Comments on: True Films

True Films

Armitage Shanks — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 21:44:23 -0800

"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.

By: Divine_Wino

Divine_Wino — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 21:49:17 -0800

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.

By: p3on

p3on — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 21:58:51 -0800

very neat little book. kind of lame that it's a PDF, though.

By: tremspeed

tremspeed — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 23:20:41 -0800

american splendor? project runway? really?

By: jopreacher

jopreacher — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 23:41:13 -0800

Much thanks. Netflix is now overflowing.

By: survivorman

survivorman — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 05:18:38 -0800

Awesome stuff. I really dig the pdf format, and I look forward to reading True Films.

By: Jpfed

Jpfed — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 10:31:14 -0800

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.

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 11:07:07 -0800

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.

By: gwint

gwint — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 12:41:04 -0800

When I grow up, I want to be Kevin Kelly.

By: Jpfed

Jpfed — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 13:12:35 -0800

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.

By: Armitage Shanks

Armitage Shanks — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 16:14:59 -0800

That's all I have time for right now, but I will get back to this. Please don't.

By: Jpfed

Jpfed — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 16:29:28 -0800

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.

By: kk

kk — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 18:33:41 -0800

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.