I recently watched a documentary about Pedophilia in the movie industry. It is really a disgusting and disturbing thing in general, but this industry amplifies how bad it can really be. The movie is called “An Open Secret” and it’s a long, painful watch if you find it hard to grapple with the subject matter. It’s currently on youtube, and I believe that’s the only place you can find it.

I won’t say everything that I can about this movie, but I think everyone who enjoys film, not just documentaries, should give this a watch. This movie throws around incredibly recognizable names that will stun you. Personally, I have stopped seeing (or at least paying) movies that would make these men any money at all. The amount of people involved in this black market industry is really mind-numbing. What makes it worse is how blatant it all is, and how the overwhelming evidence doesn’t matter because of who these executives are. Money is the only reason that all of these men aren’t behind bars.

This film alone contains many testimonials from victims of these Hollywood pedophile big-shots. There are hundreds of others that are too ashamed to go in front of a camera but would go in front of a courtroom. Scare tactics and money are the things holding them back.

This film is mainly comprised of interviews, pictures with narration voiceovers, and some home footage. It scored a 93% on rotten tomatoes, but is relatively unheard of. Awareness on this topic needs to be heightened, and a perfect way to do it is to watch this movie and share it with someone else. I don’t expect anyone to go out and start raising money for a courtroom battle, but I think watching the movie and not paying for any films made by these directors and producers will be enough.

“Night and Fog” came out in 1955, and it was a short thirty-two minutes film. It was directed by Alain Resnais, ten years after the end of World War II in 1945. The text and voice over was written and read by Jean Cayrol. He was a poet and a political prisoner held in Gusen, a Nazi camp in Austria. I noticed they used color for present, and black/white for the past. They provided pictures/images, and videos as evidence. This film really got to me emotionally, with all the graphic images, videos, angles they shot, and the way the speaker spoke. A few examples of what I saw in this film were, a big mountain pile of women’s hair, scratches on the ceiling from the gas chambers, books of people’s names, and dead bodies with their heads chopped up in a separate pile. Even though this film was short, it was very powerful.

“Shoah” came out in 1985, and it was a long nine-and-a-half-hour film. Shoah in Hebrew means annihilation (Holocaust). It has no archival material, it was based on eyewitness testimony only. This film includes present day interviews with survivors, Nazis, and people who lived near camps; there were also translators in this film. You can tell the difference in emotion between the witness’s speaking and the survivor’s speaking. I did think the scene in the beginning with the singing, rowing in the boat surrounded by nature was beautiful. This film showed not only the interviews itself, but also audio while showing images or videos, and they showed some sort of map/blue print while the witness was giving him the rundown of what he saw inside the camps. Apparently, this witness worked there, but didn’t know exactly what was going on. I didn’t like the way the interviewer was pushing one of the survivors in one of their interviews (the man that was smiling a lot). I really liked how the man who smiled a lot showed such positive attitude even after what he has been through. This film did not get to me as emotionally as “Night and Fog;” then again, I didn’t get to see the whole film.

Overall, I did like both films, but I thought “Night and Fog” is a good representation of what a documentary should be.

The film we watched last Tuesday,  was such a heartbreaking documentary that  I’ve seen on the holocaust. It really took a toll of me because I am very emotional especially once I get to see how mess up people can be to cause so much hurt to someone without even carrying. I personally think that still today we are going through similar situation where many people just don’t care about anyone, Which to me just sounds so crazy to know that in reality many people haven’t change even after all the hurtful situation that might have pass years ago we continue to do the same. I hope that we can end all these situation one day for the best of all us. This film is an eye opening for someone that doesn’t know how much innocent Jewish were affect by the Holocaust & still today how many other individually are facing similar situation all over the world.

 

Their Final Destination

The film we watched last Tuesday, Night and Fog was probably the first documentary I’ve seen on the holocaust. In the beginning it shows people freely filling up these train carts to their final destination. No one had a clue of what or where they’d be going, if so, I highly doubt one would get on those carts of the black transport so willingly. Carts were packed about 100 people per cart. One scene shows this family where it was a father and his three kids. One kid looked about 4 or 5 years old and as he looked directly into the camera it seemed as if he didn’t want to go and it’s as if he knew where he was going wasn’t going to end well for his family. As majority if not all, arrived at their final destination, they were given striped uniforms, tattoos and were shaved. The SS were watching them which means the doctors were also SS. These doctors would experiment on them, doing all types of harsh, unimaginable things to these innocent people. Later in the documentary, it showed those who were too weak to fight for their meals as starving thieves took advantage of the frail. As these photos and footage were shown, it made me feel helpless. I wasn’t thought of while this happened but it’s like these innocent people were treated like this because they were Jewish. They showed those who were decapitated, starved, and those who were regretted getting on the Black Transport. At the end, it was bodies after bodies that were just dropped into ditches. Young, old, man, woman, they were just lifeless and being tossed as if they weren’t once human. One part that sticks to me is when the lady had her eye socket blown out and they just tossed into that pit. Right after her was a man who looked like he’s been shot with a cannon to his back side. The ending images of this documentary were very disturbing but they were real. Knowing that these images were real just makes Hitler look even more evil. I can’t recall who it was who said this but, there were three Nazi’s who went to court and they all said, “I’m not responsible”. That boiled my blood because not only did they help set this entire transport to these camps up but they really wouldn’t fess up to this monstrosity. They caused millions to die and said these three words and were not found guilty, like you took millions of lives and there’s no to own up to their horrendous crimes? Guess it was just too much handle, although taking the lives of innocents wasn’t much.

 

 

         A few days ago, I binged on “American Vandal”. It’s a mockumentary where a high school student is trying to find the truth behind a huge high school prank on the staff gone too far. One student is expelled as he is the only person that “fits”. It is hilarious, the prank itself is funny, but it does a great job of showing you the way a documentary would be worked on. The documentarist as he at some point addresses himself as, shows the work ethic it takes to create something like a documentary. All his interviews, the research and questioning of everyone, all the theories. I mean documentarist aren’t just filmmakers, they become scientists, detectives, whatever they need to be “to find the truth”. That stuck out to me, this work of fiction, a show about some high school mockup getting blamed for something he would probably end up doing anyway, it’s a damn great piece of work. I mean it may honestly be some of the best insight into a documentary that I have seen in a while, it parodies true crimes but it’s a whole lot more honest than most of those series. Most of all it’s a hell of a lot more honest than “Nanook of the north”. Don’t get me wrong Nanook was kind of cool, but let’s be honest it was staged and fake and wasn’t exactly upfront about it. It didn’t have a message, it didn’t shed any light on an issue, or even try to reach any truth. This Netflix original which is upfront about its mocking nature. It does hold message although at the very end in a short speech, and it certainly goes about showing some real-life process that a documentary or crime research might go through and I mean that’s cool. Seeing as I’m passing 300 words by now, American Vandal set out to make a fake crime documentary on probably the most bro humor topic you could think of, yet it gave the viewer a view into what the work is like and you walked away with a message and maybe even some truth. It’s a bit weird to think that this is what we call mockumentaries while Nanook is still a “real” documentary, props to Netflix for making what some may see as a joke of a genre into something that honestly holds its weight.

I watched this movie A few weeks ago. I had not watched the first one so I honestly didn’t know what to expect. I liked the fact that it was well organized and the characters were developed. I could picture what the child’s life was like based on hints that the filmmaker gave. For instance with the main girl character which I can’t recall her name at this moment. The viewer was able to tell she was going through a tough time her father was abusing her. Her way of dealing with it was her image she cut her hair like a boy at almost the end of the movie. This was her way of coping with the pain. Also the children were being over protective and not allowed to be children. Another concept that I enjoyed about the movie was that it wasn’t really scary it had a lot of comedy. For instance when the kids were throwing rocks at each other it had a voice over with a weird sound in slow motion. That is one of the ways the filmmaker played with the audience. It himself was very creative in the ways he would show up and scare the child for instance when they were watching the film he appeared as a women. Then when the women’s hair flew from her face you can see his face and he is smiling. Another way he appeared was when the girl character was cutting her hair and putting a metric meter inside the sink because she heard a noise. He threw blood all over the bathroom and then the girls father came in the room but he wasn’t able to see anything only the kids were able to see all the blood on the walls. They also helped her clean it up which was odd. I think “It” just wanted the kids.

 

 

I recently watched a documentary on UFOs. I know what you’re thinking, but do you know why you’re thinking it? After that statement most people would roll their eyes, laugh, or write me off as a lunatic conspiracy theorist, but why? Given the nearly infinite amount of planets in the ever-expanding universe, and the billions that can support life, why is it so improbable that we have made contact with aliens? The answer: it’s not, and this documentary explains why.

I admit giving this film a watch will require an open mind, but if you think of everything scientifically, it will not be hard to swallow. It’s far more probable that we have had extraterrestrial contact than not. After all, could we really be the ONLY species in the entire universe to develop a form of higher intelligence (13 billion years after its creation no less)? Humans are a fairly young species, and we’ve accomplished so much in so little time, but have you ever wondered why we have been stagnant for the past hundred years or so? I did as well… until I saw this documentary.

Truthfully I’ve believed in the existence in extraterrestrial life for my entire life. The little greens guys flying around on flying saucers was a little tough for me to believe, but I believed in some form of life outside of Earth. This documentary only affirmed this idea in my mind. This documentary does make some rather outlandish claims, that I really hope aren’t true, but make sense. I think this movie is something everyone in the world should watch, because even if you choose not to believe, at least you can understand others. I truly hope that people can come out and scientifically refute the claims made in this film until then I will be skeptical, and hopeful on my own.

 

Unacknowledged is on Netlflix

While watching Triumph of the Will i couldnt help but think of the Imperial army from Star Wars. I was able to tell instantly that George Lucas took some inspiration from Leni Riefenstahl. Triumph of the Will portrays the might of the Nazis through primarily imagery using 30,000 extras that are completely organized. Most scenes included Nazis marching in massive formations, which was surprisingly intimidating as a viewer. I think the extent of the organization portrayed in Triumph of the Will is the most intimidating. Everyone marches in unison, thousands of them, creating a powerful image of might. I can definitely see how this inspired George Lucas when determining how he would portray the empire in Star Wars. Marching scenes from Triumph of the Will invokes a feeling of fear that no other film captures. However i think that Star Wars recreation of these scenes capitalize off of history by using the famous Triumph of the Will formations and marches to which many associate with the evil Nazis to create a further hatred towards the imperials in Star wars franchise. I believe George Lucas fully intended that his audience would subconsciously/consciously associate these scenes with evil. Whether or not you have seen Triumph of the Will, the notorious scenes of the marching Nazis are used to represent the Nazis in many books and movies which George lucas capitalized off of to create the infamous Imperial March.

Declaring  Triumph of the will as an exceptional piece of film would be the least someone can say . If you interpret all the fundamentals of film making I believe this film represents it entirely. But Of curse if you throw ethics in there it can change someone’s opinion . Why I throw ethics as a factor of changing someone mind its because it personally changed mine. When I found out the movie was banned from Germany it made me want to answer the obvious question as In why? Through my own critical thinking I believe it came from shame . Shame that the people fell into the traps of hell. How a whole country can look playful and enthusiastic and bow to the feet of their “savoir”. When he was a mass murderer. And I continue by saying I don’t blame the people.Where there is direction people will follow even though the direction was illuminated and painted a picture of right it was wrong. But just because you were led wrong doesn’t mean you cant acknowledge there was once harm done by you. I believe this film fits into the reflexive category as it calls questions to the conventions and methodologies of documentary film. It also falls partial in biography mode. Having part of Adolf Hitler’s life. Over all I feel the film shed much needed light to what was taken place with the people surrounding the world war and the holocaust, being such vital parts of world history. World history can be directly tied with leading doc film and their purposes.

This propaganda film was directed by, Leni Riefenstahl in 1935, and it was paid for by the German Nazi party. Some of the things they showed in this film were, how they clean themselves, cook, labor work, big ceremonies, and Hitler standing up in his car, while being driven down the streets greeting his people. This film showed a lot of people smiling and saluting him, and everything seems strict and in order. This film portrayed Hitler as a powerful and respected leader; his people makes promises to him, and obeys him only. However, this film is more than meets the eye; most of it was staged, knowing they were being filmed. I don’t think their daily lives is exactly as what we saw in the film, and because they wanted us to perceive Hitler as someone powerful and great; making his country great. It’s not like Leni Riefenstahl could add the other side to the story in the film, because she was being paid by them to make the film a certain way. Leni Riefenstahl knew what she was getting into, so even if she wanted to portray Hitler or Germany in another way, she couldn’t, and that’s something she must deal with. As for if this film should be banned or not, because it is banned in Germany. I can understand why people would want it banned, and why some people would think it’s okay to keep it; I’m neutral about this topic. Some examples to why people would want it banned, because it’s traumatizing, it leaves a bad taste in your mouth, ashamed of what their country did or what their people did, and to them Hitler is like Voldemort (he who shall not be named). Reasons why people would say it’s okay to keep it, because even though it takes you to a dark place, and bad memories, we can gain knowledge from it, and learn from it.

I started watching this documentary series on Netflix this past week while we had some time off from school. It’s so good! I’m really interested in what this kind of documentary *is* in relation to feature documentary films and in relation to reality TV shows. As nonfiction filmaking and media becomes more and more popular, viewers seem to have a greater interest in these kinds of shows – both for their entertainment value but also for their educational / informational value. The directors here are definitely good at constructing stories out of the actual events of these football players / community college students’ lives, and I suspect the show appeals to fans of fiction shows like Friday Night Lights. So I wonder about a lot here: what are the ethical considerations related to this series? What do the creators want viewers to do with the information presented here? What can we take away?

For me, I fixated on a scene in the second episode where the athletic academic advisor was helping some of the players by telling them what the story was about that they should have read for an English class (!!!). I at once really like that she has a close relationship with these students (they really seem to need that), but then I wish she hadn’t given them what amounted to answers to the quiz they were about to take.

It might be interesting for us to watch a couple episodes of this show later in the semester.

 

 

“Sometimes???? Filmmakers really need to look at a cast and ask themselves: are there too many men here??? How many men do we really need??? Why are there so many men” I came across this post on a social media account and there was another post under it with the same thing with different concerns for them. The audience are starting to speak up about what they want from filmmakers. Maybe the audience has always expressed the way they felt but this was a first for me to see it. There are several films whether old or new that are slightly biased with the cast. Some filmmaker’s casts too much of certain people based off gender, race, and other physical appearances. Recently there has been quite a few outbursts, if you want to call it that, that show other actors or actresses that turned down a role or spoke out for their colleagues because of the discrimination they faced. The audiences aren’t the only ones who’s had enough of not having a more diverse cast. This quote does remind of the discussion we had in class about ethics. As we summarized wat Nichols said in chapter 2, we described the purpose of ethics for a filmmaker. The filmmaker would have respect toward those who are being filmed. Yes, these are actors but does that mean just because lines are given to them that they shouldn’t still be respected? Some filmmakers are known for their work based off their usual style, some would have too much of this in their film or too less of something. Some of the audience are just tired of the same old roles, played by the same old’ actors or actresses. It’s time for a change and some filmmakers are adjusting their work but is it enough for their viewers?