Film number 8 Unforgotten:Twenty-Five Years After Willowbrook

Film number:8
Film name: Unforotten: Twenty-Five Years After Willowbrook
Source: Netflixe Instant Watch
Rating: 8/10


If I deprived a dog or cat in then United States right now of love, and food and water or cleanliness I would be in jail and rightfully so, but no so long ago in the United States it was OK to deprive the mentally or physically challenged American Citizens of all their basic rights and needs.  We are not talking about the 1900's, we are talking about the 1970's!  I watched this movie and felt shame and sadness.

Back in the day doctors pressured parents and families to abandon all hope for any child born with any mental handicaps that made them "not easy to care for".  This includes down syndrome, retardation or any mental challenge that left children with special needs.  This film that chronicled one so called "school" on Staten Island that housed thousands of the mentally or physically handicapped with out dignity is very infamous.  RFK visited this home and had a lot of questions about it's lack of care or concern or even staff, was also exposed years later by a very young reporter name Geraldo Rivera.  Seriously?  It took that long to expose child abuse of the most vulnerable?  We are pathetic if we think this is ok.

This movie chronicles several families of the disabled and their experiences, talked into placing their loved ones into institutions, where care and compassion were not present even in the most mundane activities, ie patients who could not feed themselves had their food slopped on a tray and if they did not get any into their mouths within an allotted time went hungry as well as dirty. 

I can not say I enjoyed watching this movie at all. When I received a text while watching this film, and was asked how I was doing, my response was "I want to punch very bad people to death."   It was gut wrenching to hear stories about humans being sensory deprived and tortured due to lack of staff and compassion.  But it was also life affirming to see families come back together after being hoodwinked out of loving their child or sibling in their daily lives for so many years come back together and rally around someone who is vulnerable or not considered healthy or cute by a lot of other people.  They all focused on how far the individual had come since Willowbrook and how much more potential lay inside them.  

Danny Aiello  narrated and appeared in this movie and he looked just like he did in Madonna's "Papa Don't Preach" video, concerned, disappointed and sad.  How did we waste a whole generation because they might not be attractive when they grew up?  But they could be joyful, and loving and stimulated by things we take for granted.  The most upsetting tale was told by the man who lived it.  Bernard was thought to be retarded and left to to rot at Willowbrook, but was merely physically slowed down by Cerebral Palsy.  I am not even kidding you, years ago I worked with a guy with CP who was smarter than I will ever be, by far, but moved his body differently and spoke a bit slurred.  This is what was done to a person with all their wits about them, because it took them longer to get their words out! 

We just have to do better!  We have to.  No one should be set aside like trash because of their IQ, and no parent should be pressured to give their baby away due to the body they were born into.  I hope just like concentration camps, that these ideas are far in the past and that although they are crimes against all of humanity they will not happen again because we have learned so much and come so far.

Film Number 7 A Life Apart

Film number: 7
Film name: A Life Apart
Source: Netflix Instant Watch
Rating: 8/10

This is a movie that is narrated by Spock from Star Trek and Carrie Bradshaw from Sex In The City.  It is about Hasidim Jews in NYC.  Hasidim came to America after WW2 and much differently than other folks who immigrated at that time they did not in fact melt, so to speak into the great melting pot of USA.  They held on to their ideals and their strict by our standards, religious values and formed their own communities that still exist.  They do not watch popular tv shows nor listen to pop music.  Gender roles are well defined and the family spends most of it's free time studying the Torah.  If I had to boil Hasidim down to someone that had never heard of it the conversation might start off something like this, "ever heard of Matisyahu?" or maybe even "Have you visited Amish Country? OK, then its somewhat likens to Amish Jews."  That is how I introduce people to this group, but that's just me.....

These people are devout in their beliefs, but also in their day to day lives, they will pass on the names of their ancestors and the places they d welled to their children, nothing is going to be lost to time or location or culture.  They truly do live A Life Apart.

These Jews believe that God is in all of us and in everything around us, they aspire to lose themselves in a state of pleading to God.  How does one find fault with a group of people that believe in something that hurts no one and only they must work toward their goals?  After all, they are not looking for you or I to convert?  They live in large communities and they do not have children out of wedlock nor do they aprove of philandering husbands or "desperate housewives."  They do not use our tax dollars for public school or even Universities for their grown children.

Hasidim was founded in the mid 1900's by a humble mystic who wanted a spirituality that was sincere and accessible to all and said God could be served by every act in a normal day.  I personally like this kind of down to Earth direct phone line to God.  I know it seems trite but I am translating this film into words and acts, that I and others could practice in their everyday lives, if so desired.  I like that the uneducated can reach God with out formal education.  I like that one can be sanctified through stories and parables and an oneness to religion.  Every Hasidim looks up to their local leader who is a Rebbi.  He teaches songs and stories and is like a Holy Father to each group that follows him, and is able to glean advice and help and care from.  And this is their everyday life, all over the world.

I really enjoyed this movie immensely!  It was really so different and far apart from my life that I was eager to watch and learn.  I admire any group that can come to a new land and take care of their business and carve out a life that does not include complete assimilation.  This film was so unique because it answered questions I did not even know I had about a group of people in my country that have never crossed my mind.  When humans can under go pogroms, concentration camps and revere prayer books and come here to continue their culture and devotions there is a lot to be respected.  I think any family that is intact and fighting hard against taboos to do so should be praised.  I know what is in this country and in this world and how it can tear people down and the fact that those things are non issues  do not happen in their world is admirable.

If you are curious about a different life that is dignified and kind and devout I think you could learn so much from this movie just like I did.  It was easy to watch and easy to understand and fair.  I enjoyed many things about this movie, and I feel I know much more about a minority in my country. 

answers

Two of my personal friends asked me this week when they learned what I was up to, where I intended to find 365 documentaries to watch.  I am open to finding them from any source Netflix is what I have subscribed to currently so, so far all my blogs have been on films I had watched from them.  I am hoping I do someday have enough content to get some readers and when the day comes, they might not have Netflix.  So in order to make the movies I watch more accessable to others, I will also be watching and blogging about PBS Frontline, as anyone can watch those free online and even movies that are on Youtube in segments.  If anyone has any other ideas for sources please share and I do have a few other sources I will utilize in the future as well.  I also would like to say, I am open to reading other blogs about documentaries and their ratings, but truely my blog is a log of my learning experiences via film rather than an expensive formal education. Which brings me to my next point, not all documentaries are by Michael Moore and are so popular people around the water cooler know what you are talking about.  And not all of them are even fun to watch, but that is not the point.  I will also be watching and learning about finance, science, art etc. and not just pop culture movies that are easy to watch and enjoy.  This is truely an experiment that is more about educating myself and sharing what I can with others more so than rating film making.

Film Number 6 Until The Light Takes Us

Film number:6
Film Name:  Until The Light Takes Us
Source:  Netflix Instant Watch
Rating: 4/10

Until The Light Takes Us was a disjointed and poorly edited film about something I know absolutely nothing about, Norway's Black Metal scene in the 1980's and through the 1990's.  I know nothing about this or it's key players and founders, so I did have some curiosity.  I found this movie so poorly edited and strung together that I literally Wikipedia'd everyone in it after I watched it.  It was a shame that movie was strung together in such a way because the people that were interviewed were honestly very articulate and honest, but their backgrounds and views were obscured by shitty production.

The movie's key subjects are Fenriz who is in the band Darkthrone.  He seemed very sincere and earnest and wanted the story of his life's work to be told.  And then we are also introduced to Varg Vikernes of the band
Burzum.  Vikernes does alot of talking about life in Norway.  He felt he grew up in an ideal  world with not many social problems.  As Varg grew he began to feel some disdain about his world when his opened so to speak.  He did not approve of Christian churches that were built on ancient Pagan sites around him and he did not approve of the McDonald's that sprouted up around him.  He was young and rebellious and wanted to do something more with his life so he began to wait for the time when all the old regimes so to speak could be destroyed and something new would take shape.  I enjoyed listening to his views even though they were different than mine because he came across as a very intelligent person.

Then we hear the story of a Black Metal pioneer.  "Dead" Ohlin of the band Mayhem, who used corpse paint on his face but was nothing like Kiss or Alice Cooper at all.  He was a young guy that was working hard to present new ideas about how music should be made and how to best perform that music.  "Death" was covering new grounds as far as performance art and music should work together, and as interesting as his concepts were they were just not well presented in this movie.  That's a shame to me.  I think when you watch a film that is kind of about a peculiar niche story, you should be left wondering if the movie was somehow unfinished or how you can learn more.  Regardless "Death" and his fellow musician and black metal hero Euronymous live together and one day Euronymous comes to find "Death" has done himself in with a shotgun.  Euronymous retrieves a camera and takes some photos of his friend before calling anyone.  Rumors fly that Euronymous has also rearranged things and has even taken a few souvenirs from his room mates cadaver. 

Euronymous goes on to open up a record shop and his peers and fans hang out in it and philosophize together.  At some point, people that are opposed to Christian Churches that have absorbed Pagan holidays and land for themselves have blotted out the ancient cultures of Norway and they have a right to take it all back similar to Native Americans.  I was interested in this point of view.  I have asked some one from Eastern Europe how it came to be that they were Muslim and they told me it was because long long ago, Muslims conquered their homeland their ancestors converted to Islam and it was no part of their culture and history and they are still practicing Islam in the family to this day.  I had mixed feelings about that, would I want a religion that at one point had conquered a nation.  I never truly thought of Christianity in that light, but it gave a some new perspective to be honest.  Churches started to burn in Norway.  At first it was by people in their twenties that wanted to draw attention to their sincere political and religious beliefs that their land had been bastardized by a church they did not want.  But of course like any hot topic ignoramuses got involved.  Young teenagers started to burn churches too and in their misguided youthful exuberance started leaving Satanic graffiti around the scenes.  These kids had no idea why they were doing what they were doing only that they thought it was the cool thing to do.  Thus over 50 churches burned in the early 1990s in Norway and the media played up this entirely exaggerated myth of Satanic Panic over there just like what happened in the in US in the 1980's.  Hysteria sells.  I myself don't ever feel it is acceptable to burn down anyone's place of worship ever no matter the circumstances, that it's a hate crime, but I also know what it's like to be young and foolish and full of good ideas with no outlet for intentions that one believes are noble.

A panic floods across Norway what will happen next?  Well one of the youngsters in the scene does a terrible murder in a forest.  And then things kind of spin farther down from there.  Eronymous and Vikernes have a feud.  Vikernes claims he hears a threat from Euronymous that he intends to abduct him and torture him in a deep, dark forest and film the entire thing for some kind of black metal snuff.  Vikernes meets with him but feels it is a trap and murders him by stabbing him in the skull.  Vikernes goes on trial and it is televised and expounded on by the media in Europe.  He receives a little over 20 years, maximum sentence in Norway.  He smiles in open court with his long hair and metal t shirt.

The black metal scene that is no became infiltrated with posers and journalists is now all but over.  Many bands still play music including Blackthrone who still has a big following to this day but it far more on the fringes that was years ago and during a phone interview that is filmed is accused of being less provactive.  And abruptly the film ends and there is no epilogue and no updates.

I felt this was a shame, after further research online I found out so many more interesting threads that were not followed at all.  Weather the characters in the film were sympathetic or not they deserved to be heard properly, and if even you could care less about the music, it and it's fans deserved a better portrayal on film.  I would liken the youthful rebellion of the music the 1960's US, where ugly things popped up that not only shaped the pop culture they overshadowed it in the end.  This was simply some potentially great stories that were lost in very bad film making.  I hope some one else comes along and gives these guys an opurtunity to tell their side of it a coherent and watchable way.

update

Just wanted to make it clear I have not given up on this experiment.  I greatly enjoy this kind of adult learning/homeschooling.  Although I have watched 1docaday.  There are days however I can not blog about it that day.  Sometimes the blogs need more time and detail and I just save the drafts for a later date.  I am consistently learning and watching and will try to do better at updating. 

Film number:5
Film name: The Rock A Fire Explosion
Source:Netflix Instant Watch
Rating: 6/10

Today was kind of a strange day.  I told my husband he could choose a documentary for me and we could watch it togethor, he was half way through browsing around Netflix when I got interested in The Rock A Fire Explosion and chose it anyway.  So, he got to watch it with me.

This movie was about the robot rock band that performed at Showbiz Pizza before it was Chuckee Cheese.  There was a lively cast of animals in the band, everything from Fatz the Ape that played the organ to a Beach Bear and a Granma and some singing birds and wolves too.  I's sure many people remember them.  But the people in this movie were super fans.  One even had a tattoo of a character from the band.  It was a very fun watch and we had some laughs.  One particular fan spent his time working odd jobs on top of his full time job in order to buy his own electronic show for himself, he considered the robots to be like a family, like he was the father in this electric family.  He was devoted to caring for them and making sure a new generation did not have to miss out on Rock A Fire.

The creator of Rock A Fire was a young man at the time that ran his own business.  His name is Aaron and he still has the business today, although now that he is not affiliated with Checkee Cheese, he is the sole employee after having to let go of over 300 employees, and his building was in total disrepair.  He seemed very talented and very creative and had a lot of big dreams.  It was pretty sad to see him reminisce about the good times and hope for a big come back.  His talents seemed like they were pretty wasted now days.  He is lucky he married a very good looking much younger Rock A Fire Explosion fan who once worked at Showbiz Pizza.

I don't visit Chuckee Cheese to be honest because I find most of them to be super dirty and ghetto, and I am also very opposed to them selling alcohol there, who do they think will drive all those kids home?  I think they are pretty unethical all around, so I was not surprised in the hand they had in trying to wreck Rock A Fire and their maker's dreams.

If you haven't seen this band perform you should really watch this movie, or if you have seen them but want to reminisce you should watch too.  It was a quick watch, and to be honest there was some aspects about running a business that were educational for me, so it was not a waste of time.

I was happy last year to take my older kid to see one of their robots at the World's Largest Grocery Store in Cincinnati Ohio called Jungle Jim's. They had a lot of robots in there but me and my husband had the most fun watching the Elvis that once performed when we were really young.  After watching this movie my husband and I had a big kick out of watching the band play new songs on Youtube so it seems they have a new cult following and they will never die.

Film number 1 Kimjongilia

 Film number:1
Film Title:Kimjongilia
Source:Netflix Instant Watch
Rating:7/10

My first venture into higher education via documentary movies, was Kimjongilia.  I picked this because it came to mind today when my latest issue of Time magazine arrived featuring a cover photo of the new leader with the caption Lil Kim.  Love it! So this kind of sparked my interest in North Korea today.

I think I did know more about North Korea than most Americans who only knew Kim from his "so ronery!" quotes in that puppet movie by the South Park guys.  But I was hardly an expert on the so called   "secret state" other than they appeared to me to be in some sort of time warp, driving 1970s cars at the Dear Leader's recent funeral and using fax machines.

Kimjongilia was made up of heart wrenching interviews of individuals lucky enough to escape from the Kim dynasty that has ruled for more than half a century.  I am sure the information in this move was reliable and very honest, and I really don't think being "fair" or balanced was an issue in making this movie at all.  How does one be "fair" when reporting facts about life under a modern day sadistic ruler?

The interviews described a wretched and repressed life under the Great Leader whom they were forced adore daily, even before their meals.  They endured starvation and total control.  There was no clue at all about any outside worlds where North Korean government did not tell you what to do every minute of the day.  One guy said if he had not made it out of there he would still be "worshiping" the Dear  Leader.  I found the lucidity of the survivors absolutely striking.  The fact that people were willing and even able to put into words how their parents and children were tortured to death or left handicapped and broken by the state was amazing to me.  How brave one must be to share any information with a world that they did not even know existed outside of the reign of their god.

It is hard to sit  through a movie that describes modern day concentration camps that also showed dancing, Mass Games, and a sweeping soundtrack of music that glorified the Kims as everything in their lives does, as well as interpretive dancing that breaks your heart.  But it was definitely worth listening to the brutality of a nation who locks up entire families because one starving person attempted to extend their lives by stealing food in a land where millions die of starvation.  Anyone can be arrested at anytime and forced into a government concentration camp, along with everyone they love. They can be beaten, starved or used as forced labor.  Stealing food or trying to escape can usually result in immediate execution.

But it was hopeful to see people with the desire to escape despite their lifetimes of brainwashing under an evil, all encompassing Cult of Personality.  The fact that people were brave enough just to try sailing through fog with the their babies to reach the 38th Parallel while evading the Navy is so remarkable.  People just exist when they escape to China, they don't have any life.  They live in storage units in secret or they fear peril everyday from traffickers that want to enslave them in the sex trade or agents that want to torture them.  This really needs to be looked at closely by the world. Why on Earth China was allowed to host the Olympics is a total affront.  We are lucky even one has managed to escape and share with the world of what goes on with in the most isolated nation in the world, but the fact is there were several and there are so many more that are not in the film.  Do I think an Arab spring is on it's way to North Korea? Not anytime soon sadly.  But I hope someday.  And like the Time magazine article I read today about that Lil' Kim, I question what he thinks and sees after learning he was sent abroad to be educated and found a hero in his favorite NBA star Dennis Rodman.


Can an educated but ill advised man who is younger than I am make any difference in this tragic nation that his family had a huge part in destroying?  I really hope so. 

But in the meantime, I was struck by the most helpful and hopeful part of the movie, the conclusion, where an elderly woman pleaded for help for the country she left and is now exposing.  "North Korea can't hear, or speak or eat or taste", so we have to and "let's speak of it" was the just of it.  I am all in.  Let's do it.

Fim Number 3 No Impact Man

Film number:3
Film name:No Impact Man
Source:Netflix Instant Watch
Rating:6/10

A man decides to try to live for a year with no impact on the environment.  He wants to save the trees and polar bears and be humble and help the world.  He is a New Yorker with a wife and child. Let's think about this.  No elevators, no laundry soap no take out etc.  What's going to happen this family as he records a new life that is not going to be convenient by any stretch of the imagination........

Colin Beavan committs to this book idea and project and enlists his family to support and committ with him as well to his vows of reduce, reuse, recycle.  Beavan with no formal environmental education, strips his NYC apartment of a tv, swaps Pampers for reusable cloth diapers and puts worms in a box to compost. His wife is super supportive of his efforts and puts up with big changes quickly.  I thought Colin and his family were likeable white people in their early 40's.  They seemed honest, curious and intelligent.

Sometimes I envied this couple's bond.  It looked fun to shop at farmer's markets with cute baby and play charades instead of reality tv show with friends.  But other times my heart hurt for Mrs.  Beavan!  What mom wants to give up profesionally made delicious espressos in an effort to keep her cool and have a productive day?  But she loved that family enough to fight for "taking care" of herself.

I found this couple and their little one Isabella likeable, endearing and entertaining.  Hey I am family oriented and arrogant myself and they reminded me of my family unit. But I cringed when I imagined myself and hubs and kids using reusable, washable, hygenic clothes in lew of tp.....really?  Would I want to wipe noses and butts with something I cleaned myself with on menses?  Not really! But these people were so earnest and sincere I totally got it, I won't do it and I don't want to at all, but I got it! I love that Colin's environmental care did not wait for congress or anyone else to help the world and I loved that he was honest enough to admit it was somewhat based on writing a book and self promotion.

I totally did not get why people blogged hatred of these and said unkind things to their faces as well.  No Impact Man who let's be serious was No Impact family threatened us all.....hello, I just justified using toilet paper in a home with kids and dog and a menstrating lady!  We don't like anything that makes us feel guilty or wasteful or asks us to do more for something we will not see an immediate reward for.

I enjoyed this movie it was really entertaining and thought provoking and like Colin Beavan I had no "real" or down to daily life idea about environmentalism.  But it was cute and thought provoking.  I worried when I clicked "play" that it would be rich people asking poor people to go with out but it was not at all.  We can all find a new way, I thought it was hopeful, fun and a huge challenge that I am no where near man enough to work on right now.

Film Number 2 Becoming Elmo A Puppeteers Journey

Film:Becoming Elmo A Puppeteers Journey
Film Number:2
Source:Netflix Instant Watch
Rating 9/10

I swear I am not a sap at all! I am a jaded and bitchy Generation X person!  But somehow this movie just had me in tears from the first moment until the last!  This movie was the life story not only of the beloved and world renowned Elmo from Sesame Street, but his creator, puppeteer, and voice Kevin Clash.

It was interesting to hear about the life and childhood of a puppeteer because I have never known one to be honest.  But I thought it was a really interesting world that Kevin created and I felt pulled into it as well.  How does one go from a neighborhood dubbed Chocolate City to the "longest street in the world" ie Sesame?  His family was super sincere and loving and stable and I smiled when he explained that not only did Elmo represent love, hugs and kisses but was equal parts of his mom and dad! Awwww!

Watching Kevin and his Elmo puppet was like watching a minister.  A loving and caring youth minister who was equally willing to use calling to spread to love to the dying as he was to spread love to the living in early, healthy childhood.  I found the movie funny, silly, cute, entertaining and fair.  It was the true life story of a little floppy puppet that was called to love us all and the big black man that was called to make it so.  I never really wondered about how Elmo came to be but now that I do know I am taken aback by this big grown up man's ability to entertain and teach and get kid's through anything as long as their BFF is by their side.

Anyone interested in film-making, special effects, puppets or self made men would enjoy this look at the hidden life of a pop culture icon.

intro

I want to be the smartest woman ever.  I want to know about everything on Earth, from history to science to food and health.  Unfortanetly I am a fat and lazy American person in my thirties.  So that means I don’t want to go to school because that would be hard and online pajama schools  are not free.  So I have decided to learn everything I can from watching TV.  And not just Maury or Nightline, I am going to devote a year of my life to a quest for knowledge in all things by watching documentaries.  One everyday. 

I will be sharing everything I learn here with you so that you too can take the easy, lazy way out of education.  There are millions of documentaries on every subject and every film maker or writer has their own opinion and their own agenda so I think I can get good quality info on any subject.  I have a pretty fast computer, a flat screen TV and I have Netflix Instant watch.  These will be my school supplies. 

I am excited to sit on my ass for a year straight and not only justify it but be able to look down on everyone else around me who is clueless by comparison.  Isn’t that what Academia is all about anyways? Please join me in my quest for information and intelligence and I promise to help your fat lazy ass learn things to to spout off about in your everyday life too. 

No day like today, my education awaits now.