The Atomic Cafe (dir. Jayne Loader, Kevin and Pierce Rafferty)

This is a great documentary about the nuclear era from an American perspective. The film relies solely on archive material from the forties, fifties, and I think sixties, ranging from newsreel footage to military training films. There is no narration other than that from the archive footage of film and radio clips as well as carefully chosen songs which reflect the nuclear theme. It's wonderfully crafted so that you see the propaganda and the hypocrisy of the media and government and think about the fear and paranoia it caused the nation as well as the similarities in the nature of the footage to today's media in this country. Despite the horrors we see in this film such as the 'scientific' study of the effects of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki (close-ups of destroyed bodies) there is humour in the film. I guess, however, it's that kind of incredulous humour when we see things like billboards warning people to be on the look out for communists spies and government instructional films such as "Duck and Cover', like that's going to save you from a nuclear blast. Of course the film is a piece of propaganda in itself in that it's one sided and perfectly crafted for great effect, so in a way is a reflection of what it criticises, especially as it doesn't deviate from the source material but perhaps that's what saves it from being 'preachy'.

Crumb dir. Terry Zwigoff and Here's Johnny dir. Adam Lavis, Kat Mansoor and Will Hood

A couple of weeks ago at Nina's we watched the fantastic Crumb, a documentary about the American comic artist Robert Crumb. Crumb, his two brothers, his ex's and current wife are open, honest and articulate which makes for an engaging film. Crumbs story however doesn't rely on talking heads and anecdotes (which are excellent) but on his comic strips and sketchbooks which take you on a journey through his waking life and subconscious sexual desires and fears. The film, although allowing for some criticism of Crumbs work, is an understanding portrait. It also dealt sensitively to Crumbs brothers who have many 'issues' which could easily have been dramatised. We watched this as part of a double bill with a recently commissioned Britdoc film Here's Johnny about a graphic artist struggling against Multiple Sclerosis. It did have potential to be good, he is a good artists and the subject matter was interesting but it was really disappointing. There was no intimacy in the film and the heavy use of graphics didn't help. There was an honesty to much of what Johnny talks about but seemed mostly that kind of pub/jokey cynical truth that leaves you a bit cold.

The Death of Klinghoffer

Last night saw our first meeting at my place and we pulled out all the stops for a full on contemporary opera-meets-documentary-meets-feature film inauguration.

The Death of Klinghoffer is a film directed by Penny Woolcock 'around' the opera by John Adams (with Libretto by poet Alice Goodman) and it's certainly an odd hybrid. I for one could see more though. Ages ago I saw Penny Woolcock speaking about the film and showing some clips and I've been meaning to track it down ever since.

"The opera deals with the hijacking of the Achille Lauro, a Mediterranean cruise ship, by Palestinian terrorists in 1985. The tragedy culminated in the murder of a Jewish American passenger, Leon Klinghoffer."

I found the whole structure and construct of the film fascinating and as usual we followed the actual screening with 'the making of' ... containing some amazing 'amateur' footage of how they actually made the thing! Basically Adams directed the orchestra and laid down the score and was filmed conducting, then an amazingly agile 'stand in conductor' shadowed Woolcock on the set (a moving ship!) and whilst watching the video of Adams conducting on a mini-monitor attached to the score (on a make-shift sort of ice-cream sales style carrier) he conducted the singers to match the music whilst they sang, acted and moved about ... all very complex but somehow it worked. Almost all the singing in the film was recorded on the ship during the shooting of the drama rather than in the studio.
There was also a nice moment when Woolcock explained that in a way her own naivety about what is 'normally' involved in filming opera was the making of the film ... by the time she realised how complex it would be it was too late and by then the singers, cast and musicians had bought into the slightly crazy experimental process.

I would recommend it - even if John Adams or Woolcock aren't your cup of tea, it's such an interesting project - not least because somehow Jan Younghusband persuaded channel 4 to commission it (& hire the cruise ship to film it on!) - I fear this sort of genuine experimentation is probably now from a lost era.

The Beginning

We started watching documentaries together in the summer of 2008. We take turns to host the film night in our homes and make a bit of food. Since deciding to start a blog we have watched the following films:
Edvard Munch (dir. Peter Watkins)
Punishment Park (dir. Peter Watkins)
La Commune (dir. Peter Watkins)
Silverlake Life: the view from here (dir. Tom Joslin and Peter Friedman)
The Terence Davies Triology
Into Great Silence (dir. Philip Gröning)
Workingman's Death (dir.Michael Glawogger)
Her Name is Sabine (dir. Sandrine Bonnaire)
Complaints of a Dutiful Daughter (dir. Deborah Hoffmann)
Description of a Memory, (dir. Dan Geva)
Bill Douglas Trilogy
The Universal Clock: The Resistance of Peter Watkins
Trouble The Water (dir. Carl Deal, Tia Lessin)
Hunger (dir. Steve McQueen)
Tarachime (dir. Naomi Kawase)
Video Diary of Richardo Lopez
Daisies (dir. Vera Chytilova)