Posts tagged Documentary
Observing life is an artform and it’s called “documentary.
Pioneering Scottish filmmaker John Grierson(1898-1972) is often considered the father of documentary film and credited with coining the very term “documentary” in his review of Robert Flaherty’s film Moana in the February 8, 1926, issue of the New York Sun. His 1932 essay “First Principles of Documentary” argued that cinema’s capacity for observing life could be a new art form, wherein the materials “taken from the raw” can be more real than acted fiction and the “original” actor and “original” scene are better lens for interpreting the modern world than their fiction counterparts. Above all, Grierson believed in the social responsibility of the filmmaker and the potential of film in helping society achieve its democratic ideals.
(via Grierson: A Documentary About the Filmmaker Who Coined “Documentary” | Brain Pickings)
Documentaries made by Stanley Kubrick
Day of the Fight (1951)
The first picture directed by Stanley Kubrick: A 1951 short subject documentary film based on an earlier photo feature he had done as a photographer for Look magazine in 1949. Day Of The Fight shows Irish-American middleweight boxer Walter Cartier during the height of his career, on the day of a fight with Bobby James, which took place on April 17, 1950.
Flying Padre (1951)
Flying Padre is a short subject black-and-white documentary film, which is notable as the second picture directed by Stanley Kubrick, after Day of the Fight. About a Catholic priest in rural New Mexico, Father Fred Stadtmuller. Because his 400-square mile parish is so large, he uses a Piper Cub airplane (named the “Spirit of St. Joseph”) to travel from one isolated settlement to another. The film shows him providing spiritual guidance, giving sermons at funerals, and serving as an impromptu air ambulance by flying a sick child and his mother to hospital.
The Seafarers (1953)
Stanley Kubrick’s first film made in color. Lost for over 40 years! The documentary extolls the benefits of membership to the Seafarers International Union.
Interactive Film App (Klynt) is out!
Honkytonk film’s awesome interactive project creator app is out!!
In case you don’t know who they are, they created some incredible interactive films in the past few years.
I suggest checking out Journey to the End of Coal to begin your education.
I just finished this video for The New York Times. Reporter Corey Kilgannon, Marcus Yam and myself chased calls over a police scanner for around 16hrs straight. What we found wasn’t what we expected.
Chasing a Police Scanner - Video Library - The New York Times
A Safe Place - The New York Times
In Vancouver, a controversial strategy against H.I.V. and AIDS includes a site where drug users can inject themselves using clean needles — then get tested and treated if they have the virus.
Another excellent video produced by Nancy Donaldson. Visual report by Ed Ou. Additional photo edit by Soo-Jeong Kang.
The lede quote is simply poetic:
You know, it just happens and then the years went faster than the days.
Everything is a Remix, Part 2 | Brain Pickings
We’ve got stories that have been told, retold, transformed, referenced, and subverted since the dawn of cinema.
A Hidden Herzog Gem
“On Christmas Eve 1971, 17-year old Juliane Koepcke, survived a plane crash in the Peruvian rain forest. All 92 of the other passengers, including Koepcke’s mother, were killed in the crash. She remained in the jungle for eleven days, struggling to find food and potable water and keep her head on straight after such an emotionally devastating accident.” Read on at The Bent Spine…
Huge congratulations to photojournalist turned filmmaker Danfung Dennis for winning the top prize in the Documentary Filmmaking category of the Sundance festival awards. He also scooped the World Cinema Cinematography Award for Documentary Filmmaking. His film “Hell and Back Again” was shot on the 5DmkII and follows the story of a Marine fighting in the Afghan war and his subsequent rehabilitation.
Well done, Danfung. Well deserved.
According to the Sundance festival blog, Danfung dedicated the award to the fallen, with the words: “This is for those that didn’t come back”.
Classy.
IBM Centennial Film: They Were There - People who changed the way the world works (via ibm)
30-minute film by Errol Morris, commissioned by IBM to celebrate the company’s centennial. Music by Philip Glass
2011 Meet the Artists: Andrew Rossi (via sff)
Andrew Rossi on his documentary film “Page One: A Year Inside the New York Times” premiering at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival.
From the clips they show in this piece, it looks like a very uninteresting film.
I agree, well worth the 27 minutes.
Planet 5D has some more info from the filmmaker on how it was shot and some backstory.
Follow up on the NYC “Undercity” Canon EOS 5D Mark II video
UNDERCITY (by Andrew Wonder)
If you’re interested in unauthorized urban exploring, this film is well worth the 27 minutes of your time.
I kept meaning to close the tab but this video just kept me in there. Must be the whole unauthorized exploration. I felt like I was with them on this “illegal” adventure.
HAPPY HOUR. SHORT FILM. (by Benjamin Villeda)
I love the way the story unfolds through it’s clever use of interviews. Great style.
Noted elsewhere
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With deference to the genius of David Bowie, here’s Space Oddity, recorded on Station. A last glimpse of the World.
Huge thanks in the making of... -
Aug. 30, 1931: “A new turn in the history of diving” at a pool in Los Angeles, where Georgia Coleman — in preparation for the 1932 Summer Olympics...
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