Documentaries

Young@Heart : A documentary

YOUNG@HEART chronicles seven weeks in the lives of the members of the chorus as they prepare for a one-night-only concert in their hometown of Northampton, Massachusetts. The group is made up of two dozen spirited seniors — former schoolteachers, executives, doctors, and food service workers — who specialize in reinterpreting rock, punk, and R&B classics from a unique perspective. What ultimately emerges in the film is a funny and unexpectedly moving testament to friendship, creative inspiration, and expectations defied (via).

And it's one of my favorite documentaries. 

Not because its highly entertaining or expounds upon some new or fascinating idea, but because its devoid of it. 

It's simple, yet extremely personal and human, and it just about brings down the house. Like this scene with Fred Knittle who is supposed to be singing this as a duet, but when his partner falls ill, he has to push through and perform it alone. 

He nails it.

 

Or here, as they perform live at Hampshire County Jail.

Damn.

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  Inspiring films about Humans  :  Inspiring Art  :  Documentaries 

Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond

Been wanting to watch this for a while. It didn't disappoint.

You may not agree with Jim Carrey on everything he says - or maybe nothing, I know I didn't. But his brilliance is unmatched. 

Good God he and this was good.

 

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  Movies

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SAMSARA : The ever turning wheel of life

Filmed over a period of almost five years and in twenty-five countries, SAMSARA transports us to sacred grounds, disaster zones, industrial sites, and natural wonders.  By dispensing with dialogue and descriptive text, SAMSARA subverts our expectations of a traditional documentary, instead encouraging our own inner interpretations inspired by images and music that infuses the ancient with the modern (via).

The following is a fusion of SAMSARA and BARAKA, a film of similar purpose and design.

That ending scene, of the monks destroying their brilliant masterpiece, is so fantastically powerful. And I can't decide where my own inner interpretation lands. Is it meaningless meaningless all is meaningless? Is it that I am here, that life exists. And identity. That the powerful play goes on and I may contribute a verse?

Or is it something else entirely? 

I kind of like the idea that all humanity is a different color, making up a much larger work that will, inevitably, be destroyed - whatever that means.

But not yet.

Because "SAMSARA is a Sanskrit word that means 'the ever turning wheel of life,'" and at least for now, there is a lot of Life left for us to dance.

 

Even in jail.

 

Yet, there are some that never will. Or if they do, it won't be for life.

Because that too is part of the our reality and inner interpretation that I just quite understand.

 

"SAMSARA was filmed in 25 countries and produced over the course of almost 5 years." You can watch the full length movie on Amazon.

 

 

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-N- Stuff  :  Inspiring films about Humans  :  Inspiring Art  :  Documentaries 

Heritage and Hate : Mississippi's State Flag

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In contrast to Charlottesville: Race and Terror, Heritage and Hate: Mississippi's State Flag is a case study of how patience, curiosity, and the power of seeing things from another's perspective can change hearts, and possibly flags.

I truly appreciated this documentary because it changed the narrative a bit, because when I think of the stars and stripes of the confederate flag, I think white supremacists, radical racists, and gun-totting, right-wing extremists. 

Or, at the very least, those who relate to them but are too afraid to attend rallies or shoot up churches. 

Which is probably completely unfair. Or, at the very least, fully incomplete. 

But still, the argument of, "This is my heritage" doesn't hold much water. In fact, it probably proves the point. Because if heritage is the basis for making decisions, then the flag must come down. Because to some, to many, it's a reminder of the brutality and hate that their ancestors had to endure. Because their heritage isn't white. 

I mean, isn't that just being hospitable? Caring for others and making them feel at home?

Because to many, the Confederate flag is the antithesis of southern hospitality.

Yet, Sometimes, seeing things from another's perspective is the most difficult task we are asked to do. 

And that means me too.

I don't understand the Confederate flag, why anyone would fly it anywhere, or why keeping it around, especially at government buildings, is even up for discussion. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't try to understand. Because I should. Especially because I don't understand.

Seeing things from another's perspective means sitting and talking and listening to those who hold a perspective different than my own. It means disagreeing, respectfully, but also changing. Maybe not in beliefs and convictions, but for sure in perspectives and opinions of those who live on the other side. 

Because they too are human. And I need them, their differences, and their hardheadedness. Just like they need mine.

Arthur Brooks, in a discussion with Guy Raz, says it this way:

A majority of our people in our country today who are politically active believe that they are motivated by love, but the other side is motivated by hate. Think about it. Think about it. Most people are walking around saying, you know, my ideology's based on basic benevolence. I want to help people. But the other guys, they're evil and out to get me. You can't progress as a society when you have this kind of asymmetry. It's impossible - irreconcilable differences, right? We'll never come together - wrong. That is diversity, in which lies our strength. We need each other. In other words, if we want to help people, there's no other way.

I love that, "no other way," because it reminds me that if everyone thought like me, had my strengths, my opinions, my perspectives and convictions, not only would this country and world turn to shit and suffer deeply, it would never grow or learn or do anything other than die. 

Because my thoughts and ideas are fully and completely incomplete, they need unity with diversity, but they don't need a flag. 

And neither does this country.

Pat Tillman : A Life of Character

So much about this story is challenging. And because I don't want to steal away from Tillman, from his character, his loyalty, and his overall Person, I will stay very far away from anything political. 

Like many, I came to know Tillman's story when he walked away from football to serve his country. Since then, I'll admit, I've kinda idolized the man as best I can through books, documentaries, and daydreams. Because in so many ways, like Jake Plummer says, I wish I were more like him. 

As devout.

As loyal.

As confident. 

Because I can't help but watch this short clip and want to be a better person, to teach my sons and daughters about Tillman and hope they grow up as such, and to align myself with men and women of his stature, conviction, and joy of life.

He is a man of intense and genuine character, a man guided eulogies virtues, and although his death was a deep and devastating shame, his life was not. 

Because he lived for something much bigger and better than himself. He lived for others. Which is why he's still around. Why he's bigger than his name, than his stats, and his service. 

Which is why he' be remembered for as long as history can tell the stories of heroes.

Which is why he's a "fucking champion."

 

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  Sports  :  Character

 

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180 Degrees South : Conquerers of the Useless

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"My whole life I've been drawn to open country. I always come home a little different."

Recommended by one of my favorite friends, Eric Beard, this film has become one for the top shelf. 

"If you compromise the process {of adventure}, you're and asshole before you get there and your an asshole when you get back."

and

"The word adventure has been overused. Adventure is when everything goes wrong. That's when adventure starts." We paused the film at the point and my wife added in, "When fear overcomes the excitement and you start to doubt. That's adventure."

Love that. 

"It's easy for us to blindly consume when we don't see the effect it has on other places. The hardest thing in the world is to simplify your life. It's easy to make it complex."

So good. 

The soundtrack ain't bad either. 

Neither is Jeff Johnson's photography.

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Kinda makes me want to pack up and head out on some great adventure.

 

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  The Mountains have a Way  :  Get Out More

 

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I Will Go Back Tonight : A Documentary by Kara Frame

When was the last time I was in Vietnam? 

It was last night. It was this morning. It was five minutes ago.

And I will probably go back tonight.

A Veteran's Story, as told by a veteran's daughter, Kara Frame:

I first knew my dad, Tom Frame, was different when I was young, but I didn't know exactly how. Every year when he marched in our Memorial Day Parade in Doylestown, Pa., I stood on the side of the road waving my tiny American flag with so much pride.

He was my dad, my veteran.

As a teenager, I began to learn about his time in Vietnam during the late 1960s. I heard about fallen men, fierce battles and something called post-traumatic stress disorder. I still didn't fully grasp at that time what my father was living with, and it wasn't until my late 20s that I was ready to dive into a project about my dad's PTSD.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that 30 percent of all Vietnam veterans have suffered from PTSD, and the effects can last many years.

When I began this project in 2014, I knew it would give me insight into my dad and his experiences in his early 20s, when he was fighting in Vietnam. I never anticipated the depth of understanding it would offer me into my mother and her life — standing by a veteran with deep-rooted trauma — and the role PTSD has played in their marriage.

The documentary project follows the lives of my father and several other Vietnam veterans from his Army unit, the 1st Battalion, 5th (Mechanized) Infantry, 25th Infantry Division, who served together.

The veterans recount a terrible ambush at a rubber plantation in Ben Cui on Aug. 21, 1968. And their wives open up on how PTSD has affected their marriages in the decades since (via).

You know what I think PTSB is, at root? I think it's a spiritual wound, and I don't think it can be treated with medications necessarily. I think it requires some spiritual healing with people. Some meaning making again. Some reconnecting with your values and your morals and your ethics. 

Now that you've sort of seen the other side of life.

I love that, "spiritual healing with people." Not alone, not in prayer, and not alone in prayer, but with people.

And I love that. 

 

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  WWII Vets, "Former enemies now friends" Oldest Living Vet

 

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We are Witnesses : Documentaries of crime, punishment, and humanity

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To see things from a different perspective is one of the most difficult things we have to do.

- Jeannette Armstrong

“We Are Witnesses,” is a project of nineteen short videos, each between two and six minutes long yet, together, provide  rare 360-degree portrait of the state of crime and punishment in the United States (via). 

More importantly though, these short videos also portray the raw totality of humanity - the ugliness, the imperfection, the forgiveness, and the hope. Because life isn't perfect, filled happy endings and right now, in-the-moment decisions are terrifying and full of error. 

And at then end of the day, everyone just wants to make it home safe. 

If we allow ourselves to see life and circumstances and the people around us - especially those filled with stereotypes - with even the slightest bit of compassion and empathy and understanding, we can, day by day, all be saved. 

Even if it is the most difficult thing we have to do.

 

Ed Gavagan : Stabbing Victim

It became more and more important for me to convey to him . . .  uh  . . . to convey this idea that we were each gonna get a second chance.

And you should do something with that.

 

Tommy Porr : Formaly incarcerated for 30 years

That's when more things started changing with me. The compassion, the love, the understanding, being human again - trying to be human again.

To love another human being that you really don't know or show compassion to someone you really don't know, that's all new to me. And that's what saved, saved me.

 

Steve Osborne : Retired N.Y.P.D

Nine-five percent or more of the cops who work out there are just decent, hard working people, try'n a go out, try'n a do the best they can, and go home in one piece at the end of the night. 

I think people don't realize how difficult it is, night after night after night, having to make split second, life and death decisions, and always have'n to be right. 

 

Erica Garner : Daughter of Eric Garner

I felt like, wow. In my saddest moment when I didn't know how to feel and I seen all these people out here for my dad . . . that just made me feel, empowered in a way.

 

Because we can all be more than mere witnesses to the crime and punishiment in America today. We can also be the hope, if we want to be. If we choose to be.

 

For more on . . .

-N- Stuff  :  Giving Back to Society, from Prison  :  Chris Paul forgives the kids who killed his grandfather

 

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