IF THERE IS ONE GENRE OF FILM I KNOW (next to the genre that is Lorne Michaels produced comedies circa ‘92-’96) IT IS DOCUMENTARY FILM
Each year I thank my lucky stars that I live in a city with a premier documentary film festival, SilverDocs, to supplement my google video searches.
Since the SilverDoc schedule is overwhelming, and I just so happen to be a connoisseur of the documentary, I have gladly taken the responsibility of sifting through the feature films to find the best of the best for YOU. (Really, it was my pleasure).
With these films slated for the big screens only a fool would fail to Metro it out to Silver Spring at least once!
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Song Sung Blue
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Director: Greg Kohs
USA, 2008, 87 Minutes, English See this if you’re a fan of… Neil Diamond, Neil Diamond impersonators, and of my hometown, Milwaukee, that has given you amazing documentary subjects (remember American Movie) Mike and Claire Sardina are a husband-and-wife Neil Diamond tribute act… but an accident leaves Claire suddenly immobile, and their dreams of Vegas are supplanted by a reality of hospital visits, rehabilitation, unpaid bills, drug addiction, family crises, and lost hopes |
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Hi My Name is Ryan
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Directors: Paul Eagleston, Stephen Rose
USA, 2008, 78 Minutes, English See this if you’re a fan of… The Devil and Daniel Johnston. 19-year-old Ryan Avery fronts a thrash band, Father’s Day, and an a capella due, the Best Friends. He might be a genius, he might be a nuisance, he might be a novelty as he suffers from hypopituitarism (Andy Milonakis syndrome). Just like Daniel Johnston, he is an artistic force outside the mainstream prone to internal conflicts of the religious kind. |
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Encounters At The End Of The World
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Director: Werner Herzog Grizzly Man, Planet Earth, and HDTV. As usual Herzog depicts eccentrics in exotic locations under extreme situations. In this case, rather then an ex-heroin delusional grizzly-phile, he follows scientists in the most unforgiving and unexplored terrain known to man. |
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Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
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Director: Alex Gibney USA, 2007, 120 Minutes, English See this if you’re a fan of… Wistful nostalgia. If only Hunter S. Thompson taking were here to see how his generation has dropped the ball. |
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Letter to Anna: The Story of Journalist Anna Politkovskaya’s Death
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Director: Eric Bergkraut
Switzerland, 2008, 83 Minutes, English, Russian with English subtitles See this if you’re a fan of… The New Russia, freedom of speech, female heroines. Anna Politkovskaya was an opposition journalist shot dead in the elevator of her apartment building (Vladmir????). The documentary recounts her heroic efforts to report the truth about Russia’s dealings with Chechan civilians. |
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All Together Now
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Director: Adrian Wills
Canada, United Kingdom, 2008, 84 Minutes, English with English subtitles See this if you’re a fan of… Creepy contortionists, The Beatles, breathing. This documentary recounts the creation of Love, the Las Vegas spectacle that sets the surreal visuals and acrobatics of Cirque Du Soleil against to the greatest elements of the Beatles catalogue. Footage includes candid interviews with Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono, and Olivia Harrison regarding the collaboration that is remarkable to any Beatles fan aware of the tenuous interpersonal histories. |
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I.O.U.S.A.
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Director: Patrick Creadon USA, 2008, 85 Minutes, English See this if you’re a fan of… Creadon’s crossword documentary Wordplay, the decline of the dollar, the decline of American power, stimulus checks, Rob Paul, and Warren Buffet A comic (tag-line: I.O.U.S.A: a big budget film), informative, and fear-inducing look at the record high US debt, +$9.3 trillion…grrrr… |
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Bi The Way
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Directors: Brittany Blockman Josephine Decker USA, 2008, 93 Minutes, English See this if you’re a fan of… Teenage quests for sexual identity, teen bisexuality, soundtracks dominated by MGMT hits. “Generation Y? What about Generation Why Not? Brittany Blockman and Josephine Decker take a road trip across the country investigating real people’s feelings on bisexuality and what appears to be a sharp uptick in teens and 20-somethings who self-identify as bi-available, hetero-flexible or pan-sexual. Is it a fad, a sexual revolution, or a genetic stamp?” |
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Generation 68
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Director: Simon Brook
France, 2008, 53 Minutes, English, French with English subtitles See this if you’re a fan of… Finding out why adults are so obsessed with their youth. What’s cool about this film is that it explores what Newsweek called “the year that made us who we are.” from a slightly European perspective, adding to our understanding of as it looks at the cultural currents in London, Paris, New York and Prague. |
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Hard Times At Douglass High
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Directors: Alan Raymond Susan Raymond USA, 2007, 112 Minutes, English See this if you’re a fan of… Baltimore, urban sociology, The Wire, and opposing No child Left Behind. Not many of us would send our children to a D.C. public school if we had a choice. The film takes a look at administrators, educators, parents, and students caught up in a crumbling school system that is hardly unique to Baltimore. |
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Mechanical Love
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Director: Phie Ambo
Denmark, 2007, 79 Minutes, Danish, English, German, Italian, Japanese with English subtitles See this if you’re a fan of… Robots, robot-love, surrogates, blow-up dolls, tamagotchis, futurism, and mad scientists. The film explores the quest to create “sonzai kan,” or presence, the feeling of being with someone in an non-organic life form and the effects of technology on human intimacy. |
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Lost Holiday
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Director: Lucie Králová Czech Republic, 2007, 84 Minutes, Czech with English subtitles
See this if you’re a fan of…. Flickr, Chinese businessmen, the increasing inter-connectedness of society, BIY film making obsession, and mystery. “A Czech tourist traveling in Sweden finds a suitcase containing 22 rolls of undeveloped film. She develops the negatives, revealing 756 fascinating snapshots of six unknown Chinese businessmen. Then she sets off to see if it’s possible in today’s interconnected world to trace someone merely from lost photographs.” |
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Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell
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Director: Matt Wolf USA, 2008, 71 Minutes, English Chris Burns, Gay Disco, experimental music, and New York City when it was cool. Though Arthur Russell he died at the young age of 40, the recounting of his life reveals a rich history of the avant-garde, rock, experimental, and disco supernova of downtown New York City in the 1970s and 1980s, where Russell was producer, performer and participant. His friends and collaborators included Phillip Glass, David Byrne and The Modern Lovers’ Ernie Brooks. |
I saw Neil Diamond in Atlantic City last year on my death tour (people I have to see before they pass on to the big bandstand in the sky) and he was amazing. People in the crowd totally lost their shit over him. Tons of hits as well that you likely didn’t know he wrote and a good bit of chest hair available.
June 17, 2008 at 12:01 pmArthur Russel doc looks amazing. High awesomeness potential. And the one about the debt has the potential to be the scariest movie of the year if they did it right.
June 17, 2008 at 12:42 pmUpon reading this my plan is as follows: Fake terminal illness, skip work for the duration of this whole thing, move into AFI, never leave.
June 17, 2008 at 12:46 pmsee you folks at the arthur russel joint tonight.
dude was a pure and simple genius.
June 17, 2008 at 1:03 pmI am thanking all film gods for netflix.
June 17, 2008 at 1:31 pmDamnit @ Arthur Russell. I’ve been following that doc for a minute and was glad to get a notice about it playing local. Trailer looks great. I don’t think I can make either viewing, though. Tuesdays let me know if the feature is worth skipping crucial Wednesday bizniz for. .
June 17, 2008 at 3:31 pm
Seriously, who isn’t a fan of Mr. Neil Diamond?
June 17, 2008 at 11:51 am