Posts with the tag 'documentary'
THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF NICOLAE CEAUSESCU- 2010. Synopsis by Netflix. “Track the rise and fall of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu through this innovative historical documentary, which constructs his portrait by only using archival footage from speeches, pubic appearances, international visits and home movies. Culling more than 1,000 hours of recordings, director Andrei Ujica spent four years creating this detailed epic, which strives to reveal the powerful leader’s true character.” 9/9/11- Good reviews in general and in today’s NY Times. TRDB.
2/5/14-A masterful documentary that has NO talking heads or narration of any kind but exists only from archival footage that traces his political path. TRDB.
Tags: documentary
September 12th, 2011
WE WERE HERE- 2011. Synopsis by Netflix. “The AIDS crisis forever changed gay culture in San Francisco, as examined in this absorbing documentary from David Weissman, who explores the disease’s impact on five individuals. Vintage film clips accompany their sobering stories. Co-director of The Cockettes, Weissman contrasts the 1960s and ’70s-era joy and revelry depicted in that film with the sorrow, outrage and activism that followed in the 1980s and beyond.”
9/9/11- Great reviews in general and in today’s NY Times. TRDB.
Tags: documentary
September 12th, 2011
RESURRECT DEAD- 2011. Synopsis by Netflix. “For three decades, strange plaques with messages about resurrecting the dead have mysteriously appeared on streets throughout North and South America, prompting director Jon Foy to seek out the story of their origin. Artist Justin Duerr, who began investigating the tiles in 1993, takes us on a tour of unusual and seemingly random clues, and in the process resurrects not the dead, but the innate human desire for magic and mystery.”
9/2/11- OK review in today’s NY Times. TRDB.
Tags: documentary
September 2nd, 2011
SQUARE GROUPER- 2011. Synopsis by Netflix. “Documentarian Billy Corben shines a spotlight on three unusual and interrelated stories about drug trafficking in Florida during the 1970s and 1980s, when marijuana smuggling was big business practiced by everyone from ordinary folks to pirates. Interviews and archival footage examine the practices of the incendiary Ethiopian Coptic Church, the jobless fishermen who grew pot in Everglades City and the enterprising members of the Black Tuna Gang.” Just fair reviews so far. TRDB.
Tags: documentary
September 1st, 2011
THUNDER SOUL- 2010. Synopsis by Netflix. “Mark Landsman totes his cameras to a tight-knit North Houston community in this poignant documentary, which celebrates an inner-city high school band leader’s lasting influence on his now-grown students. When Conrad “Prof” Johnson took the reins of the jazz band at Kashmere High School in the 1970s, he had a group that was mediocre at best. But before anyone knew it, the school had a funk powerhouse on its hands. The film picked up awards at both the L.A. Film Festival and South by Southwest.” A few fair reviews. TRDB.
2/14/12- An OK documentary about a man who served as a beacon to a group of students with very little else in their lives. TRDB. Netflix.
Tags: documentary
August 31st, 2011
MACHINE GUN PREACHER- 2011. Synopsis by Netflix. “Gerard Butler stars in this true-life story of Sam Childers, a drug dealer who turns his life around to become a spiritual warrior. His mission? Rescuing child soldiers in the Sudan from lives ruined by their forced participation in bloody conflict.” Poor reviews in general. TRDB.
Tags: documentary
August 31st, 2011
RENEE- 2012. Synopsis by Netflix. “This documentary examines the life of Renée Richards, whose tenacious fight to play professional tennis after her sex reassignment surgery in 1975 advanced equality for transgender people but deepened the rift between her and her only son.” No reviews yet. TRDB.
Tags: documentary
August 22nd, 2011
BORN AND BRED- 2011. Synopsis by IMDB. “Born and Bred is a feature-length documentary film chronicling the lives of a new generation of young boxers fighting for their place in the American boxing capital of Los Angeles, where Latino immigration is surging to a historical breaking point. At the heart of the film is the story of 15-year-old twin brothers in their last two years in the tough ranks of amateur boxing where boys are made into men and Olympic dreams are won and lost.”
8/19/11- Fair review at best in today’s NY Times. TRDB.
Tags: documentary
August 20th, 2011
THE BOY MIR: TEN YEARS IN AFGHANISTAN- 2011- Synopsis by IMDB. “Following the international hit The Boy who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan, The Boy Mir will cover not one year but ten. It will track the cheeky, enthusiastic Mir from a childish eight to a fully grown eighteen-year-old. Over those ten years, it will be a journey into early adulthood in one of the toughest places on earth; a journey that mirrors the current and vitally important story of Afghanistan.”
8/12/11- OK review in today’s NY Times. Much better reviews for the pre-quel in 2002 called “The boy who plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan. TRDB.
Tags: documentary
August 12th, 2011
THE BOY WHO PLAYS ON THE BUDDHAS OF BAMIYAN- Synopsis by IMDB. “In 2001, the Taliban government of Afghanistan destroyed the Buddhas of Bamiyan, the world’s tallest stone sculptures. By the summer of 2002, after the fall of the Taliban, more than 250 Afghans, most of them Hazara refugees, were living in caves beside the rubble. This film, organized chronologically over four seasons, follows a refugee family living there, including Mir, a smiling lad of eight. The landscape is stark, the winter is harsh, the refugees’ stories are harrowing, Mir’s school is crowded and ill equipped, helicopters move across the sky, and the roads carry mostly military vehicles, yet Mir’s family hopes for a house and a bright future.”
Tags: documentary
August 12th, 2011
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