Is This The Real Life? Documentaries You Love

[workgeordie]

I have bought the Stevie DVD a while ago but I never had the guts to watch it until last weekend. What an amazing story told so beautifully. This must be surely in the Top 3 of all documentaries I have ever watched. The last 30 minutes were just blurred by tears and in some instances I could hear my heart rip as I was torn between sadness, contempt & compassion towards Stevie. But then I was in good company with the filmmaker Steve James, for whom the filmmaking was truly a tour de force. Recommended to everyone!

[Deleted]

workgeordie said:

I would like to put forward for your consideration New York Doll.

Excellent suggestion! I went out and bought New York Doll yesterday—and loved it so much I just watched it again today. It's absolutely wonderful << and completely heartbreaking in a way >>. The LDS Sisters who were friends of Arthur were just the sweetest things, too. However, David Johannson's backstage "attempts at humor" towards Arthur's reilgion made want to punch him in the face. Jerk.

Also—Steve is another of my all-time faves. What a sad, sad story.

[Deleted]

I don't know anything about Stevie. What is the story?

[workgeordie]

sandypants said:

I don't know anything about Stevie. What is the story?

Steve James, Academy award nominated director of the widely acclaimed documentary "Hoop Dreams", brings you a moving film about James' relationship with an adult suffering the after effects of extreme childhood neglect.

As a child, Stevie had been placed and removed from every foster home in Southern Illinois and as an adult, he was arrested for a wide range of criminal acts. Having lost touch for 10 years, James revisits the friendship with the now mid-twenties Fielding. During the course of filming, Stevie is arrested for a horrifying crime. James struggles between his affection for Stevie and the reality of the crime he has committed while exploring the forces that shaped Stevie's life. STEVIE is ultimately a film about the humanity and compassion that can be found in even the darkest and most unlikely places.

So sad, so good, so recommended!

[Deleted]

^Thanks Work Geordie. Sounds compelling. I am will definately check it out.

[hobocamp]

Ugh, careful though. My friends and I were planning on going out for the night after watching Stevie, and we were all so freaked out and bummed that we all went home by ourselves.

[dragonflie]

I just watched The Parrots of Telegraph Hill and I highly recommend it.

[BarbR]

dragonflie said:

I just watched The Parrots of Telegraph Hill and I highly recommend it.

Just rented this one yesterday from Netflix, and was coming on to recommend it! Beautiful, fascinating movie. Glad you enjoyed it too.

Wanted to add a correction, for those who might look it up: "The WILD Parrots of Telegraph Hill".

[dragonflie]

Thanks BarbR, my mistake.

[alcyone]

Ooh, I adore The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill-- usually I don't have much love for vagabond Californian hippie types, but the parrot guy just seemed so wise and... balanced, somehow, and his commentaries on the birds were really fascinating. (It helps that I've got a sweet little nanday conure myself, so all the parrot trivia and closeup shots were super-cool to me). If you liked The Wild Parrots, I'll put in a good word for David Attenborough's series The Life of Birds, which came out in a nice shiny DVD edition a few years ago.

On a related note, it's interesting to compare TWPoTH with Grizzly Man, which was released at about the same time. I felt as though the two films provided an excellent illustration of two contrasting ways of "loving" nature-- watching the parrot guy's respectful treatment of the birds, it really became obvious just how selfish and pathological the grizzly dude's "love" of bears really was.