Sunday, October 4, 2009

I love documentaries.

***** Stoked: The Rise and Fall of Gator---A really interesting film about 80's skater Mark "Gator" Rogowski. The director, Helen Stickler, compiled some great footage from competitions and old interviews with Rogowski and then conducted new interviews with skaters that used to know him.The film explores many issues---- fame, bipolar disorder, 80s vert skating vs 90s street skating, "throwaway culture", crime, and commercialization...to name a few.

****** DIG!--- A film about two bands, The Dandy Warhols and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, who are both trying to make it on their own terms in the industry.It's a pretty good look into the relationship of these two bands as one reaches a level of success, while the other falls apart. The film is hilariously funny... mostly because the lead singer of BMJ is completely insane, but also because the film was put together amazingly well.
***** Dark Days--- A look into the very dark lives of some unfortunate New Yorkers that live underneath the subway system. The director Mark Singer actually lived with the people he filmed for the duration of the shoot---capturing some moving footage of people who ended up in a tough place. Their stories are pretty sad and their conditions are horrible but it ends up being a pretty uplifting film.

--Other films to check out: Capturing the Friedmans, Bus 174, The Bridge, Murderball, The Devil and Daniel Johnston, Children Underground and Murder on a Sunday Morning.

3 comments:

  1. Dark Days is such a great documentary. The other ones you've listed here are still ones that are on my radar. Have you seen Jesus Camp?

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  2. where the lady thinks harry potter is the devil and then a kid says he was saved at 5 years old??? yea that one was pretty disturbing.

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  3. Yep, that's the one! I personally thought it was one of the scariest movies I had ever seen haha.

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