Trekkies

Director: Roger Nygard
(1997)

It was Mark Twain who mused, “Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities. Truth isn't.” Documentaries are often captivating because they highlight some of the more unbelievable corners of our society. Trekkies is a glorious character-driven documentary about the whimsical world of Star Trek fanatics.

Trekkies (or Trekkers, depending on who you ask) come from all walks of life, and a motley sample of them are featured in the film; the juror who showed up to court in her Starfleet uniform and insists on being called commander; the dentist who dubbed his office “Starfleet Dental” and forced his assistants to dress in Star Trek garb; the Klingon community; the Brent Spiner fanatic (“Spiner Femme”) who has scores of strikingly similar pictures of the actor speaking on stage that she keeps in a fire-proof safe.



One of the main characters of the film was Gabriel Köerner (featured in the video clip above), a teenaged Trekkie who seemed to exhibit a healthy obsession with the films, perhaps because adolescents can get away with more fanatical interests. His appreciation for Star Trek fueled his curiosity and inspired him to design a three-dimensional spacecraft on his home computer and start a club at his school that sought to produce a Star Trek film of their own. Not surprisingly, after the film’s release, Köerner was able to parlay his hobby into a career. He went on to become a successful visual effects artist, and even accomplished the ultimate dream by working on the series finale of Star Trek: Enterprise.

Director Roger Nygard avoids editorializing about the mental state of his subjects. In fact, the majority of Trekkies are portrayed as intelligent professionals who happen to have a love for the Gene Roddenberry franchise. However, by virtue of them simply appearing on camera, some of the hard-core fanatics in the film come across as unhealthily obsessed, or deranged nearly to the point of psychosis. While this is a very small group, it is this minority that many people associate with all Star Trek fans.

Inside the Starfleet Dental office

Denise Crosby was enlisted to “host” the film. Because Crosby starred as Security Chief Tasha Yar on the first season of Star Trek: Then Next Genereation (TNG), she is well known to Star Trek fans. This probably helped the Trekkies feel more comfortable in interviews, and helped them to open up on camera.

Character-driven documentaries are some of the most entertaining films out there. Trekkies does not disappoint, featuring individuals that could have been created for a Christopher Guest mockumentary (a la Best In Show & A Mighty Wind). It’s a hilarious look at some of the most dedicated fans in the world. It is sure to entertain, even if you have no idea who Captain James T. Kirk is.

official film site

buy it here

Trivial Tidbits:

• "Filking" is a term to describe playing or writing music about Star Trek
  
• Evidently Al Gore is a Trekkie: "He watched the show more than he studied, according to his Harvard University roommate Tommy Lee Jones."

Nanook of the North

Documentary film icon Robert Joseph Flaherty (1884-1951) started his career as an explorer and prospector in the remote Hudson Bay region of northeastern Canada. Before his third expedition to the area, his boss, railroad tycoon William Mackenzie, serendipitously suggested he bring a camera with him to document the unfamiliar territory. Flaherty embraced the idea, shooting hours of incredible footage of the native Inuit people. The ensuing film, Nanook of The North (1922), is regarded as the first ever feature-length documentary.



Flaherty quickly ascertained the mechanisms of cinema. He realized that if he were to capture shots such as reverse angles, close-ups, and various deliberate camera movements, he would be able to edit them together to offer a hyper-realistic vision of reality that was unknown to audiences of that time. We take these sequences for granted today, but Flaherty was one of the first to master how to use film as a means of communication.

It has been the day of days. Morning came clear and warm. Some twenty walrus lay sleeping on the rocks. Approached to within 100 ft & filmed with telephoto lens. Nan stalking quarry with harpoon - within 20 ft they rose in alarm and tumbled toward the sea. Nan's harpoon landed but the quarry succeeded in reaching the water. Then commenced a battle royal - & Esk straining for their lives on the harpoon line at water's edge - this quarry like a huge fish floundering - churning in the sea - The remainder of the herd hovered around - their "Ok ok!" resounding - one great bull even came in to quarry & locked horns in attempt to rescue - I filmed and filmed and filmed - The men - calling me to end the struggle by rifle - so fearful were they about being pulled into sea.

Robert Flaherty
September 26, 1920

Yet he did not offer assistance with his firearm. He wanted to portray the men the way they had lived in generations past, so he continued to shoot film as they struggled with the harpooned beast on the water's edge. Much of the film exhibits elements of Romanticism in this manner. While this philosophy has garnered some criticism, Flaherty would certainly not be the last filmmaker to attempt to pass off a slightly distorted truth as reality.

Trivial Tidbits:

• Flaherty Island, one of the Belcher Islands in Hudson Bay, is named in his honor.

Quote Source:

• Barnouw, Erik. Documentary: A History of the Non-Fiction Film. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

When You're Strange

Director: Tom DiCillo
(2010)

When You're Strange is billed as an objective portrayal of The Doors. Manzarek, Krieger, and Densmore all avoided involvement in the production of the film in order to preserve an honest representation of the band. Prior to its release, the only cinematic record of the band was Oliver Stone’s 1991 biopic, which was heavily criticized for its factual inaccuracies. Keyboardist Ray Manzarek noted, “This is the anti-Oliver Stone. This will be the true story of the Doors."



All of the footage found in the film was shot between 1966 and 1971. DiCillo was wise to avoid the temptation to shoot interviews with the surviving members of the group: an easy to generate content for such a film. Jim Morrison himself will always be remembered as a youthful figure. By not including any recently shot talking heads with the other members of the band, he allows the audience to fully remember them the way they had been in their 1960s prime.

When You’re Strange was screened at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival, and had originally featured narration by DiCillo himself. While receiving overall positive reviews, audiences criticized the director’s droning monotone. The film was then redubbed using the voice of Johnny Depp in advance of the April 2010 release. Depp’s velvety voice would be a benefit to any narration, as it certainly is to this film.

The film portrays Morrison as an enigma, a loose canon, a heavy drinker, an outsider who fed off of the love of the audience. One takeaway is how stressful it must have been to be a non-Jim Morrison member of the doors. Playing a riff over and over as Jim lay on the floor of the stage, hopeful that he’ll get back on his feet and continue singing.

Some have criticized the film for its lack of fresh content. However, When You’re Strange does contain rare footage from Morrison’s 1969 experimental film: HWY: An American Pastoral. Furthermore, the film is edited brilliantly in a way that offers a comprehensive history of the band, and an analysis of Morrison that had previously been unavailable.

official film site

Trivial Tidbits:

• "If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite.” -William Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell
• Morrison was sentenced to 6 months in prison and a $500 fine for his alleged antics at the infamous March 1, 1969 concert in Miami, but died in Paris before he could serve the sentence.
  

An Inconvenient Truth

Director: Davis Guggenheim
(2006)

Lauded by critics, widely viewed internationally (grossing nearly $50 million worldwide), and honored with a panoply of accolades, An Inconvenient Truth is perhaps the most important film of the last decade. It effectively increased worldwide awareness about the perils of global warming in an entertaining and straightforward manner that could not have been achieved by scientific journals alone.



The film’s protagonist is one of the reasons the film was such a success, as he offers the audience an emotional connection to the film. Albert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. is viewed by many as a cult hero following his ill-fated 2000 presidential election bid (in which he f*ing won the “popular vote” by half a million ballots). An Inconvenient Truth is just as much an overview of his career as it is about environmental calamity. It’s a moving scrapbook, in which Guggenheim strings together formats ranging from 35mm film and HD to JPEGs and even VHS tape. In an interview with StudioDaily, he noted, “the only thing we didn’t use was charcoal drawings.”

The former Vice President thrives as an ambassador for the environment. Gore makes the claim that he delivered his now infamous presentation on global warming over a thousand times. By featuring that lecture in the film, he ensured that his audience would grow exponentially.

Gorian Graph (via NOAA)

What constitutes a great film is obviously a subjective criterion. An Inconvenient Truth was bestowed the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature on February 25, 2007. While it may not be the most innovative documentary of 2006, nor that with the highest superior aesthetic, the statue was likely bestowed on the film because of its consummate use of documentary film as a method of broadcasting global issues.

Gore concludes the film by saying:

Each one of us is a cause of global warming, but each one of us can make choices to change that with the things we buy, the electricity we use, the cars we drive; we can make choices to bring our individual carbon emissions to zero. The solutions are in our hands, we just have to have the determination to make it happen. We have everything that we need to reduce carbon emissions, everything but political will. But in America, the will to act is a renewable resource.

official film site * trailer * buy it here

Trivial Tidbits:

• First documentary to win two Oscars: 2007 Academy Awards for Best Documentary Feature and Best Original Song for Melissa Etheridge's "I Need to Wake Up"

Trivial Epilogue:

• Gore interview with grist.org: http://www.grist.org/article/roberts2/
• "Long ago I decided that global warming must be real, because Al Gore's movie made money...the market has spoken." - Stephen Colbert on The Report

The $20,000,000 Club

Only 6 documentary films have cracked the $20 million mark at the box office. Data retrieved from BoxOfficeMojo.com;

1. Fahrenheit 9/11: $119,194,771 (2004)
2. March of the Penguins: $77,437,223 (2005)
3. Earth: $32,011,576 (2009)
4. Sicko: $24,540,079 (2007)
5. An Inconvenient Truth: $24,146,161 (2006)
6. Bowling for Columbine: $21,576,018 (2002)

A look at the top twenty:

(click to enlarge)

For some perspective, Fahrenheit 9/11 (as of the moment I type this) is the 332th highest grossing film of all time in the domestic box office with $119,194,771. This is eight spots below I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry at #324, which cracked the $120,000,000 mark.

Hoop Dreams

Director: Steve James
(1994)

Generally viewed as the greatest documentary of the 1990s (if not all time), Hoop Dreams is an epic look at two basketball wonders from inner-city Chicago; William Gates and Arthur Agee. The film tracks the most formidable years of their lives, from the time they are literally scouted by high school teams in middle school through their first year in college. In the end the film transcends the sport of basketball. It is an epic narrative of their lives, their families, and their communities.



Both boys are recruited by St. Joseph High School, a Catholic, predominantly white high school in an affluent neighborhood. The school is both culturally and physically far from their own neighborhoods. They have a three hour commute everyday. Before their sophomore year, tuition issues arise. While William finds fortune in the form of a sponsor (who oddly happens to be the President of the Encyclopedia Britannica Corporation), Arthur is forced to drop out of school because his parents can’t keep up with the expenses. He ends up attending Marshall Public High School. This offers an affecting contrast between the two protagonists.

Gene Pingatore, the well-intentioned drillmaster coach from St. Joseph, barks at his team to “think about the game on the way to the game” before sitting in the front seat of the bus in front of his stoic student-athletes. Cut to: loud mayhem on the Marshall High School bus, including kids playing cards in the back. It feels like a romanticized account of contrasted bus rides, but it’s all real. In fact, if this film were fiction, much of it would be dismissed as too unbelievable.


There are certain moments that were serendipitously caught on film. For instance, when Arthur’s vacant father unexpectedly shows up at the courts, he briefly plays with his son before walking off to the far side. The camera then captures him brazenly making a crack deal in plain view of his son. Other moments seem to magically fall into place, like when William’s mother is solemnly sitting in the O.R. waiting room as a melancholic Phil Collins track plays diagetically on the radio.

Time has aged this film beautifully. Some of the characters in the film, who often seem to be caricatures of themselves, have become even more exaggerated over time.

William with his math teacher at St. Joseph High School

*SPOILER ALERT* The filmmakers chose the perfect two kids for their project. Both found some success on the court. Amazingly, Arthur and the Marshall Commandos actually make it all the way to the state championships, but come up short in the final game. It was cathartic to watch the Commandos lose. Not out of some kind of sadistic joy, but seeing them lose was reality. In real life, making it to the state championship game is a victory in and of itself. Rather than a Hollywood tale, in which the protagonist’s team would have undoubtedly, unquestionably, positively won the state championships (and the national title in the sequel, etc.).

Arthur cleaning his kicks. You should see this kid's Trapper Keeper.

High Praise from Roger Ebert:

Many filmgoers are reluctant to see documentaries, for reasons I've never understood; the good ones are frequently more absorbing and entertaining than fiction. "Hoop Dreams," however, is not only a documentary. It is also poetry and prose, muckraking and expose, journalism and polemic. It is one of the great moviegoing experiences of my lifetime.

Trivial Tidbits:

• Hoop Dreams was not nominated for the best feature documentary at the Academy Awards. This caused such an uproar that the selection process was modified thereafter. (source)
• However, it was nominated for best editing (lost to Forrest Gump)
• In 2007, the International Documentary Association (IDA) named Hoop Dreams the No. 1 documentary in film history

Epilogue:

• Vintage Siskel and Ebert on Hoop Dreams

Berlinger Must Hand Over Some Footage

In May, we here at DocZine reported on the lawsuit of multinational energy corporation vs. filmmaker. Chevron had brought suit against director Joe Berlinger in an effort to subpoena over 600 hours of unused footage from his 2009 film Crude, which itself was a film about a court case in which the Ecuadorian people sued Chevron (then Texaco) over the pollution of the Amazon Rain Forest. Chevron believed the outtakes from the film would expose corruption on behalf of the Ecuadorian legal team.

Chevron had won the case for the footage, but Berlinger was granted his request for an appeal in June.

Joe Berlinger (via filmmakermagazine.com)

Yesterday an appeals court ruled that Berlinger had to turn over some, but not all, of the footage. According to the LA times, “While the judges said a full opinion would follow, they did order that Berlinger give Chevron footage not appearing in ‘Crude’ showing counsel for the plaintiffs in the environmental lawsuit (who discuss trial strategy in the film); experts in the proceeding (some of whom Chevron has accused of partiality); and current or former Ecuadorean government officials (which the oil company says colluded with the plaintiffs' lawyers).”

Evidently this was a fair decision, as both sides seemed pleased with the compromise. Chevron got the footage they were looking for. Berlinger remarked, "We are extremely pleased with today's results."

For those that may be interested in yesterday's appeal proceedings, courthousenews.com has a detailed account.