This is an excellent documentary about the power of music in the lives of inner city youth.
5/5
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The Campbell Review |
Crescendo!: The Power of Music is an American documentary focused on a worldwide music education program, El Sistema, as it expands to the United States. The film focuses on three youth orchestras; one in Harlem New York and two in West Philadelphia. This is an excellent documentary about the power of music in the lives of inner city youth. 5/5
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Hedwig and the Angry Inch is the film adaptation of the musical play of the same name written and directed by John Cameron Mitchell. This is the story of transperson, Hedwig Schmidt Robinson (internationally ignored song stylist), her escape from Communist East Berlin, her failed marriage to an American GI, her broken heart, and her desire for recognition when it comes to the success for her protege Tommy Gnosis. This is a very fun ride! If you haven't Hedwigged you need to GET ON THAT BANDWAGON!!! 5/5 Life, Animated is a heartwarming documentary about Owen Suskind, a young autistic man who found language and meaningful human connections through his love for animated Disney films. The doc follows Owen as he transitions into independent living. This tugged at my heart stings; I laughed and I cried. This is a very relatable, feel good, plucky and wonderful film. Ultimately, its about the very human need for meaningful connections. Highly recommended! 5/5 Unlocking the Cage is a new documentary that follows the group NonHuman Rights Project that has set about to save incarcerated Chimpanzees by filing a Writ under Habeas Corpus. The argument being that Chimps (and Elephants and Dolpins...) can indeed communicate, are self-determining and autonomous beings, and are capable of empathy therefore they should not be incarcerated for medical testing or in improper enclosures in which they are isolated and treated poorly. Obviously the problem is in legally assigning personhood to a nonhuman. The argument is that the personhood would be equivalent to that of a small child--no legal rights that go with adult personhood and none of the responsibilities that go along with that personhood. This doc is a bit hard to watch if you're sensitive to witnessing the poor treatment of animals. 4/5 Beware the Slenderman is a very intense new documentary from HBO. It was was shot over the course of 18 months after a 12 year old girl was stabbed 19 times by her two classmates who were trying to please Slenderman. This film is terrifying. Not because "Slenderman" is scary, he's really just your average modern day boogie man; he's basic folklore. He's the Pied Piper... This film is terrifying because 1- teenage girls are just about the scariest creatures out there and 2- mental illness. This film gets 'real' very quickly. Beware the Slenderman follows the year long court case in which in would be determined if the two accused 12 year olds would be tried as adults or children. So, watching this as the mother of a teen girl I was simultaneously reminded I'm already somewhat living in a horror movie and that I would hate to see anything bad happen to my daughter or worse, because of her. Terror, indeed. Secondly, as a person with mental illness this documentary terrified me because of how we treat and deal with mental illness and criminality. This film sorta punched me in the guts in a way I was not expecting...at all. 5/5 The Dwarvenaut is a crowd pleasing bizarre sub-culture doc. It follows entrepreneur/artist Stephan Pokorny as he leads his Bushwick based company "Dwarven Forge" through their third Kickstarter campaign. Pokorny's company Dwarven Forge hand sculpts interchangeable miniature modular terrain for Dungeons & Dragons gaming such as dungeons, caverns, and "Valoria" a complete complex city with its own history and lore. The Dwarvenaut follows Pokorny to gaming conventions as he works to pull off a $2million Kickstarter campaign. Pokorny's passion, talent, and skill combined with his likability and quirkiness make this a fun and delightful film going experience where the audience is rooting for Dwarven Forge's success even if they've never played a game like D&D before. 4/5 Robert Frank Don't Blink is one of the best documentaries I've seen in a long time. Director Laura Israel follows Frank, allowing him to muse on camera more than she probes him with questions, in general letting Frank be Frank without the rigid boundaries of a straight-forward documentary. Director and photographer Frank is an fascinating subject. Israel expertly steers clear of presenting this doc as a linear, biographical, talking heads-style film instead presenting a meditation on Frank very much in the experimental and evocative style of an Agnes Varda film. I was very fortunate to catch a screening of Frank's Cocksucker Blues, Frank's never released documentary on the Rolling Stones during their Exile on Main Street tour. I saw it this last summer at the Telluride Film Festival and so this fell in my lap at the perfect time. I have to admit that, however, of Frank's oeuvre, I've only seen Cocksucker Blues and Candy Mountain. Candy Mountain was his only feature film and it's really quite a good 1980s rock'n'roll road movie with Tom Waits and Buster Poindexter. Now, I'm on a mission to see all the others. I can't recommend this film highly enough! 5/5 I often have a tough time with "Cripspiration" and stories of human triumph over illness. There's nothing really quite as dismissive than hearing from someone "Ooooh! You're soooo strong! You've been through so much! What a hero! What an inspiration!" No one is sick to inspire you. You're not a hero for having a chronic illness, that's just part of your daily life. It's heroic to be sick. That said, I quite enjoyed "Miss Sharon Jones!" the new music documentary from Barbara Kopple. Miss Sharon Jones! is about the soul singer Sharon Jones of the Dap Kings, focusing on a year in the life of Jones as she struggles to beat pancreatic cancer at the peak of her career. The cancer forced Dap Kings to delay their tour and record album Give Them What They Want in 2014. Jones was roughly 40 years old and a wedding singer when the Dap Kings started in the late 1990s, and she was nominated for her first Grammy for GTPWTW in 2014 at the age of 58. 4/5 |
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