Shaun Berk's 10 Movie Recommendations- 244th Edition: Documentary Edition

Welcome to the 244th Edition of my blog. As promised I decided to make this an all-documentary edition. Please don't expect me to do this every week but after realizing I haven't used much documentaries lately and after coming up with ideas to use more than usual, I just decided to use all documentaries. They are the same as other editions in terms of the year range and sub-plot. I know my dad will like the way this is put together and hopefully like my selections. This is probably the hardest one I ever put out trying to follow my rules but here is my end result. Some of what I watched goes into the next few weeks.

Triumph of the Will (1935): I start this out with this documentary on Nazi Propaganda. Leni Riefenstahl was the director of this documentary where she had a lot of say and freedom from Hitler and the Nazi party. This takes place during a 1934 Nazi rally in Nuremberg, Germany where just about all of Germany seemed to come out and support their political leaders starting with Hitler, but also Himmler, Goebbels and many others. There was a lot of footage on the German people and the leaders and then speeches from many politicians in the Nazi Party accompanied by a really good music score making it look like there is nothing better than being in Nazi Germany which we know now is not true. No matter how we see them, Riefenstahl did a great job getting this footage and editing it so well making this the most significant piece of Nazi Propaganda with influential techniques towards other documentaries. It also showed Hitler's uncanny ability to entice a crowd into believing in what he wants. Riefenstahl took the controversy up to her death in 2003. Riefenstahl is said to have made this under Hitler's promise that she did not have to do any more Nazi documentaries and that she could return to acting. She did continue to film for them in the future. She denies intentionally making a pro-Nazi propaganda film but many disagree. No matter how anyone looks at it, she is one of the first successful female filmmakers who was very influential towards later directors. This is pretty easy to obtain as it is available on Netflix and I got it at my local library. It is something that should be viewed to see things that made the Nazi party rise the way it did. This is one of them and they knew how to use propaganda to get what they wanted which lead to some pretty horrific things.

All My Babies (1953): This is actually an educational film used to educate lower-class wives in southern United States. It takes a look at Miss Mary who helped deliver about 3,000 babies in her life. It also shows the hardship of these lower-class families who don't have the greatest healthcare. I got this one from Netflix and it's less than an hour since it was originally an educational film produced by the Georgia Department of Public Health.

With Byrd at the South Pole(1930): This is another I got off Netflix which is an Oscar-winning documentary on naval officer Richard Byrd's successful flight over Antarctica. This covers the boat trip to the South Pole, the calling it "Little America" and the flight. It was mostly a silent film with narration at the beginning. It also shows some pretty humorous scenes with penguins. It is still pretty watchable after all these years.

Woodstock (1970): This chronicles the infamous three-day rock concert that was a big financial flop but is immortalized with this film into pop culture. Michael Wadleigh directed this counter-culture film in the small town of Bethel, NY which featured a very diverse group of acts like Santana, Jefferson Airplane, Arlo Guthrie, and many others leading up to the great guitar work of Jimi Hendrix who did a great guitar version of THE STAR-SPANGLED BANNER. Martin Scorsese also helped out with the film and the editing giving some very good end footage which featured scenes from multiple angles many times. They also interviewed a lot of the hippie audience members and the fun they had even when it rained. It's an event that has never been matched even with the Woodstock '94 and '99. There were about 500,000 people that turned out for this financial failure that would be made up with things like this movie.

Land of Silence and Darkness (1971): German director Werner Herzog directed this foreign documentary which focuses on Fini Straubinger who became both blind and deaf in her teen years. In her later years, she tries to help and educate others who are blind and deaf and help them understand their difficult world. Straubinger also talks about when she became deaf and blind and her own struggles when that happened. This is such a well-done documentary and remarkable work from Straubinger who communicates very well with others who are deaf and blind which some were actually born that way. It can be hard to watch sometimes but this movie raises a lot of awareness of people with this disability. People who can't see can at least learn by the sound around them. People who can't hear can at least learn through sight. However, people who cannot do either must learn more through touch. Some of the people here became deaf and blind later in their life but others were born with this where teaching them is very difficult. I wish I could find more information on Fini Straubinger but most I can find was from this movie.

Wisconsin Death Trip (1999): I found this one instantly on Netflix. Ian Holm narrates this documentary about a Wisconsin town in late 19th Century based on a non-fiction novel by Michael Lesy. This film uses a lot of pictures from the century and news articles in the small town about things like murder and suicide and what could have lead to it. The cinematography and the images were great. I'm not sure how accurate this movie is since I could not find much on it. It is still very dark and interesting so pretty watchable for me.

Jesus Camp (2006): Another one that came to me via instant Netflix and all I had to say was "WOW". This takes place at an Evangelical camp held by Becky Fischer, a Pentacostal minister who is training young children in their quest towards Jesus. This seemed like some pretty extreme stuff here with these children promising not to sin and being driven to tears. We also have Christian radio host Mike Papantonio who is not a big fan of this practice and lets know through his radio show. In the camp, there was a pretty interesting scene where a cardboard cutout of George W. Bush is presented to the children so that they can pray for him and even speak to the cardboard cutout. What I learned from these kids are things like where God only goes to some of the churches but not the ones that that just sing a few songs and then say a sermon. He goes to the ones like they have which were rather extreme to me. I don't usually pay close attention to the viewer comments on imdb.com but the one that was looking at this states he was an ordained minister and was very appalled by what he saw. Some people may give me heat for this but the documentary presents itself in a pretty unbiased form where not much editing could have been done. My mom's boyfriend was watching this with me and he is a religious person but also said that what they were doing to the children was not right. It was absolutely worth a view.

Hart and Soul: The Hart Family Anthology (2010): I decided to use a WWE wrestling documentary for this one. This takes place of the large Canadian wrestling family which starts with the legendary Stu Hart who along with his wife Helen had 12 kids, many of the sons having wrestling careers including the two most famous of Bret and Owen. This takes a look at the rise of Stu Hart, then it has segments on all 12 Hart children, focuses on some of the in-laws including "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith and Jim "The Anvil Neidhart, and then talks about the third generation including David Hart Smith, Natalya Neidhart, Teddy Hart, and Tyson Kidd who was more of a family friend but seems to be included as a Hart as he is part of the Hart Dynasty. I really liked learning about the others besides Bret and Owen. It also looks at the tragedy that they have had to go through like with the son Dean Hart, Owen Hart, and Davey Boy Smith.

King Corn (2007): This is also available via instant Netflix where Ian Cheney and Curtis Ellis who take a very interesting look at our obesity problem and research what is leading to it. They focus on as the title says corn. They visit a lot of farms and find that corn is one of the biggest moneymakers but it is not always used for nutrition as it is used for corn syrup which is used in many of our products including our fast food. This was a pretty straight-forward documentary where information was all that was needed and nothing real dramatic happened. This was shown at Muncie Civic Theater once where i could not make it. I'm not quite sure what the reason was but I'm glad I was able to watch this.

Frontline: Flying Cheap (2010): I know this is more of a tv episode of the long-running PBS documentary series but I was desperate for my last one and jumped to this one when I saw it on instant Netflix. This episode takes a look at a plane crash which was a cheaper airline and makes the point that sometimes cheaper is not always better. It was a pretty good look at the airline industry.

Well, that is it for this week. I go back to normal next week which so far includes movies from Kirsten Dunst, Joan Crawford, Demi Moore, Elizabeth Taylor, and many others including one of the documentaries intended for this week. The first six listed were the only ones I originally intended to use.