In case you’re new to Medium Cool, BGinCHI is here once a week to offer a thread on culture, mainly film & books, with some TV thrown in. We’re here at 7 pm on Sunday nights.
In this week’s Medium Cool, let’s talk Documentaries.
It’s been a while since we covered this subject, and watching the Paul Newman-Joanne Woodward doc (“The Last Movie Stars,” HBO) reminded me that I’m probably missing lots of good stuff. So let us know what’s good and why, both recent and classic.
Reminder:
You may have seen gwangung mention his new play – She Devil of the China Seas.
They taped a show for video on demand, and tickets are now available here. I asked gwangung if he would be interested in a discussion on Medium Cool, and he took us up on our offer, so mark your calendars – his play will be the subject of Medium Cool next week ( Sept 25).
Tickets are $10! If that’s cost prohibitive, just let me know by email – I am confident that there are a few jackals who will happily comp tickets for anyone in a tight spot this month.
What’s it about? Here’s what gwangung has to say about it:
The logline is “Pirate Queen vs. Immortal Sorceress in 19th Century China”, but it’s REALLY a mash up of comic books, Red Sonja/Conan, and the real life pirate queen Ching Shih—all combined into something I tried to get as close as an MCU movie (Marvel Cinematic Universe) on stage as I possibly could.
Behind the Scenes vdeo https://youtu.be/lfC9Iin9rCs
60 second trailer https://youtu.be/iz-No6sXJ2s
30 second trailer https://youtu.be/ZRVFxWZ-RHU
So if that looks/sounds interesting to you, watch the play and come all with us on the Sept 25 Medium Cool. The playwright and our Medium Cool host will facilitate the conversation. Even if you don’t watch the play, I’ll bet the thread will be interesting anyway!
WaterGirl
P.S. Here’s the post that went up about this at some point during the week.
Tonight, let’s talk Documentaries!
WaterGirl
Is this thing on? BG, what can you tell us about the Paul Newman-Joanne Woodward documentary? Do they talk about the steak / hamburger dust up? Personal stories or mostly highlights of their movie careers?
BGinCHI
Learned a ton about the AMAZING Joanne Woodward from that doc. I’m old enough to have seen her in quite a few things, but not old enough to have been around when she was an actual star. Whereas Newman has been a continuous presence in my film viewing life.
Her story was really captivating.
DesertFriar
On September 21st, it will be the 84th anniversary of the Great New England Hurricane of 1938. Produced by the local Rhode Island PBS station, it’s available through PBS.
I thought it was really well done. My wife watches it every year around this time.
BGinCHI
@WaterGirl: It’s beautifully and imaginatively made, since it was a pandemic project by Ethan Hawke, who was asked to do it.
It’s carefully done and, as I said above, sheds a lot of light on Woodward for those of us not around for all of her career (which was amazing & lengthy).
WaterGirl
@BGinCHI: Thank you. It’s called The Last Movie Stars. Is that the point they are making? That there aren’t movie stars now like there used to be? Good actors but not stars in the same way? Or is it more like a different era than it was before and there’s not the same mystique about actors?
Steeplejack
Two music docs that I recommend:
The American Masters episode on “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool” (2020). Very insightful, even if you think you know a lot about him (or think you don’t like him). Preview here. There’s a link on that page to watch the full doc (two hours), but I think it might be tied to a PBS Passport membership.
Searching for Sugar Man (2012). Streaming on AMC+ and DirecTV, available to rent on a bunch of sources. Sort of hard to describe, but this trailer does a pretty good job. Riveting in some of the weird ways it winds around. And the music (from the early ’70s) is good.
ETA: I thought of these because I caught part of the Davis one on PBS again last night. The local stations are in pledge mode and are running a lot of off-the-menu stuff.
Ivan X
I just saw one today called Wildwood, NJ about teens and young women in an NJ beach town in the 90’s and it was kind of a captivating sociology. But for entertainment value The King of Kong and Air Guitar Nation are top of the heap. The recent Netflix doc on Woodstock 99 was unsettling.
ETA: A Band Called Death is also a great doc for punk/rock fans.
Gin & Tonic
More on the nature side of things – fairly recently CNN aired a 6(?) part series called Patagonia, which was fascinating and beautifully shot. I didn’t catch every episode, and now have no idea how or where it could be available. But I loved it (and I love Patagonia, too.)
BGinCHI
@WaterGirl: I think the idea is that as a couple, they were the last of an era.
AliceBlue
Ken Burns’ documentary The U.S. and the Holocaust starts tonight. We’ll be watching.
Craig
My buddy’s new doc. Riotsville USA is playing at Film Forum in NYC this weekend. It’s about the US military training local police in controlling and breaking up Civil Rights marches and demonstrations in the 60s. The Army built fake small towns on Army Bases and would hold fake demonstrations and show tactics to undermine the demonstrations. It’s made with all archival footage shot by the Army, and contemporary news and public affairs programing. It played at Sundance this year, and Magnolia Pictures is giving it a limited theatrical release and probable Netflix release in 6months. Give it a try.
WaterGirl
@BGinCHI: Ah, got it! thank you It was definitely a different time.
WaterGirl
@Craig: I can feel the anger building just reading your comment!
Ceci n est pas mon nym
Two documentaries about women we know from their acting who were so much more than actors:
Woman in Motion (Nichelle Nichols)
Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story
dm
Werner Herzog.
This summer I got many of his documentaries out of the Library and enjoyed them all.
Happy People — a year in the taiga. Worth it to watch the trapper fashion a pair of skis from a birch tree.
Encounters at the end of the world — Antarctica.
Cave of forgotten dreams — this one is perhaps better seen on the big screen, perhaps in IMAX, if possible. An exploration of a newly discovered cave with prehistoric paintings, supplemented by 3d computer modeling of the space.
Nomad — in the footsteps of Bruce Chatwin — Herzog knew the travel writer Bruce Chatwin, and the film follows in his footsteps,with particular attention to his look at Aboriginal Australia, Songlines. I’d read Songlines when it came out. It was nice to get this introduction to Chatwin’s life and work. Gin and Tonic: there’s a big section of the film on Patagonia, too — the subject of one of Chatwin’s other best known books.
Lo and behold — reveries of the connected world — a look at communications technology and is impact.
They’re all great, but they’re also all a little too long (except the taiga one and the Antarctica one) so it’s good to see them on disk at home, so one is free to pause the disk and stretch one’s legs.
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@WaterGirl: If you want another one about the Army to make you angry, try The Invisible War, about sexual predation within the military. Horrifying and heartbreaking.
As a civilian employee of the Army, we received annual sexual harassment training called SHARP (Sexual Harassment / Assault Response and Prevention). One year we also optionally had the chance to view that documentary, which included some rather pointed comments about how useless and misguided SHARP training was. Not sure the leadership was aware of the contradiction.
kalakal
David Attenborough is the chap for me.
Wyatt Salamanca
Links for documentary film junkies
DOC NYC https://www.docnyc.net/about-us/faq/
Largest Documentary Festival in the U.S.
Takes place in person from November 9 -17 and online from November 10 – 27
Fog of Truth podcast https://www.fogoftruth.com/
Pure Non Fiction podcast https://www.purenonfiction.net/
International Documentary Association https://www.documentary.org/
Favorite documentary films I’ve seen from the past 2 years:
Hello, Bookstore dir. by A.B. Zax – profile of indie bookstore in in Lenox, MA
Playing in the FM Band: The Steve Post Story dir. by Rosemarie Reed – Profile of free-form radio pioneer Steve Post
The Velvet Underground dir. by Todd Haynes
Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song dir. by Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine
Fire Music: The Story of Free Jazz dir. by Tom Surgal
The Automat dir. by Lisa Hurwitz
The Booksellers dir. by D.W. Young – Inside the world of antiquarian booksellers
The Lost Leonardo dir. by Andreas Koefoed
All-time favorites:
Up series dir. by Paul Almond (Seven Up!) and Michael Apted (all subsequent films)
National Gallery dir. by Frederick Wiseman
Ex Libris: The New York Public Library dir. by Frederick Wiseman
Salesman dir. by Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin
Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography dir. by Arnold Glassman, Todd McCarthy, and Stuart Samuels
The Stone Reader dir. by Mark Moskowitz – Profile of writer who vanished after publication of critically acclaimed debut novel
Radio Unnameable dir. Paul Lovelace and Jessica Wolfson – Profile of free-form radio pioneer Bob Fass.
For the Love of Movies: The Story of American Film Criticism dir. by Gerald Peary
SlamNation dir. by Paul Devlin – A look at slam poetry.
Sonic Outlaws dir. by Craig Baldwin – A survey of culture jamming.
BGinCHI
@Craig: This sounds GREAT.
BGinCHI
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: Would like to see one on Ida Lupino!
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
I haven’t seen anything new in a long time, but a couple of older favorites are Winged Migration (from IMDB: Documentary on the migratory patterns of birds, shot over the course of three years on all seven continents) and of course, the amazing Koyaanisqatsi, which is kind of impossible to describe, so just watch the trailer and then definitely watch the film.
Craig
@WaterGirl: it’s a pretty angry movie. A lot of the public affairs programing is really amazing.
Steeplejack
@dm:
Cave of Forgotten Dreams may be the only movie that I thought was worth seeing in 3D. Might be one other one, but I can’t think of it now.
Steeplejack
@Wyatt Salamanca:
Visions of Light is excellent.
The Lodger
@Wyatt Salamanca: Was that the same Steve Post who had a classical morning show on (I think) WNYC-FM?
What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?
The PBS In Their Own Words documentary about Jim Henson was really good.
It’s like 20 years old now but Spellbound about the national spelling bee is a good one. The one about Newman and Woodward sounds really interesting as does the Miles Davis one.
They’re pretty mainstream but the Planet Earth with Sir David Attenborough narrating are fantastic. I’m blanking on another one I’ve seen recently. Oh now I remember – Hitsville – which is about the creation and success of Motown records is great.
Sure Lurkalot
Of the many Ken Burns documentaries, I like the one on Prohibition the best. Probably because I really liked Daniel Okrent’s book on which a lot of it was based. I like how it tied together women’s suffrage and various religious movements.
More recent, Dopesick, though I liked the book Dreamland about the subject matter better. It juxtaposed the opioid and black tar heroin markets and think it may have made a better movie.
Craig
I finally found Babitsky’s War on YT. I saw it on Channel 4 when I was in Edinburgh for my cousin’s wedding 20 years ago and couldn’t find a trace of it here. It follows the story of a journalist covering the Chechen war and his disappearance, his wife’s search for him, and the games Putin’s government plays to obscure what happened to him. 65 min., free on Youtube.
Craig
@Steeplejack: agreed.
Ivan X
@Steeplejack: I am the opposite. I will watch any piece of crap if it is in 3D.
Wyatt Salamanca
@The Lodger:
Yes indeed it was the very same Steve Post. Before joining WNYC-FM, Steve spent several years at WBAI-FM. Along with Bob Fass and Larry Josephson, the three of them are considered the founding fathers of free-form radio.
Craig
In the way back machine Barbara Kopple’s Harlan Country USA remains one of my favorite documentaries. Beautiful, intimate, dangerous film making.
kalakal
One of my all time favourite documentaries was BBC one off called The
Secret Life of Crocodiles. It was ostensibly very serious ( see link) but the program itself turned out to be surrealistically hilarious. It tells the story of a medical researcher who went to Australia to obtain some wild crocodile blood. Unfortunately for him the succession of local experts he hired were, to put it mildly, eccentric. My favourite was the hairdresser who felt his day job wasn’t macho enough so here he was, in the middle of nowhere, knowing less about catching crocodiles than the researcher, trying to explain that the house sized croc that had just eaten their boat was sure to calm down any moment now and that would be the perfect moment to get a blood sample.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/could-a-crocodile-save-your-life-5371099.html
SiubhanDuinne
@Alison Rose 💙🌻💛:
Koyaanisqatsi is an amazing film, as are its companions in the Qatsi Trilogy, Powaqqatsi and Naqoyqatsi. All with Philip Glass’s music, which perfectly enhances the images. Also with you on Winged Migration — and who could fail to love March of the Penguins?
ETA: Oooh, oooh, and thinking of wonderful bird documentaries, what about The Parrots of Telegraph Hill, and Red-Tails in Love?
SiubhanDuinne
@Steeplejack:
That’s one I was trying to think of but couldn’t remember enough of the title to look it up! Yes, I thought it was utterly fascinating.
Grumpy Old Railroader
Amazing Anthropogeny Extravaganza
Have you ever wondered about early humans? Neanderthals, Denisovans? Early Hominids? Then this YouTube Channel is for YOU
PBS Eons has a series of one hour YouTube documentaries that take you on a deep dive into prehistory. Once I went down this rabbit hole I didn’t come up for air for like a week.
Baud
@Grumpy Old Railroader:
Eons is excellent. I didn’t know about their hour long videos.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud: I too like Eons! I watch it on YouTube.
I tend to find Ken Burns documentaries overly long, they can do with some editing.
SiubhanDuinne
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?:
Oh yeah, Spellbound is one of my favourites! Not quite as good, but very nearly — and on a similar theme of youthful competitors — is one called The Speed Cubers, about kids who can solve Rubik’s Cube — huge Rubik’s Cubes — in a matter of seconds. Just astonishing to watch, and of course some good human interest and suspense along the way. I think it may still be on Netflix but wouldn’t swear to it.
phein63
The Decline of Western Civilization (Part 1) — Penelope Spheeris’s (Wayne’s World) documentary about the LA punk scene in 1979-1980. Lots of interviews and performances with everyone from Black Flag to X. Selected for inclusion in the Library of Congress.
There are two more parts, Part 2 covering the glam rock scene in mid-1980’s LA, which I didn’t like (not into the music, I guess), and a Part 3 I haven’t seen about gutter punk in the 1990’s.
geg6
Docs are my favorite type of film. Recent ones I’ve loved are one you highlight, The Last Movie Stars. I have also enjoyed Bill Simmons’ doc series on HBO, Music Box. I especially liked Jagged about Alanis Morrisette, Mr.Saturday Night about Robert Stigwood and Woodstock 99: Peace, Love and Rage. I know a lot of people here hate Bill Simmons but I really liked this series and am happy it’s been renewed for a second season.
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
@What Have the Romans Ever Done for Us?: Spellbound was awesome. I only made it to the district level spelling bee and that was nerve-wracking enough. I don’t know how those kids do it.
geg6
@phein63:
Part I is one my favorite films!
Starfish
@Ceci n est pas mon nym: I loved Woman in Motion so much! I think I would like the other one that you mentioned, also.
BGinCHI
@Craig: SO GOOD.
BGinCHI
@phein63: You’re right that the first one is an amazing Doc. Just re-watched. Holds up so well.
Craig
When We Were Kings about The Rumble in the Jungle, Mohammed Ali’s comeback fight against George Foreman in Zaire in 1974. Fantastic film about the fight, boxing, the crazy hoopla in Zaire with dictator Motubu trying to present a friendlier side to the world. Concerts with James Brown, Fela, and tons of other musicians. Leon Gast dragged the footage around for years trying to get it finished. Finally Taylor Hackford organized some hollywood folks and financed and finished it with Gast in 1996. A sports movie for people who don’t really care about sports.
delphinium
Into Great Silence is an intimate portrayal of the everyday lives of Carthusian monks of the Grande Chartreuse, a monastery high in the French Alps.
While it may sound boring, it was actually quite fascinating to see how they lived and some of the scenery was just stunning.
UncleEbeneezer
O.J. Simpson: Made In America– ESPN’s 6-part documentary is probably the best sports documentary I have ever seen. They really took great effort to give the whole thing context with regards to Los Angeles’ racial history of the 60’s-90’s. Honestly for understanding LA and the tremendous animosity towards LAPD/LASD, it’s a pretty excellent primer.
Challenger: The Final Flight– Just watched this recently on Netflix and it was really superb. It really exposes just how well known the O-ring problem was and how it was purposely ignored, leading directly to a catastrophe that could have been avoided.
Wild, Wild Country: The story of the Rajneesh taking over a small Oregon town is absolutely bonkers. And very compelling.
Grizzly Man: My favorite Herzog documentary. Timothy Treadwell was a strange dude who meant well but sadly led he and his girlfriend Amie Huguenard into an incredibly dangerous situation that resulted in them both being attacked and killed by a grizzly in Alaska. Herzog does a great job of exploring the whole story and the unique man at it’s center.
Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills– the story of three high schoolers who were caught up in the 1980’s Satanic Panic and convicted of an horrific murder in a small, Mid-West town, despite all kinds of evidence that suggested they were innocent.
Vietnam– Ken Burns’ mini series about the US/Vietnam War is flawed, but still a great reminder of why he is so good at what he does. Incredible footage and history. Especially loved hearing about the bad-ass women who fought for N. Vietnam. I had never heard their story before.
Jeen-Yuhs: Whatever you think of him nowadays, Kanye West was a tremendous musical force who changed the rap/hip-hop game in the early 2000’s. This series shows just what a normal (though probably already struggling with mental illness) and likable guy Kanye was in the beginning. And his relationship with his Mom was really special. A fascinating watch about his rise to the top and then his terrible turn.
The Last Dance– a fantastic series for anyone who lived through and loved the Chicago Bulls and Michael Jordan. It’s hard to put into words how big Jordan was in the sports world during his peak. The story of his last years before retirement is fascinating.
UncleEbeneezer
@geg6: Looking forward to the Alanis documentary. I have it bookmarked.
Starfish
Rodents of Unusual Size is a documentary about swamp rats a.k.a. nutria. There are people who are paid a little to go out and hunt them. There are attempts to benefit from them in some way. It was so interesting.
Craig
@phein63: Decline is brilliant. Decline II is a nice time capsule with some hilarious moments. The goofy guy in the unknown band that doesn’t make it who repeats over and over, ‘but, I’m going to make it, … But I’m going to make it’.
Also from this time period, Heavy Metal Parking Lot about the crowd scene outside an 80s Judas Priest concert outside of DC.
Sandia Blanca
Trashdance:The Movie https://trashdancemovie.com/
chronicles the development and performance of a dance by trash trucks and the workers that operate them. It is a marvelous view of a world most of us overlook. The choreographer, Allison Orr, coaxes art forth from workers who may not have thought of themselves as artists.
Mike in NC
This Ken Burns documentary “US and the Holocaust” covers anti-immigrant feelings in the country from the 1880s to the beginning of WW2. A law was passed in 1924 to exclude basically most non-white, non-Protestant people. Something the MAGA crowd, FOX News, Donald Trump, and Stephen Miller would have wholeheartedly approved. In fact, Hitler himself admired the law.
prostratedragon
So many that I struggle to identify a few, but one I can extract from the mass is Tyrus, about the artist Tyrus Wong who did so much great work for Disney. It was shown on a PBS series.
The Holocaust documentary that’s on now looks very important and, damn it, relevant, a real warning.
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
@Starfish: Shoulda had Cary Elwes narrate it :P
Craig
And just keep thinking of more. Rize a 2005 film from photographer David LaChappelle about LA Hip-hop dance battles in the Clowning and Krumping community. Really intense, small scene film making with gorgeous photography.
Ivan X
@Craig: You and I have a lotta similar reference points and interests
Mike in NC
My favorite documentary is “Five Came Back” on Netflix, about five Hollywood directors – John Ford, William Wyler, John Huston, Frank Capra, and George Stevens – whose war-related works are analyzed by modern filmmakers, respectively Paul Greengrass, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Guillermo del Toro, and Lawrence Kasdan. Meryl Streep, who serves as narrator, won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Narrator for her performance.
Kristine
There have been a number of David Bowie documentaries over the last few years; the first one I saw was riveting. It was entitled “Five Years,” and it covered five milestone years over the first 15 years or so of his career, ending with the “Let’s Dance” era. It was on Showtime a few years ago, and I haven’t been able to find it since. It may be available in the UK.
There’s also one entitled “The Last Five Years.” I haven’t seen that one yet.
I don’t know if NOVA counts, but a series that ran a few years ago entitled “The Planets” was wonderful. Narrated by Zachary Quinto. In depth discussion of the Saturn Cassini mission among others. It is available on the PBS streaming app, but I think you need to be a donor to get an account. I think Amazon Prime has it, too.
Starfish
@Alison Rose 💙🌻💛: I love The Princess Bride so much! But it is not a documentary, so I will refrain from talking about how much I love it here.
Alison Rose 💙🌻💛
@Kristine: I wanna see the new one once it’s available for streaming somewhere, mainly because Moonage Daydream is one of my fave Bowie songs.
Wyatt Salamanca
Three more music documentaries worth checking out
Zappa dir. by Alex Winter
Long Strange Trip dir. Amir Bar-Lev
Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band dir. by Daniel Roher
Steeplejack
@Ivan X:
😹 It may be because I wear glasses. I think that probably detracts a bit.
I’m sure you’ve seen classics like this.
phein63
@Craig: Heavy Metal Parking Lot: That’s where the NYT should send reporters to get a read on the state of America!
phein63
@Wyatt Salamanca: Off topic, but:
Robbie Robertson narrated a four-part NatGeo special on Native America. At one point, he read my wife’s name (she appears briefly), and now she can die happy.
Craig
Almost forgot Les Blank and his so many small documentaries about so many things, from Wild Wheels to Lightning Hopkins, to Werner Herzog eating his boot because he lost a bet to Erroll Morris, to his magnum opus Burden of Dreams about Herzog filming Fitzcaraldo.
Amalthea1
Putting a vote in for Man on Wire. A French wire-walker pulls off the heist of a lifetime to walk a wire between the Twin Towers soon after they were finished. Such a good movie!
Percysowner
The Stonewall Uprising, produced by PBS is now available on Amazon. Fascinating look on why gay community finally broke and had the uprising.
Koyaanisqatsi is a great visually stunning documentary.
Hoop Dreams is available on Freevee (formerly IMDB TV) A film following the lives of two inner-city Chicago boys who struggle to become college basketball players on the road to going professional.
Keith P.
It can be pretty gross at times, but “Hated: GG Allin and the Murder Junkies” (Todd Phillips’ first movie) is pretty good, as is the belated followup – “GG Allin: All in the Family”
Craig
@Ivan X: I’ve noticed that. You’ve got great taste;) You might like a movie I produced and edited about the Melvins. It’s called The Colossus of Destiny. It’s the history of the band from 1983 to 2018. It’s on YOUTUBE for like 4 bucks.
delphinium
@Amalthea1: That was really good.
laura
@Sandia Blanca: Trashdance – all day, everyday! There is No Unskilled Labor, and the work life of sanitation workers is compelling in so many ways- they are a sure and comforting presence in our neighborhoods and the skills that are required to do this necessary job would confound the vast majority or regular Jane’s and John’s! And the work they do at transfer stations and landfills is always about the 4th to 6th most dangerous work performed throughout our labor market. It was my honor to have worked in the service of sanitation workers and a panoply of blue collar workers. They deserve our respect, better pay and safer working conditions. Trash dance!
Craig
@Amalthea1: oh my god, such a great movie!
Louise B.
This is a great set of recommendations. Thanks, everyone!
Dorothy A. Winsor
@laura: For work, I used to interview and observe people doing various jobs. It was amazing how subtle and skilled what most of them did. Once they decided you really wanted to hear about it, they’d tell you all kinds of interesting stuff.
Steeplejack
@Kristine:
David Bowie: The Last Five Years is on HBO Max. The earlier one is not available anywhere, according to JustWatch.
phein63
@Dorothy A. Winsor: So true, so true. I used to be a cultural anthropologist in the era of the New Ethnography. People will, if you show interest and respect, tell you all about what they do and how they see the world. This was a very handy skill when I started my next career as an environmental compliance auditor: all I had to do was ask people to explain to me what they did and how that comported with environmental regulations, and they would open up.
geg6
@Craig:
A truly great film.
J R in WV
@dm:
Werner Herzog:
We actually visited the cave where this was filmed… the guide told about how the crew was required to use the tracks already laid in the cave, and could only spend so many hours at a time in the cave, to protect the images.
It was our first trip abroad, Basque country of NE Spain and moved on to SE France. Beautiful country, great people. Even road side bar food was superior! Caves, cathedrals, castles, museums, active archaeological digs filled with grad students working, was a great learning experience.
Want to see the film, certainly would show us things we didn’t see at the time.
BGinCHI
@Mike in NC: It’s terrific and I learned a hell of a lot from it.
Written by the great Mark Harris (who wrote the recent Mike Nichols bio).
Steeplejack
@J R in WV:
You can stream it on AMC+, Kanopy, DirecTV or Curia. Rent at a lot of sites.
geg6
@Amalthea1:
Agreed. It made me melancholy though. I kept thinking of those who jumped out of those towers. Terrifying. But everything around them was terrifying. It’s a great film, despite the thoughts it brings me.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@phein63: I enjoyed that work. People are endlessly interesting.
raven
James E Powell
@Steeplejack:
I loved Dr. Tongue’s Evil House of Pancakes.
raven
@Craig: His doc on Leon Russell was really strange.
Grumpy Old Railroader
@raven:
Awesome. Thank you!
Steeplejack
Music docs—how could I forget Buena Vista Social Club? Streaming on HBO Max and Criterion.
Amalthea1
@geg6: I’m with you about the melancholy; the relatively short lifespan of the buildings, how his walk became even more of a wonderment because it can now never be repeated, and I too think of those people who made that impossible choice on 9/11. I do love that they chose not to mention that day at all in the movie. They didn’t need to, they knew it would be the spector at the feast.
raven
The Last Waltz was a doc.
dm
@delphinium: What is it called when all of a sudden you’re hearing about something obscure repeatedly over the course of a day or two? This is the second reference to Into great silence today.
Craig
@raven: thanks, I’ll look up A Face of War tonight.
Tehanu
The Pacific: In the Wake of Captain Cook with Sam Neill is one of the best docus I’ve ever seen. It’s not about Cook; it’s about the people and cultures of the Pacific, from New Zealand to Alaska.
Craig
Almost forgot John Else’s Sing Faster: The Stagehands Ring Cycle about the back stage production of Wagner’s Ring at the SF Opera.
oatler
“The Cardinal and the Corpse” shows the world of UK 1980s book scouts, It’s centered mainly around Martin Stone. On Youtube.
TiredOfItAll
Watch “Mad Hot Ballroom” from 2005 — it follows 5th graders (many with challenging home lives) from three NYC public schools as they prepare for an annual ballroom dance competition — and try not to fall in love with Wilson, I double dog dare you.
These are great suggestions, thank you.
Bill
Of Gods and Men, a 2010 movie about trappist monks faced with radical islam was excellent, and I enjoyed Santoella as well, it is a bit of a true crime murder mystery set rural in Spain somewhere. I recently started getting Kanopy free through my library so am pleased for that.
Sandia Blanca
@laura: I haven’t seen any of the other works by Forklift Danceworks, the group behind Trashdance, but they explore movement in ways I’ve never seen elsewhere.
Projects Archive – Forklift Danceworks
Mike E
So many great ones here but I’ll add NY77: The Coolest Year in Hell which chronicles New York City when everything amazing/awful was happening all at once
James E Powell
@TiredOfItAll:
Love that movie & love the idea of teaching ballroom dancing to the kids.
billcinsd
Some Music Docs I liked
Not a Photograph: The Story of Mission of Murma
We Jam Econo about The Minutemen
Filmage: The Story of the Descendents/All
Wesley Willis’s Joy Rides
Non music one
I Am Not Your Negro
billcinsd
Some Music Docs I liked
Not a Photograph: The Story of Mission of Murma
We Jam Econo about The Minutemen
Filmage: The Story of the Descendents/All
Wesley Willis’s Joy Rides
Non music one
I Am Not Your Negro
billcinsd
Woops, a new record for me, with a triple post