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Guest Al5x

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crack house (next tues on more 4)

 

In 2001, Darrell 'Duck' Davis recruited a group of young men from the South Side of Chicago to help him take over the drug trade in Rockford, Illinois. For four years they sold a kilo of hard drugs each week, terrorised neighbourhoods and intimidated witnesses.

 

The Rockford Police Department made a string of arrests but were unable to curtail the violence. And, in 2005, when gang member Bradford Dodson attempted to execute a rival drug dealer in a busy McDonald's, the Police Department called in the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives) who set the gang up in a 'surveillance house' and gathered over 1000 hours of footage as evidence.

 

This film uses the footage to provide a fascinating insight into what happens in a drug house, revealing the wide range of people who came to the house to buy drugs, and the truth behind the gang members' extravagant boasts of violence and wealth.

This was good. The surveillance footage wasn't as interesting as I thought it might be but a lot of the other shots were really well done. I found it a bit strange that the police seemed surprised to find that drug dealers are ‘ordinary people’. The grandma who raised one of them was amazing, and I felt for that Bradford guy who was on the phone to his son and whose hands got mashed ‘like hamburger’. It couldn’t seem to come to any decision about whether their childhoods destined them for crime or not.

 

yeah it was good but too long and felt padded out too much. you think maybe 'the wire' borrowed alot from it? the set-up and police surveillance post was very similar.

 

anyway i got really fucking cheesed off watching it - 2 hour documentary with ad breaks every 10 minutes!! never noticed it as bad as with this doc, and i've watched loads of them on more4 lately. i just couldn't stay interested so i flicked between it and 'the scheme' on bbc1.

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i just watched 'hated', the doc on gg allin again for the first time in a while, and its just as shocking as i remember it being. the guy was obviously incredibly disturbed, but it remains a fascinating piece of work..

i wont defend this guys sadism, but the whole thing is weirdly alluring.

 

I just saw it for the first time last night. The live footage is incredible, just so over the top in every way. It's cool that he found an artistic outlet for being antisocial. I can kind of respect that.

 

The interview segments with the drummer are great. I'd be curious to know his life story.

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  • 2 years later...
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Blackfish.. probably mentioned here already.. seriously depressing. poor orcas. might have to watch Free Willy to rejuvenate my spirits.

 

going to be looking into We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks next

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everything by KAZUO HARA. he`s probably my favourite documentary filmmaker.

 

THE EMPEROR'S NAKED ARMY MARCHES ON would be a good starting point.

he also made a great autobiographical movie called EXTREME PRIVATE EROS LOVE SONG 1974, which is like the most awesome movie title ever.

check him out

 

Extreme%2BPrivate%2BEros.jpg

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Blackfish.. probably mentioned here already.. seriously depressing. poor orcas. might have to watch Free Willy to rejuvenate my spirits.

 

going to be looking into We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks next

Blackfish was ridiculous, and by ridiculous i mean just pretty revealing. It's one of those american anomalies branded as some kind of wholesome family past-time when it's really just a well marketed greenwashed circus. The only thing i didn't love about the movie was the sappy tone, but it effected me regardless.

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  • 2 weeks later...

pbs frontline does solid documentaries and it looks like they're all streaming on their site for free. one of the recent ones, "hunting the nightmare bacteria," is startling. untreatable killer bacteria have recently shown up and are spreading.

Edited by very honest
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hmm so many good ones.. this is tough. i'll say the worst one i saw was one my girlfriend and i recently watched... room 236. (various conspiracy theories about kubrick's the shining).. although i only got through 20 mins of it before passing out. she said watched like 40 mins more and it was absurd (not in a good way). i remember the terrible sound/audio mixing and the preposterous conspiracy theories random people had dreamed up. maybe if we had started watching it with an expectation of humor and goofiness, it would have actually been fun though. lol

Edited by Lane Visitor
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  • 2 weeks later...

fantastic docu about vinyl nerds

 

Thanks for posting this two years ago! Awkward nerd character study docs are the best, but this one went some unexpected dark places. I wonder if his life has changed much since making it.

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  • 2 weeks later...

 

Blackfish.. probably mentioned here already.. seriously depressing. poor orcas. might have to watch Free Willy to rejuvenate my spirits.

 

going to be looking into We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks next

Blackfish was ridiculous, and by ridiculous i mean just pretty revealing. It's one of those american anomalies branded as some kind of wholesome family past-time when it's really just a well marketed greenwashed circus. The only thing i didn't love about the movie was the sappy tone, but it effected me regardless.

 

 

Watched this last night, very moving and very upsetting. It was very clear in it's evidence and testimony. I loved Seaworld as a kid, went to the San Antonio one a few times, but even my naivety then I recall thinking that the "better" treatment Seaworld gave to Orcas over smaller and outdated parks was quite arbitrary. There was such a disconnect from a film like Free Willy and the reality of it's star, Keiko, who never recovered from his stint in captivity when he was released.

 

I appreciated the focus too, they didn't bring in a broader call to end captivity of smaller marine life. It seems pretty reasonable to end Orca captivity specifically. I'm one to defend most zoos and their management, captivity is a compromise period, but when done properly it's to provide insight and research into animals and spur the public to support conservation efforts. Seaworld is professional but it is a corporation, one that makes millions in profits (over a billion in revenue actually) and was recently swapped by InBev to Blackstone. They need to be reigned in. Zoos can't and shouldn't be amusement parks.

 

I'm not going there so long as Orcas are kept in captivity, and it's a bit surreal because Seaworld and idolized nature was such a big part of my childhood (vaporwave thread readers know this lol) I don't want to sugarcoat the situation to my children when I have them, I know my parents never meant to either. It's a tragic situation. Many, if not a majority of the trainers know this too, they stay out of sincerity to do their best in a bad situation, but one can hope that the outrage would seep into their staff as well.

 

Bones Brigade Autobiography

Skateistan

 

Need to check that out, I really enjoyed Dogtown and Z-Boys (2001)

Edited by joshuatx
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The Botany of Desire

 

Here's the whole thing on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIChx00z7aw

 

It's about four plants that have helped shape humanity in some way.

Edited by Braintree
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"Child of Rage documents the horrific effects of sexual abuse upon a young child named Beth. Consisting primarily of short clips of Beth being interviewed by a clinical psychiatrist, we learn—from both Beth herself, and the additional research done by the TV crew—that she was sexually violated and neglected at a young age by her birth father. This has resulted in the emersion of reactive attachment disorder—a psychiatric condition which, in this case, can in many ways be compared to sociopathy, although their causes are radically different. Beth simply does not feel empathy, and she lacks the ability to connect with others—a product of her mind’s attempts to shut out and detach herself from her past abuse."

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  • 1 year later...
  • 1 month later...

An Honest Liar - 8/10

 

A documentary about an old magician whose mission it is/was to expose scammers such as Uri Geller (the spoon bending guy)

 

Pretty fucking cool old guy.

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  • 5 weeks later...

A Syrian Love Story

 

"Filmed over 5 years, A Syrian Love Story charts an incredible odyssey to political freedom in the West. For Raghda and Amer, it is a journey of hope, dreams and despair: for the revolution, their homeland and each other."

 

 

http://asyrianlovestory.com/

 

It's' on BBC iPlayer for UK/VPN/proxy peeps

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b06f146k/storyville-20142015-28-a-syrian-love-story

 

Edit: not among my "favorite documentaries" but it's very good and this seemed like the most relevant thread to share it in.

Edited by nickthefish
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not sure if Call me Lucky has been talked about in here before but highly recommend it. Its basically about Barry Crimmins a standup comedian who inspired the likes of Bill Hicks and other people from that era who sorta dropped off the map after having to deal with repressed memories of being repeatedly raped as a child. Directed by Bobcat Goldthwait. trying very hard to get him as a guest on Media Roots radio, but in the process had a ridiculously enjoyable conversation with him on the phone, he got like 20 jokes in. I think he was trying to feel me out first since he didn't know who the fuck i was, hopefully I didn't scare him off lol

CML_posterimageFS_90_C.jpg

Edited by John Ehrlichman
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