Exit Through the Gift Shop

This is available on Netflix Instant as of January 18, 2011, and is a surprising and entertaining documentary film chronicling the life of a cameraman who can’t stop filming everything around him. What this habit leads to is his involvement in the cultural phenomenon of street art and its entry into the world of big-time art in the modern age. After watching it and then doing some additional reading, I’m not certain part of the film isn’t a larger work of invention on the part of the director, the famously un-famous and unidentified Banksy. While much of the early footage is Thierry Guetta’s, the larger narrative of the film was conceived and made by Banksy, who says that Guetta was simply the more interesting of the two of them (Guetta had initially set out to chronicle Banksy’s art and process). The artist that Guetta himself evolves into at the end of the film, called Mr. Brainwash or MBW, hosts a huge art show in L.A. in 2008, culminating in a nice, rounded ending to a story of a man filming a movement and the larger movement as a whole–and how his interaction with it changed his life. A New York Magazine article asks is well though, “Is Banksy’s Mr. Brainwash an art world Borat?” As one of the other street artists says near the end of the film, Brainwash took images and motifs that Andy Warhol had repeated until they meant nothing, and made them mean even less. I slightly questioned his artistic point while watching, but frankly enjoyed it too much to question it further. But no matter the true meaning of MBW’s art, Guetta the cameraman has truly proven himself the subject of a highly intriguing and colorful documentary. Highly recommended for some cultural reflection, and a few laughs.

The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara

This is a significant and compelling documentary, released in 2003, following the trajectory of Robert S. McNamara’s life, from his birth during WWI, his activity during WWII, and through his years and decisions as Secretary of Defense during the Cuban Missile Crisis and the Vietnam War and other important and controversial pieces of the story of American war in the twentieth century. Much of the film centers around an interview with him as an 85-year-old man, and he is captivating. This is a valuable reflection on the American past that is not exactly cheerful, but really important to see. (It won the Oscar for Best Documentary.)

Up the Yangtze

Documentary filmmaker Yung Chang followed one family, and one daughter specifically, as their lives flow, literally, with the Yangtze River. The Three Gorges Dam has been a highly controversial endeavor, as its construction and changing of the river’s flow can uprooted millions of people living along its edge. Visit the official web site for the documentary, where you can learn more about the Three Gorges Dam, the Yangtze River and its history and relation to Chinese civilization, and Cindy Yu Shui and her family. The movie has been released on DVD; rent it on Netflix or find it for sale on Amazon.

Outsourced

The 2008 John Jeffcoat film Outsourced is a wonderful collection of elements of modern-day India. After a young American businessman is informed that his job is being outsourced, he must aid his own doom by training the man who will replace him for much less money. Shipped over the India, he at first is annoyed and alienated, but learns the nuances of Indian life– against the backdrop of stunning colors and customs that exist there. He flirts with love, and winds up making some big waves in more lives than his own, for better or worse. Great music, too. Netflix recommended it to me, and it is a spot-on story and quirky well-made film.