Political Documentaries on DVD
Used to that documentaries tagged as ‘political’ were the kiss of death at the
box office: dour, dull affairs that were all talk and no entertainment. In 2002
a little movie came along to change all that:
Bowling For Columbine. Directed by the now infamous
Michael Moore (Roger
& Me,
Farenheit 9/11), Columbine was a searing indictment on America’s gun
culture, a film that redefined our relationship with the “message movie”. It
broke convention by generating massive lines around the block at local
multiplexes, and over $21,000,000 at the box office, proving once and for all
that the terms “documentary” and “big fat hit’ were not mutually exclusive.
This year’s superstar doc has to be
An Inconvenient Truth, released to DVD this week. Made by
Al Gore, the man “formerly known as the next President Of The United
States”, while a somewhat quieter, less dynamic movie than Columbine, An
Inconvenient Truth is no less passionate. Using a state-of-the-art “power
point” presentation, it is Gore’s plea to humanity to halt the devastating
climate change irrevocably threatening our existence. In it he plots the
projected downfall of oceans, land mass and civilisations should we not take
responsibility and do something about carbon-based emissions. He mounts a
gentle, rational and well-researched argument that’s hard to deny. Striking a
chord with a broad mainstream cinema audience, it’s sure to do the same on DVD.
Another from the Michael Moore school of “docu-tainment”,
Super Size Me! (2004) is recent “doc-buster” that also helped
revitalise the genre. In it young American filmmaker
Morgan Spurlock decides to experiment on his body with junk food.
Eating fast food only for 30 days straight, Spurlock documented his physical
transformation with some seriously disturbing – and very entertaining –
results. After seeing it you’ll never look ‘burger with the lot’ the same way
again..!
The Corporation (2003) also left its mark on mainstream audiences.
Initially made for TV it too enjoyed a very successful release in cinemas. This
Canadian production charts the rise of the corporation in Western culture.
Legally deemed an entity with “all the legal rights of a person”, the
filmmakers paint a disturbing portrait of the corporation as psychopath. It’s a
chilling identikit that makes you think.. a lot.
The Canadians have a fine tradition of political doc filmmaking, with one of
the cheekiest being
Ron Mann’s
Grass (1999). Narrated by well known “hemp advocate”, actor
Woody Harrelson (A Scanner Darkly), Grass is a very funny potted
history of cannabis, pun intended, and its legal and illegal uses. Mann weaves
together 50s educational reels, government propaganda movies and interviews
with those on both sides of the ‘wacky tobaccy’ fence to produce a highly
entertaining and informative essay on the world’s most contentious weed. Time
to exhale...
- Megan
Megan Spencer has spent way too much of her life in the dark, all for a good
cause though - watching movies as a professional film critic. For the last six
and a half years she has been serving the ever-increasing hunger for film and
DVD reviews as radio triple j's resident film critic, and a year ago joined the
new line up of long-running SBS-TV film review program, The Movie Show.
Every now and then she pops up into the light to make her own films,
documentaries (her latest is 'Fantastic Brutality', a documentary about an
obsessed wrestling fan, to be released next year). She has also written about
film for many publications including J-Mag, Limelight, Inside Film Magazine and
the Age Green Guide.
And the impossible question to ask a film critic: what's her favourite film?
"Blue Velvet would be at the top of the list, so would Fight Club... But then
again American In Paris makes me cry every time."
Megan has also been part of the Foxtel's Project Greenlight Australia as an
on-air panelist and judge.
