Confessions of an Epic Indian

The most popular entertainment genre in the world today is realism.

By that, I include the putrid ‘reality shows’ that claim to portray ‘real events, real people’ but are little more than cleverly scripted, even more cleverly produced sensationalist dramas in which the main talent involved is ‘looking real’ while actually hewing closely to a script.

I don’t entirely blame them.

Everything you see on television or the big screen is scripted, rehearsed, directed, edited, and packaged to resemble reality, not capture it.

After all, let’s not forget, even news features are scripted, rehearsed, directed, edited and packaged.

Even the most genuine live footage of a disaster or crime in progress has some level of creative intervention.

For instance, in the case of the now-legendary 911 footage, the difference was in how the various newscasters portrayed the event: to US newscasters, it was clearly a horrifying ‘invasion’ of America. To other newscasters elsewhere, it was a disaster. And to a few, whom we shall not name here but know quite well, it was an occasion for celebration as the mighty behemoth was finally given its long-deserved due.

(Just to be clear, I’m not saying any of the above three views was the right one - in my opinion all violent conflict is a tragedy, be it the WTC plane attacks or the war in Afghanistan. Violence is not acceptable in any form, even self-defense. And there, to add a further touch of irony, you see, even in trying to be so objective and fair, this reviewer can’t help but reveal his own inherent bias against violence in any form.)

So in my opinion, the genre that has become more important than any other today, is the documentary.

Yes, I know, you’re thinking, oh God, no. Those boring newsreel thingies with the droning voice over that puts you to sleep faster than Valium.

Well, if you’re looking for Bollywood/Hollywood-ishtyl pumped up artifically enhanced excitement, sure, documentaries are boring in comparison.

But personally, I find the typical commercial film fodder much more boring at times.

Especially the typical ‘genre’ slots: like action movies. Don’t you sometimes just get tired of all those amazingly rendered explosions with the big orange balls of flame and the cars tumbling through the air in slow-mo?

Maybe it’s because I’ve developed a more relaxed attitude to life, so I’ve developed a more serious attitude to art.

But I’ve started to enjoy documentaries.

I watch a lot of them.

I actually scour the net searching for good ones.

Of late, I’ve been watching something like a dozen a week. Full-length feature-film docs on any subject around the sun. I don’t really care, as long as it’s good.

And I discovered a surprising thing.

They’re fun.

Well, I can’t pretend they’re fun like a Jim Carrey comedy. They’re not trying to be Jim Carrey comedies, after all, let’s be fair.

But they’re not as boring as you’d think.

They’re serious, yes, at times, but they’re fun in the sense that they’re about real people, real events, and even real people doing real things can be surprisingly entertaining at times.

So here are a few good picks from my recent viewing.

Enjoy.

And don’t forget to play the national anthem mentally, before you start watching.

And if your family ask you why you’re standing to attention in front of the living room (or bedroom) TV set, tell them you’re doing it for the country, the saffron, white and green.

AMERICAN MOVIE
A movie about the making of a movie. This documentary covers three years in the life of an ordinary American small town man whose dream is to make a feature film. He cobbles together a team of other like-minded people, including his childhood best friend who stars in the film, and his uncle who finances it. When he can’t afford to film the feature, he decides to make a short black-and-white horror film, shot on 16 mm. The documentary becomes a fly-on-the-wall as we observe the various ups and downs of his life over the three years, his drinking, occasional drug-use (suggested more than seen, but pretty obviously indicated at times), and general rollercoaster ride through life. In the end, he does complete his minor masterpiece (though to be honest it really isn’t bad at all), and sees a theatrical release (in one show at one theatre in his home town) before the film goes direct-to-video. It’s the characters that make this one endearing, especially the old uncle who’s weary cynicism and perpetually don’t-care attitude is hugely amusing, and don’t forget to watch the best friend, who’s almost too laid-back and potheaded to be true. An amusing, entertaining, and even touching (at the end) look into one kind of american dream. And a film as much about the process of film making as about the people who make it.

MURDER ON A SUNDAY MORNING
This is a more typical documentary. Using equal halves of actual Court TV footage and taped interviews and coverage, this follows the course of a criminal trial in Florida where a young black man is being tried for the murder of a tourist. It’s very much about race and about sloppy police work (which again is about racism, since the alleged criminal is black). What’s amazing is that it plays so much like a TV serial case, you actually have to remind yourself that these are the actual people, not actors standing up for the camera. That’s something I think could only be possible in America, where everybody looks and talks like they’re on TV, and even the judge and jury look like well-picked extras in a courtroom series like The Practise. This one was Oscar-nominated and deserved to be, if only because it captures the real story with so little interference, and incredibly (luckily?) delivers a story that is straight out of an LA scriptwriter’s computer.

STEP INTO LIQUID
Ah, man. Forget the word ‘documentary’. This one is worth watching as a film, as two hours of great viewing, period. It’s about surfing, and it’s made by Dana Brown, the son of a famous documentary film maker whose classic The Endless Summer and its sequel are still regarded as the best films on surfing ever made - until now. Step Into Liquid uses multiple cameras of all kinds, digital, high-def, 35 mm, to cover simply fantastic footage of actual surfing. The surfers are the world’s greatest, the beaches the most beautiful, the sea shots are so marvellous, you could just watch this one for the natural eye-candy ocean shots. Yes, it has stand-up interviews and a voice over, but it’s all so great to watch, it just doesn’t feel like a documentary. The great soundtrack helps too. A must-see if you want to change your mind about what constitutes a ‘documentary’.

HOOP DREAMS
This is the famous, and controversial, basketball documentary. Famous because it followed two inner-city kids for seven years, covering their growth from schoolboys dreaming of becoming basketball stars, to young men struggling to achieve that dream, and is a great documentary as well as a great true-life sports film. The influence of Hoop Dreams on film making in general and documentaries and sports movies in particular can’t be underestimated. Watch the special features section where US critics inform you about the huge success and following this documentary enjoyed, as well as Martin Scorcese telling you why it’s a great film. Controversial because it was passed over for a documentary Academy Award, which it well-deserved, and exposed major glitches in the documentary voting system in the awards. (The documentary section was the only one not voted for by documentary film makers in general, but by a special panel, who often voted their own films for an Oscar! And we thought this kind of thing only happened in India.) You must see this film, and trust me, even its 3-hour running length will seem like half that much when you’re through - after all, it did get nominated for a Best Editing Oscar.

REGRET TO INFORM
This one is almost too painful to watch. The widow of an American soldier killed in Vietname twenty-five years ago goes to Vietnam for the first time to try and understand why her husband, and so many others, died there in a war that Americans and Vietnamese still haven’t come to terms with fully. Particularly poignant in view of the recent Afghanistan war, about half the film covers the American widow as she travels by train through Vietnam, retracing her husband’s last days with the help of a local woman who acts as her interpretor. And about half of it is interviews with American widows and Vietnamese widows talking about losing their husbands and loved ones in that tragic conflict. We’ve all seen Americans talking about the war, so there’s really nothing very new there - though I can understand her including that footage, after all, it would have been biased if she hadn’t. But it’s the Vietnamese interviews that get you where it hurts: the stories the women tell, the pain on their faces, the anger and rage they still exhibit, it makes you wish that George Bush, Jr, and his team of warmongers would see this film and know that they’re creating a whole new generation of widows like this, and bereaved sons and daughters, and a whole nation torn apart by the senseless needless violence of a foreign intrusion that makes no sense, because all killing ultimately makes no sense. No sense at all. This one won an Academy Award and deserved one if only for its anti-war message.

WAR AND PEACE
This one’s the only Indian documentary I’ve seen among the recent viewings. And I haven’t even actually seen it yet, just a promotional trailer at The Mocha Film Club at Bandra (more about that in another posting). But it’s the new documentary by Anand Patwardhan, our own Oscar-worthy documentary film maker. And it’s about a theme that we all need to be aware of these days: The profligacy of war and the crying need for peace. Patwardhan’s stark, brutally honest, stripped-to-bare-essentials school of documentary film making may lack the gloss and production values of major American documentaries but the message is the medium here, and the message is one we must all stand up and applaud. War and Peace also has the distinction of being one of the rare documentaries to get a theatrical release. It opens at Fun Republic on 24th June and Inox on 1st July, and I’m definitely going to be one of the first to see it, if only to support great documentary film making, and alternate independent film making in general. Not to mention supporting Anand Patwardhan himself, whom I had never met personally until I saw the promo of W&P last week, but always held great respect and admiration for. I’m happy to say that I can now finally put that respect and admiration into hard cash and buy a ticket to go see a documentary that is the culmination of 30 years of struggling just to exercise the Constituitional right to express his freedom of speech, and to share with all of us the truth of what’s happening all around us in India today. Skip the latest Bollywood blockbuster and go see this one instead.

There’s more, lots more, but I’m out of space and time. Will write soon, when I can, you take care, read some good books, see some good movies, listen to good music (or any music), but most of all, be good to yourself and chances are, you’ll be good to those you love as well.