Thursday, July 19, 2007

Sunday, July 8, 2007

Saturday, July 7, 2007

Strange But True Documentarians

Not exactly mockumentaries but definitely documentaries filmmakers that will have you scratching your brain. Some of these are well known, some were but have faded into the past. I've seen most of them. I'm still behind on my Werner Herzog but working hard to fix that. Check some of these out for some stranger than fiction fun.
Cane Toads by Mark Lewis. A seriously light hearted look at environmental disaster in Australia.
Home Movie by Chris Smith the director of American Movie, and The Yes Men also highly recommended docs
Tong Tana
"A Swedish crew trekked into the depths of the endangered Bornean rainforest to film this poetic documentary about the plight of the Penans and their most unusual ally, Bruno Manser - a young Swiss who has rejected 'civilization' to join the tribe and help fight international logging. Written by Dawn M. Barclift,IMDB"
Burden of Dreams Les Blank's masterpiece about the making of Fitzcaraldo. Catch the 20 minute short by Blank called "Werner Herzog Eats his Shoe"
The Young and the Dead Tyler Cassity and Hollywood Memorial Cemetary.
Hearts of Darkness-A Filmmakers Apocalypse "Documents the sensational events surrounding the making of 'Apocalypse Now' and Francis Ford Coppola's struggle with nature, governments, actors, and self-doubt. Includes footage and sound secretly recorded by Elanor Coppola, wife of Francis. Synopsis written on IMDB by Murray Chapman {muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au} "
Dark Days Mark Singer's (Not the actor) amazing award winning documentary about people living in the abandoned train tunnels beneath NYC. A must see.
Jupitor's Wife Michel Negroponte, a documentary filmmaker, meets Maggie one day in Central Park. Maggie claims to be married to the god Jupiter and the daughter of actor Robert Ryan. Michel gets to know Maggie over the next couple of years, and attempts to use her often outlandish stories as clues to reconstruct her past. Written by James Meek {james@oz.net}
Interesting and strangely compassionate.
Hands on a Hard Body
You find truth in the strangest places, 11 April 2000
Author: bongofish from Austin, Texas

I'm sure you've read enough of the other reviews to understand the story, so I won't go back over that. I simply wanted to add that this story is "deep". It is one of the most human and moving and exciting and funny documentaries I have ever seen. The movie in many ways transcends its limited scope and gives us glimpses into human nature that are truly universal. We see friendship, anger, sacrifice, jealousy, hope, pettiness, faith all arise from such a simple contest. The ending is so perfect that it'll bring a tear to your eye. To quote Benny, the sage of the film, "It's a human drama thing." Absolutely. from IMDB reviewer

I couldn't have said it better. I thought it was a joke at first and totally got into it by the end.