Discovery Will Air Documentary About Mandela’s Life.

Yesterday was a sad day for the world one of the most influential men of this century has passed away. Nelson Mandela was 95 when he passed away. The former president of South Africa is know as the figure head of the movement to end apartheid.

The Documentary “Making Mandela” will air first in the United Kingdom and then to other Discovery Communications affiliates around the world, and will air here on Sunday.

The hour long film will focus on Mandela’s life, starting with the the Sharpesville Massacre, leading to his fight against apartheid, to his imprisonment for 27 years and his election as president of South Africa.

As a teaser to the movie discovery posted footage of Nelson Mandela’s release on their YouTube channel.

The film will be narrated by actor David Harewood, who played Mandela, but will be aired without credits “as a mark of respect for Mandela.” says Discovery.

Weekend of a Champion

Formula One is known for its big money, high-tech, and of course fast cars. Jackie Stewart is a pretty big name in the Formula One racing community and was also friends with a name that is another well-known name in the move world, Roman Polanski. Their friendship fostered a film about Stewart over the weekend of the 1971 Monaco Grand Prix.

Courtesy: Deadline.com

The film originally had a small release in Europe but recently was saved from being destroyed.  It was released at the Cannes Film festival in May and through a deal with Netflix was released in the US this week.

The film chronicles both Polanski and Stewart’s relationship while also  giving a glimpse into the life of a champion Formula One driver.  The film lacks the drama of newer documentaries but still holds up in a modern setting.

For racing and Polanski fans this is a must see.

Rebel Music

MTVU will premier the debut of a new documentary series known as “Rebel Music” this coming Monday and it will focus on the struggles of young artist in areas of conflict.

The First twu segments will be on Eygypt  at 9 and Afghanistan at 9:30.After that each of the other four , will be on Mali, India, Israel/Palestine, and Mexico,and will be broadcast weekly on MTVU’s channel and on their website. 

Unfortunately as of now, the site is unavailable, hopefully it will be available by Nov. 18. I feel that this could affect the popularity of the series because for a channel that is focused on college students I doubt many students pay for TV bundles that have MTVU. most students  know have basic cable or use the internet exclusively.

The series will be produced by Shepard Fairey, who is know for his activism, and artwork.

Artwork done for the Obama Campaign. Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Barack_Obama_Hope_poster.jpg

MTVU quoted Fairly as saying,

“Rebel Music mirrors the approach and philosophy I’ve embraced throughout my entire career – art as a catalyst for social change. MTV World has the ability to reach and give voices to young people around the world on a scale unlike a lot of other platforms, and it’s something to applaud,” said Shepard Fairey. “Rebel Music is reporting on very important content and ideas that remind people of the power of the combination of music, art, and activism. I’m excited to be working with the Rebel Music team on such a vital project for today’s generation.”

I’m very interested in seeing this on Monday, and also hope that the web site is up and running by then because that’s the only way I will see it.

“Hollow An Interactive Documentary “

I mentioned this film in the past and last night it was screened at WVU. Elaine McMillion ‘s Hollow is a film about West Virginia’s McDowell county.

The film goes into depth about the history, and the decline of this Southern county. This “Film” is unique because unlike most where the viewer is led by the hand on a narrative in this “Interactive ” Format the viewer can scroll down a time line and view over thirty interviews as you scroll. I guess film isn’t the right word for it it is more of a hybrid film and website.
The videos feature residents from all walks of life and show the multiple sides of McDowell county as well as some fun scenes.

McMillion not only is a WVU graduate but also was a major contributing factor in forming The WV Uncovered Coarse. She recently spoke about her forming of the class as well as on finding her on path.

McMillion also so went into depth about her making of Hollow while in school at Emmerson College.

For a taste of what I’m talking about here is a link it is recommended that you use Google Chrome.

Related articles

• ‘Hollow’ debuts on W.Va. Day, screenings Saturday (mysanantonio.com)
• “Hollow- An Interactive Documentary” (lauraefend.wordpress.com)

Black Fish on CNN

This past week CNN aired the controversial documentary “Black Fish”. This film focuses on the Orca Whales held and captivity and the safety of trainers. The film was motivated by the 2010 death of a Sea World Trainer.  This has caused a major lash out at Sea World from activist groups. The film also has some questioning whether it is ethical to bring children to the park.

The film it cusses the ethics of keeping these animals in parks like sea world

Here we have the director explaining why she made her film in here own words.

But on the other side of the controversy is some feel that the parks are doing a service Here we have Jack Hanna explaining his point of view.

Hanna and Cowperthwaite also debated the film on CNN

One solution is the parks could possibly become animal sanctuaries for the  Whales.

My personal Belief on the whole thing is a mixture of uncertainty, and wonder. I  feel uncomfortable at zoos and other wildlife parks, because of the unnatural settings these animals are kept in, but I  agree with Hanna’s point that there is a lot to be learned from animals in captivity. I  feel that giving children the opportunity to experience these animals opens their minds to conservation and ecological efforts.

GoPro Social Media Pros

In the film community, GoPro is know for their resilient products , but in the social media circles they are known for their expert execution of twitter post, for advertising.

Two things that GoPro does to dominate social media advertising are the picture and video of the day posts and the Daily “Everything We Make” contest.

My favorite the Picture and video of the day is in my opinion the best possible way for GoPro to advertise their product; they simply post submissions from GoPro users and every day they post the “winner”. There doesn’t appear to be any prize for this other than recognition, but because of the GoPro camera’s versatility and indestructibility, they produce some of the most unique and entertaining videos and pictures I have ever seen.

These marketing strategies save money but also show users unique ways they can use the product.  The bold advertising strategy can be attributed to the bold inventor Nick Woodman.

In general the GoPro is a great product, I actually own the Hero 3 White edition myself and they only complaints I have are a low battery life, and the lack of an LCD screen. Though there is one offered it is a bit pricey to be bought separately of the camera itself.

Restrepo

This film completely changed my view on documentaries. Produced in 2010 it follows a platoon of army rangers in one of the most dangerous valleys of Afghanistan.

I enjoyed this film for two reasons 1) It was at the time in my field of interest, back when I was a political science major the politics of war was my favorite subject, and 2) because to date it represents American troops in combat in the truest and most realistic form I have ever seen on film. The film does not try to glorify war and it doesn’t make the soldiers out to be these macho invincible super men, really they show their immaturity, and their youth despite their circumstance.

Up until I saw this I had a vague idea of what combat was like from stories my grandma told about my grandfather, or from other family members, but  until this point I will admit I had this idea that it was still “fun.” I wanted to be one of those guys with the big guns and face paint, but I realized after this film and after reading Slaughter-House Five the toll that war takes and the fear and desperation of combat. The first 5 mins alone show the juxtaposition of young men happy and hopeful to the terror of war.

This film does not dance around the subject of death; in fact it is named after a solider that was killed during the beginning of filming.

They used  sparse narration and the occasional interview. This helps rip the viewer from his or her couch into a full blown combat zone.

If you haven’t seen this film, I would recommend it even if you are not into action , or war movies. It is and it isn’t an action movie, however it is a great representation on the risks our armed service men and women face will over seas.

West Virginia Documentaries

Today I would like to write about some local documentaries that embody West Virginia in my opinion.

First up is “Reconstructing Bill” this is a biography of West Virginia’s 24th Governor William C. Marland. Marland’s had an interesting life and it makes for a unique viewing of an intelligent man who turned to alcoholism and eventually reformed, but dies shortly after. I found this while looking for references for my West Virginia Goverment class and actual found it useful as well as oddly interesting.

Next up the unique interactive documentary “Hollow” the project director Elaine McMillion  is a graduate of WVU so I already have a soft spot for it. It takes a different approach to the documentary format and describes a very West Virginian history of the rise and fall of McDowell County.

Finally we have “Behind the Lights” this is really just a shameless shout out to my buddy Tyler Channell, but the film is a deep look  at the folk who work in to the coal mines of West Virginia.

Generally West Virginia is known for coal mines, and each of these three documentaries touch on this but each look at a different angle of them.

Film Festivals October 2013

If you like documentaries its likly that your are a film buff. So I thought it would be cool to have a way to quickly find some film festivals  around the world this month.

So there are a ton of festivals all over the world, and it is awesome.This site has list of film festivals with descriptions in order by month.

Here I have a map with this months festivals with there web address.

You can click on each one and the image will lead to it’s individual web page.

Personaly

Crowd Source Documetaries

In straight journalism there is a trend toward crowd-sourcing journalism, such a CNN’s use of twitter on set for opinions, as well as multiple news organizations use of video footage from Youtube.

One documentary has caught on to the trend and had it’s subjects film themselves.Kevin MacDonald’s Life in a Day.This film allowed different individuals to upload videos to Youtube from all walks of life around the world on July 24 2010, and then edited the videos resulting in a montage of different individuals life stories.

This film found a unique way to reduce cost by instead of trying to travel all over the world with camera crews and equipment ,”Life in a Day” archived an almost impossible task with a little bit of ingenuity.

The crowd-sourcing method also has the secondary affect of allowing the subject to be more comfortable and relaxed with the camera. I believe this is  is why we have scene like this and this that allow a very personal view into a subjects life.