OK. So remember like two weeks ago when I was rambling on about my own private punk renaissance? Well I did it exactly the way I always do. I wound through the New York folks, first making sure to stop and say hi to Television and Richard Hell on my way past, and before long I’d found my way to early ’80s hardcore. And just as I was starting to get back into the first three X LPs, it happened. I reached for Unknown Pleasures, and before I knew it, what had been a nostalgic, safety pinned trip down punk rock memory lane quickly shifted gears toward post-punk era bands. Of that era, the two Joy Division albums, the aforementioned Unknown Pleasures and its swan song Closer, have never spent longer than a few weeks off of my turntable. I’m one of those folks that find comfort in music tinged with great sadness, and Ian Curtis’ voice and words have long resonated deeply with me. This is why when I heard that Debra Curtis’ book about Ian’s all-too-short life “Touching From a Distance” was turned into a film (the soon to be released “Control”), I was overjoyed. However, the fictionalized tale of Joy Divison has already beautifully been brought to the screen by filmmaker Michael Winterbottom in his kaleidoscopic snapshot of the birth of the Manchester era, “24 Hour Party People.” And while certainly Debra’s book gives those who loved him a very intriguing portrait of the late artist, the news of “Control” wasn’t nearly as exciting to me as when I heard about THIS. It’s my hope to track down a copy before the film premieres next month at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival.

It took about a year, but to my great relief I stumbled on something the other night that challenges head on the conspiracy theories presented by “Loose Change,” a doc first released in 2005 via the Internet that alleges the U.S. government planned the attacks of 9/11.

“The 9/11 Conspiracies: Fact or Fiction,” now airing on The History Channel, is a concise and direct investigative show that tracks down a variety of key witnesses and other sources to answer questions raised by “Loose Change.” I’ve seen parts of “Loose Change” (a third edition of the film is due this September) and several other 9/11 conspiracy documentaries. Each one of them planted in me disturbing seeds of doubt regarding the attacks of Sept. 11.

Why did World Trade Center Building 7 come down so suddenly? Where is the wreckage of Flight 93? How could a passenger jet leave a neat circular missile-like hole in a concrete wall deep inside the Pentagon?

“The 9/11 Conspiracies” tackles those questions. It also examines the circumstances in which conspiracy theories thrive and in turn creates some perspective and context for a situation that needs it. For months after “having my eyes opened” regarding 9/11 I scanned the Web for reasonable rebuttals from experts who know about all the issues being speculated about. I found nothing.
I know the debate about who is responsible for the attacks of Sept. 11 is far from over. “The 9/11 Conspiracies: Fact or Fiction” at least provides some starting counterpoints for the myriad of issues raised in documentaries like “Loose Change.”

Chris again with a few rumblings from the secret underground laboratories here at DOC Channel HQ. Lots going on as usual, and the temperatures outside are still hanging out in the upper registers. That’s reason enough to keep the indoor movie marathon going every evening at my house. I’ve been on a “making of” kick as of late. I’ve always sort of obsessed over commentary tracks and making of docs have an equally large place in my heart. I just re-watched the pretty brilliant “Shaking The Cage,” which is about the filming of “Easy Rider,” an awfully good film to geek out to. Also, I had the great pleasure of being sent an advance copy of Al Maysles and Kristen Nutile’s new doc, “Sally Gross: The Pleasure of Stillness.” It never fails to be inspiring to see anything that Al puts his name on, and I’ll have a bit more coverage of that film as well as an interview with Al and Kristen to share with you soon. So you’ve got that going for you. Which is nice. It’s a weird scene here in the Doc programming department. Strangely varied docs screening in every office. Next door, Programming SVP Kate Pearson is watching a doc about the Death Penalty in Texas, meanwhile in my office Henry Owing’s (the man behind the absolutely genius publication Chunklet) SXSW/Civil War Reenactment primer Brother vs. Brother is playing for the umpteenth time, causing giddiness and improved morale in its wake. Good times.

Not gold, silver or uranium, but the mining of human memory. It is more valuable than going after ore because it’s treasure that rarely gets spent. That is unless someone who has important history to tell - say a World War II soldier, or a survivor of the atomic bombs dropped on Japan - dies before their memories can be documented.

The new documentary by Steven Okazaki, “White Light, Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki,” arrives in time with many survivors of the atomic attack just barely still around to tell their stories. Okazaki met with 500 survivors starting back in 1980. In the following decades he sat down and interviewed 100 of them. Eventually that group was narrowed down to the 14 survivors who appear in the film.

Historians and other armchair experts are given no screen time. Consequently the film has a lasting and meaningful impact because we learn story after story of personal horror weighted with actual human emotion. But in some cases, it’s just as powerful that those horror stories come with a lack of emotion, like the interviews of members of the American Air Force crew that dropped the bombs on Aug. 6, 1945.
There’s a similar formula in Ken Burns’ upcoming 14-hour documentary about WWII called “The War.” His crew interviewed 500 American WWII vets from four towns in America. The stories of 40 veterans from Connecticut, Alabama, California and Minnesota made the final cut.

Tapping directly into human memory is an affective way to tell a story. Burns, however, in a recent column for USA TODAY Weekend magazine, said he recognizes the pitfalls of such a research method.

“Memory can be flawed,” Burns writes. “It can be incomplete. It can lend itself to exaggeration and hyperbole. It can be entirely incorrect. So that’s why we always say ‘Trust, but verify.’ For my documentary we used available military records, for example, to authenticate memories of battle and resulting injuries.”

“The War” is set for broadcast on PBS in seven installments over two weeks starting Sept. 23. “White Light, Black Rain” is now airing on HBO.

Hola DOC fans, Chris here, nestled deep within the valley of the DOC. It’s been a long hot week here in Nashville, with our temperature hanging out at 100 degrees or so. But you’ll be pleased to know we’re all staying hydrated. The extreme heat has driven at least yours truly even deeper into my centrally air-conditioned movie watchin’ hidey hole. It’s been great! I’ve seen all manner of cool stuff, some of which has kindly been filtered my way by some very cool folks like Ms. Linda Park of the SXSW festival who sent her friend, filmmaker Marina Zenovich my way. Marina’s docs “Independents Day” and “Who is Bernard Tapie” give me a pretty serious warm fuzzy during a day otherwise filled with sweatiness and weather based grumpiness. It was also my pleasure to have a chance to take a look at newcomer Seth Gordon’s debut doc, the soon-to-be a massive cult-hit “King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters” which I not only firmly stamp with the Chris Dortch seal of approval, but endorse whole heartedly as a young man who is on about the 11th step of battling a serious Ms. Pac Man addiction (I can’t help it! Bouncing fruit and ghosts! Good times!). So that’s enough outta me for now. I hope you’ll seek out Seth and Marina’s films for yourself as well as check out our Featured Doc Maker piece about Seth and his film HERE. Be sure and stay tuned for a piece about Marina’s film “Independents Day,” probably up on the site and ready for your admiration within a day or two. And now gentle readers I bid you adieu with warm wishes that you stay cool.