Doc Corner: Barbara Kopple's 'Desert One'

By Glenn Dunks

Barbara Kopple’s new film is an interesting one. But not necessarily for any reason related to style or form and potentially completely by accident. Rather, it’s interesting for how well it encapsulates America’s idealised image of itself. For Desert One is a documentary that charts the various ins and outs of a top secret military mission that was, to be perfectly frank, an utter shit show. A botched rescue attempt in 1980 of American hostages in Tehran that, in retrospect, was lucky to take off in the first place.

It’s in part because of this debacle that we got Argo.

And yet…

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Doc Corner: 'A Thousand Cuts'

By Glenn Dunks

The first word that came out of my mouth at the conclusion of A Thousand Cuts was simply, ‘Phwoar!’ Which is surprising because I don’t think it’s a word I use on the regular. But this new film by renowned Filipino-American filmmaker Ramona S. Diaz had the dizzying, alarming sensation of being put through the wringer. It’s an ever shrinking and claustrophobic box of political corruption and democratic destruction that is so confident in itself that it leaves arguably it’s biggest and most damning moment to the end credits.

Diaz’s film predominantly follows Maria Ressa, a prominent journalist in the Philippines who in 2018 was co-named Time magazine’s Person of the Year and who has become a significent recipient of scorn from the nation’s bullish President, Rodrigo Duterte. Through her website Rappler, she has sought to uncover the violent criminality of his regime, but through public rallies, abusive televised press conferences and through packs of angry political surrogates and supporters, she has become Duterte’s public enemy number one. They have sought to silence her and leverage his power to have her arrested multiple times and spread fake, damaging information and threats to her and her outlet.

Sound familiar?

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Doc Corner: Women in music

By Glenn Dunks

At least once a year, we do a round-up of some of the music documentaries that are making the rounds. This year there is a particular focus on women in music with a range of titles covering pop (Kate Nash: Underestimate the Girl), punk and new wave (The Go-Go’s), rock (Suzy Q) and whatever it is that sits in between all of them (Sisters with Transistors)—and they of course sit alongside names like Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette and Loretta Lynn in Ken Burns' Country Music, which we looked at recently.

I have actually already written about Liam Firmager and Tait Brady’s Aussie-made Suzi Q upon its local Australian release last year. I was impressed by its high energy retelling of the career of the “Devil Gate Drive” and "Can the Can" singer and guitarist Suzi Quatro. A rollicking is simply structured documentary that is appropriate daggy for the musician at its centre. You can read my full review at ScreenHub so let’s move on to the rest, which make for an entertaining dive through diverse musical stories.

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Doc(?) Corner: The boozy brilliance of 'Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets'

By Glenn Dunks

Sometimes you just know. You can just feel it. You know? When a film isn’t just good, or even great, but one that will percolate in your mind for ages. When it offers that true gut feeling you get when watching something that just sings to every part of you. And so it is with the docu-fiction curio whatsit Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets from directing brothers Bill Ross IV and Turner Ross which is set in a Vegas dive bar —bear with me, I think this is accurate—that is actually a stand-in for a New Orleans dive bar of the same name populated with real life people, some of whom have acted although none of whom would call themselves actors (maybe), They represent real life personalities who have come together to mourn the triumph of capitalism that isn’t really happening.

I know, I know, I’m lost too, but what a way to get lost! It’s like Robert Altman making an episode of Cheers if he gave his cast an open bar and its theme song was Sophie B. Hawkins’ “Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover”...

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Pride Month Doc Corner: 'Welcome to Chechnya' is brave, confronting cinema

Doc Corner is celebrating Pride Month with a focus on documentaries that tackle LGBTIQ themes. This week we are looking at the latest film from the Oscar-nominated director of How to Survive a Plague.

By Glenn Dunks

We may find ourselves every June celebrating “pride”, but it is important to remember that it started from a fireball of anger. A fist of societal and cultural agitation that in a single moment decided it was going to fight back against oppression and violence. It may be more than 50 years later, but it’s an unfortunate fact that even in the most modern of societies, people who identify as LGBTIQ or non-binary still face the world with varying degrees of awareness about our otherness. And while many may not choose to dwell on it, there is the ever-present knowledge that those like us around the world are being bullied, harassed, targeted, punished, hunted and killed on a daily basis --and that’s before we get into when sexuality and gender identity intersect with race, religion and nationality.

It’s hardly hidden but it can be easily neglected, which is where a film like David France’s Welcome to Chechnya comes in...

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