OK... Academy Awards for Documentaries; BULL ****.

[dust1n]

Ok.. the nominations were...

Burma VJ - harsh raw footage of **** happening in Burma
Food, Inc - dissection of the food corporations (very detailed and good)
The Most Dangerous Man in America - The Pentagon Papers (detailed biography of Daniel Ellsburg and his courageous act in the Vietnam War)
Which way Home - Abandoned latino's trying to get into America to find their parents..


And The Cove - dolphin farming and slaughtering for sale.

The Cove won.

Does any one see what I'm getting at here. Am I the only one who finds something wrong with this picture?

 

[Riverwolf]

Not in the least bit. I can understand extreme liberals wanting their documentaries in the theaters, but what kind of movie (i.e., a visual medium for telling stories) award is there for a documentary that isn't by nature storytelling?! (Unless you're trying to pull a Crocodile Hunter movie, but we all know how well that worked...)

 

[dust1n]

Not in the least bit. I can understand extreme liberals wanting their documentaries in the theaters, but what kind of movie (i.e., a visual medium for telling stories) award is there for a documentary that isn't by nature storytelling?! (Unless you're trying to pull a Crocodile Hunter movie, but we all know how well that worked...)

A documentary is meant to educate; does it mean nothing that documentaries based on relevant geo-political human suffering or human right infractions. How is the story telling 'so good' on the dolphin market; when the others were trying to help increase understanding about 'human affairs'.

 

[gnomon]

You are talking about the same Academy that gushes over Michael Moore, while very entertaining his films are just that, when Frontline turns out one exemplary documentary year after year. But those are not eligible if I recall correctly.

Man on Wire, a doc I loved, won in 2008. Great documentary of a human story but hardly anything on the level very informative of human affairs. Year before that was Inconvenient Truth. Even for someone like me who has been concerned with climate change issues since 1990 this film was a pandering bit of Al Gore marketing than a truly informative film. March of the Penguins before that.

Bigger, Stronger, Faster was a great documentary. It went over the heads of many people who can only cross their arms and parrot "steroids bad" in an age when vast human modification is seen just around the corner and the nature of American culture.

Face it. Not everyone is going to be pleased by Academy choices. I don't watch them anymore. Pretty much what the Academy Awards are nothing more than industry back patting.

I watched The Cove and Food, Inc. Both were very well done. I would have slammed down the DVD of The Cove for it's BS endeavor into the area of science regarding mercury, humans and autism. They basically just ignored the mass of studies or discounted them as being by "the corporations" and presented a completely one sided view. But it wasn't enough to detract from the point of the film which does present a massive endeavor of human cruelty and achieving nothing more than turning animals into waste for no apparent purpose.

But yeah, I thought Food, Inc was better. But even it wasn't the most well balanced doc. Then again, I guess many of them are not.

Maybe my standards are too high.

 

[Valjean]

I don't quite understand your objection to The Cove, Dust1n.