Brooklyn Castle

An expiring story that touches on chasing your dreams, the financial crisis and how pressure and competitive environments reveal and shape your character. Check out this documentary about  Intermediate School 318, an inner-city public school in NY that has won more national chess titles than I can count. Another great installment from my 2013 documentary kick.

Budrus

No matter how much I learn about the culture and politics of the Middle East, it just always remains a mystery to me. This film is about non-violent demonstrations which united a people during the early 2000s, conducted by the residents of a Palestinian town called Budrus and eventually included others from around the world, to protest against the building of the Israeli West Bank barrier inside of their village. Why this wall needed to be built through this town is never explained. How the people triumphed in this tale of unity across cultural lines and years of bloodshed is just pure inspiration. With that, I'll let the trailer speak for itself and leave yet another documentary on your doorstep with a highly recommended label.

Boogie Man - The Lee Atwater Story

The latest documentary that made the rounds here is Boogie Man, the story of Lee Atwater, who was an advisor to President Reagan and Bush Snr. He was Karl Rove's mentor and chairman of the RNC. This movie explores Atwater's rise to power, his influence on modern politics, campaigns and the political rhetoric of our times. The movie is not as polished as some other documentaries I have seen recently, but the story and the background you get from watching it overshadow that fact by far. Also, fair warning: it doesn't necessarily paint the Republican party in a positive light be be forewarned if you are of that persuasion and decided to give it a shot. Ebert gave it solid reviews; and it gets solid marks on IMDB as well.

I recommend this for anyone who wants to understand some of the roots that make up the divide we live in today... Dig in and see "how the sausage is made..."

Inside Job

Continuing on the documentary theme, we watched Inside Job this past weekend, a...

...2010 documentary film about the late-2000s financial crisis directed by Charles H. Ferguson. The film is described by Ferguson as being about "the systemic corruption of the United States by the financial services industry and the consequences of that systemic corruption." In five parts, the film explores how changes in the policy environment and banking practices helped create the financial crisis.

I don't have much to say about this film that will not include a superlative. It does a remarkable job of making a complex web of financial instruments easy to understand. So easy that after you understand it, and the greed that triggered their creation and manipulation, you are left disturbed, educated and of course, entertained. If you're a lay person and you want to understand how we got to where we are today with the financial crisis, this movie is a must. Trailer below.

Looking for a great book on the subject? Try The Big Short by Michael Lewis.

A Catalan NY Times-Picayune #Longread

I shared this link on Twitter a few days ago but wanted to post it here as well. This movie just seemed especially relevant after watching the 60 Minutes report this past weekend on Sunday on the cutbacks and focus on digital media that has caused an uproar related to the Times-Picayune, established in 1837 (!).

As someone who has refocused my reading on paper based books this past year, I have an emotional attachment to the idea of a newspaper I guess. Although the concept of reading physical paper books is not something I switched back to for simply emotional reasons. And truth be told, when I watched the 60 Minutes story, I found myself reflecting on the fact that paper-print journalism is not the only way to achieve quality journalism...

Anyways, here is an excellent documentary on The New York Times as it grapples with the similar pressures that led to these changes to the Times-Picayune. Highly, highly recommended.

PS:  Semi-related, I find myself wondering sometimes what it says about our attention span as a society that multi-page articles have led to the introduction of the phrase #longreads into our vocabulary. 

PPS: ...and for you soccer fans out there, did you catch the Barca piece on 60 Minutes as well?!? Cool stuff. Ives posted it here in case you missed it. 

The Island President

I pretty much stopped watching movies a couple years ago. Not through any deliberate choice but simply as a result of a lack of time after factoring in work, soccer, reading, playing with Jozy, spending time with Carlee and sleep. This past month, I decided to take a crack at renting movies via my iPad, with a focus on documentaries. Tonight I just finished my first and I post it here as a strong recommendation to all of my friends and family: The Island President. I'm kind of thinking I might be adding the Maldives to our list of places to visit in the next few years before it is too late. 

THE ISLAND PRESIDENT—A Documentary By Jon Shenk | Official Trailer from Sawyer Studios on Vimeo.