The Sound Board

As we have some great topics on film tips and tv shows, I love myself now and then a good documentary. So here a topic for some documentary tips and sharing.



I had this documentary on my watch list for some time already and when I saw a reminder that it would only be shortly available on a Dutch streaming site, I gave it finally a go.

A very raw, sometimes quite shocking and fascinating documentary about the 30 year conflict in Northern Ireland, also known as the Troubles. It has 5 parts in chronological order and it is told by interviews with people from both sides and it tells the story from just ordinary people getting involved in it somehow and as well stories from paramilitaries, loyalists, British soldiers and so on.
It shows a very human side of this very complex period. I still think that the naming of this period as The Troubles is just putting it mildly how devastating and complex this period has been (and probably still is till some extend).

Thanks Jaap. That sounds like something I want to see.

I can recommend “The Stringer”, a fascinating story about the provenance of the photo the world called “Napalm Girl.” It was a photo of a 9 year old Vietnamese girl running naked down the middle of the road after being bombed with napalm. The image so shocked the world that anti-war efforts were redoubled.

The documentary disputes the official version of who took the actual photo, and it’s pretty disheartening but also instructive as to the treatment of “native” photojournalists as opposed to foreign ones.

(I saw it on Netflix, btw.)

Interesting recommendations. I'll put both of those on my list now

And yes, calling it 'The Troubles' really is the understatement of the century, isn't it?

On a similar note (only happy films on cozy subjects in this thread, yeah?), one of my standout documentaries in recent memory is the French film Un président, l'Europe et la guerre. It shows the outbreak of the Ukraine war as viewed from inside the French administration at the time. The film team follows Macron and his advisors around during the build-up before the invasion, their diplomatic efforts to avert the mounting crisis and, of course, their attempts to deal with the fallout after shit hits the fan. Among other things, we get to (allegedly at least) listen in on Macron's phone conversations with Putin and later also Zelensky.

It's rare for filmmaker's to get this kind of direct access. I suspect there may be some strategic efforts at play here, like trying to rehabilitate Macron's international reputation after he was roundly criticized at the time, so that's perhaps something to keep in mind. Still a very interesting peak behind the curtain of international affairs.

No clue about availability though.

Here's three reviews in the last 2-3 years of excellent documentaries that stuck in the mind. There looks like a lot of hyperbole in the text, but I think the terminology I use is justified in each case.

Collective
BBC / HBO



On every level this film is simply unbelievable - there's no other word for it. Yet it is all horribly true.

In 2015, there was a fire at a Bucharest club, Collectiv. There is some footage from the gig near the start of the film - a metal band finish a song raging against authority with a couple of pyros, and the crowd go wild. Then the singer looks up, and simply says "There's a fire. It's not part of the show". It takes a few seconds for us to see any flames on camera, then its just a few flickers. And then in under 10 seconds the entire ceiling is ablaze. There's nothing graphic shown, but it is horrific.

27 die in the venue. But two weeks later, over 30 more have died in hospital. Not from burns - from infection. Infection is a real risk with burns, but this clearly isn't right. A "newspaper" - The Sports Gazette - does some digging, and unearths the awful truth. Almost every hospital in Romania is being supplied disinfectant from a single source, Hexi Pharma, and it is being watered down by a factor of 10. It is useless, and therefore lethal. From there the institutional corruption the newspaper exposes gets ever greater, each development more sickeningly unbelievable than the last, as the calendar heads inexorably towards the Romanian General Election.

The story is more gripping than any thriller. But the documentary itself is just as remarkable. The access - both at the Sports Gazette and following a young health minister brought into try and deal with the situation - is quite extraordinary. We also follow a few of the survivors, and all the elements are woven so immaculately it doesn't seem possible that it is real. But it is. It's all understated, there's no hype or histrionics, almost no score at all. None of it is needed. I had to keep pinching myself that I wasn't watching brilliantly scripted and acted drama, and that itself was disturbing.

It's one of the most incredible documentaries I've ever seen. There are only a very few moments of visually distressing footage but the real horror is the culpability of all the people that kept the system going - one doctor whistleblower comments "we're not even humans any more". Please seek it out if you can - in the UK it's on the BBC's iPlayer, in Europe I think it's HBO, not sure in the USA.

Navalny
BBC/HBO

(review written in 2023 before Navalny's murder in jail, making this extraordinary film all the more important).



I like to think I keep up with world events. I knew a little about Navalny, currently in a Russian prison as the leader of the opposition, having survived Novichok poisoning. But as I watched this, my jaw increasingly on the floor, I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing or that I'd missed so much of it. I guess what with one thing and another, there's been a lot going on. Alexei Navalny appears to be a quite extraordinary individual, a genuine modern day hero.

The film opens with him being interviewed, and taking exception to the fact that this film may be to be released posthumously, and what are his thoughts on that. Not good, it seems. He's escaped the poisoning, in Germany but about to go back into the lion's den of his own free will. We, the viewer, know it won't end well.

Oh the weight of audience superior information.

The crew follow him everywhere. We meet his family. We see his humour, his fearlessness, his devotion to his country. We see the attempt to save his life. And - this is where it gets really unbelievable - after recovery we see him work with Bellingcat to investigate his own attempted murder and then one by one phone the suspects under an alias to get them to try to talk. It's absolutely breathtaking.

You wish for him and his family that the film could end there. It doesn't. Doubtless in real life he's as flawed as the next hero but My God. The sheer courage on display, knowingly flying right into the heart of Putin's dictatorship empire where he is State Enemy no1.

The whole world is longing for a sequel one day, a time when Putin is gone and Russia gets its country back. A contemporary Nelson Mandela is waiting, hopefully.


Praying for Armageddon



This is one of the most disturbing things I've ever seen. I knew all about the Evangelical Right, I understood that they were pro Israel. I don't think I really grasped the magnitude of it though. I don't think it's overstating it to say that without them, there would be no Trump, there would probably be peace in the Middle East as well. It is their financial lobbying and support that has enabled the worst of Israel's anti-Palestinian policies, because only when Israel controls all that land will there be the second coming of Christ. Christians United For Israel currently has 10 million members. Mike Pence and Nikki Haley are both enthusiastic supporters.

Important perhaps to say - they do not represent the views of most Christians. But as they say in the documentary, those moderate Christians are constantly told by the firebrands that they are weak, and not Christian enough. They need to take a side.

Recruitment is very high in the US military. The scopes of rifle sights are manufactured with a Bible verse engraved into them.

This documentary is on BBC iPlayer in the UK. It also looks to be available for streaming without a login on Al Jazeera - https://www.aljazeera.com/program/witne ... iddle-east

Oh some really great and interesting recommendations!

I had bookmarked the Stringer already on Netflix and good reminder to start watching it soon.

Scherzo - that sounds like a fascinating documentary, big thanks for the tip and going to check where I can find it

Guy - very interesting (and very intense) recommendations. Heard about Praying for Armageddon before and sounds very disturbing....