Came in to mention this one. I saw it recently and I’m still undecided about what’s really going on in that family. In short, the movie is about Marla Olmstead, a four-year-old girl who loved to paint. Her parents’ friend hung one of her paintings in a coffee shop, someone bought it, and seemingly overnight, Marla became an abstract art sensation, selling paintings for tens of thousands of dollars. But is she really a prodigy, or is something else going on? Anyway, interesting movie.
Harlan County U.S.A.
Just watched it last night. I still can not identify the feeling that film gave me.
Pride covered with grit and blood? The music and singing was stunning. There is something about being oppressed and toughened that can bring about song. The action on the screen at times seemed more real than my very own living room. Clean Coal. Coal is a lot dirtier than I will ever know.
They’re all good, but those two had already been mentioned.
Ed
I found Helvetica to be way more fascinating than any documentary about a font had the right to be.
I watched this last night. I’m not sure what is going on either, but it was interesting to watch the art dealer waffle back and forth.
At first he’s rhapsodizing over Marla. Then, people briefly lost interest in her paintings after a 60 Minutes interview suggested that she didn’t paint them by herself (a video showed her producing a painting that looked nothing like her other work.) So the art dealer tells the camera that he’d never liked modern art anyway and he was pleased to reveal what a scam it all was. He was annoyed that he made less money on his own realistic paintings which took so many more hours to complete than the splatters of paint that pass for modern art.
Then Marla’s family released their own video which seemed to show her painting something significant on her own, and the art dealer went back to praising her accomplishments again. And selling her paintings.
Sound and Fury – Deaf culture and different viewpoints on cochlear implants. Fascinating, and I couldn’t stop talking about it.
The “How we made this movie” extra on the DVD for Winged Migration really ruined the movie for me. They purposely imprinted all those birds to make the movie, thereby pretty much ruining them for life.
I’ve heard good things about The Corporation.
And I’m waiting for Get Lamp to be completed.
That’s all I got.
Oh! Oh! Am I really the first?
7 Up
14 Up
21 Up
etc.
Do not miss this series! Follows British kids (rich and poor) from age 7 up, with a new movie every 7 years. Totally addictive.
I’m kicking myself for forgetting to mention this wonderful series. I’ve been watching since 28 Up. I do feel like finding and kicking the ass of the guy who now works for the BBC but refuses to participate in the series. I wonder if he’s ever been in the position of trying to convince someone of the public’s “right to know”.
Agreed. And that one wealthy guy who reappeared to plug Bulgaria, then disappeared again. Twit. We have a DVD set of the series to date. I feel they have a duty to the public to appear. No choice, sort of like being king or queen.
I just checked the Wikipedia page for the Up series. Here’s what it says about Charles Furneaux, the guy who dropped out of the series:
Let me see if I have this straight. He produces documentaries? That means, he is in the position of asking other people to let cameras into their lives, but has refused to participate in someone else’s documentary about his own life. And it’s not as if he is the sole subject of a documentary, one that would be very intrusive. No, he’s one of a dozen people. And, checking the IMDB page, this twit actually had the nerve to sue Apted to get his bits removed from the DVD release of 49 Up!
It makes me want to go to the UK and do something noteworthy enough that someone would want to make a documentary about me, just so this weasel would be in the position of asking me so I could refuse, just to spite him. If he was a plumber, it would be forgivable. But a producer of documentaries refusing to participate in a documentary? That’s hypocrisy right up there with a vegetarian butcher.
Street Fight:
Documentary about Corey Booker’s campaign for Mayor of Newark, NJ in 1992.