Bigger, Stronger, Faster*

This gave me what I want from docs. I learned something. I love that. People are attempting to shit on this because they think of it as a pro-steroids doc, but I didn't see it that way, really. This was pretty fair in trying to examine and trying to present both sides. It was also, in some way, probably trying to excuse Chris Bell's brother's behavior in some way n the same way anyone else would want to explain away a siblings bad behavior. Very similar to something I can see myself making and HAVE attempted to make in the past. In fact, this opening reminded me so much of some of the stuff we used to make when I worked at 360. The pop music. The montage of pop culture movies and tv shows with a voice over that I did myself because there was really not anyone else who would do it the way I had it in my head. Unfortunately, this dudes voice was kind of grating.

This made me feel bad again for Marion Jones all over again, who didn't even go to jail for doping, but for lying about doping. Also, makes me think about the Olympics and the fact that so many of those athletes take performance enhancing drugs. It's a slippery slope. You don't want to se drugs because their illegal and you'll feel like you're cheating, but you have to use steroids because if you don't, everyone else who's using them (which is literally almost EVERYONE else) will outplay you in every way.

It's funny, I assumed this guy wasn't into filmmaking, just because he didn't seem all that into and it seemed kind of green with the whole thing. Like he doesn't know shit about filmmaking and he'd have to get a lot of help with the editing. he'd be over your shoulder like, "can we, like, do this one effect were the screen zooms in? oh yeah, that looks pretty good." Then I come to find out he went to USC and graduated from the film program. Whoops. One thing I appreciated was that he attempted to ask the tough questions but in a sensitive way. Tiptoing up to Carl Lewis to question him about his positive test for steroids BEFORE the controversial 1988 Olympics. Talking to the Hooton dad (who I'm guessing was probably not very happy with how the doc turned out) about his son's suicide having to possibly do with the anti-dpressants he was on. He did a good job in attempting to get those controversial answers.

That does make me wonder though. Do people forget that they're on film and this little video he's making is going to be turned into a movie or something? They question his brother's students about whether or not their coach (his brother) takes steroids and those kids say that he himself told them no. He said to their faces that he did not do steroids. He lied to them and yet, now, when the movie comes out, everyone's going to know. They sit at the dinner table and try not to say anything to their parents, but the when the movie comes out, everyone' s going to know. It's hard not to take that into account when watching. It's in the back of your mind the whole time. Like when two costars are dating in a feature and it's in your mind during the whole movie.

I like that this didn't solve any problems or give any answers. It wasn't really like Super Size Me in that way. It just was what it was. There really IS no right answer in all of this. It's a complicated matter. I'll leave you with this, though: "Peanuts are dangerous. There are people who eat a Peanut and they go into anaphylactic shock. Does that mean we ban peanuts and sue God for making them?"

Red Without Blue

I loved the idea of this documentary. I was really excited to watch it because it had such a fascinating premise. I decided to watch this because as a twin and an ally, and I was really interested to see what was going on with this family. It sounded like a really intriguing story. Something that just had to be put on film.

Unfortunately, it turned out to basically be a representation of my fear in filmmaking. Which was a bummer. Every once in a while, you see a movie that just falls together. It makes it look like filmmaking is so easy. Everything just works. But then you come across something like this where you can tell the team was really passionate about the project and the content and the characters, but it just really doesn't really come together, exactly. The summary said this takes place over a year, but it didn't really feel like that. It felt like we were talking about everything happening in the past. I didn't like that. There didn't seem like there was forward momentum with the narrative, however pompous that sounds.

After I watched it, the feeling sort of became...maybe it should have been a feature. It's a sort of "truth is than fiction" sort of story. And the way they went about it as a doc didn't really work, for me. I feel like there were much better ways to tell that story.

Enough bitching though. The story is definitely an interesting one. Sexuality is really freaking tricky. It's complicated and is in no way black and white. This was a clear example of that. It was disappointing how the family sort of fell apart and never really came back together. Even the end, which seemed like some things got resolved, showed that nothing will ever go back to being like those happy times of their childhood.

Last Train Home

What I find most strange about this is that the main issue of this movie is not something that's even crossed my mind in the past. Ever. I knew about China's over-population and that there are over a billion people there. I knew that there were tons of migrant workers making shoes and clothes and toys to later be stamped with the label "Made In China,"and I knew there's a holiday that they all celebrate, but I never even thought to think of the fact that these millions of people all might want to go home to celebrate this holiday with their families. All at the same time. Even the idea of that seems like an impossibility. Even when we see it happen on camera, it's still difficult to grasp what you're seeing.

This was a super heavy and depressing sort of observational documentary. The was very rare interaction with the camera or the people behind it. Even when the family was speaking aloud it seemed as if they spoke to themselves like that all the time, not the were responding to a question the filmmaker had just asked them. There were no talking heads, no on camera interviews, in the credits, it was obvious that they were working with just a skeleton crew, which really worked out since almost every scene is packed with people from frame to frame. I feel like I never get to complain about LA's crowded malls or bumper to bumper 405 traffic ever again.

Also in the movie, they touched upon the dynamics of family. The migrant working couple in the movie left their son and daughter home with the grandmother as they went off to the industrial city to make money for the family (as they'd been for 13 years) so their kids can have better. This turns into resentment as the now teenage daughter grows up feeling that her parents abandoned her and had no interests in raising her or her brother. She doesn't like her parents, has no emotional ties to them, defies and disrespects her father like I've seen no child do before in a documentary and eventually decides to make her own life for herself. It's a depressing version of cosmic irony because where she feels her parents didn't love her enough to stay home, and for this reason she quits school and works in a factory herself, the truth is that her parents loved her so much, they'd do this terrible job 24/7 almost every day of the year to make sure her life didn't turn out the way there's is.

Surfwise

I really liked it. It looked really great.. I liked how the story progressed. It was shot really well and, regardless of how stupid it sounds, I think the filmmakers really captured the sun.

What a crazy man attempting to raise his family in a mostly impossible and definitely crazy lifestyle. Clearly not one that could be maintained for longer than the children were children. For all his attempts at not being "attached to the physical world at all" during this time, it was interesting to see how much video footage and photographs they had from this period in their lives. A lot to base a documentary off of.

It was interesting to see his family go from a sort of idyllic sort of family cult lifestyle and transition into this sort of dark days towards the end as everybody went their separate ways. It was also interesting to see the perspective of the children. A lot of the older kids took the point of view of understanding how messed up the lifestyle was growing up and held a lot of animosity for their dad even to this day, but the younger kids, the kids born in the 70s seemed to be of the opinion that the lifestyle wasn't so bad and one of them was even thinking of "treating" his kids to the same kind of lifestyle, except on a boat. It's sort of like the old kids grew up with the truth, but the younger kids didn't have to experience all the bad. They came in during the decline of everything. The were born just as the older kids began wanting out of the lifestyle.

The filmmakers let the family go on the this long video diatribe, speaking with the sons and one daughter about what they missed out on. The fact that they couldn't go to medical school, they couldn't understand making monthly payments, they couldn't adjust and assimilate for a while, and then they come back to Doc, their dad, and he's babbling on and on about how no other child of God's earth got the opportunity that his kids got. "You only take what you need. If you take more than you need, then you're taking something from somebody else."

Sound and Fury: Six years Later

The brother's family with the infant son who got the implant wasn't profiled in the movie, which was a shame. I really wanted to see what he speaking level would have been like since they implanted him as an infant. They did catch up with the family of the little girl who wanted an implant and, without giving anything away about the original or the update, it was interesting to see where everyone was 6 years later.

Sound and Fury

What a clever little tlitle. This reminded me of the sort of documentary they'd make you sit through in health class. Maybe because it looks like it was filmed on Betamax and cut on a toaster. I imagine my 16 year old self being pretty fascinated by it and remembering it whenever I'd think about a cochlear implant.

I like the way the juxtaposed both family's decisions about the implant. It's a pretty controversial decision in general. But having that large family disagree so furiously over it was really compelling to see. Each had their point of view that was right in their eyes. Despite that last closing lines of the movie, I feel like they didn't much take a hard stance on the subject. Just let everyone speak their mind. As a viewer, though, I brought my own perspective to it and I saw in it what I wanted to see. That the hearing people were right and the deaf people were wrong.

This whole idea of it being good that you can't hear is controversial and very interesting, in general. As a hearing person, I of course am going to think that it's better to be able to hear. There are more opportunities afforded to hearing people. The world is built for hearing people. The world is easier to navigate as a hearing person. I can't wrap my head around the idea that it's better to not be afforded these opportunities. But I'm a hearing person so it's easy for me to not get it. I can get wanting to be who you are the way you were made and embrace that. You're a part of a community that you otherwise wouldnt' be. They don't want their community to go the way of the Natives and just get smaller and smaller...but it just seems too hard to have to live with. A difficulty you don't have to have.

When they got into it and they had the hearing parents where they just go ahead and get the implants for their kids and their kids don't know anything about the deaf lifestyle or identity or culture or community. That seems a little strange. That probably has something to do with the hearing parents, choosing the implant and giving their kid the opportunity to not have to learn how to sign. They use the excuse of saying a speech therapist said it was better not to learn it because they'll use it as a crutch. It seems more like they feel like it was implanted because it's bad to be deaf. I wouldn't say bad, more like different. The world handicap has such a band connotation. It's more like an impediment to all the possibilities and opportunities of the world.

Tricky subject.

Capturing The Friedmans

It sounds stupid to say that was awesome, but it was just really well done. I think that was one of the best ones so far. Just like another doc on the list Grey Gardens, this story was discovered while the filmmaker was attempting to make a different documentary-one about clowns in NYC. He stumbled upon this story instead.

Going over it more and more in my head, I think we were presented a pretty biased view of what happened. Originally, as I watched, I was thinking they were giving both sides. But the filmmakers knowingly presented one argument, and then immediately discounted it with one of the boys saying the complete opposite. I supposed it still allows the views to ultimately draw their own conclusions though.

One thing I like is the use of music. There's not much throughout the whole thing. It's just the natural noise of the room. It really depends on what kind of doc you're doing, but it most definitely creates a tone for the movie. I liked it. This doc really just knew what it was. It was sure of itself and its identity and the tone they wanted to capture. And it worked. It was very well done. A doc that definitely knows what it is and with multiple personality disorder, if that makes any sense. This is the ultimate he said she said. This family was just ripped apart by this horrific thing and they just don't remember it the same at all. The filmmakers have more of the whole story, but they don't let everyone else in on the whole story. It's interesting.

It's interesting though. This doesn't really seem like anything elaine wants to even talk about. And letting news like this out when it concerns someone who entertains children for a living can ruin someone's career. What the hell is he doing being interviewed in this documentary?! I really really wonder why and how they got them to reveal so much about their lives.

The method of using the interviews to slowly reveal and unravel the story is very interesting. It was done very sharply here. You use present tense to not give away the ending and not reveal the truth or what ultimately happens. As I got more and more into the story and the web of lies and half truths and fabricated truths were revealed, it really created this blanket of uncertainty. You don't know what's real, who to believe, and ultimately, when the thing was over, I still didn't know what I felt was the truth. Whose truth is the real truth? The authorities were just so sure that this happened. Even if they figured out it didn't and were sure, they' find a way to make it true. If I know anything, it's the kids are stupid. And kids will admit to anything that you tell them to be true. But on top of that, regardless of whether or not Arnold didn't touch this particular group of kids, he still had incestuous and jailbait nudie pic magazines. I mean, that's pretty horrific and terrible on its own. That alone makes him a pretty yucky guy. To then put focus on this other thing, this other particular instance where he possibly may not be guilty seems like small potatoes.