Category: Documentary

Most popular during the 1910s and 20s, the Industrial Workers of the World was formed in 1905 as a general union to unite all workers under one umbrella. I have to admit that the film wasn’t so mesmerizing that it held my attention throughout, but like the similarly themed Seeing Red , I really appreciate that someone took the time to interview so many participants while their voices were still around to be heard. My current housemate is a dues paying member of the Wobblies, so I’m well aware the importance of saving this labor history. I had no idea so many songs were used in labor organizing, but understand now how they draw people in to the cause and keep people’s spirits high.

Automats are a type of fast food restaurant that readily provides prepared food through vending machines. This film documents the Horn & Hardart company and its chain of automat restaurants that were popular in New York City and Philadelphia. I love the concept of these restaurants and really wish I had been alive and in the areas where they existed. The film is a bit dry and I definitely zoned out for awhile, but it’s obvious the affection the various talking heads in this film, including Ruth Bader Ginsburg and especially Mel Brooks, had for the chain and the service they provided.

If someone doesn’t pay attention to credits, they may never know the expansive body of work many voice actors possess. This documentary attempts to give faces to some of those voices. Unfortunately it doesn’t give a lot of attention to pairing the actors to the roles they portray. It also devotes an inordinate amount of time focusing on producer John DiMaggio (probably best known as the voice for Bender from Futurama) than what I would consider bigger names in voice work. It remains an extremely informative and education look at the craft, provided by those who have made successful careers performing in it.

In 1997, French serial imposter Frédéric Bourdin claimed to be Nicholas Barclay, a thirteen year old boy who had disappeared in Texas three years previous. Bourdin somehow convinced Nicholas’s family that he was their lost relative and lived with them for almost five months before his ruse was uncovered. Even through interviews with Bourdin and the Barclays, it remains unclear why the family fell for the hoax and the documentary throws out some potentially nefarious reasons. In the end, there are no answers and the disappearance of Nicholas Barclay remains unresolved.

Surfer and physician Doc Paskowitz along with his third wife raised their nine children in an array of campers, travelling constantly and surfing whenever possible. For a graduate of Stanford Medical School, Doc certainly had interesting ideas on education, health, sex, and capitalism, all of which weighed heavily on how he and his wife reared their family. The latter half of the film touches on the effects these had on the now adult children with real scars from an obsessive controlled childhood that left them little prepared for the real world, but unfortunately just skims the surface when focusing on this part of the story. 

In 1989, five teenagers of color, amongst a large group that had been marauding through Central Park, were arrested and convicted of the brutal assault and rape of a white woman that had occurred while they were in the park. The five spent between six to thirteen years in prison until a serial rapist confessed to the crime. Miscarriages of justice are always saddening and infuriating and this documentary explores how such an awful thing could happen. Juveniles should never be interviewed without a guardian and lawyer present, but everyone should heed their Miranda warnings. In an adversarial justice system, confessions can be coerced and there are valid reasons an innocent person would confess to a crime.  

Told through a detailed reenactment and interviews from the participants, this documentary tells the story of Joe Simpson and Simon Yates’s 1985 successful climb up the western face of Siula Grande in Peru. Though both experienced climbers, it was uncertain if either man would survive after reaching the summit. At first it was quite easy to dismiss this as yet another climbing film, but then disaster struck and I had to restart the entire film because I didn’t want to miss one detail of how the two got into their predicament. Even literally watching them give modern day interviews, I could not believe that they both were going to survive in the end. Truly a feat of perseverance and endurance, I can not imagine pushing on after that first big moment of crisis.    

In 1975, two FBI agents were killed in a shootout at the Pine Ridge Reservation. Despite inconsistencies in the case and many high profile campaigns for clemency, Leonard Peltier has been incarcerated since 1977 for those deaths. This documentary discusses the period of high tension on the Reservation that preceded the shooting and some details of the case including details regarding other American Indian Movement activists who were tried for the crime. The parts involving the earlier events on the Reservation were very interesting, but I wish there was more focus on the actual shootout. That lack of information is probably why Peltier is possibly a scapegoat like in many cases where the justice system is desperate to blame someone for a murder, especially of a law enforcement official.