Documentary

Carol Doda Topless at the Condor – Review

Posted by admin on April 4, 2024
Posted in: 2024, Documentary, Reviews, Uncategorized. Leave a Comment

Review by David Baldwin

In 1964, a cocktail waitress named Carol Doda made history as the first topless dancer in America — or more specifically at the Condor Club bar in the North Beach section of San Francisco. She set off an immediate media frenzy, attracting positive and negative attention to the club where she danced atop a white piano that descended from the ceiling. Her fight to entertain the way she wanted influenced many, as did her silicone enhanced breasts that propelled and created an entire industry.

Co-Directors Marlo McKenzie and Jonathan Parker take on Doda’s story and everything that comes with it in the not-so subtly titled Carol Doda Topless at the Condor. The documentary is a loving ode to the 1960s sex positive icon and revolutionary, and features candid footage from her legendary performances, along with talking head interviews discussing not only her legacy, but the legacy of the bar scene in North Beach as well. They get into some pretty salacious, warts and all details about Doda and the people revolving around her, including memories and rumours involving a death involving the white piano that was such an integral part of Doda’s act.

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EarthX Film Festival – Fire of Love and We Feed People

Posted by admin on May 23, 2022
Posted in: 2022, Capsules, Documentary, EarthX, Film Musings, Oscars, Reviews. Leave a Comment
Image Courtesy of the EarthX Film Festival

By David Baldwin

The EarthX Film Festival wraps up today with its last day of virtual screenings. The festival’s in-person portion ran from May 12-15 in Dallas, Texas and virtual screenings ran from May 16-23. The festival’s mission is:

“…to bring awareness of the environmental crisis in order to create sincere action on both an individual and communal scale; to inspire local and global change on how we as humans affect our home planet and our fellow beings. We aim to include Texas, and the Southwest, in the conversation on climate change through compassionate, positive, truthful storytelling.”

While I was not in the ground in Dallas, I did have the opportunity to view two of the bigger titles at the festival: Fire of Love and We Feed People.

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Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain – Review

Posted by admin on July 17, 2021
Posted in: 2021, Documentary, Reviews. Leave a Comment

Review by David Baldwin

Who is Anthony Bourdain? Prior to a few weeks ago, I really had no idea. Despite not watching it, I knew he was a chef who traveled and ate foods from all over the world on a popular TV show called Parts Unknown, and I knew he had committed suicide. And that’s where my knowledge of this legendary artist ended.

Enter Academy Award-winner Morgan Neville’s documentary Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain. It’s a lengthy title for a suitably lengthy film. Yet, it does not really feel very long at all. It opens as Bourdain is working on his future best-selling book Kitchen Confidential and quickly blasts into orbit as he starts traveling the world and becoming an international celebrity. It charts the highs and lows of his personal life, his addictive personality, his profane give-no-fucks attitude and the demons he was facing internally. Talking head interviews with family, close friends and his production team are peppered throughout, along with narration from the man himself and a treasure trove of candid and behind-the-scenes footage.

So needless to say, I am very aware of who Anthony Bourdain is now – or Tony as his friends called him.

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The Way I See It – #TIFF20 Review

Posted by admin on September 10, 2020
Posted in: 2020, Documentary, Reviews, TIFF20. Leave a Comment

Review By David Baldwin

The Way I See It centres on Pete Souza, the former White House chief photographer for President Ronald Reagan and President Barack Obama, and the images he took during their presidencies. While the film does spend some time on Reagan, it mainly chronicles the time Souza spent with Obama – using some of his public speaking talks to bridge the gap between important events alongside his pointed commentary on President Donald Trump.

My go-to buzz word when describing documentaries is “fascinating”, no matter the subject or context. The Way I See It certainly fits that fascinating mold, but the content within it seems substantially important enough that calling it fascinating is just not enough. It digs in deep past other surface level documentaries of its ilk and is captivating for the entirety of its running time. Watching Souza in action is what I imagine it would be like watching a painter creating Renaissance master works. He knows just how to compose the perfect shot and just when to take it. And his access to such intimate and candid moments of Obama, his family and his staff is simply mind-blowing. I had seen some of Souza’s photos in passing before, but seeing them being celebrated here as documented history is a moving experience all in itself.

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Oscar Shorts 2019 – Documentary – Review

Posted by admin on February 15, 2019
Posted in: 2019, Documentary, Oscars, Short Films, TIFF. Leave a Comment

Review by David Baldwin

It’s been a bit of a crazy week for me, but even crazier if you’ve been paying attention to what’s been happening with the Oscars. The wording is still a bit confusing, but The Academy announced this week that they will be handing out the awards for Best Editing, Best Cinematography, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, and Best Live Action Short, during the commercial breaks and editing together a piece to show the winners and their speeches sometime later in the ceremony.

Oh, and they are trying to hold all winners to 90 seconds for their speeches – and this includes the time it gets them to stand up, be congratulated by their loved ones and peers sitting around them, and sprint to the podium. The guys might be able to pull this off in their dress shoes, but what about the women? Is The Academy encouraging them to wear sneakers and not have trains on their dresses? Naturally everyone is furious. Petitions are being signed. Celebrities and industry people alike are speaking out and protesting the Academy’s decisions. Twitter is on fire with rage. But it’s just another day as we stumble towards the ceremony on February 24.

And with that, here’s a few words on the Oscar-nominated Documentary Short Films I missed posting about last week.

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TIFF15 Reviews: Where To Invade Next

Posted by admin on September 12, 2015
Posted in: 2015, Comedy, Documentary, Reviews. Leave a Comment

This is a group photograph of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and several Commanders in Chiefs taken on July 1, 1983, in the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff dining room, located in the Pentagon. Shows (left to right): U.S. Navy Adm. Wesley L. McDonald, Commander in Chief, US Atlantic Command; U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Paul X. Kelley, Commandant of the Marine Corps; U.S. Army Gen. Paul F. Gorman, Commander in Chief, US Southern Command; U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Robert C. Kingston, Commander in Chief, US Central Command; U.S. Army Gen. John A. Wickham, Chief of Staff, US Army; U.S. Army Gen. Wallace H. Nutting, Commander in Chief, US Readiness Command; U.S. Air Force Gen. James V. Hartinger, Commander in Chief, Aerospace Defense Command; U.S. Navy Adm. William J. Crowe, Commander in Chief, US Pacific Command; U.S. Air Force Gen. Charles A. Gabriel, Chief of Staff, U.S. Air Force; U.S. Army Bernard W. Rogers, Commander in Chief, US European Command; U.S. Army Gen. John W. Vessey, Jr., Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; U.S. Air Force Gen. Bennie L. Davis, Commander in Chief, US Strategic Air Command; U.S. Navy Adm. James D. Watkins, Chief of Naval Operations; and U.S. Air Force Gen. Thomas M. Ryan, Commander in Chief, Military Airlift Command. OSD Package No. A07D-00347 (DOD Photo by Robert D. Ward) (Released)

Well the cat’s out of the bag — Michael Moore’s secret documentary Where To Invade Next premiered on Thursday night at TIFF and it was nothing like anyone expected. Instead of skewering the American government and their foreign policies abroad, Moore decided to travel various European countries and discuss social/economic improvements they made that could help improve the quality of life in the US. The only footage on US soil is archived news and cell phone videos.

What he discovers abroad is initially ludicrous in how wildly different it is from American (and by proxy Canadian) life. 8-week vacations in Italy. Amazing school lunch programs in France. Free college education in Slovenia. Some of the things he discovers are downright mind-boggling. Of course, he avoids all of the social problems each of those countries have in favour of cherry-picking the best elements to contrast to American life, but that is besides the point. Instead of grabbing American government by the throat, Moore calmly and carefully lays out the ways life can be improved. It is a very different kind of movie for him, and I think that’s why it resonates so well. It provokes discourse in the best possible way, and is moving, hilarious and downright disturbing all at the same time. This is easily his best work since Bowling for Columbine, and one that does not feel like it is entirely agenda driven.

If I hold anything against it, it is that it feels a bit sluggish at 2 hours (but this could also have been due to the delayed and increasingly late time I watched it), and I’m not entirely sure his culminating thesis is sound. He presents a lot of information, and by the time the film comes to an end, it does not feel all that conclusive. Almost as if something is missing.

But that said — Moore is tired, and he wants to continue campaigning for change. But he does not want to be the only one. And Where To Invade Next may just be his last attempt at trying. Hopefully it helps.

If you can score tickets (or want to test your luck in the rush line), the film is playing at the Ryerson on Friday September 18 at 12pm and Sunday September 20 at 6pm.