Consider Me Geeked...

For my birthday, my wonderful girlfriend got us both passes to three movies at the Traverse City Film Festival this Sunday.

Huh? Traverse City? Where the hell is that?

Actually, this event gets bigger and bigger each year. It's put together by local shit-disturber Michael Moore. He lives a few towns over from me.

Those of you who follow this blog know I love movies, especially documentaries. The films we'll be seeing include:

• Chicago 10, Synopsis: Brett Morgen ("The Kid Stays in the Picture") directs this innovative political documentary about the trial following protests of the 1968 Chicago Democratic National Convention. The filmmaker combines archival footage with motion-capture animation to create a dramatic, original retelling of this important moment in American political history. Featuring the voices of Mark Ruffalo, Nick Nolte, Jeffrey Wright, Liev Schreiber, and Hank Azaria. Selected as the Opening Night Film of this year's Sundance Film Festival. Not Rated
• In The Shadow Of The Moon, Synopsis: A huge hit at Sundance (winner of the Audience Award and nominated for Grand Jury Prize), this new doc from David Sington offers an intimate look at the Apollo space program. Sington mixes his own recent interviews with astronauts with breathtaking, never-before-seen archival footage. Both novel and nostalgic, this feel-good doc gives refreshing perspective to the achievements of a country which once believed it could move humanity forward - and did. Rated PG (mild language, brief violent images and incidental smoking). Note: Some of you know that I love anything having to do with the space program, so this one should be a good one.
• Mike's Surprise, Synopsis: What is Mike's Surprise? Festival founder Michael Moore shows up with... a sneak preview of a big Hollywood movie? A buried treasure that the public hasn't seen in years? Some of his home movies? Nobody knows until the last day of the festival, sometimes not even Mike. Whatever it is, only the curious and the brave should attend.
  

Film Festival Review...

Aren't you glad that creepy Dubya photo is gone? Me too.

I had a kick-ass time at the Traverse City Film Festival yesterday. I will definitely attend next year and I may look into volunteering at it. As for the movies:

• The first one we saw was "Chicago 10". I liked it a lot. It was a neat combination of archival footage of the 1968 Democratic Convention riots and animated re-enactment of the ensuing trial of Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, et al, using what I assume were court transcripts. It had great music and was fast-paced. Some of the sound was poor, but not enough to spoil it. If you're interested in this era or dirty hippie protesters in general, check it out.
• Next we saw "In The Shadow Of The Moon" about the Apollo space program. What was neat was that it was all in the words of the Apollo astronauts. There was no other narration. It was great to see this one on the big screen. It had a lot of the archive footage you've probably seen (first moon landing), but a lot of stuff you probably haven't. I'm still convinved the whole thing was faked. Actually, while the credits rolled, a few of them addressed the conspiracy theory. One wondered "Why would we have faked it nine times?" Yeah, sounds exactly like something a faker would say. (Just kidding. I don't think it was fake.)
• Finally, Mike's Surprise was Michael Moore showing some never-before-seen footage from "Sicko". He also took a bunch of questions from the audience. For anyone that hasn't seen "Sicko", check it out. Even if you don't like Michael Moore. It's not as jokey as his other stuff and he's in it a lot less. Anyone who sees it and still believes we have superior health care to, well, any other industrialized nation is fucking ignorant.

Thanks again to Megan for a wonderful day of movies!

Documentary Film(s) Of The Day: How To Start Your Own Country & Cave Of Forgotten Dreams...

As someone who likes relatively obscure documentaries, I am pretty limited as far as access to these films living in northern Michigan.  Most of the time, I depend on Netflix.  The only other venue available to me is the Traverse City Film Festival.  I haven't been able to attend the last couple years, but Megan surprised me for my birthday with three movie passes, two of which were docs.  The first was How To Start Your Own Country, a film about "micro-nations".  It was often humorous, but also thought-provoking.  It makes you think about what constitutes a country.  The filmmakers (as well as one of the micro-nation leaders featured in the film) were there to answer questions afterwards.  The other film was Cave Of Forgotten Dreams, a 3-D film by one of my favorite directors, Werner Herzog.  It's about a cave in France where, in the 1990's, they discovered a perfectly preserved set of drawings that are 35,000 years old.  The cave is off limits to the general public for obvious reasons and access is highly restricted.  To be able to see some of the earliest artwork ever discovered was awe-inspiring and made me wonder what else is out there that has yet to be found.  Neither of these films are available on Netflix yet, but be sure to check them out when they are.

Documentary Film Of The Day: The King Of Kong: A Fistful Of Quarters...

If you have Netflix, immediately put this movie at the top of your queue. If not, go to your local movie rental store and pick this up. I remember reading about it at the Traverse City Film Festival and it just came out on DVD. It's just really, really good for a whole bunch of reasons. You will thank me.

Playing Hooky...

Sorry about no post yesterday. We were in Traverse City for the annual film festival. Unfortunately, we only had time for two movies this year. They were both docs. The first was "Theater Of War", which was about German playwright Bertholt Brecht and his play "Mother Courage And Her Children". It also followed a modern performance of the play starring Meryl Streep. I love behind-the-scenes shit, so it was cool to see the process of preparing for a play mixed in with the history and the anti-war aspects. We got to see it in the beautifully restored State Theater (above). The second one was "Up The Yangtze" about a massive hydroelectric dam that is displacing many poor Chinese living along its banks and how people are coping with it. I liked them both.