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Post by Mattsby on Oct 24, 2020 23:13:05 GMT
Just Doin' It: A Tale of Two Barbershops (1976) - Short doc from the unsung William Greaves, funny fly-on-the-wall style with some touching insights too. Greaves is known for the brilliant meta-doc Symbiopsychotaxiplasm which he did in his spare time between showrunning Black Journal (the first nationally televised news program for and by black people) and teaching method acting (he had joined the Actors Studio when Brando was there, and later taught the Strasberg method for about 15 years). He was first an actor in the American Negro Theater with Poitier and Belafonte, and in some movies and on Broadway a few times, before turning quite prolifically to filmmaking, though so much of his work is still under the radar. Barbershops doesn't have an IMDB page!
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Post by Mattsby on Nov 16, 2020 18:25:52 GMT
Sportin' Life (2020) - "We're not playing games, we're trying to get shots off, ya dig? Any motherfcking way we can." Abel Ferrara's pseudo-doc is like a 60min scrapbook of his/this year, though about half of it is clips from Tommaso, Siberia, Pasolini, The Addiction or concert footage from his fairly awesome band (according to the credits he writes their original songs and they are just as religiously freaky as you'd think). Actually the whole soundtrack for this is great, and keeps it humming. Ferrara has become one of the most interesting and open American filmmakers.... Here he is just an artist who can't stop working and inveigling those around him into his work, even during a global panic and dismissal of life itself.
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Nov 22, 2020 9:32:20 GMT
Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies (2020)
Too long and kind of meandering in the second half where it mostly just becomes a rundown of memorable nude scenes in each decade of cinema, but the pre-Code era stuff leading up to the introduction of the ratings system is pretty interesting, and the whole thing is framed from a #MeToo perspective, getting into issues of pressure put on actresses and expectations, careers defined by doing nudity, artistic intent vs exploitation. Oh... and there are a lot of boobs in it.
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Post by ibbi on Nov 22, 2020 11:49:39 GMT
I watched Fahrenheit 11/9 the other day, it's easy to laugh at it all now... I am very up and down on Michael Moore, I so often find his approaches to be pretty off putting, and I think his putting of those Parkland kids on such a pedestal was kind of corny and over the top (here we are 2 years later, and where are they all now, and what changed?) but the part I DID love was the massive focus on Flint. I was finding it pretty bewildering as it was going along receiving so much screen time, but then it all comes beautifully together at the end. Making fun of Trump is easy, and it's been done, and continues to be done, but focusing on the events that created the hole for him to slither and ooze through is far more fascinating to me, and a side of the story that needs more attention, so I credit Moore big time for that. What a surprise that doing it garnered his movie far less attention than Bowling for Columbine and Fahrenheit 9/11 received.
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Nov 22, 2020 19:17:02 GMT
National Gallery (2014), a 3-hour piece of art in which people look at art. Loved it. Direct cinema is still hard for me to wrap my mind around. At times stultifying, at other times incredibly intimate. I felt the intimacy with this one. Consuming and discussing art is a wonderfully vulnerable and under-examined process. Watching tour guides in this gallery describe these paintings to curious and attentive guests (esp. one medieval portrait of a stunning and confident woman) is kind of like watching people fall in love, over and over again. Wiseman focuses a lot on their faces. He focuses on their process so closely that you can reach out and feel it too. This film is just as preoccupied with gaze as Portrait of a Lady on Fire. These portraits especially were a trip. I've never thought of portraits as being virtually-photographic glimpses into the past but that's exactly what they are. You're seeing real people in real rooms, their memorialized likenesses serving as tenuous bridges between your present and their past. The film ends with a close-up collage of these portraits. All different faces, a different emotion in every face, and for just a second you can feel like you know these people. I've never in my entire life been emotional about paintings but this movie made me emotional about paintings.
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Post by pacinoyes on Nov 24, 2020 20:43:27 GMT
Collective (2020) - 9/10Dazzling, edge of your seat Romanian documentary that plays like a suspense thriller. Starts to get slightly redundant at the end but the best documentary I've seen all year overall so far.....
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Post by Mattsby on Nov 24, 2020 21:17:10 GMT
Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin (2020) - Lightly done, poignant, chaptered doc from Herzog retracing Chatwin's adventures for reminisces and new insights. It's amusing how Herzog brings himself and his work into this making it a treat for fans. I didn't know about his short Wodaabe doc Herdsmen of the Sun (1989) which I also watched, about a Saharan nomadic tribe where the gender roles are sort of reversed - the men doll up and the women have their pick. I also gotta get around to Cobra Verde which looks amazing??
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speeders
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Post by speeders on Nov 25, 2020 2:01:26 GMT
Collective (2020) - 9/10Dazzling, edge of your seat Romanian documentary that plays like a suspense thriller. Starts to get slightly redundant at the end but the best documentary I've seen all year overall so far..... Heard about this for the first time yesterday and am now am dying to see it. Where did you see this? Theatrically?
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Post by pacinoyes on Nov 25, 2020 2:41:57 GMT
Collective (2020) - 9/10Dazzling, edge of your seat Romanian documentary that plays like a suspense thriller. Starts to get slightly redundant at the end but the best documentary I've seen all year overall so far..... Heard about this for the first time yesterday and am now am dying to see it. Where did you see this? Theatrically? Yes but it may be streaming for a fee on Youtube as of now.......or will be really soon I think......(?)
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speeders
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Post by speeders on Nov 25, 2020 12:03:27 GMT
Heard about this for the first time yesterday and am now am dying to see it. Where did you see this? Theatrically? Yes but it may be streaming for a fee on Youtube as of now.......or will be really soon I think......(?) Oh, really? I can't find any information about that online.
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Post by pacinoyes on Nov 25, 2020 12:20:11 GMT
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Post by pacinoyes on Nov 28, 2020 21:53:59 GMT
Zappa (2020) 8/10 Surprisingly great music documentary in a year with a lot of them - White Riot, My Darling Vivian, Creem......Zappa divided the audience - NOBODY really likes Zappa "a little" - you either obsessed or you didn't get him - and this movie goes pretty deep into a one of a kind thinker. Still a bit long for me since I only like him a little but you can't go by me...............
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Post by Mattsby on Dec 1, 2020 21:33:29 GMT
Collective (2020) 7.5/10 though the last three scenes vault it up for me. An involving, maddening, sad pic that has some incredible and immediate front-row access to the journalists and the health minister. I found the three ending scenes to be special - the election outcome and phone call with dad (note what's said when the car comes to a stop), the journalists threatened realizing the frightening depth of the corruption, and the cemetery scene (Romania so cold, the lighters won't light) that is very moving.
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Post by isabelaolive on Dec 2, 2020 3:01:25 GMT
The Salt of the Earth (2014) - 5/5
Several times I have watched documentaries about historical figures, celebrities, artists, etc. who are considered pioneers or important in some areas and I was often surprised to never have heard of them. But in most cases, they were always people from other times and countries. I went to watch ‘The Salt of the Earth’ without knowing anything about it, other than being directed by Win Wenders and being about photography. I was curious to watch it after seeing ‘Finding Vivian Maier’ and being curious to know more about photography. I was taken by surprise at the beginning of the documentary to discover that Sebastião Salgado is Brazilian! And how was it possible to have spent all these years without ever hearing about his work? It was about two hours of visual glimpse, I was impressed and moved not only with his work as a photographer, but also with his work on reforesting the Atlantic Forest in Minas Gerais. In fact, I had already heard about this reforestation project in a television article a few years ago, but I never tried to find out more about him and his wife Lélia. Anyway, I confess that at times I found myself questioning the ethics of his work, which can easily be classified as 'glamorizing human suffering', in photojournalism this is something that happens a lot. But when I reached the end of the film, I didn't think that the way Sebastião uses photography to expose the world's ailments is as manipulative and cynical as some photographers. This is the first documentary I watch that I give five stars, just spectacular. Stories we tell (2012) - 4/5
I found it surprising how much I liked this movie, maybe I wouldn't have been so surprised if I had already watched ‘Away from Her’, the film directed by her for which Julie Christie was nominated for an Oscar. But as ‘Stories we Tell’ was my first contact with her work as a director, I was quite surprised. There are lots and lots of documentaries that narrate family dramas that use the same devices that Sarah uses in SWT, but most, at least among those I've watched so far, don't use them as well. This documentary could easily have been another one of those boring and uninteresting documentaries about a boring family and a love affair worthy of a Mexican soap opera story, but it ended up being excellent. One of my favorites from the past decade. The Edge of Democracy (2019) - 4/5
This documentary served to clarify some blind points in my opinions involving the scandals caused by 'Operation Lava Jato' in 2014/15 and the events that followed (the impeachment of Dilma, Bolsonaro being elected president, etc.). However, even after five years, I confess that I am still ignorant about many events during this scandal and some people who were involved (some of whom have not yet been arrested or investigated properly), the documentary clarified many things, but I will have to read and watch other things more to understand better. Twenty Years Later (1984) - 4/5After 'The edge of democracy' I went after a few more films and documentaries about the history of Brazil, I confess that in all these years I have read and watched very little about my own country and only started to become interested in politics in the last three years. I went to watch 'Twenty Years Later', which is easily one of the most acclaimed films in Brazilian cinema and considered essential among those that deal with the dictatorship and coup of 64. Despite having studied the subject at school as a teenager, much of what is portrayed in this documentary I had never heard of. This was my first contact with the work of Eduardo Coutinho, one of the greatest filmmakers in our country and next year I intend to watch the other documentaries he directed. The Day That Lasted 21 Years (2012) - 3/5
After The Edge of Democracy and Twenty Years Later I watched ‘The Day That Lasted 21 Years’ a documentary made by a television channel that talks about the US influence in the 64 coup and how Castelo Branco assumed the ‘presidency’. Once again I was surprised and at the same time embarrassed by the fact that most of what is mentioned in this documentary I had never heard of or had heard of briefly. But it's like that phrase "Better late than never" The Act of Killing (2012) - 3/5
Shortly after watching TEOD, TYL and TDTLTY, I decided to watch Joshua Oppenheimer's famous and controversial documentary, as I was already watching similar documentaries. I think that among the films I've seen, this is probably one of the most difficult films to assimilate, not only because of the topic covered, but also because of the way Joshua decides to tell the story, through reenactments of the crimes committed. The way in which those involved talk about everything so openly and without remorse is shocking, generally, people who have committed crimes of this type at least pretend a certain remorse or detachment from events. Throughout the film I felt like I was watching a hallucinogenic dream directed by David Lynch. I'm not even sure what my concrete opinion about this film is, so I only gave it three stars. Maria by Callas (2017) - 3/5
In the last few years I started to be more interested in classical music and opera and throughout the year I watched and read a lot about, the most recent were the documentary Pavarotti (2019) by Ron Howard and Amadeus (1984). Then I watched the documentary about Maria Callas, without knowing literally anything about her and I really liked it. I don't usually like documentaries made entirely of photos, videos and personal files of the person being biographed, but I liked that one.
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Dec 6, 2020 18:41:44 GMT
The Act of Killing (2012) - 3/5
Shortly after watching TEOD, TYL and TDTLTY, I decided to watch Joshua Oppenheimer's famous and controversial documentary, as I was already watching similar documentaries. I think that among the films I've seen, this is probably one of the most difficult films to assimilate, not only because of the topic covered, but also because of the way Joshua decides to tell the story, through reenactments of the crimes committed. The way in which those involved talk about everything so openly and without remorse is shocking, generally, people who have committed crimes of this type at least pretend a certain remorse or detachment from events. Throughout the film I felt like I was watching a hallucinogenic dream directed by David Lynch. I'm not even sure what my concrete opinion about this film is, so I only gave it three stars. Definitely agree with all this. The surreal nature of the re-enactments distance the participants (and viewers I think) from the traumas being explored and it makes for a provocative experience but also alienating. Never quite knew what to think of it. I absolutely recommend Oppenheimer's follow-up The Look of Silence which explores the trauma more nakedly by following a victim's brother as he meets with and interviews some of the members of these death squads to ask them about their experiences. Features some harrowing and frightening conversations with at least one nearly becoming hostile. Riveting, disturbing, cathartic, and strangely beautiful. More human and accessible than Act of Killing IMO.
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Post by isabelaolive on Dec 6, 2020 22:20:03 GMT
The Act of Killing (2012) - 3/5
Shortly after watching TEOD, TYL and TDTLTY, I decided to watch Joshua Oppenheimer's famous and controversial documentary, as I was already watching similar documentaries. I think that among the films I've seen, this is probably one of the most difficult films to assimilate, not only because of the topic covered, but also because of the way Joshua decides to tell the story, through reenactments of the crimes committed. The way in which those involved talk about everything so openly and without remorse is shocking, generally, people who have committed crimes of this type at least pretend a certain remorse or detachment from events. Throughout the film I felt like I was watching a hallucinogenic dream directed by David Lynch. I'm not even sure what my concrete opinion about this film is, so I only gave it three stars. Definitely agree with all this. The surreal nature of the re-enactments distance the participants (and viewers I think) from the traumas being explored and it makes for a provocative experience but also alienating. Never quite knew what to think of it. I absolutely recommend Oppenheimer's follow-up The Look of Silence which explores the trauma more nakedly by following a victim's brother as he meets with and interviews some of the members of these death squads to ask them about their experiences. Features some harrowing and frightening conversations with at least one nearly becoming hostile. Riveting, disturbing, cathartic, and strangely beautiful. More human and accessible than Act of Killing IMO. My original idea was to watch 'The look of silence' right away, but I was a little numb after 'The Act Of Killing' so I decided to leave it to watch next year.
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Dec 7, 2020 17:49:32 GMT
Stories We Tell (Sarah Polley, 2012), just mentioned by isabelaolive A lovingly nostalgic reckoning with the past. This has been kicking around in my watchlist for years but because of how vaguely it was marketed and described, I never knew much about it. Turns out it's an emotionally raw and tender dissection of Sarah Polley's own family and past in an attempt to memorialize on film her deceased mother. Polley is a genius behind the camera, infusing this project with tender curiosity and honest reflection.
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Post by Mattsby on Dec 9, 2020 0:20:43 GMT
Murder on Middle Beach (2020) 7.5/10 - About film student Madison investigating his mother Barbie Beach who was murdered on Middle Beach Rd in an affluent Connecticut town called Madison. How about them names! I watched this in one go, even though it floats over four hours. What started as a project for class, crosses ten years and over 200 shooting days and landed at HBO in the ninth inning of production.... it sometimes feels like Madison loves his own situation but for the most part this is very involving and very moving, and plays as a sort of cross between Dear Zachary and (the masterful) The Jinx.
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Dec 12, 2020 19:41:20 GMT
Gideon's Army (2013), directed by Dawn Porter A very sobering experience. Somewhat frustrating with its anecdotal structure but feels like necessary viewing for how it forces viewers to confront the brokenness of criminal justice system on human terms. Porter achieves this by focusing on the underpaid public defenders and their clients who daily contend with the systemic unfairness and cruelty. The film concludes with a trial more riveting than anything you can see in fiction because a real person's life was at stake at that moment and captured on camera. Reminded me of the time I served on a jury several years ago... a surreal experience that I still think about. Long story short, these public defenders are the only ones standing between these defendants and the full weight of a racist justice system armed with conviction-hungry prosecutors, corrupt cops, and mandatory minimums. The entire deck is stacked against them. No real idea how this mess centuries in the making can be unfucked but a good place to start would be to pay public defenders more. A lot more.
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Post by MsMovieStar on Dec 13, 2020 9:21:17 GMT
Oh honeys, an interesting documentary on former 60s Italian supermodel, Benedetta Barsini made by her son on the nature of images and on being impossibly beautiful (something most of you won't understand). I could relate to it totally, apart from the bits about not showering for two weeks as I love being naked in water. Barsini is a truly fascinating woman and I could listen to her all day (over a bottle of Amaretto... or two). This gorgeous documentary was distinctly European with a lot of philosophical thoughts about images, beauty, the male gaze, and of course, the 'disappearance' of the title which felt like a metaphor of sorts for many things: death; retirement; beauty; getting rid of her son, etc. “What’s the point of continuing to sell our bodies without any quality or talent? she asks of us? I loved the bickering between the grizzly Barsini and her devoted son (who made the documentary) which reminded me of Grey Gardens. I loved that for a former model, this movie is honest, naked, and devoid of vanity and full of Italian earthiness. 8/10
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Post by Pavan on Dec 14, 2020 8:16:55 GMT
History 101- Netflix- Decent stuff
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Dec 26, 2020 23:26:02 GMT
Totally Under Control, the Alex Gibney COVID doc. To say there's blood on Trump's hands is an understatement. The blood is an ocean. This does a pretty good job delineating the administration's negligent response and consistent disregard for the American people, mostly in the early months over winter, spring, and summer. The 120-minute runtime flies by, to the point that when you reach the ending the whole project feels unfinished. Probably because the crisis is unfinished. Certain elements in the doc already feel slightly dated. That's the nature of trying to process an ongoing event without the benefit of total hindsight. Was surprised by what the doc leaves out. COVID-19 is way too big for one 2-hour doc, it seems, and while Gibney covers most of his bases, the resulting information does sometimes feel cursory. For instance, the doc never once mentions the WHO and barely even hints at Trump's early nationalization of the crisis by blaming China. McConnell's relief blockade is absent too, and there's not enough Fauci. But I did learn some things that I had missed in 2020's onslaught of COVID headlines and soundbites. Notably, that Kushner's PPE response team was made up entirely of unpaid & inexperienced volunteers, that the federal government was actively driving up the cost of ventilators on the market, and that the travel bans actually led to enormously counterproductive super-spreader events as people rushed to get back into the country and were sectioned off into contagion-friendly groups in airports. Basically the administration's entire response has been politically-motivated, imbecilic, misinformative and ineffective from day one, trading in meritless optimism and then callous fatalism. But don't worry, America. I just love this pic of Fauci.
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Dec 27, 2020 5:42:33 GMT
Was surprised by what the doc leaves out. COVID-19 is way too big for one 2-hour doc, it seems, and while Gibney covers most of his bases, the resulting information does sometimes feel cursory. For instance, the doc never once mentions the WHO and barely even hints at Trump's early nationalization of the crisis by blaming China. McConnell's relief blockade is absent too, and there's not enough Fauci. I think rather than attempting to be a comprehensive look at everything that's happened in connection with Covid, Gibney seemed to want to focus specifically on the botched U.S. response to containing the virus itself. As you said, two hours isn't really enough to cover everything. You could probably do an entirely separate doc on the politics of Covid - Trump's framing of the virus in relation to China, the politicization of safety protocols, the shutdowns and the economy, etc. I just learned about this for the first time while watching the doc too, and it's wild. More ppl should be talking about it...
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Post by pacinoyes on Jan 22, 2021 0:15:14 GMT
Punk '76 (2013).............(on Flick Vault) - 7/10 Hit or miss documentary that takes some annoying people (Joy Division loving/La's hating) Paul Morley and Tony James etc. saying some very interesting things about the UK Punk era in one year. The best parts go away from the music and link that music to politics, fashion, culture and then into specifics like graphics or satire. Some interesting asides to the Nazi symbolism foolishly used/exploited by Malcolm McClaren in the German Eagle, etc. and things like that too. Sort of like a Cliffs Notes summary with (very) little about the US equivalents..........not bad though........
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Post by MsMovieStar on Jan 26, 2021 18:46:46 GMT
Oh honeys, this is an excellent documentary for various reasons; To begin with the story and fate of journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl who set out to write the definitive biography of Billie Holiday and recorded all the interview tapes featured her is interesting enough in itself - I won't give too much away. There have been previous documentaries (as well as written biographies)on Jazz singer Billie Holiday but this one has an abundance of photographs and footage that has been colorized, so I suppose that gives it an edge. The biography of Holiday is a hard one to tell as so much was mythologized with the Diana Ross movie, Lady Sings The Blues (1972), that was so factually incorrect and was little more than a show case for Diana Ross. Let's hope the Daniels movie The United States Vs. Billie Holiday is closer to the truth. Much of the confusion concerning the life of Billie Holiday is because she died before she could divorce her last but abusive husband and control of her estate past to him - hence the really glossy but totally fictional portrait in the Diana Ross movie (I really hate that movie). Billie 10/10
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