Recently immortalized in a feature film from Terry Zwigoff, this documentary — the only officially sanctioned film about his life — reveals the life of underground comic pioneer Robert Crumb. Crumb used comic books as a confessional for the perverse fantasies and visions that formed in reaction to a hostile world. As a child, Crumb avidly read and began to create comic books with his brothers-and ever since-his style has continued to evolve. He emerged among the hippies at Haight [...]
In a thought-provoking and slightly disturbing documentary, former Conservative MP Michael Portillo investigates one of the darker sides of human nature. He discovers what it is like to inflict pain and is driven to the edge of violence himself in an extreme sleep deprivation study. He meets men for whom violence has become an addiction and ultimately discovers that each of us could be inherently more violent than we think, and watches a replication of one of the most controversial [...]
A gripping documentary that focuses on former U.S. Army soldier, James J. Dresnok, who defected to North Korea on August 15, 1962. The film centres around Dresnok’s history, highlighting his insecurity with America, particularly his desertion in 1962 to the DPRK. It also showed Dresnok in the present day, around Pyongyang (where he now lives), and interacting with his North Korean friends. Dresnok spoke exclusively to the filmmakers about his feelings about his childhood, his desertion from the United States [...]
A ground-breaking documentary film profiling cult leader Michael Travesser, who claims to be the Messiah and believed October 31st 2007 would be Doomsday, with an event of apocalyptic proportions occurring at midnight. The documentary looks at the hold the 66-year-old Travesser, who has come to the attention of the FBI, has over his followers in the Strong City community as documentary film-maker Ben Anthony hears claims of teenage girls wanting a sexual consummation with him and questions whether his beliefs [...]
What is Antisemitism today, two generations after the Holocaust? In his continuing exploration of modern Israeli life, documentary director Yoav Shamir travels the world in search of the most modern manifestations of the “oldest hatred”, and comes up with some startling answers. In this irreverent quest, he follows American Jewish leaders to the capitals of Europe, as they warn government officials of the growing threat of Antisemitism, and he tacks on to a class of Israeli high school students on [...]
A revealing documentary about the international world of private equity banking. The Carlyle Group, one of the largest investment banks in the world, is based in Washington and has accumulated its capital mainly by investments in the defense industry. On their list of employees are people like Lou Gerstner (former chairman of IBM), George Bush Sr., James Baker III, John Major (former British Prime Minister) and Fidel Ramos (former Prime Minister of the Philippines). The Carlyle Group invests in areas [...]
A moving documentary film that centers on the journey of blind American singer Paul Pena who travels to the isolated Asian nation of Tuva due to his interest in Tuvan throat singing. After a brush with fame and success in the 1970s, Paul Pena’s fortunes faded as he dealt with career and health problems. While listening to shortwave radio, Pena heard a broadcast of throatsinging, the Tuvan art of manipulating overtones while singing to make higher frequencies more distinguishable, essentially [...]
An excellent documentary – albeit in a fairly polemic form – that forms a damning indictment of the public school system in the United States. The film also follows several students through the educational system, hoping to be selected in a lottery for acceptance into charter schools. This documentary generally received positive reviews and a tremendous amount of critical praise after its release, and while many critics derided the apparent biased nature of the film, the documentary as a whole [...]
A documentary about the Electronic Dance movement of the 1990′s. The documentary is considered the first full-length film that goes behind the Electronic Dance scene and uncovers the culture it has spawned. The film presented aspects of rave culture such as empowerment through technology, the DIY (do-it-yourself) ethic, and the flowering of a new spirituality embracing transcendence through sound and rhythm. A cross-section of the techno subculture is represented as ravers, DJs and musicians speak for themselves about their music and ideals. Produced by [...]
A light-hearted yet moving documentary about a “man of science” trying to come to terms with the fact that his mother firmly believes that aliens routinely abduct fellow humans. The debate about whether we are alone in the universe has never gotten so personal. Mary Rodwell is Australia’s leading authority on extraterrestrial phenomena, her son Chris Rodwell is a vet, a man of science and self-confessed alien skeptic – their relationship has reached a critical point and something has to [...]
Can democracy still be saved? Can we address the shortcomings of representative democracy — failing political parties, increasing distrust of government — within the current system or are we set to embark on a journey across a border where nobody ever dared to go? Should we explore a new political model in order to overcome the current multicrises? In the Dutch documentary After Democracy, this urgent question is addressed by Fareed Zakaria, John Keane, Hilary Wainwright, William Dobson and Cheng [...]
An interesting Dutch documentary that explores the aftermath of the financial implosion that is currently taking place. Shortly after the beginning of the financial crisis of 2008, sociologist Manuel Castells gathered a small group of international top intellectuals to ponder the crisis. While the crisis expanded, Castells named his group ‘The Aftermath Network’, a reference to the new world which according to him will emerge from the ashes of the crisis.
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