Nerdcore Rising

Director: Negin Farsad, Kim Gatewood (co-director)
(2008)

A chronicling of nerdcore hip hop artist MC Frontalot's 2006 national tour. No true nerd will be disappointed with this film, from the Magic: The Gathering tutorial to the incessant Chewbacca's Wookieespeak. MC Frontalot's entourage is gloriously awkward at times, but this is just an instinctive reaction by nerds when a camera is pointed at them.

Nerdcore Rising is part of a cultural shift in which the formerly disparaging term “nerd” is embraced by the individuals in this subculture. Despite this adaptation, nerds are still seen as outsiders in certain circles. This is evident as MC Frontalot strives to gain respect in the greater hip hop genre (along with more pressing goals, like earning a living via this art form).

The film features insightful interviews with unnerdy hip hop producer Prince Paul, 90s nerd “Weird Al” Yankovic, comical nerd Brian Posehn, fellow nerdcorer mc chris, Penny Arcade entrepreneurial nerds Mike Krahulik and Jerry Holkins, and even a brief interview with the great (punk nerd?) Jello Biafra.

The tour provides an excellent framework for the film. Their early performances are somewhat shaky and often in front of scant audiences, including a performance in Georgia in front of a downright befuddled crowd. The tour culminates with a performance with Minibosses in front of a massive audience at the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle, ending the film with an encouraging sentiment.

official film site

Trivial Tidbits:

• The titular genre was coined by MC Frontalot in 2000 in the song "Nerdcore Hiphop"
• Nerdcore for Life is another documentary on the subject of nerdcore hip hop, also released in 2008

Lost In La Mancha

Directors: Keith Fulton, Louis Pepe
(2002)

This is the comically tragic tale of Terry Gilliam's failed attempt to adapt of the legend of Don Quixote to the silver screen. The failed production, titled The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, was completely financed by Europe and was to star French actor Jean Rochefort in the titular role with Vanessa Paradis and Johnny Depp. However, the project was marred by a barrage of absurd and unpredictable setbacks from the beginning.

Fulton and Pepe were granted seemingly unlimited access behind the scenes in what would’ve probably ended up being a “making of” special feature on the DVD release of the film. They captured each of the unthinkable hurdles Gilliam faced, including screaming F16 flybys and an epic flash flood in the middle of the desert. In the end, they proved their resourcefulness in salvaging their footage and crafting this entertaining doc which has been dubbed the first “unmaking of” in history.

Mr. Gilliam having a rough day on set

My time working in film production helped me to appreciate the gravity of each setback. A friend of mine once calculated that the production company we were working for spent roughly $7 per second when we were shooting. By that calculation, something as seemingly trivial as an uncooperative horse could be costing the production literally thousands of dollars.

The doc itself can be seen as a Cervantian tale, with parallels made between the ebullient dreamer Gilliam and the delusional Quixote. Towards the end it seems clear that the crew knows the project has no chance of succeeding, yet Gilliam prods on. It’s almost painful to watch the filmmakers continue to toil on the project, particularly when the audience knows that the project is ultimately doomed. Nobody wants to be the one to tell the protagonist that his endeavor is derelict (that is, until the insurers adjusters come in).

official film site

Trivial Tidbits:

• Don Quixote is a novel written by Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes published in two parts in 1605 and 1615
• Gilliam has rebooted production, with Robert Duval slated to act as Don Quixote

Tribeca Film Festival

The Tribeca Film Festival is nearly upon us. It runs from April 21 - May 2 in New York. There are 40 documentaries being screened at this year's fest. Here are a few that caught my eye;

• Feathered Cocaine about falcon smuggling in the Persian Gulf
• New American Soldier is the tale of three immigrants who enroll in the army in hopes of achieving UC citizenship. (Short Documentary)

RUSH

• RUSH: Beyond the Lighted Stage: the greatest band to come out of Canada...ever
• Straight Outta L.A., Ice Cube's film focuses on the Raiders move to LA in 1982
• Untitled Eliot Spitzer Film
• Visionaries takes a look at avant-garde cinema (it features Kenneth Anger and Ken Jacobs) and is sure to be a treat on the big screen

Currently solely "premium pass" and package deals are available. On April 13th, you can purchase tickets exclusively with an American Express card. Then on April 18 those residents who live downtown (address below Canal Street) can purchase tickets. Finally, on April 19, tickets go on sale to the rest of us.

Trivial Tidbits:

• The festival was founded by Jane Rosenthal, Craig Hatkoff, and Robert De Niro in 2002 in an effort to revitalize the Tribeca neighborhood of Manhattan after 9/11
• Racing Dreams won Best Doc Feature in 2009

Food, Inc.

Director: Robert Kenner

(2009)

What may be a more terrifying movie than the darkest of horror films is the documentary Food, Inc. - a portrait of the system of food production in America that has been shrouded in mystery. We have somehow become incredibly distant and unaware of something as imperative as the food we eat. Kenner did a great job bringing this dark issue to light without alienating his audience.

It’s unsettling to know how much has changed in the food production industry in the past 30 years alone. Today, we’re consuming corn that has been genetically modified and we’re eating meat from cloned animals. It's unclear what kind of long-term effect this will have on our health. If food producers continue to modify the way we have eaten for millennia, eventually we may not be able to turn back to the way things used to be. Massive conglomerates are controlling much of production, and they are manufacturing food in facilities that resemble factories more than farms. The conditions are inhumane for both the animals and workers. The fact that these companies refused the chance to appear on camera to stand up for themselves is a sure-sign that the film should be watched.

These massive corporations are not going to decide to change overnight. Change needs to happen on the federal level. While it may seem impossible to bring change to such a powerhouse of an industry, Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, points to the battle against tobacco as a model of how change can be accomplished.

If you follow the food chain back from those shrink wrapped packages of meat, you find a very different reality. The reality is a factory. It's not a farm - it's a factory. That meat is being processed by huge, multi-national corporations that have very little to do with ranches and farmers.

The one thing that everyone in this world has in common is that they have to eat, and this film challenges the eating habits of virtually all Americans. The fact that I was so apprehensive to watch this film is a testament to how powerful a message it holds. Before I watched it, I knew that it would have an effect on me. I thought it was a lose-lose situation; it was either going to push me to spend more money on organic meats or just make me feel terribly guilty every time I purchased a pound of ground beef at the Food Emporium. In the end, it left me inspired enough to get involved and it made me really eager for the fresh, independently-produced goods from the farmers’ market this summer.



official film site

Trivial Tidbits:

• McDonald’s is the nation's largest purchaser of beef, pork, potatoes, and apples
• 30% of the land in the US is used for planting corn
• Every day, 32,000 hog are killed in Smithfield Hog Processing Plant in Tar Heel, N.C (the largest slaughterhouse in the world)

Tribeca Cinemas Presents: Doc Series 2010

The following press release is from Tribeca Cinemas:

Tribeca Cinemas Presents: Doc Series 2010

"From the team behind the Tribeca Film Festival, Tribeca Cinemas Presents: Doc Series is an exciting new series of interesting, innovative and thought-provoking documentary films. Join us every other Monday night at Tribeca Cinemas for another must-see film."

February 22, 2010: Dark Days
March 8, 2010: Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison
March 22, 2010: Nerdcore Rising
April 15, 2010: Shooting Beauty
May 10, 2010: Devil's Playground
May 24, 2010: Smile 'Til It Hurts: The Up With People Story

Tickets are $10, $8 for seniors and students with a valid ID and can be purchased online.

All TC Doc Series screenings start at 7:30 pm at Tribeca Cinemas, 54 Varick Street (at Laight, one block south of Canal).

Tokyo Olympiad

Director: Kon Ichikawa
(1965)

As the 2010 Winter Olympics heat up in Vancouver, Canada and Olympic mania permeates the globe, we look back on the 1964 summer games in Tokyo, Japan. The Japanese government financed their own Olympic coverage, hiring Kon Ichikawa to document the events after the legendary Akira Kurosawa was dismissed from the project. The resulting Tokyo Olympiad offers an exhaustive examination of the games.

Ichikawa focuses on each event with thoughtful reflection, evoking a fascination with the athletes themselves and portraying each event as though they are artistic performance pieces. He allows you to get close to the athletes, and exhibits some restraint in the editing room, allowing events to slowly unfold to the point where the viewer feels like they are sitting in the bleachers.

While the Japanese government was initially not content with this portrayal (they were looking for something more akin to a highlight reel), it is because of this tone that the film remains relevant to this day. Ichikawa’s style not only ensures that his work will remain timeless, but it also points out the inherent silliness of certain events. Like pole vaulting…

Ichikawa’s trademark humor shines through in the film – at one point he focuses on the sagging necks of the judges. He often employs the use of extreme close-ups to highlight abstract absurdity of certain events. Note the exquisite montage from 2:30-2:50 in the following gymnastics clip:

My uncle recently introduced me to the film, and he advised watching it in Japanese with English subtitles, rather than the dubbed version. I couldn’t imagine watching it any other way. For those that are tempted by the English narration, trust that it doesn’t add the outlandish humor like the dubbing in a kung fu flick out of Hong Kong.

Tokyo Olympiad clocks in at nearly three hours – a marathon in and of itself – though it does lend itself nicely to watching in sections. In the end I just wish I had the resources to be in Vancouver with a camera right now.

Trivial Tidbits:

• The 1964 Summer Games were the first Olympics held in Asia
• The first film documenting the Olympics was Leni Riefenstahl’s Olympia, which covered the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin
  

2010 Oscar Nominations Announced

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced this year's Oscar nominations in the annual predawn ceremony in Los Angeles. Presumably much of the buzz will be focused on Meryl Streep's record 16th Oscar nomination for Julie & Julia, or AMPAS's decision to nominate ten films for Best Picture (they really couldn't pare that list down any further?!?). However, Doczine is focused on the following two categories;

Documentary Feature:
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home

Documentary Short:
China's Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
Music by Prudence
Rabbit à la Berlin

Hollywood legends Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin are slated to host the March 7, 2010 ceremony.

Trivial Tidbits:

• The only song from a documentary film to win an Original Song Oscar is “I Need to Wake Up” by Melissa Etheridge from the film An Inconvenient Truth in 2006 (the film itself also won in the Documentary Feature category).