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I recently watched the ESPN "Catching Hell" documentary of the Bartman incident. Always would laugh about that situation, but after watching that, I really, really feel bad for the guy.

I've seen quite a few 30 for 30s (just a guess, probably 20 to 25) and they're almost universally good, with a few genuinely great ones. The Jim Valvano one is incredible, the Bo Jackson documentary is great, and I enjoyed Requiem for the Big East (even if it was pretty obnoxious for ESPN to basically play a role in the creation of and the destruction of a conference and then make a doc about it). The only ones I've genuinely disliked were House of Steinbrenner (a nauseating Yankee strokefest), and The U. And even The U was mildly entertaining.

I recently (and finally) saw Helvetica and enjoyed it quite a bit. They do a pretty good job of balancing everything- pointing out both the strengths and the weaknesses of the typeface- and it also does a great job of showing just how much goes into design that most folks never think about.

Sarah Polley (who I was mainly familiar with as the child lead of the excellent The Sweet Hereafter) directed one of my favorite films of last year, a documentary called Stories We Tell. It combines interviews, narration, old snippets of home video, and reenactments to chronicle Polley's efforts to get to the truth of some key events of her departed mother's life. It toys around a lot with the idea of objective and subjective truth and the broad range of perspectives really drives home how dependent "truth" is on context, point of view, and memory. It's like if Rashomon were a family history.

Watched "A Band Called Death" and "20 Feet From Stardom" the other night. I loved nearly all of Death, the look, the sound, the story. The end is okay as is any where the have basically a tribute band playing the music.
20 Feet is a really great story as well. Damn, Darlene Love looks good for 70 something. Fantastic music.

I've been slowly making my way through The War this spring, and I coincidentally finished it Memorial Day weekend. The last 2 episodes were horrific and amazing. I didn't realize how intense 1944 was from D-Day onward - both in Europe and the Pacific. The loss of life was so much less than the Civil War, but so so much more than we'd tolerate today. It brought Memorial Day home like I'm not sure it ever has before for me.

Then the images from the concentration camps...I'm not sure I'd seen a lot of those before. I'm at a loss of words...

I finished that in the morning on Saturday and then attended my first gay wedding in the afternoon. Saturday was an emotional roller coaster for me.

Gashouse wrote:I've been slowly making my way through The War this spring, and I coincidentally finished it Memorial Day weekend. The last 2 episodes were horrific and amazing. I didn't realize how intense 1944 was from D-Day onward - both in Europe and the Pacific. The loss of life was so much less than the Civil War, but so so much more than we'd tolerate today. It brought Memorial Day home like I'm not sure it ever has before for me.

Then the images from the concentration camps...I'm not sure I'd seen a lot of those before. I'm at a loss of words...

I finished that in the morning on Saturday and then attended my first gay wedding in the afternoon. Saturday was an emotional roller coaster for me.

I'm currently working through the Ken Burns library. The War is next on my list.

I have been really skeptical of a lot of documentaries lately because everything seems so political, but I've always felt Ken Burns to be a safe bet. Hope I'm not wrong and I'm not being brainwashed by his slow zooms.

the ken burns baseball doc always seemed good but GD 18 hrs?

lukethedrifter wrote:Watched "A Band Called Death" and "20 Feet From Stardom" the other night. I loved nearly all of Death, the look, the sound, the story. The end is okay as is any where the have basically a tribute band playing the music.
20 Feet is a really great story as well. Damn, Darlene Love looks good for 70 something. Fantastic music.

I've had A Band Called Death in my netflix queue for months now. I need to get on that. As well as the Alex Chilton documentary.

Just watched "Grey Gardens" off of TCM the other day. Pretty good stuff. Your first instinct is to feel sorry for those old ladies but it must be nice to just not give a crap.