Mr. Death

Mr. Death Unofficial PosterErrol Morris is a gifted filmmaker who carefully constructs his stories in a deliberate and highly-entertaining fashion. Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. tells the story of the man who began by designing and repairing electric chairs and then moved into researching the use of poison gas in WWII Nazi concentration camps, which resulted in his downfall. It’s a fascinating story of how pride and vanity can take people into directions that you could not predict. As with all of Morris’ work it tells both the story and provides insight into the way that we construct reality and truth. The critical thing in any documentary or research is in asking the proper questions. Morris asked the right questions to tell the story and Leuchter did not in his illegal research which has been used to deny that the Holocaust occurred. It’s one of the best documentaries that I’ve seen in how it constructs the story and deals with so many issues and potential pitfalls in the story. Morris and his way of constructing a film is a source of inspiration for me and he’s influenced the way I see filmmaking because presentation and re-presentation of reality is much more complicated than it seems.

March 26, 2004 , , , , , ,

Standing in the Shadows of Motown

Standing in the Shadows of Motown PosterI’ve been lucky enough to work on documentaries that gave me a chance to meet and learn about amazing people and stories that I would never have known about. When you work on a documentary you have a chance to preserve the story and lives of people and that’s what makes working on documentaries so wonderful and difficult. I finally was able to see the film Standing in the Shadows of Motown on the weekend. The documentary tells the story of the Funk Brothers, who were the heart and soul that made the Motown sound what it was. I’ve always loved Motown songs and heard many of them on Danny Finkleman’s CBC Radio show Finkleman’s 45s, but I never thought about how the Motown sound originated. The most obvious answer is that it came from the session musicans who played on all of the songs. They are an amazing group of incredibly talented musicians who never received proper credit or appreciation of what they accomplished. What’s amazing to watch is a band reassembled after many years and it seems as if they never took a break from playing. The film features a perfect blend between interviews, recreations and performances by the Funk Brothers with a near-perfect structure that kept me entertained and left me content. One of the great music documentaries.

March 22, 2004 , , , , , , ,

No Maps For These Territories

One of the challenges with independent films is seeing them if you don’t go to a lot of film festivals or have some of the premium cable channels. A few months ago I found the site for Mark Neale‘s 2001 documentary about William Gibson, No Maps For These Territories. The DVD was available through the site, but I didn’t get around to ordering it. But now the DVD is released more broadly by Docurama and I was able to rent it and just watched it. It’s a fascinating documentary that is built around a series of interviews with Gibson in the back seat of a limosine. Gibson is a fascinating writer who thinks and writes clearly about the technology that surrounds us. (I’m slowly working my way backwards through Gibson’s novels after I read Pattern Recognition and now I’m reading All Tomorrow’s Parties.) The film plays around with the image in post and features a great soundtrack and lovely digital images. It’s a great blending of the subject and the ideas of Gibson in a great documentary. I haven’t had the time to explore the extra features of the DVD yet, but I’m going to buy it and explore away. The site for the film also has lots of information and clips about the film. The world of documentary is becoming much more exciting with people pushing the limits of the form and exploring new ways of making documentaries.

January 1, 2004 , , , , ,

A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Movies

I just finished watching “A Personal Journey With Martin Scorsese Through American Movies” which was codirected by Scorsese and Michael Henry Wilson. In one of those odd coincidences I was looking through DVDs at a store and found this one by accident. I’d heard about the film and seen the book and always wanted to see it, but never spent a lot of time looking for it. When I saw it in front of me I had to get it and I’m very glad that I did.
While it is a 3 part series that is over 3 1/2 hours, but it seemed to zoom by. Scorsese talks about his deep love for movies and the movies that influenced him. What is great about it is that he does touch on some of the classics, but what is most interesting are the more obscure films and directors. What I realize as I see more films is that there is an amazing body of work out there that doesn’t get seen very often. Many times the most interesting work is happening in the margins or in the corner of a bigger film. The documentary alos has interviews with directors about their films and filmmaking. It is the beginning of another list of films and directors for me to explore. Scorsese is one of the great directors and is able to translate his deep love of movies very well to the screen in this documentary as well as in every film that he makes.

November 8, 2003 , , , ,

Comedian

I watched the documentary “Comedian” last night. It’s about Jerry Seinfeld putting together a new act. It’s a fascinating glimpse into the creative process. I’ve always liked Seinfeld’s standup and I’ve watched “Seinfeld” for years and still catch episodes almost every day. The documentary was directed by Christian Charles, who seems to be a first-time director (at least according to IMDb) who also shot the film with Gary Streiner (who was Producer) and Mark Plumber. A great soundtrack links the film together and it features a smooth editing style (by Chris Franklin) that weaves together Seinfeld building a new act with up-and-coming comedian Orny Adams.

It’s a rare look at how comedians are like musicians, practicing and honing jokes until they work and then expanding their set with more and more solid material. Seinfeld thinks a lot about this stuff and it’s interesting how he put himself through the way it used to be to assure himself that he still “has it.”

Carolyn summed it up in an odd way in that the film is kind of like “Heart of Darkness” with Bill Cosby as Kurtz… maybe it could be called “Heart of Lightness”…

May 14, 2003 , , , , , , , , ,

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