ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD (Werner Herzog)- Documentary in Full.
Todos los fans de la noche de los Oscars, que siguen la ceremonia en su mini fiesta casera, sufren cada año el mismo destino: se estudian todas las posibilidades, combinaciones y permutaciones; las apuestas y los pronósticos al dedillo para ganar con orgullo su quiniela personal y asombrar a propios y extraños con su imbatible conocimiento cinematográfico. Todo suele funcionar como un reloj, hasta que las temidas categorías de documentales y cortos, por falta de información y por su naturaleza impredecible, se cruzan en nuestro camino miserablemente para otorgar la victoria a cualquier vecino lejano, que esta de paso y no tiene mucha idea de cine, ha copiado las respuestas de la mayoría y eligiendo estas categorías a dedo, se alza con el mayor numero de aciertos.
Para evitar que esta frustrante situación se repita un año más, hemos buscado trailers y sinopsis de los Documentales nominados, para que al menos, nuestras decisiones sean bien informadas. Entre nuestros hallazgos, el último documental al completo del controvertido Werner Herzog, quien tras “Grizzly Man” ha encontrado una nueva veta creativa en este formato.
Every fan of the Oscars night following the ceremony at a home party, year after year runs the same fate: after carefully studying the possible combinations and permutations, the bets and the forecasts by heart in order to amaze everyone with his unbeatable cinematographic knowledge; everything goes as planned until the moment the frightening documentary and short categories invariably get in our way, due to lack of information and their unpredictable nature, resulting in some distant neighbor claiming victory. Normally is someone who doesn’t know anything about movies, came just for the free food and booze and, copying other people’s opinions for the bulk of the categories plus choosing at random these ones, gets the maximum number of correct guesses.
To prevent that frustrating situation from happening once again, we have search for the trailers and synopsis of all the nominated Documentaries, to provide ourselves with at least an educated guess. Among our findings, the complete latest opus by controversial director Werner Herzog, who after “Grizzy Man” has found a new creative path in this format.
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE :
“Encounters at the End of the World” (THINKFilm and Image Entertainment)
A Creative Differences Production Werner Herzog and Henry Kaiser
SYNOPSIS: There is a hidden society living in Antarctica. One thousand men and women live together under unbelievably close quarters, risking their lives and sanity in search of cutting-edge science.
Now, for the first time, an outsider has been admitted. In his follow-up GRIZZLY MAN, Werner Herzog, accompanied only by his camerman, traveled to Antarctica, with rare access to the raw beauty and raw humanity of the ultimate Down Under.
Herzog’s latest meditation on nature, explores this land of Fire, Ice and corrosive Solitude.
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)” (Cinema Guild)
A Pandinlao Films Production Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath
SYNOPSIS: Filmed over the course of 23 years, THE BETRAYAL (NERAKHOON) is an astonishing tale of perseverance – one family’s struggle to survive their journey from war-torn Laos to the streets of New York. Eloquent yet devastating, renowned cinematographer Ellen Kuras’ directorial debut is a remarkable collaboration with co-director Thavisouk Phrasavath – a documentary that reveals the hidden, human face of war’s “collateral damage”.
“The Garden”
A Black Valley Films Production Scott Hamilton Kennedy
SYNOPSIS: The 14 acre community garden in South Central Los Angeles was the largest of it’s kind in the United States. It was started as a form of healing after the devastating L.A. riots in 1992. Since that time, the South Central Farmers have created a community by frowing their own food to feed their families. But now bulldozers threaten their oasis. The Garden show the battle between these urban farmers against the City of Los Angeles and a powerful developer who want to evict them and build warehouses.
“Man on Wire” (Magnolia Pictures)
A Wall to Wall Production James Marsh and Simon Chinn
SYNOPSIS: On August 7th 1974, a young Frenchman named Philippe Petit stepped out illegally on a wire placed between New York’s twin towers.
Aided by a team of friends and accomplices, Petit was faced with numerous extraordinary challenges: Bypassing the security; smuggle the heavy steel cable and equipment into the towers; pass the wire between the two rooftops; etc.
James Marsh’s documentary tells the story of “the artistic crime of the century” through the testimony of Philippe himself, and some of the co-conspirators.
“Trouble the Water” (Zeitgeist Films)
An Elsewhere Films Production Tia Lessin and Carl Deal
A view inside Hurricane Katrina in a way never before seen on screen. It’s a redemptive tale of two self-described street hustlers who become heroes.
The film opens the day before the storm makes landfall-twenty-four year old aspiring rap artist Kimberly Rivers Roberts is turning her new video camera on herself and her 9th Ward neighbors trapped in the city as the storm rages, the nearby levee breaches, and waters flood their home and their community.
Directors Tia Lessin and Carl Deal document a journey of remarkable people surviving not only failed levees, bungling bureaucrats and armed soldiers, but also their own past.
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT:
“The Conscience of Nhem En”
A Farallon Films Production Steven Okazaki
“The Final Inch”
A Vermilion Films Production Irene Taylor Brodsky and Tom Grant
“Smile Pinki”
A Principe Production Megan Mylan
“The Witness – From the Balcony of Room 306”
A Rock Paper Scissors Production Adam Pertofsky and Margaret Hyde
[…] Best documentary feature WILL WIN: Man On Wire. A commercial success and lot of critical acclaim, rare for a documentary, makes of this feature the favorite. SPOILER; Both “Trouble With water” about the aftermath of the Katrina disaster and Werner Herzog’s “Encounters at the End of the world” are high profile ones, but the political issues in the former and the controversial personality of Herzog may come in their respective ways. SHOULD WIN: We haven’t seen most of them, but Man On Wire won the Rober Award in the same category. […]