Triage: Dr. James Orbinski's Humanitarian Dilemma (2008)

Director:
Patrick Reed

IMDB

Synopsis:
Documentarist Patrick Reed's Triage: Dr. James Orbinski's Humanitarian Dilemma creates a biographical portrait of Orbinski, former head of the non-governmental organization Doctors Without Borders and one of the most ardent social crusaders to work in Third World African countries during the late 20th century. Triage visits Dr. Orbinski at a point when this physician - amid the completion of his memoirs - returns to the countries of his life's work, including Rwanda, Somalia, and Congo, to evaluate the status quo in each locale. As memories of deplorable conditions and grave personal dangers come flooding back to haunt the physician, his current findings are even more sobering and challenging: today, the countries have worsened, elevating the need for social activism. Nevertheless, Orbinski feels encouraged by the individuals who continue to strive for improved conditions, and issues a not-so-subtle plea for westerners to assume social responsibility and become involved at all costs with alleviating the plight of their African neighbors.

The Glass House (2009)

Director:
Hamid Rahmanian

IMDB

Synopsis:
Growing up can be hard under ideal circumstances, but for young women in Iran, a male-dominated society where a female's rights and opportunities are compromised from birth, growing into an emotionally healthy adult can be profoundly difficult. Iranian expatriate Marjaneh Halati has opened an outreach center for teenage women in Tehran, where they can speak to counselors and receive training that can help them deal with the crises they face. Filmmaker Hamid Rahmanian offers a telling portrait of four of the young women who have come to Halati's center for help in the documentary The Glass House. Mitra is sixteen years old and growing up in a violent household where her father will beat her for talking back to him, and she's come to the center looking for help in conflict resolution while learning to express herself through her fiction. Nazila is nineteen and has found an outlet for the anger she feels about her life as a rapper; however, her family forbids her to record her music and her outspoken rhymes would almost certainly never be aired in Iran. At twenty, Sussan has been the subject of physical and emotional abuse for much of her life, and repeated beatings have left her with brain damage and memory loss. And Samira is trying to deal with an addition to drugs that was inflicted upon her by her own family. The Glass House received its American premiere at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival.

4 Little Girls (1997)

Director:
Spike Lee

IMDB

Synopsis:
Director Spike Lee made his first feature-length documentary with this powerful story of the bombing of an African-American church in Birmingham, AL, in 1963, which took the lives of four girls, ages 11 through 14. The shocking incident received national press attention and became a rallying point in the ongoing struggle for civil rights, but while Lee's film examines the crime, the perpetrators, and the long struggle to bring them to justice, it also offers a close look at the four girls themselves as their friends and families recall, in moving detail, who they were and how they lived. A variety of civil rights activists, politicians, journalists, and lawyers are interviewed onscreen, including Walter Cronkite and a brief but disturbing meeting with former Alabama governor George Wallace.

The Monastery: Mr. Vig and the Nun (2006)

Director:
Pernille Rose Grønkjær

IMDB

Synopsis:
A lovable, eighty-two year old virgin living alone in a dilapidated Danish castle enlists the aid of an ambitious and headstrong Russian Orthodox nun in realizing his lifelong dream of transforming his vast abode into a Russian Orthodox monastery in filmmaker Pernille Rose Gronkjær's heartwarming, and often humorous, documentary. Mr. Vig is an amiable eccentric who finally finds his dream coming to fruition as controlling nun Sister Ambrosija agrees to send a group of nuns and priests to evaluate and develop the site. An unapologetically overbearing woman who has a very precise vision of how the monastery should be run, Sister Ambrosija commences to making a seemingly-endless list of repair demands and the put-upon Mr. Vig implores the filmmaker for advice on dealing with the slightly-boorish bride of Christ. Despite their initial differences and occasional misgivings, however, Mr. Vig and Sister Ambrosija soon form a unique and exceptional bond as they work together for the good of a common cause.

Mondovino (2004)

Director:
Jonathan Nossiter

IMDB

Synopsis:
Filmmaker Jonathan Nossiter is a serious wine connoisseur as well as a practicing sommelier when he isn't busy behind the camera, and he's combined his two passions in this documentary on the international wine business. Mondovino offers a witty but well-informed look at how business concerns and the homogenization of tastes around the world are changing the way wine is being made. Nossiter's primary focus is on American vintners and their new degree of worldwide acceptance (in part due to the efforts of wildly influential U.S. wine critic Robert Parker), as well as French wine makers who are struggling to maintain a more traditional approach in the wake of a rapidly shifting business climate, such as Hubert de Montille and Yvonne Hegoburu. Nossiter deals with the personalities of his subjects as much as their status in the wine business, and he frequently introduces us to the pets of his interview subjects. Mondovino was screened in competition at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.

LaLee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton (2001)

Directors:
Deborah Dickson. Susan Frömke, Albert Maysles

IMDB

Synopsis:
The cotton-growing industry has long had a tight hold on the political and economic lives of many people in the Mississippi Delta, and this documentary -- directed in part by Albert Maysles -- explores the toll King Cotton has taken on one woman and her family. Laura Lee Wallace, known to friends and family as LaLee, has spent all her life in Mississippi's Tallahatchie County. The product of a long line of cotton farmers, LaLee has grown up in dire poverty, and her children and grandchildren are poor prospects for a better life, given the region's failing school systems. At the urging of the major cotton firms, Tallahatchie County's schools used to routinely shut down during the harvest season so children could join their parents in the fields, and conditions have gotten only marginally better, with the county's ill-funded school system facing a possible takeover by the state government unless scores improve on the next round of standardized aptitude tests. With both money and job opportunities scarce, LaLee faces an uphill struggle to support her extended family, which now includes several grandchildren left to her care by sons and daughters unable to care for their offspring themselves. LeLee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton was produced for the premium cable television network HBO; prior to it's HBO debut, the film was presented at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival.

Comments enabled!

Well I was surprised when I tried to add a comment and wasn't able to, and then I have discovered that the commenting on posts is turned off. How did this happen I don't know, probably some blogger "updates" and "improvements" have messed something up. Nevertheless the comments are now enabled once again so fire away!

Cheers

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

Director:

Nick Krasnic

IMDB

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.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (2003)

Directors:
Kim Bartley, Donnacha O'Briains

IMDB

Synopsis:
Taking its title from a poem/song by Gil Scott-Heron, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised is an award-winning international documentary. Irish filmmakers Kim Bartley and Donnacha O'Briain went to Venezuela to make a documentary about the charismatic, democratically elected president, Hugo Chavez. Very popular with the Venezuelan people, Chavez is a firm supporter of socialism and a redistribution of wealth from the oil profits in his country. He's also an outspoken opponent of the Bush administration's tactics in Afghanistan. In April 2002, the filmmakers ended up witnessing the failed coup that took place when a group of oil-interested parties tried to remove Chavez from office. Pedro Carmona was supposed to be installed as the new leader. However, due to the loyalty of his people, Chavez was back in power in 48 hours. While the state-controlled media (Channel 8 in Venezuela) gave the president a call-in show to talk with the public, privatized media outlets reported that pro-Chavez supporters had fired on an anti-Chavez march. After making its U.S. premiere at the 2003 South by Southwest Film Festival, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (also known as Chavez: Inside the Coup) has aired around the world on the RTE, BBC, and CBC.

We Were Here (2011)

Directors:
David Weissman, Bill Weber

IMDB

Synopsis:
In the 1970s, San Francisco had arguably the largest and most active gay community in America; it was the first city in America to elect an openly gay man to public office, Harvey Milk, and was one of the first places where the gay community learned to consolidate their political and economic power as well as enjoying a freedom and openness unknown in most cities. But the idyll of the 1970s ended in the early '80s, as AIDS began its spread through the city's gay community, claiming some of the best and brightest voices of a generation and forever changing the conversation about gay culture. Filmmaker David Weissman offers a moving portrait of the AIDS crisis and its legacy in the documentary We Were Here: Voices From the AIDS Years in San Francisco, in which people who lived in the city before, during, and after the height of the AIDS pandemic discuss not just disease, death, and consequences, but how the community learned to come together to support and protect one another in a time of darkness. We Were Here was screened as a work in progress at the 2010 San Francisco International LGBT Film Festival.