Is This The Real Life? Documentaries You Love

[Deleted]

Just caught "Some Kind of Monster" and worshipped its real-life Spinal Tap-ness. Currently hanging out for "Tarnation" (hey, I live in NZ, we're a little behind here...) What is your favourite documentary?

[vacationland]

I've been fascinated by the Up series of documentaries directed by Michael Apted ever since I saw the first 3 in a cultural studies class back in the '80s. The last one was "42 Up" and I think--if they're still filming them--that "49 Up" should film this year?

For those who haven't seen or heard about them, it's a series of British documentaries that began filming in 1964. Taking the Jesuit saying, "Give me a child until he is 7 and I will show you the man" as a jumping-off point, Apted filmed a group of 7-year-olds, intending to test the theory by continuing to film them every 7 years thereafter, to see if their 7-year-old selves are reflected in their adult selves. Of course, by observing something (or someone) you can't help but change it; still, it's compelling stuff.

It's fascinating to see these people (some of the original subjects dropped out in later years) essentially grow up on film. The children were deliberately chosen for their varied social/class backgrounds and economic and family circumstances. They ranged from a couple of boys growing up in an orphanage to middle-class kids to the children of the landed gentry. They were urban, suburban and rural.

In some cases, it was clear that societal position and economic status was, at least in some regard, destiny. There were also surprises, as one of the kids ultimately develops fairly serious mental illness and has a life that went in directions nobody could've predicted.

It's amazing to see how strongly personality seems fixed at an early age in some kids; scrappy, cheerful little Tony at 7 is shockingly similar to scrappy, cheerful adult Tony, for example. Others who were unbearable as teenagers become well-adjusted, likeable adults.

One thing that the series makes clear is that doing what you like for a living has a lot to do with your ultimate happiness, regardless of economic or social status.

The way the films are structured, you see the subjects weighing in on various subjects in virtually side-by-side comparisons, separated only by age; it's like watching one of those old Disney films with the flowers unfolding in fast motion, only with people. Very cool, and worth a watch!

[Deleted]

Hands on a Hard Body is probably my favorite documentary. Set at a car dealership in East Texas, it follows a contest to win a truck -- the person who can keep his or her hand on the (hard body) truck the longest wins it. It is hilarious, touching, exhausting...a great movie.

[topher]

I have got Stevie on the counter for seven days and just can't get around to watch it.

MT, I thought Fog of War was one of the best things I have seen in a long time.

If anyone gets a chance, rent Riding Giants. It is about surfing giant waves and the history of the people that dared to ride them.

[vacationland]

I liked Riding Giants too. Unexpectedly so, since I'm not really a surfing fan.

Capturing the Friedmans freaked me right the hell out. Molestation + birthday party clowns + obsessive, self-documentation every freakin' detail of one's increasingly claustrophobic suburban life = all kinds of wrong.

Buena Vista Social Club was good (though you may just want the soundtrack if you aren't patient enough to sit through a lot of fairly static concert shots. Another good music documentary is Stop Making Sense, one of the best concert documentaries I've seen. It's directed by Jonathan Demme, and it features the band Talking Heads, circa David Byrne's "big suit" phase in '83.

[foxfair]

WORD on the love for Apted's 'Up' series. I always find myself somewhat melancholy after watching them, because - well, the first installment, with the voiceover at the very beginning "Show me the child..." etc. my response was to say to myself "well of course that isn't true and now here's this nice documentary to prove it." And then... it is true, it is SO true. You couldn't predict the specific challenges that people would be facing, but when they did face them, they display the same character they displayed at 7 years old. In fact I was a little shocked by how unchanged people were. That's what I get for being North American and unconsciously absorbing all this self-improvement/therapy culture stuff, I suppose.

Weirdly, I think my favourite person is the posh/hilariously snooty lawyer guy (and even in the very first installment there's that footage of him telling Tony off!), or the posh teaching-in-Bangladesh guy who finally met the love of his life back in the UK and got married. Awwww. I didn't like the country boy who read some science or another at Cambridge, and his wife was AWFUL. So awful, in fact, didn't they refuse to participate in the next installment because she got public comments (rude ones) after people had seen her?

Anyway, blather, I could talk about this doc for ages.

[vacationland]

In fact I was a little shocked by how unchanged people were. That's what I get for being North American and unconsciously absorbing all this self-improvement/therapy culture stuff, I suppose.

Yep, I had the same reaction at first, since the film's basic premise runs counter to the one we're fed as North Americans, re: making our own destiny and the relative unimportance of early experiences in shaping our later lives. Granted, class did (and does) play a stronger role even now in the UK, but still, it was a reality check!

As I said, I was introduced to these in a classroom setting (I actually had to write a paper on them!). This was a long time ago, so I saw all of the first three in order. Nowadays, most people have a different viewing experience, since each film contains fewer and fewer bits of each preceeding film and people tend to watch them "backward" starting with the most recent, instead of in chronological order. I saw the older ones in their entirety, so got to see more of those awkward formative years that were later edited out for length.

At the time, I didn't know that snooty John would turn out to be a decent human being! He was still a snot in 1984; color me surprised. I was also surprised at the utter consistency of Tony, the sweetness of Bruce, & the complexity of what happened to Neil. The working-class girls were utterly consistent, too. The upper-crusty girl was a complete wretch as a teenager; she turned out okay, though. I kind of liked the Yorkshire farmboy personally, but oh, he had wretched taste in women...his wife was a serious beyotch!

I thought it interesting that one of the guys who dropped out did so after deciding on a career as a documentary film producer.

Now I want to track down 42 Up to see it again and find out if they're making a 49 Up. I invested so much time in them I need to find out how they end up!

[foxfair]

WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD...

Who are Bruce and Neil? Is Bruce the black man who spent part of his childhood in a children's home?

Tony is one of the most compelling characters on the series, he stood out as a 7 year old and he still does as an adult. I agree the consistency of his character is especially striking. I don't particularly like him, though, mainly because of the way he treated his wife.

I feel very sorry for one of the three working class women - the blonde, curly haired one. I remember the installment (28? 35?) when she had just had her son and was deliriously happy with motherhood, I remember smiling my head off during her bit, and then the next installment isn't she living in some godawful housing tenement in Scotland with no money and another (more than one more?) kid?

Was there any evidence of upward mobility? Tony himself seemed fairly well off the last installment, but other than that people seem to have rigidly remained in their specific societal stratas. As I said, somewhat depressing. I just loved watching how they all went through a certain period of youthful awkwardness and then, most of them anyway, eventually settled down into something. I dunno. Everybody thinks they're special, don't they, but in actual fact we all generally seem to follow a pre-described arc.

It's really a great series, utterly compelling, sort of like reality TV with 100x the depth and gravity.

[Smilla]

I thought The Fog of War was amazing.

The Fog of War is possibly my most-loved documentary ever. By the end, both because of Morris' directional skill and MacNamara's decision to be a good interview subject, I knew exactly how MacNamara was going to answer each new question Morris asked (I even knew which questions he would not answer and why). You really get to know that man in the course of that film, even some of the characteristics he's not eager to have revealed, which is what an excellent documentary should accomplish.

[lulacarson]

Wow! This is my thread. To prepare for an upcoming job I'm squeezing Netflix for all the documentaries it can mail me. I've seen dozens in the past few months.

I'm equally fascinated by the "7 Up" series and have watched all of them.

Ever since the late '80's I've been hearing about, and dying to see "Grey Gardens." As a teenager in the midwestern cornfields, I got totally lost in Spy Magazine, the Village Voice, etc., and one of the intriguing mentions that popped up again and again was Big Edie and Little Edie Bouvier Beale. GG has been at the top of my Netflix queue for months, flipping from "immediately available" to "long wait" every time I thought I was close. Then, last week...the little red envelope in the mailbox. Hooray!

For those unfamiliar, this is a 1977 documentary about Jackie Kennedy Onassis' aunt and first cousin, Edith Bouvier Beale (Sr. and Jr.), living in a decaying 28 room mansion in the Hamptons, having been abandoned by the men in their family. It's like the crumbling aristocracy, a family drama, a study of a relationship - mesmerizing.

I would recommend first-time viewers seeing the film with the commentary first, because it's easy to jump in and think "these poor, nutty women," but the relationship the filmmakers had with the Edies (made clear in the decades-later commentary) shows there's more than is immediately obvious. They are incredibly fascinating people, and the history that gets teased out of their everyday interactions is quite compelling.

Also cool to learn that young NY fashion designers consider this cult classic a must-see, and many of them have shown Little Edie influences in their designs. (There are two bonus modern interviews with Todd Oldham and another designer, talking about the look of the film, the unforgettable quotes that get tossed around the the office, etc.)

ETA: a few other worthwhile documentaries (with commentaries that really enhance the experience): The First Year (about first-year teachers in the LA school system), Jupiter's Wife (about an endearing schizophrenic woman living in Central Park), Wigstock (about the annual Labor Day drag show in Manhatten), and Pie in the Sky: The Brigid Berlin Story (about Andy Warhol's rebellious media heiress turned Chelsea Girl).