Please Vote For Me (2007)

A third grade class needs a new Class Monitor, so they hold an election. Three young candidates tout their strengths while trying to disparage the opposition, using debates, speeches, and personal talents to distinguish themselves and win votes. But here’s the rub: the class is in Communist China, and prior to the election, none of the kids have any conception of democracy whatsoever.

What follows is a striking illustration of the democratic process completely removed from the American social context. The teacher remains as hands-off as possible, leaving the children (and their parents) to pilot the election almost on their own. They dabble in all sorts of manipulation and negative campaigning, and it all works, seeing as they’re, you know, kids.

Please Vote For Me is a short (57 min), single-minded documentary that does what it sets out to do. It ends shortly after the election results come out, refraining from any heavy-handed commentary; the social insight is completely contained in the election itself. But watching the film, I was also struck by China/US cultural divide. Parenting, the school system, and numerous other mundane details were incredibly different. Watch this film for an interesting tour of democracy and a look at another culture. Though there’s not much else at work, it’s great in that limited regard, and certainly worth an hour.

Hoop Dreams (1994)

Hoop Dreams was intended to be a 30-minute PBS special. Eight years later, it emerged as a sprawling, three-hour documentary that Roger Ebert called the best film of the 1990s. I won’t make that bold a proclamation, but I can definitively say that Hoop Dreams is easily the best documentary I’ve ever seen. It asks a simple question and elicits complex, vague, and often unsatisfying answers; it spans five years of filming and incorporates hundreds of hours of raw footage; it provides a clear window into inner city life, youth basketball subcultures, and the early 90s with a story that tells itself. Imagine, all of this, hidden in the 'Sports & Fitness' section.

The movie follows inner city youths William Gates and Arthur Agee as they chase NBA aspirations. They take similar but divergent paths, as promising high school careers become complicated with factors like academics, injury, family, and poverty. The film is intensely personal, going into the kids’ homes and schools and out to the playground courts. We literally watch them grow up on the court as well, as extensive real game film accompanies the personal treatment.

Hoop Dreams is also visually striking, and by that I mean it looks like the early 90s, and by that, I mean people wore some crazy clothes. Those bright, random, pre-ironic, early 90s Nike clothes are the stuff of hipster dreams. Kids rocked fades and Jordans, and the adults, at least according to the film, all wore glasses with comically big lenses.

The movie clocks in at just under three hours, so it’s a bit of a marathon. If you aren’t willing to commit those hours, you could break it up into thirds and watch it like a miniseries. Either way, you should watch it, at least once. It’s probably one of the best movies you’ve never heard of.

Addendum:

If my pseudonym didn’t tip you off, I’m a basketball fan, and from that perspective, the movie does not disappoint. The footage, on the playground and in-game, is well done and fun to watch. For other hoops junkies and Blazer fans everywhere, Juwan Howard makes an appearance an hour and twenty five minutes in. Jalen Rose also makes a quick cameo. Another nuance to the 'what-might've-been' thing.

Touching the Void (2003)

This documentary directed by Kevin Macdonald tells an amazing true survival story. The film is split between live interviews with the two men that are the focus of the story discussing their journey mixed with realistic and well made theatrical recreations of their death defying climb down a mountain. This story in itself is an incredibly compelling and riveting tale. Hearing the confessionals of the survivors overlapping documentary film style narrative that is so visceral, you feel as though you are on top of the mountain with the men watching the real events unfold. Besides hearing the emotional roller coaster of the main characters as they describe it The cinematography plays a large role in getting this feeling across. Overall one of the better documentaries I've seen and is definitely something I recommend to anyone in search of a gripping film.

The King Of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters (2007)

Seriously, this story is so rich with strangeness and the characters are so unrelenting in their socially-awkward nerdyness, it's difficult to even believe this is a documentary. You're going to be laughing out loud while still sitting on the edge of your seat, waiting to see who will be crowned King of Kong. Billy Mitchell is a super star in the niche video game fan culture of old school arcade, being the holder of several world record scores. Billy is basically the greasiest, nerdiest prick of all time. Steve Wiebe is an unemployed dad with an original Donkey Kong arcade counsel in his garage, and after playing the thing night and day for weeks at a time, he thinks he's got the stuff to beat Billy's high score. Oh man, and things get soooo heated. I'm laughing to myself just thinking about it. Sabotage, insults, threats. It's crazy. A must-see doc. Very well done.

Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman (2008)

Could there be a more arcane title for a documentary? Quite possibly, no. But despite its seemingly cold appearance, Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman is a fascinating exploration of the cross section between photography and architecture and their critical symbiosis as seen through the eyes of the titular photographer. Shulman is an aging master of the art of photography (still capturing Los Angeles at 97 years old when the film was made), and helped launch the careers of architects instrumental to the development of the field, such as Frank Lloyd Wright. 

My own knowledge of architecture resides in a three month job at the University of Oregon’s Allied Arts and Architecture library, and more specifically, to the time I spent looking through architecture books when I was supposed to be shelving them. Hence my familiarity is cursory at best, but Shulman proves a personality captivating enough to lead a viewer like myself through the history of modern architecture, essentially divulging the roots of Modernism itself. The expert direction of Eric Bricker drives the film at a surprisingly quick pace, leaving one satisfied but ultimately wanting more at the end of its 82 minute run time.

I Am Trying to Break Your Heart (2002)

If you’re a Wilco fan like me, the title of this should’ve triggered a pretty immediate association. I Am Trying to Break Your Heart: A Film About Wilco is a documentary about the controversy and chaos surrounding Wilco’s attempts at releasing their seminal 2001, wait, 2002 album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. The album was completed in 2001, but after their Warner record label deemed it too abstract to sell, Wilco shopped around the album to various buyers, explored the In Rainbows thing before it was In Style, and eventually signed with Nonesuch (consequently, and an irony not lost on the band, another Warner label). Tensions rise between band members Jeff Tweedy and Jay Bennett throughout the recording process, and director Sam Jones captures every moment in black and white, with intimate shots of band meetings and backstage arguments over two second effects at the end of a song. 

For fans like me, the documentary is essentially 92 minutes of unfettered Wilco pornography. However, do not be put off by the seeming minutiae of a band you may have no interest in. In the legacy of Don’t Look Back, I Am Trying to Break Your Heart is an extremely privileged foray into the drama and comedy of personalities that drive the creative process. Tweedy could just as easily have entered into comedy, and a lengthy conversation with Fred Armisen at a San Francisco event provides just another case of warranted levity to the film. I Am Trying to Break Your Heart is a great documentary about one of the few great rock bands at work today.

180 Degrees South: Conquerors of the Useless (2010)

No film could make you feel more lazy, sitting at your computer perusing Netflix, than the simple and captivating 180 Degrees South: Conquerors of the Useless. The film begins with the story of two men whose brands are familiar to most: Yvon Chouinard of Patagonia and Douglas Tompkins of The North Face. Jeff Johnson, the film’s narrator, introduces the story of the pair’s trip south to Patagonia on the Southern tip of Chile from Venture, CA in 1972 and the inspiration it bred for the eventual founding of two companies deeply lodged in the collective consciousness of all things outdoor. Thus, Jeff begins his own odyssey South and boards a catamaran in Seattle traveling down the Pacific coast of the Americas. A pair of outdoorsmen, Keith Malloy and Timmy O’Neill, accompanies Jeff on his trip, along with a native Easter Islander met during a brief stop off.

The documentary is an idyllic exposure to a part of the world seen by few. Jeff’s journey is so simple and ambitious that it creates a sense of accessibility that would otherwise seem impossible to achieve in a trip as daring as his. Chouinard and Tompkins shine as individuals dedicated to their cause of conservation in the most practical way possible. And to strengthen an already immaculate film, Isaac Brock (lead singer of Modest Mouse and Ugly Cassanova) crafts a timeless soundtrack, an achievement akin to Eddie Vedder’s Into the Wild. The film is an escape, hopefully one that will lead you to your own outside the confines of a laptop screen.

Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)

 

What starts as a supposedly straightforward tale of the evolution of street art and its keynote figure Banksy ends as a self-reflective indictment of not only the artists, but of art itself. Too many films ask the question “what is art?” Exit Through the Gift Shop takes up this question, punches it repeatedly in the mouth, blackmails all its family and friends, then delivers one final blow to knock it out before an answer can ever be reached. This is not to say the film is unsatisfactory. To say it is unsatisfactory would imply any semblance of satisfaction, at any point, throughout the film.

 This man is not Banksy. I don't think.

I, like many others, found Banksy’s art to be captivating at first, then quickly irrelevant upon his book’s arrival in Urban Outfitters. I, like many others, did not know that Banksy knew exactly how I felt. This is his response.

Some interesting reading for after viewing:
'Exit Through the Gift Shop' Confronts a New Claim

Oscars 2011 Best Documentary Feature Nominee