Devil's Playground (2002)

Director:
Lucy Walker

IMDB

Synopsis:
Lucy Walker directed this documentary about a little-known facet of Amish life. Although the Amish live in traditionally conservative enclaves, shunning modern conveniences and electricity while favoring a strict code of conduct and dress, they do have a moment in their lives known as "rumspringa." When an Amish child turns 16, they are allowed to interact with and take part in life away from their upbringing. This film follows a handful of teenagers as they break from their past and experiment with drinking, drugs, and driving (possibly for the only time in their lives). Devil's Playground was screened at the 2002 Sundance Film Festival.

Troublesome Creek (1995)

Director:
Steven Ascher, Jeanne Jordan

IMDB

Synopsis:
Filmmaker Jeanne Jordan narrates this portrait of her Midwest farm family. Working without script or reenactments of any kind, Jordan takes us within her family as they react to their bank's decision to call in their $70,000 loan, threatening the loss of their family farm. Jordan follows her family as they go about their day to day lives and investigates their deep ties to the land that has sustained them for 125 years. Jordan's video is a poignant testament to a way of life that was widespread not so long ago, a way of life in danger of extinction. Troublesome Creek: A Midwestern was nominated for an Academy award and won two prizes at the Sundance Film Festival.

Lemmy (2010)

Director:

Greg Olliver and Wes Orshoski

IMDB

Review:

Well years have passed and I haven't noticed this doc. What to say, Lemmy Kilmister in flesh and bones himself. The heavy metal legend that still shakes the ground with his highly recognizable bass riffs. My belief is that many people look as him as a person that doesn't give a f..k about fans and other stuff but this doc proves them wrong. Seeing him do regular stuff and living in his own way is simply marvelous. A must watch!

Genuine Nerd (2006)

Director:

Wayne A. Harold

IMDB

Review:

From his appearances in Harvey Pekar’s AMERICAN SPLENDOR comic book to MTV segments to movies like KILLER NERD, TOWNIES and the award-winning, big-screen AMERICAN SPLENDOR adaptation, Toby Radloff has achieved fame — for being a "Genuine Nerd!" Underground filmmaker Wayne Alan Harold (TOWNIES) profiles his friend and collaborator in this truly unique, truly nerdy documentary! See Toby’s customized "Nerd Mobile," check out his swinging bachelor pad and hear his hilarious musings on hamburgers, the Internet, world politics and (of course) being a nerd! Featuring appearances by AMERICAN SPLENDOR creator Harvey Pekar, Judah Friedlander (the actor/comedian who played Toby in the SPLENDOR movie) and comic book artist P. Craig Russell!

The Beales of Grey Gardens (2006)

Director:

Albert Maysles and David Maysles

IMDB

Review:

Mother and daughter - Big Edie and Little Edie Beale - live with six cats in a crumbling house in East Hampton. Little Edie, in her 50s, who wears scarves and bright colors, sings, mugs for the camera, and talks to Al and David Maysles, the filmmakers. Big Edie, in her 70s, recites poetry, comments on her daughter's behavior, and sings "If I Loved You" in fine voice. She talks in short sentences; her daughter in volumes. Utilizing hours of unseen archival footage, The Beales is a new take on the women of Grey Gardens.

Commune (2005)

Director:
Jonathan Berman

IMDB

Review:
A very engaging documentary on the Black Bear Ranch Commune, an alternative living community founded in 1968 in the remote North Californian wilderness.In the late 1960s, a few free thinkers cobbled together donations, primarily from Hollywood, to buy 80 acres at the end of a dirt road in Siskiyou County, California: Black Bear Ranch, a commune with the motto "free land for free people.   Archival footage, photographs, documents and news articles, and interviews with people who lived or still live there tell the commune's history: the cold first winter, women and men doing the same work, communal decision making, emerging environmental politics, free love and family formation, child rearing and memories of growing up there, a late '70s crisis with a cult-like group that moved in, and assessment by those grown old of what Black Bear meant.

Surfwise (2007)

Director:
Doug Pray

IMDB

Review:
As usual Doug Pray does an amazing job. The inspiring and tumultuous story of 85-year old surfer, health advocate and sex guru, Dr. Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz, his wife Juliette, and their nine children who were all home-schooled and raised in a small camper on the beach, where they surfed and had to adhere to the strict diet and lifestyle of animals in the wild.

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.

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.

Seven Signs: Music, Myth & The American South (2008)

Director:
J.D. Wilkes

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1337167/

Review:
Shot throughout Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Louisiana, 'Seven Signs' is a travelogue documenting a uniquely-American heritage that is currently being marginalized and homogenized by major corporations, 'Mega-churches' and gated communities. The interviews, musical performances, and stories provide a look into Southern Culture as it really is...not as it is typically packaged for mainstream audiences.

With an unflinching eye, 'Seven Signs' views the paradoxical world of The South: a land filled with warmth and humanity, as well as a strong-willed sense of honesty. It is this culmination of colorful individuals, strange tales and haunting melodies that stands as evidence as to why The South is so integral to American culture as a whole. It is a world where cultures have combined to create a place worth preserving...a place where, oftentimes, so much has gone horribly, horribly right.

In addition to local characters and amateur musicians, 'Seven Signs' features recording artists such as Slim Cessna and Jay Munly (Slim Cessnas Auto Club), The Pine Hill Haints, Th' Legendary Shack Shakers, and Scott H. Biram...all of whom are current touring musicians committed to preserving the true spirit of The South.

'Seven Signs' carries both a timelessness and an immediacy as it depicts a sadly aging generation of Southern Culture; yet a younger, New Breed, hellbent on carrying it on into an unknown future.

Children Underground (2001)

Director:
Edet Belzberg

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0264476/

Review:
The film follows a group of abandoned adolescent street children who live in the Romanian subway system. The street kids are encountered daily with commuter adults passing them by in the station as they starve, swindle, and steal, all while searching desperately for a fresh can of Aurolac silver paint to get high with. One of the children director Belzberg follows is Cristina Ionescu. At first this child may seem to be a young man, but you later find out that girls have to become hard and boyish in order to survive. This is also very apparent with another child named, Violeta 'Macarena' Rosu, who is also a girl. The nickname 'Macarena' derives from the song "Macarena", her favorite. The film explores the children fighting, abusing themselves, and becoming out-of-control addicted to a spray paint called Aurolac.

Haschisch (2002)

Director:
Daniel Gräbner

IMDB

Review:
A small village high up in the mountains of Ketama, North Morocco. For centuries the life of the people that live here is intricately tied in with the drug hashish. Hashish as daily labour, hashish as a bartering good, hashish system, hashish as the medium of dreams and hashish as the reason for stagnation. The film sketches a portrait of this life: a look at work and daily family life; the drug; music and landscape as a metaphysical projection surface; the question of freedom in a globalized world; and, at the core of the film, the stories of the people.

Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2008)

Director:
Sacha Gervasi

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1157605/

Review:
The bare outline of this doc is going to sound awfully familiar: Long-haired, middle-aged heavy-metal rockers with a penchant for talking in the most shopworn clichés face a tour booked by an incompetent manager. They play in grungy basement bars in Eastern Europe, with audiences only slightly larger than the band. Every new development on their big tour is just another humiliation. Um, This Is Spinal Tap, anyone?  Nope, this is Anvil, a real Canadian heavy-metal band that was on the brink of superstardom in the early 1980s. Though it was admired by everyone who’s anyone in metal (Lemmy, Slash and Lars Ulrich all testify in the doc), things fizzled. After some badly produced albums and shows in smaller and smaller venues, they should have given up and moved on with their lives. Nope. Guitarist Steve “Lips” Kudlow and drummer Robb Reiner (talk about serendipitous names) have persevered. They soldier on, chasing the rock & roll dream long after most sane people would have awoken.  The amazing thing about this doc is that it doesn’t stoop to mockery. Yes, there are moments when you can’t help but laugh at their bad luck and bad decisions (and their awful taste in haircuts). But Gervasi gently takes us from laughing to (we’ll admit it) crying a bit as these two guys, friends and kindred spirits since the age of 14, jam and laugh and fight and party and generally embody the spirit of rock, for better or worse.

Japan: A Story of Love and Hate (2008)

Director:
Sean McAllister

IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1401179/

Review:
The British director Sean McAllister films himself while running. Panting, he tells us that he has spent almost two years in Japan now and is slowly growing mad, because he just can't get through to the closed country and its people. Until he meets Naoki, a 56-year-old part-time mailman who symbolises the tens of thousands of Japanese who belong to the 'working poor' since the economic crisis in the early nineties. Naoki used to have everything, houses, companies and cars, but he lost everything, too. Today, he lives in a one-room flat without windows, with his 29-year-old girlfriend Yoshie. 'She hates me, I need her', is his concise explanation of their relationship. She saved him from homelessness and works fifteen hours a day to support him. He feels qualms about these roles, his pride is hurt. They do not have sex. Due to all his psychological problems, he can no longer have an erection and viagra is too expensive something that deepens his fear she will leave him. Impelled by McAllister's presence, they sometimes discuss the subject, but in Japan people do not really talk about their feelings. The conclusion is that they cannot live with or without each other, as the title indicates: A Story of Love and Hate.

Download:
http://rapidshare.com/files/375606985/Japan.A.Story.of.Love.and.Hate.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/375612898/Japan.A.Story.of.Love.and.Hate.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/375619567/Japan.A.Story.of.Love.and.Hate.part3.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/375626059/Japan.A.Story.of.Love.and.Hate.part4.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/375632519/Japan.A.Story.of.Love.and.Hate.part5.rar
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