Category: Documentary

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Streetwise (1984)

I do enjoy watching films that show locations I’m familiar with, especially from times before they and I were acquainted. Particularly here, anyone who thinks the problems that Seattle currently is experiencing should watch this to see that while the problems may have gotten worse in recent years, none of them are new. Beyond locality, there are a lot of messages to take away here: how to deal with those who slip through the cracks (both voluntarily and involuntarily), the threads that continue to spin from generation to generation, the unequal treatment of girls and boys that leads to extreme differences in results for women and men. I still don’t know how to even process how young they all were.

Oscar Nomination: Best Documentary, Features

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Taxi to the Dark Side (2007)

This movie is hard to write about. The atrocities committed by American soldiers sanctioned by the government, particularly during the War on Terror, is both frightening and unsurprising. There’s an incredible sadness for anyone who finds themselves in the crosshairs and helplessness to do anything about it. The world needs to be better.

Oscar Win: Best Documentary, Features

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Genghis Blues (1999)

Two Oscar categories take me on journeys that I would probably not partake without my commitment to Oscar watching: documentaries and foreign films. Without documentaries, I would not have learned about the life of Paul Pena, the blind blues musician best known for writing “Jet Airliner”, nor the existence of Tannu Tuva, Richard Feynman’s slight obsession with it, and the culture of Tuvan throat singing. There’s a bit of this that feels like watching people’s travel videos, but it’s still an interesting journey. I took away from it a new appreciation of artists and ways of paying tribute to others’ cultures.  Music

Oscar Nomination: Best Documentary, Features

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The Palindromists (2020)

I do enjoy a good geeky themed documentary, see The King of Kong or Spellbound. Even though I feel palindromes are a slicker cousin of anagrams, I thought this would be more fun than it is. I most enjoyed the interview bits with Danica McKellar and Weird Al and the various palindromists discussing how they come up with their reactions. The actual competition is kind of boring. Most of the actual palindroming is done in private and is a mental exercise. It’s still all quirky enough that I don’t totally regret the watch. If nothing else, I can no weigh in on the pa LIN dromists versus palin DRO mists pronunciation controversy.

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Changing Our Minds: The Story of Dr. Evelyn Hooker (1992)

Evelyn Hooker’s life is rather fascinating. Encouraged by her mother to pursue education, she pursued her PhD despite gender discrimination. As a teacher, she was befriended by a gay student who encouraged her to study homosexuality, leading to the ‘unsurprising to us in modern times’ conclusion that there is no mental distinction between hetero and homosexuals. I think it’s important for people to know her name and of her work even if the documentary is a bit by-the-book and dry.

Oscar Nomination: Best Documentary, Features

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Unorthodox (2013)

My take from this is that in some (many? all?) Orthodox Jewish communities to counter their young adults going off on a Rumspringa, they send the teenagers/twentysomethings to Israel to try to reel them back to the faith. In this movie, one woman who didn’t experience this conversion tries to investigate why many of her […]

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Strike a Pose (2016)

I hadn’t really gone into this expecting much, but it wasn’t so long ago that I first watched Truth or Dare and I’m a sucker for a good Where Are They Now? story. The film offered much more than I would have expected. I found the brotherhood shared by the dancers even to this day to be inspiring. The documentary doesn’t shy from showing both the good and bad that these men experienced before and after their work with Madonna. Many of the stories shared were a good supplement to the various stories set during the 1980s AIDS crisis that I’ve been reading recently. It was powerful seeing many of the men detailing the struggle of when and how to be out with regards to their sexuality or diagnosis.

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Pumping Iron (1977)

Helping to popularize bodybuilding and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Pumping Iron also introduced the world to everyone’s favorite Hulk, Lou Ferrigno. Unsurprisingly, during the half of the film concentrating on their rivalry during the 1975 Mr. Olympia competition, Arnold is the villain while the Hulk is our hero. I wonder if audiences in the 70s felt as […]

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Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1 (2013)

I’ve been intrigued by this since it won its Oscar. I’m glad I was able to catch it when I briefly had HBO access. Following the experiences of workers at the Veterans Crisis Line, it can be a depressing and intense watch, but these people are heroes every day they answer those phones. If the United States is going to be sending its people to fight all over the world, we need to be better to our soldiers when they come back and offer more support to those trying to help them.

Oscar Win: Best Documentary, Short Subject

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Boy, Interrupted (2009)

It is incredibly hard to know what to do with someone who is tormented simply from living in this world. Support for them and for their loved ones is the best we can do but sadly sometimes that’s not enough. This film is about a boy who found life so insufferable that he was contemplating suicide from a very young age, eventually falling prey as a teen. Drugs sometimes help, but with all medication there are compromises that are made. Unfortunately it is the ones left who are then forced to deal with the pain and emptiness that is now an unavoidable part in their life.

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