documentary recommendations for naomi

Have I recommended Sad Song of Yellow Skin (1970), yet? It's a poetic and human look rather than an activist look at things going on in Vietnam.  You can watch it for free at the National Film Board of Canada's website by clicking this link, or you know, I'll just embed it here:





Incidentally, if you're looking for alternative media of short to feature lengths the NFB is a great place to go (nfb.ca). They've got fiction, documentary, experimental, animation, and a really great section of interactive media. Highrise is a really cool interactive documentary project with pictures, film, and interviews from people who live in highrise apartment buildings all over the world. I would also like to direct you to this. You will never think of stuttering in the same way.


And check out The Gleaners and I (2000) by Agnes Varda (my old french prof would like us to note that her first name is not pronounced Agnes but Ah-nyes. He kept correcting me and it took me a while before I stopped wondering why he kept saying "yes" to everything I was saying).


Or have I already recommended The Parking Lot Movie (2010), Grey Gardens (1975), or Land of Silence and Darkness (1971)? (Apparently the 70s were good for documentary?)


Recently a friend told me about seeing Ordet for the first time (not a documentary, but still really really really really really really really really really great) and how there was Before Ordet and After Ordet, as though it created a new epoch in his life. For me, there is Before Sans Soleil and After Sans Soleil. Made in 1983 by Chris Marker it's a compilation of the footage he's filmed over his lifetime traveling the world with thoughts he's had about the things he's seen and learned presented in a letter written by an alter-ego, Sandor Krasna. 


This is my quick list for you, I hope you find something interesting.


OH! WHAT AM I THINKING?! Naomi, you would love Born into Brothels (2004). Have you seen it?




Do you have some good documentary recommendations, my dears?