The Village Detective (2021) synopsis: A Soviet film from 1969 is found in an Icelandic fisherman's net, and the filmography of its leading actor offers a portal into a history that has endured on celluloid.
something came up about 1/4 of the way in and i had to pause, but HBO's Life of Crime: 1984-2020 is pretty interesting so far. i plan to finish watching this when i get a chance later this week... anyone else see it?
The Twitter Swindler on Netflix. Hardly crucial watching. But kind of amazing how gullible some people seem.
Rise of the Nazis - Dictators At War - Ep1(2022) on BBC2 As someone watching this documentary with limited knowledge about this specific period of history, I found it an educational but disturbing watch
I just finished Filthy Rich, the docuseries on Jeffrey Epstein. This a week after watching the Cosby. The lack of humanity is pretty ****ing depressing.
Ornette: Made in America (1985) - pretty average and low budget with an odd, artsy tone. Not a good document of Coleman’s great music. Buena Vista Social Club (1999) - pretty good, solid production documenting Cuban musicians and the making of an album and some concert footage. Some on location shooting in Cuba. Both streaming on Criterion.
The Nazis: A Warning From History The Nazis: A Warning from History - Wikipedia Caveat: Some of this was really, really hard to watch.
Circus of Books is a doc and streaming on Netflix. It's is about the lives of a mild-mannered Jewish couple, the Masons, and how they sort of fell into being (at one time) the largest distributor of gay porn in the United States, all the while basically appearing as conservative, boring parents to their three children in their home life. Their store became a fixture of the West Hollywood scene, and they were very supportive of their staff and clientele, and this documentary (put together by their daughter) sort of charts their business.
Because a balanced documentary about the downfall of one of the most important figures in comedy and, more importantly, race in the US in the second half of the 20th century is something worth seeing, IMO. I not only learned things about Cosby, I learned about how incredibly important and influential he was to a large segment of black Americans and how heartbreaking it was for many of them to witness what happened. Not to mention the lens it puts on the way victims of rape and sexual assault are actively discouraged from reporting the crimes that they're victims (which of course I knew about to a certain degree, but this doc really drives it home). But maybe none of that is interesting to you, which is cool too.
It does indeed. But this doc is compelling and hard to put down. I have sat here shocked at his character, then find myself laughing at a clip of one of his routines. We saw him on stage in Las Vegas in 1983. I have never laughed more before or since. As you said, mind boggling.
Cosby was on the outs with a lot of people over his criticisms of and lectures about the black community and culture by the time he got caught out for his other activities. Personally I grew up watching I Spy, Fat Albert, and enjoying his records... very talented and skilled but also deeply flawed people are part of this world. Probably the biggest shock to me when we started learning about those activities. I'd watch that doc if I got the chance. Watched the first two LBJ shows on CNN tonight and learned some more about the guy in the oval office when I was born. Amazing how accurate his take on situations was sometimes, like on Vietnam, and yet he could still end up waist deep in the big muddy there. There was a very sharp mind in a fairly straight-forward horse-trader seeming person operating in complex cultures yet knowing you would get your hands dirty to stay around. Apparently he expected to die of a heart attack by age 65 like many men in his family and wanted to get stuff done before time ran out!
