documentary

Searching for Sugar Man: he didn’t know he was a rock star

by

What a story!  A Detroit construction laborer named Sixto Rodriguez was also a singer-songwriter who cut two albums in 1970 and 1971.  The albums didn’t sell in the US, and he faded back into obscurity.  Yet in South Africa – completely isolated by the sanctions of the apartheid era – the artist known as Rodriguez became huge, and his songs fueled a protest movement.  Rodriguez never knew of his success, and South Africans believed that he had suffered a dramatic rock star death.  The powerful documentary Searching for Sugar Man is the story of some stubborn South African music geeks trying to find out what really happened to Rodriguez, and the startling truths that they uncovered.  (The title comes from Rodriguez’ most iconic anthem, the song Sugar Man.)

I have never seen a biographical documentary of a contemporary figure with less comment from the subject himself.  There is a brief filmed interview with the eccentric Rodriguez, who reveals very little of his perspective on his own story.  His songs can only be written by a reflective person, but Rodriguez is the farthest thing from self-absorbed.  Still, the interviews with his family, friends and fans and his songs help us feel like we know him.

It’s a flabbergasting and unpredictable story and well told.  It’s worth searching out Searching for Sugar Man.

Bill W.: the reluctant founder of a movement

by

The excellent documentary Bill W. tells the story of Bill Wilson, the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, and it’s quite a story.  We see Wilson’s own battle with the bottle, including a pivotal moment when he is about to enter a hotel bar in Akron, but instead decides “to call another drunk”.  The story follows his cobbling together what became the 12 step model and his keeping alive the AA movement in its early days.  But the most compelling story – and the heart of the film – is Bill Wilson.

Wilson was a reluctant movement leader.  His primary passion was for business, in which his drinking killed his potential success.  Instead, he achieved fame and historical importance in a field not of his choosing.  As the founder, he could have easily formed AA into a hierarchy with himself at the top – and AA as his personal power base.  But, once AA could stand on its own, he chose to walk away from its leadership.  His decision not to commercialize AA deprived himself of a millionaire’s lifestyle.

Producer and co-director Dan Carracino reminded the audience at my screening that the movie aims to tell the story of Bill Wilson, not to be an exhaustive history of AA.

Because Bill W. primarily uses historical film footage and photos for visuals, and the recorded voice of Wilson himself, along with talking heads who knew him, the audience gets a solid sense of his personality.  There are some visual re-enactments (of Wilson’s drinking days  and early AA meetings) that are successful because they are narrated by the real Bill W. himself.

I was fortunate to see the film in an audience that contained over 200 AA members, and they responded especially favorably to the film.  At its core, Bill W. tells a fascinating story, and I would recommend it for anyone.  Bill W. is being self-distributed with both special screenings and theater runs in various cities.

DVD/Stream of the Week: The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby

by

William Colby was a daring saboteur in World War II, an effective espionage agent in the Cold War, an architect of an especially brutal aspect of the Vietnam War and, in the post-Watergate 70s, the nation’s top spy and the Director of Intelligence who made public the CIA’s historic misdeeds.  His son, Carl Colby, explores the man who lived that life in The Man Nobody Knew: In Search of My Father, CIA Spymaster William Colby (2011).

Carl Colby makes use of family photos and filmed interviews with Colby’s colleagues, rivals and observers beginning with his secret missions in WW II.  Chief of these is Barbara Colby, William’s wife of 39 years and Carl’s mother.  The talking heads also include the likes of James Schlesinger, Robert McFarland, Brent Scowcroft, Bob Woodward, Seymour Hersh and even Oleg Kalugin (the KGB’s chief spy in the US).  We also hear the White House audio of Colby, along with JFK, RFK and Averell Harriman, discussing the upcoming overthrow of Vietnam’s Diem government.

Carl Colby admires his father’s smarts, toughness, principles, physical bravery and compulsion to serve.  He also recognizes the impact that such devotion to duty has on family responsibilities.  “It’s a terrible thing to say, but sometimes I think I would have rather worked for him than be his son,” Carl said. “I would have been closer to him.”

Carl Colby interviewed his father’s second wife but did not use the footage in the film, and he did not interview his siblings.  As discussed in this Washington Post article, those family members disagree with the film’s portrayal of Colby as an absentee parent and a suicide victim.

But those are comparatively minor parts of the story. The most historically significant (and interesting) segments are:

  • Colby’s successful secret support of Italy’s Christian Democratic Party, resulting in election victories over the Italian Communist Party.
  • His inside view of the November 1963 anti-Diem coup in Vietnam (which Colby opposed).
  • His decision to resist the Ford Administration and lay bare the CIA’s “Family Jewels”, the past illegal activities, including assassination attempts and domestic surveillance.  Not surprisingly, the always smirking Don Rumsfeld, Henry Kissinger and Dick Cheney are the bad guys in this episode.

The Man Nobody Knew is available on DVD and on Netflix streaming.  Incidentally, it now #6 on my list of Longest Movie Titles, between Can Heironymus Merkin Ever Forget Mercy Humppe and Find True Happiness? (1969) and Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood (1996).

DVD/Stream of the Week: Woody Allen: A Documentary

by

Woody Allen’s To Rome with Love is a pleasant enough trifle, but I’d rather focus on Woody’s masterpieces like Annie Hall, Manhattan, Hannah and Her Sisters, Crimes and Misdemeanors and last year’s Midnight in Paris.  In fact, combining his great films with his really good ones reveals an astounding track record: Play It Again Sam (1972), Annie Hall (1977), Manhattan (1979), Hannah and Her Sisters (1986), Another Woman (1988), Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) , Husbands and Wives (1992), Mighty Aphrodite (1995), Deconstructing Harry (1997), Match Point (2005), Vicky Christina Barcelona (2008) and Midnight in Paris (2011).

What American filmmaker has created twelve films of this quality?  Woody is up there in Billy Wilder and John Ford territory.  The fact that Woody is so prolific may work against him – cranking out a movie each year means that there are some stinkers (Small Time Crooks, Curse of the Jade Scorpion) that dilute his reputation.  And then there was the scandal…

Cinephiles and Woody’s fans will appreciate Woody Allen: A Documentary, which traces Woody’s life and work, providing key insights into his creative process.  Robert Weide followed Woody for eighteen months and filmed interviews with over thirty associates and critics – many from Woody’s earliest days.  These include Woody himself, his mother (in footage shot by Woody in the 80s)), his sister and producer Letty Aronson and his longtime casting director Juliet Taylor.  We also hear from ex-wife and co-star Louise Lasser and ex-girlfriend and co-star Diane Keaton.

Weide uncovers slew of nuggets.  We see how Woody keeps ideas for potential movies on scraps of paper, which he revisits when he needs to think up another movie.  We see how he uses an old typewriter and lo tech cut-and-staple to construct his screenplays.  We hear how his screenwriting experience on What’s New Pussycat taught him to insist on total artistic control of his films.   He explains how he learned a woman’s point of view from Diane Keaton, which changed his perspective for Hannah and Her Sisters.

The documentary also addresses, but does not dwell on, the Soon-Yi scandal that blew up as he and Mia Farrow were finishing the shooting of Husbands and Wives.

Woody Allen: A Documentary has two parts – the whole thing clocks in a shade under 3 1/2 hours.  It’s available on DVD and on Netflix streaming.

Neil Young Journeys: see it if you already like him

by

Neil Young Journeys documents Neil Young’s return to Ontario for a 2011 concert at Toronto’s Massey Hall.  It’s about 85% Neil Young music and about 15% Neil Young’s guided driving tour around his old haunts (“there is a town in north Ontario…all my changes were there”).  Young plays four of his songs from 2010 and several more from 1969-79.  He is alone on stage with boxes of equipment and a cigar store Indian, and accompanies himself with electric guitar, harmonica, piano and, on Down By the River, a stentorian pipe organ.  Ohio is intercut with video of the Kent State massacre and pictures of the victims.

It’s the third Neil Young film by director Jonathan Demme (Silence of the Lambs, Rachel Getting Married).  Demme shows the good sense to simply show Neil and then his music unadorned.   He does get arty with one camera that zooms on to Young’s mouth and grizzled chin.  Sitting in the third row, I felt like I’d need to duck spittle at any moment.

If you don’t love Neil Young, skip this movie.  If you do love Neil Young, see the movie in a theater or in a home theater with a good sound system.  Turn it up.

DVD/Stream of the Week: This Is Not a Robbery

by

After 87 years of abiding the law, J.L. “Red” Rountree robbed a bank in 1998.  In fact, he became a serial bank robber, robbing banks until his final incarceration at age 92.  The documentary This Is Not a Robbery explores how this could have happened.  Spoiler: nonagenarians do not excel at the art of the getaway.

Cleverly structured, This Is Not a Robbery intersperses the modern robberies with biographical segments that finally reveal the arc of Rountree’s singular journey.  We get to see Rountree explaining himself. He’s a kick, but the most revealing comments are from his friends, who relate the pivotal points in his business career and family life.

At only 70 minutes long, it’s a good watch.  This Is Not a Robbery is available on DVD, on Netflix streaming and sometimes plays on the Sundance Channel.

Let There Be Light: groundbreaking look at those who have endured too much

by

Let There Be Light is an extraordinary documentary about WW II soldiers being treated for psychological war wounds.  Made in 1946 by fabled director John Huston, Let There Be Light was suppressed by the US military until 1980 and had since been available only in a grainy, almost unintelligible version.  Thankfully, it was restored by the National Film Preservation Foundation in 2011, and now can be viewed for free on its website.

Huston followed a group of soldiers as they entered a hospital and engaged in treatment until their release from the service eight weeks later.  Huston shot 70 hours of film, which he winnowed down to this one-hour documentary.  We see the doctors use individual talk therapy, group therapy, hypnosis and sodium pentathol.  We know the condition as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).  At the time, it was popularly known as “shell-shock” or “combat fatigue” and termed “psychoneurosis” or “neuropsychosis” by the doctors.

Modern therapists will find the treatment primitive and the movie too optimistic (there’s a sense that everybody is OK after eight weeks in the hospital), but that shouldn’t obscure the compassion of the doctors and the heartbreaking stories of the men.  This was a moment in medical history when the public still needed to learn that this was a psychiatric condition, not cowardice or weakness – and that the condition was treatable.  The narrator (Huston’s father Walter) repeatedly emphasizes that these men have endured more than any human could be expected to bear.

Watch Let There Be Light HERE.

DVD of the Week: Project Nim

by

The documentary Project Nim tells the extraordinary story of a chimpanzee that was taught a human language – American Sign Language.  In a remarkable and compelling journey, the chimp Nim is first placed as a baby with a human hippie family and then at a university-owned country estate and at college laboratories.  Amazingly, he learns to use an ASL vocabulary – not just responding to commands, but initiating communication and forming sentences.  Then, the experiment ends, and he is off to an assortment of post-placements, some terrifying.

Along the way, we hear from the motley assortment of humans involved in his raising, his exploitation and his care. One human who enters the story as a grad student, Bob Ingersoll, emerges as the hero of the story.  It’s the story of a chimp, but we learn more about the foibles of humans.

Acclaimed documentarian James Marsh (Man on Wire) delivers another great story – one of the 2011’s best documentaries.

Pina 3D: watching dance from amid the dancers

by

There are two reasons to see Pina 3D – to watch modern dance and to marvel at the use of 3D in a dance film.  This documentary shows the work of the late German choreographer Pina Bausch performed by her dance troupe; it’s at least 90% dance performance.

But the singular feature of the film is director Wim Wenders’ use of 3D – the movie audience is transported on to the stage with and among the dancers.  It’s been easy to dismiss 3D with all the crap 3D product out there, but master directors like Martin Scorsese (Hugo) and Werner Herzog (Cave of Forgotten Dreams) can use the technology to make a film even more brilliant.  Wenders (Paris Texas, Wings of Desire) does that with Pina.

Now, if you don’t like modern dance, you’re not going to like this movie.  But, if you do, you should catch this film during the week or two that it will be out in theaters in Real 3D; I’m not going to recommend it in 2D unless you’re a huge dance fan.

[youtube-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGKzXUWAjnI]

Thunder Soul: funk pride

by

This good-hearted  documentary is about a national champion high school stage band in the 1970s.  Because of the era, and because we’re talking about inner city Black kids from Houston, the backdrop is the Black Pride movement.  The key character is their band leader, Conrad “Prof” Johnson, who drove them to be technically proficient and flavored their music with his own funk compositions.  Thirty years later, the band members plan a reunion to honor Prof.  The band members are an entertaining bunch, and there’s plenty of footage from the 70s.  Thunder Soul is sure to be a crowd-pleaser and there are lots of great 70s Afros.

Thunder Soul won film fest awards but failed to get an adequate theatrical release, and is now available on DVD.