2021 documentary project wrap up

 So I spent a year consuming a documentary a week and what did I learn? So much. I will be an excellent party guest, once we get back to having parties again. I have lots of interesting talking points at my disposal now. How did I pick the documentaries, I will pretend like someone asked. Many different ways, sometimes I recognized the subject would be interesting to one, or more, of the humans who live in my house and that turned into conversations and debates, which is always fun, when done correctly. Other times I gravitated to what was popular at the moment or what trailer happened to pique my interest. I would make time to mindlessly scroll, to catch up with what was being offered on the various streaming platforms I subscribe to. 

I guess the next question, no one asked, would be; which documentaries were my personal favourites. In particular order they were;

Tread - About the guy that built himself a tank and drove it through his town, targeting those places he felt wronged by. 

Barkley Marathons - An absolute fever dream of an event (trail run), that has a secret entry process, a secret start time, a ridiculously number of finishers and an incredibly unique guy who manages it all.  

There Are No Fakes - Kevin Hearn from The Barenaked Ladies bought an original Norval Morriseau painting that turned out to be a fake. This doc follows the trial as well as touching on Morriseau's story and the world surrounding his paintings both real and fake. 

Secrets of Whales - This is just a lovely collection of episodes that are beautifully shot. The beluga episode is my personal favourite, but they are all visual stunning and interesting.

My Octopus Teacher - Another beautiful one to watch. And the story is quite touching as well.

Posting these reviews, which I fully admit I am not the best at, was a way to keep my ontrack to hit my goals, but also encouraged conversations both in person and online about what I was watching. Interesting to me, the documentary that garnered the most interaction was Miss Americana about the one and only Taylor Swift. There are a lot of Swifties out there my friends, as there should be.... in my opinion anyway.

So that's my 2021 Documentary Project wrap up, I am already on to 2022's project and hope to be catching you up soon. I've already watched some great ones!

54/52 - Count Me In

 

Count Me In (2021) - I am not musically inclined in any manner, meaning I play no instruments and I can't carry a tune in a bucket, but I am a very enthusiastic fan of music. We listen to music a lot as a family and recently invested in a turntable and are collectively building, what I feel to be, a kick ass vinyl collection. I love to discuss lyrics and meanings behind songs, which we do a fair bit over family dinners, so this documentary with drummers discussing their craft was right up my alley.

I really enjoyed this documentary. The interviews from are entertaining and interesting. My favourite part is listening to them talk about what the admire or recognize about other drummers. As a person with little musical knowledge/ability I really enjoy having why something is great explained to me in a manner I can understand. This documentary features lots of the greats; Ringo, The Police's Stewart Copeland, Foo Fighters' Taylor Hawkins, and Queen's Roger Taylor to name a few. It was a fun and interesting watch. I'd recommend it to any music fan!

I watched this on Netflix.

Records, Again?

 Just before Christmas we took our daughter to see one of her favourite bands perform. On the way out of the show, on impulse, she bought herself their new album on vinyl. As we walked back to the car she wrestled with some buyer's remorse mainly because we didn't actually own a record player, but that seemed like an easily solvable problem. We did talk about one of the biggest takeaways from the past two years, for me personally anyway, and that was the gift of slowing things down. As such, we invested in things and practices that take more time. Like the fire bowl, that encourages lots of backyard sitting and chatting, the charcoal barbecue that requires patience and babysitting, the sourdough starter that needs lots of attention and all of those things have led to some of my favourite moments over the past two years. Records I figured could be the same. 

I've already mentioned that we had started listening to a family curated playlist during dinner and we were really loving the sing-a-longs and conversations that had come along with that, so this seemed like an even more deliberate off-shoot of that. I told my daughter that playing a record required a bit more work than hitting shuffle on your phone. We had borrowed a suitcase player from a friend and playing a record required getting it out and setting it up, but all the other slower deliberate stuff we had been doing only served to enhance the experience and enjoyment so why not continue making time for the slow stuff? As our Sunday night dinners had evolved into mini-events, we added playing her record to the list.

First, I have to admit, it's a pretty great album, so that is a big plus, but the conversations that came out of it have been pretty great too. Like, what if you only like one song on an album? Tough, you had to buy the whole thing back in the day, that's what made one where every track was killer so special. So then we talked about what albums her Dad and I thought were that special type of unicorn. For me it's Gordon by the Barenaked Ladies, Fully Completely by The Tragically Hip, You Don't Mess Around With Jim by Jim Croce, just to name a couple. And sure you can listen a complete album on your favourite streaming service too, but we don't typically do that so this has been fun because in the time since our daughter impulse bought that record we've added a handful more albums to the collection (as a GenX type person, can we please talk about how many times we have purchased our music collections and on how many platforms, each time thinking it will be the last time?) and bought a nice mid range turntable that has it's own personal set up space and makes easy to alternate between albums and the old streaming service playlist any day of the week.

53/52 - Schumacher

 

Schumacher (2021) - Given how much I enjoyed the F1 docu-series, Drive to Survive earlier this year this documentary about seven time F1 World Champion Michael Schumacher seemed like a good one to check out. There is a wealth of personal pictures and footage of Schumacher to go along with the interviews from the who's who of the F1 world. There's also great interviews with his wife and children. Michael Schumacher does not appear in this aside from archival footage. He hasn't been seen in public since his skiing accident in 2013.

Ultimately this was an enjoyable watch, but for someone like me who is an extremely casual F1 fan there was a lot I feel this documentary took for granted in terms of my knowledge on the topic. I have seen criticism online that there is very little time devoted to Schumacher's accident, but I can understand his family desiring to protect his legacy and privacy. This documentary portrays him as both a guy dearly loved by his friends and family, but also incredibly aggressive in his approach to racing, which some reviews suggest should have been analyzed a little more for this production. Overall, for me, this was just okay. I didn't feel like a big enough fan of the sport to be truly engaged with this. Legitimate Schumacher fans will likely feel different.

We watched this on Netflix.

still learning to communicate

Someone important to me was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult. The desire for them to seek out the diagnosis may have been surprising to me, but once I was made aware of their reasoning and what the symptoms looked like, it made a lot of sense and ultimately explained a myriad of things. I knew improved communication was something this person was hoping a diagnosis was going to help drive forward in their everyday life and I was curious to see how that would work itself out.

Recently the two of us found ourselves in a conversation that we were coming at from different points of view. It wasn't a right or wrong sort of conversation, we just saw things differently. We were both attempting to  make our points clear, but we were both getting frustrated and ultimately not hearing each other. Taking their recent diagnosis into account and their desire for improved communication I said, hey can we stop for a moment? And so we stopped and I asked, what do you think I am saying here? What is my position? We were both quiet for a moment and they said, well, I don't know. Okay, I offered, I'll sum up my thoughts in one short basic sentence and you do the same. So we did and the conversation continued, but with both of us able to hear what the other was saying. I let them know I understood that articulating thoughts was sometimes difficult and it was hard for them to sort out their own ideas while also trying to digest information at the same time. 

We've talked several times since that conversation about how much we both appreciated that the knowledge of their ADHD diagnosis allowed us to rework how we were communicating with each other in real time as it was beginning to derail and save us both from potentially hurt feelings and unnecessary misunderstandings. These are issues that can come up in conversations between us that feature differing opinions. From my side it allows me to not get caught up in the cycle of feeling like they are simply choosing not to listen, budge or compromise on their point. They are clearly very capable of all of that, if they are allowed the time and grace, from me in this instance, to gather their thoughts. And while they can expect me to employ this tactic again in the future, I also hope they're learning to feel comfortable in asking for that accommodation in real time.  Someone recently said to me that while ADHD may make some things more challenging it has also required this person to develop other strong skills in response. Which, from my vantage point, is completely true. I hope this news only serves to help them (and me) learn and embrace more pathways to being successful in all things.

52/52 - The Super Bob Einstein Movie

 

The Super Bob Einstein Movie (2021) - When the Barenaked Ladies posted on Instagram that they'd written the song for the end title credits, there was no question we'd be tuning in on drop day. The Super Dave show was an absolute staple in our house in the 80's. Bob Einstein played the title character, Super Dave Osborne, an accomplished stuntman who never seems to successfully perform a stunt. The failure of these stunts was always catastrophic and hysterical. Einstein played Super Dave to perfection. Recently Einstein is probably best known for his role as Marty Funkhouser on Curb Your Enthusiasm. He's also brother to Albert Brooks.

Bob Einstein passed away in January of 2019 and this documentary is really a celebration of what a comedic genius he was. This doc has great interviews with Einstein's younger brother Albert Brooks, Jerry Seinfeld, Dave Letterman, Larry David and the rest of the Curb cast. It goes over all the great Super Dave bits and the Marty Funkhouser highlights. Einstein was obviously well loved and respected and as these interviews can attest. I really enjoyed hearing the breakdown of how Bob Einstein made his characters so funny. If you're a Super Dave or a Marty Funkhouser fan, this feel good doc is for you.

We watched this on Crave.

51/52 - 'Twas The Fight Before Christmas

 

'Twas The Fight Before Christmas (2021) - A Christmas themed documentary seemed the perfect addition to our family time holiday viewing schedule this year. A family who just loves Christmas is moving into a new neighbourhood and is hoping to bring their huge Christmas decoration extravaganza that draws hundreds of visitors to their street along with them to the new house, the Home Owner's Association, however had other ideas.

I kind of thought this was going to be a light-hearted documentary about a goofy guy who really loved Christmas, but this one got dark. Saying he really loved Christmas is something of an understatement, this guy is irrationally obsessed. Of course, he doesn't see it that way, but that can all be sorted out in a court of law. Which is his favourite threat, mainly because he's a lawyer and has the ability to make what are typically idle threats a reality without the financial burden that the general public would face to do so. To be fair there were mistakes made on the HOA's side of things as well, but it quickly got exponentially out of hand from there. I'm still shaking my head over it, to be honest. It is a wild and uncomfortable ride. Last I heard the case was still ongoing.

We watched this on AppleTV+.

50/52 - Who Are You Charlie Brown?

 

Who Are You Charlie Brown? (2021) - Watching The Charlie Brown Christmas Special is one of my favourite holiday traditions. Year after year it never disappoints. So, you could argue that pure nostalgia drove this choice, as I watched right during the holiday season. This documentary was directed by Michael Bonfiglio and is narrated by Lupita Nyong'o  and features interviews with Charles Schulz's widow Jean Schulz, cartoonist Lynn Johnston, actors Kevin Smith, and Drew Barrymore and lots more Peanuts fans.

This documentary delivers a Charles Schulz that is just as warm and lovely as you would hope he would be. Even more interesting was how he layered the world around him into his comic strips. Things like having strong girls in the strip, having Charlie Brown deal with his own insecurities and the introduction of Franklin after a teacher wrote him in 1968 urging Schulz to add a Black character. In between the interviews and the archival footage is a new cartoon with Charlie Brown trying to write an essay for his teacher about who he is. I enjoyed every minute of this one, my only complaint is at just under an hour, it felt too short.

I watched this on AppleTV+

49/52 - The Comedy Store

 

The Comedy Store (2020) - As I have mentioned we are fans of stand up comedy so this docu-series was a no brainer for me. Nobody else here was interested in watching, so I went alone with this one. This series is about the famed Comedy Store comedy club in Los Angeles. It's hosted by Mike Binder and features lots of interviews with the best of the best talking about their time at the Comedy Store.

I did really enjoy hearing from the likes of Dave Letterman, Jimmy Carrey, Whitney Cummings, and Marc Maron to name a few, but to me they seemed like random podcast type conversations then really telling the tale of the club, if that makes sense. I mean I still enjoyed it, but I feel like I came away with an appreciation of comedians telling their stories about performing hanging with other comedians and they also just happened to be at the Comedy Store. And truly if you are fan of stand up in general the interview list is killer. There also seemed to be more focus on the sensational types of stories like the passing of Freddy Prinze and Sam Kinison for example. It is a good one if you are a fan of comedians in general.

I watched this on Crave.

48/52 - Tig

 Tig (2016) - We are a family that enjoys stand up comedy, so when my daughter and I stumbled across this, we were certainly game to check it out. I didn't really know much about Tig Nataro outside of her bit about Taylor Dayne I'd heard and quickly came to appreciate her dry style of delivery. Not long after a string personal tragedies she was diagnosed with breast cancer which led to her incredibly honest stand up show she did just days after being diagnosed. That show at Largo was billed as being funny, heart breaking and brave and it made her suddenly famous as she began the fight for her life. 

This documentary tells the story of how Tig got here and then what happens next as she attempts to have a child, falls in love, write new material and grieve her mother. It was a touching and funny watch, which seems very true to Nataro's stand up. It was an interesting view into the things that make up a life, the funny bits, the hard bits, the bits you think you won't be able to get through. Made Tig Nataro fans out of both myself and my daughter.

We watched this on Netflix.

family band

 At some point during the pandemic we began listening to music during dinner, that quickly devolved into arguments over who got to pick what we listened to and general complaining about musicians we weren't individually fans of, so we set some ground rules. We have a family play list that everyone is invited to add songs to, each night at dinner we hit shuffle and we aren't allowed to skip songs or complain about which songs pop up. Even if Billie Eilish (for example, no shade for Billie) might not be your particular brand you can swallow it for 3ish minutes until the next one pops up and that has worked out incredibly well.

The unexpected benefits of this blending of our four individual tastes in music has been the conversations it has generated, not to mention the unexpected sing-a-longs. We often discuss the lyrics from the 70s, do they still hold up or do they read as pervy and inappropriate in today's climate. Spoiler alert, the verdict is inappropriate in a lot of cases. Sometimes the younger people in the group find the lyrics simply ridiculous, I'm looking at you Boys in the Bright White Sports Car, doesn't really stop us all from singing along while we chuckle though. 

We also spend a lot of time discussing stories in songs. The night we did a deep dive on The Coward of The County is a personal favourite of mine, what a song y'all. Ever really listen to the whole story? Nobody knew how to dial 911? Let's just all sit back and let this unfold the vigilante way? We also talk about the really beautiful stories and lyrics, for example all of Jim Croce's catalogue. Man, could that guy turn a phrase. Of course if I song comes up that is a new addition, we try and guess who added it and then talk about why they like this particular song or artist. 

Another unexpected benefit has been the kids discovering our favourites and loving them as well. We have generated new fans for The Beatles, The Tragically Hip, Jim Croce, and Elton John to name a couple off the top of my head. This is probably one of my most favourite gifts from the past two years.

47/52 - Class Action Park

 

Class Action Park (2020) - A documentary about the most dangerous water park and it's collection of poorly designed water slides, ridiculously fast go-karts and faulty brakes on the Alpine coaster all run my barely supervised teenagers? What could go wrong?

A lot, obviously. Action Park was in operation in New Jersey from the late seventies until the mid nineties, which seems way way too long. I mean once you watch it, you have to wonder why no one shut it down almost instantly. Remember being a kid and thinking a loop do loop in a water slide would be a great idea, but with age and experience you realize that physics just won't allow for it? Well these guys went ahead and built one anyway and offered staff $100 each to test it out. Early riders had teeth knocked out, the second wave of testers cut themselves on those very same teeth that ended up embedded in the ride itself. 

The founder of the park, Gene Mulvihill, bought two ski resorts in New Jersey and figured a good way to make money in the off season was  to open a water park, but not to worry too much about properly designed attractions, or safety or insurance, he created his own fictitious insurance company in the Cayman Islands and refused to settle suits brought against the park by injured parties, instead dragging them out in court until they gave up. All of this builds to the eventual loss of life in several tragic cases, the Mom of one victim does appear in this documentary. It's unfortunate such a casual disregard for public safety had to lead to this.

We watched this on Carve.

46/52 - Untold - Breaking Point

Untold - Breaking Point (2021) - Another one from the Untold series and another tennis doc. I am not a huge tennis fan, but I will watch a match if there is a lot of buzz around it. I hadn't heard of Mardy Fish before, but like the other documentaries in this series it was very well presented with great interviews. Having watched the Naomi Osaka documentary previously and followed her withdrawal from the French Open, this was an interesting watch.

Mardy Fish came up through the tennis ranks as a teenager with Andy Roddick. The two were close friends and Fish even lived with Roddick's family for a time. Fish was on the edge of the pro-circuit for years when things seemed to come together for him and his career really began to gain some traction. As he achieved success on the court the pressure began to build and he began to have panic attacks until he eventually had one in the middle of a match. And ultimately he decides to pull out of his match against Roger Federer at the US Open in 2012 because of his Severe Anxiety Disorder. 

If a player is sidelined due to physical injury that seems to read fine, but if mental health is cited as the cause it makes you weak or that you simply don't want it bad enough. We definitely saw a lot of that type of reporting when Osaka and Simone Biles withdrew from their respective competitions. I just don't understand that stance. The interviews in this give you a good idea of the mental toughness you have to have to be at the top of the game and there is no way it isn't taking a toll on them each and every day. The window of opportunity in professional sports is small, but after that passes these people still have a life to live and enjoy away from that stress and pressure, why would anyone feel comfortable calling into question what an individual's limit is? Mind boggling.

I watched this on NEtflix.

45/52 - Super Size Me 2

 

Super Size Me 2  (2017) -  The original Super Size Me documentary featuring Morgan Spurlock eating nothing but McDonald's for a month, was very likely the first documentary I ever watched. I remember at the time it got a lot of talk and buzz and it may have been the first documentary that I was aware of that received a lot of mainstream buzz. I didn't know that Spurlock had made a sequel until my husband suggested we watch it. I also wasn't aware that this documentary had been shelved for a couple of years, so ready for release in 2017, but not actually released until 2019 after Morgan Spurlock admitted to a history of sexual misconduct.

This documentary stays in the fast food arena, with Spurlock planning on opening his own fast food restaurant. In the lead up to opening this fast food restaurant we find out about how issues surrounding chicken farmers and their treatment by the large corporations that buy from them. We get a lesson in marketing and the buzzwords in advertising that are designed to make you believe your choices are healthier than they are. This all winds up to the eventual opening of said fast food restaurant and what that looks like in terms of how it is presented to the customers. I did enjoy this, Spurlock does know how to present an appealing documentary.

We watched this on Amazon Prime Video.

44/52 - Britney vs Spears

 

Britney vs Spears (2021) - I watched this one hoping for a deeper piece than the Framing Britney doc from earlier this year.  There's been a lot of comparison between this documentary and the latest New York Times one, Controlling Britney Spears as they were released within days of each other, but having only seen this one of the two I can't personally comment. 

This documentary does dive a little deeper into the legal moves that were being made in regards to the conservatorship. A lot of information comes from previously unreleased court documents that were obtained from an anonymous source. Those legal moves are disheartening. The claim is made that Britney has dementia, but she is still able to work and when you add all that into her fear of losing visitation with her kids, the financial benefits and motivations for the conservatorship it's just an awful terrible mess to be in, but more importantly how is she ever supposed to be able to get out? Obviously at this point we know that her father has been removed as her conservator, but how terrible it even needed to get to this point. Off the top of my head I can name a handful of men who's behaviour, publicly has been, at the very least, as concerning as Britney Spears' was deemed to be and never once have we seen such maneuvers. 

I watched this on Netflix.

43/52 - Untold - Deal With the Devil

 

Untold - Deal With the Devil (2021) - I am not a boxing fan, but you know I just can't say no to a sports documentary. Additionally I knew this one would land well with my husband. This Untold series reminds me of the 30 for 30 series by ESPN, interesting stories, well researched and great interviews! Not being a boxing fan, I really didn't know who Christy Martin was nor had I heard her story, so I appreciated being able to hear it straight from her, but I'm not really sure who advised her ex-husband to agree to be interviewed. I'm guessing it has a lot to do with ego.

Christy Martin was one of the most influential female boxers in history who won 36 of her first 39 fights in the early 90s. She ended up married to her trainer, Jim Martin despite a significant age difference becoming the most successful female boxer with sold out fights, big contracts and media appearances . Behind the scenes was a different story, one of substance abuse, denied sexuality and an abusive relationship. It all came to a head one night when Jim Martin stabbed her, shot her and then left her for dead. His interviews are conducted from prison where he is serving 25 years for his crimes. This was a compelling and heart wrenching watch. I can't help, but wonder if she'd simply been allowed to be herself if that would have changed everything?

We watched this on Netflix.

42/52 - Funny Tweets

 

Funny Tweets (2018) - I was in search of something light  to watch and found this while scrolling around. Personally, I don't bother with twitter, I used to, but it became too much of a time suck. Will I always read curated lists of funny tweets on just about any subject? Yes, yes I will. I do appreciated a well crafted joke and twitter is full of them once you get past the all the other garbage.

I really expected this to be more fluff than it was. I mean it is about twitter, so it's not exactly hard-hitting, but there was enough to keep this interesting. From tweets that turned into storylines on shows like Simpsons and Family Guy, to the guy who went from being funny on twitter for free to writing jokes for a living. It's not all glamour though, sometimes the jokes just don't land, sometimes they outright offend, and sometimes the trolls come out. The internet can be a dumpster fire. This one was short, but fun with no shortage of great tweets.

I watched this on Crave.

41/52 - LulaRich

 

LulaRich (2021) - I really hadn't heard of LuLaRoe (the leggings or the lawsuits) before I saw the trailer for this documentary, but once I did I knew it was great one to watch with my daughter who'd recently finished an elective on cults. This four episode documentary tells us the story of multi-level marketing company LuLaRoe that sells brightly patterned leggings, dresses and tops via home and facebook live parties. 

This series blew my mind right from the beginning. LuLaRoe founders DeAnne and Mark Stidham sit for extensive interviews, why they agreed to this is beyond me. I mean on one hand you have these interviews that read, very much, like they don't get what the big deal is and on the other you have footage from their depositions which is often in contradiction to what they are saying in their interviews. These are people with very little self awareness. From them we have more interviews with former LuLaRoe employees, sellers and reporters who have been covering the company.

If you happened to get in early there was money that could be made, few sellers and limited editions patterns created a real interest in the product, but as their popularity grew the focus shifted to recruiting new sellers and early adopters were making big money from their "downline". It stands to reason then that as the company grew bigger and the market became saturated with sellers, it became increasingly difficult for those that came in late to make money. that right there is a wild ride and we haven't even gotten into the problematic messaging LuLaRoe sellers were getting from the company. The whole story is a wild ride and it's hard not to feel sorry for those ladies who got caught up in this mess.

We watched this on Amazon Prime Video.

40/52 - Miss Americana

 

Miss Americana (2020) - I love Taylor Swift and I make no apologies for it. I think she is an incredibly gifted song writer and I love just about everything about her, so it was surprising to me that it took me this long to watch this documentary. 

I have said this a bunch in watching the Britney Spears documentary and This Changes Everything, the double standards that exist for women in the media is completely bonkers.I truly believe that if we were talking about a man, well he'd be a God. Heck, Taylor even wrote a song about this very thing and it's a bop. Have it on my daily play list. It's just super easy to take shots at some one. It literally doesn't seem to matter what she does, she gets hate for it. If she's dating, she should be dating less. If she's nice, well that's clearly fake. She's too pretty, too thin and on it goes. Again, shouldn't we be better than this by now? Not a Swiftie? How about scrolling on past or skipping that song on the playlist and just live your life? It's free to be kind friends.

Rant aside, I did love the behind the scenes stuff in this one, specifically in the recording studio. Not being musically inclined myself, I love to see musicians do their thing. I find it absolutely amazing. I feel the same way listening to Jerry Seinfeld explain how to craft a joke. It's a treat to see people being the best at what they are the best at. Loved this one.

I watched this on Netflix.

39/52 - Turning Point 9/11 and the War on Terror

 

Turning Point 9/11 and the War on Terror (2021) - I missed my opportunity to watch the National Geographic documentary 9/11: One Day in America, so I settled in to watch this one in it's place. 

This docuseries was interesting as it went beyond the attack that day and took us all the way back to the "beginning" and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. To get to that point there you have to first watch through the footage and the interviews and recordings from that day, which are heart wrenching, just as a word of caution. It's really kind of an ugly and disheartening story from there to present day. What may have seemed to be helpful at the time, driving the Russians out of Afghanistan, for example, created a situation for the Taliban to thrive and while they may have gotten rid of warlords, they also trampled all over women's rights. And on and on it goes with a seemingly endless back and forth. 

This was not an uplifting watch, but it was informative and gave me lots to think about.

I watched this on Netflix.