Some Absolutely Fascinating New Documentaries

[Luther Blissett]

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry is very, very good.

[Project Willow]

^ Yes, it is. He doesn't impress me so much as an artist, but as an activist, he does.

[8bitagent]

"The Mad One", documentary on Paul Laffoley. Really trippy journey through the occult, underground art world, architecture, 9/11, etc.

[Project Willow]

Fascinating...

[KUAN]

Can't wait to see this...

[Large Ptarmigan]

'Resurrect Dead' could have been so much better. Still worth seeing, but they managed to tell the story of a fascinating phenomenon in a very ass-backward and convoluted way.

[Jerky]

LaFoley is brilliant - just brilliant. Can't wait to watch that movie!

As for the Sonics movie... W the F gives a F?!?

Jerky

[Mask]

Samsara can be streamed online here : http://nemesistv.info/video/6W58K9O5OA5Y/samsara
Don't forget to turn on HD. Found via google search.

[Canadian_watcher]

the Imposter Documentary was extremely, extremely good. Fascinating in its study of the intricacies of human behaviour. Most of all it shows that people resist acting on their true feelings out of fear of causing pain to victims.

here's a review that expands somewhat on the psychological dynamics at play in the film:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/film-news/9786201/The-Imposter-Bart-Layton-You-find-yourself-sucked-in-by-his-twisted-logic.html

“If this was a work of fiction, it would be preposterous,” .......

The big question is how on earth did Bourdin get away with it for so long? Layton says this is at the heart of the film: “It as much about self-deception as it is about deception. We create our own truth, which often suits us better than reality." He pauses, before adding "If you want something badly enough you are capable of convincing yourself that it exists in the face of all evidence to the contrary.”

[chump]

http://vimeo.com/65148608
Scott Noble, Metanoia Films
Counter-Intelligence 1 (of 5) Shining a light on black operations
The Company -

****
http://vimeo.com/65942057
Counter-Intelligence 2
The Deep State
***
http://vimeo.com/66019647
Counter-Intelligence 3
Strategy of tension
***
http://vimeo.com/66610572
Counter-Intelligence 4
Necrophilous
***
http://vimeo.com/66183267
Counter-Intelligence 5
Drone Nation

[8bitagent]

holy crap...

Wernor Herzog and Errol Morris present what's being described
as the must see documentary of the year.

[Jerky]

I just watched a few weeks ago The Act of Killing and, well... God damn. It shocked and drained me. I have never been so primally terrified by a film, ever, and I'm a horror movie fan from way, way back.

[8bitagent]

I just watched a few weeks ago The Act of Killing and, well... God damn. It shocked and drained me. I have never been so primally terrified by a film, ever, and I'm a horror movie fan from way, way back.

sweet....I love seeing films that 'take you there' and make you feel emotionally and psychologically drained. I remember the first time I saw Beloved(1998), Jacob's Ladder, The Silence of the Lambs,
Gummo, Irreversible, Breaking The Waves, etc. Only this seems all too surreal real. There's another one about the guys behind the Cambodian genocide too.

[Jerky]

I like a lot of your list. To it, I would add Martyrs, which is perhaps the most disturbingly on topic (and yet soul-scorchingly dangerous) RigInt-y fiction film of all fucking time. It fucked me up for life, that film. It says so much... so, so much, for just a simple "exploitation" flick, a bit of torture porn.

The thing that struck me about Act of Killing is how dangerous it is to let evil people get away with evil deeds... how vital it is that evil is, if not at least punished, then at least as close to universally recognized as such as is humanly possible. It seems to me a defect of Asian cultures, this "go along to get along" philosophy that sees so many of them tolerating brutality and totalitarianism. They "bend like the reed" so much that they get trampled fucking flat a lot of the time. Sorry if that's culturist, but it's true.

Jerky

[8bitagent]

I like a lot of your list. To it, I would add Martyrs, which is perhaps the most disturbingly on topic (and yet soul-scorchingly dangerous) RigInt-y fiction film of all fucking time. It fucked me up for life, that film. It says so much... so, so much, for just a simple "exploitation" flick, a bit of torture porn.

The thing that struck me about Act of Killing is how dangerous it is to let evil people get away with evil deeds... how vital it is that evil is, if not at least punished, then at least as close to universally recognized as such as is humanly possible. It seems to me a defect of Asian cultures, this "go along to get along" philosophy that sees so many of them tolerating brutality and totalitarianism. They "bend like the reed" so much that they get trampled fucking flat a lot of the time. Sorry if that's culturist, but it's true.

Jerky

East Timor. Cambodia. Jakarta Indonesia. China. Vietnam. Laos. In just the post World War II era alone, the Asian countries saw a lot of genocide. Some of it was by the hands of communists, some of it was
to 'fight communists'. Some of it was by the white hand, some of it was by brother Asians being manipulated or acting for the white hand. Either way, man's brutality to man in the 20th century
knew no limits. This documentary from the trailer reminds me of a more recent one interviewing the people behind the Cambodian genocide(tho without the bizarre movie plot)

Now Im a rather sensitive movie viewer. Even sometimes scenes of punching rally bothers me, whereas Matrix or Total Recall like violence doesnt.
I've seen the post millennial wave of extreme European cinema, and what makes these films so jarring beyond even the most graphic American horror film
is the shocking realistic violence comes out of nowhere and during films that appear to be dramas/mysteries/thrillers not necessarily horror films.

Snow Town(Australia), Kill List(UK), A Serbian Film(Serbia), Martyrs(France), Irreversible(France), Frontier(s) (France), etc. I might even add Lars Von Triers Antichrist tho thats more artsy fartsy.
It's hard to see these as entertaining, so much as endurance movies or experiences.