Is This The Real Life? Documentaries You Love

[HarpofLorien]

I've seen two amazing short documentaries this month.

Last night, one of the local PBS stations aired "The Short List," a show that presents short films. Last night's feature was From the Life of Elves, a Lithuanian documentary on a woman who is caring for three elderly dwarves. The woman apparently married the father of the dwarves and has cared for them ever since. It was like watching a train wreck - you couldn't look away.

The second is Carhenge: Genius or Junk, a documentary about the making of Carhenge, a junk car replica of Stonehenge in Alliance, Nebraska. It's very funny - a guy inherits the family farm in the 1980s; having recently traveled to Stonehenge he does his own Americana tribute to Stonehenge by re-creating it with 38 junk cars. It raises the hackles of the Alliance City Council and government and he battles with them for a few years over his right to have this mess on his property. He eventually wins the battle when they re-zone his farm to take it out of the town limits.

I used to work in the PR department of a Denver-area university; the head of the department is the daughter of the guy who founded Friends of Carhenge, which now operates the site. She likes to convince people that she is an urban, sophisticated person and is supposedly deeply ashamed of her connection to Carhenge. Of course, because she was a total witch when I worked for her, we find the whole Carhenge thing hysterical and HAD to see the movie when it was screened two weeks ago in Denver.

[hal9000]

OK, who has seen 49 up? Spill the beans, UK-ers!

[outlier]

hal9000 said:

OK, who has seen 49 up? Spill the beans, UK-ers!

.... No.

It got surprisingly little publicity or advertising. The first time I knew it was on was when I read the post-mortem in the papers the next day. No doubt it will repeat soon.

[chiqui]

If anyone is a music junkie...I just watched DiG! about The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre...and it was fucking great. Really desperate and amazing. The dichotomy between the bands is really interesting. I'll admit though, watching self destructive people is pretty difficult. It was cringeworthy at times.

I just saw this, I actually remember people acting and talking like that walking around in Seattle in the mid 90s. Well, they still walk around in Seattle acting and talking like that. Old one, I.

Has anyone seen The Nomi Song? It's another movie documentary about Klaus Nomi (Sperber) an East Village immigrant from Germany who had a brief flash of fame as new age singer in the 1980s, with a spaced-out persona equal parts Ziggy Stardust and 1930s Berlin cabaret singer, with liberal parts of high opera. Weirdly put together in parts (like the cut-out dioramas of his Aunt with an audio track of a phone conversation with her) but fascinating if you've lived through that time period in NYC, or visited it. I can't stop singing "They came from outer space, to save the human race..."

To the poster above, I didn't mean to insult Rodney, only remarked that the movie's makers made him seem more than a little sad and forlorn. I'm glad he's getting the star he deserves.

[Deleted]

I am going to see Darwin's Nightmare at a special screening tomorrow. It is about the effects of the introduction of the Nile perch to Lake Victoria not just on the ecosystem of the lake but also on the people living around it. The director will also be there to answer questions, so I am really looking forward to it.

[workgeordie]

After buying the Criterion DVD of Hoop Dreams I finally got around to watch it last night and it kind of blew me away. A great documentary with great subjects and multi-layered storylines. After watching it I thought that I should compile a list of my favourite documentaries of all time (those I can remember):

1. Capturing the Friedmans
2. Dark Days
3. Fog of War
4. Animal Love
5. Hoop Dreams
6. DiG

honorable mention: The World according to Bush, Gates of Heaven

Documentaries I am dying to see: Paradise Lost (both films), Stevie, Born into Brothels, Overnight and Nomi Song. I'm sure that I will have to change my list after watching some of them.

[sleepy]

I have three to recommend, and I recommend them highly:

1. Paragraph 175, about Nazi persecution of homosexuals. I make my students watch that every quarter, and you would be shocked by how many of them (college-aged, no less) have no idea that gay people, Gypsies, the handicapped, etc were also victims. Very moving, powerful documentary. It's especially effective because survivors are interviewed and they show photographs and tell stories of their youth, so it's not like you're watching about abstract people. You're meeting real people. Plus, it's narrated by the deliciously-voiced Rupert Everett.

2. American Hollow, by Rory Kennedy. Fascinating and sometimes disturbing documentary about Appalachians. Mr. Sleepy's family is actually from that area, and he couldn't watch it because, he said, "I know them." He didn't mean literally - but it was odd for him because they may as well have been relatives he does know.

3. This one is a "pseudodocumentary": In This World. The director hired locals and gave them the scenarios, but no script. They acted as if they would if they really were in those situations. It's the story of two boys smuggling themselves out of Afghanistan to England. Also fascinating. I show this in one of my classes, too.

--

And now, if any of my students read this board, my cover is blown. Damn. This is especially disturbing in light of the "True Confessions" and "Too Much Information" threads.

[hobocamp]

I just watched Mad Hot Ballroom last night. Little kids doing the tango just cracks my shit up. I laughed, I cried, I actually thought to myself briefly, "Aw! I want to have kids!" I particularly love the teacher who looks to be about 18 who tears up when she says her students are becoming little ladies and gentlemen because of the program.

[minky]

I watched The Nomi Song last night. I think they did a good job of capturing Klaus Nomi and explaining what he was about.

[natchou]

I'd like to nominate Overnight, the story about Troy Duffy, a bartender from Boston, who got a 15 million dollars film contract from Miramax to make his very first movie called "The Boondock Saints" and a record deal from Maverick for his band called "The Brood" then having it all shoved aside. I don't know why, but I found it particuraily sad to see this guy just fall from grace like that and destroying relatioships with his friends and family because he thinks he's better than everybody else and nobody "understands his talent". The part that got me the most was the end when we see what happened to all the members of Troy's band after they seperated. Everybody got other jobs, except one of Troy's friend named Tony who really believed in him and who ends up drinking away at a bar and the last one is Troy, who's seen standing on a sidewalk talking to himself. It's really a tale about what not to do when you get a shot in Hollywood.