Exit through the Gift Shop

Doc: EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP

Filmmaker: Banksy  (Click to Learn more about this flash Street Artist )

Reviewer: Becky Beamer

Man o Man > I’m out of blogging practice. I’ve been so caught up in moving from DC to Dunedin,NZ that I haven’t had a chance to write about all of my documentary viewing. And, I have been busy starting up another blog (shameless plug) http://nzexpat.wordpress.com/.

But, I was snapped back into reality because Dunedin’s annual Film Festival just so happens to be July
Curious? Need to know more ? Check it out:  http://www.nzff.co.nz/n4339,209,region=3.html

As far as Exit through the Gift Shop, I thought it was very entertaining. I missed it at the E Street theater in D.C so I was psyched to cath it in Dunedin.

The trailer doesn’t do this film justice.

The first 30-40 minutes was awesome.  I won’t ruin the surprise but there was a nice twist to the film followed by a series of hilarious interviews from Banksy.  If you are a fan of street art you will not be disappointed.  I was not impressed by the shooting of placing the pieces in their environment – seen it BUT I was impressed with the artist’ studios and moments of true bonding between the characters.   I also appreciated the cameo by street artist – Swoon – who I love (and went to school with).

The audience was beyond receptive – laughing out-loud and (Shout out to Jane and Anya) who I continued to discuss the film with into the next afternoon.

My biggest criticism – I wanted to see Banksy’s face already! Not even a peek in the credits? Come on Banksy!

Also, not to harp on negativity but, if I was wearing a watch I would have looked down at my watch starting about an hour into the film. Once distracted, I also felt shiftiness in my legs as my butt started falling asleep. Other than the seats – I thought about the venue (see pic below). It was so fantastic I kept thinking “what a gem – I love watching movies here”.

4 out of 5 Cheers.

b.b

Spellbound – FILM REVIEW – on DVD

FILM: Spellbound

FILMMAKER: Jeffrey Blitz

REVIEWER: Katy Jones

I’ve started doing this new thing where we I get a coupon for Borders I go and buy a doc on DVD for my parents so they can get some sense of what it is I’m hoping to do for a living.

First up – Spellbound.  This Jeffrey Blitz movie is one I actually saw in the theatre when it was released in theaters in 2002.  It’s about middle school kids competing in the National Spelling Bee, and if you’ve never seen it, you should.  It’s not going to change your life, but it will make you appreciate it more.

Why would someone make a movie about a spelling bee?  Well,  for the same reason that I love sports documentaries even though I don’t really watch sports – when there’s something at stake, a competition that people care about – it brings what’s awesome about human nature.  And the characters in this movie are so well cast.  Remember how awkward and ungainly you were at 13?  Yeah, well, so are they – and everything is a really BIG DEAL. And they care a lot.  And they work so hard, and they just can’t win – not all of them.

The look of the movie is a little jarring, I forgot how far cameras had come in the short space of time since this movie was made.  The camera work is generally very journalistic style, like it’s being shot for Dateline.   But that’s fine.  That allows you to see all the amazing faces, tears, braces, giggles, and oversized backpacks that this movie has to offer.

I really enjoyed Jeff Blitz’s talent for observation and casting.  He’s got two new movies – one about the American Lottery called Lucky.  Lucky is on HBO right NOW – go watch if you have HBO and tell me how it is!  And next up is a movie about DC Comics, which should be nerdy and awesome too.

The HBO website has a good interview with Jeffrey Blitz about casting for the “Lucky” film

The website for “Lucky” is super fun – you have to “win” $50 by clicking on falling money before you can get in.  Although once you do, it doesn’t have much to offer.

Did a little where are they now follow up on the kids featured in the doc.

Ashley White, probably my favorite character as she is a DC native – has graduated from Howard University despite numerous odds against her.  Go her!  She had an ABC News piece about her and what’s happened since.  And the Washington Post did a nice write up.

Angela Arenivar has her own blog, she’s hoping to be a writer.

Five out of Five Cheers.

Where have we been?

I know what you are thinking – WHERE have those girls been?  We haven’t been posting, we’ve been strangely silent.  Well, I’ll tell you what – we’ve been BUSY!!

We’re both on new jobs – Becky’s moved out of the country for hers, Katy’s traveling often for hers.  But even though our free time is ever-dwindling, we love doing the blog and we’d like to keep it up!  So we’ve had some brainstorming sessions on ideas on how to continue and make all of these changes result in an even more awesome blog. holla!

One way is – post shorter! Just get it up there already!

Another option is to get in some really awesome guest bloggers to join the team!

And we’ve decided to start skyping our weekly meetings – which may find their way into a post or two…you never know!

So look forward to some fun changes while we evolve – and thanks so much for continuing to read!

Silverdocs is NEXT WEEK ….. hollllllla

The D.C area’s best documentary Film Festival and arguably one of the most anticipated events of the year invades Silver Spring next week.

Everyone should take advantage of the access to the hippest – hottest and hard to find docs.  Check out the long – the short and the conferences.

And, as if that wasn’t exciting enough, Doc & a Drink will be giving the weekly play by play as official bloggers of the festival.

Bookmark these blogs for the inside scoop:

http://silverdocs.wordpress.com/

http://www.docandadrink.com/

Inside Scoop of the Week: Many of the evening shows are selling out. Buy your tickets today online!

Highlighted Doc of the Week: MEN WHO SWIM

I’m really looking forward to a doc that features Men Synchronize Swimming.  To learn more check out my blog for SilverDocs.

Cheers and Beers — becky

Tags: entertainment, friends, documentary, Movie Review, Fun, To see, Becky Beamer, Documentary Event, Documentary review, NEWS, Washington D.C, Silverdocs

My Apologies to the First Person Narration….

Hello readers, I have an apology to make.

I have mentioned in several blogs how generally off-putting I find first person narration in a documentary, particularly when the narrator is the filmmaker.  I believe that I was in error.   Particularly after watching the vastly compelling Dear Zachary, which is narrated in first person, I feel that I must grovel a bit and apologize to first person narration.

Lately, I have been forced to admit that several of the films I most loved since starting this blog involve first person narration.   I enjoyed Kurt and Courtney, which was entirely narrated by filmmaker Nick Broomfield.  Bigger, Stronger, Faster gets you to care about steroids due to the personal story of the filmmaker.  And while Living Downstream wasn’t narrated by the filmmaker, it was narrated by the author on whom the film was based – and I loved it.

But the most poignant and touching use of first person narration is definitely Dear Zachary.  I don’t think I can properly explain to those who have not seen this movie how effective it is.  The personal voice of the filmmaker lets you experience the unfolding of tragedy along with him, and leads you to care about the characters in such a personal way that at the end of the film you feel as if it has happened to you.  It was an extremely effective way to frame the story, and I don’t think a third person narrator would have done the same job.

So I feel that I need to make an apology to first person narration.  I am sorry that I doubted your usefulness.  I was being an idiot. Early in my documentary career I was exposed to films that used you poorly and that wasn’t your fault.

My eyes have been opened. You are a useful dramatic and structural tool in a documentary filmmaking arsenal.  I look forward to seeing you used by talented filmmakers in the years to come.

Cheers,

–Katy J.

Tags: first person narration, Katy, Katy Jones

Doc News – Dear Zachary

Many of you have read Becky’s review of “Dear Zachary” from a few months ago.  (We obsessively check our stats – we can tell you’ve been reading!)

If you haven’t seen the film yet, you have a really cool opportunity to do so this weekend.

Dear Zachary will be playing at the Cinema Arts Theater in Fairfax this Saturday, June 5th at noon. It’s  your chance to see a phenomenal doc in a theater, and to meet the filmmaker Kurt Kuenne.

Tickets may be purchased here.

–Katy J.

Film Review – Kurt & Courtney

Warning – this is a total spoiler review –

Just hooked up Netflix streaming to the TV – and went crazy all Memorial Day weekend with all the cool stuff I could watch instantly.

One of the docs you too can watch instantly is “Kurt and Courtney.”  Like most teen angsters in the 90s, I was (am) a Nirvana fan.  So I’m curious about the subject. I was also curious about the filmmaker, Nick Broomfield who is repeatedly quoted in every book on documentary film that I own.  (If you know me, you know I’ve got at least more than one book on documentary film.) So I was as curious about him as I was about “Kurt and Courtney.”

This film is kind of a sucker punch.  It really got a reaction out of me.  Nick Broomfeld does a first person narration through the whole film – I believe I may have mentioned how much I generally hate first person narrators.  He’s driving around telling us about who he wants to interview, where we are, what we’ve learned about Kurt Cobain…yammer, yammer, yammer.  And the people he’s interviewing generally seem a bit off their rocker.  As you meet more people from Cobain’s life -  the more you think, “Wow. He was surrounded by nuts.”  (Except his sweet Aunt Mary, you really kind of wish you had a sweet Aunt Mary).

So I spent the first half of the film kind of hating it.  I was really mad at Nick Broomfield for making me watch a film that goes nowhere.  I wasn’t learning anything I didn’t already know about Kurt Cobain – everytime things got interesting, Nick Broomfield would say something like, “Well, I would have interviewed this guy…but Courtney Love stopped me,” or “I would have played a song, but Courtney Love gave me injunction,” “I would have flown here, but Courtney Love scared away my funders.” And then, “I would have interviewed so and so…but Courtney Love threatened her with death.” What?

So halfway in – this movie takes a turn, and you get where fearless leader Nick’s been taking you. Courtney Love really pissed off Nick Broomfield during the making of this film. So since she won’t let him make a film about Kurt (& Courtney) – he makes a film about Nick & Courtney, making sure the audience knows every way she gets in the way of his freedom of speech.  He includes every conceivable way she may have hurt people in the past. And includes recordings where she threatened music journalists with death if they wrote bad stuff about her, and scared one so bad she left town.

At the end of the film she is the invited speaker at the ACLU – the celebrated litigators of freedom of speech. Nick Broomfield puts it to the test – and after her speech HE GETS UP ON STAGE and questions the ACLU for having someone he feels is antithetic to freedom of speech as the guest speaker.  The irony of his being escorted from the stage for freely expressing his opinion at an ACLU meeting – is frankly beyond awe-inspiring. And strangely, I kind of loved this film.

I didn’t learn anything much new about Kurt and Courtney.  But I do know that I will never ever cock-block Nick Broomfield.  And he may be the most punk filmmaker I have ever seen.

–3 out of 5 cheers

–Katy J.

Doc News > Oprah’s Changing the Game

So, it looks like Oprah is expanding her brand to include a “documentary club”.  It’s like a book club but, for documentaries.  Hopefully, this will bring some well deserved notoriety to documentary filmmakers around the world.  After all – Oprah always “goes big”.  Maybe Doc & a Drink should start a campaign to be advisors for the club?!  What do you think?

HERE AT THE DETAILS:

At the 2010 Sundance Festival, ro*co and OWN announced their first acquisition for the “Doc Club” , Family Affair:

• “At 10 years old, Chico Colvard shot his older sister in the leg. This seemingly random act detonated a chain reaction that exposed unspeakable realities and shattered his family. Thirty years later, Colvard ruptures veils of secrecy and silence again. As he bravely visits his relatives, what unfolds is a personal film that’s as uncompromising, raw, and cathartic as any in the history of the medium.”

Articles:

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i68e64a3cf2727350e3d94aa8cfd16443

http://oprah.about.com/b/2009/12/10/oprahs-own-film-documentary-club.htm

- becky beamer

Tags: Becky Beamer, documentary, DOcumentary CLub, Family Affair, NEWS, Oprah

NEWS ::: ‘Crude’ brings to light Doc Rights

This is a very important issue for all documentarians and journalist alike.  Katy and I sat down to watch ‘Crude’ after we noticed the court case and freedom of speech/press issue associated with this doc.  Instead of my typical rant about falling asleep while I watched the film,  I want to rant about supporting a cause…. I urge everyone to get educated about this case and involved in supporting ‘our’ rights.

#01 > Follow the ‘CRUDE BLOG’ :

http://www.crudethemovie.com/crude-blog/

AND Check out the issue > ARTICLES:

http://www.documentary.org/content/crude-filmmaker-gets-support-open-letter-film-community

‘Crude’ Filmmaker Gets Support, Open Letter From Film Community

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/abraham/detail??blogid=95&entry_id=63132

Chevron-Ecuador filmmaker of Crude ordered to turn over footage

http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/07/michael-moore-says-judges-ruling-could-have-chilling-effect-on-documentaries/?src=mv

Michael Moore Says Judge’s Ruling Could Have ‘Chilling Effect’ on Documentaries

http://www.crudethemovie.com/press-room/

Tags: Becky Beamer, crude, documentary, first amendment, freedom, NEWS

Joe Berlinger’s “Crude” – Film review

Film: Crude

Filmmaker: Joe Berlinger

Reviewed by: Katy Jones

Sunday, Becky and I finally got the chance to watch Joe Berlinger’s much-hyped film Crude. And dadgummit if it didn’t live up to the hype.   And thanks to Netflix streaming, you too can watch it immediately, and you should, you really really should.

Long ago, in the Ecuadorian rainforest, a young man gets a job working for the foreign oil company Texaco.  He witnesses countless atrocities, unsafe working conditions, toxic pollution, and abuses of power.  When he grows up, his church sponsors his education and sends him to law school.  He emerges with a mission.  To take Texaco to court and make them answer for the ruination of the rainforest in their pursuit for oil.

Crude follows three years in the life of that court battle.  In the rainforest itself, with evidence in the case coming forth from the ground beneath the judge’s feet.    The land is toxic, the water is poisoned, the children get cancer and die.  And there is nothing to do to stop it – except hit the oil companies where it hurts.

The complexity of this story – with it’s accompanying heart-break, humanity, and posturing-  is artfully portrayed in the Berlinger documentary.  In the initial few minutes, we see the Ecuadorian lawyer Pablo Fajardo traveling to the rain forest to meet with members of the Cofan tribe to ask what they would need for restitution, what course of action could help make the deaths of their families and their culture “right.”   As the story follows Pablo, the audience is guided by his American counterpart, American lawyer Steven Donziger who helps to coordinate the American legal element of the case – which has become even more complex once Texaco merged with Chevron.

Pablo is our hero who is “the David in this David and Goliath story.” But for story purposes, his American counterpart Steven Donziger is the English- speaking guide who shows us the work that is being done on Pablo’s behalf.  The structure works well – following these two major characters helps to braid the multiple sides of the story.  We meet the voices of the Chevron company who insist that the fault of the degradation is not theirs to bear.  We have a guide through the rainforests and politics of Ecuador.  And guides through the legalese and urban landscape of the United States.  We even get the chance to see it through Pablo’s eyes.  We also meet the individual voices out of 30,000 constituents in Ecuador who have lost their children, homes, and livelihood to the destruction of the rain forest in the quest for oil.

I have been thinking about the issues for days – do I live in a toxic culture?  Am I contributing to it?   Am I to blame?  Would the destruction have been less pervasive if Chevron had stopped the court battle and offered to help?  Is the company to blame?  Or the government?  How do you make these things “right”?

And that’s the best part of this documentary.  It’s a skillfully told story, with something truly at stake, that introduces you to a culture and problem you couldn’t have truly understood before.  I loved it.

Five out of five cheers

Katy Jones

More about the film

Crude’s Blog

Chevron’s Comments