This documentary was different from the rest of the documentaries that we have watched in this class. Compared to the recent ones we have watched this one has a lot of dramatizations. This film seemed more of a crime story rather than a documentary. There was interviews with different people which is documentary type. But also a lot of reenactments. I find it hilarious that people actually think that the director was there at the night of the shooting conveniently holing a camera while filming this crime happen. They were obviously reenacted to show the viewers how the crime went down. Out of all the films so far I think this had the most reenactments and they were pretty obvious. I found the film very interesting. It was the type that makes you sit on the edge of your seat trying to figure out who did it. Back to the reenactments. This film was half interviews of real people and half reenactments but the director kept showing the same ones over and over again. It wasn’t and new ones. I also like how the director helped the other man that was innocent get out of jail by making the shooter admit that he did the crime. I still find it messed up that the man spent over 10 years in jail for a crime he didn’t commit and didn’t receive any money for the governments mess up. He should have received something from this film for doing it also.

The movie Grizzly man was defiantly a very interesting film. I found the films directing to be something I’ve never seen before. It was  a documentary in a documentary. The reason i say that is because the films director did not film most the scenes he showed by himself. They were filmed by someone else, and when i saw someone else I mean complete lunatic. Werner Herzog composed his film mostly from Timothy Treadwells live footage when he was living with the grizzly’s. I like how Herzog composed this film into two parts. One was his part interviewing Timothy’s friends and relatives and the whole other half of the film was Timothy Treadwells grizzly bear footage. I found it to be very informative and well put together. It showed a lot about the life Timothy Treadwell lived and how he was in love and one with nature. But it also showed how insane this man was and how he died doing what he loved. At the end I didn’t really know how to feel, because i wanted to feel bad for the guy and his girlfriend but also at the same time i was telling myself that he did this to himself and that he was asking for it from the beginning. I also liked the way the director was actively part of the film by putting himself in it and also narrating it from start to end. There are many scenes that i  found shocking in this film. But only one stood out to me the most. It was when Herzog was listening to the footage of Treadwell getting attacked and eaten by the bear. Herzog Teased his audience by not letting them listen to that tape. Maybe its just me but I really wanted to hear that footage. Overall this documentary film about a crazed man and his passion to live with bears was enjoyable and knowledgeable. Shows you never mess with nature because nature will always win…

The documentary film “The Gleaners and I” took place in France and showed how people ravage through garbage and collect the things people throw out and do not want. The film director Agnès Varda crosses the country side of France to video tape scavengers. Going place to place from farm fields to trash cans in the city of France. She shows not only the people in  need but also the people that do not want to see anything go to waste and want to make the environment better. She captures a whole different word of scavenging in her film. From poor people to average people like you and I. What I noticed about this film is that Varda isn’t one of those directors that stays behind the scenes and just films and tells people what to do. She was highly involved in the film and even stared in it. But was also one of the people that scavenged wasted food that no one wanted. This shows that she is passionate about what she is showing in her film by being this involved in it. Also she seemed like she was having fun doing it, by the type of music she chose and in specific scenes she was just enjoying filming. Personally I found it sickening that people would eat food that has been laying in the garbage or  just laying in the street or sitting in the dirt rotting of a farm. But I guess to others that’s perfectly fine. But food wasn’t the only thing being scavenged here. In this film you saw people going around and taking other peoples garbage like chairs, mattresses etc to and bring to their houses. Using them as perfectly good furniture. When I watched this film the quote “another mans trash is another mans treasure”. I guess the person that made that quote up was a gleaner…..

Harlan county USA was a powerful documentary revolving around the coal miners strikes in Harlan County Kentucky. This film showed us the struggles these workers went through everyday and the determination they had to do something about it. I really enjoyed this film because it shows not only workers coming together but a whole town coming together. Not only did the coal miners strike but their families did also. I find it horrible how money and greed in one company resulted in one persons death every day. These people did not only work 15-20 hours a day but they were slowly dying in the process from black lung and nobody cared except their families. The director of this film wanted to capture the the violent strikes on film. She had a lot of guts to do this because in some parts of the documentary there were moments that were life threatening.  Also this documentary had no narration it conveyed its point across with just editing and moving scenes along with people talking about their experiences. Overall this film put a powerful message across saying that if you fight hard for something you want and care about in the end it’ll pay off and no fight goes unheard.

The documentary film high school which we watched in class last week was rather odd. I feel like this film didn’t have a point to put across but just show us what the average day in a high school is. It takes place in a high school in Pennsylvania where director Frederick Wiseman quietly walks around a high school and observes teachers and students during their daily routines. In some scenes I feel like teachers or students don’t act like they normally do because they see that they are getting filmed. This film has no narration it just listens to students and teachers interact over a five week period. The one thing i realized that Wiseman did was zoom in on faces to capture reactions of people. This documentary shows us how different high school life was back in 1968. Way different from the high schools we have today. Back then they had more control of the kids and what they did. Also the students had more respect in the elders by respecting them while talking. Overall i enjoyed watching this documentary it showed me how life was back then and how different everything was.

This documentary film had a big impact on me. I’ve learned about the Holocaust and what had happened in concentration camps but never like this. The films clips in this documentary mad me cringe. I never actually realized what these people went through in these camps and how brutal the Nazis actually were. This made me have a completely different outlook as to what actually went on on there. It was truly disturbing that people would actually do this kind of stuff to each other. This makes me think that the Nazis were just really soulless people and were just trained to kill. I do not know how one person can have such hatred for one race that he persuades thousands of soldiers to do these horrid acts. While I was watching this film I was surprised at how normal it was killing innocent people in these concentration camps. I couldn’t even imagine what it was like to go through all that suffering abuse, and even losing your family or your life. After this film I have a completely different outlook on the “Holocaust” and concentration camps. It was hell on earth.

Over the weekend I decided to watch the controversial and widely known documentary known as Food Inc. I had always heard about this documentary but I never actually gotten a chance too watch it. I can finally say  i have watched it and let me tell you I am horrified and disgusted with the things that go on in our food industry. This documentary was filmed 10 years ago so i’m hoping that things took a change for the better in the food industry, after the truth was revealed on how our food was made. I have been mindlessly eating food my whole life without even knowing what goes into it. Before this documentary I never actually realized what goes on in the places that make the things we eat on a daily basis. The documentary basically takes you behind the scenes of chicken farms, cow farms, crop fields and all the farmers that raise these animals and crops for the multi-million dollar corporations that sell them to us. They expose that everything we are eating is genetically modified and not natural what so ever just to satisfy the mass need of meats to the fast food industry’s that are the highest purchaser. My favorite meal to date is a bacon cheeseburger with fries. But after watching what goes on in these farms and factories I don’t want to eat another one again. Don’t get me wrong I probably will, but that’s how i feel right now. Also another thing that stood out to me in this film was the treatment of workers and farmers. The multi-million dollar corporations treat the farmers and factory workers like garbage. In general this film showed me a whole different side to the food industry and what we eat on a daily basis. You can be sure that i’ll be checking everything i eat in depth from now on.