Last documentary you watched?

A companion thread to "last movie you watched?" - who's gonna kick this one off, then?

I watched SALESMAN again recently. Absolutely love it.

Hoping Criterion upgrades this to Blu soon. And, apparently, they're going to be releasing GREY GARDENS.

CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS. It's terrific.

Whenever M returns, we can get this stickied...

Can't remember the exact name but it was about an alleged Nibiru/Planet X flyby and its possibilities with 2012.

FRIENDS OF KIM. Excellent Dutch documentary about a 2004 visit to North Korea by a party of young Westerners belonging to the pro-Pyongyang Korean Friendship Association, an organisation headed by a Spaniard named Alejandro Cao de Benos who holds a North Korean passport and became the first foreigner ever to be officially employed by the regime. Are these travellers brave idealists who have seen through Western lies about North Korea, or are they simply the proverbial useful idiots of one of the worst governments in the world? As the trip wears on, and as they imbibe more and more of a relentlessly "official" vision of North Korea presented to them by their hosts, conflict breaks out among these foreign guests, and a lone American reporter from ABC who's tagging along with them is set on a collision course with the true believer Cao de Benos. As one might expect, the film offers no more than a glimpse of life in perhaps the most closed society on Earth (although even this glimpse is, of course, fascinating), but it does succeed as an examination of a small and little-discussed corner of its relations with the outside world, namely its dealings with Western tourists.

UPSIDE DOWN: THE CREATION RECORDS STORY. Solid but unspectacular account of the rise and fall of the British independent record label that launched the careers of such bands as The Jesus and Mary Chain, Primal Scream, My Bloody Valentine, Ride and Oasis. It's informative enough, I guess, and certainly watchable, but there seems little in the way of fresh insight into either the music or the personalities - and given the personalities involved, the film seems surprisingly, well, bland.

TOKYO-GA. Wim Wenders travels to Japan in search of the spirit of the films of his idol Ozu. He visits the great man's grave and chats to an actor and a cinematographer who frequently collaborated with him, but this is certainly no mere Ozu doco - the bulk of this film, in fact, consists of strangely chilled-out and hypnotic travelogue, a video diary (so to speak - shot in 1983, it was actually done on 16mm) of Wenders' wanderings through Tokyo, with the topic of Ozu abandoned entirely for long stretches as Wenders delivers his own musings on cinema over a sort of ambient jazz soundtrack that in places sounds like slowed-down prototype acid house. The effect is simultaneously stimulating and soothing. The travelogue takes in, among other things, a conversation with Werner Herzog atop the Tokyo Tower (in which Herzog seems to be complaining that it's impossible to capture "pure images" - like those in FIZTCARRALDO, presumably - in such a landscape of urban sprawl), a pachinko parlour, a factory where plastic replicas of traditional Japanese dishes are created for display in restaurant windows, and an aborted visit to Tokyo Disneyland. A fascinating and unique film, highly recommended to Ozu buffs (obviously), Japanophiles and cinéastes in general.

Never heard of TOKYO-GA. May have to give it a look.

I think you'd enjoy it. Of Wenders' other work, I think I've seen only PARIS, TEXAS, but TOKYO-GA has put me in the mood to check out more of his stuff. Is there anything you'd recommend?

I'm not particularly well-versed in Wenders' work. I was so put-off by WINGS OF DESIRE that I've stayed away from his films (that said, I'm really interested in the full-length version of UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD, which will hopefully get a great Blu-Ray release from Criterion at some point in the future).

Cheers. Yeah, the full-length UNTIL THE END OF THE WORLD does sound interesting (from what little I know of the film I'm picturing 2046 on a EUREKA-sized canvas), and it should at least be striking on Blu-ray. Wenders seems to have done an awful lot, and it's difficult to know where to start with him - especially as he seems to be very much one of those directors people either love or hate. I have a feeling, though, that his early years as one of the leading lights of the New German Cinema in the 1970s are where much of his best work lies. Must investigate further.

FOOD, INC.

Enjoyed it very much.

101. Fly-on-the-wall documentary of Depeche Mode's 1988 American tour, blending concert footage with oddly poignant, ALMOST FAMOUS-ish travelogue of teenage fans following their idols across the country. I hadn't realised quite how big Depeche Mode were (are?) in the States (some of the scenes seem to border on the second coming of Beatlemania), or how effectively their deeply 1980s synths-and-drum-machines sound could cross over to the live arena.

my 5 year old first twin, she loves Pandas

when she was 1, she couldn't stop crying, so I gave her this Embassy Suite Panda that was out that year, 2008, for the Olympics

http://embassysuites.hilton.com/en/es/promotions/es_panda/index.jhtml?cid=EM,ES,Usocpanda0612,Future0612

and ever since then, she's been collecting anything Panda

she has at least 6 stuffed Pandas of all sizes including one that's life size

and Panda backpack, Panda lunch boxes, Panda blankets, Panda PJs, Panda Jackets, etc etc

http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2012/feb/10/tv-review-wild-about-pandas?newsfeed=true

SANS SOLEIL (SUNLESS). Chris Marker's philosophical and political travelogue - shot largely but by no means exclusively in Japan - has a number of very striking thematic and stylistic similarities to Wim Wenders' TOKYO-GA, with which it would make a terrific double bill (oddly enough, Marker actually appears briefly in TOKYO-GA - seems Wenders ran into him while he was shooting SANS SOLEIL in Tokyo). It also recalls KOYAANISQATSI and BARAKA, but has a more didactic, Godardian tone than any of those films - an aspect that the viewer is likely to find either its major strength or its great weakness. Some will find its endless narration an intellectual tour de force, overflowing with insight, while others will consider it just so much pretentious waffle. Personally, I'd have preferred it if Marker had allowed his images to speak for themselves much more. Still, SANS SOLEIL is undeniably vibrant, beguiling and occasionally powerful stuff. Highly recommended for fans of Hitchcock's VERTIGO, by the way.

Greatest Tank Battles Season 1

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1973370/

Frozen Planet Complete Series

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2092588/

LAKE OF FIRE. Tony Kaye's epic documentary (strikingly shot in stark black and white by the director himself) on abortion in the United States and the various controversies and confrontations surrounding the issue. Some seventeen years in the making and clocking in at two-and-a-half hours, it's an impressive technical achievement, as well as endlessly thought-provoking (a succession of pro-choicers and pro-lifers are brought on to air their views, including famous names such as Noam Chomsky and Alan Dershowitz). Be warned, though: it is not an easy film to watch, indeed it's sometimes extremely harrowing. There is graphic footage of abortion procedures that seems highly likely to shock and upset virtually every viewer regardless of his or her stance on abortion.

LAKE OF FIRE has been acclaimed as a model of evenhandedness on a hugely divisive, complicated and emotive issue (and Kaye has reportedly admitted that he does not know exactly where he stands on abortion), but personally I don't feel that the film always succeeds in coming across as being quite as balanced as it's made out to be – or at least it does sometimes seem to simplify the topic somewhat. By and large, the pro-choicers are depicted as rational, tolerant atheists, while the pro-lifers tend to be depicted as foaming-at-the-mouth religious fanatics. Granted, one of the pro-lifers interviewed is Nat Hentoff, an atheist and a liberal from Jewish stock, who clearly does not object to abortion on religious or political grounds, but, alas, he's given relatively little screentime. Whether by accident or design, for great stretches of its mammoth running time LAKE OF FIRE appears to paint the abortion debate purely in terms of religious conflict, and the viewer might be forgiven for assuming that attitudes toward abortion pretty much hinge on whether a person is part of the so-called Christian right. In reality, the issue isn't nearly as straightforward as that.

An interesting article on the legendarily eccentric Kaye: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3665724/I-did-abominable-things.html

GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD. Scorsese's vast documentary is a pacier and more compelling affair than its 208-minute running time might suggest, although those who aren't already Beatles and/or Harrison fans needn't bother with it.

I watched the 9/11 Truth documentary "Explosive Evidence" with my mom last night. Very powerful and hard-hitting, even for a full-fledged choir member like myself. And their case is utterly irrefutable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YW6mJOqRDI4

Drax wrote:

I watched the 9/11 Truth documentary "Explosive Evidence" with my mom last night. Very powerful and hard-hitting, even for a full-fledged choir member like myself. And their case is utterly irrefutable.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YW6mJOqRDI4

Looks like I jumped off in time.

THE PSYCHO LEGACY. Independently produced, but involving pretty much everyone major connected to the films still breathing. It's got some good info. Wanna see a Perkins Q&A (from the late 80's probably) on disc 2. They cover all four movies. I'd recommend it, but try to rent it.

Any mention of Herrmann?

Largo's Shark wrote:

Any mention of Herrmann?

Nothing new that I recall. Most of the new tidbits I heard were about the sequels as most of the people associated with the film who were interviewed were involved in the sequels. Really the doc is interesting for it's focus on the sequels.

I think it was Tom Holland, who wrote II, who said that they thought of John Williams (or someone had suggested it), and he said they were like, "Naah, if you want Herrmann you've gotta get Goldsmith." It is a shame Goldsmith wasn't around to be interviewed. The diresctor of II died before he could be interviewed.

I did learn this random person from PSYCHO IV is still hot:

Hilarious.