Is This The Real Life? Documentaries You Love

[brinksteria]

workgeordie said:

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.

A heads up: Cinemax has put Born into Brothels onto its rotation this month. I just saw it On Demand, and it was excellent. The children's hardships are presented with frankness but without exploitation (I felt). And the filmmaker goes beyond documenting their lives. She starts out as their teacher and becomes their advocate.

Each snippet on the eight children felt too short; it left me wanting more. Still, their individual personalities & temperaments come across in a rich and palpable way. You get a lovely sense of their specific style as burgeoning artists. Also On Demand is a 10-minute update of the children three years later.

[indygirl]

natchou said:

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"

This sounds very interesting. Where did you see it?

I recently saw The Paperclip Project on HBO. The segments with the concentration camp survivors was especially moving.

[natchou]

indygirl said:

This sounds very interesting. Where did you see it?

I saw an ad on the Pay Pew View channel and my aunt rented it for me at zip.ca, a website where you can rent DVDs. And the guy wasn't a bartender from Boston, he was from Hollywood, my mistake!

[chiqui]

I saw an ad on the Pay Pew View channel

Is this a comment on the quality of movies on that channel, or perhaps a Freudian slip?

[natchou]

chiqui said:

I saw an ad on the Pay Pew View channel

Is this a comment on the quality of movies on that channel, or perhaps a Freudian slip?

Oops. LOL I meant Pay *Per* View Channel. Sorry.

[Deleted]

littleediebeale said:

Last night, Cinemax premiered The Children of Leningradsky which, I believe, was nominated for an Academy Award last year or the year before. Anyway, if there was a movie I could flip some switch and unsee, it would be this one. The subject matter, the homeless children in the Moscow train station, was HORRIBLE. I mean, like rip your heart out stuff. Apparently there are 300,000 homeless children in Russia and a majority of them live and beg in or around this train station. These poor, poor children -- caked in filth, violent, huffing glue -- some of them as young as 8! WTF? I don't know anything about Russian society, but what the hell is going on there that allows this indecency to happen?

I also saw a doc called Children Underground (I think) on Cinemax a few years ago -- basically the same deal -- kids in Romania (?) living on the streets -- having to beg and trade sex for cash. Stomach-churning horror.

I finally saw The Children of Leningradsky and after having seen Children Underground several times, I thought I could handle it. God was I wrong. After the ending and the fate of that poor girl Tanya, I cried so hard I was almost hyperventilating. My best friend recently adopted a little girl from Russia who is truly the most beautiful and sweetest child I have ever met and all I could think of was what could have been.
WTF is wrong with the world that we treat our children this way. And not only in Russia & Romania but throughout the world. I saw a news doc on children as young as 5 in the Philippines being imprisoned in adult jails sharing cells with pedophiles. Approx 20k are homeless and living on the streets and once again huffing paint to escape their horrific lives. Fucking tragic that human treat their children worse than animals treat their young.

[Deleted]

indygirl said:

natchou said:

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"

This sounds very interesting. Where did you see it?

Sundance Channel is running it this month, too. I DVR'd it last week and just watched it. I recommend that anyone wanting to see an asshole get everything he ever deserved, watch this movie and enjoy.

[indygirl]

I just saw it this week. And I really agree with your spoilered assessment.

[Deleted]

smilla said:

Has anyone seen the documentary, Crumb, about the life of R. Crumb, the cartoonist? Good documentary...don't know how I feel about the subject.

I've seen it and found it pretty disturbing. Crumb wears his emotional immaturity like he wears that damn hat, out there for all the world to see. Unfortunately, I think a lot of people saw it as just another "artist as screwed up deviant" movie. The way I see it, Crumb was lucky to have found a paying gig where he didn't actually have to interact with other people much. Antisocial, passive-agressive, fetishistic little weasel.

I saw Rise last week, the dancing/krumping documentary. It wasn't perfect but I'd give it points for avoiding a lot of the "street kids make good" cliches. The director really took the dancers seriously as artists and some of what the have to say about developing their art is very interesting. I think it would be very interesting to anyone interested in dance or art.

Capturing the Friedmans gave me nightmares. That family was just so... not good. I really liked how every time you thought you knew what was going on and who was lying, the film would take another turn. If you see it on DVD, watch the special features for more info on the investigation and prosecution.

[pistachioofliberty]

I can't wait to see Following Sean.