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Archive for the ‘Documentaries’ Category

“EVERYDAY SUNSHINE”: Music of the spheres

Posted in Art house fare, Documentaries, tagged , on December 2, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“EVERYDAY SUNSHINE: THE STORY OF FISHBONE” My rating: B 

107 minutes | No MPAA rating

I’m ashamed to admit that until seeing this film I knew next to nothing about the seminal black punk band Fishbone.

Now I’m a fan.

One of the best films to play at the 2010 Kansas International Film Festival, Chris Metzler and Lev Anderson’s “Everyday Sunshine” makes a strong case for Fishbone being one of the great rock ensembles.

This doc offers the usual elements: vintage performance footage, talking-head interviews withe the band members and their admirers (Ice T, Gwen Stefani, Flea).

But it also features some wildly inventive animation to follow the rise and fall of this highly unusual group which, according to narrator Laurence Fishburne,  “drew on sources too vast for the common mind.”

Indeed, the band somehow synthesized rock, soul, ska, jazz and even rap into an eclectic sound. Moreover, the players incorporated into the music social commentary and gonzo humor. The only other performer who comes close to their approach is the late Frank Zappa.

Of course, that’s a combination guaranteed to wow the critics and intellectuals, but not necessarily the common listener. And, indeed, “Everyday Sunshine” is in many ways a eulogy to musicians who were too good for the rest of us.

But check out this film. You’ll fall in love.

P.S. The filmmakers (Metzler is a Kansas City native) will attend weekend screenings of “Everyday Sunshine” at the Screenland Crossroads and discuss their work.

| Robert W. Butler

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“THE OTHER F WORD”: From anarchy to domesticity

Posted in Documentaries, tagged , , , , on November 18, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“THE OTHER  F  WORD” My rating: B- (Opening Nov. 18 at the Screenland Crossroads)

98 minutes | No MPAA rating

The whole punk movement was about giving the finger to the Establishment, about spreading political, musical and social anarchy, about just not giving a damn.

So what happens when hard-core punkers become parents?

That’s the intriguing question posed by Andrea Blaugrun Nevins’  “The Other F Word,” a documentary that allows a dozen or so punk rockers to comment on their lives as fathers.

The film’s subjects — like Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Duane Peters of U.S. Bombs, Lars Frederiksen of Rancid and especially Jim Lindberg of Pennywise — remain working musicians. They tour, they sing angry songs, they rant and spit from the stage.

But all describe a profound change brought on by having their own children.

“Nothing in the punk rock ethos prepares you for parenthood,” one observes.

(more…)

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“NUREMBERG”: A relic that still packs a punch

Posted in Art house fare, Documentaries, tagged , , on November 11, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“NUREMBERG: ITS LESSON FOR TODAY”  My rating: B (Opening Nov. 11 at the Glenwood Arts.

76 minutes | No MPAA rating

You can’t really call it entertainment.

Instead, “Nuremberg: Its Lesson for Today” is best viewed as a vital historical document.

Produced shortly after the end of World War II by the U.S.  government and shown exclusively to German audiences, the documentary attempted nothing less than a concise summation of Nazi crimes against humanity.

Simultaneously, it provided a look at Western-style justice as embodied in the Nuremberg  tribunal where the Third Reich’s military and civilian leaders were tried for their war crimes.

Never intended for domestic audiences, the film was never publicly screened in this country.  And almost immediately after its release in Germany it was withdrawn from circulation under mysterious circumstances.

(more…)

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“THE INTERRUPTERS”: The audacity of hope

Posted in Art house fare, Documentaries, tagged , , , , on October 21, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Armeena Matthews...one of "The Interrupters"

“THE INTERRUPTORS” My rating: A- (Opens Oct. 21 at the Tivoli)

125 minutes | No MPAA rating

Heart wrenching and gut twisting, “The Interrupters” spends a year in Chicago’s meanest neighborhoods following three individuals committed to stopping the cycle of violence in the inner city.

The protagonists of Steve James’ exhaustive and deeply moving documentary — Ameena Matthews, Cobe Williams and Eddie Bocanegra– are employed by the not-for-profit organization CeaseFire as “violence interrupters.”

Their unenviable job is to leap into confrontational situations — invariably involving young people who have grown up with guns and violence — and defuse them before things turn ugly…and deadly.

James, the co-director of the legendary “Hoop Dreams,” has an astounding ability to be in the right place at the right time while adapting a fly-on-the-wall invisibility — he captures intense moments way beyond the imagination of a Hollywood screenwriter. The results will leave audiences dazed, in tears and torn between hope and despair.

(more…)

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“PASSIONE”: The world of Neapolitan song

Posted in Art house fare, Documentaries, tagged , on October 7, 2011| 1 Comment »

“PASSIONE” My rating: B- (Opening Oct. 7 at the Tivoli)

88 minutes | No MPAA rating

 “Passione” is American actor John Turturro’s musical travelogue through Naples, the city which nurtured his ancestors and which continues to fascinate him.

In addition to directing this documentary, Turturro serves as our on-screen guide, informing us early that “There are places you go to and once is enough…and then there is Napoli.”

Turturro’s premise is that more than any other Italian city, Naples is  identified by its musical culture, a melting pot brew of operatic, gypsy and North (more…)

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“PIANOMANIA”: The man with the tuning fork

Posted in Art house fare, Documentaries, tagged , , , , on September 30, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Stefan Kupfer (right) gets under the hood

“PIANOMANIA” My rating: B (Opens Sept. 30 at the Tivoli)

93 minutes | No MPAA rating

Calling Stefan Kupfer a piano tuner is like calling Dale Ernhardt a motorist.

It’s accurate as far as it goes, but it doesn’t go nearly far enough.

Over the course of a year the documentary “Pianomania” follows Kupfer, a Steinway technician, as he goes about his business of tinkering with pianos at Vienna’s historic Konzerthaus.

It’s not tinkering for tinkering’s sake. His clients are keyboard heavy hitters like Lang Lang, Alfred Brendel and especially the demanding Pierre-Laurent Aimard — musicians who know precisely what they want from their instruments and expect Kupfer to deliver.

Here’s another auto racing metaphor: Kupfer is like a one-man pit crew. He gets under the hood. He tightens a string here and loosens a screw there. He’ll pull an engine and replace it, so to speak.

(more…)

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“SENNA”: High-speed enigma

Posted in Cinema Espanol, Documentaries, tagged , , on September 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Ayrton Senna

“SENNA” My rating: B (Opening Sept. 16 at the Tivoli)

106 minutes | MPAA rating: PG-13

Nearly two decades after his death the short, colorful racing career of Brazilian Ayrton Senna somehow seems bigger than ever. Especially now that we have “Senna,” an exciting (if hagiographic) documentary biography from ESPN Films.

Asif Kapadia’s movie is remarkable in that it relies exclusively on vintage footage — races, press conferences, interviews, home movies — to tell the story of the handsome kid who went from go-kart racing to winning Formula One championships. The only “new” stuff here are some recent sound bites from figures in Senna’s life.

“Senna” is a small masterpiece of archival editing.

The story is presented chronologically in no-nonsense fashion. We see Senna’s rise in the racing world, his partnership and eventual falling-out with team member (and fierce rival) Alain Prost and his run-ins with racing officials. (Senna is presented as a “pure” racer ill at ease with the politics and backroom scheming that found its way into the sport.)

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“HAPPY”: Happy is as Happy does

Posted in Art house fare, Documentaries, tagged , , on September 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“HAPPY” My rating: B- (Opens Sept. 16 at the Tivoli)

75 minutes | No MPAA rating  

Early in the documentary “Happy” we get a quote from Benjamin Franklin to the effect that while the Declaration of Independence guarantees our right to pursue happiness, actually catching happiness is up to us.

Roko Belic’s film examines human happiness, where it comes from, how people have gained and preserved it, the circumstances under which it seems to flourish.

Belic interviews scientists and psychologists and religious leaders who have specialized in the study of happiness, and their comments about the emotion’s source (nature vs. nurture, dopamine levels, etc.) are enlightening.

Far more effective though, are the man-in-the-street examples Belic has found all over the world, from a sixty-something South American surfer to Okinawan villagers who lead blissful lives well into their 100s. (more…)

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“HOW TO LIVE FOREVER”: Maybe

Posted in Documentaries, tagged , , on September 9, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“HOW TO LIVE FOREVER” My rating: C+ (Opening Sept. 9 at the Tivoli)

92 minutes | No MPAA rating

No movie can teach us how to live forever, not even one entitled “How to Live Forever.”

At best Mark Wexler’s documentary offers an generally diverting look at people who have lived to a ripe old age while sprinkling the whole thing with comments from experts in the field of aging.

The results are hardly comprehensive, but with its grab-bag approach and ever-changing focus the film is mildly amusing.

It begins with Wexler visiting the world’s oldest person (she’s 115), followed by a trip to a national convention of funeral directors in Las Vegas (Elvis and Marilyn impersonators, Klingons).

(more…)

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“IF A TREE FALLS”: Friends of the Earth, enemies of the people

Posted in Art house fare, Documentaries, tagged , on August 19, 2011| Leave a Comment »

“IF A TREE FALLS”  My rating: B+ (Opens Aug. 19 at the Screenland Crossroads)

85 minutes | No MPAA rating

Watching “If a Tree Falls,” Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman’s excellent documentary about the lumberyard-burning, development-hating Earth Liberation Front, I was reminded of the lyrics of Bob Dylan’s “My Back Pages”:

“Good and bad, I define these terms, quite clear, no doubt, somehow…”

This film isn’t just a terrifically informative and insightful history of a radical movement that over several years committed acts of domestic terrorism (at least that’s what the government argued) to limit what its members regarded as the systematic rape of the Earth.

It’s also a meditation on youth, idealism, the political process and the very essence of human nature, especially our impulses for self preservation.

Above all else, this film asks unanswerable questions about right and wrong, good and bad, and leaves its audience both incensed and sad.

(more…)

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