and you all should watch it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZe1AeH0Qz8

Opening this week in NY: http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/45365

TS, I can't afford HBO.

finally caught big river man (available to watch on 4OD right now in the UK) and thought it was amazing, what a character

anyone seen restrepo?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCPnJaxC17o

two incredible dvd sets coming out this week--Middletown (which contains my fav doc of all-time: SEVENTEEN) and The Actuality Dramas of Allan King

SEVENTEEN is indeed amazing. Probably one of my favourite American films ever made.

sorry, that was weird syntax. you get the idea

King's Dying at Grace and Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company are excellent--I assume they're both part of the box. I'd never even heard of Seventeen till now. Just looked it up on IMDB and really want to see it.

It's the re-cut SEVENTEEN in the Icarus set, right?

It is? A cutdown?

So, my friend's film (that is getting a Sublime Frequencies DVD release this winter) is finally getting a screening at the local.
http://vimeo.com/9468566
It was all shot in Ethiopia during a big music festival. The bits I have seen of it are excellent.

It is? A cutdown?

IIRC, it's not significantly different, but Kreines doesn't approve of a couple edits.

Just saw the two Alex Gibney docs from this year on Spitzer and Abramoff. I think they make a fine diptych on our politics as a particularly corrupt branch of showbiz. I partic liked the Spitzer one, which is sort of like Orson Welles' Kane For Governor segment crossed with a dirty Preston Sturges comedy.

subject line from publicist's email:

"Documentary about yodeling lesbian twins from New Zealand"

the topp twins are awesome!! i really hope this is screening at a theater in the east bay soon.

i wish you could see documentaries, easily. so many seem to just end up in limbo. i never caught 45365.

from my personal experience w/ documentaries, distribution is a monster! it's a way worse monster than filmmaking by a wide and painful margin.
also that horrible/expensive e&o insurance problem

did anyone catch this? not to reduce being an allan king fan to being a depressive, but it seems like it might be along that road.

(i've still only seen the married couple by king, because the others seem too daunting to actually watch)

definitely forgetting a few and the ordering could switch on any given day but here's something close to my 2010 best documentaries list:

1. I'm Still Here
2. You Are All Captains
3. Family Instinct
4. Kati With an I
5. The Arbor
6. Fortune Teller
7. Gasland
8. Cuchillo De Palo
9. Foreign Parts
10. At the Edge of Russia
honorable mentions: The Oath, Exit Through the Gift Shop, El Sicario Room 164, Karamay

how's middletown outside of seventeen? that doc sets a high bar, but the descriptions of the other episodes sound promising, like i think there's a mayoral-race one.

many films i'd like to catch on your list (although similarly a couple that, through a blurb, don't grab me - i think i find the argument about a lot of modern docs being guys setting out to prove a thing & then proving it compelling enough to make eg gasland seem not so exciting), but as before almost zero chance of seeing any.

anyone seen 'buck' yet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IShjmWYuHZ0

hey tape store have you seen DISORDER?
it's mesmeric, & super-atmospheric and intriguing. i am trying to put together a series of films on cities & dystopias & utopias & it makes a really interesting case study of the city-gone-wrong. similar territory to a couple of tsai's depressing films.

I saw The Two Escobars. Pretty good.

I saw the Conan O'Brien documentary last night. I was never a fan of his, but the film held my interest. Could have done with less Blues Brothers schtick; I liked Eddie Vedder's Who cover, and would rather that had not been cut short. Watching an egomaniac's (O'Brien's no worse than anybody else in his position, and probably better than most) entourage figure out where that line is between being themselves and being subservient yes-people is always interesting.