Tag: Documentary

Whew. Here we go.

I have long thought for the last 6 or so years, basically most of my entire college career, that college sports were weird. I get being a fan of a team if your family went there, or you went there, but any other reason seemed silly to me. All I knew was that it was a huge huge industry that made a lot of money for any number of reasons.

I have also always thought that college athletes were getting shafted. They appear in video games, have jerseys being sold, and make a ton of appearances…but for what? No extra cash.

But I have felt like most people don’t share my belief. Whenever I bring it up, people say that they get free college and that should be enough. Little did I know there was a documentary that shared my point of view, Schooled: The Price of College Sports. Not only did it share my POV, but it also had a whole lot of information to back up its stance, which I lacked.

I understand it is an uncomfortable subject, because it is one of those situations where “it has always been this way” so why change it? Well, if it is bad, it should be changed, tradition be damned.

And how much Duke sucks. I am pretty sure there is a whole hour devoted to that.

But this documentary goes over almost everything. The history of college sports, the history of amateurism in sports and the Olympics, how sponsorships in college sports started, and oh so much more.

This documentary was also kind of hard to watch. Because it also talks about UNC and its Academic scandal with the football team players taking made up classes. That was terrible. It was. I was literally at school during this moment.

It talked about Devon Ramsey, the UNC football player and smart kid who got set up and screwed by the system for a very minor amount of help, despite actually being one of the brightest players. And it sucked knowing that a school I went to had some bad things go on during it, but I know in my heart it is true.

I won’t talk more about the documentary, because it does a very good job of presenting the facts in an easy to understand way. It has a lot of details to back it up, and even features some people who don’t want things to change and disagree with it. It isn’t incredibly biased in that regard.

But hey, it’s on Netflix, and I thought it was great. It also features a lot of Arian Foster, of the Houston Texas. He tells a lot of good stories and he is now one of my favorite players outside of my favorite team.

When choosing my documentary to watch for this week, it was between The Revisionaries and Shenandoah. The reason The Revisionaries won out is because it is a lot more relevant to my current life, as someone who now lives in Texas and is responsible for school aged children.

Shenandoah, your time will come, don’t you worry.

It is almost common knowledge at this point that the Texas Board of Education has a lot more power than any sort of Board of Education should have. Because there are shit ton of people in Texas (And California), the standards that these boards set mean the books they chose will make a lot of money. They order more than they need to, so whatever the book is picked will make tons of money. So books try to make sure the standards chosen are met, so they can make that sweet cash money. If all textbooks try to meet their standards, then that means the rest of the country is affected by their decision. Ain’t no one making a textbook based on the Montana Board of Education.

It turns out one of these states is very liberal and the other is very conservative. So, what should be a not too important Board of Education becomes a battleground for different ideologies to lead the youth towards different values.

And this is seemingly public enemy #1.

Pictured above is one Don McLeroy of which a majority of the documentary is about. During the stupidly controversial evolution v creationism debate, he lead the board and was appropriately scrutinized. Thankfully logic won out, for the most part the science community won and Don was sent back to being a regular board member, not the head.

But the battle wasn’t over. It turns out Social Studies was a much more important subject to look at that didn’t get as much media exposure. This is where they determine what important parts of history are taught and what is left out. This of course can lead to a lot of bad things should it go unchecked. And well, to figure out who won that battle, you might want to see the documentary.

I thought it did a decent job of bringing this topic to light, but something was missing for me. Hard to really pin point it. Maybe the general boringness of the whole documentary? Having already knew about these facts, I didn’t find it really too eye opening or surprising. Just had me shaking my head on more than one occasion.

Decent info, some interesting characters, and a nice jab at Liberty University, which is always nice. But I just wanted more.

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. Such a hated and loved TV show. A reboot of an old toy franchise a few years ago, the series quickly spread across the internet.

The series, a show intended for little girls, quickly attracted them and more. Basically, every other group too, outside of the 65+ crowd. The number of middle aged / teenage men who liked the show and found it interesting became its own entity, and they were called Brony.

No other recent fan group has been as scorned or defiled as the Bronie. People have them assumed to be perverts, or a large gathering of internet neckbeards, known for their inability to not be socially awkward. And on some levels, both of those are true. There are definitely perverts and socially awkward neckbeards who like My Little Pony.

But the movie has a problem with that label. The documentary is about several Bronies, some maybe awkward, who have found enjoyment in the show, or have had the show help them in life some way, and their journy to Bronycon.

And they have new animated scenes done in rhyme to go over shit as well!

The documentary, Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fans of My Little Pony, was basically financed by John de Lancie. He is popular amongst nerd groups for his roles in Star Trek and Stargate, but he also voices a recurring villain character in the show, making him popular amongst Bronies as well. He saw that the fans of the show had a lot of backlash and wanted this documentary to kind of put a hold on that to show that they are just regular people.

And it was funded by Kickstarter, but that isn’t too important.

Sure, going into some people’s lives was interesting, I guess. Some people were bullied, some had Aspergers, some became famous for their music based around the show. Sure, there are also some interviews with the creator, the creator of Bronycon, and Tara Strong, the voice of a few of its characters, but outside of that? Just a bunch of regular people going to Bronycon.

And as a documentary, sure, it did a good job of showcasing their average lives and how the show affected them, but that is it. It didn’t really delve into any issue. I was just a documentary about bronies, made by bronies, for bronies, in order to elevate them to a higher status.

I just wanted more. Again, the cool professor pony they had through 3 segments or so? That was awesome. And that was about it. Hell, it even brought up that the creator left the show, but didn’t go over why. I had to look up that information on my own. What the hell, documentary?

Regardless of this documentary, I am still not a brony. I have seen like, half of season 1 of MLP:FiM , but haven’t had a lot of desire to run back to the show. However, I still reviewed My Little Pony: Equestria Girls.

Introducing a new genre type to Gorgon Reviews. The Horror Documentary. One part documentary, one part bump in the night, and one part magic.

This is not a genre I could even imagine existed. Sure, maybe documentaries about scary subjects? But this one also has some tense moments in it as well, with looking at places at night, scary images, and of course, scary stories.

Killer Legends wants to talk about four urban legends in particular, discovering why they became popular, where the truth really lies, and why people still talk about them today.

The hosts are Rachel Mills and Joshua Zeman, two nobodies basically. Just the movie makers and inquires.

There were some cameos from some clowns and wolf heads too, of course.

The documentary looks into four urban legends. The Hook, escaped mental patient, going after lovers lane people. The Candy Man, the man who ruined Halloween, and how often your treats have poison and razor blades in them. Then the call from your own place, babysitters getting found and killed while they are watching (or not watching) the kids. And of course, killer clowns. Or at least clowns driving around Chicago neighborhoods in white vans, trying to abduct kids.

Some of these stories you may already know the inspiration behind, because who doesn’t know John Wayne Gacy? But I thought each section was very well researched, if not super editorialized with some awkward and unecessary statements. It put a lot of great info out there, in particular with the Hollyween candy. This is important information, so people can stop living in so much fear. It is the worst hearing about people bemoan about “society these days” and such. All of them just being falsely nostalgic.

Either way, I thought this documentary was informative and every so creepy. Learning about the legend of the hook was the most informative for me, and gave me new movies to look out for in the upcoming future.

Killing Legends is a very new documentary and an exciting one in my book.

How exciting. In this documentary, I am not looking at anything controversial, mind blowing, or society changing. I am just looking into the lives of three(/four) people. The lives of a few Indie Gamers.

In Indie Game: The Movie, we discuss three games in particular. Fez, Super Meat Boy, and Braid, which is exciting, given that I actually own all three of these games. And have played two of them. And have beaten one of them!

All big names in their own right in the indie game industry, I got these games through various Humble Bundles in the past and they are all pretty damn unique. They were all also in different stages of the process.

Braid during filming was one of the first really big critically acclaimed indie games and sort of set the bar for indie games to pass in the future. Super Meat Boy in this documentary is working on finishing up the game and goes through their release on Steam and XBox and the nerve wracking wait to see how they did.

And Fez. Oh Fez. Fez who in 2008 won an award for best game design based on a demo, and then spent years in development hell, always tweaking and fixing. Fez wasn’t released when the movie was, so with Fez we got to see part of the development process and what it can do to a single person with all this pressure.

Thankfully they work in an environment where pants are optional.

I was actually impressed that I found this documentary interesting. I thought it would involve a lot more technical elements and show coding and how things were done. That worried me a bit. But no, it was all about the people behind their games and their genuine reactions to the events unfolding around them.

The creator of Braid was known to search the web for message boards where they talked about his game, responding to people. He was upset that people didn’t see what he saw when talking about the best features and the meaning of his game.

The creator of Fez almost had a nervous breakdown on camera it looked like, as he talked about a business deal with an ex partner that could ruin the chances of his game being released.

The two creators of Super Meat Boy lead me down a nostalgic past and seeing their success with their friends and loved ones was awesome.

Basically, it is a feel good documentary, and even better for people who know of those games or have played them. It delves into some theory (just a bit) about some hypocrisy in the gaming industry, and what really will make an indie game unique (and how to design a level, sort of), so it isn’t just human interest stuff.

It tells a nice story, but if anything, it lacked the other side of the coin. Someone who failed at making a game, either financially or through just making a bad game. It would have been nice to have a more “complete story.”

Hell, by the time this review is published, I will have hopefully played Fez.

Well then.

This documentary is brought to us by Netflix, where apparently there are documentaries called Are All Men Pedophiles?

That’s a title if I ever saw one. Just kind of, goes out and asks a bold question. It doesn’t make the claim, just asks the question. But it is still a very very eye catching title, so in that aspect it is doing the job it meant to do.

Are All Men Pedophiles? is only about 70 minutes long, so if it is going to answer that question it had to move quickly. But before it could answer that question, it had to delve into what the actual definition of a pedophile even is. My personal definition comes out of Great Britain, with the Paedofinder General (here and here). Ah, what great amazing satire.

You didn’t think I’d actually search the movie title on google for images did you?
I don’t want to be put on a list.

Well, the short answer to the question is no. Of course not. How could all men be pedophiles? That would be ridiculous. It did however imply that all men are ephebophiles though. What is that? Sexual attraction to mid to late adolescents, basically 14 year olds and highers. Aka people who have reached biological sexual maturity, but are not classified as adults in whatever country you live in.

There was a lot of evidence for this too. It went into the fashion industry, media, history, pre-history, biology and other science to help explain this all. To be honest, it all also checks out and seems pretty truthful. I found points it made hard to argue.

The end went interesting places as well, sort of defending pedophiles as its own mental condition. They don’t think anyone should be having sex with pre-pubescent children, no. But they do think that someone who is a non acting pedophile shouldn’t be looked down upon by society, given the fact that it isn’t a choice to love a certain person or gender or type. It’s all biology.

However, this is one of the worst put together documentaries I have ever seen. It repeats information constantly, not in a helpful way, but literally as if they never said it. The use of actual news footage was pretty awkward the way it was presented. All of the guest scientists/talkers felt awkward as well, no one really having any sort of charisma. It faded to black and used title cards. It was just seriously a piece of shit.

Which is sad, because it has great information in it. It points out the double standards in society and the absurd sexual offender list. The information, unfortunately, is just put together in a basket made of shit.

Like most people who still are alive, I sometimes find myself worrying about money. I don’t have any evidence to support this, but I also think a few dead people also might still worry.

Although I don’t think I was directly affected by the 2008 financial disaster, as in, I didn’t lose my 401k or anything (which is a thing I have now!). But it affected where I went to college thanks to increased enrollment in graduate school due to less jobs. It affected the job market that I went into 6 years later. And it affected the classes I took because all of the sudden they wanted to relate things to current events. Boo current events.

Inequality For All is a documentary that wants to help explain the direct cause before the effect, but how that first cause was able to happen in the place. This is all of course according to Robert Reich and a few other people. Reich has worked under several presidents and served as Secretary of Labor under Clinton. He also has about a shit ton of books, and now lectures about the economy and appears on some political shows.

So if anything, we can say the guys point of views have some amount of validity to them and he isn’t just a celebrity talking about someone else’s research.

He also looks a bit like a cult leader in this image.

Reich himself is a pretty charismatic guy. He had some condition causing him to be pretty short for and adult male, and if you didn’t notice right away, you will notice after his 30th short joke in the documentary. Some footage is him literally talking to a documentary camera telling information, some of it through his narration, and some of it through footage of his talks. But don’t worry, it isn’t just a guy babbling for 100 minutes. It does still feel like a standard documentary. We get animations of charts and graphs, we get figures, we get footage from elsewhere.

From what I can see, a lot of what he said seemed to be correct. I can’t say that finance is my subject background, so nothing appeared to be incorrect.

I however think that the way it was presented felt a bit boring. Sure, early on I was in to it. But as it went on, I kind of just wanted it to make its points quicker. Hurry the fuck up. Tell me what I need to know and stop trying to convince me.

This is all just how I felt watching it. Some good information. On its own, won’t change anything, but the ideas are correct and delightful. Since it is on netflix, it can be a nice watch to waste time, but this documentary won’t blow your mind.

Happy Freedom Day everybody! Unless you are reading this from Not-America, in which case, you know, the Fourth of July or whatever you want to call it.

I needed to review some sort of patriotic like movie for this special and awesome holiday, much like last year how I showed God Bless America. So when I found out some strange documentary was coming out this week with America in the title, I was thrilled.

America: Imagine The World Without Her. Alright, umm. Kind of a weird title. In fact, just reading it gives me negative thoughts about how this “Documentary” will go.

In middle and elementary school, every February for many years I would end up seeing a play put on for Black History Month. Usually it was about the achievements and inventions of Black Americans, and how life would be so different without them. It was an awkward play then and it is now, because they make the claim that if they weren’t there, then it would never be made. Which is bullshit of course, if they didn’t do it, someone else would have most likely. So I was scared that this documentary would be a lot like that play, but on a bigger screen scale with more kung fu fighting bald eagles or something.

But I was wrong. Somehow, it was far worse than I could have ever imagined.

And it was made by a man who looks like the Indian version of my second to last roommate.

Rage. That was my first emotion during this piece. After the intro of course. The documentary is full of historical reenactments, such as speeches by Lincoln or Frederick Douglas. It asks a hypothetical, how the world would be if Washington died in the Revolution. If the South won their independence. Some cool questions, of which, none of them were explored.

Instead, they ignored basically the title of the documentary and those questions and talked about why America was bad and their country was founded on thievery. What thievery? America stole the land from the American Indians, stole half of Mexico, stole people from Africa, stole resources from the world, and stole money from their own citizens.

What? This is what made me rage as it went through this list, detailed explanations from interviewed people as to why America was dick. I remember yelling retorts in my head. Like, “Fuck Christopher Columbus! He wasn’t American, he was Spanish, I don’t care what he did. Didn’t even land in modern USA!”

And then you know what? The documentary did it for me. Here came my confusion phase.

It started to use the same arguments in my head to clear up some of the issues. But it also used incorrect facts coupled with correct facts to make its point. I should have knew something was up when it grouped those five things together.

Not only did it mold the incorrect with the factual, blurring the lines with its biases, but a lot of what it started to say seemed pointless. Like, using these pointless “facts” as an argument against the earlier brought up points, where these stories didn’t actually relate to the points the argument made.

It’d be a lot easier to just dismiss if it was biased in one way. All falses, or something. But this documentary is sneaky.

So sneaky, that the true intentions of this documentary aren’t all made clear until near the last third.

And it all involves this woman reenactment video.

Turns out this documentary has a completely different agenda. It has turned suddenly into an anti-Obama documentary, almost completely out of left field. The director also did 2016, a documentary that I now have no reason to ever watch, because I can’t trust a thing he said. Should have known that, I guess.

So yeah, it went super hard against Obama out of nowhere. A lot of it was strange in that it was angry at him and his policies, despite it specifically being things started in the Bush years?

Then it went and talked about socialism, talkign about Saul Alinsky, and how Obama was someone who liked some of his ideals. This makes everyone bad by the way. Not only does it bring in Obama, but it then attacks Hillary Clinton, who wrote a thesis on him in college.

So there you have it. The whole point of this doc. It is entirely right wing propaganda, even had pro Tea Party information which no one should like. It made them seem like the little guy who was being walked all over, so the documentary wanted them to stand up and fight back against these evil changes to America.

They didn’t answer the questions brought up in the documentary. It was misleading. And it literally was just made quickly to affect the 2016 elections, which haven’t even had primaries for either side to see who is in the running.

What in the actual fuck.

Politically, I am an independent, so if a Democratic type documentary like this came out I would bash it equally as well.

America is an ass kicking country, and this documentary is part of the problem, not part of the solution. Political division is fucking stupid.

While looking around for new documentaries to see, to expand my reviewed genres and such, I saw Terms and Conditions May Apply and knew that was the next one to see.

If I have to watch documentaries, I prefer them to be relevant to me in some way. Clearly this one is modern and new and exciting.

From the title alone, you can probably figure out what it is about. The private policy and terms and conditions that you need to accept to go on to websites, use them, and use their services. The ones that no one ever reads. This documentary wants to us to know the dark sinister secrets and history behind them, and what they are leading America towards.

They also talk about this random guy a lot. No idea who he is.

This documentary makes a lot of nice points. A lot of nice, probably obvious to most people, points. But it does bring about the details in a nice narrative, stemming from the Patriot Act and how it changed the internet forever.

But, the way it brought these points? That is my main dislike of the movie. Especially early on in the documentary, where they used an abundant number of cartoons, TV clips, and kind of bullshitty strategies to make their point clear. It turned me off completely to the subject, thinking the whole documentary would go that way.

Which thankfully, it didn’t. The ending was a lot more organized, based on a lot of actual interviews, news clips, and documented evidence. So that was a good change. You just have to muddle through the shitty beginning to get to some content that is worth hearing.

TL;DR – Fuck the government, stop coming at me bro.

In an attempt to broaden my interests and review types, I set out to watch more documentaries. You know whose documentaries I usually enjoy? Why, those HBO Documentaries! I really only remember one specific one, Hot Coffee, and that one was really good. So why not another?

I picked Miss You Can Do It mostly because I liked the title. I went in knowing that it would talk about the first woman with a physical disability making it to the Miss USA pageant, and that she started a pageant for young girls with special needs as well.

And uhh. Well. That is basically the story I guess. And that is basically the documentary. The girl in question is Abby Curran, who at 20 won Miss Iowa 2008, sending her to Miss USA. She has cerebral palsy, just a milder version that mostly messes up her walk only. She made the Miss You Can Do It pageant actually in 2004 though, when she was sixteen, which is the miraculous part.

People from all over the US come and compete. I can’t tell how often it happens, but it is for young girls, most likely middle and elementary school.

Look, one of the girls dressed up as a sailor for her casual wear. CASUAL WEAR. That’s how you know their lives are rough.

So let’s get to the real talk. Not a lot happens in this documentary. They show us the lives of ten of the pageant girls. Their home life, school life, interview process, talks with their parents and more. Good insight, some are harassed, we get that. Also over the last decade or more, it has gotten a lot better. Kids/students are being more acceptable of those with differences. You hear every year about how a girl with down syndrome or confined to a wheel chair gets picked for prom queen instead of some popular girl.

But how much of that is fair, really? This might be a tangent, but hey, it relates to the movie. It is now getting to the point that if there is a voting based competition, and someone has a disability, they have a good chance of winning it now. Which is fine, if they deserve it the most, but the ultra PC-ness has lead to people voting that way because they think its the right thing to do only. I feel bad for the other girls who might have been dreaming of this moment their whole life, only due to sympathy.

Is sympathy the right way to vote though? I don’t know. I feel like it might be one of several categories to consider.

I only assume people have these hopes and dreams thanks to movies. My own high school experience didn’t have anything ridiculous like that.

However, like this is awesome and helpful for a self-esteem point of view. Watching this documentary and watching the happy faces of these girls who live lives I can’t even comprehend was joyous. I also might think the sympathy vote is what a lot of girls would use to win a competition.

I don’t know if I fully made any points here actually. The TL;DR is that the sympathy vote is crap, and every time I see a disabled person win a popularity contest, I wonder how much of it was from sympathy and how much was from actually earning. It is the cynical part of my mind, I guess. I won’t go into any further thoughts my cynical mind might have.

This documentary on it’s own doesn’t do a whole lot, just showcases a thing that exists that you might not have known about. No debates, no changing point of views, nothing. So it is okay. Kind of disappointing from an HBO Doc point of view, but okay nonetheless.