Author Topic: DOCember Group Marathon 2012  (Read 30286 times)

Beavermoose

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Re: DOCember Group Marathon 2012
« Reply #10 on: November 26, 2012, 09:01:34 AM »
From the FS top100 docs
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My Best Fiend: Klaus Kinski  (Werner Herzog, 1999)
Bus 174  (José Padilha, 2002)
Control Room  (Jehane Noujaim, 2004)
24 City  (Jia Zhangke, 2008)
Stranded: I've Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains  (Gonzalo Arijon, 2007)
The Elephant Will Never Forget  (John Krish, 1953)
The House Is Black  (Forugh Farrokhzad, 1963)
Murder on a Sunday Morning  (Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, 2001)
Street Fight  (Marshall Curry, 2005)
When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts  (Spike Lee, 2006)
One Day in September  (Kevin Macdonald, 1999)
Standard Operating Procedure  (Errol Morris, 2008)
The Last Waltz  (Martin Scorsese, 1978)
Winged Migration  (Jacques Perrin, 2001)
Man of Aran  (Robert Flaherty, 1934)
The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear  (Adam Curtis, 2004)
Hearts and Minds  (Peter Davis, 1974)
A Time for Burning  (Barbara Connell & Bill Jersey, 1967)
The Kid Stays in the Picture  (Nanette Burstein & Brett Morgen, 2002)
In the Shadow of the Moon  (David Sington, 2007)
Lost in La Mancha  (Keith Fulton & Louis Pepe, 2002) 
Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hood Hills  (Joe Berlinger & Bruce Sinofsky, 1996)
Up the Yangtze  (Yung Chang, 2007)
High School  (Frederick Wiseman, 1968)
When We Were Kings  (Leon Gast, 1996)
Streetwise  (Martin Bell, 1984)
Woodstock  (Michael Wadleigh, 1970)
Salesman  (Albert Maysles, David Maysles & Charlotte Zwerin, 1968)
Los Angeles Plays Itself  (Thom Andersen, 2003)
No Direction Home: Bob Dylan  (Martin Scorsese, 2005) 
Titicut Follies  (Frederick Wiseman, 1967)
The Up Series  (Paul Almond & Michael Apted, 1964-2005)
Man with a Movie Camera  (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
« Last Edit: November 30, 2012, 06:48:26 AM by Beavermoose »

Bondo

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Re: DOCember Group Marathon 2012
« Reply #11 on: November 27, 2012, 10:02:27 AM »
If I can carry Shocktober over slightly into November, I can kick this off a few days before December.

The Invisible War (2012)

What does the Catholic Church, Penn State Football and the U.S. Armed Forces have in common? Well, all are strongly hierarchical and male-dominated institutions and, if you believe the case presented by director Kirby Dick, the military should be included along those as being subject to a scandalous negligence in the face of sexual abuse. There are a lot of reasons why a high incidence of rape in the military might not be surprising with a high male:female ratio where the males self-select for high testosterone. Probably more problematic is the degree of power a commanding officer has over his (or her) subordinates. In the military, no might not mean no, it might mean subordination and dishonorable discharge.

Early on, Dick focuses on anecdotes, letting a large number of women talk about their own experiences in varying degrees of depth. This is emotionally shredding, but being a policy-minded person, what struck me is when the first real stat is shown, that 20% of women are sexually assaulted while serving in the military. This is a big and horrible number of course, but when you consider that the traditional number for all women is 1 in 5 (or 20%) one wonders why focus specifically on the military when it is the broader rape culture that seems to be the problem. And indeed, a lot of the film sounds like it could come from a film outside the military realm as easy as inside it (and it is equally important to keep in mind that it doesn't follow that 1 in 5 men sexually assault; a far smaller number are likely to victimize multiple people).

Perhaps we should expect more from the military, rather than less. After all, we always talk about service members as deserving nothing but the best and shouldn't that apply to the women as well? Don't we hold those in the military to a higher code of conduct, at least in theory? The film perhaps senses this disconnect as it moves into some of the more institutional concerns such as focusing on one victim veteran's long attempts to get through red tape in the VA. One of the more interesting variations is in reminding us that, while males are almost always the perpetrators of sexual assault, the victims are not exclusively women. There is also a good exploration of the particular details of the military legal system and how it complicates matters.

Whenever rape is brought up, there is inevitably the backlash claim of false accusation. One logic presented (outside the film, which doesn't take such claims seriously) is that because the military code outlaws adultery, women claim rape to avoid the legal ramifications of adultery. I've even heard this stretched to witch trial proportions in that the way you know a rape allegation is false is that it is vocalized, because real victims tend to be shamed or scared into silence. There are of course examples of these things. Certainly the case of Jamie Leigh Jones, a private contractor in Iraq featured in the documentary Hot Coffee, might be one. A jury at least did not hold her claim to be valid. Still, the implications are nasty and the logic muddled to take as a major issue.

Kirby Dick is a director I've been a bit cool on in terms of style, even as he picks interesting topics. His film Outrage fairly annoyed me as I disagreed with his main premise that outing potentially gay people was justified if they pushed for anti-gay policies. This Film Is Not Yet Rated makes a good case, if not an always gripping one. This one resonates on a different level. Whether there's something unique about the military or whether what's really wrong is a larger societal objectification is kind of irrelevant. Opening up the layers and the bullshit that tends to obfuscate the topic of rape is a vital thing. There are certain signs that things can be made better at least in prosecuting rape in the military, and seeing bipartisan voices pushing for changes is refreshing, but I'm not sure there are clear steps to seriously tackle the broader culture. That's not much comfort.

4.5/5

Bondo

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Re: DOCember Group Marathon 2012
« Reply #12 on: November 28, 2012, 06:23:03 PM »
Mutantes (Punk Porn Feminism) (2009)

This documentary explores what could be considered a sub-culture within feminism, that of the expression of feminism through sex work, pornography and other performance of a sexualized nature. Directed by Virginie Despentes, known for the infamous Baise Moi (panned as part of my extreme cinema marathon), it brings in many heavy hitters on the topic ranging from Annie Sprinkle to Catherine Breillat. Unfortunately in the latter case, it is part of the third of the film that wasn't in English and I didn't have access to functional subtitles.

While the film captures some different variations on the theme, it does start to feel a bit repetitive well before its 90 minute runtime is up. It is less notable as an intellectual encapsulation than it is in simply being a greatest hits clip reel of non-mainstream explicit material to give you a good idea what happens when the cis-male (whether straight or gay) is not involved. This is an accomplishment of sorts but doesn't make it a great documentary.

2/5

pixote

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Re: DOCember Group Marathon 2012
« Reply #13 on: November 28, 2012, 06:35:28 PM »
If anyone's looking for for viewing ideas, here are some titles that had ten votes or less averaging 7.50 or better from when we compiled the last Top 100 Docs list:

Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage - Sam Dunn & Scot McFadyen (2010)
They Took Us to the Sea - John Krish (1961)
The Battle of Chile - Patricio Guzmán (1975-79)
Public Housing - Frederick Wiseman (1997)
The Red Chapel - Mads Brügger (2009)
Alone in the Wilderness - Bob Swerer & Bob Swerer Jr. (2004)
The Last Days - James Moll (1998)
Welfare - Frederick Wiseman (1975)
Eyes on the Prize - Henry Hampton (1987)
Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go - Kim Longinotto (2007)
The Century of the Self - Adam Curtis (2002)
Riding Giants - Stacy Peralta (2004)
State Legislature - Frederick Wiseman (2007)
Near Death - Frederick Wiseman (1989)
The Mystery of Picasso - Henri-Georges Clouzot (1956)
Operation Filmmaker - Nina Davenport (2007)
Shoah - Claude Lanzmann (1985)
A Time for Burning - Barbara Connell & Bill Jersey (1967)
Primary - Robert Drew (1960)
Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment - Robert Drew (1963)
The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes - Stan Brakhage (1971)
Scratch - Doug Pray (2001)
The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear - Adam Curtis (2004)
Man of Aran - Robert Flaherty (1934)
Murder on a Sunday Morning - Jean-Xavier de Lestrade (2001)
Children Underground - Edet Belzberg (2001)
When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts - Spike Lee (2006)
Street Fight - Marshall Curry (2005)
The Elephant Will Never Forget - John Krish (1953)
Bus 174 - José Padilha (2002)
Streetwise - Martin Bell (1984)
Stevie - Steve James (2002)
One Day in September - Kevin Macdonald (1999)
The House Is Black - Forugh Farrokhzad (1963)
High School - Frederick Wiseman (1968)
In the Shadow of the Moon - David Sington (2007)
Standard Operating Procedure - Errol Morris (2008)
The Five Obstructions - Jřrgen Leth & Lars von Trier (2003)
Stop Making Sense - Jonathan Demme (1984)
Titicut Follies - Frederick Wiseman (1967)
Salesman - Albert Maysles, David Maysles & Charlotte Zwerin (1968)
Sans soleil - Chris Marker (1983)
The Gleaners & I - Agnčs Varda (2000)
Baseball - Ken Burns (1994)
Dark Days - Marc Singer (2000)

Lots of good stuff there.

pixote
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smirnoff

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Re: DOCember Group Marathon 2012
« Reply #14 on: November 28, 2012, 06:41:26 PM »
The Invisible War (2012)

whew... sounds like heavy viewing. Thanks for the review, I feel well prepared.

oldkid

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Re: DOCember Group Marathon 2012
« Reply #15 on: November 30, 2012, 12:21:38 AM »
I've got some 2012 docs lined up for me:

Happy
Surviving Progress
Indie Game

And a couple I need to see:
Hoop Dreams
National Parks (a Ken Burns joint my wife and I want to see)
The Thin Blue Line
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

Bondo

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Re: DOCember Group Marathon 2012
« Reply #16 on: November 30, 2012, 04:58:56 PM »
Crazy Horse (2011)

In addition to the numerous governmental institutions upon which Frederick Wiseman has directed his lens, he's also focused on more aesthetic ventures including ballet (twice) and modeling. Crazy Horse sends him inside the famous French nude revue. Similar to his ballet films (and ballet itself), there's a certain limitation involved. No matter the artistry, ballet, along with many of the classical performance arts, is just a bit tedious for me. The state of undress of the women involved here doesn't really change this at all.

The more sexual nature of this artistic presentation does open up certain problematic aspects. Wiseman is known for a fairly loose intervention, favoring a fly-on-the-wall style. Here though, Wiseman's choice of zooms and cuts feels a bit more intrusive and objectifying. Often, rather than getting a broader view of a performance as we might if we were in the audience, the camera zooms close in on the bodies. Combined with the way that the film can often linger on most of the performances, but notably cuts short coverage of a (clothed) male tap dance number, he seems to be playing favorites.

Aside from watching practices and performances, there are a few moments of interest in the operation of the club. The film is at its strongest though when we get a better glimpse of the dancers off-stage, their conversations and how they bide their time when they aren't dancing. The film does bring this from time to time, but it could have used even more relative to the other parts.

Although it doesn't have La Danse's sense of chronological development, there are a few moments in Crazy Horse where you get the satisfaction of seeing a routine that you've seen worked on earlier in the film pay off in its final form. This element that was ultimately the winning factor for La Danse also would have been appreciated as an even stronger presence here. Though lacking the potential for profundity of Wiseman's very best work, this does offer quite enough for an enjoyable and thoughtful experience.

3.5/5

BlueVoid

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Re: DOCember Group Marathon 2012
« Reply #17 on: November 30, 2012, 11:38:45 PM »
My tentative list:
Crazy Horse
Hoop Dreams
The Man with a Camera
Night and Fog
The Thin Blue Line

-2012 Catchup-
The Imposter
Queen of Versailles
The Invisible War
Any one have any recommendations, or knowledge of Oscar contenders?
« Last Edit: December 01, 2012, 04:04:57 PM by BlueVoid »
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MartinTeller

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Re: DOCember Group Marathon 2012
« Reply #18 on: December 01, 2012, 12:13:11 AM »
Queen of Versailles had a lot of buzz.  I put it on hold at the library, but I don't expect to get it before the month is over.

Bondo

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Re: DOCember Group Marathon 2012
« Reply #19 on: December 01, 2012, 07:15:36 AM »
The Invisible War seems like a likely contender.

 

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