S/D: Commentaryless documentaries

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Koyaanisqtasi vs. Powaqqatsi vs Naqoyqatsi vs Baraka vs Microcosmos vs...

Which one should i buy?

― fcussen (Burger), Saturday, 27 December 2003 11:59 (twenty-two years ago)

tough one...i haven't been able to justify buying any of them because my 27" Trinitron 4:3 just doesn't do the images justice.

my personal pick would probably be koyaanisqatsi, mainly because i was able to see it on the big screen last year with phillip glass and his orchestra performing live to the images. definitely one of the top cinematic experiences of my life.

my guess is that most people would recommend baraka.

― jay blanchard (jay blanchard), Saturday, 27 December 2003 15:56 (twenty-two years ago)

the new "-atsi" movie (naqoyqatsi?) is so embarassingly bad you won't believe it

― s1utsky (slutsky), Saturday, 27 December 2003 20:20 (twenty-two years ago)

It's-so-not-even-funny search: anything by Frederick Wiseman. (Though this is pretty far removed from the God's-eye view nature-P.Glass genre you're describing here.)

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Wednesday, 31 December 2003 07:16 (twenty-two years ago)

"Wisconsin Death Trip" - James Marsh

― @d@ml (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 31 December 2003 20:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Genghis Blues!

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 7 January 2004 16:21 (twenty-two years ago)

"the new "-atsi" movie (naqoyqatsi?) is so embarassingly bad you won't believe it "

?...wtf. surely, you meant powaqqatsi slutsky. i thought it was engaging.

― thomas de'aguirre (biteylove), Thursday, 8 January 2004 18:28 (twenty-two years ago)

startup.com

― PVC (peeveecee), Friday, 9 January 2004 07:50 (twenty-two years ago)

Koyanisqaatsi is one of my favourite films ever.

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Friday, 9 January 2004 11:45 (twenty-two years ago)

No, Thomas -- Powaqatsi was released only a few years after Koyaanisqatsi. 1988 maybe? But the third in the series, Naqoyqatsi, came out last year. It only played in Chicago for a week, so I missed it.

― jaymc (jaymc), Friday, 9 January 2004 17:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Microcosmos has some commentary, albeit not much. Anyway, my favourite has to be "Millhouse", a documentary about Richard Nixon made in 1971 (before Watergate, that is), which shows contradicting pieces of news footage of Nixon. The lack of commentary is very effective in that flick, because it is left up to the viewer to deduce what a liar and hypocrite Nixon was.

I'm not sure whether Bodysong counts as a documentary, but it uses exclusively documentary footage as it's source material. Great flick, anyhow.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 10:05 (twenty-two years ago)

isnt one of the cardinal aesthetic tenets of film verité the lack of a VO commentary? see frederick wiseman, all his films. see also errol morris, who himself rejects film verité.

sometimes i think this lack has become fetishized, and people are afraid to make overt commentary in their films--at least on the art/festival wing of documentary. of course the PBS ken burns stuff is often little more than a running commentary and zooming into old photographs.

see chris marker for really inventive twists in the idea of documentary commentary.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 10:08 (twenty-two years ago)

those 'qatsi films are like a mallet to the head

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 10:09 (twenty-two years ago)

I second the Chris Marker recommendation. Even though there's narration to spare in Grin Without a Cat, none of it is of the Ken Burns tell-me-like-I'm-nine style info-busting.

― Eric H. (Eric H.), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 10:52 (twenty-two years ago)

but even ken burns goes past the sort of didactic commentaries from the 60s and earlier that we now find so hilarious.--he often points up ambiguities and ironies, and uses a kind of chorus of viewpoints. also the effect is often sort of dumbed down anyway, it's not always.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 11:07 (twenty-two years ago)

argh garbled that final sentence i don't even know what i meant to say so nevermind

― amateur!st (amateurist), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 11:07 (twenty-two years ago)

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