Thursday, September 15, 2011

Lights, Camera, Documentary!

As of today, there are 74 holds on Source Code; 75 holds on The Adjustment Bureau; 72 holds on The Lincoln Lawyer.  So, you've got some time before these popular movies hit your DVD player. Have you considered picking up a documentary in the interim?  ABC Libraries has a great non-fiction DVD selection! Here are some of the docs on my to-watch list:

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
The cameras follow trailblazing comic Joan Rivers for a year and cover her entire career, from her break on the Carson show to her heartbreak over the suicide of her husband and her role on Celebrity Apprentice. Rivers reveals her relentless desire to keep working with humor and empathy. Wickedly funny and surprisingly moving, Rivers is once again returned to the spotlight she so richly deserves and cements her reputation as one of stand-up's towering figures.

Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo
This documentary explores Japan's fascination and love affair with insects. The film intertwines their love for something so mundane, be it a beetle or butterfly, with their cultural values and traditions. In the end, it challenges viewers to not only alter their view of insects but also our lives.

Bill Cunningham New York
Bill Cunningham has been obsessively and inventively chronicling fashion trends and high society charity soirees for the New York Times Style section in his columns On the Street and Evening Hours for decades. Presented is a delicate, funny, and often poignant portrait of a dedicated artist whose only wealth is his own humanity and unassuming grace.

American: The Bill Hicks Story
The amazing true story of one of modern culture's most iconic figures. Much more than just a comedian, his comedy challenged the injustices of life head on, but his uncompromising approach met with conflict in America and it was instead on the international stage where he found fame.

Dive!
Inspired by a curiosity about society's careless habit of sending food straight to landfills, the multi award-winning documentary Dive! follows filmmaker Jeremy Seifert and friends as they dumpster dive in the back alleys and gated garbage receptacles of Los Angeles' supermarkets. In the process, they salvage thousands of dollars worth of good, edible food, resulting in an eye-opening documentary that is equal parts entertainment, guerilla journalism, and call to action.

Phil Ochs: There But for Fortune
Over the course of a meteoric music career that spanned two turbulent decades, Phil Ochs sought the bright lights of fame and social justice in equal measure, a contradiction that eventually tore him apart. From youthful idealism to rage to pessimism, the arc of Ochs's life paralleled that of the times, and the anger, satire, and righteous indignation that drove his music also drove him to dark despair. A timely and relevant tribute to an unlikely American hero.

Vanishing of the Bees
Honeybees have been mysteriously disappearing across the planet, literally vanishing from their hives. Filmed across the U.S., in Europe, Australia, and Asia, examine the alarming disappearance of honeybees and the greater meaning it holds about the relationship between mankind and Mother Earth. As scientists puzzle over the cause, organic beekeepers indicate alternative reasons for this tragic loss.

The Cats of Mirikitani
Eighty-year-old Jimmy Mirikitani survived the trauma of WWII internment camps, Hiroshima, and homelessness by creating art. But when 9/11 threatens his life on the New York City streets and a local filmmaker brings him to her home, the two embark on a journey to confront Jimmy's painful past. An intimate exploration of the lingering wounds of war and the healing power of community and art.

Up the Yangtze
A "farewell cruise" takes a luxury ship up the vast Yangtze River shortly before completion of the massive Three Gorges Dam. The passengers glimpse a rapidly changing countryside, while the local people struggle to adapt as their lives are irrevocably altered.

Rivers and Tides: Andy Goldsworthy Working with Time
Follows Andy Goldsworthy's bohemian free spirit all over the world as he demonstrates and opens up about his creative process. From his long-winding rock walls and icicle sculptures to his interlocking leaf chains and multi-colored pools of flowers. Goldsworthy's painstakingly intricate masterpieces are made entirely of materials found in Mother Nature - who threatens and often succeeds in destroying his art, sometime before it is even finished.

The Garden
The fourteen-acre community garden at 41st and Alameda in South Central Los Angeles is the largest of its kind in the United States. Started as a form of healing after the devastating L.A. riots in 1992, the South Central Farmers have since created a miracle in one of the country's most blighted neighborhoods. Growing their own food. Feeding their families. Creating a community. But now, bulldozers are poised to level their 14-acre oasis.

Wordplay
A look into the world of New York times crossword puzzle aficionados, whose ranks include the likes of Bill Clinton, Bob Dole, and Jon Stewart. Focuses on New York times puzzle editor Will Shortz and participants in the 28th Annual American Crossword Tournament in Stamford, Connecticut.

Grey Gardens/The Beales of Grey Gardens
After Grey Gardens spawned everything from a midnight-movie cult following to a Broadway musical to an upcoming Hollywood adaptation, the filmmakers went back to their vaults to create this tribute to both the Beale women and their legion of fans. This editions contains the original 1975 documentary & the 2006 documentary.

Icons Among Us: Jazz in the Present Tense
Looks at the jazz music scene today. Through interviews, performance footage, and the voices of the musicians themselves, we explore this music and the divirgent influences that are shaping the world of jazz at the beginning of the 21st century.

Budrus
They not only save the village, but the Barrier is pushed back behind the Green Line into No Man's Land. In the process, Ayed and Iltezam unleash an inspiring, yet little-known, movement in the Occupied Palestinian Territories that is still gaining ground today. In an action-filled documentary featuring archival footage of this movement from its infancy, Budrus will inspire and challenge audiences worldwide.

Athlete
Examines the growing popularity of endurance sports among ordinary Americans and profiles four people: a cancer survivor, a blind senior citizen and twin sisters, who are redefining what it means to be an "athlete".

The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl
Depicts the long, turbulent, and productive life of Leni Riefenstahl, former dancer and filmmaker to Hitler, whose Triumph des Willens and Olympia were prime Nazi propaganda documents. In disrepute after World War 2, Riefenstahl turned to anthropological filmmaking and underwater cinematography.

Garbage Warrior
Garbage Warrior is a feature-length documentary film telling the epic story of maverick US architect Michael Reynolds and his fight to introduce radicallly sustainable housing. An extraordinary tale of triumph over bureaucracy, Garbage Warrior is above all an intimate portrait of an extraordinary individual and his dream of changing the world.

Soul Power
In 1974 the most celebrated American R&B acts of the time came together with the most renowned musical groups in Southern Africa for a 12-hour, three-night concert held in Kinshasa, Zaire. The music festival became a reality when Hugh Masekela and Stewart Levine convinced boxing promoter Don King to combine the event with the 'Rumble in the Jungle,' the epic fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman.

Touch the Sound
Opens the door to a world where sight, sound, and touch magically converge to elevate our everyday sensory experiences. With Evelyn Glennie, Grammy winning percussionist who is also deaf.

Rize
An intimate, completely fresh portrayal of inner city youth who have created art where before there was none. Surrounded by drug addiction, gangs and impoverishment, they have developed a completely unique style of dance that evolves on a daily basis.

Last Chance to See
British comedian legend Stephen Fry and zoologist Mark Carwardine travel from the Amazon's steamy jungles to New Zealand's icy mountain tops seeking some of the most remarkable and endangered creatures of Earth. Entertaining and informative with a unique insight into the fascinating world that we are in danger of losing.

The Art of the Steal
It's been called the greatest theft of art since the Second World War. Reveals how a private collection of paintings became the envy of the Louvre, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and other major institutions, and the prize in a battle between one man's vision and the forces of commerce and politics. Founded in 1922 by wealthy American drug developer and art collector Albert C. Barnes, the Barnes Foundation became the finest collection of paintings by Renoir, Cezanne, Matisse, and Van Gogh.

Mad Hot Ballroom
Eleven-year-old New York City public school kids journey into the world of ballroom dancing, and from their candid and hilarious perspectives, reveal pieces of themselves along the way. This school program started in 1994 and today has over 6,000 kids from 60 schools involved.

See all the new movies & connect to the catalog to place holds using the New on DVD LibGuide.

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