rev-ewe 35 - Man With A Movie Camera

Man With A Movie Camera (Человек с киноаппаратом)
Russia (USSR, technically)
Dziga Vertov

This movie is a full cinematic experience.  It takes on every aspect of film and turns it around and makes exquisite movie love to your eyeballs.  Well, to your whole face, really.  The film is simply an experience more than it is anything else.  There's the slightest hint of a plot, but really it's just an artistic expose of this time and people.

Just by showing life in a 1920s Russian city through specifically chosen clips and edited in a way-ahead-of-their-time manner, the film is able to keep you captured the whole way through.  There were shots I was amazed someone could get at that time considering the technology (bulky ass camera).  Perhaps my favorite was a montage of shots of people doing sports (picture shown) and they're played in slow motion as if he had the same frame rate sports shows do today!  It's absolutely gorgeous, I don't know how they did it, and I quite frankly don't care (No, I do care.. it's amazing!).  The movie seriously is just stunning and can actually be kind of draining the first time through due to its overwhelming awesomeness.

Very experimental style, the score is well chosen, at times too perfect.  It breaks the fourth wall quite often, which I love, and it does it in such a way that helps to tell the sort-of story.  Worth watching if you love to look at beautiful things, love culture/people, or if you're just wanting something really mind-blowing to watch.  I also particularly liked the fact that early animation is incorporated into it.  It must have been unbelievably tedious to do the film, but it paid off.  Just a masterpiece!

rev-ewe 27: Afghan Star

"Afghan Star"

Havana Marking

Afghanistan

Now THIS documentary was really worth watching. It was absolutely and completely eye-opening to a culture that I knew so little about. This was so much more about revealing cultural norms than it was about the actual competition. Very, very interesting

This follows the contestants of the first season of 'Afghan Star' (Afghanistan's American Idol) and how the culture is finally learning to accept 1) television and 2) music. Neither of which I knew was illegal in the country. Perhaps the most interesting contestant is a woman who chooses to dance in front of her whole country as well as take off her headscarf. The reaction and her interviews are so interesting.

MUST see! As an American, I feel it's important to know about this kind of culture, and it really shed some light on things for me. Plus, the music is great.

rev-ewe 18: Only When I Dance

Only When I Dance

Brazil

Beadie Finzi

Definitely a feel-good doco! Follows 2 young, black Brazilian ballet dancers and their endeavors to get out into the professional ballet world. I have not much to say about this film except WATCH IT! It's realistic and not overly feel-good, it deals with race, body image, and THE HUMAN SPIRIT. I really enjoyed it also just because ballet is pretty great to watch. Looooved it. The topic of race in Brazil was something I studied recently so it was interesting to see it happening in the ballet arena. Overall, really heart-warming... beautiful to watch. 10 stars!