The Thin Blue Line.

This is one of the first films that I have gone in to without reading the synopsis beforehand. The story lacks narration, but is told by police officers, lawyers and inmates. It centers on a man named Randall Dale Adams as he faces the death sentence for supposedly killing a police officer after his car was pulled over. Many reenactment scenes were shown depicting the police officer Robert W. Wood being shot and many "witnesses" were interviewed about the incident. In my opinion, one of the witnesses that were interviewed for this film didn't seem like he had his story straight, leaving me to believe that people might have come forth just for media attention. The man also happened to own his own car rental business, which sort of explains his motives. The film has a very interesting soundtrack that really brings out the emotion and gives this story a dark feeling, it was composed by Philip Glass who collaborated with filmmaker Errol Morris.

It was certainly a new experience for me, as I have never watched a documentary before that really just throws you into a story without explaining much. Without narration the puzzle is open for audiences to put together, and is almost like an interactive experience in a way.

After almost 12 years in prison, Randall Dale Adams was freed due to re-investigated evidence that proved he was not the murderer. The Thin Blue Line was responsible for the reinvestigation of his case.


               60 MINUTES (Australia) - GORDON RAMSAY

                   
          

This short television doc gives viewers a walk-through in the life of Gordon Ramsay. It takes us from his past to his present, in which his empire (which he built from scratch) is now worth $130 million. 60 Minutes Australia brought their camera crews to Gordon Ramsay's house, where they showed a different side of him. When he is off camera and away from reality television, he is shown as a well mannered family man, who has a close relationship with his two daughters. On reality television however, he is shown as aggressive and out-of-line towards the chefs in which he trains. At one point in this documentary it is brought up that Australian television is in the process of taking action against Ramsay, accusing him of using the word "fuck" 80 times or more during his television show. The interviewer brings up that his erratic behavior is the result of having a trouble childhood in which his father was an alcoholic and his brother a heroine addict.

In my opinion, I think the interviewer is wrong. The way Gordon Ramsay is portrayed on television is simply just a way to grasp an audiences attention to gain viewership, in which it is successfully doing.

This tv doc was a mix of archive footage from Ramsay's reality shows, a conducted sit-down interview and footage of his family life. I don't know what the regulations are on Australian television, but I was surprised that many curse words were aired in this piece and are also uncensored from his reality show aired in Australia. It is now 2011 and this type of uncensored television needs to be brought over to North America, in my opinion.



            DISCOVERY ATLAS - AUSTRALIA REVEALED

                

Bought this film on Blu-ray awhile back, it's one of many in the Discovery "Atlas" series, and it is narrated by Russell Crowe. This doc was a wonderful visual experience. It was shot in 1080p HD and really focused on Australia's plant life and architecture. One thing I never knew about Australia before is that it is larger than Europe but has a population that is 30x smaller, having a population of only 20 million people. We've always associated kangaroo's with Australia from what we see on TV, but another unusual animal that is shown in this documentary are camels. Camels were used in the 19th century as a means to transport explorers.

Below is a picture of wild camels in Australia:


Here is Australia Revealed (part 1 of 7) that has been uploaded to YouTube, you may skim through it and check it out. Although the quality does not match the blu-ray version:


Aside from the interesting facts, there were many great depth of field shots in this doc. For example, in once scene a camera zoomed in on a kangaroo eating in the wild, and after a few seconds the background slowly started to go out of focus as the kangaroo was isolated. I could say that this doc was very visually pleasing than anything I've seen before, however, In some parts of this documentary the footage was REALLY grainy. Some of the grainy footage was even in the same segments, in alternate shots where the quality was crystal clear 1080p. I found that to be a little weird, and if I could take a screen shot of this experience I would. Otherwise, all-in-all this was a great experience and I will definitely be checking out more in the Discovery Atlas series.

March of The Penguins

This was a very interesting documentary, it shows the struggles in which Penguins go through in order to mate and create new life. In extreme temperatures, Penguins walk many miles to many different locations for different purposes. Mating grounds and areas in which they eat are many miles apart from each other, some Penguins do not survive the commute. The relationship between one penguin and another is brought up to be similar to how humans are, jokingly put that a male and female will sometimes act similarly. There were many nice visuals in this documentary and a lot of close-up shots that really show us what a penguin really looks like. For years we've seen penguins in cartoons and on post-cards and they never actually compare to what they really look like.




This doc was very nicely narrated by Morgan Freeman, his voice brings a story to all this footage of the arctic and creates a comfortable experience for the viewer. Unlike most documentaries I've watched, there isn't one thing I don't like about this film, it's very playful and although it shows the down sides of a chick being born and quickly struggling to survive (and in some cases showing death), the narration and musical composition quickly brings your mood back up. I've read more about this documentary on Wikipedia, and apparently other versions of this film outside of the U.S release have different soundtracks, one of them apparently being an experimental electronic soundtrack by Émilie Simon. Definitely worth checking out when I get some free time.

More detailed information about this documentary can be on read on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_of_the_penguins



                          
                       

                             WikiRebels - The Documentary

This documentary is about a website called Wikileaks. It was created by a man named Julian Assange, and his goal is to have a world-wide movement in the publications of classified information in which him and his association believe are morally questionable and criminal. His team is made up of mathematicians, programmers and hackers, they seek to bring these criminals to justice in what they describe as a "cost effective political weapon". They believe that all publications on the internet should be protected against censorship.

This documentary has some very interesting segments and some very cool depth of field shots, which I never thought I'd see in a documentary such as this one. It has excellent sit-down interviews with Journalists, Historians and people associated with Wikileaks. They take camera crews in to behind-the-scenes sort of locations such as a building that houses all computer servers for the Wikileaks website. This location is somewhere in Sweden where their operation is protected by Swedish laws, most probably being a main reason why many government organizations have trouble shutting them down.

Although I do not agree with everything that is leaked, some pieces of information are real eye-openers and stir up debatable topics. This is a video I found on Wikileaks that show U.S military troops opening fire on two American photographers and on innocent children in Iraq. Whether they were trigger happy or just taking orders, Wikileaks decided that this should be freely available for the public to view:



All in all, this was a very informative documentary!

Blog #1

BOWLING FOR COLUMBINE

 I just watched the documentary "Bowling for Columbine" by Michael Moore. This documentary was very interesting and made me realize a lot about firearms and gun control. After thinking that Toronto has had a problem with firearms, I now see that the U.S has a much bigger weight on their shoulders. It was quite shocking to see how different the Wal-Mart chain is in the states, being a licensed firearm and ammunition dealer. Michael Moore has taken a very good approach with this film, his interviews with  families of the victims have really made me sympathize in a way.

His stab at the N.R.A also allows him to really grasp his audience and address the issue of gun control, some people do not realize how much of a problem it really is, until a documentary like this one comes along and exposes the crises.







                                 60 MINUTES: EMINEM

I watched a '60 minutes' piece on American rapper Eminem. Right away I did not agree with the fact that they addressed him as a white male who's education did not exceed the 9th grade. I think that his education level was a completely unnecessary thing to mention. But with that aside, this was a very informative piece and sends a message to everyone about drug abuse and recovery.



They focus on his troubled past and his current life and family. After a life of hardships Eminem (Marshall Mathers) suffered drug addiction and has since sobered up and revived his career as a musician. Some very nice techniques that 60 Minutes approached with, were taking camera crews and a host to the troubled neighborhoods of Detroit, for an interview with Eminem. They intended on bringing the audience closer to the artist on almost a personal level, so that they may sympathize for him even if the viewer may not be a fan of the rapper, or even previously being opposed to him.


           
         
          
            NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC: 2012 COUNTDOWN

        
This TV documentary aired not too long ago in December 2010. It focuses into the prophecies of the ancient Maya civilizations and their predictions that the world will come to an end on December 21, 2012. After watching this doc I learned that the ancient Mayans were very superstitious and went as far as to sacrifice members of their tribes to the gods, offering the hearts of the deceased in return for mercy. But one can almost think that maybe they over-sacrificed themselves, causing a decay in their population which ultimately lead them to falling off the face of the earth. In my opinion this is just another Y2K type of scare that has caused hysteria in the world.

This doc had some very nice visuals and special effects, however it also made me scratch my head. There is a scene where they are trying to predict New York City on December 21st of 2012, they show the city burning while tourists and locals run for their lives, they are all dressed in summer attire and there is absolutely no snow! Didn't seem like December to me, especially for New York..

Overall there is some very interesting information in this documentary about climate change and cultural traditions. It made me want to read more on the Maya mysteries and history.

This Wikipedia link has updated information on Mayan art, urban design and much more that I found to be very interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mayans