The Boxing Girls of Kabul (Ariel Nasr, 2011) begins with grainy shots of a stadium where women in chadris receive lashes and another has a gun pointed to the back of her head. Fortunately, the documentary cuts before the trigger is pulled. The startling footage sets the background for the dangers lurking for the girls…
Category: Reviews
‘Tokyo Olympiad’ Offers an Epic Spectacle
Kon Ichikawa’s Tokyo Olympiad (1965) is an epic spectacle of the 1964 Olympic games that celebrates the coming together of humanity within this sporting event in peace. Ichikawa structures this spectacle from the running of the torch to the closing ceremonies. The documentary celebrates the individual within the collective without focusing on the person. His…
Ali and Foreman Face off in ‘When We Were Kings’
When We Were Kings is a 1996 documentary about the “Rumble in the Jungle,” the famous bout between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman in Zaire. Though the rumble happened in 1974, the footage remained shelved for many years before it finally was edited into this final form. The result is an documentary captures a key…
‘Murderball’ Takes Sport Documentary to New Levels
Murderball (2005) is directed by Dana Adam Shapiro and Henry Alex Rubin. Murderball is another name for quad rugby, a global sport for quadriplegic players. At the time this documentary was made, the U.S. quad rugby team had dominated the global competition, until Canada defeated the team in 2002. This defeat sets up the deep…
Catching the Perfect Wave in ‘The Endless Summer’
Bruce Brown’s The Endless Summer is a classic surf documentary from 1964. In pursuit of an unending summer, two surfers travel the world looking to catch the greatest waves. Brown’s camera follows them on their journey, which takes them from Hawaii to California to the African continent to Australia and then to Tahiti. Almost all…
‘GMO OMG’ Adds Little New to the GMO Debates
Jeremy Seifert’s GMO OMG (2013) begins with his son’s interest in seeds and seed collecting. Taking his family on a journey of discovery, Seifert explores the issues surrounding GMO (genetically modified organisms) production, studies, labeling, and regulation. In part he wants to know why some Haitian farmers call GMO seeds “seeds of death,” while people…
‘Housing Problems’ a Landmark in Documentary Sound
Housing Problems (Arthur Elton and E.H. Anstey, 1935) is one of those classic documentaries that is important to the development of the documentary form but is more interesting to read about than it is to see. Housing Problems is one of the first documentaries to use synchronized sound of people speaking on camera. We hear…
‘The Raw and the Cooked’ Needs More Prep Time
The Raw and the Cooked: A Culinary Journey through Taiwan (2012) makes a poor guide on this tour that feels more like an aimless wander than a directed trip. This documentary had so much potential with its subject, but it falls short due to lack of contextualization and focus. Numerous shots of food in restaurants,…
Documentary Warns Us to ‘Beware of Mr. Baker’
Beware of Mr. Baker (2012) opens with iconic drummer Ginger Baker whacking filmmaker Jay Bulger across the face with a cane for wanting to include interviews with other people in the film. This scene sets up their somewhat contentious relationship and Baker’s difficult personality. Bulger’s documentary is a biopic of Baker and his uneven career…
‘Gideon’s Army’ Battles an Unjust Justice System
Dawn Porter’s Gideon’s Army (2013) is the best example I have seen of documentary story-telling so far with its dramatic tension that keeps you riveted until the jury’s verdict is read. Gideon’s Army follows three public defenders in the Deep South as they work against enormous odds — professional, financial, and personal — to represent…