MetaFilter posts tagged with documentaries

Good news - it's Supreme Court Week.

IvoShandor — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 23:02:15 -0800

Beginning Sunday, October 4 it's Supreme Court Week on C-SPAN! If you don't know much about the U.S. Supreme Court this looks like it will be a good opportunity to change that. The week starts off when C-SPAN airs its original documentary "The Supreme Court: Home to America's Highest Court" at 9 pm (EST) on Oct. 4. (There is a preview of it in the first link). C-SPAN already spends time covering the Supreme Court and the network is known for its advocacy of cameras in the courts. Later in the week there will be some other good programming including interviews with the justices over the weekend of October 9. The web site already has some video up including a bit on the impact of the newest justice, some words from that new member (and other members) and some great stuff on the SCOTUS building, so make sure to check out the virtual tour. CSPAN has some video at its SCOTUS Week YouTube page as well. C-SPAN likes sponsoring polls too, on September 24 they released (PDF) a Supreme Court poll (PDF), not really a C-SPAN rarity. (PDF) And don't forget, no public money pays for C-SPAN.

Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry

thescientificmethhead — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:20:36 -0800

Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Malcolm Lowry. A feature-length documentary focusing on Malcolm Lowry, author of the novel Under the Volcano. Previously.

Online archaeology and anthropology film from Penn

Rumple — Sun, 03 May 2009 13:28:19 -0800

The University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology has put 675 reels of archival 16 mm film online via the Internet Archive. Most of the film is unedited, and stems either from Museum research, or was donated by interested amateurs. Much of it is silent, reflecting the technology of the day. One highlight are the four surviving reels of the long-running TV show 'What in the World" (look for the episode starring Vincent Price), but the archive is full of other hidden gems, such as the 1950s archaeological expedition to Tikal, a 1940 film "A 1000 Mile Road Trip Across America", and Glimpses of Life Among the Catawba and Cherokee Indians of the Carolinas (1927). The films are downloadable in various formats, including MPEG2, Ogg Video, and 512Kb MPEG4. Happy browsing! via.

PBS Video on demand

jbickers — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 11:41:55 -0800

To celebrate its 40th birthday, PBS has loaded - and continues to load - tons of content into its new, slick, Coverflow-ish on-demand site. Full episodes of American Experience, American Masters, Frontline, Great Performances, Masterpiece Theater, Nature, Nova, the NewsHour and a bunch more are now online.

Wet and dreamy and impossibly beautiful

maudlin — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 09:02:22 -0800

"What you're looking for as a retoucher is a broom, something that covers your tracks, some way of obscuring where you've been. The first thing [most] people take out is bloodshot eyes. That's the last thing I take out—the last thing I'd, like, just wipe, because that just makes it look retouched." -- from Jesse Epstein's video op-ed for the NY Times, based on her film Wet Dreams and False Images ("I know that's not airbrushed. I could put a million dollars that's not airbrushed."), one of three related short documentaries on physical perfection. "Each head has to be identical to the other head, so we don't want anybody putting sandpaper to the head." -- from 34 x 25 x 36. Via the latest installment of Shakesville's Impossibly Beautiful series. (Previous posts on retouching.)

SpaceTime TV: Free Videos on Heaps of Topics

Effigy2000 — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:37:42 -0800

SpaceTimeTV collects and lets you watch all the best educational videos online from full length documentaries (such as the 50 minute long Is There Life on Mars) to short video clips such as this one on glaciers and global warming. There are hundreds of videos on topics including history, space, technology, and nature.

Short films, court métrages and more from up north

Shepherd — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 03:21:52 -0800

Mentioned here earlier in its beta form, Canada's National Film Board has released the bulk of its films online, for free, in the NFB Screening Room. With hundreds of films from the 1920s onwards, including groundbreaking work by animator Norman McLaren, documentaries, dramas, bizarre anti-smoking (or pro-smoking?) screeds and much, much more, it's a breathtaking trove of amazing film to be discovered from north of the 49th. Personal favourites: The Sweater, the story of a young Quebecer's crushing blow due to the malfeasance of the Eaton's catalogue; Waterwalker, a feature-length documentary about one man and his canoe; Cartoons by Zlatko Grgic, a master of comic timing; Our Northern Neighbour (1944), a short film about how awesome it is to be allied with the Soviets and how nothing can possibly go wrong with that plan. See also Inside Fighting China (1942); Carts of Darkness, a recent documentary about homeless people who have turned cash recycling into an extreme sport. How can one viewer manage all this content? I recommend the Playlists, a section of the site where guest "curators" present a selection of NFB films around certain themes. I should note that the site launched yesterday or the day before, and their servers seem to be getting slaughtered -- connections are somewhat spotty, and YMMV but bookmarking the site and the films you want to check out and coming back to it in a couple of weeks might be more fruitful than "stalling out" halfway through a 60-minute documentary.

Under the sky and over the whole Earth, the Human race is only one!

Knappster — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 22:11:15 -0800

When her Japanese-American husband was sent to internment camps in California and Wyoming, Estelle Peck Ishigo chose to accompany him. An art-school teacher fired for her interracial marriage, she documented the three-and-a-half-year ordeal in a short memoir and hundreds of sketches and paintings. Despite a brief flurry of interest in her art in the early 1970s, Estelle faded again into obscurity until discovered by filmmaker Steven Okazaki wasting away in a Hollywood convalescent hospital.

Unwilling to accept the hospital director's claim that she was insane, Okazaki persevered, and as he suspected, found her heavily medicated but able to comprehend what he wanted. "I've been waiting for someone to tell my story to," she said. "Then I can die."

Okazaki told Estelle's story in his 1990 film, Days of Waiting, which won both an Academy Award for Documentary Short Subject and a Peabody Award. She died before a screening could be arranged. [previously]

Avatara: the movie

Rumple — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 00:44:44 -0800

Avatara is a 2003 ethnographic film (72 minutes) that takes place entirely in "Cyberia", specifically in the Digitalspace Traveler virtual world (previously), which dates back to 1996. Interview with the filmmaker. Review of the film. via Also see: Archive.org's "Archiving Virtual Worlds" index.

It's all pepe, all the time

Knappster — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 12:35:39 -0800

The Afterlife of American Clothes. "From 2003 to 2007 [filmmakers Hanna Rose Shell and Vanessa Bertozzi] visited rag yards in Miami, dug through archives in London and Washington, D.C., and traveled to Haiti to see the international secondhand markets for themselves. The result is the recent documentary Secondhand (Pepe), which explores the global trade in used clothing."

The Skunk Whisperer

CKmtl — Wed, 21 May 2008 14:10:22 -0800

Canadian author Lesley Choyce and his family share their extended encounter with a surfeit of skunks in a short documentary, avaible on YouTube in three parts. The battle against the prolonged stench also inspired a children's book, Skunks For Breakfast.

The Documentary Blog

Fuzzy Skinner — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:01:34 -0800

Do you love documentaries? The Documentary Blog offers reviews and news about documentary films. Check out their list of the Top 25 Documentaries.

Just for the funk of it

carsonb — Sun, 20 Jan 2008 03:24:39 -0800

The Red Bull Music Academy is the best in music, past & present, from around the world, under one roof, getting down just for the funk of it. It is an event that travels the world, a yearly celebration of all the journeys and breakthroughs, all the dreams and intricacies that go into the music we love.
Here on the 'tubes the RBMA mainly consists of lectures, interactive features, and documentaries. Selected Lectures
(Links are to pages containing a hyper-linked transcript and links to hi- and lo-quality embedded QT movies. In the streaming pop-up windows you can find links to non-embedded clips.) Madlib - King of the Beats Oh No - New Jackson Swing Plasticman - Grime Virtuoso Part 1, Part 2 Arabian Prince - Brother Arab Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 Sa-Ra Creative Partners - Sound & Space Continuum Part 1, Part 2 ?uestlove - Phrenology Of Hip Hop Part 1, Part 2 Kieran Hebden (Four Tet) - The (Apple) Mac Daddy Hugh Masekela - The Message Gilberto Gil - His Guitar Gently Weeps Atom Heart - Splitting the Atom Part 1, Part 2 Erlend Øye (Kings of Convenience) - Øye Carumba! Bob Moog - The Soul Machine Part 1, Part 2 Caribou (Manitoba) - The Artist Formerly Known As Manitoba Part 1, Part 2 Cut Chemist - Phat Pharmacy, Bring the Funky Sermon Part 1, Part 2 Martyn Ware - Designing Heaven Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4 Prince Paul - Prince of Thieves Sir Mix-A-Lot - Baby Got Ringtones/Extended Version Amp Fiddler - Turn Up the Amp Note: Front page text adapted from the FAQ. Also from the FAQ: Red Bull has decided to support music by letting you do it your way. Frankly, Red Bull hopes to gain your personal respect and props by giving you respect and props and does not want to shove marketing rhetoric down your throat. Staying in the background and giving the gift of an experience to music lovers - that's why you won't find big billboards advertising the Academy, rampant radio ads or any musical or cultural stereotypes being exploited. The Red Bull Music Academy is there to advance and inspire at grassroots level - expect your expectations to be overturned in the best possible way. This is for you.

It's a Big Myth-Take

never used baby shoes — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 10:21:11 -0800

We've discussed Tom Harpur's The Pagan Christ before. Now, the CBC is going to air a documentary exploring the questions raised in Harpur's book. The program is part of CBC's Doc Zone series (some episodes available online). Directed by Cynthia Banks (who has done two previous documentaries for the CBC: 1, 2) snd written by Michael Allcock. Airing the documentary at this time of year will likely re-energize Harpur's critics.

"If people do not accept our position on creationism, they do not have to watch."

goodnewsfortheinsane — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 08:42:04 -0800

Guess who's censoring references to evolution out of David Attenborough documentaries? That's right, the Dutch. See the differences; here's a detailed write-up by a Dutch biologist and documentary enthusiast comparing the two versions side-by-side (in Dutch).

Showing for one weekend only!

McLir — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 18:00:44 -0800

If you watched a lot of television in the 70's, you'll recognize this ad. An authoritative baritone informs us of a startling new motion picture about psychic phenomena, the Bermuda Triangle, near death experiences (with fittingly, a sequel), Bigfoot, the Shroud of Turin, the Lincoln Assassination, or Noah's Ark. "Showing for one weekend only!" (More beyond the door...)

Orson Welles: The One Man Band

Burhanistan — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 21:30:17 -0800

Orson Welles: The One Man Band - a movie that takes a look at the last years of Mr. Welles. German/English with English subtitles. Full .avi download available.

The mother-load of BBC documentaries.

empath — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 03:16:07 -0800

Have a lazy sunday ahead of you? Feed your head with a few hundred downloadable and streamable BBC Documentaries, uploaded by a single usenet user. I've only watched the majestic and sometimes depressing The Planets and can't wait to go watch more.

The Up Series.

Effigy2000 — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 21:15:48 -0800

Back in 1964, a documentary was commissioned by Granada Television called Seven Up!, which aimed to test the old Jesuit maxim “Give me the child until he is seven and I will give you the man” by studying the lives of a group of children from various backgrounds to see how their lives would develop. Every seven years thereafter, director Michael Apted has returned to see where their lives have taken them, in a series of films known as The Up Series. You can read a great overview of the series here. Some have followed the path expected of them. Others have moved halfway across the world. Some have even set up their own webpage! And others still, like Neil, have found that getting to what may be your calling in life often requires you to take a signifcant detour, as this video from the latest edition, 49 Up, shows.

insert loon call here

The Card Cheat — Tue, 19 Dec 2006 16:27:07 -0800

The late Dan Gibson: Pioneering wildlife documentarian and sound archivist. Inventor of the Dan Gibson Parabolic Microphone. Musician. Order of Canada recipient. All-around good guy.

This American Life

Ogre Lawless — Fri, 13 Oct 2006 15:20:46 -0800

Radio Lab! Already listened to everything This American Life offers or maybe looking for something a bit smarter and full of science? Maybe you'll like Radio Lab. Maybe you'll like the mind-blowing and historically expanding episode on music. Maybe older history is your cup of tea -- how about biblical times and how they sit in shoeboxes in Oxford. A stack of shows available via podcast, MP3 download (and some .RAM, sorry).

Where am I?

goodnewsfortheinsane — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 10:52:59 -0800

CDX: great Flash adventure by BBC History (in association with Preloaded) for their "Ancient Rome" series.

One day we'll look back on this period with incredulity

iffley — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 16:32:00 -0800

If... Drugs Were Legal [1 hr Google video]. Last January, BBC Two produced a drama-documentary showing a future where drugs have been legalised. I missed the whole series, but if they're as good as this, they're worth watching out for.

A film on homeless veterans

riley370 — Sun, 21 May 2006 10:29:08 -0800

When I Came Home: Iraq War veteran Herold Noel suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and lives out of his car in Brooklyn. Using Noel's story as a fulcrum, this doc examines the wider issue of homeless U.S. military veterans-from Vietnam to Iraq-who have to fight tooth-and-nail to receive the benefits promised to them by their government.

Refuge of Last Resort

mathowie — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 14:31:44 -0800

Refuge of Last Resort is a documentary shot in the wake of Katrina. They've got a trailer up showing a quick overview of the project and they're even offering raw footage shot in hi-def. [via mefi projects]