Finally, a film I’ve been seemingly waiting forever to see is hitting DVD. AJ Schnack’s ‘About a Son’ will see it’s way into all of our homes via Shout Factory on February 19th. I know my fellow Film Junk podcast co-host Greg had a chance to see this at the Toronto International Film Festival and had nothing but good things to say about it.

I was a pretty huge Nirvana fan in my teens, and still remain to be in my late twenties, even if I have sort of moved on to other things. I’m hoping About a Son will satisfy any curiosities I may have regarding Cobain and his seemingly anti-social, cynical views on music and the world. Even if you’re not a fan of Nirvana’s music, you must admit the role they played in inspiring teens around the world, giving them a bit of a push towards discovering some of the more underground musicians they consistently raved about. Artists such as Flipper, Daniel Johnston, The Vaselines and The Buzzcocks were always on the lips of the three (sometimes four) members of Nirvana, and I must admit to checking out the aforementioned bands through this exact means of discovery.

Anyways, if you’re interested in Nirvana and have a hankering for some inventive documentary film making, check out AJ’s ‘About a Son’ this month.

Source: Pitchfork Media

About a Son Trailer

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Confessions of a Superhero
Directed by: Matt Ogens
Starring: Christopher Dennis, Joseph McQueen, Jennifer Gerht, Maxwell Allen

Let me start by saying that I’ve always been fascinated and inspired by the folks who go to comic book and sci-fi conventions dressed up as their favourite characters. Sometimes the costumes are amazingly detailed and realistic, while other times they are a little rough around the edges, but there is always a passion behind it all. It’s a passion that the average person can’t understand, and sometimes we feel the urge to laugh at just how enthusiastic these people can be, but it’s all in good fun. I don’t think there’s any good reason why Halloween should only come once a year.

But now imagine for a minute, that dressing up as your favourite character could become a full-time job (albeit, not the most financially rewarding one). Would that make the act of dressing up as a superhero any more respectable and worthwhile, or would it just make it depressing and possibly a little more disturbing?

There is indeed a growing group of people who eek out a living by posing as various comic book and cartoon characters on the streets of Hollywood. They are paid only through tips from tourists, and they generally congregate outside Mann’s Chinese Theater on Hollywood Boulevard. In recent years, there has been a growing concern as to whether or not they have any right to do what they do. Are they hassling tourists or are they providing a necessary service? Can they actually be considered street performers or are the costumes earning the money for them? Many of them are simply struggling actors, trying to pay the rent in between auditions. On the other hand, many of them love doing it, and some of them have been doing it for so long, that they have become semi-famous for it.

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[continue reading “DVD Review - Confessions of a Superhero”]

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Well here it is. The 2008 Academy Award nominees for best documentary feature have been announced and boy am I not surprised. In fact, I’m completely indifferent. Scratch that, I’m annoyed. What an uninspired selection. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not knocking the films on the list. In fact, it wouldn’t be fair to do so seeing as I’ve only seen one of the five selections. (Sicko) I just can’t believe how predictable this list is:

No End in Sight
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
Sicko
Taxi to the Dark Side
War/Dance

Wow. 3 out of 5 films deal with the Iraq war, 1 deals with children in the Ugandan war, and 1 is a Michael Moore film. How much more uninspired can the academy get? How is it that with such a great year for documentary film making, the academy STILL can’t bring themselves to nominate films that simply deal with great story telling, inspiring characters and exquisite film making? I know AJ Schnack has been talking about this for some while now on his personal blog, and I haven’t really felt the urge to chime in until now. Again, I have nothing against the nominated films or their filmmakers, but come on academy! There are so many films that you let slip through your fingers that deserved a nod! THREE Iraq documentaries???? Are you trying to prove Seinfeld right? You couldn’t have at least thrown in the abortion film to balance things out?

I don’t want people to think I’m suggesting the academy should mix things up for the sake of mixing things up. Not in the least. I just truly believe that they dropped the ball on this one. Academy, you’ve fucked up in the past and you certainly fucked up this year. Proof yet again that your voters seem to think that nothing can beat a documentary with a political message.

Look at your choices for best picture of the year. There Will Be Blood, Juno, No Country for Old Men, Atonement and Michael Clayton. An alright mix of some great films. Some people are surprised (and delighted) to see Juno getting a nod. So what made you decide to include Juno on your list anyways? What are you looking for in your fiction that you’re ignoring in your non-fiction? Where was Redacted? Where was In the Valley of Elah? Why is it you feel the need to honour THREE Iraq films in the non-fiction category, but are inspired enough to nominate Juno or No Country for Old Men in the best picture category? How does your documentary viewing experience differ from your fiction viewing experience? Where is your non-fiction Juno? Where’s The King of Kong? Where’s Crazy Love? Where’s Zoo? Where’s Billy the Kid? Where’s My Kid Could Paint That?

I want a non-fiction Juno. I want some acknowledgment for MY favourite films of the year. I want the academy to open their minds and start looking at documentaries as films, not 20/20 or Dateline segments. I may be speaking for myself here, but to me, the story of an awkward teen’s first love can be as powerful and moving as the story of a soldier’s first tour of duty in the middle east. If this isn’t true, than how did Juno possibly beat out Redacted for best picture?

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One of my favourite television shows (and one of the only radio shows I listen to on a semi regular basis) is coming to DVD this month. This American Life made the jump from the public radio airwaves to the Showtime cable network this past year, and I must say it totally blew me away. I had every episode recorded on my PVR for the longest time until I eventually ran out of space and was forced to delete them. (Cops and American Gladiators are killing me.) Luckily, now I can own the entire six episode season on DVD! According to TV Shows On DVD.com, the first season will be available January 29th, but there’s a bit of a catch. Apparently the release is exclusive to the Borders chain, with Ira Glass making some signing appearances in the near future. I guess I’ll just have to order mine online. For those of you who haven’t check out either the TV or radio show, you must! I demand it!

Source: www.tvshowondvd.com

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Hey guys, just thought I’d give you a little look at a project I’ve been working on off and on for a few months now. The film is a yet-to-be-titled documentary chronicling world renowned wire walker Jay Cochrane’s attempt to walk across Niagara Falls on a tight rope. It’s a much discussed topic around these parts (I live fifteen minutes away from the falls) and is turning out to be an interesting little story, especially with tourism in the falls facing some pretty harsh lows. I hope to document the entire process, from proposal to permission (hopefully) to performance.

The following is a proposal video I put together to send off to Mr.Cochrane. Thankfully he was very enthusiastic about the project and looks to be on board. So here it is for you guys to see. Still a work in progress, and cut together from only two interviews…this video is merely an example of the sort of tone/style I’ll be shooting for. Please feel free to share your thoughts. Any comments would be much appreciated. (Thanks to the wonderful services available at vimeo.com, this video is also made available in 720p HD by following THIS link!)

Untitled Jay Cochrane Documentary from Jay Cheel on Vimeo.

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A new Errol Morris film is an event among the documentary community, and being one of my favourite filmmakers of all time, I was naturally excited to see a deleted scene from his upcoming feature “Standard Operating Procedure”. The clip is excerpted from an original post at The New Yorker and features Col. Janis Karpinski (Shot in typical Morris style) talking about being in charge of Saddam Hussein while he was held at Abu Ghraib. If you follow the link over to the New Yorker, you can actually download a quicktime version of the original clip that this scene was taken from, including an interview with Morris and more deleted footage. Check it out and share your thoughts in the comments section.

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The Maysles rockumentary legacy is a force to be reckoned with. A sprawling document of some of the greatest rock bands in modern music history. The Beatles, The Rolling Stones…FALL OUT BOY?? This news comes perfectly summed up by Matt Dentler at his blog (found via AJ Schnack’s revamped site) as being “really genius or incredibly misinformed”. Hmmm. Indeed. I’m not too sure how I feel about this one. To be fair, I don’t really know anything about Fall Out Boy outside of the album I was forced to listen to CONSTANTLY while working at a mall record store a few years back. Maybe they’ve got some sort of interesting back story? I’m not a huge Metallica fan yet I loved Some Kind of Monster. I just hope the concert element of this documentary is left on the cutting room floor. Perhaps, as a 28 going on 29 year old male who’s somewhat out of touch with this genre of music, it’s MYSELF who’s incredibly misinformed and not Albert. After all, how can millions of pre-teen mallrats be wrong? Will The Documentary Blog end up flooded with comments from black haired, eyeliner wearing Fall Out Boy fans praising Albert for his work and discussing their favourite of the Christo films? Only time will tell.

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As some of you may know, The Documentary Blog is sort of the sister site of another blog i’m a part of called Film Junk. Every year we do a collective top ten list culled from our individual lists and present it to our loyal readers. This year, we decided to put together a video podcast and run down our selection of films. So I thought I’d post my personl top ten (made up of fiction and non-fiction films) and the final video podcast which I shot, directed and edited. I hope you guys enjoy, and happy holidays!

Jay’s Top Ten Films of 2007:

1.No Country For Old Men
2.Zodiac
3.Rescue Dawn
4.Billy the Kid
5.Death Proof
6.Crazy Love
7.Zoo
8.Michael Clayton
9.The King of Kong: A Fistfull of Quarters
10.Eastern Promises

The Film Junk Year End Video Podcast

Film Junk Year End Video Podcast from Jay Cheel on Vimeo.

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Billy the Kid
Directed by Jennifer Venditti

Some people are so old, they seem to have forgotten what it’s like to be young. Such must be the case of Variety film critic John Anderson, who’s recent review of Jennifer Venditti’s wonderful documentary Billy the Kid places the films title character, a socially awkward teen with a troubled past, in the same mental and social category as the Virginia Tech shooter. Such a sensational remark simply supports the fact that kids like this are completely misunderstood, as demonstrated by Anderson’s comments as well as the gaggle of students who refuse to sit with Billy at lunch time. Luckily, for the rest of us, Jennifer Venditti’s film is a touching reminder of awkward first dates and teenage heart break.

Shot in a verite style over the course of five days, the film follows Billy as he walks around town, sometimes in a karate gi, mingling with the locals and making new friends. Eventually he finds his way into a small diner, intent on introducing himself to Heather, a 16 year old visually impared girl who he can’t stop thinking about. We watch as he woos her with some Tim Allen trivia, gradually winning her heart with his awkward yet articulate conversation skills. Eventually a crush becomes an infatuation and for the first time in his life, Billy learns what it feels like to be in love. We spend some time at Billy’s high school, witnessing some moments of unusual interaction among students. One kid suggest Billy drop the rat tail, to which he replies ‘I’m gonna look like Gene Simmons…Of course one of the guys that inspired me to wear a pony tail was Steven Segal. The other is my own step dad.’ …

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Hitler: A Career
Directed by: Joachim Fest and Christian Herrendoerfer
Distributed by: First Run Features

Nothing will kill a swingin’ party like throwing on a copy of ‘Hitler: A Career’. This 151 minute long, 1977 documentary is the ultimate guide in how NOT to entertain. As it should be. The definitive film about one of the world’s most notorious, disgusting, pathetic madman’s ability to charm an entire country, convincing them to dress like Star Wars villians and take over the world is not meant to entertain, but rather play as a reminder of a very low point in human history.

The film follow’s a pretty basic format, tracking Hitler’s rise and fall through archival footage. A narrator fills in the details as we watch the world’s most notorious madman somehow convince an entire country of his plan to rule the world. In what is probably the most astonishing aspect of World War 2, the German people simply follow orders in what seems like a massive case of temporary insanity. The whole thing reminds me of the famous Milgram experiment in which a subject would give electric shocks to a person (played by an actor, unbenownst to the subject) whenever they would fail to answer a question correctly. Ultimately it was a test of obedience, and the results showed that people were willing to do almost anything when being told by an authority figure. The follow up experiment showed even more interesting results as people were told to shock a puppy, this time receiving actual shocks, right before their own eyes. Milgram’s conclusion: ‘If a system of death camps were set up in the United States of the sort we had seen in Nazi Germany, one would be able to find sufficient personnel for those camps in any medium-sized American town.’

Thirty years after its original release, ‘Hitler: A Career’ still holds up as a powerful film, even if it doesn’t really contain any historical information you probably hadn’t already known. As a text book document of ‘How Human’s Can Go Horribly Awry’, it’s the perfect reminder of an embarassingly disgusting legacy led by a madman who convinced an entire country to see things his way.

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