After accompanying me to see the current Off-Broadway production of Our Town at the Barrow Street Theatre, The Once and Future Blonde sent me the link to this award-winning documentary about some LA ghetto kids who, against all odds, put on a production of OT at their high school. I like how the doc draws parallels between the original play and those Compton kids’ lives. Spoiler: yes, in the end, the kids did pull it off and there’s a lot of hugging at the end. Since then, Compton has seen a significant decrease in crime, but I don’t think the OT experiment had anything to do with that.
Back to the current production of the play showing in NYC and its highlights: the stage manager and Simon Stimson, the church organist, are particularly entertaining + very clever and creative use of a somewhat bare set + surprising how modern the text felt to me (considering that it was written in the 1930s and that the action takes place in the 1900s) and how much I find the characters’ aspirations, doubts and fears still relevant today. Oh, and the Barrow Street theatre allows wine in, a privilege we used (and abused?).
Posts tagged with documentary
The Cove (2009) by Louie Psihoyos
Powerful documentary following a team of marine activists and filmmakers as they put together a black op to infiltrate the heavily guarded cove of Taiji, a remote village in Japan, where more than 20,000 dolphins get slaughtered every year. It’s a blood bath and the footage they snatched of the entire cove turning red is disturbing.
Now I really want to free Willy.
Ironically, I went to see this film right after devouring my own weight in sushi at Ten Ten Tei, my favourite Japanese caf in London. Anyway, remember folks: chose the safest fish to eat.
Hockney’s Yorkshire through the changing seasons.
The excellent BBC art series, Imagine, had director Bruno Wollheim follow David Hockney on his journey of painting Yorkshire. Filmed over three years with unprecedented access, what makes this documentary particularly interesting is that, for the first time, Hockney was happy to be filmed at work. Almost all of his Yorkshire landscapes, he spotted from the car, and together, the pictures read like frames from a road movie. Hockney has the knack to choose spots that on the face of it look dull but I guess, that’s precisely what make artists different from the rest of us; they see beauty where the common eye sees nothing and they make something remarkable out of something that appears unremarkable.
Full-length documentary film about the guys behind the cartoon characters, streamable on babelgum.com. Great stuff.
As an interviewer puts it, “It’s a parallel universe - these guys aren’t in the band but they know the animated characters who are”.
Trailer for award-winning documentary In A Dream, a documentary portrait about Isaiah Zagar, an icon in South Philly’s art community, and his dysfunctional family life. The film toured the festival circuit in 2008 and is going wide in 2009. I’m hoping we’ll get to see this in Europe soon too.
The soundtrack features music by the Books, Explosions in the Sky, Efterklang, and Kelli Scarr. Here’s a beautiful Efterklang music video using deleted footage and alternate takes from the film.
Kubrick’s then 17 year-old daughter shot this 35 minute behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of the film. Also, for an excellent interview with Stanley about The Shining, click here.
Vivian Kubrick’s Making ‘The Shining’ is sensational. I’m a sucker for behind-the-scenes goodies in general and bought the DVD of The Shining just for this 35-minute special feature. Which says a lot, considering that I am probably the only person on the planet (apart from Stephen King himself actually) who does not like Kubrik’s film adaption of the book. It could very well be that the first time I saw The Shining I had literally just finished the book and thought the film did not compare. It could also be that Shelley Duvall is absolutely insufferable. To think that there’s so much talent out there waiting tables and that bland actresses such as Duvall get cast in a Kubrik movie.
Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2008) by Sacha Gervasi
A truly sensational documentary film about a truly sensational bunch.
Here’s the link to a review that does the film justice. Do yourself a favour, go see this.
