| DVD Roundup August 2006
Docurama Film Festival I
 For a few days at the end of January,
the center of the movie universe is Park City, Utah, home of the Sundance Film Festival.
Sundance is America's foremost film festival, drawing movie stars and movie press to the
mountains of Utah in the dead of winter for something other than skiing -- quite a feat.
There are literally hundreds of film festivals held in the
US every year, each providing opportunities to see films with limited or no theater
distribution. This is the main appeal of attending a film festival: access to films not
shown at 20-screen megaplexes. It is also the appeal of Docurama's Film Festival I, which
culls ten new releases into a single package. Not only will you not have to fight crowds
to attend this DVD-only film festival, you can watch the movies on your schedule -- and in
your bathrobe if you choose. Try that at Sundance.
There are a few other things that set the Docurama Film
Festival I apart. First, it's a documentary film festival. No Tom Cruise or
Angelina Jolie crashing cars or chasing evildoers. Second, Docurama has created a website,
www.docuramafilmfestival.com,
where "attendees" can find out more about each film and discuss them all with
others. Since its founding in 1999, Docurama has released over 150 documentaries on DVD.
This is a company that knows non-fiction film, something that shows in the movies
that constitute the Film Festival I.
A documentary lover, I chose to view seven of the ten
titles. In terms of quality, the movies spanned the narrow range from good to excellent.
Some themes quickly emerged: the way society's larger problems manifest themselves in
people's everyday lives, the social effects of poverty, the importance of good parenting,
the complexities of rehabilitating criminals, the connection between where we live and how
we live. Well-made documentaries are windows into lives and circumstances that otherwise
pass us by. The movies of the Docurama Film Festival I force you to notice, and stay with
you after they have ended.
Tod Lending's Omar & Pete (***1/2) follows two
career criminals after their parole from prison. One wants to be part of society and
begins preparing himself for this even before his release, and the other wants to
"live life." If you read the notes on the DVD's case, you discover that only one
succeeds on the outside. Which one?
Alan and Susan Raymond's Doing Time: Life Inside the Big
House (***) discusses the issue of rehabilitation behind bars, presenting a brutally
honest look inside Lewisburg Prison, where Al Capone and Jimmy Hoffa were incarcerated.
The Raymonds also made The Police Tapes (***), which documents three months in the
working life of South Bronx police officers, who balance police work with social work.
Such exposés are common on cable TV nowadays, but in 1976 and 1991, when The Police
Tapes and Doing Time were made, they were not. Both are gritty movies made in
an up-front, cinéma vérité style.
Roger Weisberg's Aging Out (***1/2) shows the
struggles of three young adults who are forced to leave the foster-care system because
they "aged out" -- reached young adulthood. As with Omar & Pete, you
wonder which will be able to make lives for themselves. The answer is both surprising and
very sad. This is an affecting movie that will make you have all the more sympathy for
children without loving, attentive parents.
Patrice O'Neill's The Fire Next Time (***1/2)
documents the conflicting views of the people who live in scenic Kalispell, Montana on
many issues, including environmentalism, rapid growth, ethnicity, intolerance, and
mistrust of government. The fierce independence of some citizens clashes with the desire
of others to build a community that respects the natural world and diversity of opinion.
The incendiary comments of a local right-wing radio personality don't help matters.
The Wobblies (***) is a video history lesson on the
beginnings of the IWW and labor unions -- a class war that became an actual war. It also
shows how the techniques of documentary filmmaking have evolved since Stewart Bird and
Deborah Shaffer made it in 1979. It's less narrative than similar documentaries you'll see
on the History Channel or PBS.
The best of the films I chose was the second by Tod
Lending, who directed Omar & Pete. Legacy (****) is an honest,
big-hearted look at a family stuck the worst kind of inner-city life. They cling to small
visions of hope and find their way out of extreme poverty and public housing over a
five-year period, but not without tragedy along the way. The empathy you'll feel for the
characters -- especially Nickcole, who matures before our eyes -- makes the extra feature
updating us on the family all the more welcome.
I have made a point of mentioning each director because it
takes original vision to make documentaries this good, especially in these days of
throwaway reality TV. These films are not mere retellings of factual information. They are
blueprints for how to tell complex stories well, and they are artistic statements too.
Along with each DVD comes a 25-page catalog of Docurama DVD
releases. It is packed with interesting films -- don't look it over while opening credits
are running because you'll have to restart the movie. I would have a very difficult time
choosing fewer than a dozen Docurama films for my own documentary film festival, and there
are many more that I'd love to see.
I enjoyed my Docurama Film Festival I experience, watching
well-made documentaries in the twilight of hot summer evenings -- bathrobe optional. Film
Festival II commences on September 26.
...Marc Mickelson
marc@hometheatersound.com |
