CoSM the Movie: Alex Grey & the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors (2006)

Director:

Nick Krasnic

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Review:

CoSM The Movie is a magical new kind of documentary experience, leading audiences on an enriching and sense-heightening journey into the visionary art cosmos of world-renowned painter Alex Grey. Grey is our guide on a cinematic pilgrimage through the Chapel of Sacred Mirrors gallery in New York City, where his vividly rendered depictions of human anatomy and transcendental imagery reflect the universal human experience with birth, death, family, love, and enlightenment as the unfolding iconic narrative. Fusing the power of music with stunning cinematography, director Nick Krasnic channels the raw power of Grey's art into a potent film odyssey that captures the essence of this unique sacred space, and offers rare, personal insight from one of the most significant artists of our time.

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (2011)

Director:

Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky

IMDB

Review:

Long awaited third sequel is here. After nearly 20 years spent in prison for the crime(s) they did not commit, Jason Baldwin, Damien Wayne Echols and Jessie Miskelly are free by plaguing guilty to the crime. This is by far the most interesting documentary of the Paradise Lost serial as the information that is presented to the viewer is simply incredible. I could write tons of text about it and but I won't simply because I want you to experience it for yourself. Don't miss this gem of cruel reality.

William S. Burroughs: A Man Within (2010)

Director:

Yony Leyser

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Review:

William S. Burroughs: featuring never before seen footage as well as exclusive interviews with his closest friends and colleagues. Born the heir of the Burroughs' adding machine estate, he struggled throughout his life with addiction, control systems, and self. He was forced to deal with the tragedy of killing his wife and the repercussions of neglecting his son. His novel, Naked Lunch, was one of the last books to be banned by the U.S. government. Allen Ginsberg and Norman Mailer testified on behalf of the book. The courts eventually overturned their decision in 1966, ruling that the book had an important social value. It remains one of the most recognized literary works of the 20th century. William Burroughs was one of the first to cross the dangerous boundaries of queer and drug culture in the 1950s, and write about his experiences. Eventually he was hailed the godfather of the beat generation and influenced artists for generations to come. However, his friends were left wondering, did William ever find happiness? This extremely personal documentary breaks the surface of the troubled and brilliant world of one of the greatest authors of all time. "William S. Burroughs: A Man Within" is the first and only posthumous documentary about this legendary figure.

A Film Unfinished (2010)

Director:

Yael Hersonski

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Review:

Yael Hersonski's powerful documentary achieves a remarkable feat through its penetrating look at another film-the now-infamous Nazi-produced film about the Warsaw Ghetto. Discovered after the war, the unfinished work, with no soundtrack, quickly became a resource for historians seeking an authentic record, despite its elaborate propagandistic construction. The later discovery of a long-missing reel complicated earlier readings, showing the manipulations of camera crews in these "everyday" scenes. Well-heeled Jews attending elegant dinners and theatricals (while callously stepping over the dead bodies of compatriots) now appeared as unwilling, but complicit, actors, alternately fearful and in denial of their looming fate.

Sharkwater (2006)

Director:

Rob Stewart

IMDB

Review:

For filmmaker Rob Stewart, exploring sharks began as an underwater adventure. What it turned into was a beautiful and dangerous life journey into the balance of life on earth. Driven by passion fed from a life-long fascination with sharks, Stewart debunks historical stereotypes and media depictions of sharks as bloodthirsty, man-eating monsters and reveals the reality of sharks as pillars in the evolution of the seas. Filmed in visually stunning, high definition video, Sharkwater takes you into the most shark rich waters of the world, exposing the exploitation and corruption surrounding the world's shark populations in the marine reserves of Cocos Island, Costa Rica and the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. In an effort to protect sharks, Stewart teams up with renegade conservationist Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. Their unbelievable adventure together starts with a battle between the Sea Shepherd and shark poachers in Guatemala, resulting in pirate boat rammings, gunboat chases, mafia espionage, corrupt court systems and attempted murder charges, forcing them to flee for their lives. Through it all, Stewart discovers these magnificent creatures have gone from predator to prey, and how despite surviving the earth's history of mass extinctions, they could easily be wiped out within a few years due to human greed. Stewart's remarkable journey of courage and determination changes from a mission to save the world's sharks, into a fight for his life, and that of humankind. A true masterpiece. My recommendation. True must watch!

The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia (2009)

Director:
Julien Nitzberg

IMDB

Review:
Riffing off of the original documentary "Dancing Outlaw," about tap dancer Jesco White and his dancing dad, director Julien Nitzberg headed down to the coal-mining heart of West Virginia to further exploit this drug-addled family for some film footage that's fairly unbelievable. Launching right into some current family drama between Sue Bob's son, Brandon, having landed in prison after shooting his uncle, among others, this documentary then goes back to trace hooligan behavior to the originators of the family, dancer and coal miner D. Ray and his tough-cookie wife Bertie Mae. Daughters and cousins Sue Bob, Mousie, and Kirk dominate the film, snorting pills in trashy bar bathroom stalls and getting tanked in cars while driving around with less-than-savory boyfriends and ex-husbands. Occasionally, interviews with the town's district attorney provide some background information on this infamous regional family.

The True Meaning of Pictures: Shelby Lee Adams' Appalachia (2002)

Director:
Jennifer Baichwal

IMDB

Review:
A film about the fine line between art, ethnography, and exploitation, The True Meaning of Pictures explores the work of photographer Shelby Lee Adams. His work is both technically proficient and artistically resonant, but because it features images of poor residents of Appalachian hollers, some have decried it as manipulative or exploitative.  Director Jennifer Baichwal gives everyone a voice, from the residents in the photographs (including several mentally retarded individuals as well as a venom-drinking Pentecostal snake-handler who is proud of his scars) to Adams himself, and from outraged family members of those in the photos to art critics who respect the abrasive and problematic nature of the work. The title, of course, begs to start an argument. What do these pictures actually mean, and isn't the "true" meaning more in the beholder than in the subject?  A work that appreciates the complexities of the issue of representation and questions the idea of rights to self-representation. After all, when a man in one of these photos chooses to hold out a knife because he is personally proud of his new knife, does the provocative proximity of this knife to his mentally-disabled son imply more than pride of possession? Of course, but to what end? Who gains and who loses? The film leaves this question elegantly open-ended.

Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)

Director:
Brit Banksy

IMDB

Review:
Los Angeles based Frenchman Thierry Guetta gets the idea that he would like to film street artists in the process of creating their work. He tells them that he is making a documentary, when in reality he has no intention of editing the footage into one cohesive movie. Unaware of this latter fact, many street artists from around the world agree to participate. Thierry even gets into the act by assisting them in creating the art. One of the artists that participates is the camera-shy Brit Banksy, who refuses to be shown on screen unless he is blacked out. Banksy does convince Thierry to use the footage to make a movie. In Thierry doing so, Banksy comes to the realization that Thierry is a lousy filmmaker, but he is an interesting character in an odd yet appealing way. So Banksy decides to use the footage and add additional material to make his own movie about Thierry's journey in this project.

Hoop Dreams (1994)

Director:
Steve James

IMDB

Review:
Originally intended to be a 30-minute short produced for the Public Broadcasting Service, it eventually led to five years of filming and 250 hours of footage. The film follows William Gates and Arthur Agee, two African-American teenagers who are recruited by St. Joseph High School in Westchester, Illinois, a predominantly white high school with an outstanding basketball program. Taking 90-minute commutes to school, enduring long and difficult workouts and practices, and acclimating to a foreign social environment, Gates and Agee struggle to improve their athletic skills in a job market with heavy competition. Along the way, their families celebrate their successes and support each other during times of hardship. The film raises a number of issues concerning race, class, economic division, education and values in contemporary America. It also offers one of the most intimate views of inner-city life to be captured on film. Yet it is also the human story of two young men, their two families and their community, and the joys and struggles they live through over a period of five years.

Terror's Advocate (2007)

Director:
Barbet Schroeder

IMDB

Review:
An examination of the career of Jacques Vergès (1925- ), attorney for members of Algeria's FLN, Palestine's FPLP, the Khmer Rouge, Carlos and associates, Klaus Barbie, and other revolutionaries and outcasts. Archival footage, news articles, and photographs mix with contemporary interviews of Vergès, friends, associates, and historians. Connections with Nazis are explored, as well as Vergès's marriage to Djamila Bouhared, his courtroom methods, his disappearance from 1970 to 1978, and the roots of his radicalism. Throughout, Vergès remains playful and charming, with a soupçon of arrogance. The film suggests Vergès's anti-colonial nature is at his center.

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired (2008)

Director:
Marina Zenovich

IMDB

Review:
There are few who are unfamiliar with the notorious Polanski sex scandal of 1977 which led to him absconding from America prior to the start of the trial, never to return. This recent documentary presents the case for both sides and leaves it to the viewer to determine the guilt or innocence of the legendary director.

Lynch aka. Lynch (One) (2007)

IMDB

Review:
Compiled from over two years of footage, the film is an intimate portrait of Lynch's creative process as he completes his latest film, INLAND EMPIRE. We follow Lynch as he discovers beauty in ideas, leading us on a journey through the abstract which ultimately unveils his cinematic vision. The director of the documentary immersed himself in David Lynch's world; living and working at Lynch's home. His unobtrusive style has captured a personal side of David Lynch not seen before. The film reveals Lynch not only as one of the most original and compelling directors of contemporary film but also as an artist who continues to explore and experiment in countless mediums. We witness his "hands on" approach to painting, sculpting, music and screenwriting. His enthusiasm is infectious; inspiring us to tap into the well of creativity that Lynch believes we all have.

Land of Silence and Darkness (1971)

Director:
Werner Herzog

IMDB

Review:
Through examining Fini Straubinger, an old woman who has been deaf and blind since her teens, and her work on behalf of other deaf-blind people, this film shows how the deaf-blind struggle to understand and accept a world from which they are almost wholly isolated. Indeed a one of Herzog's most extraordinary documentaries. A must watch!

Chaplin's Goliath (1996)

Director:
Kevin Macdonald

IMDB

Review:
A film about the tall actor who was most famous for playing the quintessential villian for Charles Chaplin's Tramp character.  Eric Campbell looms large in the history of silent comedy on the basis of a mere 11 films. Between 1916 and 1917 he appeared as Charlie Chaplin's hulking nemesis in 11 of his 12 comedy classics for Mutual, a literal Goliath to Chaplin's David. With heavy, frowning eyebrows and a slow-burn stare, this huge yet agile Scottish actor became one of the most recognizable faces on the screen and even inspired copycats (one delightful piece of archival footage shows a young Oliver Hardy in a thick black beard blatantly imitating Campbell). In December 1917, on the verge of a brilliant career, Eric Campbell died in a car accident. Writer-director Kevin Macdonald uses archival footage and photos to illuminate his rich career on the British stage and music hall circuit, and interviews paint a portrait of a gentle family man. Macdonald pads out the film with a Scottish-pride slant on Campbell's success (the film's subtitle is "In Search of Scotland's Forgotten Star") and the reminiscences of Campbell's granddaughter, pleasant but unnecessary diversions. The film is at its best when examining his gifts as a screen comic, seen in clips and notably in rare outtakes from his work with Chaplin. His improvisational talents show that "Big Uncle Eric"--as he was known to kids around the world--was no mere foil for Chaplin. Eric Campbell was a creative artist and a comic partner, a vital part of Chaplin's most productive period.

Stanley Kubrick's Boxes (2008)

Director:
Jon Ronson

IMDB

Review:
Eccentricity comes in many forms. In the case of perfectionist film-maker Stanley Kubrick, who died in 1999, they clearly informed his genius. This trawl by journalist Jon Ronson through the archives of Kubrick's St Albans estate reveals a shy, meticulous stationery-obsessive who was a "Catherine wheel of ideas and projects". In hundreds of catalogued cardboard boxes, Ronson finds screen tests, fan letters, mind-bogglingly detailed location research, and memos about cat collars and barometric pressure. The documentary is a cinéaste's dream, but the remoteness - even coldness - of its subject's technical masterpieces such as 2001: a Space Odyssey and Barry Lyndon remains, like the man himself, a compelling enigma.

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.

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.

Ram Dass, Fierce Grace (2001)

Director:
Mickey Lemle

IMDB

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

IMDB

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

IMDB

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.