The Act of Killing (2012)

In general I do not seek out movies which have shocking footage in them. I do not enjoy watching such footage even if it’s just make belief. So you will not make me happy with movies like Saw or similar ones. With a title like The Act of Killing you have an idea about what to expect. I decided to watch this since this isn’t fiction, it is a documentary about people who killed communists in Indonesia during the sixties. Within a year more than a million people lost their lives because of it. It was something I had not heard about and I thought it would be important to learn more. What makes this documentary unique though is that the executioners themselves talk about their acts openly.

Everything is a remix (2011)

First thing you might be thinking when you read that title on a movie blog is that this is a movie about how there isn’t much originality when it comes to movies. You’d be partly right as this documentary shows, but Everything is a Remix covers more than only movies and in three parts it looks at inventions, music, movies and patents to prove that new inventions might not always be original, but it is the combination of ideas which can lead to breakthroughs.

Nostalgia for the Light (2010)

Chili, a country which is perfectly located for watching the stars. Its vast desert provides an area which isn’t polluted by the city lights. For astronomers it is the place to watch the stars. Their light has sometimes travelled billions of years before being caught into a telescope and someone’s eye. Astronomers, just like archeologists, look into the past trying to answer many questions. One of them states that actually we all live in the past. Everything our eyes sees first needs to travel some distance. Even if it’s just a millionth of a second, we are seeing something which isn’t the present. The history of the galaxy can be seen with telescopes and through memories the past of a country can be remembered, which in the case of Chili is a chilling one.

How to Make Money Selling Drugs (2012) & The House I Live In (2012)

Recently I watched both these documentaries. In advance I obviously knew what one was about because of its title but as I watched the other one it became clear that both of them tackle the same subject, but approach it in different ways. They are both about the drug laws in the United States.

Burn (2012)

Detroit. A city which once was the heart of the American economy, providing a lot of jobs in the car industry, has seemed to have lost its former glory. The media attention the city receives is usually negative, focussing on crime and people leaving the city resulting in empty buildings. Those empty buildings are a big problem Detroit faces as they are prone to be lit for various reasons. With over 30 fires a day (compared to only 11 in Los Angeles for example) it means that the fire department is one of the busiest in the United States. Burn follows the crew of Engine Company 50 closely and looks at the problems they are facing, which aren’t only fires.

The Iceman Interviews (2003)

After having seen The Iceman, I wanted to see an interview with Kuklinski I saw years before. It was fascinating to listen to him talk and you could imagine him killing people without much thought. I had no idea where I had seen the interview, so I headed over to Youtube to try and see if there would be anything there. To my surprise it had the three complete interviews he did which HBO: The Iceman Tapes: Conversations with a Killer (1992), The Iceman Confesses: Secrets of a Mafia Hitman (2001) and The Iceman and the Psychiatrist (2002). I decided to watch them all in one go and it was a captivating watch.

102 Minutes That Changed America (2008)

Translating real events into a compelling movie can be very difficult. You have to stick to the facts, but also still tell a story within those facts. Various movies have been made related to 9/11 and although they might have captured part of what happened you still know you are watching something which was recreated. If you were around on 9/11 you will remember the day vividly. Most people will know what they were doing and how they heard about it. They remember the impact it had on everybody, even if you were not living in the United States. Over the years I’ve seen a lot of movies and documentaries about it and was not expecting this documentary to add much. As it turned out I was quite wrong.

The Five Obstructions (2003)

Director Jørgen Leth made the art film The Perfect Human in 1967. It looks at a man and a woman and what makes them perfect. It shows how they dance, eat, what their ears and other body parts look like. The movie is considered an art house movie which almost feel like an anthropological study. I have never seen it myself, but this documentary/film hybrid shows parts of that original film. Director Lars von Trier had the idea to work with Jørgen Leth and asked him to remake parts of The Perfect Human, but each time with an obstruction in place. Working with restrictions can push people to come with ingenious solutions (as the movie Apollo 13 shows) and The Five Obstructions also shows the results of that.

Bus 174 (2002)

The discussion is as old as time: Are people a product of their environment or is most of it genetics? After watching this documentary my conclusion would be that environment is the biggest influence. This documentary is a riveting example of it. A failed robbery aboard a bus, which then changed into a hostage situation (and was broadcasted live) was something which kept Brazilians glued to their TV in 2000. The perpetrator, Sandro Rosa do Nascimento, was unpredictable, threatening, but also in control of his situation. This single event is used to make clear that there are some pressing issues in Brazilian society, which might have led to this hostage situation.

Samsara (2011)

How would you feel if you were brought to a museum where you saw a lot of beautiful things, but none of them had signs? You would not be able to tell who made a specific painting or what the story was behind that wooden fork you just saw. Would you be able to enjoy that visit or would you quickly lose interest? That’s the question that came up when I was watching Samsara, which is best described as a documentary which takes the viewer on a journey around the world. Often you will not have an idea where in the world you are though.