Documentaries! I love them. Titles/summaries/trailers linked below for those interested.
I've been in a crazy documentary mood lately...
It started with Grey Gardens++, which I watched because it was repeatedly mentioned in the second episode of The New Normal and I had no idea what they were talking about.
Then I realized there were a lot of documentaries available for streaming on Netflix and it's been snowballing from there.
First I was watching crime documentaries:
**Brother's Keeper++, "simple" old farmers who gained media attention when one allegedly mercy-killed another
**After Innocence, men who spent decades in prison only to later be exonerated based on DNA evidence
**Cropsey, missing kids in the 80's on Staten Island and the connection to an old mental institute and suspect
**HH Holmes, which SHOULD have been awesome considering it's about America's first serial killer, who created buildings with entire floors of various torture rooms-- but was so boring I stopped watching after 20 minutes
Then I transitioned to random documentaries:
**The Parking Lot Movie, surprisingly amusing film about parking lot attendants
**Busting Out, how breasts became sexualized over time and how even that is cultural
And so far I have ended on documentaries about Christian views that are anti-gay:
**For the Bible Tells Me So, the exploitation of scripture by some conservative Christian groups to deny GLBT human rights
**This is What Love in Action Looks Like, how international attention was brought to "straight camps" when one teen was forced in after coming out to his parents.
Of the ones I listed, the ones I liked the most were:
For The Bible Tells Me So -- a really good documentary that examines what the Bible actually says about homosexuality and how the misinterpretation and misuse of it can be devastating and even lethal -- and After Innocence, which was really moving and made me cry. I also really liked Brother's Keeper. It had a totally different feel than the others-- a bit more like Grey Gardens in the direct cinema technique of letting the subject mostly tell the story all on their own.
Oh and I liked Grey Gardens a lot too but it's a strange film because I can't figure out how I should feel after seeing it. And while I'm on the topic of documentaries, another awesome documentary you should all watch is The Interrupters++, about
people who try to stop gang violence before someone is killed.
On my agenda for future documentaries:
**Happy (about what makes people happy around the world)
**Dangerous Living: Coming out in the developing world
**Reel Injuns (about the Hollywood Indian)
**49 Up (7 kids are followed every 7 years to see their lives, and this film is made when they're 49)
**Dark Days (following a group of homeless people in an abandoned tunnel in NYC)
**Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Chauvet Cave in southern France, with the oldest human-painted images known on Earth)
**Bad Blood: A Cautionary Tale (hemophiliacs given medicine that carried hepatitis and HIV)
**Mine (families searching for their dogs lost in Hurricane Katrina, and families who adopted rescues)
**Into the Abyss (about the "emotional aftermath of a triple murder in Texas")
**Helvetica (about Helvetica, the most popular in the world)
**Dear Zachary (a tribute to a murdered childhood friend and following a custody battle with the ex-gf/suspected killer)
**These Amazing Shadows (the National Film Registry and the art of preserving film)
**Bananas!* (Dole and Dow use a pesticide making Nicaraguan banana workers ill)
There were even more I decided not to name because my list was getting stupid long... Jesus, I just know I'm going to end up going down the line watching every single one at some point.
I made the list partially in case anyone else is in a documentary mood and gets intrigued by something they see, and partially so I can remember which ones I wanted to watch.
++ = you can watch the whole documentary online for free at this link.
[ETA] To keep this all in one place:
9/20/12: watched Dangerous Living. It was okay. I'd give maybe 3/5 stars. Good topic but I wasn't enamored of the execution of it.
I also watched Before Stonewall++, which has interesting information detailing the beginning of the GLBT movements. Of most interest to me was the way the World Wars played into GLBT small versions of freedom and then, later, even worse discrimination than before. I'd say 3.5 stars on that. Good info but it's an old documentary so it feels kind of long and started to lull me to sleep.
It started with Grey Gardens++, which I watched because it was repeatedly mentioned in the second episode of The New Normal and I had no idea what they were talking about.
Then I realized there were a lot of documentaries available for streaming on Netflix and it's been snowballing from there.
First I was watching crime documentaries:
**Brother's Keeper++, "simple" old farmers who gained media attention when one allegedly mercy-killed another
**After Innocence, men who spent decades in prison only to later be exonerated based on DNA evidence
**Cropsey, missing kids in the 80's on Staten Island and the connection to an old mental institute and suspect
**HH Holmes, which SHOULD have been awesome considering it's about America's first serial killer, who created buildings with entire floors of various torture rooms-- but was so boring I stopped watching after 20 minutes
Then I transitioned to random documentaries:
**The Parking Lot Movie, surprisingly amusing film about parking lot attendants
**Busting Out, how breasts became sexualized over time and how even that is cultural
And so far I have ended on documentaries about Christian views that are anti-gay:
**For the Bible Tells Me So, the exploitation of scripture by some conservative Christian groups to deny GLBT human rights
**This is What Love in Action Looks Like, how international attention was brought to "straight camps" when one teen was forced in after coming out to his parents.
Of the ones I listed, the ones I liked the most were:
For The Bible Tells Me So -- a really good documentary that examines what the Bible actually says about homosexuality and how the misinterpretation and misuse of it can be devastating and even lethal -- and After Innocence, which was really moving and made me cry. I also really liked Brother's Keeper. It had a totally different feel than the others-- a bit more like Grey Gardens in the direct cinema technique of letting the subject mostly tell the story all on their own.
Oh and I liked Grey Gardens a lot too but it's a strange film because I can't figure out how I should feel after seeing it. And while I'm on the topic of documentaries, another awesome documentary you should all watch is The Interrupters++, about
people who try to stop gang violence before someone is killed.
On my agenda for future documentaries:
**Happy (about what makes people happy around the world)
**Dangerous Living: Coming out in the developing world
**Reel Injuns (about the Hollywood Indian)
**49 Up (7 kids are followed every 7 years to see their lives, and this film is made when they're 49)
**Dark Days (following a group of homeless people in an abandoned tunnel in NYC)
**Cave of Forgotten Dreams (Chauvet Cave in southern France, with the oldest human-painted images known on Earth)
**Bad Blood: A Cautionary Tale (hemophiliacs given medicine that carried hepatitis and HIV)
**Mine (families searching for their dogs lost in Hurricane Katrina, and families who adopted rescues)
**Into the Abyss (about the "emotional aftermath of a triple murder in Texas")
**Helvetica (about Helvetica, the most popular in the world)
**Dear Zachary (a tribute to a murdered childhood friend and following a custody battle with the ex-gf/suspected killer)
**These Amazing Shadows (the National Film Registry and the art of preserving film)
**Bananas!* (Dole and Dow use a pesticide making Nicaraguan banana workers ill)
There were even more I decided not to name because my list was getting stupid long... Jesus, I just know I'm going to end up going down the line watching every single one at some point.
I made the list partially in case anyone else is in a documentary mood and gets intrigued by something they see, and partially so I can remember which ones I wanted to watch.
++ = you can watch the whole documentary online for free at this link.
[ETA] To keep this all in one place:
9/20/12: watched Dangerous Living. It was okay. I'd give maybe 3/5 stars. Good topic but I wasn't enamored of the execution of it.
I also watched Before Stonewall++, which has interesting information detailing the beginning of the GLBT movements. Of most interest to me was the way the World Wars played into GLBT small versions of freedom and then, later, even worse discrimination than before. I'd say 3.5 stars on that. Good info but it's an old documentary so it feels kind of long and started to lull me to sleep.