Ride the Divide has great scenery, interesting people, injuries, struggles and riding along the Great Divide Mountain Bike Route that goes from Banff, Canada to the Mexican border! While I am familiar with some of the long distance hiking trails in the US I had no idea this route existed and it was fascinating to get a (tiny) glimpse into what the riders experience.
Rating: 4 of 5 (maybe a bit less if you are not a bicycle fan…)
First Watch Date: December 2011
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Forks over Knives (official website), directed by Lee Fulkerson, is a rather long documentary with the singular message that plant based diets are better than meat based diets (it may be slightly more subtle than that, but I think that is a pretty fair summary).
I watched the film days after seeing Tabloid and could not help but think about the contrasts between the two. In Tabloid Errol Morris largely leaves it to the audience to interpret the information. In Forks over Knives the conclusions are drawn for you and reinforced with seemingly endless information from people who are completely convinced they are right (a huge tangent but, especially if you are a runner, this post is (for me) related).
The important problem with Forks and Knives is that it lacks a credible attempt to present another interpretation of the data – ultimately I think that watching the film needs to be accompanied by reading (or at least skimming) “Forks Over Knives”: Is the Science Legit? (A Review and Critique) to get a counterpoint.
Rating: 2 of 5 (maybe just read “Forks Over Knives”: Is the Science Legit? (A Review and Critique) instead)
First Watch Date: December 2011
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Tabloid – by Errol Morris – is the story of Joyce McKinney. McKinney was involved in a widely publicized case/scandal/incident in England in the late 1970s sometimes given the colorful name ‘The Case of the Manacled Mormon’. I had no knowledge of the events prior to the film – which might have added to the fun as interviews, old TV footage and old news articles gradually reveal more about the events and characters. The real attraction of the film is the absurdity of both the events, the coverage and the people involved – at the beginning Joyce McKinney seems slightly eccentric but quite believable, by the end of the film – well I don’t really know…
Rating: 4 of 5
First Watch Date: December 2011
The reason that I picked up Tabloid is because of Morris’s earlier documentary The Thin Blue Line. The Thin Blue Line is a much more serious and thought provoking documentary about, in part, the murder of a Dallas police officer. The Thin Blue Line is an absolute must watch. (If you are a music fan -> score by Philip Glass.)
Rating: 5 of 5
First Watch Date: later 2000s
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Jig follows a number of dancers leading up to their participation in the 40th Irish Dancing World Championships (2010). This film is a friendly, short and entertaining glimpse into a world that I did not know even existed – great fun. Simple, good!
Rating: 4 of 5
First Watch Date: December 2011
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180° South: Conquerors of the Useless (official site) direct by Chris Malloy follows the journey of Jeff Johnson from Ventura, California to the Corcovado Volcano in Patagonia. The film has some amazing footage of Patagonia and interesting people (including Yvon Chouinard and Douglas Tompkins) – but, somehow, it didn’t hold my interest… Too little about the actual adventure? Too easy/shallow of a dive into the environmental/conservation issues that were raised? I am not exactly sure – but somehow I just did not connect with this film even with all of the potentially great elements.
Rating: 3 of 5
First Watch Date: December 2011
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I have no idea when I first heard a Tribe Called Quest (official site) – but it was the early 2000s before I really ‘found’ them and started listening. I would not call myself a devotee – casual fan is probably the best description – but even as a casual fan I was excited when I came across a documentary about the group produced by Michael Rapaport. Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest combines early footage, interviews with the Tribe and a huge number of artists to give a brief history of the group, a glimpse into the time/scene/place that they occupied and some insight into their personal challenges and the struggles within the group.
There were times when the film seemed a little slow to me – but overall there was so much great material that was new and interesting (for me anyway) that it really didn’t matter…
Rating: 4 of 5
First Watch Date: December 2011
Official Website – Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels of a Tribe Called Quest
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Running the Sahara – directed by James Moll – follows three athletes as they run across the Sahara Desert. They run (and sometimes walk) thru Senegal, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Libya and Egypt. The film does a great job of showing some of the amazing landscapes that they cross – with small glimpses of the people and cultures that they encounter. The scenes in the vast sands of the Ténéré were fantastic! The film also gives you some insight the incredibly tough physical, political and emotional challenges the expedition faced.
Rating: 4 of 5
First Watch Date: July 2011
H2O Africa Foundation – the film talks briefly about water in Africa and the H2O Africa Foundation who works to create clean water well and enhance lives and communities in Africa.
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Bicycle Dreams by director Stephen Auerbach covers the 2005 Race Across America. After reading Hell on Two Wheels I could not turn down the chance to watch footage from RAAM! There are some great moments in this film – short snippets of riders answering questions from their bike, shots of the American landscape, interesting information from the crews and various painful shots of sleep deprived riders suffering. But, for me, the film lacked any compelling narrative, the music was heavy handed and some on the interviews were unnecessary. This is a must-watch if you are fascinated by RAAM – but if you want a first glimpse into RAAM reading Hell on Two Wheels is a better way to go.
Rating: 2 of 5
First Watch Date: July 2011
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Andrei Tarkovsky‘s Solaris is certainly a science fiction classic – not a blockbuster action film, or filled with the stunning visuals that you might expect in a post-Matrix world, but still captivating. I have not read Stanisław Lem‘s novel – but one thing that comes across in the movie was the failure of the characters to understand the alien planet/being Solaris. A deeply foreign setting with difficult (?impossible) to understand situations and relationships.
Last Train Home is a documentary that follows the Zhang family’s life in China over several years – life in the country side, work in the garment industry in Guangzhou and their travels home for the Chinese New Year during the world’s largest human migration. It is always a joy and a privilege to get a glimpse into foreign places and people. Having never having journeyed to China this film is absolutely fascinating to watch. For me, some of the locations in Last Train Home were deeply foreign – but the emotions of the characters were painfully familiar: aging, sacrifice, teenage rebellion, struggle, love, conflict… A deeply foreign setting with very familiar situations and relationships.
Solaris reminds me of the unfulfilled science fiction visions of my childhood – interstellar travel to a colony around an alien planet – Last Train Home reminded me of the adult reality that no matter how deeply we travel into foreign settings our problems are likely to always remain the same.
Solaris
Rating: 4 of 5 (but expect introspection over action…)
First Watch Date: August 2011
Last Train Home
Rating: 4 of 5
First Watch Date: August 2011
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The Cave of Forgotten Dreams – directed by Werner Herzog – takes you inside the Chauvet-Pont-d’Arc Cave in southern France to view the amazing cave paintings. There is plenty of narrative, several interviews and some explanation/context – but the magic is in the truly stunning images, so powerful that the context and explanation are not really needed.
After seeing this in 3D it is hard to imagine watching it in 2D – the paintings are so integrated with the shapes of the cave that the 3D is crucial to experiencing them – it is definitely worth the effort to find a way to see this in 3D.
Rating: 5 of 5
First Watch Date: May 2011
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