documentaries-i-like

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Radiolab Presents Symmetry

Radiolab is back with another excellent video, produced by Everynone (click that link to view a bunch of similar videos). This video takes a simple approach: present a split screen with symmetrical (or complementary) items shown in each. By comparing people, food, animals, clouds, and all sorts of other interesting pairings, the viewer is challenged to figure out the connection between the two frames, and have a little moment of delight. Beautiful and calming, except for the last scene, which might be... READ ON

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Exclusive: Mike Rowe Talks "Human Planet"

NOTE: My interview with Mike Rowe appears below a bunch of discussion of the documentary Human Planet. Jump to the "Interview" heading if that's what you're here for. Human Planet premieres Sunday, April 10 in the US on Discovery. Two episodes air each night, running from 8-10pm EST on April 10, 17, and 24. Check your cable listings for more details, and set your DVRs -- again, this is a huge justification for why you bought a big shiny HDTV. This time around, Mike Rowe will narrate the... READ ON

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Equating Angels with Transistors: Shatner at His Best

In this 1976* AT&T promotional video, William Shatner explains the miracle of microprocessors. As an AT&T historian writes: "Back in 1976, microprocessors had a maximum of 8.5K transistors for 64bits of memory. The Queen of England sent her first email, and Steve Wozniak designed the Apple I." The video is very Seventies with its retro-futuristic music and narration. This is basically a LOST Dharma Station training video, but real. Sample quote: "There was a time when philosophers argued... READ ON

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Werner Herzog's "Cave of Forgotten Dreams"

Werner Herzog's latest documentary is about the Chauvet Cave, which is remarkable primarily for its cave paintings -- dating from the ice age, the paintings are surprisingly detailed, and some show a sort of "painterly" quality. In some cases, this effect is achieved by etching and gouging the cave walls and working with natural contours on the cave walls, so the art interacts with available light (which presumably would have been torches or other fire). You can't just show up at the Chauvet Cave and... READ ON

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Painting Ads on Buildings: "Up There"

Here's a treat for your Friday: a quiet twelve-minute documentary about painters who hand-paint ads on building walls in New York City. It's a dying trade, as most ads are printed on vinyl and simply affixed to billboards (or walls). But there are a few hand-painters left, and this is their story. Representative quote: "It takes so much work that it's kinda ridiculous. And we try to make it as easy as possible...but that doesn't change the fact that there's way easier ways to get it up there."... READ ON

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Airing Tonight: "The Colony" on Discovery

Set your DVRs: tonight (July 27) on the Discovery Channel, The Colony airs at 10pm. Read on for a first look! What separates good reality TV from bad reality TV? For me, good reality TV raises questions -- most importantly, what would you do if you were the person living in the "reality" of the show? In bad reality TV, nobody cares -- it's pure entertainment, watching people goof around and make fools of themselves. But in good reality TV, like Discovery's The Colony, we are repeatedly confronted... READ ON

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Pixels - A Pixel Art Documentary

Director Simon Cottee has just released a new 11-minute documentary about pixel art entitled, fittingly, Pixels. What's fun about this documentary is both its brevity (did I mention it's eleven minutes long?) and its clear, straightforward discussion of a topic most people know very well -- pixels. You're looking at them right now. The director notes: "A few incorrect dates shown. Obviously Mona Lisa isn't 1956... 1506. My favorite sequence? Around 8 minutes in, the comparison of pixel-based games... READ ON

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Evidence: Shots of Kids Watching TV

Evidence is a short film by Godfrey Reggio, director of Koyaanisqatsi, showing kids watching TV, from the perspective of the TV. It's mesmerizing and shocking -- the looks on the kids' faces are peaceful...but creepily vacant. Reggio's website says: Evidence looks into the eyes of children watching television - in this case Walt Disney's "Dumbo". Though engaged in a daily routine, they appear drugged, retarded, like the patients of a mental hospital. Evidence is about the behavior of children... READ ON

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NOVA's Mind Over Money - TONIGHT at 8pm

Airing TONIGHT on NOVA at 8pm in most markets: Mind Over Money, a program about economics, the brain, and how emotions affect decision-making. And it's NOT BORING -- this is the fascinating, bizarre side of economics. Behavioral Economics is a relatively new field studying how cognitive, emotional, and social factors influence economic decision making. What am I talking about? Take this experiment (shown at the beginning of NOVA's new documentary, Mind Over Money): A group of test subjects are... READ ON

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Tonight on PBS: DIRT! The Movie

Airing tonight as part of the PBS series Independent Lens, check out DIRT! The Movie, a documentary about dirt -- what it is, how it got there, and why it's important. Dirt is very important stuff -- it contains a lot of microorganisms working together to maintain ecosystems. Dirt is critical of course to food and other plant growth, but it's also a critical part of the overall ecosystem -- it processes rainwater and has effects on climate. In DIRT! The Movie, we learn about what dirt actually is, how... READ ON