True Films
December 29, 2007 9:44 PM   Subscribe

"This is the third version of a guide I have been developing for the past 5 years. It takes the 200 best documentaries I have reviewed on my website True Films and puts them into one handy book." Free as a PDF download, Kevin Kelly's book True Films.
posted by Armitage Shanks (12 comments total) 13 users marked this as a favorite
 
I've mined KK's true films for many an hour of information and entertainment. His Cool Tools is also great, not that all of you don't already know that.
posted by Divine_Wino at 9:49 PM on December 29, 2007


very neat little book. kind of lame that it's a PDF, though.
posted by p3on at 9:58 PM on December 29, 2007


american splendor? project runway? really?
posted by tremspeed at 11:20 PM on December 29, 2007


Much thanks. Netflix is now overflowing.
posted by jopreacher at 11:41 PM on December 29, 2007


Awesome stuff. I really dig the pdf format, and I look forward to reading True Films.
posted by survivorman at 5:18 AM on December 30, 2007


I was ready to get really excited about this. But looking at what he selected, it's evident that both his concept of "best" and his concept of "documentary" differ from mine. For example, "Bowling for Columbine" is on this list, and it was full of misrepresentations. "American Splendor" is on the list, and while entertaining, it wasn't a documentary.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 10:31 AM on December 30, 2007


Oh, the irony of linking to Free Republic to demonstrate that Bowling for Columbine is full of misrepresentations. Its sort of like linking to an IRA site to demonstrate that the English government bombs cars.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:07 AM on December 30, 2007 [2 favorites]


When I grow up, I want to be Kevin Kelly.
posted by gwint at 12:41 PM on December 30, 2007 [1 favorite]


Astro Zombie-

Admittedly, I don't know anything of the history of Free Republic, so I couldn't say one way or the other whether they have misrepresented things in the past. I should note that they are not the only ones making claims of inaccuracy.

The Free Republic's claims regarding Heston's Denver speech are in agreement with the NRA's site. The claims regarding "...cold dead hands" are also in agreement with the NRA's site.

Unfortunately, every mention of "48-hours after Kayla Rolland is pronounced dead" that Google has indexed is polarized in some way by a mention of Moore specifically, so I have no immediate way to verify or refute this without relying on a biased source.

The Free Republic's claim that Heston marched on Washington in 1963 are not directly substantiated, but they are made more plausible by several ostensibly impartial sources claiming that he was present at the "I have a dream" speech, and spoke himself at the gathering.

The Free Republic's claim that Glassner said that school shootings were an overstated threat is well substantiated.

Michael Moore is correct in stating that the NRA was founded the same year the KKK was federally legislated against. However, Grant did indeed pass the Klan Act outlawing the Klan, and was subsequently elected president of the NRA.

That's all I have time for right now, but I will get back to this.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 1:12 PM on December 30, 2007


That's all I have time for right now, but I will get back to this.

Please don't.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 4:14 PM on December 30, 2007


Please don't.
posted by Armitage Shanks at 4:14 PM on December 30 [+] [!]


I'm not here to prove anything about the Free Republic, which I have no particular affinity for. What I posted above was mostly an attempt to cut through the basic problem that it's really hard to know who to trust- even if we're talking about basic factual information.

However, I don't have to do that here if that's not the kind of discussion that people are interested in having. I am new here, and it may be the case that I should've lurked a little longer to get a better feel for what is appropriate here.
posted by a snickering nuthatch at 4:29 PM on December 30, 2007


Glad a few of you folks like my book. For those who don't like PDFs, an older version is available as a paperback book on Amazon, but unfortunately it isn't free. See the link in my posting for access.
posted by kk at 6:33 PM on December 30, 2007


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