Top 10 Favorite Documentaries, Part I
I'm doing this as a series because I have some more documentaries on the way from NetFlix.
Go here for Part II, Part III, Part IV, and Part V.
I watch a lot of them so here are my favorites (so far), in no particular order.
1. Enron: The Smartest Guys in The Room, 2005
Using a time-line format, the documentary shows the events leading up to the eventual collapse of Enron. It succeeds in being informative and presents some shocking material. Most shocking were the recorded phone calls made to power companies in California telling them to shut down the power. Then, we hear the phone calls from traders who are laughing and bragging about how much money they are going to make from the power outage. When a fire started underneath some power lines, one trader was recorded saying, "Burn, baby, burn!" Another truth-is-stranger-than-fiction element is that the CEO's of Enron videotaped themselves in Saturday Night Live-type skits, in which they joked about how unethical they were. I prefer a straight-forward approach in documentaries and this one used a lot of filler material. For instance, a money bag dropping on a table in slo-mo and a clip of a behavioral experiment. Those things weren't necessary, but I guess they needed them to stretch the film out. I give it 6/10 stars.
Congressional Hearing Product Placement?
2. Noam Chomsky: Rebel Without a Pause, 2003
Noam Chomsky is THE voice of political and social dissent. In 1993, U.S. Academic Journals of the Arts & Humanities made a list of Top 10 Cited Authorities. The list was Karl Marx, Lenin, William Shakespeare, Aristotle, The Bible, Plato, Freud, Noam Chomsky, Hegel, and Cicero. This is a documentary that's as straight-foward as one can get. It just shows Chomsky talking about things like the War on Terror, Iraq, mass media & control, fear (how it's used by the government), 9/11, and activism. If you want a rational and factual perspective on America than see this documentary. Conservatives dismiss Chomsky as Anti-American for speaking the truth, but as Chomsky says in the book Propaganda & The Public Mind, "it's all in the foot notes." He provides the material and encourages others to question his statements and to do the research themselves. 9/10 stars.
This is an anti-death penalty documentary and it presents a good case against it. It claims to show both sides of the issue, but it obviously leans toward one side. That's okay though. I already know the reasons FOR the death penalty: justice, revenge for brutal murders, and a deterrent on crime. At the beginning of the film, the focus is on a college student that investigated the case of a man on death-row for a journalism class. This girl was about 19 or 20-years old and she managed to find out (pretty easily) that the man was actually innocent. Since then, many students like herself have uncovered several other instances where an innocent man was put on death row. They were all later released, after having spent years, and sometimes decades, in prison. The main focus in on Illinois Republican Governor George Ryan. On January 11, 2003 he granted clemency for 156 death row inmates (they got life in prison instead). He struggled with the issue and allowed supporters from both sides of the arguments, as well as a neutral party, to share their views. Besides the moral arguments opposing it, the film points out the inaccuracies of the justice system, which can never be 100% fair and accurate. Mistakes are made on all levels from the witnesses, the police, the attorneys, and the judge. Can we afford to allow any mistakes when it comes to the death sentence? One of the most powerful factors in Ryan's decision probably came from the ex-death row inmates (later proved to be innocent) who marched to the Illinois capitol protesting the death penalty. Even more powerful were the brief speeches given by members of Murder Victims' Families for Reconciliation led by civil rights activist Mamie Till Mobley. Each person had at least one family member who was brutally murdered, but still opposed the death penalty. It's a very powerful documentary. 10/10 stars.
From a synopsis on Netflix: "Documentarian Marc Singer focuses his camera on a group of homeless people who live deep underground in an abandoned New York City railroad tunnel. By day, they scavenge for food on the mean streets of Manhattan. At night, they retreat to the tunnel, where they've built huts out of scrap metal, plastic and plywood. Amazingly, they have electricity, furniture, working kitchens and a sense of community many surface dwellers would envy." After hearing about a shanty town under an Amtrack railroad, Singer was curious about it and decided to visit. After making friends with the inhabitants they suggested he make a documentary about them. Singer moved into the tunnels and with borrowed equipment, donated film, and a dolly constructed from a shopping cart by his friend Henry, he set out to make a film. Singer was so passionate about it, he sold everything he owned, maxed out 10 credit cards and evenutally, ran out of money and became homeless. The other problem was he knew nothing about filmmaking. "Undaunted by his own lack of experience, Singer assembled a group of the tunnel homeless to be his camera loaders, sound recorders, electricians, and equipment manufacturers." ("Interview: Dark Days: The Ultimate Underground FIlm" from IndieWire.com) The documentary is shot in black & white and has a gritty look that is very fitting. When Amtrak evicts the residents, Singer gets help from New York's Coalition for the Homeless. It ends on a surprising note (I'm not gonna tell you, see it for yourself). Also see the special features on the DVD. 10/10 stars.
This was a good documentary in many aspects, from it's outline format to the subject material. The goal of the corporation, which is anti-democracy in nature, is to make money at any cost (people lives, the environment, illegal activities). Much of what is presented in the documentary is downright shocking. American corporations have the legal status of a "person" so the film makes a psychological diagnosis of this "person," in a witty but disturbing analysis. We see how corporations react to protestors in other countries (it's not pretty). We see how privatization of resources can hurt people. In Bolivia, Bechtel Corporation won a water supply contract and raised the prices so drastically that most people couldn't afford it. Not only was drinking water owned by Bechtel, but it was decided that they owned rain water too, so it was illegal to collect that. [Note: Riley P. Bechtel is the CEO of Bechtel. With a net worth of $3.2 billion, he is the 50th richest person in the U.S. and the 127th richest in the world. In February 2003, he was appointed by President George W. Bush to the Export Council, which advises the president on international trade issues.] There are lots of thought-provoking interviews with people such as Naomi Klein, Noam Chomsky, corporate spies, and more. Because of new laws, almost anything can be bought and sold, including our own DNA. Watch this and try not to have nightmares. 10/10 stars.
