Confessions of a Superhero (2007)

Director:
Matthew Ogens

IMDB

Review:
One for the road before I go.
A documentary that chronicles the lives of three mortal men and one woman who make their living working as superhero characters on Hollywood Boulevard. This deeply personal look into their daily routines reveals their hardships and triumphs as they pursue and achieve their own kind of fame. The Hulk sold his Super Nintendo for a bus ticket to LA; Wonder Woman was a mid-western homecoming queen; Batman struggles with his anger, while Superman's psyche is consumed by the Man of Steel. Although the Walk of Fame is right beneath their feet, their own paths to stardom prove to be long, hard climbs.

Gone away for 11 days...

I have to leave for 11 days. I will try to post something but I doubt I will be able to do that. I have uploaded bunch of documentaries and I promise that as soon as I am back I will upload regularly. Use the labels (on the left) and the blog archive (on the right) in the meanwhile. I am sure there is something that you haven't watched.

Cheers,

HEAVY

SuicideGirls: The First Tour (2005)

Director:
Mike Marshall

IMDB

Review:
What Playboy magazine was to the 1950's, SuicideGirls is to the new millennium: a revolutionary lifestyle brand that combines the DIY attitude of underground culture with a vibrant, sex-positive community. Now comes Suicide Girls: The First Tour, a movie featuring the unique mix of punk and burlesque that made the SuicideGirls first national tour such a hit with audiences. Beyond the stage performances, this movie follows the women along for an intimate behind-the-scenes look at life in the van, along with exclusive photo shoots, and behind-the-scenes antics like trying to set up a topless photo shoot on the streets of San Francisco at midnight. In 2004, the SuicideGirls traveled 9,000 miles around the country to perform 60 sold-out burlesque shows in 45 cities, and this movie documents it all. Giving a goth attitude to the tradition peek-a-boo, the SuicideGirls are sexy, seductive and charming as well as chaotic and candid, with scenes from the live performances interspersed with intimate looks at the individual models.

Air Guitar Nation (2006)

Director:
Alexandra Lipsitz

IMDB

Review:
With equal measures of showmanship, patriotism and irony, hundreds vie at NYC's Pussycat Lounge for the East Coast Division of the first-ever nationwide air guitar championship for the right to eventually represent the U.S. at the world championship. Meanwhile, back in Finland, the current world champ frets that the influx of Americans could corrupt the form's purity. Faces contorted, bodies vibrating, fingers gripped convulsively around non-existent strings, contestants get one minute apiece to practice their art. Actor David "C-Diddy" Jung uses a kung fu style to advance to the finals at the Roxy in Los Angeles. There, he manages to defeat the West Coast faves as well as the New York runner-up, Dan "Bjorn Turoque" Crane. In Finland, C-Diddy faces some fierce competitors, not least Bjorn Turoque, who never lets a little thing like losing hold him back.

Mondo Cane 2 (1963)

Director:
Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi

IMDB

Review:
The original shockumentary sequel made up of episodes in the life of man and beast, filmed all over the world - New Guinea, Germany, Singapore, Portugal, Australia, America and beyond. This time around, the voyage includes vivisection, recreations of old west lynchings, a visit to a mortician's school, transvestites, wild sex clubs and alligator hunting.

Mondo cane (1962)

Director:
Paolo Cavara and Gualtiero Jacopetti

IMDB

Review:
Mondo Cane examines the ridiculous and cruel aspects of mankind, recording an abundance of evidence across the global spectrum from the most developed to the most primitive cultures. This film kicked off the "shockumentary" genre, but generally its many sequels and imitators were simply exploitational and lacked the pointed purposefulness of the original. While Mondo Cane's "shock value" has faded over the years, the movie's striking cinematography and poetically sardonic viewpoint make it uniquely effective.

College Inc. (2010)

LINK

Review:

Even in lean times, the $400 billion business of higher education is booming. Nowhere is this more true than in one of the fastest-growing -- and most controversial -- sectors of the industry: for-profit colleges and universities that cater to non-traditional students, often confer degrees over the Internet, and, along the way, successfully capture billions of federal financial aid dollars.

In College, Inc., correspondent Martin Smith investigates the promise and explosive growth of the for-profit higher education industry. Through interviews with school executives, government officials, admissions counselors, former students and industry observers, this film explores the tension between the industry --which says it's helping an underserved student population obtain a quality education and marketable job skills -- and critics who charge the for-profits with churning out worthless degrees that leave students with a mountain of debt.

At the center of it all stands a vulnerable population of potential students, often working adults eager for a university degree to move up the career ladder. FRONTLINE talks to a former staffer at a California-based for-profit university who says she was under pressure to sign up growing numbers of new students. "I didn't realize just how many students we were expected to recruit," says the former enrollment counselor. "They used to tell us, you know, 'Dig deep. Get to their pain. Get to what's bothering them. So, that way, you can convince them that a college degree is going to solve all their problems.'"

Weapon of War: Confessions of Rape in Congo (2009)

Review:
Wherever war breaks out, men with guns rape. During the decades of conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo possibly hundreds of thousands of women and girls were brutally raped. In Weapon of War military perpetrators unveil what lies behind this brutal behavior and the strategies of rape as a war crime. An ex-rebel explains how he raped. Like for many ex-soldiers, starting a normal life again is a struggle filled with trauma. In an attempt to reconcile with his past, he decides to meets one of his victims in an attempt to obtain forgiveness. Captain Basima is working as a priest in Congo’s army and confronts perpetrators of rape. He urges them to change. Just like he did.

The Art of the Steal (2009)

Director:
Don Argott

IMDB

Review:
Born into a working-class family in Philadelphia, Albert C. Barnes was a man who through hard work and determination became a doctor and medical researcher, founding a successful pharmaceutical firm that made him a multimillionaire. As his fortune grew, Barnes developed a taste for art and in time assembled one of the world's most remarkable private collections, featuring original paintings by Van Gogh, Renoir, Picasso, Cézanne, and many other important artists. Barnes relied on his own instincts rather than the advice of experts when he bought paintings, and he had little use for the pretentious attitudes of Philadelphia's art collectors and high society; the animosity between Barnes and the city's art establishment grew to the point that in 1922 he opened the Barnes Foundation, a private gallery where he kept his collection rather than share it with institutions such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art. The Barnes Foundation was open by invitation only, and the doctor preferred to have his collection seen by students and serious art lovers rather than those he felt didn't appreciate the work. Barnes died in 1951, and made strict provisions in his will that his collection was not to be sold, lent to other museums, or removed from the grounds of the Barnes Foundation. Lincoln University, a traditionally African-American college, was appointed to oversee the foundation's collection. But after the death of Barnes' protégée Violette de Mazia in 1988, Lincoln University's trustees took full control of the collection, now estimated to be worth 25 billion dollars, and a number of individuals and organizations inexperienced in the world of art laid hands upon the Barnes archive. The Art of the Steal is a documentary by Don Argott that explores how greed, political power, and good intentions colluded to violate Albert C. Barnes' wishes and scatter his collection across the globe.

C.S.A.: The Confederate States of America (2004)

Director:
Kevin Willmott

IMDB

Review:
Set in an contemporary alternative world where the Confederate States of America managed to win the American Civil War, a British film documentary examines the history of this nation. Beginning with its conquest of the northern states, the film covers the history of this state where racial enslavement became triumphant and the nation carried sinister designs of conquest. Interspersed throughout are various TV commercials of products of a virulent racist nature as well as public service announcements promoting this tyranny. Only at the end do you learn that there is less wholly imagined material in the film than you might suspect.  In an alternate universe, Jefferson Davis became president, the Confederates won the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was not shot and killed but becomes an escapee in blackface and dies in disgrace in Canada (not before recording his last words in 1905 -- a little anachronistic since sound in films did not occur until the 1920s), and slavery is alive and well and becoming one with technology. Subversive enough? You'll have to watch this mockumentary to believe it. Nothing is sacred here, and it works so well because it looks as if these events truly took place. It could be a documentary shown on A & E from its meticulous attention to detail to make it look authentic, and its segues into "commercial breaks" are fantastic -- you laugh, but you cringe. And this is exactly what director Kevin Willmott and producer Spike Lee want you to feel.

The Cruise (1998)

Director:
Bennett Miller

IMDB

Review:
Again another great doc from my friend mkvtony. Thanks man. A layered portrait of Timothy "Speed" Levitch and his tempestuous love affair with New York City. Atop double-decker buses, his tours exhibit a peculiar intimacy with the city's architectural feats and historical and artistic lineage. Each tour he leads is another chance to initiate unsuspecting tourists into the individuality the city represents.

Objectified (2009)

Director:
Gary Hustwit

IMDB

Review:
Objectified is a feature-length documentary about our complex relationship with manufactured objects and, by extension, the people who design them. It’s a look at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. It’s about the designers who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. It’s about personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability.

Mayor of the Sunset Strip (2003)

Director:
George Hickenlooper

IMDB

Review:
When Rodney Bingenheimer was just a teenager -- a diminutive, long-haired kid who was picked on a lot -- his mother, a divorced autograph hound, dropped him off in front of the home of actress Connie Stevens and essentially said, "Good luck." Stevens was on location shooting a movie and Bingenheimer says he didn't see his mother again for five or six years after that. The Mayor of the Sunset Strip, a documentary by George Hickenlooper (Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse), tracks Bingenheimer's rise from the 1960s, when he was a groupie -- eventually landing his first show-business job as a double for Davy Jones on The Monkees -- through stints as a successful club owner and influential DJ to his current status as a fading musical icon. The film takes us from the innocent pop of Brian Wilson and Sonny & Cher through the raucous heyday of L.A.'s punk scene and beyond. Hickenlooper also delves into Bingenheimer's relationships, showing him mourning his neglectful and unbalanced, but beloved, mother and visiting with his father, who never attempted to make contact with Bingenheimer after his mother abandoned him. He also pines for a close friend, Camille Chancery, and helps out a seemingly hopeless middle-aged wannabe rock star, Ronald Vaughan. While Bingenheimer used his skills as a consummate hanger-on and his genuine enthusiasm for rock & roll to become a central figure in the L.A. music scene for a couple of decades and is lauded in the film for his good taste and good nature by celebrities from Cher to David Bowie to Gwen Stefani, his current life is shown to be somewhat sad and lonely. The Mayor of the Sunset Strip is chock full of cameos and features a star-studded soundtrack. It was shown at the {~2003 New York Film Festival.

A League of Ordinary Gentlemen (2004)

Director:
Christopher Browne

IMDB

Review:
Can one of America's least glamorous sports survive a media-savvy makeover...and can it survive without one? In the 1950s and '60s, bowling was one of America's most popular sports, with millions spending their spare time on the lanes and watching professional bowling on television. However, the game's popularity took a nosedive in the 1980s and '90s, and matters only got worse when network television dropped regular bowling coverage. Eventually, the Professional Bowlers Association was bought out by a group of Microsoft executives, who pumped five million dollars into the organization and hired former football player Steve Miller to give the game a PR makeover in hopes of attracting a new audience. In A League of Ordinary Gentlemen, documentary filmmaker Chris Browne follows four professional bowlers -- Pete Weber, Walter Ray Williams Jr., Chris Barnes, and Wayne Webb -- as they scrape out a living on the pro bowling circuit and try to make sense of Miller's attempts to give the game a higher profile, with the solid play of Williams, who has won the PBA championship a whopping 39 times, often overlooked in favor of the "bad boy" showboating of Webber.