Documentaries

[LennyH]

Werner Herzog's Happy People: A Year in the Taiga is available on Netflix.

It looks at a year in the life of the people in a village in a frigid part of Northern Russia. It especially follows the hunters/trappers, who's lives and work I found fascinating. What craftsmanship and dedication. A life of very hard work and solitude.

[steve(thelil)]

[LennyH]

[LennyH]

[LennyH]

[Blue Train]

Posted about this in the movie thread. Werner Herzog & Errol Morris became after the fact Executive producers after seeing it.

[sozamora]

[LennyH]

[uli]

as a fan of musique andalouse I dug this music doc about piano player Mustapha Skandrani

[Tom Storer]

There is no Netflix in France, or anything that resembles it. Consider yourselves lucky.

[Ron Thorne]

[Tom Storer]

No idea, but I wouldn't even if I could. The wife and I go on binges of watching recommended American TV series on DVD, but other than that I stay away from the television. I only watch movies at the cinema.

[uli]

I am enjoying this doc about Snoop Dog's transformation from a rapper to rastafari Snoop Lion

[uli]

Nice doc on Peter Kowald in town



I must be on a doc binge i also dug this the other day. trailer

[bluenoter]

[mjb]

Fascinating, well done and highly recommended.

If nothing else, may I suggest you check out her photographs on the Interwebs.

[jwaggs]

I have the hots for one of the singers in 20 Feet from Stardom:

[Chazro]

You didn't mention that '20 Feet From Stardom' IS on Netflix now! I just caught it this past weekend and really enjoyed it. So much 'insider' gossip. I especially enjoyed Merry Clayton's backstory on her recording 'Gimme Shelter'. The movie shows her listening to the playback in the studio (now) where they isolate her voice from the track so you only hear her voice. Man, I used to get goosebumps listening to that tune and I got 'em again during this segment. I saw her back in the day in a small club performing as a solo artist, what a voice!

[Ron Thorne]

I had forgotten Merry Clayton's name until your post, Chazro, but I agree. What a voice!

So many only knew of her talent via the Rolling Stones, but I played the hell out of this record on KJZZ back in the day. It's a self-titled album.

[ValerieB]

heard some very good news today regarding the documentary on Clark Terry. I think it's called, "Keep on, Keepin' On." The Weinstein Company and Quincy Jones will be getting into the act so we should be able to see it at our neighborhood theatres in the near future.

[bluenoter]

[uli]

[steve(thelil)]

Recently saw "Discovering Vivien Maier," about a "street photographer" who was totally unknown during her lifetime. The producer/narrator discovered tens of thousands of her photos and negatives after her death and started to investigate whatever he could about her life. (He's also trying to turn her into a famous photographer, and stands to profit immensely). Turns out that Vivien Maier's life was a fascinating and weird life.

4 Montes.

http://www.findingvivianmaier.com

[LennyH]

I just finished watching Somm, which Rollie turned me on to, on Netflix.

Interesting stuff. It's about this insane group of people who want to attain the highest certification that can be had in the wine industry. It's so rare and difficult that you can pretty much score a new job on the day you pass, but you have to put yourself and others through hell for maybe even years in order to get there. Then you can get paid to drink shitloads of wine, which is pretty freakin' cool.

[tippy]

Black Power Mixtape and Hearts and Minds. I gotta say that was really my first exposure to the Panthers and I was born right close to Oaktown during that era. I thought Stokely Carmichael was incredibly outspoken in the truest way. When he was talking about how the U.S. should lose Vietnam and only then will there be peace - outrageous to say at the time, but he was so, so right. Talking about how you couldn't beat people fighting on their land - they had everything to lose and so there was no backing down. Ever. Kinda like how Carmichael must have felt himself to speak his truth like that. And the Angela Davis interview in prison. She was something else, in the best of ways, refuting accusations of violence and going back to her Mississippi neighborhood where she grew up and lived with the young girls who were murdered. They didn't ever not live with the threat of violence against them.

Followed up by Hearts and Minds, a 1974 (I think) Vietnam doc. Boy, we haven't learned anything.