Easily the most powerful and disturbing documentary I’ve ever watched. Filled with unspeakable evil and inspiring courage. I watched it on HBO but assume/hope it is available elsewhere.
Category Archives: Documentary
Teach children “how to believe”
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One of the best ideas (for me) in this documentary came from Prof. Sugata Mitra, Professor of Educational Technology at the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences at Newcastle University, UK. He points out that a five year old will 25 in 2031, and asks how can any teacher say she/he is preparing that child for 2031.
Professor Mitra suggest a curriculum that teaches just three skills:
- Reading comprehension
- Information search and retrieval
- Teach the child “how to believe.”
That last one was the money shot for me. He described it as “giving the child armor against doctrine.” Not just religious doctrine, but rigid belief sets of all kinds. Ooh.
Behind Your Radio Dial
Before television took over the airwaves, Rockefeller Center was home to the National Broadcasting Company during the golden age of radio. This promotional film from around 1948 chronicles the rise of the media company from a small collection of 20 affiliated stations, formed in 1926, to more than 170 stations two decades later. The 24-minute documentary, courtesy of the Prelinger Archive, introduces the network and goes behind the scenes at Rockefeller Center, peeking into the mail room, sound recording studios, and music library.
The documentary closes with a look at the network’s budding television enterprise. “Adding sight to sound, [NBC] opened an electronic window” when it launched the first commercial television station in 1941, the narrator explains. “More than two decades of NBC radio have been dedicated to the spirit of public service. Now, in bringing television, network television, out of the laboratory and into your living room, NBC rededicates itself in this same spirit to provide the greatest medium of mass information and mass entertainment in the world.” Radio junkies and30 Rock fans alike will enjoy this journey back in time.
The Business of War (VICE News)
In the last couple of days I’ve watched three or four news documentaries produced by Vice. The one below is titled “The Business of War: SOFEX”
If you invest the 20 minutes to watch this you might conclude — as I did — the world is fucked. Not a little bit fucked. Not “It’s okay, I think we can un-fuck this.” We are Ving-Rhames-Pulp-Fiction fucked.
This documentary explains SO much of what is happening in the world. As you watch it, try to imagine Anderson Cooper or Brian Williams (and the corporations they work for) doing this kind of reporting.
As I watched these reports, I kept contrasting them to the network news formats of the past 20+ years. Half-hour summaries with forest fires and floods at the top, followed by fluffy pretend news at the bottom. With lots and lots of commercials mixed in.
In all fairness, you can sort of imagine a piece like the one below on 60 Minutes but only after the teeth have been extracted.
I spotted the link to this documentary in my Twitter stream. I can play these on my iPhone, any time, anywhere. Or, using AirPlay to stream them to my big screen, watch them at home via Apple TV.
I can only assume the gasping, lumbering news organzations of yore know they are irrelevant but just don’t know what to do about it.
There is nothing on CNN or Fox or XYZ for which I’d pay cash money. But yeah, I’d pay for reporting this good.
Occupy Wall Street
Right Here All Over (Occupy Wall St.) from Alex Mallis on Vimeo.
I assume someone is in the basement of the White House searching for the Internet Kill Switch (“No, that’s the laundry room, turn it back on.”) Might be hard to put that toothpaste back in the tube. Power to the people!
The Mountain
Journalism in the Age of Data
I keep reading how data visualization is the future of journalism but it didn’t sink in very far. This documentary (?) turned on the light bulb in several ways.
I remember (sort of) the first time I inserted some audio into a story that aired on the radio station I worked at. Zowie! How cool is that? Well, better than no sound at all (maybe).
As I watched this, I realized how little understanding is communicated by the sound bite or some TV Ken/Barbie sticking a mic in someone’s face. Real depth, real insight and understanding will happen online (although we’ll soon stop making that distinction if we haven’t already).
I was also struck by the really smart men and women featured. They are not pretty faces. You don’t get on TV unless you look good. I sure hope J-Schools are paying attention to this.
The news organizations (if in fact it turns out to BE news organizations) the bring these skills to the party will win and we’ll all be better informed.
Burma VJ: “I was filming when the soldiers came.”
Thanks to Melody and Nathan for treating us to the powerful documentary Burma VJ, part of Columbia, MO’s True/False Film Festival.
“A tense suspense thriller in the guise of a new-form political documentary, begins in 1988, when Burma’s military junta brutally shot and killed 3,000 demonstrators, imprisoned opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, and outlawed independent journalism. In the years since, the Democratic Voice of Burma, a “television station in exile,” has begun sneaking images of the repression out of the country. Using cheap handicams, cell phones, short-wave radio and satellite feeds, the DVB transmits startling footage across the globe, fueling international outrage against the totalitarian government. When the nation’s Buddhist monks decide to take to the streets in September 2007, joined by tens of thousands of students, the DVB was there, allowing the world to watch both this event and its brutal aftermath. A testament to the courage of journalists and a cautionary tale for dictators, Burma VJ is truly inspiring.”
Nathan figured I’d enjoy this film because he reads this blog and knows I’m interested in journalism/media/video. And he was right. This story grabbed me from the beginning.
If I could ask one of the generals who control Burma just one question, it would be: Which is the greater threat to your dictatorship, guns or video cameras?
At the end of the film, the director, Anders Ostergaard, talked about the film and the audience was invited to donate money that would be used to buy more and smaller cameras for the DVB (smaller cameras are less likely to be discovered).
I take for granted that I can take a photograph, shoot some video or make an audio recording in any public place. And then publish it here for the world to see. I’ll try to remember there are others risking their lives and freedom to do so. One of my favorite lines from the film: “Those who are not afraid to die,come to the front.”
I assume Burma VD will be available on DVD, if it’s not already. I encourage you to watch it.
KETC tour of Missouri State Penitentiary
I took a tour of the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City, before the inmates were moved to a new facility in 2004. KETC (St. Louis) producer Patrick Murphy took a tour and produced this excellent video.
By 1935, the penitentiary it was the largest prison in the United States with 5,000 inmates. I can’t explain my fascination with prisons, but as a result of my tour of the prison here in JC, I created MissouriDeathRow.com.
El Camino del Rey
Famed as the “World’s Most Dangerous Hike”, El Caminito Del Rey (The King’s Little Pathway) is a one-meter wide walkway traversing a gorge, over 100 meters above the torrents below. Malaga, Spain. Another (more recent) video.