Welcome to the home of The Documentary Channel Blog. Here you’ll find all manner of Doc related rantings and ravings direct from the mouths and minds of our crack staff of film obsessed, highly opinionated and occasionally verbose Docheads. If you like what you see, or if you don’t, feel free to talk back. We want to know what’s going on in the heads of our viewers so click on the comment button and let us have it.
Friday, April 11th, 2008
Fun week on the DOC website this week. I had the opportunity to dig into the wonderful worlds of three different films that I can’t encourage you to check out enough. From the iconic classic “Jazz on a Summer’s Day,” to the hard-edged wartime truths of “John Huston’s War Stories” to the incredible human journeys that mark the films of Adrian and Roko Belic, I’m hopeful our readers will be as fired up to seek out these films as I was to have an opportunity to write about them. In the case of Midge Mackenzie’s film “John Huston’s War Stories,” you won’t have to look far, as the film will actually be premiering here on DOC a little later in the month. I hope that if you consider yourself a movie buff and all you know of John Huston is that he directed the “Maltese Falcon” and fathered Angelica, that you’ll emerge on the other side with a deepened perspective of one of our all-time greatest filmmakers. I look forward to hearing any thoughts or comments you might have and hope you’ll drop us a line at viewers@documentarychannel.com.
By Chris Dortch II
Saturday, April 5th, 2008
March madness extended a lot further than the courts of the NCAA tournament last month. All month long, as well as premiering a whole slew of new docs on the channel we’ve also added scads of new stock to our online DOC store that are well worth checking out. So when the dust settles on the Final Four sports fans and non-sports fans alike will have a place to go, safe from the tyranny of boring old regular television.
Also, this week I hope you’ll check out our homepage at www.documentarychannel.com where you’ll find brand new pieces on legendary “making of” doc “Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apoacalypse” George Hickenlooper and Eleanor Coppola’s wildly entertaining portrait of Francis Ford Coppola’s odyssey to assemble one of his greatest masterpieces. I’m equally pleased to bring you a piece on Chunklet founder Henry Owings mockumentary/documentary hybrid “Brother Vs. Brother” viewers sick to death of films that take themselves too seriously would do well to tune in.
By Chris Dortch II
Friday, March 28th, 2008
Had a lot of fun writing about the film “King Corn” this week, and in thinking of that film’s two heroes, Ian Cheney and Curtis Ellis, I realized I had become a bit attached to the duo and their antics. That got me to thinking there have been a number great of documentaries that explore not only a larger issue, but also the unique relationship between two human beings, from “American Movie’s” homespun heroes Mike and Marc to “Grey Gardens” big and little Edie.
What makes these films so great is that even as their subjects tackle life’s various conflicts and much larger issues, they all truly help to lend an element of humanity to the films in which they appear. Scripted features would do well to start stealing more pages out of the documentary character study playbook. All the fun and the personality of many of these films often lives and dies with our ability to embrace a film’s subjects as being living, breathing folks. It makes the documentary genre all the more powerful and fuses the films that do it right with a higher set of stakes and a much larger amount of emotional resonance.
It also helps lend lots of perspective to the fact that docs—the recent film “Mr. Untouchable” for example—often give us a greater sense of their time and place and the good and bad qualities of their characters. Don’t get me wrong, I deeply love the work of filmmakers like Ridley Scott, but his recent “American Gangster” is a perfect example that is double the running time of the “Mr. Untouchable’s’ ” lean mean 92 minutes and packing not even half the punch.
Still though, 2007 was an awful good year for film in general, and I remain optimistic that more and more filmmakers will have no choice but to start getting real. I look forward to what the rest of ’08 will hold, and I’m crossing my fingers that actors Tom Cruise and Greg Kinnear can fill the shoes of their Steve and Billy, the non-fictional video game rivals of last year’s wildly entertaining “King of Kong.” Even though filmmaker Seth Gordon is crafting the film himself, I’d still hate to see such a great story go the way of “Lords of Dogtown.” Still, my hopes remain high and my fingers remain crossed. What say you gentle viewer? Drop us a line at viewers@documentarychannel.com and let us know.
By Chris Dortch II
Thursday, March 20th, 2008
Just got some not-so-happy news from the folks behind one of my favorite recent documentaries, Suroosh Alvi and Eddy Moretti’s terrific “Heavy Metal in Baghdad,” which follows the trials and tribulations of Iraq’s one and only heavy metal band Acrassicauda as they go to incredible links to stay together, stay alive and, above all, keep making the music they love even if they have to make it in the middle of a war zone. The filmmakers have set up a Paypal account on the film’s website to allow folks to make donations to Acrassicauda’s cause, and because of the interest the film has drummed up and the generosity of a few kind souls, the band was able to gather enough money to escape Syria and flee to Turkey. But it appears that they might have escaped the frying pan, but not so much the fire. According to a note I received sent out by the filmmakers yesterday, the band has completely run out of resources and is stuck in Turkey, literally having to burn newspapers just to keep warm. In an effort to help them out, the filmmakers, along with the folks at Vice Films, are again accepting donations to help the band along. For those interested in lending a hand, please visit the doc’s official website at www.heavymetalinbaghdad.com, and if you haven’t seen the film yet, do try to catch it as it makes its way across the US, and surely before long, to a festival near you. We wish the boys of Acrassicauda all the best and encourage you to help their story find a happy ending.
By Chris Dortch II
Thursday, March 13th, 2008
As you may have figured out from context clues provided in past blog entries, I’m something of a DVD snob. When my favorite films are released, God forbid they should ever come in some sort of two-disc special edition or come with some sort of gimmicky promotional schwag, as I will be helpless but to purchase it. A perfect example being Warner’s heavily expanded recent release of the film “Blade Runner.” The edition I bought ended up costing quite a bit extra due in large part to the strange brief case-esque packaging and the presence of an origami unicorn (and yes maybe it’s a bit emasculating but they had me at the origami unicorn). But even more impressive an extra feature than a fancifully folded mythical creature is the set’s more than two-hour documentary that focuses on the making of Ridley Scott’s landmark film.
This is the sort of thing that sends my inner geek over the moon. I live for making of docs, and as many as I’ve seen, it never fails to be fascinating to grab yet another glimpse into the creation of any of my favorite films. With multi-disc special editions of DVDs still very much being in vogue, there is no shortage of behind-the-scenes docs for me to indulge in, and I often surprise myself by watching these more often than the film they happen to be chronicling.
By Chris Dortch II
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