Indiepix is back with even more documentaries.
Indiepix returns with a second volume of their Mix 10 series. We get 10 documentaries covering a wide variety of subjects that may or may not strike your fancy. I try to get you guys into documentaries and feature films, but all I hear is maybe. This is why I’m leaving your mother.
Bhopali
Union Carbide created the worst industrial disaster in International History back in 1984. The documentary follows those that live near the area, as UC and their owns Dow Chemical move on while the people can’t. Social and physical stigmas plague people too poor to move away from an area with poisoned water and growing birth defects. It’s been several decades and we will still wonder if the Bhopalis will ever get justice.
Disarm
“Disarm” is an exciting look at antipersonnel mines are still maiming and killing people. Mixing government officials and opinions from the public, the documentary doesn’t offer many answers. When compared to Oppenheimer’s work near the same area, this documentary just doesn’t fell as on-point.
The Nine Lives of Marion Barry
I want to say that this was an HBO documentary. That being said, don’t expect that hard of a hammering for Marion Barry. It’s more of an archival look at the man who was smoking crack cocaine while Rob Ford was just a slightly less fat Canadian.
Road to the Big Leagues
Can Americans teach baseball to the Dominican Republic? While the country loves it, a lot of the film feels like we’re just setting people up for failure. Still, it’s a fascinating look at the rise of modern athleticism.
Satellite
“Satellite” features one of my favorite actresses that hasn’t broke out yet. Stephanie Szostak helps to convince you of the central romance, it’s just the trappings that hang on the film take a lot to enjoy. You have to buy the central concept that these two are willing to run off into the wilds of an undiscovered America. Well, undiscovered by them. So much of this film is about two individuals becoming codependent and trying to hang their baggage each other. Eventually, it hits a point where they can’t deal with trying to live through the other one.
Romantic fables ask so much of an audience in an era of hipsters and unmitigated desires to act like your personal journey is the only one matters. Unconditional love isn’t real outside of dogs and very small children. Every relationship has conditions and the efforts of two young people to break out of the norm, still plays upon these conditions. Someone is always going to want a commitment, even if you’re trying to be a carefree vagabond. Basically, it comes down to the desire to have a sense of security.
So Bright is the View
“So Bright is the View” is sold as a fable. All I see is a young woman getting hammered by the failure of her mother and her inability to escape being a woman in Eastern Europe. The lack of a bright future coupled with the need to make quick decisions places her at a hard road. Will our heroine Estera move to America or try to survive with her mother in Israel?
Soldate Jeannette
“Soldate Jeannette” is a Fassbinder style tale about a woman that is either destroying herself or fighting against the system. The film plays short and it took about three viewings for me to get a grasp on the material. The lead lady is playing around with societal constructs, but the film seems to be taking cues from Godard and “Safe”. Is it a straight allegory for feminist views on a male driven world? Is it absurd for being absurd? Why can’t I make sense of what’s going on? Is there anything there? Is there? Modern German Hipster Cinematic Art continues to bewilder me.
That Girl in Yellow Boots
“That Girl in Yellow Boots” has been slammed as being shocking for the sake of being different in Bollywood. Honestly, I think the film moves past that. The film works as a social horror story about what it’s like to be in a strange land searching for someone you haven’t seen in ages. It’s the kind of material that makes up stress nightmares. That being said, you wouldn’t see this stuff in most American movies.
Watching a young lady try to survive in Mumbai is harrowing. Seeing as every man turns on her and then the land of India rejects her, you almost wonder if she should just kill herself. There’s a real desire for a sense of finality that never comes. I don’t know why that creeped me out so bad. But, damn if it hasn’t set on my mind.
We Live in Public
Josh Harris was one of the original dot-com kids who made their money on the Internet’s infancy in the long-ago days of the mid-1990s, who could see how technology and the ability to interact personally with technology was going to change us and the world in which we live. He made millions at a very young age, and started throwing colossal parties in New York at which no expense was spared. Director Ondi Timoner met Mr. Harris at one of these parties, where she was assigned the role of documenting the whole scene. And it was out of these parties that the ideas for his two truly revolutionary projects grew.
White Shadow
Albinos in East Africa have become a commodity in the modern slave trade. Certain people believe that their body parts can cure maladies. This film follows an albino African boy, as he tries to flee from his uncle and a local witch doctor.
The DVDs come with featurettes, commentaries, deleted scenes, trailers, bonus short film and interviews as the special features. The A/V Quality is pretty solid for standard definition. The transfer plays pretty standard, while the audio track never blows up. In the end, I’d recommend a purchase.
RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW!
