Kartemquin Films' 50th Anniversary

2016 marks the 50th anniversary of Kartemquin Films, Chicago's venerable center for documentary media makers.  As part of the celebration, each week Kartemquin Films is sharing a film from its collection online and free.

This week check out Home for Life (1966). The film depicts the experiences of two elderly people in their first month at a home for the aged. One is a woman whose struggle to remain useful in her son and daughter-in-law's home is no longer appreciated. The other is a widower, without a family, who suddenly realizes he can no longer take care of himself. The film offers an unblinking look at the feelings of the two new residents in their encounters with other residents, medical staff, social workers, psychiatrists and family.

USE COUPON CODE KTQ50 DURING CHECKOUT TO WATCH FOR FREE

Kent Jones on Hitchcock/Truffaut

"When François Truffaut sat down with Alfred Hitchcock in 1962 for a book-length interview (published four years later as Hitchcock/Truffaut), he had no way of knowing that he would change the way Americans thought about their own culture. Truffaut’s painstaking examination of Hitchcock’s direction offered concrete evidence that the filmmaker was something more than a mere 'master of suspense.'”

Here's an interview from Studio Daily with director Kent Jones on his new documentary, Hitchcock/Truffaut.  

And here's the trailer for the film:

Also check out Jones on Fresh Air with Terry Gross from December 1.

What Is The Ideal Camera For Doc Shooting?

Roland Denning offers his take on the ideal camera for documentary film production. 

Ideal?

I am a fan of DSLR video production, but that form factor has limitations. Often not the best choice for "run and gun" shooting, and narrow depth of field is a nice option but today it's an approach that can be overused and deployed without much forethought. 

Kubrick: A Life in Pictures

Both surprised and happy to see this documentary on the life and career of Stanley Kubrick is available on YouTube.  Check it out.

Still hungry for more?  This clip from the Dutch TV program, "Star Dust" features an interview with Kubrick shot around the time of the premiere of 2001 A Space Odyssey. 

Tip of the hat to Filmmaker IQ.

"Let There Be Light" - Newly Restored!

The 1946 documentary, Let There Be Light was recently restored and released by the National Film Preservation Foundation.  The final film in a trilogy of documentaries created by director John Huston for the U.S. Army, Let Their Be Light "pioneered unscripted interview techniques to take an unprecedented look into the psychological wounds of war."
The film's cinematographer was Stanley Cortez, whose credits include The Magnificent Ambersons and The Night of the Hunter.

Let There Be Light (1946) directed by John Huston
cinematography by Stanley Cortez

The screen notes continue: 

"The subject of Let There Be Light is what we’d now label PTSD—post-traumatic stress disorder—among returning soldiers, and if the term is of more recent invention than Huston’s film, that’s in good part precisely because such sympathetic examinations of the condition were swept under the rug until after the Vietnam era. What World War II soldiers still called 'shell-shock' was variously labeled 'psychoneurosis' or 'europsychosis' by physicians, and it was under the working title of The Returning Psychoneurotics that the assignment was given in June 1945 to Huston, then a major in the Army’s Signal Corps... What was almost unprecedented in Let There Be Light was its reliance on unscripted interviews, something common in documentaries only after the mid-1950s with Direct Cinema, cinema vérité, and the British Free Cinema movements."

You may view the film online here.  That link also offers the option of a high-quality file download.  While you're there consider supporting the fine work of the National Film Preservation Foundation. 

Orson Welles Over Europe

Here's a treat from the BBC. The documentary, Orson Welles Over Europe, is hosted by Welles biographer, Simon Callow.





On a disappointing note, Warner Brothers recently announced the "Ultimate Collector's" blu-ray release of Citizen Kane to commemorate the film's 70th anniversary. More appropriately it should be called the "Ultimate Sucker's Edition".

Apparently the studio execs haven't yet discovered that DVD releases of classic films demand equally interesting and compelling extras. (For instance check out The Searchers - ironically also a Warner Brothers release.) The decision to include two silly films, RKO 281 and American Experience: The Battle Over Citizen Kane is profoundly stupid.

Who do they think their market is anyway? There are a variety of other much more enlightening works that could have been included. For instance, the BBC documentary The Complete Citizen Kane is far more interesting and actually factual - wow.

Maybe Warner Brothers can contract with Criterion for the 75th anniversary release. (Although to cut Warner's some slack, The Magnificent Ambersons is also included and nice to know that this film is finally available on DVD - albeit the surviving RKO butchered version. Of course, that film deserves its own release.)

First Orbit - "Let's Go!"

To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's historic space flight a new film, First Orbit has been released and is being distributed for free viewing.

The film is a real-time recreation which features audio recordings of the radio communications between Vostok 1 - (Call Sign: Cedar) and several ground stations.  News reports of the flight are also included.  In order to recreate the flight, the stunning orbital footage was shot from the International Space Station.   I was also reminded that in order to return safely to earth, Gagarin ejected and parachuted from the Vostok 1 capsule 7km (that's 4.3 miles) above the earth surface.

You may watch First Orbit here or download it for later viewing.  I downloaded an MP4 using Keep Tube.  That made it easy to watch the film on my Xbox on a larger screen.  That's something this film definitely benefits from. 

Oscar Winner Available Free Online

The 2011 Academy Award winning documentary, Inside Job, directed by Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs is now available online at no charge from the excellent Archive.org.

Here's a description:

Inside Job provides a comprehensive analysis of the global financial crisis of 2008, which at a cost over $20 trillion, caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes in the worst recession since the Great Depression, and nearly resulted in a global financial collapse. Through exhaustive research and extensive interviews with key financial insiders, politicians, journalists, and academics, the film traces the rise of a rogue industry which has corrupted politics, regulation, and academia. It was made on location in the United States, Iceland, England, France, Singapore, and China.

Here's the flash version:

Free is good!

"Common Ground"

Here's a touching piece on the suburbanization of Illinois farm land by photojournalist Scott Strazzante. To tell this story the producers at Mediastorm did a great job weaving still images, video and music together.

The American family farm gives way to a subdivision - a critical cultural shift across the U.S. Common Ground is a 14-year document of this transition, through the Cagwins and the Grabenhofers, two families who love the same plot of land. See the project at http://mediastorm.com/publication/common-ground

While the story is sympathetic to the disappearance of the family farm, thankfully the video doesn't present a maudlin nostalgic view of local agriculture. Rather it describes methods of land use through the images and voices of the people that once farmed the land contrasted with those who live there now.