Tying the Knot (2004)

Director:
Jim de Sève

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Review:
Documentary filmmaker Jim de Sève explores the many issues behind the controversial topic of gay marriage in Tying the Knot, a film which also offers a look at how the legal and societal structures of marriage have changed with time. Tying the Knot focus on two cases of long-term gay couples whose passing led to legal squabbles between the members of their respective families over issues which would have been comparatively clear-cut if the couples had been able to legally marry. In addition, de Sève interviews activists on both sides of the issue of legally sanctioning same-sex unions, and looks backward at how changing laws regarding women's property rights and interracial marriage have created a precedent for rethinking the legal contract of marriage. Tying the Knot was screened at the 2004 Tribeca Film Festival.

Ram Dass, Fierce Grace (2001)

Director:
Mickey Lemle

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Review:
 Harvard professors Richard Alpert and Timothy Leary made countercultural history in 1963 when they were fired from that institution for conducting controversial psychedelic drug research. In the purple haze aftermath, Alpert journeyed to India and found his guru Maharaj ji, who renamed him Ram Dass ("Servant of God"). Best known for his 1971 bestseller BE HERE NOW, which was a spiritual touchstone of the era, Ram Dass became an inspiration to people across the globe. Filmmaker Mickey Lemle--who has known his subject for more than twenty-five years--intersperses vivid archival footage from hippiedom's glory days with intimate glimpses of Ram Dass today, as he continues to remake his life since being--in his words--"stroked" in 1997. Named by NEWSWEEK as one of the Top Five Non-Fiction Films of 2002, RAM DASS FIERCE GRACE is an engrossing, poignant meditation on spirituality, consciousness, healing and the unexpected grace of aging.

Blindsight (2006)

Director:
Lucy Walker

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Review:
Erik Weihenmayer is an athlete and climbing enthusiast who, in the spring of 2001, scaled the summit of Mount Everest. This would be a notable accomplishment for anyone, but Weihenmayer was different from those who had reached Everest's peak before him -- he's been blind since the age of thirteen. Weihenmayer's remarkable story came to the attention of Sabriye Tenberken, an educator who teaches blind teenagers in Lhasa, Tibet. In Tibetan culture, blindness is considered by many to be a curse, and it's not unknown for families to abandon children who are blind to the streets. Hoping to show others what her students could do, Tenberken invited Weihenmayer to Tibet to lead six teenagers on a climb of Lhakpa Ri, a peak on the northern face of Mount Everest. Weihenmayer eagerly accepted the invitation and in 2004 he joined Tenberken and her students on the adventure of a lifetime as six sightless novice climbers attempted to conquer one of the world's tallest and most challenging mountains. Documentary filmmaker Lucy Walker joined Weihenmayer for his adventure with the Tibetan students, and Blindsight is a record of what he and his charges accomplished together. Blindsight received its North American premiere at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival.

So Much So Fast (2006)

Director:
Steven Ascher and Jeanne Jordan

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Review:
The unusual response of two brothers to devastating news sets the stage for this documentary. Stephen Heywood was 29 years old and had a solid job building houses, as well as a steady girlfriend, when he received word from his doctor that he'd been diagnosed with Amyotropic Lateral Sclerosis, a fast-spreading motor neuron condition also known as "Lou Gehrig's Disease." ALS robs its victims of the ability to control their muscles, and no cure has been discovered at this time. Stephen's brother Jamie responded to this news by quitting his job and starting a scientific research team to ferret out new treatments for the disease (given the small number of people who deal with ALS, few drug companies have stepped forward with medicines to ease its symptoms, believing that they could not turn a profit on the drugs). As Jamie wages a personal war against the medical establishment knowing his brother is getting worse every day, Stephen asks his girlfriend to marry him and they decide to have a baby, determined to squeeze a lifetime into the few years he has left with the unflagging support of his friends and family. So Much So Fast was screened in competition at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival.

The Jodorowsky Constellation (1994)

Director:
Louis Mouchet

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Review:
This is a fascinating documentary about the Chilean writer, director, artist Alexandro Jodorowsky. The interviewer Louis Mouchet asks Jodorowsky a potpourri of questions about his films, philosophy, art, and his opinion and feelings on a host of subjects. Mouchet begins the interview with the simple, but spellbinding, inquisition: "who are you?", to which Jodorowsky replies with a tale of the Emperor of China. He states that when we can define ourselves we cease to be. He shares with us his thoughts and definitions of his lifelong quest for knowledge and the unknown, and his exploits into the Panic Movement in France, and his drawings and art and how he avoided the lynching by the audience at the premiere of Fando and Lis. There are also interviews with his associates Fernando Arrabal, Marcel Marceau, Jean Giraud and the musician Peter Gabriel. We also learn of his plans of the project of Dune, which fell through and was later made by David Lynch. There is also an interesting and amusing look at Jodorowsky as an orator in a class of students, in which Mouchet is invited to join in. It is a fascinating and enlightening look at the life and works of this creative and artistic guru.

The Six Degrees of Helter Skelter (2009)

Director:
Michael Dorsey

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Review:
The Six Degrees of Helter Skelter" walks in the footsteps of the Manson Family, visiting over 40 locations related to the infamous Tate/LaBianca murders, and tying together the dozens of odd connections between Charles Manson and the Hollywood elite. Entertainingly led by famous Hollywood historian Scott Michaels (E!'s 20 Most Horrifying Hollywood Murders, Dearly Departed: Vol. 1, FindADeath.com), this epic documentary employs never-before-seen autopsy reports (analyzed with the help of the Los Angeles Department of the Coroner), dozens of rare photographs, original Manson Family music recordings, and modern-day visits to the locations where the action went down, in the most complete retelling of the Manson Murders ever put on film.

Sympathy for the Devil (1968)

Director:
Jean-Luc Godard

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Review:
Godard's documentation of late 1960's western counter-culture, examining the Black Panthers, referring to works by LeRoi Jones and Eldridge Cleaver. Other notable subjects are the role of the media, the mediated image, A growing technocratic society, Womens Liberation, the May revolt in France and the power of language. Cutting between 3 major scenes, including the Rolling Stones in the studio, the film is visually intercut with Eve Democracy (Wiazemsky) using graffiti which amalgamates organisations, corporations and ideologies. Godard also examines the role of the revolutionary within western culture. Although he believes western culture needs to be destroyed, it can only be done so by the rejection of intellectualisation.

Del mero corazón (1979)

Director:
Les Blank

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Review:
Del Mero Corazon is a lyrical journey through the heart of Chicano culture, as reflected in the love songs of the Tex-Mex Norte-o music tradition. Love songs are the poetry of daily life - a poetry of passion and death, hurt and humor, pleasures and torn dreams of desire. In the film, these songs travel from intimate family gatherings to community dance halls, from the borderlands to wherever La Raza works, lives, settles down. They are passed along, changed, and turned into new songs - always sung from the heart.

Religulous (2008)

Director:
Larry Charles

IMDB

Review:
Bill Maher interviews some of religion’s oddest adherents. Muslims, Jews and Christians of many kinds pass before his jaundiced eye. Maher goes to a Creationist Museum in Kentucky, which shows that dinosaurs and people lived at the same time 5000 years ago. He talks to truckers at a Truckers’ Chapel. (Sign outside: “Jesus love you.”) He goes to a theme park called Holy Land in Florida. He speaks to a rabbin in league with Holocaust deniers. He talks to a Muslim musician who preaches hatred of Jews. Maher finds the unlikeliest of believers and, in a certain Vatican priest, he even finds an unlikely skeptic.

Autopsy: Life & Death (2006)

Review:
The two scientists perform a series of autopsy demonstrations at the Institute of Plastination in Heidelberg, Germany, in which they point up the process of finding a cause of death. With the aid of human dissection, live models and scientific models they are able to reveal what disease really looks like and how it works.  It is important to note that in the UK, a standard clinical autopsy tends to follow a set pattern in order to establish a sound cause of death for scientific, medical and legal purposes. The autopsy demonstrations in the programmes employ similar techniques to the clinical standard. But they were designed to present a clear view of the anatomy and pathology and as such they represent partial, rather than full autopsies. The autopsies in the films did not have any medico-legal purpose, since causes of death had, in all cases, already been registered in the manner required by German law.

Orozco the Embalmer (2001)

Director:
Tsurisaki Kiyotaka

IMDB

Review:
Attracted to Colombia, the land of love and violence, the corpse photographer Tsurisaki Kiyotaka is led to the most dangerous area called 'El Cartucho' in Bogota where public order is the worst in the world. There he met an old veteran embalmer, Froilan Orozco, in the neighborhood of "rue morgue". It was not surprising that Tsurisaki became interested in the profession and deeply impressed by the fact that as an embalmer Orozco could continue mourning for countless victims of violence and bloody history in Colombia. This led Tsurisaki to undergo the long-term coverage of 3 years. Tsurisaki infiltrated 'El Cartucho' and revealed the essence of love and violence through the coverage of an embalmer Froilan Orozco. Is it social or bizarre? Is it beauty or bad taste? It's all up to you to judge what it is.

Who the #$&% Is Jackson Pollock? (2006)

Director:
Harry Moses

IMDB

Review:
After semi-truck driver Teri Horton bought a large splatter painting for her friend for $5, she was forced to sell it in her own garage sale when her friend said she had no place for it. Eventually someone commented on the painting stating it might be an original Jackson Pollock. This documentary follows Teri, her son, and a forensics specialist as they attempt to prove to the world, or more specifically the art community, her painting is a true Jackson Pollock.

Sex: The Annabel Chong Story (1999)

Director:
Gough Lewis

IMDB

Review:
On January 19,1995, Annabel Chong, a 22-year-old undergraduate in gender studies, embarked on a marathon crusade to secure fame, notoriety and a permanent place in the hallowed halls of fornication. Her feat: having sex with 251 men over the course of one 10-hour day, doubling the record set by a sex worker in Amsterdam. Discover exactly what went into her decision in this fascinating, disturbing and intensely provocative documentary.

Tupperware! (2004)

Director:
Laurie Kahn-Leavitt

IMDB

Review:
In the 1950s, American women discovered they could earn thousands -- even millions -- of dollars from bowls that burped. "Tupperware ladies" fanned out across the nation's living rooms, selling efficiency and convenience to their friends and neighbors through home parties. Bowl by bowl, they built an empire that now spans the globe.  American Experience presents Tupperware!, a new documentary by Laurie Kahn-Leavitt (A Midwife's Tale). Narrated by Kathy Bates, this funny, thought-provoking film reveals the secret behind Tupperware's success: the women of all shapes, sizes, and backgrounds who discovered they could move up in the world without leaving the house. Tupperware! charts the origins of the small plastics company that unpredictably became a cultural phenomenon.  It all began with the unlikely partnership of Earl Silas Tupper, a reclusive small-town inventor, and Brownie Wise, a self-taught marketing whiz. At a time when women, who had been celebrated for working in factories during World War II, were being pushed back to the kitchen, Wise showed them how to defy the limitations they faced by starting up their own businesses -- based in their kitchens.  In Tupperware!, archival footage of Tupperware parties, annual Tupperware Jubilees, and home movies is interwoven with the thoughtful, often humorous recollections of Tupperware salespeople and executives who experienced firsthand the company's meteoric rise.

How much Wood would a Woodchuck chuck... (1976)

Director:
Werner Herzog

IMDB

Review:
Herzog examines the world championships for cattle auctioneers, his fascination with a language created by an economic system, and compares it to the lifestyle of the Amish, who live nearby.

Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (1997)

Director:
Errol Morris

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Review:
What do an elderly topiary gardener, a retired lion tamer, a man fascinated by mole rats, and a cutting-edge robotics designer have in common? Both nothing and everything in this unconventional documentary directed by Erroll Morris. Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (Referring to the robot specialist's strange philosophy of robot design structure, not Errol Morris's documentary techniques!) interplays, overlaps, and interrelates these four separate and highly specialized documentary subjects in order to in truth study all of humanity, raising questions about the future of mankind.

Vernon, Florida (1981)

Director:
Errol Morris

IMDB

Review:
Early Errol Morris documentary intersplices random chatter he captured on film of the genuinely eccentric residents of Vernon, Florida. A few examples? The preacher giving a sermon on the definition of the word "Therefore," and the obsessive turkey hunter who speaks reverentially of the "gobblers" he likes to track down and kill.

Hofmann's Potion (2002)

Director:
Connie Littlefield

IMDB

Review:
Researchers try to establish the medical benefits of LSD. The documentary about LSD and how it was created, what usage it had, and how the early experiments were carried out by Albert Hofmann, Timothy Leary and others.

Alter Egos (2004)

Director:
Laurence Green

IMDB

Review:
Alter Egos (2004), directed by Laurence Green, is a documentary about the making of Ryan that includes interviews with both Larkin and Chris Landreth as well as with various people who knew Ryan at the peak of his own success. Ryan was a very successful animator that at the peak of his career gave away to drugs and alcohol which eventually lead to a total destruction of his life and career. Very interesting documentary... My recommendation.

What Happened on the Moon? (2000)

Director:
David S Percy

Review:
Five years in the making, WHAT happened on the MOON? An investigation into Apollo, is a double DVD as well as a two-tape video set. This compelling production throws into serious doubt the authenticity of the Apollo missions and features information that challenges the declared abilities of NASA to successfully send a man to the Moon and return him safely to Earth. Did the Apollo missions really achieve NASA's aims? This enthralling production presents the flaws in the record of this land mark event in a graphic, dynamic, easy-to-follow way. What happened on the Moon? examines the problems with rockets and associated technologies as well as the serious dangers-that to date have not been overcome-concerning deep space radiation. Why was faking necessary? Hear what NASA has to say in response to these disturbing findings.New evidence revealing significant errors in continuity between the Apollo still photos and the 'live' TV coverage suggests that NASA hoaxed the official record of mankind's first visit to the Moon.These new findings are supported by detailed analysis and the testimony of experts from various disciplines. These include photographer/filmmaker David S Percy ARPS and physicist David Groves PhD. The numerous inconsistencies visible in the images are quite irrefutable. Recent research indicates that the errors evidenced were deliberately planted by individuals determined to leave clues pointing to the faking of the record of Apollo.

Punk: Attitude (2005)

Director:
Don Letts

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Review:
Punk: Attitude is a documentary on the history of punk rock in the USA and UK. The film traces the different styles of punk from their roots in 60s garage and psychedelic bands (Count Five, the Stooges) through glam-punk (New York Dolls) to the 70s New York and London scenes and into the hardcore present. Interviews with many of the musicians are edited with live clips and historical footage.

Psychiatry: An Industry of Death (2006)

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Review:
Through rare historical and contemporary footage and interviews with more than 160 doctors, attorneys, educators, survivors and experts on the mental health industry and its abuses, this riveting documentary blazes the bright light of truth on the brutal pseudoscience and the multi-billion dollar fraud that is psychiatry.

Devil's Playground (2002)

Director:
Lucy Walker

IMDB

Review:
The Devil's Playground is a fascinating and moving documentary about a little-known aspect of Amish life. Amish are not permitted to join the church until their late teens, and have to do so of their own volition. The film explores rumspringa, wherein young Amish are given the opportunity to explore the "English" way of life. Filmmaker Lucy Walker tracked a few of these young people over the course of their experience. The film shows how difficult it is for them to break away from the church. Many of them "act out," exploring not just Nintendo and rock music, but alcohol, drugs, and sex. But almost all of them return to the church, and this fairly balanced documentary makes it clear that despite the church's stance, there is tremendous pressure, both economic and emotional, on these kids to return to the fold. The film focuses on a young man, Faron, who develops a serious drug problem and decides not to get baptized, and a young woman, Velda, who was baptized, and then later, suffering from acute depression, made the difficult decision to leave the church. Walker successfully captures the compelling details of this formerly closed and forbidding world, and the essentially ordinary kids who inhabit it.

Porn Star: The Legend of Ron Jeremy (2001)

Director:
Scott J. Gill

IMDB

Review:
 The Legend of Ron Jeremy offers audiences a penetrating look inside the world of Ron Jeremy, America's most unlikely sex star and hero to millions. With nearly 25 years in the adult film industry and over 1,600 films to his credit, Ron Jeremy is huge. In his world, Ron reigns supreme-he's made millions of dollars and slept with thousands of beautiful women, and is indisputably the industry's biggest star. And everyone who's anyone knows Ron-a pop icon to millions, he is a beacon of hope for many American male, since he stands as living proof that pretty much anyone can get some. So how did such a classically unhandsome, big and hairy guy ever get to be suchia super stud? In one of the most fascinating and entertaining comedies of the last year, audiences finally get a chance to get inside the life and times of Ron Jeremy, and find out what's really behind the hardest working man in show business.