Any good documentaries out there?

Has anyone seen The War on Democracy from John Pilger? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1029172/

Kieslowski documentaries, anyone?
I’ve only seen Gadajace Glowy – Talking Heads.

The Cruise!

A couple of my favorites are:

The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition
This is fascinating look at Sir Ernest Shackelton’s 1914 expedition to Antarctica. It totally transported me to that time and place and made me feel what they went through on their two year journey back to civilization. All from the comfort of my viewing “cave” in my basement.

Chuck Berry Hail! Hail! Rock ‘n’ Roll
I love the subjects, Chuck Berry and Rock & Roll, but besides that it is so bleeping entertaining watching Chuck Berry demand to be paid in cash every day during filming. I have the four disc version of this and I think that tidbit is actually on one of the extras, which are exhaustive. But the concert footage itself is exceptional. And to see Keith Richards actually be responsible and in charge was also enlightening.

Children Underground
The Bridge
Streetwise
Lessons of Darkness
Sans Soleil
Surfwise

“The Sorrow and the Pity” Marcel Ophuls (1970)
“The Middle Kingdom, China” M. Antonioni (1972)
“War” Gwynne Dyer (1983)
“The Gleaners and I” Agnes Varda (2000)
“The Anderson Platoon” Pierre Schoendoerffer (1969)
“Heartworn Highways” (1975)
“Night and Fog” (1950)
“Decline of Western Civilization” Penelope Spheris (1980)
“The World of Silence” Jacques-Yves Cousteau/Louis Malle (1954)
“The Black Tulip” (1987)
“The Eye of Vichy” Claude Chabrol (1995)
“7 Up” British series (every seven years like the title since…?!)

PARIS IS BURNING

Grass, a little dated, but overall a good doc on nomads, when they were still around.

Interesting that no one has mentioned Robert Kramer’s Route One USA (1989) yet. It’s quite a superb documentary.

One of my favourites is
Born Into Brothels: Calcutta’s Red Light Kids – Zana Briski, Ross Kauffman

Primary (1960) by Robert Drew. I love watching the people, it’s like a perfect time-capsule.

Posted in the STL! thread, but it deserves to be posted here.

The Trap – What Happened To Our Dreams Of Freedom?

Changed me life.

I just cannot get into Man On Wire. Is there something wrong with me? so many people love it. I’m a doc freak, so I’d have to say my faves are: Born into Brothels, Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, Wordplay,Journeys with George, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Iraq in Fragments, Very Young Girls, And the Devil Came on Horseback, Paper Clips. Most of these are Social/Cultural docs. All of them, in my opinion, completely moving and/or eye opening.

I highly suggest Love, Lust, and Everything Inbetween: The Enigma of Young Love as Told Through Tirosh Schneider

Just saw The Decline of Western Civilization about the L.A. punk movement. Fantastic!

For those of you who just want my documentary recommendations, skip ahead, as much of what follows is a lengthy rant about genetically engineered foodcrops…

I know it was mentioned on this thread a very long time ago, as in over a year prior, but the whole argument in favour of genetically modified crops is absolute crap.

I was at a public meeting with Tony Blair’s former Environmental Minister, who lost his portfolio when he expressed SCEPTICISM (not outright condemnation, just a little healthy SCEPTICISM) about genetically modified foods.

Gee, Penn and Teller, I wonder why THAT happened?

Representatives from Bayer and Monsanto were present, incognito in the crowd of this public meeting, but revealed themselves during question time. Predictably, the lemmings used all the same bogus arguments Penn and Teller and their ilk use: it will feed the whole world, stop starvation, blah blah blah.

However, the hilarious part came when a slightly aged lady in the audience stood up called “bullshit” on the corporate puppets, who were sent to the meeting as company reps in order to sway public sentiment (what, you think those overpaid assholes rocked up for free on a weekday evening?).

She asked Tweedle Dumb and Tweedle Dumber how consumers would know the contents of unlabeled products (e.g. chips mades from GE potatoes cooked in GE canola oil purchased from a takeaway joint). She asked “When do WE get a choice about what we eat?”

Touche. Suddenely, the Corporate Clowns were left speechless.

Penn and Teller, who obviously swallow the crap from companies like DuPont, Monsanto and Bayer (who do you think sponsors the networks on which they appear?), should have seen the look of disbelief on these two corporate lemmings. I thought the female of the two was going to get up and storm away from the meeting.

Funny how people lived on organic food since the beginning of time, well before chemically treated foods, without fear of the human race dying out in some Malthusian nightmare.

Strange how villages in the middle of nowhere tended their own crops and supported thousands of people on what they had learned from the ancients about managing food economically.

Odd how the size of the human race exploded during the past few hundred years.

Rather fey how one of the motivations to genetically modify food is so it will “keep” longer so it can be shipped overseas…when the REAL solution would be to reduce the amount of food we transport long distance and not store food for such a long time (we’re not squirrels!).

For example, why DOES Tasmania (not all that far from the South Pole) ship 25,000 tonnes of onions per year to Europe?

I CALL BULLSHIT ON PENN AND TELLER!

The biggest trick television (and mass media in general) uses nowadays is making certain people seem like rebels (“manufactured rebellion”) so the young ’uns will follow the tune like the Pied Piper of Hamelin.

Barack Obama.

Michael Moore.

Marilyn Manson.

Penn and Teller.

Don’t get me wrong, Penn and Teller are funny enough comedians, but that’s it…they’re comedians, and their fierce blustering about important socio-ecological issues should be awarded the same level of authenticity as their glammed-up nightclub magic act. Just like pulling rabbits from hats, Penn and Teller, when it comes to be bastions of reason, are really just working another illusion. Don’t disbelieve everything they say, but do approach them with SCEPTICISM.

Can I get demoted at the Autuers for saying that?

I’m not saying I’ve all the answers, that’s because a lot of what I’ve wondered about is inexplicable bullshit perpetuated by bastards that Penn and Teller happily defend. And if Penn and Teller can’t justify these things, they’ve no right to call “bullshit” on people who sit on the other side of the fence.

Contrary to what was stated earlier, ORGANIC FARMING is NOT the only alternative to GMOs. You CAN have non-organic without resorting to GMOs. Also, there is BIODYNAMIC FARMING which is again different to organic farming.

Finally let me just say, organic farming as a term didn’t even exist centuries ago…‘twas the only type of farming around and its purpose was to feed, not for profit. Along comes advancements in biology and chemistry and other branches of science and the Industrial Revolution, which led to some good things…and also some bad things. They never had famines in Africa like we have now before GMOs happened along. Not saying it’s the causes, but if this stuff is critic proof, it makes you wonder why so many people are starving…ESPECIALLY when organic food is a niche market nowadays and GMOs in food are almost everywhere!

Answer: it is how food and wealth are distributed, not how much is grown, that makes the difference. The world throws away millions of tonnes of food per day. We have more than enough. Look at how many bread rolls and other items your local diner discards after each day, look at the food that goes to waste or is left behind by customers at fast food restaurants…now imagine that all over the world, every day…it would fill entire football stadiums.

And if you think organic food is no better than GMO stuff, try it and taste the difference. My taste buds don’t lie. I wouldn’t take the word of Penn (or is it Teller?) who obviously spends every other second of his life underneath the golden arches and talking to the rat at Chuck-Up-Cheese.

Oh, you want a documentary recommendation?

Far away from the fantasy land of Pig Penn and Yella…a documentary about how Silvio Berlusconi controls and corrupts the Italian media…

Sabina Guzzanti has an idea for a politically-oriented television show…word gets out she takes aim at Silvio with a rather demeaning impression of the Italian P.M…the show is canned after one episode is produced.

Penn and Teller never have this problem. Wonder why?

And like Bill Maher, Sabina Guzzanti is a comic, but she’s also (like Bill Maher) a credible social commentator who can make an intelligent point without screaming at you (P and T, take note). She’s easy on the eyes, too, and actually has a mind.

Also, “Lovestruck: Wrestling’s Number 1 Fan” is an Australian documentary about a wrestling fan who travels to WrestleMania, meets Jerry Lawler (her hero)…the fan in question is also a rather small, benign looking 55 year old woman.

A story behind this: I met the subject of the film, Sue Chuter (sounds like “shooter”) at a wrestling show in Melbourne in 1999. I never forgot this lady: she was extremely passionate about rasslin’ and showed me her Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler key chain, told me how she went to WrestleMania and the rest. Flash forward seven years later, and I’m watching this film. Five minutes in, I realise the subject is the same crazy lady I met years earlier. Afterward, director Megan Spencer, who was present, intercepted me and asked if I dressed for the film. I explained I often dress in tie-dye and I also met her subject years earlier. She re-introduced me to Sue and I told both Megan and Sue how much I enjoyed the film, which was actually ten years in the making. I recommend it to any wrestling fan, although it seems difficult to find on D.V.D. (believe me, I’ve searched for it).

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