Tyson

More4 showed the James Toback film Tyson (2008) on Tuesday evening. The film is an example of amazing access to an individual who's career has been at incredible highs and lows over the last two decades. Using original interviews with Mike Tyson, and archive footage of fights and news reports, Toback examines these highs and lows with the first hand account.

At times the audience can sympathise with Tyson as he breaks down in tears whilst recollecting time spent with his coach and mentor Cus D'Amato. However as fame and fortune takes hold of one of the worlds greatest boxers his career takes a roller coaster ride of ups and downs. Toback shows the full extent of Tyson's outburst against a member of the audience at the weigh in before 2002's heavy weight fight with Lennox Lewis. Tyson's homophobic and racist barrage is it seems born out of three years spent in jail, however it also shows that as a man he has difficulty with control and aggression whilst outside of the ropes.

The film serves as a brilliant insight into a man who many believe never fulfilled anywhere near the true summit of his potential. Towards the end, it is clear that Tyson only took on bouts as a way of paying the bills, a fact that he himself seems deeply ashamed by.

Toback uses some interesting stylistic devices concerning the interview. One thing I thought worked very well was the delayed and overlapped audio of Tyson speaking. The build up of multiple voices, delayed and layer behind the dominant soundtrack in my mind brought about questions of mental health. The use of partitioned/windowed shots also brought some fantastic closeup shots humanising such an aggressive and hardcore personality

The Documentary Blog

Not to be confused with Adam Mulcahy's Documentary Blog, The Documentary Blog is something I have just found this very moment and will obviously be keeping a close eye on and hopefully my blog will one day as comprehensive as this. I may also print out the Top 50 films of the decade and work my way through.

Puritan Fellowship.

Before Christmas as a group we have to hand in a short (6 - 10 minute) documentary of our choice. Working in a group we have decided to look at making a film about open air street preachers. There is one specific area in Manchester City centre, Market Street which attracts huge crowds and in turn also attracts plenty of people performing, protesting and of course preaching.

Having spoken with a few preachers we have settled on Kevin, who is a pastor with the Puritan Fellowship church and who also visits Market Street about three times a week to preach for a couple of hours.

Throughout this film we want to uncover the reasons why someone would impose there religious beliefs on a seemingly unreceptive audience. Kevin has a well managed online presence including videos, social networks and blogs which he has used to build up a following, and as we experienced while watching him preach, people are familiar with his work and want to get involved too. We are also fascinated in the conflict encountered in the street as well as Kevin's conflicting opinions and beliefs.

At this stage we are meeting Kevin and hopefully making him comfortable with our presence. We are looking to film next week over a few days and at a few different locations. The picture is of Kevin with his trusty step ladder.

Into Eternity

I recently watched a new film by director Michael Madsen, Into Eternity. The film follows the construction of the Nuclear waste storage facility Onkalo in Finland. Scientists at Onkalo have determined that the best way to store nuclear waste is under the ground. The facility allows waste to be stored approximately 5 kilometres under the earth and then sealed off and covered so that no one will ever find it.

With the believed lifespan of nuclear waste being about 100,000, Onkalo has been built with a vision to withstand the years, and considering the pyramids we built approximately 4,000 years ago, this is some feat. Of course, civilisation could be very different in 100,000 years and throughout the film Madsen is constantly asking questions of how to inform poeple of the whereabouts of the waste so that care can be taken when approaching the area in the future.

Stylistically the film looks stunning, the use of slow motion and Kraftwerk-esq music portrays a careful and clinical process which cannot be bound by time. Madsen uses interviews with scientists and Onkalo directors who at times are comical in their apparent complacency, almost as if the question of warnings and future generations has never even been contemplated.

Tony Palmer

We had a guest lecturer the other day named Tony Palmer who has created some fantastic Music documentaries with the likes of Leonard Cohen, Frank Zappa as well as some great popular music documentaries for the BBC and many many more! This really got me thinking as for a long time I have enjoyed music documentaries and it is a challenge I would one day love to tackle.

Through his discussions he talked about how he was allowed complete access while working with Leonard Cohen, with no industry figures or PR even present for the majority of the filming. In this day and ages, this kind of access would be close to impossible to achieve, nevertheless I do feel that there is still the capacity for some truly amazing music documentaries.

Dan of Geek discusses some really great docs here, with each one have a a true depth that really pushes the boundary of simply following the band around while on tour. Finding and getting access to individuals who are places on such a commercial pedestal and seen as so important is undoubtably a tough challenge. EVen cutting ones cloth on lesser known acts requires such a huge amount of luck, I think the music documentary will be a goal of mine for some time to come.