a documentary a day
today is the middle of 1/18. i have a list of 16 films. jam tells me that i should blog about them, or maybe what i learn. i'm just not such a good documentarian myself, but this will be my attempt to get something written. the first post will be somewhat short on some details, since i watched these films over the past 16 days but i didn't write anything on paper other than the titles. therefore, i'm relying on my memory........ha/smile
blackfish--this is about the orca whales that sea world bases its success on. there have been a lot of comments about this film. the film was prompted by the death of a trainer. there have been others, but sea world insists they were trainer errors. the film shows a different story. in the end, i felt that i was happy to have seen sea world many years ago, because i don't feel like i could ever go again; i'm just not sure i can get the heartbreaking sounds of mother orcas being separated from their babies. and, of course, the film begs the question of whether wild animals should be caged, especially for the purposes of money-generating entertainment.
3 stars--this is a film about the michelin star rating for restaurants and the importance that being awarded a star can make to a business. 1 star is a local favorite; 2 is a national delight and 3 is international. as with all businesses, there is so much to know under the surface. i enjoyed it overall, though it got a little tedious to me in the middle.
first position young children trying out for a limited number of spots with ballet companies. it described the expense, the training, the parent goals and struggles and that of the children. this is a competitive field and who knew it went on like this? not me
craigslist joe joe decides to spend 30 days getting his needs met solely from craigslist. i like the premise, but i have to say that i didn't feel it was really just by chance regarding some of the options he experienced. he made his way from southern california to northern california, across the u.s. to new york, down to florida, over to new orleans, back to san fran for a meeting wtih craigslist founder and then back to his home on new years eve to be met by his family and friends. as i said, its an interesting concept; just not sure i feel it was totally real.
a matter of taste, serving up paul lebradt this young talented chef has a difficult time staying employed. he has standards and dreams. he has a vision and its hard for him to work within someone else's. in the end, he makes his way to a 3 star rating and can be considered a success. the film chronicles the "along the way" days.
style wars graffiti artists in the early 80's in NYC. there are those who paint out of art or angst. they have a story to tell with their work and use the NYC trains as the canvas. there are others who just want to "tag" as many places as they can, often the other's art. then there is the police department, who discuss the expense of managing all this grafitti'd equipment. in the end, mayor koch's idea of razor wire protected train yards with guard dogs keeps the trains clean and the artists begin to appear in galleries, with some earning money for their work.
eames, the architect and the painter now i know a lot more about how the eames chair, and other eames items, were developed. he divorced his first wife and moved to venice beach in california, where he married and partnered with his love, the painter. together they built a wildly successful design company. the chair was the signature piece, but there were all sorts of items come out of that firm. after his death, his wife (who had been the more silent partner) stepped up and continued to successfully run the place.
8. helvetica a film about a font. who knew? at the time it was made, helvetica was celebrating 50 yrs. developed in sweden, it became the font that was used for everything--traffic signs, so many logos (like target), everywhere. before that, a lot of advertising was hand drawn and all over the place. helvetica standardized the world of text. then, as things happen, the world changed and, especially in marketing, helvetica was seen as stodgy. there is an interesting discussion about how we view a product/service based on the font used to promote.
bill cunningham new york i really enjoyed this film and this man. he lives the simplest life, in a small room at carnegie hall--no kitchen, no bathroom, surrounded by file cabinets of all his photos and negatives. he has filmed fashion all his life. in his ny times column, he featured trends, as he observes and photographs them on the streets of ny. while he attends galas and premieres and all that, he finds FASHION the celebrity, not the person wearing the clothes. "he who seeks beauty will find it". he just seems so kind and sincere and delightful........oh, and he's like 80 yrs old.
the restauranteur i have to say, i don't have a lot of thoughts on this. i got bored and i have very little recollection about it. mostly, they were developing a new restaurant......so it was interesting from the standpoint of all the decisions that go into a high end place. but, it just didn't move along enough. i was interested in the sepments about how dishes are developed and all the thought given to plating and presentation.
becoming santa the filmmaker is a little burnt out on christmas, though his mother always had made it a special time. but, she'd dead now, as is his dad, though he finds a photo of his dad as a department store santa. so, he decides to try that out and re-find his spirit. he bleaches his hair and beard (he already has the right body type), gets a quality, custom santa suit, goes to santa school and does a lot of santa gigs. in the end, he realizes being santa is hard. but, more importantly to the film, he realizes you just can't LOOK like santa, you have to BE santa. there are several interviews with other santas. the most successful are santa all the time, since children find santa to be one of the most important people in their world. i really enjoyed this film.
12. happy a 2 way look at being happy. there is scientific data about what goes on in the brain of a happy person. then there are interviews from many locations in the world. denmark, the happiest place in the world; japan, home of the highest per capita suicides; okinawa, the highest per capita of people 100+ years old; slums of calcutta.......all discussing why they are happy. the film was released in conjunction wtih "world happy day".
greenwich village--the music that defined a ... i watched this the night i came home from seeing "inside llewyn davis" at the theater. i really didn't know a lot about the music evolution that occurred in the early 60's in greenwich village; now i know a little more. mostly folk artists sang the songs of others in small venues. along the line, they started to write their own songs; songs that described the world. bob dylan came along around the end of this beginning. i already wish i remembered more from this film; i know i enjoyed the music clips and so many of the artists talking about their lives at the time.
a model for matisse french subtitled. a young woman, a nurse, assisted matisse after a serious surgery toward the end of his life. she then posed for many of his art. she didn't think he was so talented, because his pictures didn't look lifelike like she was used to. he valued her honesty and they developed a strong friendship. she went on to become a dominican nun, which was hard for him, as he didn't have the access to her that he'd grown used to. her order didn't have a chapel in the south of france and he determined to build one. this caused her issues with her superiors, but she was involved in all aspects of the design, with him. the chapel was too modern for many, as it is truly matisse. you can see photos of it online. the chapel at vence. i enjoyed this so much! there is a lot of footage of matisse and the interview with the now aged nun are delightful.
birders, the central park effect so i knew this was going to be about birdwatchers. what i didn't know was that central park collects up to 200 species during the migration season. this is about a quarter of the birds on the continent. there is a woman with breast cancer, who leads groups of birders a few times/wk for $8. she knows so much. those birders interviewed in the film describe how birding makes such a difference in their lives.
16. nenette also subtitled from french, and relatively short, the camera watches nenette, a 40+yr old orangutan in a french zoo. she has 4 children and currently lives iwth her son. there is very little dialog; mostly the camera just captures visitors to the zoo and what they say while watching her, and keepers as they describe her. mostly what you get from this film is how we attribute our human emotions on to the animals. and, if they are as "people-like" as we ponder they are, should they be housed in zoos? as one says, if there were a lot more of her, she would be out free in a jungle. its because of the scarcity of her species that she has spent her life in the zoo. something to think about, for sure.
MORE THAN HONEY
This film was
interesting; lots of closeups of bees, making me wonder about the
filming. these bee breeders are so totally comfortable around the bees
that they don't even always wear protective gear. they stand there and
talk to the camera with hordes of bees buzzing around. i learned that
80% of the world almonds are grown in california. there are miles of
orchards that can only be pollinated by bees. this takes a LOT of bees,
but the food for the bees is only available for about 2 weeks, until
the flowers fade. think of it. then, the bees would die. so, the
breeders travel their bees from state to state, following the flowering
of various crops that require pollination. transporting the bees is
difficult, too, because they can't fly away to escape their own filth;
therefore, the bees can only be transported, at the most, a day and a
half before they have to be allowed to fly from their hives.
additionally, bees are susceptible now to various illness, infection and
parasites. so, most of them are, at times,
fed sugar water laced with antibiotics. african bees, which we all
feared, actually have proven to be hardier and purer, though much more
aggressive. some breeders only deal in this strain now and these bees
don't need chemical maintenance. we need bees and we need them to stay
healthy. the weird thing about this film was that during many portions
of it, people spoke other languages, like german and chinese, with no
subtitles. i never quite figured out if the english voice over in
subsequent segments was interpreting what was said in the foreign
language, OR if the viewer was just missing out on some information.
so, i'm not sure if i learned all there was to learn from this film, but
i can end by saying i always knew bees were important to pollination,
but i now possess a much deeper appreciation regarding the bees of the
world.
18. THE SECRET DISCO REVOLUTION
this is a fun film, full
of interviews and music/dance clips from the days of disco. this was a
time of music that i mostly disregarded, as i'm forever locked into my
classic rock and roll roots. the film presents the theory that disco
was a form of protest, liberating gays, blacks and women. there is an
expert woman, who shares her ideas on how this is so. i really don't
think its giving away much (since the entire film has a satire air to
it) to know that at the end, when the question of protest is asked of
various disco stars and moguls, blank faces abound. their overall
response? disco was fun; it was hedonistic excess; it was a party. it
started slowly in the early 70's and was played only in clubs until
first hitting the radio waves in '74. donna summer is the queen of the
disco revolution. more and more stations played the music and numbers
of clubs exploded. the film, "saturday night fever", '77, brought the
sensation to the mainstream public in a huge way. by '79, a disco
demolition was held in kominsky park in chicago. a stadium full of
people, wearing "disco sucks" shirts, brought their albums in for a mass
explosion on the field. not long after, "my sharonna" topped the
billboard charts and it was, once again, rock & roll that ruled the
air.
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