Saturday, April 13, 2013

Can't Miss TV

In fact, I don't watch a lot of TV, but I do stream a lot of documentaries. Some of the documentaries are for research on a particular project, but sometimes I watch just to spark creativity, get those juices flowing (not THOSE juices, idea juices).

 Every so often I'll come across a documentary that really stay with me. That stays in my mind, keeps me thinking, wondering. Even...haunts me.

Here's a couple of them.

If a Tree Falls - I was considering subplots for Winter Kill and I got the idea of eco-terrorists. By the time I finished watching the documentary I was on the side of the eco-terrorists, but maybe that will make for a more interesting and nuanced book.

The Imposter - This was absolutely riveting -- and rather chilling. Stranger on the Shore revolves around a missing child, and I thought this might be useful. And it was very much so -- especially in helping to understand how grieving loved ones can convince themselves of anything. Even when all the evidence points in another direction.




Dreams of a Life - This doesn't tie into anything I'm writing, but wow. Fascinating character study. Depressing too, to be honest. But more fascinating than depressing.

The Weather Underground - This one was for background on Fair Play, the sequel to Fair Game. I'm trying to put the proposal together for Carina Press this month, and it turns out that watching documentaries is easier than writing a synopsis.

You can actually watch The Weather Underground documentary for free right here.

What about you? Watch any good documentaries lately?

27 comments:

  1. I watched The Cove not long ago, good documentary but difficult to watch, it's about dophins slaughter in Japan. I was impressed with the perseverance of the team filming there and how they managed to be very creative with the equipment used and how to place it properly, etc. It was almost like an action (mission impossible) movie at times.

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    1. I can imagine that one would be difficult to watch, KC.

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  2. I've been enjoying 'The Men who built America' on the History Channel UK and also a couple of old favourites on DVD Ken Burns' 'The American Civil War' and the absolutely incomparable 'The World at War'.

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    1. I watched Ken Burns' Civil War last year. Very well done. I'm waiting to see his Prohibition and Dust Bowl docs (they're in my Netflix queue).

      I vividly remember seeing The World at War as a kid.

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    2. I watched Ken Burns' Civil War last year. Very well done. I'm waiting to see his Prohibition and Dust Bowl docs (they're in my Netflix queue).

      I vividly remember seeing The World at War as a kid.

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  3. Sounds like 'If a tree falls is a pretty effective piece of film-making if you went in looking for terrorists and were converted to the cause! People who are on the side of the planet tend to be the good guys in my experience - eco-warriors rather than terrorists.

    Rather than recommend a full-length documentary to you instead I offer a young Ian McKellan discussing how he approaches 'Tomorrow and tomorrow' - lovely stuff and it won't take you away from your synopsis writing for too long. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGbZCgHQ9m8

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    1. I absolutely adore Ian McKellan! oh why wasn't he my literature professor when we were studying Shakespearean drama... *sigh*

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  4. The CENTRAL PARK FIVE should be required viewing by all Americans, IMO. We must never forget the injustice brought upon these five young boys by the mob mentality we call the American public as well as a press hungry to sell papers, broadcast media's greed, and a dysfunctional police department willing to sacrifice children in order to keep their jobs, rather than seeking the truth.

    It's to be shown on PBS this week (tonight, I think), but I rented it from that web site with which we have a love/hate relationship - Amazon.

    Have we learned anything? I wonder.

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    1. I saw an ad for that the other night. Yes, I want to see it.

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    2. OT, but I think you should file a complaint with the Pulitzer Committee. They forgot to include you on the list again.

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    3. BASTARDS.

      I wonder if they have the wrong email address?

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  5. I just recently watched Playing Shakespeare. It was made in the 80s with John Barton and a bunch of (then) RSC actors. People like McKellan, Patrick Stewart, Ben Kingsley, and a bunch of other REALLY talented people. It gets a little nitty gritty sometimes but the analysis they do on Shakespeare and the performances themselves are A-mazing.

    I wasn't really into docs until I got a Netflix account. Now I am addicted. "Show Business: The Road to Broadway" was really interesting. It followed 4 shows on their "path to Broadway".

    This is a pet thing of mine but "Dinosaurs Decoded" was REALLY interesting to me; it's all about how new theories about dinosaur babies and growth rates might mean 1/3 of all the dinosaur species catalogued are actually the same.

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    1. Now that's interesting! And sort of funny when you think about it. but then look at the mistakes made in the early years of fossil hunting.

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    2. Playing Shakespeare & Dinosaurs Decoded sound really tantalizing. Thanks for the tips.

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  6. I've been watching a documentary series about 1930's duststorms in US, 'The Dust Bowl'. It's been really humbling experiense. Makes you appreciate even the really small things you have in your everyday life, like the piece off bread you take for granted.
    It is really beautifully made documetary, especially the interviews off the people who were children during the 30's.

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    1. That's the Ken Burns documentary? I want to see that -- although I imagine it will be depressing as well as inspiring.

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    2. This is the story of what happened to one of the families who migrated. The photo of their mother and this woman's siblings is the iconic photo of that period.

      The title of the article "Girl from iconic photo 'we were ashamed.'"

      My paternal grandfather lost his farm. My maternal lost everything except the family's new house and 10 acres. He had put that property in grandmother's name when it was built in 1926.

      My generation and yours truly do not realize how blessed we are.

      http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/12/02/dustbowl.photo/index.html

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    3. I know. I have to remind myself of that all the time. Like this week when I'm feeling like I'm going to have a breakdown over computer problems.

      REALLY?

      A breakdown?

      :-D

      I would hate to think how long I would last faced with real trouble.

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    4. One of the women I most admire in my life was my paternal grandmother. She reared six children during the days of the Depression. She suffered the loss of her home, the interruption of the education of her children, illness. But she never gave up. She gardened and sold extra vegetables and fruits, jams and jellies to local grocers. Yet, she was always smiling. A very social woman who loved to be surrounded by friends and family.

      But one day, as we were talking, I stupidly asked her, "Mama, do you miss the days of long ago, when times were perhaps slower, less hectic than today?" She replied immediately, "Not one bit! I just wish I had that microwave oven when I was raisin' those six children!"

      She lived to within three days of her 106th birthday. Can you imagine a lifetime that began in 1896 and ended in 2002?

      What a woman! I cannot come as close as one quarter of the woman she was.

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    5. I guess we're spoiled. Or maybe it's not spoiled so much as we're used to living in the (comparatively) safe, comfortable world our forefathers carved out for us. Each generation faces its own challenges -- which somehow translates into reinventing the wheel.

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  7. One of my all time favorite documentary is Victory at Sea. The music alone is worth the price of admission. I remember watching the series with my Dad, who was a veteran of WWII, on a black & white TV. As an underage US Marine who lied about his age to get in, my Dad fought on Okinawa and my uncle on Iwo Jima.I think one of my favorite episodes was Battle for Leyte Gulf where a very small force of tincan destroyers attacked and turned back the mighty battleship Yamato. I guess that was the start of my love of history.

    Terri

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    1. I remember Victory at Sea. In fact, I seem to recall my dad having an LP with the music from Victory at Sea. :-)

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  8. "Orgasm, Inc" is a documentary that has really stuck with me. It's about the drug companies competing to be the first to bring a female sex drug or device to market- a female Viagra. The behind-the-scenes look at how these things are developed and the process for FDA approval was fascinating.

    "Under Our Skin" was another fascinating medical documentary, this time about Lyme disease. It has a definite slant, but again, the insider look at the politics of medicine in the US was eye opening. And I learned a lot about the bacteria that causes Lyme that I didn't know.

    On the other end of the documentary spectrum, I watched "Gotta Dance" a few weeks ago, and it was absolutely adorable. It's about the first season of an NBA senior citizens' hip hop dance team. So fun and inspiring!

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    1. Wow. I've been watching a lot of docs on health and wellness lately, and one thing that seems clear to me is that the more you can do on your own through diet and exercise and mindful living, the better off you will be.

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  9. I don't have a TV, but spend quite a few evenings in hotels, and the last time I watched a fascinating documentary about digging up Richard 111's skeleton from a car park in Leicester...and he had severe scoliosis, so maybe Shakespeare got it right! I then watched one about a group of avionics experts who crashed an air liner in the desert deliberately and looked at what happened to the crash test dummies and the interior of the plane when it hit ...the air crew would have been toast! Enough to put you off flying for life!

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    1. I saw that (King Richard) on the news not too long ago. Fascinating. I do think poor King R. got unreasonably bad press.

      I love flying, but taking off and landing (landing in particular) is always the tricky part. :-)

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