Rolling Documentary Thread 2008

Favorites of the year:
1. Forbidden Lie$ - I'd give this film a synopsis, but you should go into it knowing nothing about the storyline..."rollercoaster"
2. American Teen - Plays like an MTV reality show (and feels staged), but it's so much more entertaining and real. I hope it takes off at the box office.
3. The Mother - Fly-on-the-wall European art doc about a single mother in Russia. Looks GORGEOUS.
4. My Winnipeg - Does this count?

Isn't there basically a new version of 'American Teen' every two years (only this one's a feature-length movie instead of HBO/PBS series)?

Hmmm...I obv. haven't been watching docs that long, but "American High" is the only similar thing coming to mind (unless you count stuff like "The Paper" or "Nimrod Nation")

This is the best of all those, though. It's extremely well-crafed with tons of memorable moments; Nanette is such a gifted filmmaker. I took the whole film to be some statement about reality TV ("if they can get away with staging shit, why can't we?"), but apparently she doesn't view it that way (openly, at least; I'm pretty sure she said it's almost completely real, which i think is bullshit).

yuh Forbidden Lie$ is pretty awesome.

Back in March there were rumors that it would finally get a good distribution deal in the US, but apparently that's not true. ;_;

http://waltzwithbashir.com/wwbtrailer.html

whoa.

Standard Operating Procedure is at #16? :(

SOP hasn't opened here yet...I imagine it's expanding soon.

Yes...

Man I could swear Chicago 10 came out last year but now I realize the year is nearly halfway over. Yeek.

AV Club OTM re: Young@Heart

Anyone see anything good recently?

6. UP THE YANGTZE (Zeitgeist/Kino) ~$535,800

good friend of mine directed this. it's awes

I AGREE! Pefect companion to that Jia film set in the same area.

Keep an eye out for:

Operation Filmmaker
USA vs Al-Arian

damnit! i didn't listen to my friend about USA vs Al-Arian (prob. because he also recommended Invisible Children)

Just saw SOP last night - not quite as thrilling as Fog of War, but typically great.

Looking forward to "American Teen" and "Dear Zachary."

glad you like it morbz

I'm getting excited about Feuerzeig's "I am Chuck Wepner," even though it probably won't be ready for a while. ;_;

teaser

What's the word on Surfwise?

The HBO thing on Polanski the other night was pretty good.

Isn't there basically a new version of 'American Teen' every two years (only this one's a feature-length movie instead of HBO/PBS series)?

Arguably this began with Frederick Wiseman's High School.

We watched a great documentary put out by Vice Magazine about a heavy metal band trying to stay together in Iraq. Heart-wrenching. Head-banging (bobbing your head) was a crime in the past because the authorities associated it with Jewish prayers.

Shit, I forgot about Standard Operating Procedure; I'm sure it's gone by now.

i want to see Up the Yangtze. why is it doing so well?

VBS.tv (Vice) visits the Pacific plastic gyre.

xpost, i'm as baffled as you: http://www.varietyasiaonline.com/content/view/5942/53/

because it's great!

also, yung has really supported the film, he goes everywhere it opens, all the festivals, does press, Q&As etc. plus it tends to bring out the chinese community as well as your average doc-goers.

(many) xposts:

I enjoyed Surfwise a lot. Knew a little about Doc Paskowitz as the legendary surf figure, but after about a third of the way in when the film really hits its stride, it just becomes more and more surreal. Felt like they skated over some issues a little more than I would like, but
the meat of the family dysfunction, as well as the family bond is really something else. I swear each sibling is a movie of their own.

PS - Pray's 'Big Rigs' is worth watching too.

plus it tends to bring out the chinese community as well as your average doc-goers.

that was the only possibility that made sense to me

I saw "Man on Wire" at the Full Frame festival here in Durham - it was quite great. People were getting all fucked up about it, it's pretty emotional. For me it wasn't as WOW as last year's big-ticket item which was "Crazy Love." Also saw the new Herzog one, which is OK, but only great at one point (some underwater footage). His whole "I feel nature is savage, others feel it is beautiful but they are naive" schtick is pretty tired.

If you can find it, a documentary called "To See If I'm Smiling" is while not overwhelming pretty worthwhile.

Chuck Wepner was Sonny Liston's last fight I think!

J0hn, did you catch The Last Conquistador?

and xpost, yeah, i liked big rig a lot...

and xxposts, i haven't seen Yangtze yet, but it takes more than greatness to earn lots of money. If that were the case, The Mother would have a distribution deal. The stuff in that Variety article seems to sum up the distributor's marketing plan; i'm still surprised it worked so well but pleasantly surprised, obv.

Anyone catch (hahahaha) Okie Noodling II?

that was the only possibility that made sense to me

-- gabbneb, Saturday, June 14, 2008 3:42 AM (1 week ago) Bookmark Link

why? it certainly doesn't account for all of it--or even the majority. i mean, it's currently the #1 rated film on metacritic.

J0hn, did you catch The Last Conquistador?

no, missed that one. you can only catch so many, the whole festival scene is a total zoo here. lines lines lines, scramble scramble scramble. I did see the Chang & Eng doc which was a little disappointing.

Yeah, I'm not sure how FF's ticket system works, but here it can get v. messy, esp. if you don't have a pass.

Updated Box Office Numbers (again, courtesy All These Wonderful Things)
1. U23D (National Geographic) $8,419,800
2. EXPELLED: NO INTELLIGENCE ALLOWED (Rocky) $7,614,754
3. SHINE A LIGHT (Paramount Vantage) $5,355,376
4. YOUNG@HEART (Fox Searchlight) $3,311,611
5. UP THE YANGTZE (Zeitgeist/Kino) ~$609,000
6. VINCE VAUGHN'S WILD WEST... (Picturehouse) $603,894
7. WHERE IN THE WORLD IS OSAMA... (Weinstein) $384,955
8. TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE (THINKFilm) $274,661
9. PLANET B-BOY (Elephant Eye) $273,870
10. STEEP (SPC) $260,586
11. THE SINGING REVOLUTION (Abramorama) $207,387
12. STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE (SPC) $198,523
13. CHICAGO 10 (Roadside Attractions) $174,624
14. BIGGER, STRONGER, FASTER* (Magnolia) $163,600
15. SURFWISE (Magnolia) $146,358

His whole "I feel nature is savage, others feel it is beautiful but they are naive" schtick is pretty tired.

He often sounds like a self-parody now (someone on an ILX-related baseball site wrote a seasonal preview of the San Francisco Giants in Herzog's voice a couple years ago, and it was pretty dead-on). The Film Forum audience here on a Saturday night laughed frequently at the narration like it was an Ed Wood film.

Go Man On Wire!

YES YES YES

MAN ON WIRE

roman polanski doc coming here in a week. anyone seen it?

I rented LAKE OF FIRE this weekend, but I can't find the patience to sit through 2.5 hours of abortion documentary. I'm sure it's fantastic, though!

It's pretty interesting! Until the last part where the surprisingly dull 'pro-choice' crowd has a big muttering party of talking points. Maybe this was boring for me bcz I am already v pro-abortion, but also there was no other footage or narrative, like the first 2/3 of the movie had. Just Chomsky & co. nattering on. It was curious for me to see the POVs & actions of all these people who are from a different mental universe than yrs truly. Somehow none of the actual abortion footage, etc, bothered me at all (maybe bcz I had to watch all that in tenth grade health class, in color).

Soooo, now that we're over 3/4 of the way through the year, what's your top ten list looking like?

I'm probably forgetting something, but at the moment, I'm thinking this:
1. Forbidden Lie$
2. The Order of Myths
3. American Teen
4. The Mother
5. Man On Wire
6. Up the Yangtze
7. Trouble the Water
8. Joy Division
9. Standard Operating Procedure
10. Full Battle Rattle

Still need to watch: The Mosquito Problem, Life. Support. Music., Surfwise, ???

did anyone see billy the kid?, last year i guess? i heard it's pretty great, and has just come out on dvd.

(YES, it's incredible!)

Oscar Shortlist:
AT THE DEATH HOUSE DOOR
THE BETRAYAL (NERAKHOON)
BLESSED IS THE MARCH: THE LIFE AND DEATH OF HANNAH SENEESH
ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD
FUEL
THE GARDEN
GLASS: A PORTRAIT OF PHILIP IN TWELVE PARTS
I.O.U.S.A.
IN A DREAM
MADE IN AMERICA
MAN ON WIRE
PRAY THE DEVIL BACK TO HELL
STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE
THEY KILLED SISTER DOROTHY
TROUBLE THE WATER

Look, I know it's the Oscars; they're like supposed to fuck up. I'm not surprised they left off AMERICAN TEEN. Or that they included (bleh) PRAY THE DEVIL, FUEL and a couple others...But no ORDER OF MYTHS? What the fuck?

;_;

I don't watch a tenth of the movies needed to contribute to this thread, but "Bigger Stronger Faster*" is probably my second favourite film of the year so far.

Yeah, that's a good film! It's feels like the director saw FAHRENHEIT 9/11 and, upon leaving the theater, decided that he could make a documentary, too. And it turns out that he can!

Anyone see anything good recently? Anyone going to Park City? Cinema Eye Nominees: http://www.cinemaeyeawards.com/awards/infhome.html

I've seen ~40 of those, and I'd say like about 25 were really good

(it's been a good year)

I'm having problems finding big-name modern critics who a) know how to critique documentaries and b) have good taste.

So that Doug Pray is a busy guy.

I'm having problems finding big-name modern critics who a) know how to critique documentaries and b) have good taste.

― Trik Turner Fan Club President (Tape Store), Saturday, December 6, 2008 10:04 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

jdate.com

lol

Saw IOUSA the other day. It's ok, I guess. The protagonists sorta suck, but imo, the graphics are the real stars of the film.

Um, in other news, there are some fantastic docs, I think, for next year, but I'm having to spend a lot more searching for them...Most of the Slamdance list sorta made me gag. Here's to Sundance being awesome? :/

Man, screw all this American Teen backlash; it's totally one of the best docs of the year!

What a bizarre thread. Are there many other threads like this?

Is there any interest in a 2009 edition? Or does this talk belong in other film threads?

we can break this out, even if the doc definition has never been fuzzier.

i just pulled up a bunch of netflix stuff from this thread, so i encourage you to continue it for totally selfish reasons.

is Forbidden Lie$ out on DVD? wondering if netflix search is just too stupid to handle the $.

did anyone see billy the kid? i heard it was excellent. '07 maybe.

i really oughtta get it together and do netflix for a month to plough through some documentaries.

Didn't realize there was a thread for this until now.

Awesome, I was hoping that this could--at the very least--serve as a suggestion thread. I know Forbidden Lie$ is available in Australia. Someone on the 2008 detrius thread somehow watched it recently; i don't know if he/she is Australian? Let me know if you still can't find it, and I'll see what i can find out.

Billy The Kid is excellent and definitely worth checking out! For those wanting to watch some docs (for free), http://snagfilms.com has some fantastic ones available online. Skimming down the list, here are some of the more essential and/or notable ones, with some favorites bolded:
Be Here to Love Me (Margaret Brown, of ORDER OF MYTHS)
Czech Dream
Dig!
Heavy Metal in Baghdad
Hoop Dreams
The Nomi Song
Off the Grid: Life on the Mesa
Summercamp!
We Are Together

Lastly, as we're wrapping up the year, here's a piece by AJ Schnack on why MAN ON WIRE should be nominated for best picture.

Does the word "doc" drive anyone else crazy?

or...am I a cranky pedant?

i prefer 'docu' but alternate quite frequently...the most correct term is probably 'non-fiction.'

docu?

i prefer mentary

or menta for extra short

you don't read enough variety!

jk

and the best helmer of the year goes to...

yes, give me more things to get cranky about

just to be really pedantic - Czech Dream is more scripted than several recent "fiction" films I could name

you don't say?

oh i do!!

let this be my epitaph

i expect it to play a few niche festivals before celebrating a small euro cable run

It was released 4 years ago

(i was referring to yr epitaph, not czech dream)
(sorry, my last VARIETY joke of the year)

I watched Billy the Kid last night. It was so manipulative and weird! It was sweet and amusing for the first 30 minutes hearing him talk in his non-worldly way (with acoustic guitar arpeggios for extra profundity). Even that, tho, was giving me kind of a 'Napolean Dynamite' can you believe this kid?vibes. After that it just turned into a reality show (if IFC made one that featured no conflict). It's like they set him up with that girl, almost! I felt bad for her, in a way – she seems far too shy and unconfident to say 'no' to anything, even tho she was clearly uncomfortable being filmed (let alone dating Billy, who knows how she felt about that!). I couldn't even finish it, I just started feeling disgusted by the whole thing.

"Here, guys, have a deep mom-son conversation about What Love Means, and try to make it look natural if you can."

I really want to see this newly released film about Wildwood,NJ by Ruth Leitman that was filmed in 1992 but it only being released now. I am sort of obsessed with the Jersey Shore and this seems right up my alley. There is an interesting review here: http://fourfour.typepad.com/fourfour/2009/07/wildwood-the-movie.html and a youtube with highlights from the movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eqCBCUawKY&feature=channel

btw - someone should probably bring back the oxford shirt with the shoulders cut out. Underrated look, I think.

man i made such a big turnaround on "dear zachary" between first and second viewings. i totally fell for it the first time. second time it seemed so cuckoo-bananas hysterical that i couldn't even. i mean, let's not judge the guy. understand why he's emotional, for sure. but.