Elevate Difference

Reviews tagged documentary

Egypt: We're Watching You

A window into a world unavailable to most, Egypt: We're Watching You, is as much a depiction of a nation in jeopardy as one of a people actively pursuing progressive change. Documenting the 2005 Egyptian Parliamentary elections, the viewer gets a glimpse of the torrid corruption through the eyes of the people and the activists of Shayfeen.com. Shayfeen.com is dedicated to sharing the true story of what is happening in the streets of Egypt to the Egyptian people and the outside world.

Against a Trans Narrative

I did not know what exactly to expect when I inserted Against a Trans Narrative into my DVD player. Anticipating its arrival, I ran a brief Google search on the film and found myself at the official website, which seemed intentionally ambiguous.  About an hour later, I realized that Against a Trans Narrative was arguably the best movie about gender I’ve ever viewed. It’s remarkably intelligent, sensitive and powerful.

Bra Boys

I have to say, I thought I would hate Bra Boys. A documentary about the much maligned surfing gang of the poverty-stricken Maroubra Beach community in Australia, made by the _Bra Boys _themselves, I expected a lot of glorification of violence, sexism, and machismo.

Mohawk Girls

Mohawk Girls is a beautifully written and directed documentary film by Tracey Deer. Released in 2006, Deer parallels the lives of three teenage girls living on a reservation just outside of Montreal, Canada to her own experiences while struggling to grow up in a world that fails to reach out to those not living within the main steam culture.

The Mark of Cain

Although prison life is a dreary subject and Russian prison life even more so, The Mark of Cain is a film anyone interested in post-communist Russia must see. The documentary features interviews with Russian prison inmates.

These Girls

Documentarian Tahani Rached is allowed intimate access into the lives of a tight-knit group of teenage girls living on the streets of Cairo, Egypt. This motley band of girls includes Tata, the ringleader; Danya, the self-proclaimed “fireball"; Abeer; Ze’reda; Maryam and Big Sister Hind, who offers advice and a shoulder to lean on. Although these teens are “voluntarily” homeless, viewers soon learn that they have chosen what they consider to be the lesser of two evils: the streets versus their abusive homes. The film opens with Tata riding a horse down a street crowded with cars.

The Films of Su Friedrich, Vol. 5: The Odds of Recovery

The Odds of Recovery is an autobiographical account of the director’s years of health troubles, including several surgeries and a serious hormone problem that had a huge negative impact on her sex life and relationship with her partner. The film is an extremely personal self-portrait that can be uncomfortable to watch at times, but has enough dry humor and levity to keep it fairly balanced. I came into the film expecting it to boldly take on things like the ineffectiveness and incompetence of the health care industry, but found that was far from the case.

The Future of Food

The Future of Food, written, directed, and produced by Deborah Koons Garcia, is a fascinating and chilling look into the state of the food industry in this country. Patented, unlabeled, genetically engineered foods, and the corporations behind them, could be the doom of the United States, if not the human race, if the present situation continues. While biotechnology has always existed, the film points out that genetic engineering enters unknown territory.

How to be a Model (A 12 Step Plan)

How to be a Model (A 12 Step Plan) is everything you didn’t anticipate. This ex-model uses her newfound filmmaking skills to take viewers behind the scenes of this not-so-glamorous lifestyle, and - instead of teaching us how to become a model - she teaches us how to recover from modeling.

Hot and Bothered: Feminist Pornography

I jumped at the opportunity to review Becky Goldberg’s 37-minute documentary, Hot and Bothered: Feminist Pornography. I thought that perhaps I had found the perfect documentary to show in my intro to Women’s Studies course. Instead, I am disappointed because topics like safety for sex workers, unionization in the sex industry and issues of inclusion for people of varying body types, ethnicities, genders and sexualities is mentioned, but mostly glossed over.

The Peace Tree

The Peace Tree is a heartwarming, informative movie by producer and director Mitra Sen. There are funny, touching and beautiful moments throughout this compelling movie. At school, all different religious holidays are discussed and celebrated. I learned about Eid, the Muslim celebration that marks the end of Ramadan. But what happens at home is another story. Old prejudices are difficult to transcend, and parents are reluctant to allow their children to participate in the traditions of other faiths.

100 Dollars and a T-Shirt: A Documentary about Zines in the Northwest US

This is a documentation of Portland, Oregon’s zine scene between 2002 and 2004. While it’s kind of basic, it’s worth it to see what Portland’s Reading Frenzy and Independent Publishing Resource Center are doing. Reading Frenzy is amazing – a whole store full of zines. The IPRC, right upstairs, is a nonprofit art space dedicated to do-it-yourself publishing – mostly zines, but also letter press, desktop publishing and other crafty things.

My Country, My Country

I admit that I popped My Country, My Country into my DVD player with genuine trepidation. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this film and had prepared myself for the agonizing boredom that is inflicted by a truly awful movie. Fortunately, My Country, My Country was a captivating and heart wrenching tale that exposes the truth behind war. When we watch the evening news, we see images of soldiers, tanks and insurgents, but what we seldom see is the toll that is levied on the people living under these conditions on a daily basis.

Bare Hands and Wooden Limbs: Healing, Recovery and Reconciliation in Cambodia

The documentary is a shocking, consciousness-raising and eyes-opening movie. It is the true story of people living in post-war Cambodia, who try to re-build their country after years of dictatorship and fear. It is shows how they prepare the land to build new houses, how they clean the ground from millions of landmines and, finally, how they managed to make both ends meet. The viewer sees how the people learn new professions to survive and earn the living – some learn how to deal with livestock, some learn how to plough and others make tools.

Into the Field

The focus of Into the Field is the secular lives of the women living in the Romanian monastery, Varatec, rather than their spiritual ones. The everyday life of nuns is skimmed over by filmmaker Alyssa Grossman. Presumably, Varatec is as self-sustaining as possible due to its isolated location, and there are many shots of nuns working in the fields.

Cantankerous Titles and Obscure Ephemera, Volume 1

This DVD of short documentaries by Joe Biel was probably the best thing that’s come in the mail for me this month. I mean that; I don’t even get a lot of bills! Maybe, as someone who enjoys interviewing people, I am a bit biased, but I really enjoy the subjects Biel presents, as well as the way personal commentary figures in, yet is not contrived.

Return to the Land of Wonders

I was riveted by Maysoon Pachachi’s documentary about her homeland: Return to The Land of Wonders. She returns to Baghdad after a thirty-five year absence, soon after the U.S. invasion. The Baghdad she brings to the viewer is not one seen on CNN; she offers a rare insight into the committee (headed by her father, Adnan) working on the drafting of a temporary Iraqi Constitution and Bill of Rights.

At Highest Risk

Watching this film made me realize all the things I take for granted - for instance, the advanced practices we have in maternal medicine. Overall, At Highest Risk is about the conditions, process and risks Andean women endure, especially in the last months of pregnancy until the birth of the baby. A huge part of the film concentrates on certain laws and solutions that have been put into effect by the community and society in order to avoid complications or, worse, death due to giving birth.

The Abortion Diaries

In this 30-minute documentary short, director Penny Lane gathers a group of women around a kitchen table to share women’s stories about an experience that still does not get discussed openly: abortion. The interviews, interspersed with excerpts from Lane’s own diary about her abortion, are conversation snippets with twelve women who are Lane’s dinner party guests and other individual women lounging on couches and sitting in their yards.

Nazrah: A Muslim Woman's Perspective

Muslim women have received a lot of media attention recently: driver's license bureaus insisting they remove their head covering, fellow travelers regarding them suspiciously and with pity, and an enterprising Australian woman recently came out with a “burqini” that allows Muslim women to swim without violating their modesty standards. Rarely, though, do Westerners get to hear from Muslim women themselves. Farah Nousheen is an activist based in Seattle, WA.
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