Rypro 525

oh and i don't think gimmie shelter counts.

jawn

I watched Dogtown and Z-Boys. Never skated much, but I play a mean Tony Hawk Pro Skater.

It was great to see the origins of modern skate style. Those guys were awesome!

Cardinal Fang

Thanks for these challenges, Groucho - they're prompting me to finally watch movies that have been allowed to lie fallow in my collection....

I finally cracked open "Startup.com", and was I ever impressed. The level of access gained by the documentarians was nothing short of astounding.

And I've seen a lot of good recommendations in previous posts, but I haven't seen anyone mention "Lost in La Mancha". Go watch it now!

MrN

I watched a film called The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam. It's a look into the life and legend of 'Long Tack Sam', the Chinese Vaudeville acrobat and magician. The film was made by his great grand-daughter (Annmarie Fleming) in an effort to uncover his past but the search proves understandably frustrating. It ends up as very much a personal film but with I just didn't feel much emotion because Fleming stays behind the camera for much of the film. I think this film is very much in the vein of My Architect which I still need to see.

Another doc. I saw this week - The Turandot Project, about the staging of Pucini's opera in Beijing. I don't know much about Opera and my main interest in this was that the opera's director is Zhang Yimou. But the film did a good job of explaining the opera's story and tracing key scenes through rehearsal and juxtaposing that with the final performances. What kept my interest was the friction between Zhang, who is not used to stage productions, with the international crew. But I guess as they kept saying in Shakespeare in Love, 'It all works out in the end.'

Rypro 525

watched "we stand alone together: the men of easy company" this is easily one of the best documentaries i have ever seen, its basically the survivors from easy company telling stories from the second world war. what i really liked about it, was that there are no clips from the band of brtothers miniseries, its just interviews and newsreel footage.

$tarr

I watched National Geographic: Nature's Fury tonight. It was a well done documentary, but they focused on Tornadoes the least out of the natural disasters they covered so I was a little disappointed about that. If your interested in natural disasters such as floods, earth quakes, and hurricanes then it's worth a look.

Groucho

I watched Live Nude Girls, Unite, an interesting documentary about the unionization of a strip club in San Francisco. It was very interesting and entertaining.

Afterwards, however, I got the feeling that the unionization was done for the sake of the documentary, rather than the other way around.

movielib

Just last week I watched Waco: A New Revelation. Having been made several years after Waco: The Rules of Engagement (which was nominated for an Academy Award for 1997) and by many of the same people, it contains much information not available when the first film was made. I cannot recommend too highly either of these documentaries.

Waco: The Rules of Engagement

Waco: A New Revelation

JasonF

I went with the safe choice this week and watched Bowling for Columbine. It was prety much what I expected. I tend to agree with Moore on the gun issue, so it didn't really challenge me as much as I would have liked, but it was still enjoyable. I liked the fact that it didn't try to slap an easy answer on the question of gun violence.

karnblack

I watched Spellbound over the weekend. It was very good, and a lot better than I expected. It follows 8 kids on their journey to be the United States best speller. You get to meet the kids before they go to the national championship and see how they prepare, and get to see their parents. With some of the kids' parents I was smacking my forehead wondering how their kid got so smart when they were really stupid. This film really shows how some kids overcome adversity. One of the kids reminded me of the Russian boxer in Rocky 4. He had all of the best training and equipment. He was like a machine. I won't spoil the film so you have to see it for yourself. It's a definite must watch.

mookyman

I'm a little late this week. Just watched The Celluloid Closet.

kninestile

I watched ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER. It is about the Israeli Olympic Team members that were taken hostage during the 1972 games in Munich. This is one of the best DOCs I have ever seen and I highly recomend it.

Giles

Visions of Light : The Art of Cinemtography - fascinating look into a quick overview of cinema's best cinematographers. Filmmakers could have gone into more International films but stuck to mostly American films.

Hunt for the Supertwister (NOVA) I'm a big fan of the tornado specials that are done for TV and this one was one of the best. Impressive camera work with Nature at it's most chaotic. Cutting edge computer simulation on how scientist believe tornados form is a definate highlight of the show as is the final shot of a tornado so close to the camera - it's downright bonechilling.

Ghost of Rwanda - terribly depressing but important docu on the genocide of 800,000 Rwandans as the rest of the world did nothing. On the negative side, the film's running time could have been slashed by a half of an hour as the docu's bleak and harrowing subject matter became tedious and overbearing. The final ten minutes of the myriad skeletons found inside the church is both nightmarish and tragic, and unforgettable.

The Five Obstructions - documentary- dogme style. Lars Von Trier and filmmaker Jřrgen Leth's reinterpretations of Jorgen's 1967 thirteen minute short film "The Perfect Human" in five different versions set to decided guidelines and rules - riveting! Highly recommended to see the recluse dominary side of Lars Von Trier (in front of the camera).

Cecil B. DeMille: American Master (Part One) absorbing Turner Classic Movie documentary on the filmmaker personal life and his films. Can't wait for Part Two.

HistoryProf

I watched Brother's Keeper last week and loved it....very well done and a sad sad story. I highly recommend it....especially if you enjoyed Capturing the Friedman's or Stevie - to name a couple of other recent similar (and also very very good) docs....

sundog

Saw 3 docs last night as part of the Chicago International Documentary Film Festival, 2 features and 1 short.

The short being a 9 minute piece, Omnipotent, from Germany: a quick but thorough look at the process of getting feathers from geese, including the killing.

The first feature: The Decomposition of the Soul, from Belgium, was excellent. A haunting look at the goings-on at a cold-war Stasi pretrial detainment center in Berlin, where officials used almost exclusively psychological torture. The filmmakers use 3 people's recollections, 2 return to walk the halls (now a museum) and the third is the narrated excerpts from a writer's book. There is no archival footage used, everything seems to be preserved for the sake of the museum, which makes it even more haunting. The camera tracks through the halls and our perception grows with the perception of the prisoners. First, there's the processing, then the cells, then the interrogation rooms. One former prisoner, a woman, recalls serving part of her sentence there cleaning the cellar, specifically the "rubber room" covered in excrement and blood. Only when the prisoners talk about leaving the prison do we get glimpses of the outside. Finally before the end credits roll we see trees and nature, denied to the viewer as it was denied to the prisoners. It's poetic and sad and astonishing.

That was the early show, maybe 15 people in the 125 person theater. The second show was sold out because a Chicago filmmaker, John Borowski, was there for his doc H. H. Holmes: America's First Serial Killer. Everyone was excited, too bad the film sucked. It's about a psychopath who, among other things, killed quite a few unsuspecting visitors to the Chicago World's Fair in 1893. He was written about in the book "Devil in the White City." I hadn't read the book and was only aware that this fellow existed. Technically, the doc had a lot of info to tell, but it felt like a cliffs notes edition. The narration was overly dramatic and repetitive. The director overused a few photographs that looked like they were photocopied out of a library book. The re-enactments were laughable. And I don't know how times he used the same medical skeleton. It was like Ken Burns doing an E! True Hollywood Story. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it showed up on that channel.

MrN

Saw both parts of this today and yeah, 'absorbing' it is. I liked the fact that the makers didn't totally make it a fluff piece and tackled some of the more controversial aspects of his life. And I'll have track down some of his more 'sexy' films - like Cleopatra.

Giles

yeah I taped Part Two last night and am hoping I have the time to watch it tonight.

Also looking forward to watching "The King of Kings" which I taped last night as well.

littlefuzzy

I watched Here's Looking at You, Warner Bros. and it turned out to be pretty interesting, with quite a bit of information about the Warners, as well as information on the studio's early talkies, musicals, directors and stars.

Jules Winfield

I saw"Stevie" for this challenge. It was from the director of Hoop Dreams and it was about him going back to find out what happened to Stevie, a boy that Steve J had been an advocate Big Brother to. Some of the stuff was pretty brutal and I found myself thinking what an ass Stevie was at times and feeling a bit of sympathy to him at other times. He just seems like a weird guy and it seems like he might be slightly brain damaged or just an ass. Steve James also features in the movie a bit as they show him on film as well as his family. Steve J comes across as feeling sort of guilty for what happened to Stevie & not being there for him and for also coming back into Stevie's life for a documentary. Steve James does a good job at portraying Stevie as for who he is and not glorifying him even though you can tell that Steve J cares for him. Pretty good.

rkndkn

Saw "Touching the Void" on April 2nd as part of the Spring Hawaii International Film Festival.

What an excellent film! The reenactment sequences alone are spectacular. Hearing Simon Yates and Joe Simpson recount their experience was fascinating, and I particularly liked their great understatement. My favorite line, which keeps reverberating in my mind, is Joe's, when after a string of events which would render most men a sobbing, defeated shambles, he says "I was feeling a bit desperate."

The big-screen experience certainly adds to the grandeur of the mountains, and I'm glad I didn't have to wait for the DVD. Thanks, HIFF!

layth1

I just watched Ghosts of the Abyss for the firs time and I thought it was amazing. In a way it also made me appreciate Titanic more because now I notice all the detail James Cameron put like references to real survivors and all. It was very touching and having Bill Paxton as the narrator was really fun because it was his first time, it was someone who we the audiance can relate to.

I never thought I'd say this but Ghosts of the Abyss is a documentry I can see myself watching many times just to see the beautiful images. I guess that's why I bought it!

Quake1028

Well, I went ahead and watched Do You Believe in Miracles? tonight, and it was fantastic. Probably the best documentary I have ever seen, and it really makes you realize that this was and is much more than a hockey game. Powerful stuff.