German-born Pina Bausch (1940 – 2009) was a pioneer in the international world of dancing. Combining modern dance with elements of pantomime, song or acting, she is regarded as the inventor of the so-called „Tanztheater“. Famous arthouse-director Wim Wenders (Paris, Texas, 1984;Wings of Desire, 1987) also combines different elements for his oscar-nominated documentary simply named Pina. Shot in 3D, the film mixes beautfully film dancing sequences (like Pauschs version of Le sacre du printemps) with interviews. To put a finishing touch to it, Wenders added dance choreographies that were filmed round Wuppertal, Germany where Pausch lived. Like Werner Herzog´s masterpiece Cave of Forgotten Dreams (that was robbed by the Academy this year), Pina proves that 3D is not only a gimmick for blockbusters to make explosions look better but can, when properly used, enhance the artistic possibilites of the medium film. The dancers in this film come closer to the viewer than in a dancing theatre – truly sensual and beautiful. The comparison of scenes with reduced, yet artificial sets and those that are shot in Wuppertal – next to streets and highways – make for a great viewing experience. Wenders has created a cinematic monument for a truly impressive woman, who, without a doubt, was a genius in her field.

documentary.net says: Wim Wenders best film in a long time is a visually stunning hommage to choreographer Pina Bausch.

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Director Marshall Curry is no stranger to the Oscars: in 2006, his film Street Fight (which covered the mayoral campaign in Newark, New Jersey) was nominated for Best Documentary Feature – as is his latest doc.

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front also covers political and social issues; it centers on environmentalist Daniel McGowan, a former member of the “Earth Liberation Front” (also known als ELF), a worldwide collective of eco-guerillas. In 2005, McGowan was arrested together with five other people in one of the largest arrests of environmental activists in US-history. The accusal: arson and domestic terrorism. The group had burnt down the Superior Lumber Company in Glendale, Oregon in 2001 and Jefferson Poplar Farms in Clatskanie, Oregon. Curry explores the motivation of the ELF and asks if what they did would qualify as either “terrorism” or “crime”. An important question for the accused, as a conviction because of terrorism means imprisonment in a high security facility.

The film is well balanced and shows both sides of the story: McGowan and other former members of the ELF are interviewed as well as police officers, prosecutors and the managers of burnt down facilities. It all comes down to two big questions: What drove idealistic young people to such drastic measures? And were those means justified? Curry tries to deliver answers through news footage and videos shot by activists themselves. Some of the footage is quite drastic, as it shows in detail how violent police forces handle peaceful protestors.

We get to see a lot of the private and personal side of McGowan, while he waits for his trial (he even marries his girlfriend). He seems like a nice, quiet person and when his sister says: „He had a totally normal childhood“ you believe her. But McGowan was worried that the environment would be destroyed by the big companies. The US-cell of the ELF was born when a peaceful protest against a parking lot escalated (Curry covers this with newsreel footage that might appear disturbing to some viewers). These violent events radicalized McGowan and his collaborators and they decided that peaceful demonstrations weren’t enough.

If a Tree Falls not only demonstrates how well-organised the cell was (animated dramatizations visualise the ELF committing the arsons) but also shows in detail how the Department of Justice was able to track the group down after four years. Viewers who don’t know about the outcome of the trial will find the film not only informative, but also thrilling.

If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front addresses important themes and moral questions. A film which should be interesting to anyone who is concerned about the environment.

Documentary.net says: A well-balanced documentary about the phenomenon eco-terrorism that allows the viewer to make his own judgement.

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Ray Comfort nearly had me there. And then he made me angry. Very angry. To the point where I’m actually not sure wheter to write a single sentence about this piece of election propaganda or just keep quiet – as bad publicity is still better than no publicity. To put my conclusio in the beginning: my biggest problem with this documentary is not the foreshortened editing Comfort makes in his and his believe’s favour, not the pseudo-logical take with which he lures his not quite eloquent interviewees towards his goal and not even the missing counter arguments or opposite opinions a fair and objectively weighed film would need. The point that (unfortunately) gets my emotions boiling over is that you can NOT compare abortion to the Holocaust (being the term he uses for what might be more correctly called the Shoah). It does not matter wheter you personally are pro-joice or pro-life (or anti-abortion if you will) – to call abortion a modern Holocaust is simply a cruel ridiculing of what happend to the millions of jewish, gipsy, homosexual, socialist, communist or in any other way different or defamed people who had to die or suffer during the Nazi regime. It was of course by far not the only atrocity in the cruel history of this planet, but to put the word Holocaust so easily in another context is mocking the destiny and memory of the dead and those who survived alike – especially when talking in the name of God.

So much for my initial emotional response. Let’s now revisit the path this film takes in terms of telling its story. Ray Comfort is a Christian preacher and also mentions to have jewish ancestry – wheter he tells the audience that to gain credibility for the cause to follow is uncertain. He starts by asking mainly adolescent people of different ethnic backgrounds if they know who Adolf Hitler was and gets mostly shockingly ignorant answers. Those who forget history are bound to repeat it, Comfort reminds the audience rightly. Of course we don’t know how many people the preacher really interviewed in the course of making this film, we don’t know the answers they gave and how many of those didn’t have a “180” – the change of heart he so famously advertises. But he managed to gain sympathy within the initial moments of the film. After diving a bit more into the history of WWII he offers thought experiments: if you had the possibility of killing Hitler, would you have done it and thereby prevent the killings of millions? And what if 30 years earlier there was the chance to kill Hitler’s pregnant mother? Would you still do it? These questions of consciense are not easily replied to aswell are those about to follow, for example if you’d rather kill or be killed yourself.

One of the things that produce a bitter reflux is that the only contrast given to those people who let themselves be stirred in the direction Comfort wants, are two neo-Nazis full of hatred who are not only morons (which they are to an extent I can’t depict in only a matter of words) but – and here’s the crux – they don’t believe in God. And to stress it more firmly they are the only ones in the film who really clarify not having faith in a higher power, whichever name you might give it. And so the feeling lingers that not only are those Nazis Atheists but that Atheists might be evil for lack of a moral code – the Ten Commandments to be precise. Of course our preacher does not put it in those exact words but by analogy of quoting Hitler about his low esteem for Christianity (in fact a misquote though not wrong in its content) and by those two human examples of the worst kind of non-believers we are led to feel that value of life and a sense of right and wrong are only possible if you believe in God.

After the first mind experiments the questions get trickier. Back to choosing your own life over the lives of others: you value human life, so what about abortion? Comfort asks the people if they think it’s a baby, a “life” one is killing in an abortion. Most of them admit they are not sure. So Comfort gives an analogy: you’re a construction worker and you’re going to blow up this building. There’s a possibility, there’s someone in there, but you just don’t know … Don’t be mistaken, those are valid questions, but Ray Comfort is not looking for valid answers. If he were, he would have interviewed doctors, scientists maybe even philosophers because it’s not a question of killing “life” as the definition of life, consciousness, connections of nerves etc. is given (or is up for debate if you beg to differ), but the equally difficult and important question of preventing a human being from, well, being. But while at this particular course of argumentation – and unfortunately Comfort doesn’t share his point of view on that subject – what about birth control? What about those billions, trillions, quadrillions of lives that didn’t have a chance to dip into existence? As mentioned before, it is propaganda and not documentary to deny the audience counter opinions and especially expert opinions. Ray Comfort is well prepared in answering raised concerns like being raped and pregnant as a result of that (“why should the child be punished for the crime of the father?”) or the possibility of a child born with disabilities. The interviewees are not prepared and are not really thinking that fast on their feet. In the end there is no answer what to do for example if the health of the mother were to be risked because of her pregnancy. Aborting a child is the path to hell (see mentioned Commandments) we learn. But is killing Hitler’s pregnant mother the answer to preventing the Holocaust, is it murder or even Holocaust itself then? Unfortunately Ray Comfort doesn’t give us the answer to that.

Documentary.net says: Make up your own minds about this film but bear in those same minds the concerns about the methods preacher Comfort uses to make ends meet.

See the full film here

“This is the most difficult job in the world with exception of one, that’s president of the United States.” Lieberman is really an actor, a comedian. He compares himself to an artist: “Either you have it or you don’t have it.” But his humor can’t hide the fact that Lieberman went through hard times. Some years ago he was a local cult figure in Alameda, practically everybody knew him or had heard about him. Business was good, he sold a huge amount of cars on a daily basis – and “Big Vinny” enjoys talking about those old times. In reality, of course, the crisis didn’t happen decades ago but only some years ago. “Business changed quite a bit … People became more and more choosy and business became more and more pronounced.”, Lieberman explains.

The film’s sad, but beautiful images work as social commentary on contemporary America: the flag waves upon a desolated car park. The financial crisis hit America hard and the car business was one of its victims.

Documentary.net says: This great mini doc from Drea Cooper & Zackary Canepari, the very talented makers of the “California is a place” series manages to be sad and entertaining at the same time.

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The documentary makes subtle use of the soundtrack, for example when civil servant Fiona describes what she hears as a “high-pitched ping” and that exact sound fades in. The film also combines image effect and sound effect, for example when Fiona describes the hissing in her ears as “white noise”. The image turns to white while hissing can be heard on the soundtrack. The images also are often out of focus, visualizing something that is there but can’t be grabbed – just like Tinnitus. At certain points the film suddenly becomes totally silent, breaching the viewer’s listening habit. One of the docs strongest images is a shot of fish in an aquarium. At first only gentle bubbling is audible but soon chatter and laughter takes over, getting louder and louder. At last, there is only white noise.

The doc makes clear that people who suffer from Tinnitus still can carry out their jobs – Iain is a drummer and Ricardo works as a musician and sound engineer. In the beginning, Ricardo was frantic: “You know it’s going to be there forever. In the beginning you get really desperate, there is no way to shut it down.” But Ricardo learned to focus on the positive effects: “It brought me some bad things and it brought me some good things. It made me stronger.” Tinnitus can cause stress, anger, anxiety and frustration; the film points out that when you suffer from something uncurable you have to arrange yourself with the situation. Says David, a professor of auditory neuroscience who researches the causes of Tinnitus: “Being a positive person certainly helps.”

Documentary.net says: An insightful, well made film that tries to give the viewer a comprehensible impression of Tinnitus through sound effects and visual compositions.

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There is no narration and the musicians, the music and locations are also not named. Those musicians who do appear, however, include Iva Bittová. Tom Cora, Pavel Fajt, Tim Hodgkinson, René Lussier, Bob Ostertag and John Zorn. Frith and others are seen rehearsing and performing, interspersed with moving images (cars, grass, people, trains) blending into the music. More an art film than simply a documentary on a musician, one of its most impressive scenes shows Frith on a rocky sea coast surrounded by sea gulls, imitating their squawks with his violin and bow. Step Across the Border won “Best Documentary” at the European Film Awards in 1990.

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Several classic statements originate from The Germs’ manager Nicole Panter (“…it’s like being a mother of four three-year-olds who are always fighting with each other”; “….and eventually they learned how to play”). Darby Crash, the Germs lead singer who plays a prominent role in this documentary, never lived to see its big screen debut. He died of a heroin-induced suicide shortly before it hit the theaters. It is not a pretty film, but punk was never meant to be a pretty music, either.

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The Kids Are Alright – the title of one of The Who’s first singles – begins with their unforgettable September 1967 appearance on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. At the request of drummer Keith Moon, a stagehand overloaded Moon’s kick drum with explosives. After the band had roared through a guitar- and speaker-smashing rendition of “My Generation,” a deafening explosion literally blew Moon off the stage and supposedly caused Pete Townshend’s permanent hearing damage.

Other highlights chronicle the madcap adventures of Keith Moon, who died six months before the film was released, as well as bassist John Entwistle shooting up copies of his gold records. An energetic, diversified tribute to one of the best British rock bands of the 20th Century.

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Zooming in and out of the photograph, director Jean Bach combines archival black-and-white footage, home-movie color footage of the photograph being taken, as well as interviews with Art Blakey, Art Farmer, Dizzy Gillespie, Marian McPartland, Sonny Rollins, Horace Silver and others who were present that day. Other prominent interviewees include the photographer Art Kane, and the Esquire graphics editor, Robert Benton.

In addition, the film offers brief portraits of Count Basie, Coleman Hawkins, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Maxine Sullivan, Mary Lou Williams and Lester Young. Finally, several of the neighborhood kids who snuck into the photograph tell their stories. Narrated by Quincy Jones, A Great Day in Harlem masterfully recalls what was most likely the reatest assembly of jazz musicians ever at one place. A must- (or should-) see for jazz fans, this film received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature.

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The 1934-born fatherless “no-name-Maddox” seemed to be an outcast by nature with a soon starting career of petty crimes, different homes and juvenile detention centres. Manson just wouldn’t fit in. A fact he himself must have been aware of when – after seven years behind bars – he didn’t want to leave prison. It was the year 1967 and society maybe the whole world had changed dramatically. The youth fought social structures and ex-cons like Manson were admirable martyrs. Being a skilled guitarist he was a hit not only with teenagers but also with Hollywood celebrities and musicians: one of Manson’s songs is to be found (un-credited) on the Beach Boys record “2020”.

This 1992 documentary which visually has a bit of an 80s touch to it was written, produced and directed by Nick Bougas. The narrator Harold Wells talks his head off and doesn’t seem to breathe at all while tracing the steps and trying to find out how Manson built his commune-like “Family” and what, when the paranoia and delusions kicked in, made them do the senseless cruelties they committed and most famously cost the lives of Roman Polanski’s wife, actress Sharon Tate and her unborn child.
An associative picture-stream mixed with rich historical documentation as well as audio and video interviews with Manson himself make this feature an interesting as well as diverting piece of TV production in the midst of those myriads of books, exploitation films, comics, theatre plays, buttons, stickers and artwork there are on the topic.

As an encore the documentary shortly retells the story of two of the most notorious serial killers in the history of the US: the necrophile, cannibalistic and human-skinning Edward Gein who was part of the inspiration behind Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho” and the man who inspired “Texas Chain Saw Massacre”, John Gacy who sodomised, strangled and buried more than 30 boys most of them in his own house.

Documentary.net says: probably not the newest/best documentary on the subject out there but definitely a very good start for those interested.

“When I first started it, there were more of us and we were meeting every day. You know, just for the love of swimming and just fooling around and trying out new stunts”, Bouer recollects. “Aquadettes” not only takes place around the pool but follows Bouer, who has to use a walker and an electro-mobile through her daily life. “I don’t think about myself as an old person”, says Bouer, who also touches upon the suicide thoughts she had when her health started to take a turn for the worse. “It was staying alive versus killing myself.”

Elderly peoples’ worries about sickness and near death are still a taboo in today’s society; listening to what this charismatic, graceful woman has to say is a remarkable experience and makes this film very commendable and touching. The directors also manage to bring humour to the film, for example when they have the Aquadettes pose to the Beach Boys song “California Girls”.

Though the film picks Bouer for a closer portrayal, it also is about the importance of team work, about working together towards a common goal. When the women try new swimming choreographies you can clearly see the joy in their faces.

“Aquadettes” manages to tell more in its 10 minute running time than some other docs do in 90 minutes. A great film about not giving in to helplessness.

documentary.net says: A very touching and nicely photographed short.

Along the way we meet Leonardo, a coffee bean harvester who is learning to play the harp; Aníbal, a young trumpet prodigy; Luis Alfredo, who dreams of playing in a symphony orchestra; Antony, an 11-year-old sifting through trash at a garbage dump, who receives his first music lesson from Henri, a music school director working to establish a youth orchestra. There are also several riveting interviews with indígenas from the Amazonas province, fighting to overcome discrimination and geographical barriers with their orchestra. A poetic, inspiring film about how music can change the world for the better.

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The recommendable documentary “The Girl done Good” shows the most important aspects of her life and work, both the successful and the hard times while never being sensationalist. It was released in 2008 and is rich in live clips, shows rare interview material and gathers experts and companions of hers like renowned R’n’B singer Geno Washington or the Guardian’s music journalist Paul Lester who discuss her career and are also able to explain fractions of the genius that was Amy Winehouse.

Born in North London her talents for music and rebellion soon became obvious. She went to the prestigious Sylvia Young Stage School, which was attended by the likes of Actress and Pop Singer Billie Piper or All Saints’ Natalie and Nicole Appleton. Amy – of course – got kicked out. “A barrel of attitude”:  neurotic, psychotic and with a voice which by the tender age of 16 could already conjure up the strength and vulnerability of Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald alike. She was speaking the Language of Jazz as if it were her mother tongue.

But Amy Winehouse never was purely retro, even with her 2003 debut “Frank”, a record that brought a Jazz and Soul revival to popular culture, she mixed street-aware lyrics with vintage music. She was rightly described to inhabit a song, not just sing it. And soon she began melting the old, the classic into the modern with hints of Hip Hop, Rap and with the help of Mark Ronson’s Production skills in an urban and contemporary context. A process that lead to the huge success that was (and is) her second album “Back to Black”. But the world-wide fame brought with it big amounts of anxiety and a drastic image change from teenage Jazz vocalist to tattooed beehive-diva.

While record companies now shortly after her untimely death are undoubtedly rubbing their hands (it is said that Amy Winehouse left behind raw material for three albums) and Tabloids are evoking the famous club 27 again people shouldn’t forget about the essence that made her what she was: a vulnerable and edgy artist with lots of dry humour who was (brutally) honest and real both in her lyrics and the way she interpreted every song.

Documentary.net says: A quite sensitive and brilliantly diverse insight into life and career of a one-in-her-generation artist. A must-see for anyone who’s interested in great music.

To this day critics fight over this epic piece of musical history being either the final classic record of the Millennium or the first album of the 21^st century. An opus magnum that is described to be a counter culture in itself.

The nearly one hour-long documentary “OK Computer – A Classic Album under Review” of 2006 does as promised – it reviews the entire album song by song, analyzes the music and interprets the lyrics. And that’s it. Although insight is given by a number of journalists and experts by the likes of Mark Paytress (“Radiohead: A Guide To Their Music”), Mojo editor Barney Hoskyns, Radiohead biographer Alex Ogg, Dai Griffiths (“Radiohead 33 1/3”) and David Stubbs (Melody Maker, Wire), the real protagonists are nowhere to be seen or heard. It definitely is a let down that there are no interviews with the band or anyone else involved in the production of “OK Computer”, not even tapes of the recording sessions or that whole shebang. Included are bits and pieces of live footage, but the main focus lies on the spoken word.

This documentary goes out to an interested crowd who always craved to know, what the term „ok computer“ really stood for, who wants to learn more about Thom Yorke’s paranoia concerning modern mechanical transport and who is interested in the influences the musical genius that is Jonny Greenwood might have had.

Documentary.net says: conventional featurette about one of the most innovative musical works of its time. Suited for the more hardcore type of fan who despite of his or her fandom still doesn’t know it all.

If you like this film you might want to check out another great „collage film“ from the same year: The Atomic Cafe, directed by Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty and Pierce Rafferty also uses US propaganda films from the 1950s – the result is as shocking as it is funny and tells a lot about the atmosphere of the Cold War.

documentary.net says: Engaging documentary with a message that shouldn’t be forgotten.

Watch this film here