The proliferation of documentaries about streaming services makes it difficult to choose what to watch. Every month, we choose three non-fiction movies that reward your time (classic, recent overlooked documents, etc.).
“Movie about my father” (2020)
Stream on the Criterion Channel. Borrow Apple TV When Vudu..
In the movie About a Father Who, director Lynne Sachs sorts out her feelings about her elusive and problematic father, Ira Sachs Sr. A movie that combines movie and video formats is a compilation of footage shot by Lynn over 30 years. Her filmmaker’s brother, Ira Sachs Jr. (“Love Is Strange”), and along with other material from Ira Sr. himself.
From the beginning, Ira Sr. sounds a bit like flakes. Lynn explained what his father did to make a living, saying, “Hippie businessman, buying land too steep to build, bottling mineral water that couldn’t be put on the shelves, and others. He used his money to develop a hotel named after the flower .. ”He also seems to have been a serial compartment. Its features may have been harmless enough when it comes to luxury (he owned a Twin Cadillac Convertible and kept one secret), but it caused a big drama for his family. Lynn interviews some of the women Ira Sr. was involved with and many of his father’s children, including two grown-up half-sisters that Lin didn’t know until 2016. Lynn suggests that Ira Sr.’s confidentiality has led her and her brothers to adopt a stance that she calls “accomplice ignorance.” And Ira Sr.’s mother, called Maw-Maw by Lynne, had complicated problems only when she was alive. In the way we are taught to love our families. “
Nevertheless, in the interview, Ira Sr. comes across as a generous rug. He may be fun at parties, but he certainly has only a handful as his father and partner. Inspired by Yvonne Rainer’s “Film About a Woman Who,” the title “Film About a Father Who” is more than just a simple family dynamic, as a man’s laid-back attitude undulates across generations. I am considering how it was created. The movie only runs for 74 minutes, but includes a lifetime.
“Leviathan” (2012)
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Some documentaries aim to impose order on the world. In contrast, Leviathan enjoys a great deal of abstraction and disorientation, as Denislim pointed out in 2012 when profiling the New York Times filmmaker.Harvard Co-Directors Verena Paravel and Lucian Castan Taylor Sensory Ethnography LaboratoryA group that blends the discipline of ethnography with the artistic potential of filmmaking, filmed it during six trips aboard a Massachusetts trawler. But that is not the exposure or elucidation of the fishing industry. It begins with a quote from the Book of Job, unleashing a ferocious torrent of images that is often difficult to tell which direction is up, or even day or night.
As the title suggests, human presence is a secondary concern next to cranking that threatens the giant churn of the ocean and chains of boat equipment. Flooded, sleek fishermen are not identified until closing credits. Their voices are often almost incomprehensible (the distortion of their words suggests that Charlie Brown’s teacher was given some metallic feedback) and their routine was never explained. Hmm.
In an interview, the filmmakers said they tried to entrust some of their agencies to the elements. The waterproof camera is dragged into the water like a fishing net or pulled above the surface of the water and skips with the hovering seabirds. They are spinning around the floor with the catch of the day. It’s part of a wreckage as much as a can of ginger ale that rattles in a pile of shells. Shooting at very close distances or strange angles from boot height, Paravel and Castaing-Taylor provide a perspective from where the look and sound of a boat doesn’t seem to make sense to our eyes naturally. increase. It’s so vivid that I sometimes swear that it can also smell like a ship.
“The Velvet Underground” (2021)
Todd Haynes hasn’t exactly reinvented the Velvet Underground rock band biographical documentary, but he can look pretty close to it. The title is a misnomer in a sense. The band is not as focused as the cultural fermentation of Warholia in the 1960s when the group grew up. (It’s more underground, less, uh, velvet.) Dedicated to the memory of Jonas Mekas appearing, from a film by him and contemporary film artists such as Bruce Conner and Stan Brakhage. Featuring excerpts, Haynes’ films are just as interesting, with images, sounds, and sensations, like the history of recording.
The heavy use of split screen is reminiscent of Warhol’s “Chelsea Girls.” This is a piece of work that arranges images from two projectors side by side and alternates soundtracks between film strips to allow viewers to draw connections. In a similar spirit, Haynes is dedicated to capturing the cultural crossroads that shaped the band and its members.
John Cale, one of the band’s founders, talks about the impact of experimental musicians like John Cage and La Monte Young on the music he makes. Then, providing a fan’s perspective, musician Jonathan Richman talks about listening to “unexplained overtones” while watching the Velvet Underground performance. Film critic Amy Taubin draws a link between Warhol’s silent film (intended to play at a slower speed than the standard of 16 frames per second) and the avant-garde music scene.
Haynes’ films do not avoid standard biographical details. There’s a long section about Lou Reed’s bears and what happened to the band after the game-changing (if not famous) first album. But to watch The Velvet Underground as a movie, you don’t have to be interested in music or music at all.
