There was also an American drama film about a decade ago about the same experiment.
Started to watch the new Ken Burns thing on Leonardo, the well known American cultural icon. 
Egad, it has big, big problems.
First, the subtitles. I watch a lot of stuff with subtitles mainly due to the incompetence of sound editors who think sound effects and music should be louder than dialogue. I’ve also watch a ton of foreign films over the years with subtitles. Just to make it clear I have no general problem with them.
But they put the hardcoded part-time subtitles in yellow oftentimes with similarly hued art in the background. Completely unreadable. I would turn on the CCs but then I would have clashing
subs at times.
But that’s not all. The Italian/French speakers talk rapidly for a long time. The visible subtitles fly by quite fast and, you know, it’s a show about art and I’d like to actually gaze at the art. Pausing the program every few seconds just isn’t going to work.
The “voice” of Leonardo has a thick accent and is barely understandable. No subs, of course. I can multiprocess audio and video pretty well, but with this thick of an accent I can’t do that. Again, I want to focus on looking at the art and just absorb with no effort the language.
Even the English speaking people are oftentimes horrible. “Art experts” speaking their own jargon, using words in figurative ways, etc. Oftentimes not really making any sense to me.
We have watched the first hour of the first episode so far. Probably will just stop there.
Endeavor on Nat Geo - some of it is is on Shackleton’s infamous expedition, and part of it is on the search for the titular ship. Worth watching - and certainly better that watching election results (I watched it Nov 5)
Brian
Mort Sahl: The Loyal Opposition (part of the PBS American Masters)
It’s on the archives site, etc.
Just attempted to watch Churchill at War, it is everything I hate about modern documentaries. Utterly content free, no actual information imparted at all just Churchill quotes interspersed with inanities from talking heads (both irritating popular historians like Dan Snow and celebrities like George W Bush 
).
On top of that that the “quotes” are actually AI reading Churchill’s writings. I didn’t get more than 10 minutes into it.
In recent years the PBS series Nova has been more and more problematic.
E.g., the most recent episode was a reworking of a French documentary called the Tombs of Notre Dame. Some tombs were uncovered during the restoration and forensics ensue. How many tombs? Two. That’s right. Two. One of them is IDed immediately since there’s a plaque on it. A church official from the 1800s. Big whoop. The other one they fail to ID.
Nearly a complete waste of time.
Last season they had a show that was a salute to how great China’s tech is. One giant infomercial. Bragging about how many patents Chinese tech firms without delving into how many western patents those same companies ignore.
They have had a block of episodes on the Solar System this fall that just covered old ground.
I didn’t even bother to watch the 3-part block on the Gulf of Maine from last summer. 3 episodes on the Gulf of Maine?
Un metteur en ordre - Robert Bresson - Au hasard Balthazar (1966)
https://youtu.be/1IaH60t1-Dg
Watched The Six Triple Eight last night. Never heard of it before, just wanted to watch a movie. It’s rather formulaic but well made and interesting.
Defuctland on Youtube just released a great documentary focusing on Disney’s animatronics that goes into the history of automatons and ties it into the current debates about AI.
I had no idea them building an animatronic Abraham Lincoln was very controversial back in the day. Called ghoulish and disrespectful…but by the time the Hall of Presidents came around which featured representations of actual still living presidents and a representation of JFK who had just been assassinated less than a decade before…people were all "nah, it’s fine.
First up, No Hamburg, No Beatles. An hour long, modest budget piece. Focuses, of course, on The Beatles time doing long shifts, night after night, in Hamburg’s anything-goes district.
Openly talks about how they were given “diet” pills to keep going and things like that.
Some nice talking heads. The only Beatle to be interviewed for the film (vs. audio archive stuff) is of course Pete Best. Some good insights, but still holding a grudge. An all-too-brief chat with Astrid Kirchherr, Stu’s girlfriend. One nice touch is the hand drawn graphics made for the film by
Klaus Voormann, Astrid’s boyfriend before Stu and friend of the band.
One odd thing they did was use AI to add motion to some stuff. E.g., they took a photo of Paul and did the back-and-forth motion on it. Eyes move a bit, etc. Looked interesting. Sadly most of these weren’t so great.
They also used a Beatles tribute band to fill in stuff. E.g., the group is shown from behind with a green screen used to put a scene in front of them. Way too much of that.
They at least talked about some of the key people in The Beatles career pre-Epstein.
The influence of this era in the group’s success cannot be understated. At one point they were 2nd billed behind Rory Storm’s group, who had Ringo as the drummer. That, more than the Liverpool connection, had more to do with Ringo being chosen as drummer than anything.
Worth watching if you’re interesting in the pre-fame Beatles days..
Next up: Douglas Adams: The Man Who Imagined Our Future. Also around an hour long. Among the talking heads, the one used most is Stephen Fry. Also has people like Robin Ince, Griff Rhys Jones and two Adams sisters.
It’s really skips along at times given the shortness of the film. E.g., they say Adams sent a HHGTG script to the BBC and then the program airs, it’s an instant success and Adams is suddenly rich and famous because of the first book. Since this is the key period in Adams career, racing thru that just isn’t right. OTOH, they do show some behind-the-scenes stuff of the making of the TV show.
It does cover extensively Adams’ writer’s block. People give a few excuses, none of which seem to hold water to me. Adams loved the idea of writing, but just hated actually doing it.
But the main theme is that Adams, like regular SF writers, in some way was great a predicting the future. Sure, among the thousands of ideas that fill his books, some seem to parallel things that have since been developed. But it isn’t that amazing.
One thing they mentioned that I didn’t know is that the last thing Adams was seen doing before he collapsed and died was reaching for a towel. Remember, always keep your towel with you, it’s massively useful.
A marginal film. Only for really big fans.
Two recents:
The Only Girl In The Orchestra, about the bassist Orin O’Brien. It was the 2025 Oscar winner for short docs. It’s a good history, but it suffers, as many docs do, because it was done by a relative with good intentions but bad storytelling skills (award notwithstanding).
To Be Takei about, well, being George Takei. A nice history of his life, but suffers from seriously needing an editor. Even at 90 minutes it’s at least 15 minutes too long. Maybe 30. There must be more good stuff that could have been added instead of interminable scenes of them driving around not doing anything?
Bad Surgeon on Netflix. This needs a thread of it’s own, the story is horrific and reveals corruption at many levels in the media, medical research, and medical institutions. Don’t know how I missed this story in the past.
Here’s some of the movies I saw at the documentary film festival I attended earlier this month (Full Frame Film Festival, in Durham NC). These probably won’t be available to stream for a while:
Songs of Slow Burning Earth - about life in Ukraine in the first two years of the war. Very episodic - not showing battle scenes per se, but more about how “normal” Ukranians are reacting to the war. A bit slow at times, but some very powerful scenes.
Prime Minister - about Jacinda Ardern, former Prime Minister of New Zealand, whose term included giving birth to a daughter; the Christchurch Mosque Bombing, and COVID. Incredible behind the scenes footage, mostly shot by her partner (later husband) who has a background in film production. Did a good job giving background on her and the issues she faces to non-Kiwis, but probably old news to Kiwis.
The Other One - one of my two favorites. Documents the last year in high school of a young Czech woman (Johana), who has a young sister who is autistic. She wants to go away to college after high school, but she’s a vital part of the support system for her younger sister. Johana doesn’t say a lot, but her facial expressions tell much. Tenderly tells her story as she tries to balance her future against her love for her sister.
Mr. Nobody Against Putin - a high school teacher in a small town in Central Russia documents how school changes after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, after which teachers are required to spout government propaganda. Subtle acts of resistance follow, and scary parallels to what might happen in the US were not far from my thoughts when watching this.
Speak. - follows five students competing in a national original oratory competition over the course of the year. Enjoyable, but probably could have cut one or two of the subjects, and ultimately a bit formulaic and predictable.
The Librarians - follows various school librarians mainly in Florida, Texas and Louisiana as states and school districts start to ban books. Moms for Liberty is of course the main villain; the heroes are the various librarians that are shown. Infuriating (as it should be) and uplifting at the same time, but of course no happy ending.
The Last Partera - my other favorite, really hope it gets picked up. Tells the story of a ninety-something year old midwife in Costa Rica, the last practitioner of traditional midwifery in that country. Her clients include a lot of indigenous women who don’t have much other access to healthcare. Also focuses on the American expat who has been her friend for the last 25 years, has learned from her, and has helped get some of the knowledge on to younger generations. Dona Miriam is a hoot, and the story is well told and meaningful; this movie is another example of my first rule when picking which movies to watch at the festival - never miss a movie about an old woman with an interesting background.
And finally, not a new one but an important one I’d never seen before:
Night and Fog - from 1955, probably the first major documentary on the Holocaust. Black and white footage mostly (some quite graphic), mixed with some color footage on how the camps looked in 1955. Has a powerful voice over (even in subtitles from French). Of course not an easy watch, but glad I got a chance to watch it.
That is one of the worst medical documentaries I’ve ever seen. The poor girl that just had a inconvenient but non-life threatening throat problem and ended up dying horribly…
Such a great list of viewings. The one about school changes in Russia sounds ominous.
I am going to bookmark this and hope to see some of these if they ever are released.
While the subject can be ominous, there’s a lot of humor and bravery in the film. I’m hoping it gets picked up by a distributor or streaming service, but who knows in today’s political climate…
I haven’t seen this, but I know incredibly lonely people and they tell me regularly how they reason through the abuse, neglect and disrespect they feel. Catfishing not only makes sense, it’s also away to avoid pain for the recipient. If they never meet at least they won’t disappoint the catfisher.
Two flat mates in college had a physical confrontation in my living room over a man that neither had met in person.
Watched Laura’s Story a couple weeks ago.
The story is about an Australian woman who travels to Switzerland with her daughter and granddaughter for end of life decision making.
Gave me some good thoughts for my own end of life plans.
I thought I’d resurrect this thread because discussion of some really good recent documentaries like My Mom, Jayne, Hunting the 7/7 Bombers, and Grenfell: Uncovered are spread across three different threads.
Last night we watched White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch on Netflix. Man, the 1990s was a strange era or marketing that I apparently slept through. Granted, I was half a generation older and definitely not one of the cool kids that were A&F’s target market. You could get away with a lot of shit before social media was around to blow the whistle.
We’ve been watching a bunch of these Netflix docs recently, too. The Trainwreck series has been one of our favourites (topics like Woodstock '99, Toronto mayor Rob Ford, American Apparel, Travis Scott’s Astroworld concert, etc.).