Documentaries

[Dale]

Running on the Sun: The Badwater 135 -- directed by Mel Stuart, this movie chronicles the 1999 Badwater 135 ultramarathon, probably the most grueling of all races, held in Death Valley every July. It starts 283 feet below sea level and ascends to nearly 9,000 feet, and the temperatures are as high as 125 degrees. Stuart follows several of the competitors, age 29 to 67, including two amputees, showing their pre-race training methods and the trials they face during the race. It's interesting to see that some of the older runners fare better, due to their mental strength. I never get tired of watching this.

Touch the Sound -- this documents Evelyn Glennie, the first and perhaps only full-time solo percussionist in western culture. She's a Grammy award winner in classical music and has also recorded with Bjork, Steve Hackett, and others. The film shows her in a number of settings: solo in Grand Central Station, on the street, in Japan, and extensively with Fred Frith. She is profoundly deaf and "hears" through her feet and the rest of her body. If you're a musician, or even if you're not, you have to see this.

[iSTRONG]

Don't know if it's been mentioned but i found The falling man to be real good. It's about the picture of the man falling from WTC that caused such outrage at the time.

Picture: as a link, in case some of you are offended by it.

[iSTRONG]

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Don't know if it's been mentioned yet (saw Endless Summer and Riding Giants), but Billabong Odyssesy is a pretty awesome surf doc.

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Endless summer [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] This movie got a special place in my heart.

[Badger]

The King of Kong - I saw this movie because my friend worked on it and it turned out to be really interesting. It's about the competition for the world record on the arcade classic Donkey Kong. It features two men vying for the record- one a former video game whiz kid from the 80's turned restaurateur/hot sauce mogul and an unemployed engineer who becomes a grade school teacher. These two fall perfectly into hero and villain roles. One would be hard pressed to write a script that played out as well as this story did. I met the producer and he explained how fortunate they were that basically fell in his lap as the story was starting to develop. I saw it at SXSW film festival, I think it'll have a wider release in mid August. Definitely worth seeing if you get the chance, especially if for those that might have some nostalgia from the 80's or any interest in arcade games.
imdb link

High Score - While I'm on the subject of video game documentaries this was another interesting one I saw at SXSW the year before. This centers around the game Missile Command, and is about one man's setbacks in his attempt to set the marathon record for the game (something like 80 hours of straight play, no breaks). The gamer was at SXSW and seemed like a surprisingly normal guy, both in the doc and in real life.
imdb link

Having only a marginal interest in video games these films were both still very intriguing to me, and I now know more than I ever wanted to know about the world of competitive gaming.

[iSTRONG]

Children Underground : Filmed in 2001 in Romania. Follows the lives of a bunch of really young runaway kids/orphans living in a Bucarest subway station. Amazing but very disturbing documentary.

[dlv54]

I watched La Sierra this weekend and thought it was excellent. Not quite as good as cocaine cowboys, but close. Anyway, here is the synopsis from the film's website. (ohhh, and I got it at blockbuster so you don't have to buy it was was the case for me for cocain cowboys)

More than 30,000 people have been killed over the last ten years in Colombia’s bloody civil conflict, in which left-wing guerillas fight against the government and illegal right-wing paramilitary groups. Recently, as guerillas and paramilitaries sought to control marginal city neighborhoods, urban gangs aligned themselves with each side. In this way, the national conflict was translated into a brutal turf war that pitted adjacent barrios against each other. The documentary La Sierra explores life over the course of a year in one such barrio (La Sierra, in Medellin), through the prism of three young lives

Edison, aka “The Doll,” is a paramilitary commander in La Sierra. At the age of 22, he is also the de facto mayor of the neighborhood and a playboy who has fathered six children by six different women. Openly dedicated to and excited by his life of violence, he is also an intelligent and charismatic young man. As we follow him through the armed conflict, its victories and setbacks, he shares his dreams for himself and his children, and explains his attachment to what he calls “my war.” We follow his life up to the moment he is gunned down in the street, and then witness his family’s suffering and faith in the face of tragedy.

Cielo, age 17, was displaced from the countryside in sixth grade, when her brother and father were murdered by guerillas. A mother at the age of 15, she was widowed when the father of her son (a gang member) was killed. Now Cielo is devoted to a new boyfriend, a paramilitary, who she visits in jail every Sunday. With little or no money to her name, Cielo goes downtown to beg and sell candies on the buses, resisting her friend’s suggestion of prostitution. After her rocky relationship with her boyfriend unravels, Cielo finally gives in and takes a job in Medellin’s red light district.

Jesus, 19, is a mid-level paramilitary member. Badly wounded when a homemade grenade blew up in his hands and face, Jesus presents himself as ready for death at any moment and hoping for little more than the opportunity to continue indulging his taste for marijuana and cocaine. But as the war in La Sierra comes to a end, and the paramilitaries begin a government-sponsored disarmament process, Jesus dreams of beginning a life without war.

La Sierra is an intimate, unflinching portrait of three lives defined by violence, and a community wracked by conflict. Over the course of a year these lives, and the life of the barrio itself, each undergo profound changes, experiencing victory, despair, defeat, death, love, and hope. In a place where journalists are seldom allowed, Scott Dalton and Margarita Martinez spent a year filming, interviewing, and building trust. The result is a frank portrayal that not only includes startling scenes of graphic violence and its aftermath, but also reveals intimate moments of love and tenderness, and shows the everyday life that manages to coexist with conflict.

[nutfloppa]

Hated : Documentary about the life and death of the notorious underground punk icon GG Allin.

Most likely the craziest "musician" ever as far as what he did on stage. This one is a must see. Taking a dump on stage and throwing it at the crowd after smearing it all over himself is worth the cost of admission alone.

Hated

[revots33]

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The Michael Apted 7 Up series.

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I recently read about this and it sounded like a really interesting idea. Can I start viewing this from any movie or do I need to start from the beginning to really get it?

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I don't think you need to start at the beginning (although it's worthwhile) - there are enough flashback clips of the subjects at different ages to get a sense of how they've changed throughout their lives. I'd start with 28 Up which I think is a great one and their first as true adults - and then watch each one after that.

For those unfamiliar with it, Michael Apted interviews a cross-section of British kids when they are 7, then again at 14, 21, 28 etc. Every 7 years he puts out a new movie in the series. The most recent was 49 Up, and 56 Up is due out in 5 years or so. The films are fascinating and touching and everyone should see them.

[CharlieDontSurf]

I've seen Ghosts of Cite Soleil and it is really good. Surprised the director didn't get killed while filming it.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/ghosts_of_cite_soleil/

[jbrent33]

Sorry if this has already been posted, I skimmed the first 2 pages and didn't see it.

The Devil and Daniel Johnston IMBD

I watched this last night and was blown away. I had heard of Daniel Johnston but was not really familiar with his story. This is an incredibly compelling story of a true tortured artist. I'm somewhat of a music snob and in the beginning I really didn't "get" what was so great about him. By the end of the movie I got it.
It won best director at Sundance.

Daniel's Wikipedia Page

Even you don't know who he is most people (around my age at least) will recognize this image: