10,000 Documentaries

They say it takes 10,000 hours to reach perfection. My goal is to, one day, seek perfection in the field of documentary filmmaking. I have set out to watch as many good documentaries as I can get my hands on; who knows, maybe I'll reach 10,000. Here I'll write my thoughts about the documentaries I watch and what I learn from them.

[tenthousanddocs]

306 Hollywood

I watched 306 Hollywood on POV PBS on April 15th. It’s a surrealist documentary about the life and death of the filmmakers’ grandmother. They began filming her in 2001 when she was 83 and she died 10 years later. During this time, they asked her a total of 87 questions. 

I am in awe of this film. I am in awe of the storytelling and I am in awe of the cinematography. There were incredibly long b-roll shots, super satisfying symmetrical shots, more b-roll shots than I’ve ever filmed in my entire life. They use a slider beautifully. They really aren’t afraid to sit on a shot and I admire that. 

I love this tight shot of documents being shredded: 

I wondered, how did the filmmakers know to film when they were going through the grieving process? This scene of the filmmakers looking through their grandmother’s belongings is clearly staged, but that is fine in this film because so much of the film is staged. Almost all of it, actually. This is not my style of filmmaking at the moment, but I am inspired by their choices and I would love to think outside the box the next time I am telling a non-fiction story. 

This reminded me of the interview I recorded of my grandmother before she passed. I am incredibly grateful I had the foresight to do this interview, and these filmmakers are clearly in the same boat. Like they said, “Finding the tapes was like finding more time with her.”

There is a scene where they are interviewing the grandmother and asking her to answer in one, quick sentence and she is unable to. This was super relatable to me as a producer because it’s a struggle I’ve faced time and time again. It really made me laugh out loud. 

After their grandmother passes, they turn the house into an archeological dig. They take everything out and organize it into groups, which is incredibly visually satisfying. 

I feel like I can smell the house. That’s how you know they did a great job

There is a chapter where they visit a Rockefeller estate and discuss preservation. The person they interview says it’s important to keep physical remains of the past to save the record of existence of people who aren’t wealthy. 

The grandmother made dresses for people like the Rockefellers, then she made them for herself. There is a long clip when they have their grandma try on the dress from the 50s. It’s a really long, uncomfortable scene but I understand why it’s in the film.  

The film also includes scenes filmed in the present. They have a group of women try on their grandmother’s dresses, and film different scenes with those women. They have actors move their mouths and act out scenes to old audio recordings of their grandmother. 

They decide to keep the house after all. 

The last shot before the credits, grandma blows out the candles and it cuts to black. I loved this so much. 

The end credits are handwritten on physical cards, which I loved. 

Audio of grandma continues after it cuts to black and the credits begin. The filmmaker asks why do you think we are making this film and the grandmother responds, to remember me. This is perhaps one of the most important lines of the film and a less experienced filmmaker would likely put it in the beginning of the film, but having it during the credits is such an impressive move. 

The one part of the film I didn’t fully understand was the part about Rome. I understand that it is a place where preservation is key to its existence, yet it is also a modern city. I think the two could have been tied together a little stronger (Rome and grandma). 

Credits:

Artemis Rising Foundation

Hot Docs forum

Independent Filmmaker Project

Utah Film Center

Sundance Institute Creative Distribution Fellowship

Woolley Abanor Group

New york State council on the arts

Dobkin family foundation

Justine Nagan

Chris White

El-Tigre Production

Laokoon Filmgroup

Chicago Media Project

Latino Public Broadcasting

[tenthousanddocs]

Tickled

The setup: New Zealand is weird. 

A reporter and our narrator/filmmaker, David Farrier, discovers Jane O’Brien Media, an American company running a competition: Competitive Endurance Tickling. He finds videos of different guys, tied down, while other guys sit on him and tickle him. 

David, like me and many other journalists would, wants to do a story on this odd activity he’s stumbled upon. 

When David reached out for an interview, the response he got was incredibly shocking. In aggressive emails, the tickling competition company repeatedly tells him they wouldn’t work with him because he is openly gay. The amount and tone of the emails he receives makes David want to dig deeper. 

He decides to make a documentary, which got a little attention, but not much. Immediately David started to get cease and desist letters and threats of legal action. Jane O’Brien Media sends a team to New Zealand to deal with him. In a bold move, he met the team at the airport, which they definitely weren’t expecting. David clearly knows his legal rights, as he was filming them in a public place and defending that right. 

David wore a recording device in the closed door meeting, which they covered with exterior shots. “I wake up every morning with an email from Jane O’Brien Media with a list of personal attacks and legal threats,” he said. 

The rep from Jane responded aggressively, saying “YOU STARTED THIS! YOU ATTACKED US AT THE AIRPORT.” This clearly isn’t a normal situation the film is dealing with. 

David keeps going, even flying to LA. “Something about bullies with way too much money convinces me I shouldn’t drop it.” 

They finally get a participant to speak to them on camera, TJ. 

I thought this was an incredibly beautiful interview. I love the colors and the soft light, as well as the framing. I also like it when the second shot doesn’t vary much from the medium, and that was the case here, it was tighter and a little to the left. 

Money was tight when TJ worked with Jane O’Brien, and he didn’t understand what the videos were for at the time. They show a video of TJ being tickled by one, two, then four guys. Great editing moment. TJ had Youtube take the video down. That’s when Jane Media decided to destroy his life. 

The filmmaking team goes to Florida to meet a guy who makes tickling videos, and is willing to talk about it. The tickling video producer explains that it’s a niche fetish, like a toned down BDSM. He even does a demonstration, which really shows how sexual the fetish is. 

The team hunts down video producers who were blackmailed and abused by “Terri Tickle,” which we later learn is an earlier iteration of Jane O’Brien. 

Terri and Jane’s identities are revealed... as David D’Amato. An assistant high school principal. He was busted by the FBI for the tickling and blackmail ring, but got off easy.  

David targets Muskegon, MI because of the poverty and the MMA athletes. The people who work for Jane, or David, have no idea who is in charge. All they know is there’s a lot of money coming from somewhere. 

Everyone who knows David says they can’t give the filmmakers any information, but warns them to stay away. The filmmakers find him and follow him to a Starbucks, but the conversation isn’t productive. In the zip file from before, they find that his bank account has $6 million from his parents’. 

The film ends in a conversation between the filmmaker and David’s stepmother, who says she is scared of David. 

... chills. 

The extra video on HBO is even more bizarre than the film! It’s 10 minutes long; a lot has happened since they finished the film. The video detail further lawsuits Jane O’Brien is bringing to the filmmakers. Then, Kevin and David attend one of the screenings and behave very hostilely; well Kevin is hostile and David is creepily calm. The filmmaker invites both of them to speak to the audience, David doesn’t really say much, other than “lawyer up.” 

[tenthousanddocs]

Best and Most Beautiful Things

Today I watched Best and Most Beautiful Things on PBS Independent Lens. It was produced by Only Bright Productions.

I have been wanting to watch this film since I first heard about it. The documentary focuses on Michelle Smith, a 20 year old young woman who is legally blind, autistic and finds her place in a BDSM community. 

There’s one elevator pitch that speaks for itself. 

The first three minutes are crucial to a documentary, and these first three minutes really delivered. The film starts out completely black, with two voices. We can assume those voices belong to Michelle and her mom. Her mom is teaching her to light a candle, and Michelle is scared. The instant the candle is blown out, the title comes on the screen. Then the background changes and the title looks as if it is moving among the trees along a highway. It’s so simple yet so powerful. 

We learn more about Michelle, about how she was bullied in school. She says that now she feels more “normal” in internet communities than the real world. 

About 30 minutes in, we see the first BDSM clue. She is opening a stocking given to her by a young man who we assume is her boyfriend. There are Pez dispensers and toy trains. And a flogger. 

This film is truly stranger than fiction. The juxtaposition between child behavior and toys and BDSM is discomforting, but it’s supposed to be. Michelle sort of hides these things from her mom, but not really. She appears to want her mom to ask her about her sexuality. 

Michelle is offered an internship in LA. She is incredibly excited about the chance, calling it her “big break.” She tells everyone in her life that she is leaving and they will have to visit her if they want to see her again. 

She visits LA (not on camera), and returns home to a big party where they are all expecting to send her off. She tells them she is not going to LA anymore. It was too hard and there was not adequate public transportation. 

This is when we start to see the real Michelle. Michelle wants to be taken care of. She doesn’t want to be an adult. She wants to remain a child. Even when she participates in BDSM, she takes on the role of a child, even wearing a diaper. 

Michelle gives a speech during Pride week about being yourself. Earlier in the film she confronts one of her teachers about something she felt was condescending. YET Michelle wants to be treated like a baby. Another uncomfortable juxtaposition. But when we’re growing up, aren’t we all a little bit contradictory. 

The film ends with Michelle getting a new apartment of her own, somewhat reluctantly. She sets up her dolls and the credits roll. 

The title comes up, and then it is revealed that the title is a section of a Helen Keller quote. This moment absolutely blew me away. What a strong ending. 

[tenthousanddocs]

PBS Secrets of the Dead, JFK: One PM Central Standard Time

Watch here.

I have been fascinated with Walter Cronkite since junior high when I listened to his autobiography on tape every night. (Is that weird? Well, it’s true.) His recount of the day JFK was assassinated has always stuck in my mind. Cronkite was very straightforward about his memories of that day, true to the professional newsman he was.

I was scrolling through the PBS section of the Roku and “Secrets of the Dead” caught my eye, mostly because it seemed more fitting for a cable network than public television. Then I read the description of this program: 

“Narrated by George Clooney, JFK: One PM Central Standard Time recounts Walter Cronkite’s iconic news coverage of the John F. Kennedy assassination.

Fifty years after the tragic shooting of President John F. Kennedy, Secrets of the Dead chronicles minute-by-minute the assassination as it was revealed in the CBS newsroom from the moment the President was shot until Walter Cronkite’s emotional pronouncement of his death, one hour and eight minutes later. The drama of JFK: One PM Central Standard Time — the episode title is taken from the time President Kennedy was declared dead at Parkland Hospital — is played out amidst the chaos in Dallas, in the hospital, and in the CBS newsroom in New York. Included in the program will be moving memories from men and women who were with there on the day – in Dallas and New York.”

First and foremost, “narrated by George Clooney.” Sign me up! I have always loved his voice and his storytelling skills. 

Another reason I was drawn to this TV documentary is my passion for learning about major pop culture events that my parents remember. I love wondering what it would have been like to be there when Neil Armstrong landed on the moon or during the I Have A Dream speech. 

Lastly, I was drawn to this story because of my background as a journalist and my future goals of being on a documentary reporting team. 

This story was told with incredible detail. I don’t always enjoy watching reenactments. I find it frustrating to watch (sometimes inexperienced) actors who don’t really look much like the historical figures they are portraying. But this one was different. They actors were very convincing and the recreated CBS newsroom was completely believable. Additionally, the actors were used to add visual depth to the story; they were rarely required to speak, instead, the interviewees (including Dan Rather) would speak about their first hand experiences while the actors were shown recreating those experiences. 

Luckily, as most know, the Kennedy era coincided with most Americans having a television in their homes. So much of the documentary is filled with actual footage from that day. The end of the documentary even focuses on the role of television during that week in history. The day JFK was assassinated, more Americans watched TV than ever before. Life would never be the same, in more than one way. 

This documentary made me feel like I was really there. It also made me wonder how I would have reacted as a newsperson in either Dallas or New York. I have covered sad and gruesome events, but of course, nothing of this magnitude. And I don’t have war coverage experience like make of the anchors and correspondents of that time. I am pretty sure I would be able to maintain my professionalism for most of the day, but have a brief moment of emotion like the world saw in Walter Cronkite the moment he officially announced JFK’s death. 

In case you were wondering, since it's a little odd for someone to be so fascinated with Walter Cronkite at such a young age, I have three favorite anecdotes that I will always remember from listening to his autobiography: how his mother fed them dog food during the Great Depression (although she would never admit it), how his father was one of the few adults Cronkite knew who respected black people at the time, and how he met and wooed his wife doing radio commercials. It’s a great listen, I highly recommend it. 

[tenthousanddocs]

Lost Angels

The film begins with a black screen and a female narrator says:“Skid Row is a neighborhood of 50 blocks that does not appear on any map of Los Angeles.” 

There is some ethereal music set over a mixture of moments and scenes from Skid Row. 

There are interviews. I LOVE THIS. Bold. Capitalized. 

So. many. directors. would not give these people the chance to tell their own stories in a formal, interview setting. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen it outside of this film. That is #1-respect. #2 letting a group of people tell THEIR story, as opposed to hearing the story from OUR point of view (i.e. police officers, addiction/mental illness experts, politicians). We do get some of that mixed in, but what I love about this film is the perspective and the point of view the filmmakers were not afraid of pursuing, and it pays off in a major way. 

WHERE ELSE WOULD YOU HAVE GOTTEN THIS QUOTE? Sorry I am all-caps-ing, I am just so excited about this point. Who else could have said such a gem of a quote than someone living it? No one. 

As many as 11,000 people live on Skid Row. About 2/3rds suffer from mental illness and/or addiction. 

We also get the history of the location, that people down-on-their-luck have been settling there for about a hundred years. 

Gentrification is taking over Skid Row. 

This is the most important sentence in the film to me. This is the perspective of the filmmaker that permeates the entire film. 

She interviews a former Olympic athlete, Danny Harris, who ended up on Skid Row. He gives us a tour of the Midnight Mission and share’s a little bit of his story. 

O.G. is a man who cleans the streets every day because the city refuses. He has a volunteer brigade that helps him almost ever day. 

Can we talk about how beautifully tight this interview is. The screenshot doesn’t do it justice. I love the lighting on the interviews. 

In the 1980s, mental hospitals released their patients, giving them “meds” and “disability” and that was it. This is a big part of why there are so many homeless people on the streets today; it is also a big reason why our jails are so full. 

“In many ways, it’s an open asylum for the mentally ill. We don't have closed asylums any more, except for our jails and our prisons. LA county jail is the largest mental instillation in the United States.”

I am obviously bolding this section because it is something I am very personally interested in. I think what is happening with the mentally ill people in this country is a great tragedy, and if they were being treated instead of criminalized, the United States might be saving money, they would definitely be saving lives; lives of the mentally ill people and lives the mentally ill people take.

LAMP is a program for mentally ill people who are on the streets. They get to make decisions about their life. There are no strings attached. They just want to get people the care they need.   

What a powerful shot, especially with the closed captions. 

And now we come to the storyline that makes me come back to this film over and over. KK and Lee Anne. 

Lee Anne collects trash and feeds cats. KK was homeless for 14 years by choice. They met at LAMP. KK protects Lee Anne and walks around with her during the days. He know she has mental illnesses but he understands her. She adopted him as her “fiance.” KK has pancreatic cancer. KK is SO CUTE when he talks about Lee Anne’s mental illness and collection of trash, buzzwords he whispers when he is anywhere near her. 

They have such a close bond that the filmmakers follow throughout the film, and ends up being the main tear-inducing moment of the end of the film. 

The filmmakers follow around a cop who has garnered a certain degree of trust in the community. They show a scene where a mentally ill woman is yelling stories at him that make no sense and he handles the situation like an absolute professional. He warns people with his loud speaker that they need to leave if they are doing illegal activity near the missions because people are trying to change their lives. 

There are people on Skid Row who keep an eye on the police to make sure they don’t exploit or abuse anyone. There is a former convict who works for Community Action Network to keep an eye on police treatment of skid row residents. 

The Safer City Initiative cost $6 million in the first year. There was not an expansion of services, there were just 50 police officers deployed in a one mile radius. When a mayor’s actions garner this response from someone running a Catholic soup kitchen: 

you know something is wrong. (You would think he was m*fing Theresa!)

Chief Bratton was in charge of “cleaning up” NYC and is the person responsible for causing so much turmoil on Skid Row. He has made it illegal to be homeless, and treats them in a violent, dehumanizing way. 

KK points out that just down the street, you can jay walk and carry alcohol outside. That is absolutely not permitted on Skid Row. The police take their milk crates. 

This is when Bam Bam talks about all the things they had to buy when they moved into an apartment. 

Bam Bam keeps tents inside their apartment to remind themselves of what was and what could’ve been. 

I’m grateful to the filmmakers for saving this moment until the last section of the film. KK says if he became rich he would buy Lee Anne 60 acres where she could have her trash and her cats. 

There is a beautiful moment where statistics are placed over a scene of a person sleeping on the streets. Someone with a beautiful voice is singing, and the film cuts to Linda, the woman with tumors all over her body; she is the one singing. It is such a poignant and beautiful moment in the film. It wraps it up nicely, as to say, you may think we are different/ugly/outcasts by looking at us, but you have no idea what we are capable of until you get to know us. 

The film wraps up with narration of updates about each of the main characters throughout the film. Spoiler ahead: one of them, my personal favorite character, was shot and killed, and even though I knew it was coming, having seen this film before, it still brought me to tears. 

This film is one of, if not my absolute favorite documentary. 

[tenthousanddocs]

30 for 30: Broke

Billy Corben

The film begins with many athletes telling quick bits about the amount of money they started making and how they went broke. 

The film lays out how much money teams and leagues make, and how that statistic is growing. 

They got a LOT of athletes for this film. So many, that there is no way I can keep up. At some point you just want to say, I get it, you made a lot of money...fast. 

The music track behind the beginning of the film is a little distracting. Music in a film (or TV, or whatever media) should either go completely unnoticed because it is doing its job to set the tone of each scene/transition and set the pace of the scenes; OR the music should be so riveting that you do notice it because the director and composer have decided to make it the forefront of that scene. 

It is very difficult to find the perfect piece of music for any project. I am learning that at my internship at HGTV. Something can seem like it will be the perfect fit, but when you set it to the video, it just flops. The music in Broke is distracting (and I’ll say it, kind of annoying). It sounds like you’re in an elevator and you can’t really focus on what your friend is saying to you. 

The 1990s was a great decade for everyone.  

I like that the background behind every interviewee is a different part of a highly zoomed in dollar bill. Well, probably a hundred dollar bill, it’s too zoomed into tell. 

“It’s like you become a CEO of a corporation before you’re ready to do the job.”

Financial responsibility is not taught in college. That is absolutely a fact. 

“Athletes want to be entertainers, entertainers want to be athletes.” ex: Snoop Dogg. 

There are so many interviewees in this film that there is no real storyline. The interviews are just put together in tiny chapters about things like: shoe deals, purchasing jewelry, making it rain in strip clubs... all set to horrible elevator music. 

I was hoping for more from this film! I would have followed one athlete that had recently gone “broke” as he tried to get his life back together, while integrating interviews between longer moments. You only need five minutes to tell a story about hundreds of athletes making a lot of money and spending it all quickly. Maybe not even five. Anyone can slap together like moments from dozens of interviews. But where is the STORY?

If you scan your cursor over the Netflix timeline, you will see a flip-book of interviews because that’s all this film is. After about half an hour, I skipped ahead to different moments throughout the film, and I was right. There just isn’t any substance to this film. And that is disappointing because I was really looking forward to it. 

[tenthousanddocs]

Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon

I remember seeing the trailer for SuperMensch and hearing about it on Fresh Air and really wanting to see it, but I also remember being weary of a documentary directed by Mike Myers. This turned out to be an outstanding biography not only because of the subject but also because of the way the filmmakers wove together celebrity interviews, archive photos, and footage from Hollywood films that acted as reenactments. This worked really well because Shep’s life was crazier than any Hollywood film could ever amount to; certain films, such as Almost Famous, included portions of his actual life story. The celebrity interviews were definitely not just for show. The people interviewed, including Michael Douglass and Alice Cooper consider Shep to be a peer, confidante, and best friend. 

I don’t know why, but I really liked this title slide with the white arrow pointing to Ship Gordon, like he’s a weather pattern or a planet. I believe this is representative of how big and important and powerful he is to the people in his life. It’s a wonderful representation. 

The film plays out in a fairly chronological way, but plays up different themes along the way. One of the major themes was Shep’s desire for a family and how he found a family in different people along the way. 

How he got his start: he got beat up by Janis Joplin while high on acid, ran into her and Jimmy Hendrix the next day, Jimmy Hendrix introduced him to Alice Cooper. Gave Alice Cooper weed, became his manager. 

Alice Cooper and Shep were inseparable ever since. They never even had a contract, and Shep has been his manager the entire time. 

Shep created Alice’s antics. Hired fake paparazzi. Throws live chicken on stage. Audience kills it, press says Alice kills it and drinks the blood, becomes pivotal moment.

The film briefly touches on how Alice and Shep finally became rich and famous. 

There is a story about Shep having joint custody of a cat with Cary Grant. 

He managed Groucho Marx for free to get him some much needed money. 

Basically at this point, the story is unbelievable and you are glued to the screen wondering what happens next. 

Shep challenges Teddy Pendergrass to a drug-off in order to become his manager. He won. Shep learned how black artists were being treated and Shep is the one who changed that. Pendergrass’s last manager got murdered. Shep penned him as a sex symbol, black Elvis. Planned show for women only. 

Realized those who made it to the top were falling the farthest. Bought his home in Maui. 

This was a hilarious fact checking moment in the film regarding a story about Mr. Verge (chef) and not Pablo Picasso. They paused the interview footage and added this hilarious aside. 

“What I saw in Mr. Verge was that you could be successful and happy.” Taught him the art of the dinner party. 

Shep became known for his famous dinner parties where no hustling was allowed. 

Mike Myers was going through a rough time and ended up staying in his Maui house for two months. 

Shep would work deals out with a local Maui paparazzi.

Shep paid to raise grandkids of a woman he used to date. He bought them a house. This is when you know you are watching a truly incredible man. He becomes a father figure to them and they are featured in the rest of the film. 

Michael Douglass explains that: Mensch: a person of dignity and honor. 

Carolyn (someone who helped him get Alice Cooper famous) wanted to get out of England after her daughter died, and she wanted to make movies, so he made movies. Started an independent film company. 

They tell the story of Wayne’s World movie with Alice Cooper. 

Shep dated Sharon Stone. Through her, he met the Dali Lama. He’s now very involved with Tibet. 

Teddy Pendergrass gets critically injured. “That was the beginning of the end of enjoying doing what I did for a living.”

Three years later, Shep got Teddy to perform at the Live Aid concert in Philly, and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. 

Shep invented the celebrity chef. “When managing someone, there’s no end. If you get a hit single, what’s next? When you cook, when the meal is over, the meal is over.” Asked to be Mr. Verge’s road manager. Found the venues weren’t treating him well. Met Wolfgang Puck who introduced him to the best chefs in the world and they all asked for help. 

Every store was driven by celebs except the supermarket.Signed Emeril with Food Network. Traded TV services for rights to a commercial to sell anything. They invented and sold Emeril’s spices, and that was the beginning of a phenomenon. 

Met Renee, a raw food chef. Got married. 

At their honeymoon in Fiji, the hotel apologizes for having another couple on the island. Renee’s computer broke and they called the front desk. There is a knock on the door, it’s Steve Jobs and he fixes the computer. 

BEST STORY EVER, RIGHT?!

Shep and Renee tried to have kids, but after no luck, she wouldn’t see a doctor. They drifted apart and ended up getting divorced. 

Shep has a terrible stomach pain. In the hospital they learn he basically has a heart attack of the intestine. He is under for 4 days. Post surgery, he is given a 20% chance of survival. He survives, of course, and bounces back. When he wakes up, the person there was his paid assistant. She felt bad he had no significant other or children to be there. 

“I felt really bad for him that the person sitting there was me, his paid assistant.” 

The film ends on an optimistic note with him hoping to still have the chance to have children. 

[tenthousanddocs]

To Be Takei

To Be Takei is a documentary about actor, gay rights advocate, Japanese-American Intermittent Camp Survivor, playwright, husband, and son, George Takei. The film touches on all of these important areas of his life in a fairly chronological way. The filmmakers cuts together many speeches Takei gives (that all follow the same storyline) in many different settings to act as much of the narration of the film. I like when this happens because it gives the subject a chance to tell their story as they have it written and prepared. This is the same way “Beauty is Embarrassing” is set up, and I thoroughly enjoy this method. The difference in this film is that Takei actually gives many speeches that the filmmakers were present for, all following the same storyline. This shows how much work Takei does, how dedicated he is to sharing his story, and how hard he has worked to craft the perfect story (speech). 

One insight I gained from the film was his feud with William Shatner. I had no idea Shatner was such a jerk to Takei! Luckily, we got to see Takei roast Shatner  on Comedy Central and it was pretty satisfying. 

The story arc begins with Takei describing his family’s experience in the Japanese-American intermittent camps during WWII. This played a huge role in Takei’s life and helped the film show past, present, and future when Takei ends up writing and acting in a musical about his experience. 

The filmmakers interview many Star Trek actors, past and present, about the influence of Takei as an Asian-American actor and as a hardworking, upbeat person. 

They discuss rumored gay undertones in Star Trek, although no one really thinks anything of it. Takei was closeted at the time and didn’t come out to the public until the Prop 8 debate in California. 

I did think this moment was pretty funny for the filmmakers to find to support any gay undertones. 

After a long stint of acting on the Star Trek show, guest roles on many many TV shows, and then Star Trek movies, Takei’s career moved into the political realm. He helped with the campaign of the first black mayor of Los Angeles, and when he won, there was a vacancy in City Council. Takei lost a very close race. He remained in the political realm, working for Clinton’s Japanese/American Friendship Committee. He also testified in the Congressional hearing for an official apology to the survivors from the Japanese-American internment camps. 

Because Takei was so politically minded, he was very angered when Governor Schwarzenegger went back on his word on marriage equality. Although I was old enough to know the basics of what was going on in California, perhaps because I didn’t live there, I didn’t understand fully what prevented such a liberal state from passing marriage equality. According to this film, it was all because of Schwarzenegger’s veto. 

When marriage equality finally came to California, thanks in part due to Takei’s influence, he and Brad married. I love that Nichelle Nichols was on stage with them! She’s absolutely stunning. 

Throughout the film, the filmmakers and Takei focus on the importance of Brad in Takei’s life. They tell the story of how they met at a gay and lesbian running club. They tell about how Brad helped take care of Takei’s dying mom. In the film, they even scatter Brad’s mom’s ashes, which is more of an intimate than an emotional moment. 

During a visit to New York to see some plays on Broadway, the couple met another couple who was in the play production business. Takei had already been planning to write a play about the Japanese internment camps. After meeting those producers, Takei decides to go through with the play, and that becomes the present-future aspect of the film’s storyline. 

Other notable moments in the film include: 

When Takei commented to Wil Wheaton about gaining weight, which Brad later reprimanded him for. 

When William Shatner claims to not know Takei and barely have spent any time with him. 

When we get to see the crucial role Brad plays in events like comic con during Takei’s autograph sessions. He is the perfect balance for Takei; they are truly a couple that is made greater than the two individual parts. 

When Takei uses the metaphor of being locked up (in the internment camps) to describe his feeling of being a closeted gay man. 

Overall, this film was so much more than a biography of an actor. There was a ton of present footage that reflected directly on past experiences and future endeavors. It was just a well balanced film and the storytelling was well done with all the intricate weaving required to tell all the aspects of Takei’s full life. 

[tenthousanddocs]

Playground: The Child Sex Trade in America

Playground is a 2009 documentary by filmmaker Libby Spears. The film incorporates facts/stats/expert interviews with animation and one major storyline.

The animation was very simple and poignant. Since the film focused on an issue related to children, the animation was used to make sure viewers remember the innocence and helplessness of children. 

As mentioned in the above frame, one thing that tied many child prostitutes together was a history of abuse. 

One small criticism I have for the film is that there was no opening quote to grab your attention.

The film began with the filmmaker explaining that while she was focusing on sex trafficking in East Asia, she learned about an American trafficker who had abused thousands of girls. Americans make up a large percentage of sex tourists, and a lot of that tourism is going on at home. Atlanta is a huge hub for sex trafficking. Atlanta and Portland were the two cities the film focused on most. 

One of the interviewees expressed frustration that children as young as 6 are being registered as sex offenders because of actions they don't understand because our lack of good sex education in America. 

Another point made by one family in the film is that sex trafficking, drugs, and prostitution doesn’t just affect poor kids. 

Here is Michelle, the major storyline that is weaved throughout the film. She was trafficked from Oregon to Canada when she was only 11. She was on the streets of Canada for 48 hours before discovered by the police. In that time, she was forced to perform sexual acts. The filmmakers try to find Michelle over the course of the film. 

She had a good foster mom after her abduction but she still ran away. 

No one really searched for her. 

The filmmakers interviewed a pimp in prison, a very important and telling perspective. 

One of the interviewers says, “We believe in our society that kids will heal if perps go to jail.” She believes there needs to be a lot more done to protect children. 

The affect of computers on child porn was hit on by an interviewer. Computers lower the risk for people seeking child porn. 

It’s a struggle to inform the American public about child porn because they can’t show any visual representation. One former child prostitute said she was forced to pretend to want to have sex with middle aged men while she really hated it. Because of that, she says, the public thinks prostitutes, even child prostitutes, want to be doing what they're doing. 

A huge frustration pointed out in the film is the arrest rates for prostitutes vs. pimps and johns. Trafficking victims from other countries aren’t arrested if they’re found in the U.S., yet trafficking victims from the U.S. within the U.S. are arrested in found prostituting. 

The filmmakers with the help of the police and FBI found Michelle after three years. She got back in touch with her mother, but all her mother wanted was someone to bring her crystal meth. Michelle is 18 and has two kids. She finally gets to tell her side of the story. She says her mom was an addict and a prostitute, and her aunt was physically abusive. Her siblings were adopted together and she wasn’t allowed to ever speak to them again. She was raped by her uncle when she was about 5. Her mother’s boyfriend raped her when she was about 7. She was put in a psychiatric ward for a few months, I guess because authorities didn’t know what else to do with her. She said that made her go crazy. 

I thought this was such a powerful quote to overlay on this image. With all the talk about sex and power, it’s hard to remember they’re just children with teddy bears who shouldn’t have to put knives under their bed. 

Unfortunately, we learn that Michelle doesn’t stay on the straight and narrow. Luckily, her boyfriend is taking care of their children. Her final interview is from prison. 

One of the interviewers said prostitutes need to be debriefed after getting off the streets like soldiers do when they come back from war. You can’t just throw them back into society and expect them to succeed.

When the credits roll, I learn that George Clooney was an exec producer. 

The film was slightly scattered, but Michelle’s timeline helped tie everything together. There was so much information and great interviews, it must have been difficult for them to edit it down and sort out an order. The pimp’s perspective and the former prostitute’s perspectives were incredibly important for the film, as well as the family’s of the children who were taken away by traffickers. Sex trafficking is another problem here at home that the leaders would like us to think is a problem that only affects other countries. 

[tenthousanddocs]

Paris is Burning

Paris is Burning is a fabulous documentary film about the black drag scene in NYC in the late 1980s. I said fabulous, because after watching this film, I have only been able to use adjectives like fabulous and real. 

The film focuses on a variety of characters, but it’s safe to say that most of them are black and gay, many dress in drag when they perform, some dress as women all the time, some even have sex-change surgeries. The range shown is important and enlightening to those who don’t know the difference between drag queens, transgendered, and transexual people. 

This film is great for learning the etymology of much of today’s slang. From “realness” to “reading” to “vogueing” long before Madonna, this concentrated group of people were unknowingly making history with their language and community.  

“In a ballroom, you can be anything you want.” This is one of my favorite quotes from the film. The interviewee is describing the different types of personas people dress up as at balls. This quote specifically refers to the men who dress up as executives at balls, a persona they will likely never portray in reality because of their race and sexuality. 

Balls are, of course, the shows where contestants walked, danced, and argued their way to “legendary” status in the community, winning trophies along the way. 

One of the characters in the film describes the trajectory of the ball scene, from Vegas-showgirl style, to Hollywood style, to the then-popular runway model style. At every ball, there are very specific categories in which contestants can participate which include everything from school-girl to winter sports wear. 

Realness is a term that means passing for straight. A house is a “gay street gang” but instead of fighting on the streets, they fight at the balls, and instead of fighting, they have walk-offs or dance-offs. The houses played a really big role in this community. The “mothers” and “fathers” of each house acted as not only inspiration on the ball floor, but as real parental figures. One house mother even identified a body of one of her children when she was murdered. Everyone called each other children, which was never explained, but I guess because they were part of the house-families and part because they were all, in a way, still figuring out a lot about their lives and performances and futures. 

Reading is a term that describes observational trash-talking. Voguing is a form of battle that is done on the floor of the balls, usually between two people who belong to different houses. Voguing can be done alone, but it is also a competitive art form. There is usually no touching in voguing, but some very fierce dance moves and glares. 

The master of voguing in the film made some of his living by teaching actual models how to walk the runways. This was a great example of showing the balls’ impact on a character’s day life. 

Mopping is a term that means stealing, like stealing costumes from a store for the ball. One participant said you can tell when the costumes are bought or stolen because the person wearing them has much more confidence if they bought it themselves. 

There is a scene where one of the young transgendered girls applies to participate in the Ford model search. I realized this was the only scene with straight men, or white men; both of the straight, white men, who were broadcast TV reporters, were horrible at their jobs, asking all the wrong questions and having to start over. It just hit home how easy it was (is) for white, heterosexual men to get jobs (especially in media) while these black, gay men were much more eloquent and poised and yet society was telling them they aren’t good enough. 

Throughout the film, we got a glimpse of the difficulties facing the gay men/drag queens in New York at the time, but I would have liked it to go deeper. It was mentioned that some of the participants are homeless and hungry, that many of them have been disowned by their family. It is hinted at that many of their only source of income is either stealing or prostitution. I would have liked the dark side to be further examined, but this was a revolutionary topic for the masses at the time. LGBT teen homelessness is still a huge issue in the United States and it’s something that could be examined by a well-crafted film like this. 

The filmmaker got one person to touch on the fact that many of these men and women’s source of income is prostitution. The person didn’t say that on film, but she insinuated it. That’s why the balls start at 5AM, so the “escorts” can come after work. 

One of the youngest characters in the film, Venus Extravaganza (denoting her participation in the house of Extravaganza) was an escort. She said her customers/friends only expected sexual favors about 5% of the time. Venus used to do more of that but got scared when the AIDs epidemic hit NYC. We learn a lot about Venus, how she ran away from home, how she wants to actually become a woman, her hopes and dreams. This makes the end of the film especially difficult. 

Here is Venus. I just love the colors in this frame and her body language. 

Unfortunately, she was murdered. They never found out who killed her. Her house mother is the person who identified her body for the police. That really  punctuated how important the houses and the house mothers were for these young people.

How can you not love a film with credits like this?!

The filmmakers followed up with many of the characters in 1989. That’s how they found out Venus had been murdered. They also found out the Ninja house mother had become more successful for his voguing skills. I wish they had followed up again a few years later. These men/women’s lives are so fascinating, and that was such an interesting/tumultuous/transitional/difficult period of time for black and gay people in America. At the end of the film, there was a RIP section for I think five people, most I’m sure to the AIDs epidemic. 

Further reading: one of the drag queens died after the film came out, and a mummy was found in her closet. So... yeah, these were interesting characters, and this film is definitely on my list of recommendations. 

[tenthousanddocs]

Parenthood

I have been taking a bit of a hiatus from watching and blogging about documentaries because I have been watching Parenthood like it's my job. I am very obsessed with this show, and I wanted to share this really beautiful screen grab from the season 5 finale. 

As much as I love documentary films, I also really love scripted television programs. Maybe I'll start a TV blog one day, who knows! 

[tenthousanddocs]

Burt's Buzz

So I watched this documentary a few weeks ago, but it was on someone's TV rather than my computer, and if you read my blog you know how much screenshots really help me. I scanned through the film on Netflix to get the screenshots and refresh my memory. 

The first thing I want to talk about is the interview of Burt. It's not the very first interview they show of him, but it is the most used throughout the film and incredibly visual appealing. I love the red chair he's sitting on and the cabin sitting perfectly in the background. What stands out to me, though, is the screen they used to offset the background from Burt. He really pops against what could be a brightly lit, distracting background. I have done an outdoor interview before, and it was very beautiful, but the scene behind my subject was very clean. I love how the filmmakers creatively solved a problem and I think it turned out beautifully. 

The character of Burt is just a gem. He doesn't hold back at all. He's very stubborn, he doesn't want to be around a lot of people, especially corporate types, but he seems to love the attention he gets when he goes oversees. 

I loved that this was more than a documentary about a company and its origins, and it was more than a documentary about an old grumpy man. There are so many layers to this film. There are also a lot of important supporting players in this film.

Some of the important supporting people are:

Burt's Taiwanese guide, who is so sweet and welcoming.

Burt's assistant, who has to put up with some hilarious, painstaking tasks.

Burt's brother, who lives in England and is completely different from Burt. 

The son of Burt's former business partner, who seems to really understand the whole story. 

That story being, how Burt got edged out of Burt's Bees. Back in the day, he was selling honey on the roadside, and then branching out a little to the markets. He met Roxanne Quimby who convinced him to market his products and sell more than just honey. The company grew quickly.

I love that we get to meet the designer who came up with the original art for Burt's Bees, art that has become iconic. 

So Roxanne moved the company and made Burt unhappy for many reasons, and she bought out his share in the company, which he eventually regretted. 

There are so many layers and the story is told very well. The videography is also beautiful and it often adds to the quirkiness of the film. 

I definitely recommend this film. There are many moments that will make you laugh, moments that will inspire you, and moments that will make you think about what you really want to be doing on this earth. It's a wonderful film.

[tenthousanddocs]

The Improv: 50 Years Behind the Brick Wall

The first 30 seconds of a film are pretty important seconds. The filmmakers want to grab your attention and make you curious and interested about the rest of their film. The first five minutes are equally important for setting up the characters, setting, and themes of the film.

The first five minutes of the documentary "The Improv: 50 Years Behind the Brink Wall" were five of the most hectic minutes I have ever witnessed on film. I paused it after five minutes and just felt overwhelmed and uninterested at the same time. The filmmakers clearly tried to shove way too much into the opening of the film, so much so that it turned me off from watching more. But, I did watch the first five minutes again to make sure I wasn't just in the wrong mindset. 

I wasn't. 

it opens with one sentence anecdotes/jokes from 10 (male) comedians about the Improv venue, stage, food, experience. It's A LOT to take in. I think the filmmakers wanted us to say, "oh wow, look how many celebrities are in this film." The interviews were also shot on a slider, which is distracting, and the crew has been permitted to laugh, encouraged even, at the jokes/anecdotes the comedians tell during their interviews. When the crew laughs at something that wasn't even meant to be funny, it seems so forced and that much more unfunny. 

The filmmakers line up the premise of this film three different times in the first five minutes. They show us snippets of the interviews from those 10 comedians. Then they show each comedian featured in the film in the credits. Then they have Adam Sandler describe the premise of the film, "I'm Adam Sandler (something we had already read) and this is the story of the Improv comedy club as told by the comedians who lived it..." blah blah blah. WE KNOW. 

This leads me to the next problem. I would have NEVER chosen Adam Sandler to narrate this film. He reads the script WAAAY TOO FAST. It sounds painfully scripted. And even those who thinks Adam Sandler is funny or charming would agree that his facial expressions and physical comedy are a big part of the Adam Sandler package. 

So I tried, twice, to want to watch this film. But for so many reasons I just outlined, I just don't want to watch this film. 

[tenthousanddocs]

Ellar Coltrane’s speech at the BAFTAs for Boyhood almost brought me to tears and reminded me why storytelling, even about something as simple as life itself, is so important.

Mark 2:05 “The fact that a movie like this that is most interested in just the simplicity of human interaction is being recognized alongside such grand pieces of art, to me means that life itself without anything explosive or tragic must be more exciting than we let on.”

[tenthousanddocs]

Metropolis, Illinois is a town of less than 7,000 people, yet it houses the largest Superman collection "in the known universe." Adam Siebert tells the story of how Metropolis got its name, and how it became Superman's hometown. Siebert is the co-owner of the Super Museum Gift Store.

[tenthousanddocs]

Sexy Baby

First off, I love the title of this film. i also love 2.5 of the main characters. I think this film diverged a bit in its focus: the central focus was the impact of porn (and other media) on the lives of women of all ages.

One character, Winnifred, is a 13 year old who lives in NYC. Her storyline is a very well told coming-of-age story. The decision to choose a young girl in NYC was impeccable. This girl was very mature (in both good and scary ways), very confident and outspoken. She rides the subway to school and wears bandage dresses to bat mitzvahs. Like many coming-of-age docs I have watched, she is much more open and realistic when talking to the cameras and much more flighty and unrealistic when arguing with her parents; it was good to show both of those dynamics. She doesn't really want to grow up so fast, and she knows her parents are right, but she feels a lot of pressure from kids at school, the media, and especially from social media, to grow up as fast as possible. She even talks about how the online/sexy persona young girls feel pressured to take on easily manifests in real life. There were moments in her storyline where my jaw actually dropped. I could not believe what she was wearing or how she was posing for pictures on Facebook. 

My favorite character was the former porn star named Nichole. She is a very talented pole dancer and has translated that into much success. She talks about how she wishes her mom had supported her dreams of becoming a dancer, then maybe she would be in a theater instead of a strip club. She is very down-to-earth, even as she is rollerblading in a bikini. She talks about how porn shouldn't be the way kids learn about sex, how it's much more extreme than most people would ever actually want to do, and how it sets up unreasonable expectations. Perhaps they lucked out when they chose her because over the course of the film she becomes pregnant. This adds another perfect layer, because now she has a child who she will actually have to make decisions about regarding their access to computers and porn and such. 

The character that didn't really pan out for me was Laura, a 22-year-old assistant kindergarten teacher who gets a labiaplasty. She has felt self conscious about the size of her labia for years and has saved up to travel and get the surgery. This storyline focuses on another huge impact of porn in today's society, and luckily (or purposefully), the other two characters both discuss labia surgery in their contemplations on pornography and the female form. Laura's character kind of falls flat after that. Her character is fairly one dimensional, and the parts of the film that are really repetitive are when the topic of the influence of porn on women's ideas of the perfect labia. 

The title of the film is perfect. Sexy Baby is something that is probably said in strip clubs and pornography. Sexy Baby is also the aspiration of many women. And Sexy Baby is what Winnifred portrays exponentially throughout the film because she is so young but dressing and acting so old. 

I think this film definitely needed three characters, I just wish Laura's character had another dimension other than just the labia surgery. 

This film originally aired on Showtime and is now available on Netflix. I definitely recommend it, unless you're the mother of a young girl (it might be too much to handle!). 

[tenthousanddocs]

Sherman's March

Sherman's March is a 1985 documentary about Ross McElwee, the filmmaker, and his journey to retrace W. T. Sherman's march through the southern United States and his own personal journey to find a lasting romantic relationship. 

So here's the deal. I am sincerely going to try to analyze this film rather than  the filmmaker, although, he offers up plenty to be analyzed. 

There are three themes in the film: W.T. Sherman, the Union General who marched through the southern United States; nuclear war; and women, especially southern women. Surprisingly, these themes do intersect in many ways. 

I will pepper my own commentary with words from Stella Bruzzi in her book, New Documentary. She writes that the film was probably scripted and premeditated. Naively, I believed McElwee's story, but now I'm not so sure. 

Bruzzi writes, "as an example of how the values and conditions of direct cinema have both consolidated and developed, London and Sherman's March form part of another growing tradition that takes the attributes and ethos of observational cinema...as the basis for reflexive films that simultaneously debate these observational foundations (110)."

The film "goes beyond the interactive mode as the interaction between McElwee and his spectator as crucial (115)." This might explain why I didn't enjoy the film very much. I honestly didn't really want to interact with McElwee. 

"The notion of masculine conquest, historical or sexual, is suggested by the formal linking of Sherman's and McElwee's respective marches (115)." This is the best explanation to how the film avoids being disjointed and confusing. 

Bruzzi writes about McElwee's "valorization of the phallic camera (116)" when he films women exercising or checking their bodies for ticks. She claims that he undercuts the sexualization with self-depricating jokes. While watching it, I kind of felt like his self-deprecation was searching for sympathy from the audience and over compensating for his awkwardness in the interactions with the women. 

Bruzzi explains the reason I found McElwee's "relationships" awkward, even creepy, when she mentions that he is never seen with the women. So all you see is a man behind a camera lusting over women he is filming. 

McElwee realizes the only way he relates to women is through filming. When he comes to this realization, he decides to return to filming Sherman's march. He immediately finds another hot chick to film. That's how it felt. 

I was wondering how McElwee had so much film at his disposal to just focus on girls he found sexy. I think much of it was preplanned. 

One of the opening scenes is of Ross pacing in an empty loft after being dumped by his girlfriend. I really like its composition and desaturation. 

After we learn about the change in McElwee's plan, we see the subtitle for the movie. And then we're kind of like...um what?

At age 12, Ross saw a nuclear test and it stuck with him forever. Throughout the film, he mentions fears of nuclear attacks and visits different protests and memorials. 

Here is Ross's sister. I really love this shot. He keeps here mostly centered while she paddles them around the lake. She is giving him advice on love and women. They see female boaters and swimmers who he inevitably focuses his lens on. 

Here, Pat tells Ross about her screenplay idea. It's an epic love story that involves space travel and the lead character, Pat (as herself, it seems), has her head cut off, her head floats to L.A. and she becomes a prophet. She later refers to herself as a prophet. Ross really knows how to pick 'em. 

I really think Ross would be a good photographer. Some of his shots are just so fabulously 80s. Maybe I'm just obsessed with the colors, like the pink and green here. 

Here Ross really makes me mad. He talks about how he asked Pat to stay with him and be in his movie (which also means being in a relationship with him) instead of taking the role in a Hollywood film. Creepy and selfish. 

...in my film for some bit part in a hack Hollywood epic. 

What a great quote from Pat. She knows his intentions. 

Here is the next woman Ross dated, Claudia, (with her daughter and friend). I thought this was a good still image. 

We learn that Claudia is very intensely and conservatively religious. While the pastor is sitting down with her, her daughter, and Ross, the Easter Bunny walks up. It's a very intense moment interrupted by the creepiest mascot. 

One of Claudia's friends said:

And I said, yikes. 

Thirty minutes in, Ross is finally on camera closer than 50 feet away. 

Then at the 57 minute mark, we can see (some of) his face. He is drinking alcohol and addressing the camera. He is asking himself what he is going to do. He reflects on women while talking about Sherman. 

He decides to leave and continue to film Sherman's march. That seems to be an easy out for him when he is done with a relationship. 

He has no car, and that is a problem throughout the film. But my questions is, how would he have filmed a documentary about Sherman's March without a car?

Ross interviews Winni, a woman he had a brief affair with. He is dramatizing their breakup and comparing it to one of Sherman's failures, something that Winni doesn't play along with. 

...between a real estate business and a love affair. 

He confronts her, behind the protection of the camera, about why they broke up. The answer is pretty obvious.

Ross meets up with a former girlfriend at a protest against nuclear weapons. They visit this new monument. She has a boyfriend, and she is clearly not really interested in talking to Ross about their relationship and she definitely doesn't want to be with him. There's not really any closure, I kind of feel bad for the woman who is put in the awkward position of answering his personal questions on camera. 

"A creeping psychosexual despair begins to overtake me." Ew. 

He heard Burt Reynolds was in town so he went to the hotel. Behind his camera, he stalks who he thinks is Burt Reynolds for hours, when it turns out to be a look-a-like. 

Ross meets up with an old friend Charleen who is desperate to set up Ross. She also wants him to put down his camera and have a conversation. The woman she sets him up with is mormon. On a dock, Ross films random women in bikinis before panning to the mormon woman, Dee Dee. WHAT DO YOU WANT ROSS?

Because of her families survival stockpile, her "dowry includes a better chance of survival in case of a nuclear attack." I thought that was clever. 

Once again, Ross decides to return to filming about Sherman. Immediately after this proclamation, he finds a band in a parking lot with an attractive female singer. He decides to follower her around for an unknown amount of time until she leaves for a tour. To her, she is just another star in his film, but to him, she is another one of his conquests. 

Finally, he decides to visit his friend Karen. She is clearly in love with her on and off boyfriend, but Ross is desperate. She is actually progressive, having a conversation about work with another woman while a man cooks. Ross is persistent and pushes things too far. He won't put down the camera until he finally realizes he has to. 

He confronts her though...

Whoops. Don't say that!

Burt Reynolds is actually in town and Ross hopes to film him for a few days. Honestly, who does he think he is? It didn't work, and he pushed things so far that he was warned about being arrested. 

He gets a job in Boston teaching filmmaking. He takes some classes, including a music class where he falls for the teacher. This is where our story ends, we don't know if they work out or not. I doubt they do. Ross doesn't seem to have changed much during this process. Maybe that is because it was a preconceived plot. We may never know. Ross did quite a few more documentaries after Sherman's March and I'll have to check them out to see what his style is when he isn't focused on himself. I'm curious to find out.