There are different sorts of documentaries. Some are about important topics — the people and events that changed our lives. Some are about things that are just interesting. Some are about little-known figures that may have an air of eat-your-vegetables importance, like the life of some guy you’ve never heard of [...]
Silverdocs: A Walk into the Sea
Some documentaries approach a subject straight on. Others come from an angle. A Walk into the Sea: Danny Williams and the Warhol Factory begins with a mystery. Why did director Esther Robinson’s Uncle Danny walk out one night, never to be seen again? Some families have a story — sometimes funny, [...]
Silverdocs: Kurt Cobain About a Son
As I’ve previously mentioned, Kurt Cobain is an important figure in my life. As a musician, his importance is clear, but it’s difficult to know how to assess him as a man.
AJ Schnack’s new documentary Kurt Cobain About a Son takes a fascinating approach. New York Times reporter Michael Azerrad interviewed Kurt back [...]
Silverdocs: Chicago 10
I have long been fascinated by the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago and the police action that took place outside. It’s one of the most bizarre scenes of fascism ever seen in American history and has moments of such violence and absurdity that it plays like black comedy. That the ‘68 election [...]
Silverdocs: Big Rig
Doug Pray was the director of the music documentaries Hype! (1996) and Scratch (2001), both of which I loved. When I found out he had a documentary about truckers at Silverdocs, I got a ticket without hesitation, even though I had no idea what to expect.
In remarks after the screening of Big Rig, [...]
Silverdocs: State Legislature
Frederick Wiseman is considered the classic objective/fly-on-the-wall documentarian. He goes into the environment and he shoots thousands of hours of footage. Then he goes into the editing suite and spends a year cutting it. There are no interviews, on-screen titles or narration. You just watch it unspool and make of it [...]
Silverdocs: G.J. Echternkamp
Probably the one film I am most excited about seeing is Frank & Cindy, screening tomorrow night. I first encountered an abbreviated version of this film as an episode of the TV version of This American Life which aired on Showtime (mentioned previously).
G.J. Echternkamp picked up a video camera and started documenting his mother [...]
Silverdocs: Hip-Hop Revolution
One Wednesday, I saw Hip-Hop Revolution, a documentary about underground hip-hop in the Republic of South Africa. Despite the dismantlement of apartheid in the early Nineties, problems still exist in the country. Beginning in the Eighties, young people were influenced by American hip-hop and have developed their own home-grown version of the music [...]
Silverdocs: Pete Seeger: The Power of Song
Last night was the opening of Silverdocs: AFI/Discovery Channel Documentary Festival. This is the fifth annual festival and it seems to have a robust schedule, with 100 films from 40 countries.
The opening film was Pete Seeger: The Power of Song, directed by Jim Brown, who also did The Weavers: Wasn’t That a Time (1982) [...]
The Sopranos: Have you been paying any attention?
I wasn’t necessarily going to weigh in on this, because every-damn-body is, but there is something I want to address about the series finale of The Sopranos.
It’s this: Fade to Black Has ‘Sopranos’ Fans Seeing Red.
Plenty of people wanted to discuss the ending with Chase. And not just viewers — some TV critics, too:
“Poor ol’ [...]