Welcome to the 244th Edition of my blog. As promised I decided to make
this an all-documentary edition. Please don't expect me to do this
every week but after realizing I haven't used much documentaries lately
and after coming up with ideas to use more than usual, I just decided
to use all documentaries. They are the same as other editions in terms
of the year range and sub-plot. I know my dad will like the way this is
put together and hopefully like my selections. This is probably the
hardest one I ever put out trying to follow my rules but here is my end
result. Some of what I watched goes into the next few weeks.
Triumph
of the Will (1935): I start this out with this documentary on Nazi
Propaganda. Leni Riefenstahl was the director of this documentary where
she had a lot of say and freedom from Hitler and the Nazi party. This
takes place during a 1934 Nazi rally in Nuremberg, Germany where just
about all of Germany seemed to come out and support their political
leaders starting with Hitler, but also Himmler, Goebbels and many
others. There was a lot of footage on the German people and the leaders
and then speeches from many politicians in the Nazi Party accompanied
by a really good music score making it look like there is nothing
better than being in Nazi Germany which we know now is not true. No
matter how we see them, Riefenstahl did a great job getting this
footage and editing it so well making this the most significant piece
of Nazi Propaganda with influential techniques towards other
documentaries. It also showed Hitler's uncanny ability to entice a
crowd into believing in what he wants. Riefenstahl took the controversy
up to her death in 2003. Riefenstahl is said to have made this under
Hitler's promise that she did not have to do any more Nazi
documentaries and that she could return to acting. She did continue to
film for them in the future. She denies intentionally making a pro-Nazi
propaganda film but many disagree. No matter how anyone looks at it,
she is one of the first successful female filmmakers who was very
influential towards later directors. This is pretty easy to obtain as
it is available on Netflix and I got it at my local library. It is
something that should be viewed to see things that made the Nazi party
rise the way it did. This is one of them and they knew how to use
propaganda to get what they wanted which lead to some pretty horrific
things.
All My Babies (1953): This is actually an educational
film used to educate lower-class wives in southern United States. It
takes a look at Miss Mary who helped deliver about 3,000 babies in her
life. It also shows the hardship of these lower-class families who
don't have the greatest healthcare. I got this one from Netflix and
it's less than an hour since it was originally an educational film
produced by the Georgia Department of Public Health.
With Byrd
at the South Pole(1930): This is another I got off Netflix which is an
Oscar-winning documentary on naval officer Richard Byrd's successful
flight over Antarctica. This covers the boat trip to the South Pole,
the calling it "Little America" and the flight. It was mostly a silent
film with narration at the beginning. It also shows some pretty
humorous scenes with penguins. It is still pretty watchable after all
these years.
Woodstock (1970): This chronicles the infamous
three-day rock concert that was a big financial flop but is
immortalized with this film into pop culture. Michael Wadleigh directed
this counter-culture film in the small town of Bethel, NY which
featured a very diverse group of acts like Santana, Jefferson Airplane,
Arlo Guthrie, and many others leading up to the great guitar work of
Jimi Hendrix who did a great guitar version of THE STAR-SPANGLED
BANNER. Martin Scorsese also helped out with the film and the editing
giving some very good end footage which featured scenes from multiple
angles many times. They also interviewed a lot of the hippie audience
members and the fun they had even when it rained. It's an event that
has never been matched even with the Woodstock '94 and '99. There were
about 500,000 people that turned out for this financial failure that
would be made up with things like this movie.
Land of Silence
and Darkness (1971): German director Werner Herzog directed this
foreign documentary which focuses on Fini Straubinger who became both
blind and deaf in her teen years. In her later years, she tries to help
and educate others who are blind and deaf and help them understand
their difficult world. Straubinger also talks about when she became
deaf and blind and her own struggles when that happened. This is such a
well-done documentary and remarkable work from Straubinger who
communicates very well with others who are deaf and blind which some
were actually born that way. It can be hard to watch sometimes but this
movie raises a lot of awareness of people with this disability. People
who can't see can at least learn by the sound around them. People who
can't hear can at least learn through sight. However, people who cannot
do either must learn more through touch. Some of the people here became
deaf and blind later in their life but others were born with this where
teaching them is very difficult. I wish I could find more information
on Fini Straubinger but most I can find was from this movie.
Wisconsin
Death Trip (1999): I found this one instantly on Netflix. Ian Holm
narrates this documentary about a Wisconsin town in late 19th Century
based on a non-fiction novel by Michael Lesy. This film uses a lot of
pictures from the century and news articles in the small town about
things like murder and suicide and what could have lead to it. The
cinematography and the images were great. I'm not sure how accurate
this movie is since I could not find much on it. It is still very dark
and interesting so pretty watchable for me.
Jesus Camp (2006):
Another one that came to me via instant Netflix and all I had to say
was "WOW". This takes place at an Evangelical camp held by Becky
Fischer, a Pentacostal minister who is training young children in their
quest towards Jesus. This seemed like some pretty extreme stuff here
with these children promising not to sin and being driven to tears. We
also have Christian radio host Mike Papantonio who is not a big fan of
this practice and lets know through his radio show. In the camp, there
was a pretty interesting scene where a cardboard cutout of George W.
Bush is presented to the children so that they can pray for him and
even speak to the cardboard cutout. What I learned from these kids are
things like where God only goes to some of the churches but not the
ones that that just sing a few songs and then say a sermon. He goes to
the ones like they have which were rather extreme to me. I don't
usually pay close attention to the viewer comments on imdb.com but the
one that was looking at this states he was an ordained minister and was
very appalled by what he saw. Some people may give me heat for this but
the documentary presents itself in a pretty unbiased form where not
much editing could have been done. My mom's boyfriend was watching this
with me and he is a religious person but also said that what they were
doing to the children was not right. It was absolutely worth a view.
Hart
and Soul: The Hart Family Anthology (2010): I decided to use a WWE
wrestling documentary for this one. This takes place of the large
Canadian wrestling family which starts with the legendary Stu Hart who
along with his wife Helen had 12 kids, many of the sons having
wrestling careers including the two most famous of Bret and Owen. This
takes a look at the rise of Stu Hart, then it has segments on all 12
Hart children, focuses on some of the in-laws including "British
Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith and Jim "The Anvil Neidhart, and then talks
about the third generation including David Hart Smith, Natalya
Neidhart, Teddy Hart, and Tyson Kidd who was more of a family friend
but seems to be included as a Hart as he is part of the Hart Dynasty. I
really liked learning about the others besides Bret and Owen. It also
looks at the tragedy that they have had to go through like with the son
Dean Hart, Owen Hart, and Davey Boy Smith.
King Corn (2007):
This is also available via instant Netflix where Ian Cheney and Curtis
Ellis who take a very interesting look at our obesity problem and
research what is leading to it. They focus on as the title says corn.
They visit a lot of farms and find that corn is one of the biggest
moneymakers but it is not always used for nutrition as it is used for
corn syrup which is used in many of our products including our fast
food. This was a pretty straight-forward documentary where information
was all that was needed and nothing real dramatic happened. This was
shown at Muncie Civic Theater once where i could not make it. I'm not
quite sure what the reason was but I'm glad I was able to watch this.
Frontline:
Flying Cheap (2010): I know this is more of a tv episode of the
long-running PBS documentary series but I was desperate for my last one
and jumped to this one when I saw it on instant Netflix. This episode
takes a look at a plane crash which was a cheaper airline and makes the
point that sometimes cheaper is not always better. It was a pretty good
look at the airline industry.
Well, that is it for this week. I
go back to normal next week which so far includes movies from Kirsten
Dunst, Joan Crawford, Demi Moore, Elizabeth Taylor, and many others
including one of the documentaries intended for this week. The first
six listed were the only ones I originally intended to use.
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