A Dozen Docs from Flix

 

 

 

Taking a month away from cable TV made more time for Netflix streaming. Since my existing queue was uninspiring an open minded browsing for documentaries produced some interesting and diverse prospects. Here are twelve of them. 

The Dark Matter of Love – 2012 (3.1). With a teenage daughter and several subsequent miscarriages, a Wisconsin couple tries to fulfill their dream of having four children by adopting three more from Russia, a girl age 11 and twin boys age 5. Two psychologists are engaged to assist and advise in this very challenging endeavor and the progress is documented over the first couple years in this film. Historical documentary footage about psychological tests involving emotional detachment is incorporated and often corrected by the two psychologists helping the family. The educational components of the movie are interesting but the real impact is seeing what a tough challenge this was for the three Americans and the three Russians to get to know, trust and love each other as a family.

 

The Loving Story -2011 (3.1). The case that led to the 1967 US Supreme Court decision overturning state laws barring interracial marriage is well known, but the actual married couple named in the challenge is not. The ACLU did not seek out a highly educated interracial couple in Virginia to use as a test case; instead Richard Loving and Mildred Jeter from a small rural county in that state wrote to US Attorney General Robert Kennedy who referred them to the ACLU. Richard, a white man, was a quiet brick mason who made friends with people regardless of race and Mildred was an endearing young woman of mixed Indian and Negro race. After being married in Washington DC, the couple returned home to Virginia where the local Sheriff broke into their home in the middle of the night and arrested them for living as a married interracial couple. They were prosecuted, convicted and sentenced to prison, with suspension given if they moved out of state. This documentary effectively blends footage from the time of the litigation with interviews from many years later with the daughter of the couple, their two attorneys and others who were involved.

 

Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia – 2013 (2.9). Gore Vidal was a prolific American author and public intellectual holding stage for over 50 years. His criticisms of the United States for its cultural deficiencies and for its imperialistic foreign policy are well presented in this documentary, using archival footage, interviews with friends and family and extended on screen conversation with the man himself. We get a little of his background, more of his philosophy and a lot of his very accurate analysis of American mistakes.

 Charles Bradley: Soul of America – 2012 (2.9). At 62, a black man in NYC made the Rolling Stone top 50 with his first album of soul songs. He had been performing is small local clubs as a James Brown impersonator, but had lots of soul of his own based on the hard life he has led as shown in this documentary. Brief dramatic reconstructions infill the interviews with family members and the people involved in putting out his album. But the man himself, followed extensively in his rehearsals, performances and his daily activities is literally the soul of the movie. He creates very personal songs based on his feelings and delivers them with strong passion and love. In fact, Charles Bradley may be one of the most loving men we will ever meet.

 

Codebreaker – 2014 (2.9). Alan Turing was a brilliant English mathematician and genius original thinker who was the person primarily responsible for breaking the Nazi code in WWII and who was a pioneer in conceptualizing digital computing. He was also a homosexual and a very honest man, a combination which led to his criminal prosecution and resultant downfall, all of which is covered for this documentary by use of dramatic reconstruction and interviews with experts and people who knew him. Originally broadcast in the UK in 2011, Netflix seems to have a somewhat expanded version dated a few years later.

 

Two: The Story of Roman & Nyro – 2013 (2.8). Gay dads use a friend as a surrogate mother so they can have a child and end up with the twins named in the documentary title. But the movie is more about the dads than the kids, using old family movies of the time the men were growing up to explain their background and home movie footage of their years together to show their strong bond. Interviews with the dads, kids, surrogate and various relatives are combined with professional documentary footage to produce a celebratory film showing yet another version of a happy family.

 

Gotta Dance – 2008 (2.8). Senior citizens turn out for open auditions for an oldsters dance group to perform and cheer at a few New Jersey Nets basketball games and a dozen or so are chosen, including some who never expected it. This fun documentary quickly gets through the auditions and then follows the dancers as they learn they will be dancing to hip hop. Rehearsals are shown and there are interviews with several of the dancers and scenes of their intermingling and getting to know each other, and finally we get to see them perform at some games, including a performance with a troupe of kids.

 

The Improv: 50 Years Behind the Brick Wall – 2013 (2.7). Put a camera in a room and interview several comedians about their memories of working in the early years of the celebrated comedy club, throw is some archival footage of performers, add a dash of interview with the club founder and you have a one hour documentary. It is not rocket science, but there are some laughs.

 Jiro Dreams of Sushi – 2011 (2.7). Octogenarian Jiro is the acknowledged king of the Tokyo Sushi chefs, having dedicated has life to his culinary career since he was cast out on his own at age 9. Documented in this movie is his passionate devotion to his work, but what seems to be missing is more about the man himself. However, there may not be much more to him than what the film shows, a man whose entire life has been his dedication to being the best at what he does for a living.

 

Andrew Jenks, Room 335 – 2006 (2.7). A 19 year old filmmaker arranges a stay in an assisted living home in Florida to learn some wisdom from the senior residents. The resulting documentary at first is funny as the young fish out of water finds some residents who are humorous wisecrackers. But as the young man begins to bond with some of the residents in particular, he quickly learns the seriousness of their states of health as several are taken to the hospital and one undergoes a particularly wrenching ordeal. He is exposed to the philosophical pronouncements of the elderly residents and feels the care and attachment they can develop for each other and the pain of loss.

 I Ain't in It for MyHealth: A Film about Levon Helm – 2010 (2.6). Levon Helm was the drummer and a singer in The Band, the group that backed Bob Dylan for a time and performed at Woodstock. Filmed a couple years before his death, this documentary uses archival footage and current interviews with fellow musicians and family members, but mostly it follows Helm as he visits his doctor and hangs around his home and puts together a tour to raise money to save his home from creditors. For all the time we see Helm Talking, what is missing from the film is an actual explanation of what he did in all the years after The Band broke up and any depth of exploration of his complaint that he was cheated out of credit and royalties for the songs he claims he helped write.

 

Paul Williams: Still Alive – 2011 (2.5). In the 1970s a diminutive singer became quickly famous performing his own songs and appearing on practically every TV show being broadcast. His songs about loneliness resonated with lots of people including the maker of this documentary who had assumed Paul Williams was probably dead since he had not been heard of for so long. But in fact Paul had survived a drug and alcohol downfall and was still performing for fans with long memories. This movie was an attempt to find out more about what had happened to Paul in his life journey and how he felt about it. The expected archival footage is included but the movie primarily follows Paul and interviews him on his travels to perform. Unfortunately, Paul is a very reluctant interviewee, which makes for an awkward film.

 

The movies on this list streamed via Netflix were (though some of the streaming rights may now have expired):

The Dark Matter of Love
The Loving Story

Charles Bradley: Soul of America

Gore Vidal: The United States of Amnesia

Codebreaker

Two: The Story of Roman & Nyro

Gotta Dance

The Improv: 50 Years Behind the Brick Wall

Jiro Dreams of Sushi

Andrew Jenks, Room 335

I Ain't in It for My Health: A Film about Levon Helm

Paul Williams: Still Alive



 

Farewell Parenthood

Eric Deggans wrote a thoughtful piece for NPR about the end of the Parenthood TV series. This type of realistic family drama is unfortunately becoming rarer these days, though Downton Abbey does present a historical British version.

 

Parenthood (SeasonFive) – 2013 (3.2). This next to last season includes 22 episodes moving the multiple story lines along in touching and believable courses that feel properly paced. We begin to sense that the family members, in spite of the three generations of age spread, are coming to times of their lives where turmoil is beginning to lead to clarification of what is important. The next season will be a final shorter season because of disagreements between the cast and NBC. Hopefully the writers will carefully bring the stories to points where viewers can be comfortable bidding farewell, wishing everyone well and still wondering how things will actually turn out after we part company.

 

Belle – 2013 (3.1). Based on a true story, this per Revolutionary War Brit drama follows the daughter of a slave woman and an English aristocrat soldier from the time she joins the family of her father in second class status, through the death of her father and her blossoming into an impressive young woman with an independent mind. As she and her beloved cousin reach marriageable age, they encounter the social pressures about which Jane Austen so notably wrote.  During this time, the patriarch of the family who is the Lord Chief Justice of England must decide a famous case about sick slaves being sent to market in America being jettisoned overboard supposedly for humanitarian reasons, but more probably in order to claim insurance benefits for their loss as cargo.

 

An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story – 2013 (3.1). One might wonder how yet another story about a wrongfully convicted man finally obtaining release could be told in a new way, but this documentary is up to the challenge. Quietly told mostly by the man himself, the movie includes a reasonable dose of the requisite legal issues, but what makes the film distinctive is the concentration on the personal transition of the man himself, which he talks about and which is also discussed by fellow inmates, members of his legal team and a few others, most importantly his son who was only three years old when his father was sent to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife, the boy's mother.

 

Parenthood (Season Six) – 2014 (3.0). The shortened final season brings all the characters to decisions leading to new hopeful beginnings and we are given some quick previews of what may be in store for them on their continuing journeys. If the audience for the series had been larger, there was dramatic potential to follow these people for a few more seasons, though there would be no clear time for it to end. Dramas set in historical eras can end with a particular calendar year or historical event. Those centered on one main character can end with a significant life or death event of that character. But ensemble dramas set in contemporary times do not have such natural ending points.

 

Alive Inside – 2014 (2.9). Old people with Alzheimer's and dementia can be depressingly trapped in isolation, both literally and figuratively. This documentary follows a man with a promising idea for bringing out the still alive interior of these people. He gives them I-Pods with their favorite tunes from the past and they light up and become vibrantly happy. Doctors, scientists and musicians are interviewed about why this works and loving family members and nursing home workers are shown interfacing with the afflicted. An African musician is shown using music to heal Congolese women victims of abuse as well as Americans in nursing homes.

 

Return to the Wild:The Chris McCandless Story – 2014 (2.8).In 2007 Sean Penn released a documentary based on book telling a true story about a young man from an affluent family who traveled around alone after college, discarded all trappings of his wealth, severed connections with his family and wandered off into the wilderness of Alaska where he became stranded and starved to death. He became sort of a cult hero to young people and his sister decided it was time to revisit his story and set the record straight. The result is this new documentary telling the biography of the young man through interviews with his sister, his parents and his two half-sisters. What emerges is a sorrowful tale of an abusive bigamist father and a mother in denial, and three young women who survived what inadvertently killed their brother.

 

The Kill Team – 2013 (2.8). A young American soldier in Afghanistan finds that his platoon sergeant is involving some platoon members in murder of innocent Afghan civilians. He knows it is wrong but when his qualms are detected he is threatened with death if he tells. Through Facebook chat he explains his situation to his father who tries to help from the US by contacting military related authorities, but becomes concerned that if he stirs things up too much, his son will pay the price with his life. The soldier, his parents, some platoon members and a few others are shown in this documentary as the situation eventually plays itself out back in the US. The movie is yet another piece of evidence questioning US military forays into foreign countries to "win the hearts and minds" of the local people.

 

Like Stars on Earth – 2007 (2.8). Learning differences can be difficult for some parents and schools to recognize and the consequences of failing to do so can be devastating to a child whose brain works in a different way. This overly long drama from India stars an eight year old boy who cannot read or write or do math and who tries to disguise his difficulty in learning by acting out in delinquent ways. The young actor plays the role quite well and the heartfelt spirit of the movie and happy ending are probably reasons why Disney aided US distribution. Edited to a more reasonable length it could have been a good film to show US third graders both for the message of the film and for the experience of watching a subtitled movie [though the DVD seems to offer the option of dubbing in English].

 

Dear Mom, Love Cher – 2013 (2.7). On the 85^th birthday of her mother, Cher conducted an interview which was then expanded into this one hour TV documentary giving some biographical information on Mom and her six marriages and current long term arrangement. There are lots of holes in the story and at first Mom seems easy to dismiss, but over the hour she becomes more endearing.

 

The Missing Picture – 2013 (2.7). In this Oscar nominee for best foreign film, a Cambodian filmmaker uses archival footage and clay figures placed into panoramas to portray his experience as a boy during the terror of the Khmer Rouge in the late 1970s. His narration is written in an almost poetic style, but his low key delivery and unfamiliar accent make it seem more mundane than it had to actually have been.

 

Xmas without China – 2013 (2.5). An intriguing premise, an American family trying to go without using any products made in China, gets lost in this short documentary which also blends in the young Chinese born film maker struggling with the pull of his motherland and the allure of the United States, his home since he was eight. Add to the mix the Chinese parents, now American citizens, trying to understand how Christmas is the top holiday in America, and the movie never seems to have clear direction.

 

The movies on this list streamed via Netflix were (though some of the streaming rights may now have expired):

Parenthood (Season Five)

An Unreal Dream: The Michael Morton Story

Alive Inside

The Missing Picture