Rhetoric and Civic Life

Most everyone has heard of Super Size Me, the documentary where a guy eats McDonalds for 30 days. Well, this is a documentary about a guy smoking pot for 30 days. I’m lying if I say this isn’t the dumbest documentary I have ever seen yet.

It starts with a stand up comedian who loves to smoke. He doesn’t smoke any weed for 30 days and goes to a psychologist, he gets a physical, he takes the SATs, takes a psychic test, and a sperm count test as well. He goes around doing his stand up comedy and does his regular routine, except cuts out smoking and drinking. After 30 days, he starts the next 30 days where he smokes basically non-stop. He takes all the same tests again and I won’t ruin the surprise for anyone who wants to watch this, but some of the results are expected and others are not.

I said earlier that this was a dumb documentary, but dumb doesn’t necessarily mean bad. It kept my attention for an hour and fifteen minutes, and there were certainly some really funny moments. The documentary outlined the history of the legalization of medical marijuana in California and there were some interesting interviews with other comedians, doctors, dispensary owners, cancer patients, police officers, and even a senator from Minnesota. This film isn’t going to win an award any time soon, but it obviously wasn’t meant to. It’s a dumb, funny documentary made by stoners (for stoners). If this topic interests you, certainly watch it. You’ll get a good laugh.

This quasi-documentary (half reenactment, half interview) is the chilling story of Joyce Carol Vincent, a London woman who was found in her flat an estimated three years after she died, with the television still on. Her body was so decomposed that the medical examiner couldn’t even determine a cause of death. Joyce’s very interesting story is told by former friends, boyfriends, and colleagues in an interview style. They tell the filmmaker what they knew about her, how she acted, and how they think she could have ended up dead in her home for three years without anyone noticing or checking up on her.

Joyce’s life story is quite memsmorizing. Everyone knew her as a very beautiful, lively, likeable woman, but somehow she died alone without any friends or family close enough to even notice she was gone. The interviews outline her life starting in London with a Grenadian father and West Indian mother all the way to the last year or so of her life where she stayed on a friend’s couch pretending to work at an office but secretly working as maid. She was hospitalized 6 months before her death and named her bank manager as her next of kin. That truly shows the great disconnection that she had from everyone she knew in her last months on earth. 

I quite enjoyed this documentary. I thought the way it was made was really interesting because it was not the typical documentry format. The only problem I had with this film was that the interviewer did not talk to the family because they chose to remain anonymous, which is totally understandble. But the filmmaker jumped to some conclusions in places where the family would’ve been able to clarify what really happened. I don’t think it’s fair to portray her family in a specific way without even talking to them, especially in a documentary.

Joyce’s story is really frightening – to think that not a single person noticed that she was gone for three entire years is really scary. When the story hit the news all of Joyce’s former friends and colleagues told the interviewer that they never considered that the Joyce Vincent in the story was the Joyce Vincent they knew.It seems that Joyce knew that she wanted something more out of her life, but something – emotional pain, domestic violence, internal struggle – barred her from becoming the person that everyone around her knew that she could be. In the tragedy of her death, it should bring her comfort that her story is a reminder to people to keep in touch with those you love and never to let the business of life prevent you from actually living.

This is a fantastic documentary. It follows two people (Monica and David) with Down’s syndrome through their wedding and the beginning of their marriage, a move, a diabetes diagnosis, and the beginning of the rest of their lives. Neither Monica nor David work, they live with Monica’s parents and are quite dependent on them. What I love about the documentary is that it was made and produced by Monica’s cousin, so the whole film feels very intimate, personal, and comfortable. Monica, David and their families are very honest. Both Monica and David’s mothers had their children at 20 and both of them were left within two years of their child’s birth to raise them on their own.

The amount of love between Monica, David, and their families is so much that it hurts. Everything David does is done with adoration for Monica and vice versa. They are so in love with each other and they face every obstacle together as a family. My favorite quote of the film comes from David, “Different is different. And different is tough.” The personal interviews with Monica, David, and their various relatives give interesting insight into the lives of adults with Down’s syndrome – the struggles and the triumphs.

This was a really heart-warming documentary to watch. I would definitely suggest it to anyone having a rough day. It’s a great pick-me-up that will certainly leave you smiling.

What’s better than a good old fashioned shark documentary? This week I watched a National Geographic produced film about great white sharks. What was interesting about this documentary was that it was filmed through the eyes of a great white shark named Nicole Kidman (random name for a shark, I know). The film follows Nicole as she migrates around the globe hunting, eating, and mating. Scientists follow Nicole and explain many interesting facts to viewers as the movie continues.

What set this documentary apart from all of the other documentaries about great white sharks or the shows on Shark Week was way that they followed a single shark. And the particular shark they followed happened to be one that did not follow the regular migration patterns of any other great white sharks that the scientists had tagged. I won’t ruin the mystery, but this documentary provides a surprising amount drama.

I really enjoyed this movie. It was a fun watch, and I learned some interesting things about sharks. If you find the topic of sharks interesting, I certainly recommend this documentary. It’s interesting, informative, and fun.

To be honest, I thought this documentary would be more interesting that it was. It was somewhat informative about the previous lifestyles of the indigenous peoples of Papua New Guinea, but I felt that it was a little too broad. Piers Gibbon went deep into the forests of west Papua New Guinea and met with two different people groups that have historically practiced cannibalism, but not modernly.

I usually really love learning about different cultures, especially ones that I know almost nothing about like the indigenous peoples of Papua New Guinea, but I found the information a bit shallow. Gibbon was searching for information about modern day cannibalism and what he found was [spoiler alert] pretty much nothing. It was already known that these villages used to practice cannibalism in the past and that was the conclusion made at the end of the documentary since they no longer eat people, so the hype and suspense built up throughout the film was a bit of a let down.

Some of the interviews with the village people were quite interesting though, and I thought that Gibbon did a very good job of integrating himself within the culture, being respectful, and appreciating the people’s kindness and willingness to speak about the past. What I found most interesting in this documentary was the openness with which the villagers spoke about cannibalism. There were a few old men who had eaten human flesh as children and they recounted the events as if they were speaking about eating chicken. In our culture, cannibalism is probably the most unthinkable taboo, but in theirs it used to be normal and so they talk about it as if it is normal because to them, it was.

Although I didn’t love this documentary, it was entertaining and there were some interesting facts about the reasons behind the former cannibalism of the people of Papua New Guinea. It was a short watch, only 45 minutes, but to be honest you could probably Google cannibalism and find out more in the same amount of time.

Koko: A Talking Gorilla (1978) is the fascinating and sometimes unsettling story of a gorilla named Koko (a nickname for Hanabiko) who was taught sign language. She can sign up to 700 hundred words and uses 400 words regularly. Koko also understands about 2,000 words in spoken English.

I found this documentary very interesting. Personally, I am not a big fan of intelligent 200 pound gorillas, but at the same time, primatology is an important part of being able to study humans anthropologically. And Koko’s story is quite interesting as well. Through the use of sign language, Koko is able to do things that one wouldn’t expect – she can lie, tell jokes, and express emotions.

The most interesting thing to me was  the fact that Koko was able to name objects that she didn’t know the sign for. For example, she did not know the watermelon so she signed “drink fruit.” To me, that shows incredible intelligence, especially for an animal. When asked if she was a human or a gorilla, Koko responded neither. She instead called herself a “smart animal gorilla”.

Overall this was a great documentary. I watched it in 8 parts on youtube, not Netflix. If this topic interests you, you should definitely watch it. It’s a fascinating story.

This documentary follows the history and evolution of the “world’s most dangerous gang”, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13). MS-13 was created in Los Angeles in the 1980’s by Salvadorian immigrants and now is an international gang with an estimated 70,000 members. Through deportation, MS-13 was spread to six different Central American countries and also Canada and it is now one of the fiercest gangs in the world. MS-13 is involved in illegal immigration, every type of illegal drug, and violent crime all over  the western hemisphere.

The documentary shows some of the brutal things that MS-13 gang members do to rival gangs and even to one another. The MS-13 lifestyle is very dangerous and extremely violent. To quote one of the informants, “you live for God, you live for your mother, you die for your gang.” Many members are initiated at 8 or 9 years old (the initiation is a savage beating for at least 13 seconds.)

I used to live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I often heard about homicides or drug busts that were related to MS-13 in Oakland, Richmond, and San Jose, but what I didn’t know before watching this film was that MS-13 has infiltrated the suburbs of 33 states across the nation. One gang member that had been deported back to San Salvador, El Salvador had come from Nebraska. That is not a place I would expect a violent gang to be.

Overall, this documentary was very interesting and actually a little frightening. If you’re interested in gang history I would definitely recommend it. It was very informative.

This is by far the best, coolest, and most inspiring documentary I have ever seen. It’s about a regular guy with a regular life, Joe Garner, who decides to only use the website craigslist.com for 31 days. He begins on December 1st with only a backpack, laptop, cellphone, passport, toothbrush, and the clothes on his back. He doesn’t take any money and he clears his phone of all contacts. For 31 days, Joe relies on the kindness of people to eat, sleep, shower, and get around. He starts in LA and ends up travelling all across America;  through the help of random people on craigslist  he goes to Chicago, New York, Seattle, New Orleans, Tallahassee, Houston, San Francisco and he even makes it to Juarez, Mexico for a day. Through craigslist he finds opportunities to volunteer, go to dance classes, sight-see, all other types of free activities, and to simply connect with people.

If this documentary doesn’t restore your faith in humanity, I don’t know what will. It is a truly inspirational look into the lives of normal people. My favorite part of the documentary was when one of the people that Joey meets talks about respecting one another simply because we are humans. It’s a very powerful statement. Everyone has an interesting story to tell, if you are willing to listen.

If you have Netflix and an hour and a half to kill, take the time watch this documentary. You won’t regret it.