What's Up, Docs

I've enjoyed a little bit of free time over the holidays, and so in the last week, I have really dug into one of my favorite things: Documentaries. I love Netflix--I have access to so many documentaries, I'll never watch all the ones I am interested in. Every time I turn it on, I add about 10 docs to the queue. But! Since New Years Eve, I've watched the following:

1) Tiny: A Story About Living Small People who build super tiny little houses to live in. Interesting and inspiring and makes you think about how many things we actually need, etc.

2) 20 Feet From Stardom I knew this one won the 2014 Best Documentary Feature Academy Award, and I knew it was about backup singers. I did NOT know that it was about a specific group fo background singers who apparently sang on EVERY SONG EVER IN THE HISTORY OF MUSIC AND ROCK & ROLL. Honestly, this one blew my mind.

3 & 4) Seven Up and 7 Plus Seven I can't WAIT to keep watching this series. A group of 7 year olds were interviewed in 1964 about a number of topic including what they wanted to do in life. Then, the filmmakers interviewed them again EVERY SEVEN YEARS! AHHHHH. I love this so much. 56 Up came out in 2012. They get longer and longer, so I will have to set aside time to watch them, but I am hooked.

5) The Institute This one just looked interesting to me from the description, and I got sucked in. It was about a altername reality game in San Fransisco that ran for 3 years 2008-2011. It looked fun, got creepy and ended questionably, but instead of this being a documentary about how they produced the game and why, it is more accurately in my opinion a virtual experience of what it was like to follow the story and play the game. There were 5 parts to the structure over the years, and my theory is that this documentary is actually the 6th segment. It creeped me out more than I like to admit, but it is fascinating to watch and it is inspiring to just go out and create something.

6) The Punk Singer I've been wanting to watch this one since it came out. It's a doc about Kathleen Hanna, her bands Bikini Kill & Le Tigre, & Kathleen's mysterious illness. OH MY GOD this woman is amazing and it was so inspiring and makes me want to just go out and BE and MAKE A DIFFERENCE and DELIVER A MESSAGE and be real and raw and create. Plus, the love story between her and Ad-Rock is just so sweet, and their wedding rings say each other's name. Adorable.

7) La Bare A doc about a male strip club in Dallas like the one in Magic Mike. This was interesting to me as a director/choreographer/former producer of burlesque. Male strip routines are closer to burlesque routines than anything, and it was just a neat look into this world.

I hope to keep cranking these out!