The documentary thread: Sometimes, non-fiction is good.

[GayNow]

I've been on a documentary kick lately. There's just something about a well researched doc that makes me happy. Here are some of my favorites recently:

Pornography: A Secret History of Civilisation: A serious, non-titillating history of pornography, from the earliest days of erotic art right up to the present day's multimedia.

The Times of Harvey Milk: A documentary of the successful career and assasination of San Francisco's first elected gay councillor.

Before Stonewall: The history of the Gay and Lesbian community before the Stonewall riots began the major gay rights movement.

After Stonewall: Documentary/Historical retrospective of the Gay Rights movement from the 1969 Stonewall riots to the present.

The Celluloid Closet: A documentary surveying the various Hollywood screen depictions of homosexuals and the attitudes behind them throughout the history of North American film.

Those are the first that come to my head at the moment. I would love to read about what other documentaries others are watching.

(Mods: Please move if there is another thread like this.)

[Hyo shin]

Yang ± Yin: Gender in Chinese Cinema (1996)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118203/

[Hemiola]

For me, the most watchable docus are the marvelous series that Ken Burns did for PBS:

"The Civil War" (just recently purchased on DVD )
"The Brooklyn Bridge"
"Baseball"
etc.
etc.

But I still look back with affection at these famous PBS series:

"Civilisation", with Kenneth Clark--still the best culture-as-related-to-art-and-music series ever to run on TV!
"The Ascent of Man", with Dr. Jacob Bronowski--a great humanist's reflections on science and society. Inspiring.
"The Long Search", with Ninian Smart--still the best overall look at the religious impulses of humanity.
"Heritage: Civilisation and the Jews", with Abba Eban--self-explanatory

I might add that occasionally The History Channel or A & E will come up with the odd interesting show or miniseries, even if they are interrupted by irritating commercials.

[Gatito Grande]

Ahem.

http://thekittenboard.com/board/viewtopic.php?t=2183

GG Since you asked, GayNow! Out

ETA: there's actually a couple of documentaries I've been meaning to talk about---but I'll wait to see which thread gets shut first!

[bytrsuite]

I think you can keep posting here. It's easier. I'm sure some of the links in the old thread don't work anymore and editing those old transferred threads is a pain.

[mscheckmate]

deleted

[madeinnz]

I love the documentary series that has filmed the same group of UK kids even seven years. They're called 7up, 14up, 21up ... you get the idea. I've just watched 49up again. Its amazing how peoples lives take lots of twists and turns. Its also amazing how some kids at 7 knew who they wanted to be and pursued it. Fascinating stuff. Can't wait until the next one.

[VMarie]

Very interesting documentary I watched called "The Aggressives." Basically profiled african-american lesbians who dress like men (ballers, and such) and how they live their lives. Interesting for most that it wasn't a factor of wanting a sex change, but just outwardly exhibiting their gender expression.

[Willowlicious]

We watched "Shut Up and Sing", the doc about the controversy surrounding the Dixie Chicks criticism of Bush, this weekend. It was excellent. I have to say I REALLY admire these women. In a time when almost no one of consequence was questioning the actions of the Bush administration, for a band with a highly conservative fan base to speak up was amazing. They didn't realize what they were stepping in right away, but even when it became clear that their careers were in danger, they didn't back down.

Anyway, it's a fascinating documentary. I highly recommend it. Here's a clip of the trailer (banned on NBC even in 2006!) on YouTube:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=wstgQpWnxaE

Here's a link to the film's My Space page. It has a big free speech discussion and a longer trailer:

http://www.myspace.com/shutupandsing

[JustSkipIt]

I have Shut up and Sing and An Inconvenient Truth both at the top of my Queue so hopefully I'll have more to say soon. But in the meantime, I can't recommend When we Were Kings highly enough. It's about a heavyweight fight between George Foreman and Muhammad Ali (sp) and it is set in a very intense social and political situation. The contrast in the two fighters and particularly the two men is amazing.

[Knock yourself out]

I recommend This Film Has Not Been Rated which is about the MPAA. Some eye opening stuff about what does and does not get passed with a notable bias against the "other": the contrast between American Pie and But I'm a Cheerleader was depressing. Also interesting contributions from Kimberley Peirce and Jamie Babbit.

[JustSkipIt]

Last night we watched An Inconvenient Truth (2007 Best Documentary Oscar winner). It was quite impressive and simultaneously depressing and uplifting. It's incredibly clear as Gore presents scientific documentation after scientific documentation of the ecologic crisis we currently face. Some of the more powerful points he made:

* In a recent review of articles over the last 20 or 30 years in scientific peer-reviewed journals, the reviewers looked at 10% or 982 studies. Of those zero found that global warning was doubtful. Think about that . If you extrapolate that 9820 of 9820 peer reviewed studies found incontrovertible evidence of global warming.

That same study looked at article in the popular media. 63% of those articles stated that there was a lack of scientific evidence of global warming or that global warming doesn't exist.

* Throughout the movie he shows slides/photographs of the radical changes in water sources over even the last 20-30 years. It's shocking. Thousands and thousands of square miles of lakes are just gone from the earth.

* Near the end he is talking about large glaciers breaking off and melting. He shows flooding that is likely to occur on maps. Basically all of the Netherlands. Areas of India where 60 million people live. Areas of China where 40 million people live. Manhattan. California. I don't even remember all the places.

* One thing I love is that the movie ends with Melissa Etheridge's "I need to Wake Up" (2007 Oscar winner - best song) and throughout that note after note of "what you can do" shows on screen. It's quite a refresher after the movie.

Everyone should see this.

[midnightmoonsong]

Hummm....my fav documentarys at this point are paradise lost and paradise lost 2 revelations.
Tara

[maudmac]

There's a great documentary airing on LOGO lately - Dangerous Living: Coming Out in the Developing World. (Click on "See All Airtimes" to see when it's going to be on again.)

It's heartbreaking and inspiring at the same time. They talk to LGBT activists in places like Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Egypt, Namibia, Uganda, Honduras, and Jamaica. For those of us not living in such places, it's kind of mindblowing to hear what it's like. And it strengthens my resolve to be as out as I can possibly be here, where it is easier (though not always easy).

Anyway, check it out. Highly recommended. It's about an hour and a half long, and it focuses as much on women as men.

[Gatito Grande]

Ack, I just saw a docu that made me want to THROW something at my TV.

It was on the Discovery Health Channel, and it was about face transplant surgery---set in China.

After the success of the first partial face transplant, done in France in 2005, it was a question of who would go next.

Chinese doctors were given the go-ahead. There was a burn victim (an engineer at a chemical plant, who received his disfiguring burns in an act of heroism), who required a FULL face transplant (what would be the world's first).

...but then this OTHER guy is presented (through a photograph). A victim of a bear mauling, he needs a partial face transplant.

I guess that, on the basis of "Let's replicate what's already been done, before we try anything new", the bear-mauling guy gets to go FIRST.

AAAARGH!

Anyone w/ half a brain could SEE that this (bear-mauling) guy is a DISASTROUSLY WRONG candidate for such an operation . . . with its required LIFELONG follow-up!!

The guy was from a village SO remote, that it was an 8-hour hike from the nearest highway! He'd NEVER been out of that village before, and it was a 4-day trip (by train) to the city where the operation would be done. He didn't speak Mandarin, and had to have a cousin translate for him.

Get the picture? You're going to try to do 21st century medicine, on an 18th century guy?! Does Not Compute!

Sure enough: after a year in the hospital, bear-mauling guy, w/ his new face INSISTS upon returning to his remote village . . . and a year after that: yup, there are the tell-tale signs of rejection. Because he's not taking his medicine!

GG And meanwhile, the burn-victim engineer languishes, untreated, because the hospital won't give the go-ahead, cuz the first guy's case "hasn't succeeded". Out

So.Freaking.Unfair.

[By the end of the ep, we're spared the sight of the BM dude's (heh) face falling off . . . but you KNOW it's coming. ]

Oh: the documentary's just called Face Transplant. It is informative . . . if infuriating.

[Zooeys_Bridge]

Go see 'Helvetica'. Please. Right now.

[restlessminds]

The new BBC nature docu., Yellowstone, is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. Arguably even better than Planet Earth, though you know, we're talking tiny margins here. Groundbreaking photography, a quite wondrous soundtrack and an old school voice-over. What more could you want? For those in the UK you can find it on iplayer. Can't post the link I'm afraid 'cos I haven't been registered long enough. Happy watching.

[Paint the Sky]

The new BBC nature docu., Yellowstone, is a thing of beauty and a joy forever.

I couldn't agree more, it's a brilliant documentary. Here's the link to parts one and two on BBC iPlayer:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/search/?q=yellowstone

[WebWarlock]

Here is one I am using in a Gender Issue course.

"A Girl Named Kai"
http://revver.com/video/811655/a-girl-named-kai/
or
http://www.caachi.com/Members/artsengin ... d_kai/view

About a Taiwanese woman and how she sees herself (or is trying too), how she feels about her parents and her love for another woman.

This is from 2004 and I am curious about what she might be doign now?

Tim

[restlessminds]

South Pacific. Yet another spectacular natural history series from the BBC. Chock full of ground-breaking images and first-filmed events. Simply wondrous.

For those in the UK, here's the link http://tinyurl.com/mshzvx

Enjoy.

[restlessminds]

Baby Beauty Queens - this really quite disturbing phenomenon has made it's ugly presence known in the UK. Some of it is nothing short of child abuse. Has to be seen to be believed. Was very taken with the little working-class kid though who actually seemed to gain something from the whole experience, and how interesting that her mother is easily the most emotionally sophisticated of the lot. As for Pam, the ex 'hand-model', I swear I would have thought Chris Morris had been let back on the tele if I hadn't known what I was watching. Either that, or she was a new character on Little Britain - you couldn't make her up though. On iplayer http://tinyurl.com/kn6dta

Also, The Story of Maths is getting a well-deserved repeat. Fascinating stuff. On iplayer http://tinyurl.com/3ncnyn

[foreverchanges]

How Earth Made Us - Iain Stewart tells the epic story of how the planet has shaped our history. Sensational stuff. Available on iplayer, can't add link though 'cos it's my first post with this account.

[Zooeys_Bridge]

The Rape of Europa

The book, by Lynn H. Nicholas, explores the Nazi plunder of looted art treasures from occupied countries, and the consequences. It covers a range of associated activities: Nazi appropriation and storage, patriotic concealment and smuggling during World War II, discoveries by the Allies, and the extraordinary tasks of preserving, tracking and returning by the American Monuments officers and their colleagues.

The documentary follows the book and is one of the most powerful and interesting films I've ever seen. I actually bought the teacher's edition which is three discs full of extra materials. I also did a research project and museum exhibition based on a lot of the stuff. My professor's husband was one of the Monuments Men.

Absolutely fascinating and mind-boggling. You'll never think of the Nazis, art, or museums the same way.

[Hemiola]

I absolutely agree on the excellence of this documentary, which I saw on PBS.

For me, the saddest aspects of Nazi pillaging were: first, the glorious works of arts and crafts that are still missing, and continue to this day to leave a gigantic hole in our cultural memory. To reference just one of these works, think of the Amber Room. This was a room completely covered in sculpted amber, a material as rare and expensive in the 18th century (when one of the German kings gave it as a gift to the Czar) as it is now. The Russians are currently working on trying to reconstruct the room with modern copies but, as good as they are, they still don't measure up to the exquisite beauty of the originals. This was proved when, miraculously, two of the original panels were discovered in Germany in the 1990s and seeing them clearly shows what a wondrous work of art was lost to Nazi rapacity.

Second, I never fail to weep at sight of the large storage rooms filled with recovered artifacts. These paintings, sculptures and other objects that were stolen from individual owners and families (mostly Jewish) that were later murdered in the death camps. It is consequently impossible for these works to be reclaimed, and they remain in a kind of limbo.

And of course, there are hundreds, maybe even thousands of works that have just vanished, possibly forever.

[drlloyd11]

Let me recommend some documentaries I have loved.

In the general theme of GBLT

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paragraph_175
Paragraph 175
This was depressing at parts, but also somewhat inspiring. The part where a man tried to get his lover out of a concentration camp by dressing as a
German officer was more amazing than any spy film, and when his lover told he needed to stay to help his parents and nieces in the camps because they would die without him, was more romantic and grim than any tear jerker.




http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110217/
Jupiter's wife
What if that street person with the outlandish story telling the truth..sort of?



http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424565/
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
So small, so simple, but beautiful in the simplest ways of love and trust..Also..happy ending!




http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117293/
Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills
Only watchable now that the boys (now adults) are free.
Before then you want to punch the TV 50 times.