"All The Labor" DVD (director: Doug Hawes-Davis)

Gourd bless...

This feature-length documentary on Austin, TX-based roots/Americana band the Gourds serves as an audio-visual love letter to the band. As well, it's a perfect introduction to a band that's survived nearly 20 years and released armfuls of albums, yet has never made it to that "next level". I'm almost embarrassed to mention that I'd never heard this group before, either.

Recorded at home and on stage with the band, "All The Labor" shows the obvious love these guys have for each other and the music itself. Despite a feverish (yet small) fan base, these guys continue on without much promise of "the big payoff". Love of the music is their drive, and that's certainly admirable and noble. So what's it like? Imagine alt.country Americana, with a sense of humor and an almost jam-band like predilection for extended improv, and you're close. The Gourds are great showmen, and project energy, charisma, and passion as well or better than so-called "national" touring acts I've seen. 

"All The Labour" is well-filmed, inspiring, and an enlightened portrait of a band with their hearts in the music. Worth a look, for sure.

High Plains Films via MVD Visual

Gourds dot com

"The Great Hip Hop Hoax" DVD (director: Jeanie Finlay)

California skate rap from Scottish blokes

Another excellent documentary that I'm glad to have seen, "The Great Hip Hop Hoax" is a fascinating look at the Scottish hip hop duo, Silibil 'N Brains, who got themselves signed to Sony UK only after posing as American street hip hop MCs (after a devastating audition where label heads dismissed them as "rapping Proclaimers"). So, with fake accents and artificial "street cred", these pasty Scottish boys ended up making mad money, seeing big city lights and even garnering MTV airplay as "the next Eminem". Then it all came tumbling down as fast as it started, after a hailstorm of drinking, partying, and womanizing (naturally).

Interviews with both members, their families, and the record executives that landed them are enlightening, detailing the way that Silibil (real name Billy Boyd) and Brains (aka Gavin Bain) began their great hoax. Their California-boy, skate-punk, street-thug mentality convinced even those close to them, and it's a credit to Boyd and Bain's acting skills that they could take things that far. 

A great tale, and a weird kind of "success story", calling out the major labels on such a bluff. Sure, the boys are still around -- Bain still performs his own brand of hip-hop/rock as Hopeless Heroic, while Boyd got married, had children, and now works in the oil industry. 

A superb documentary, and a story for the ages.

MVD Visual

Silibil 'N Brains dot com

"Welcome To The Machine" DVD (director: Andreas Steinkogler)

Music industry documentary

This feature-length documentary focuses on the music business, and it follows the trials of an upstart indie pop/dance band, along the way briefly interviewing a number of well-known acts, from the Bloodhound Gang to Lordi to the Album Leaf to AFI to Xiu Xiu. Director Steinkogler, who is based in Austria, naturally focuses on industry professionals in and around Austria and Germany, so the "name" musicians take a back seat.

Steinkogler's "12 Commandments" of making it in the business are pretty well common-sense, and he makes a case that there isn't a singular method to success in the business, but that it's also quite difficult to find an audience in our age of multi-media sensory overload. Honest and entertaining (though a bit long-winded), "Welcome To The Machine" is a well-done "behind the scenes" look at the workings of the music industry.

MVD Visual

Welcome To The Machinebook

"Cannibal Possession: Heart Of Ice" DVD (director: Christian Tizya)

This Canadian docu-drama is marketed as some kind of extreme zombie/cannibal film, but in reality, it's a vaguely serious documentary examining the wendigo psychosis. According to Algonquian legend, a wendigo is a person compelled to cannibalize those around them, often with a supernatural or demonic spiritual compulsion.

Some find this to be a culture-based phenomenon, but the producers of "Cannibal Possession" want you to see it as a psychological condition. There are interviews with various personalities, most of whom have tenuous "credentials". The main interviewee is Nathan Carlson, an Edmontonian "ethno-historian" who has researched the wendigo spirit exhaustively. Carlson discusses the famous Swift Runner (a Plains Cree trapper who in 1878 murdered and consumed his own wife and five children in Alberta). As well, he recaps the true story of Vince Li, who is 2008 randomly attacked, beheaded, and managed to eat some of fellow Greyhound bus passenger Tim McLean in Manitoba, and presents it as a possible "wendigo" case. With some basis in a real North American "myth", "Cannibal Possession" does have something to offer, but you have to wade through a facade of silly sensationalism to find it. A curiosity, at best.

(Eyes Wide Open Films)

"Play In The Gray" (director: Kaitlin Meelia)

A surprisingly immersive, subversive, and provocative documentary, "Play In The Gray" looks at the acclaimed gender-bending stage & performance group All The Kings Men. From the socio-political comedy of their drag shows to behind the scenes, these women are creating a friendlier world for those who don't fit into rigid gender roles or stereotypes. And I say "Bravo!" to them.

Hailing from Boston, the 6 ladies of All The Kings Men have performed hundreds of shows all over the country, and their vaudevillian, over-the-top characters are both hilarious and campy. In "Play In The Gray", we get to meet each of the performers, and sometimes their families and partners. We see what makes these girls tick, as they get into costume and subvert what we think makes a "woman" or a "man". Some of the girls are comfortable as male characters, while others are more feminine. Each of them, though, has a story and persona that's empowering and uplifting. Kudos to the filmmakers and All The Kings Men, for producing a film that breaks down some stereotypes and boundaries. (Planting Seeds Productions)

All The Kings Men site

"I'm Not Nuts- Living With Food Allergies" DVD (director: Kevin J. Lindenmuth)

A vital and timely documentary about the growing problem of food allergies, "I'm Not Nuts" is a fairly straight-forward look at the affliction and it's permutations. Interviews with doctors, scientists, and those (mainly parents) who deal with these mysterious allergies every day are the foundation, as they well should be.

As well, "I'm Not Nuts" provides a number of valid alternatives, and general rays of hope for someone coping with extreme food allergy. Director Lindenmuth doesn't go the flashy route, as there's not extensive reliance on attention-grabbing graphics, but the info here is paramount. As it stands, this should be a must-see for anyone involved in the food industry, or anyone with children. (MVD Visual)

"National Parks Project" DVD

In honor of the Canadian National Parks centennial, this fascinating DVD is a compilation and collaboration between 13 filmmakers and 39 independent musicians. Given 5 day visits to some of Canada's most scenic and majestic parks, the filmmakers create their own visual interpretations of the parks' natural beauty and grandeur, while the musicians performed songs/soundtracks alongside them.

The results are, as can be expected, uneven. At their finest, these films are meditative and artful, capturing the flora and fauna in its own rugged purity. There are lovely and intimate portraits of wildlife and forests, tundra and treelines, Arctic snow and glaciers, waterfalls and shorelines, and tons more. The directors put their own individual spin on their surroundings, and some end up like hallucinogenic mind-trips, while others are more straightforward and documentary. 

The music, which sometimes seems to get in the way of the visuals, is primarily of the loose, slackerly indie rock persuasion, with detours for some tribal Native American sounds, as well as some cool proto-metal from Melissa Auf Der Maur (who is central to a particularly memorable film). 

All told, this is a unique and creative way to celebrate the natural heritage and splendor of Canada's national parks system. And even if some films (or music) may not be to your liking, there are plenty of amazing visuals here to inspire and aspire to. (Primitive Entertainment)

National Parks Project site

"Where The Streets Have No Name" DVD (director: Vijaykumar Mirchandani)

This unusual documentary focuses on the humanitarian work of Dr. Harald Falge, who has spent years fighting to alleviate the plight of homeless and hungry street children in the obscure town of Cairns in Northern Australia.

Falge, a chiropractor by trade, noticed an alarming number of homeless youth in his homeland. Seeing how these kids became entangled in webs of drug abuse and prostitution, he set up programs, often with his own funding, and enlisted others to clean up his town. Falge's tireless work on behalf of Cairns' youth has won him a number of awards, and garnered him international respect.

This film examines this work, and sensitively looks at the reasons and motivations of these children, even following some into adulthood (and stability). Candid interviews with the people of Cairns, and Falge himself, show a portrait of a tropical paradise that was once under threat of becoming a seedy center of illegal trade and child abuse, now moving in the right direction.

A splendid film, and one that should rightfully be seen by any and all. (MVD Visual)

"Guns And Weed: The Road To Freedom" DVD (director: Michael W. Dean and Neema Vedadi)

This scattered documentary compares/juxtaposes the arguments against gun control and for marijuana legalization into a single film, and a scattered mess it is. With their hearts in the right places, the filmmakers illustrate an ideal of non-aggressive, pro-American freedom and upstanding Constitutional rights. No problem there. But the talking heads here are heavily edited (to the point of being distracting), and the pseudo-news format is silly and amateurish.

I understand that this is meant to be both educational and fun, but the awful hip-hop interludes and primitive visual effects are off-putting. I say no thanks, guys. Maybe next time. (MVD Visual)

"Nico Escondido's Grow Like A Pro" DVD

Presented by High Times, this extensive, informative, and fun tutorial shows, first hand, all the best ways to grow your herb, courtesy of internationally-respected horticulturist and writer Nico Escondido.

Visiting medicinal gardens in Colorado and California, Escondido demonstrates successful growing techniques and green-friendly ways to maximize harvests without undue environmental stress. As well, he looks at growing conditions, ventilation, fertilization, pest control, and every essential aspect of farming. As a host, he's knowledgeable, likeable, and charismatic. In short, even for non-growers like me, this is a lively and entertaining watch. At around 2 hours, this is superb, and essential for true aficionados. "Grow Like A Pro" may be the most comprehensive documentary on medicinal marijuana production ever produced. Get this! (High Times Productions)

Nicospace

"Live From Tokyo" DVD (director: Lewis Rapkin)

This is an extraordinary and enlightening documentary of the underground Japanese music scene, and I was pleasantly surprised and inspired by it. Rapkin focuses his lens equally among bands and clubs, with all sorts of musics represented. The backdrop of the bustling urban metropolis (Tokyo) is daunting, but somehow technologically beautiful, in a futuristic way, and an entirely different vibe than New York, Chicago, or Los Angeles.

Japan, as a culture, doesn't have the extensive history and background in rock and avante musics. Their European and American inspirations are evident, but the ingenuity of many Japanese artists are taking these templates into entirely new and unexpected directions. Makoto Oshiro, for example, is a mad genius of sorts, creating odd feedback instruments and some explosive performances. As well, the Enban club/live house/shop/bar is a place I'd be inclined to visit, and a comfy place for left-of-center and eclectic musics and fans to congregate and socialize.

There's plenty of samples of live musical performances, some interesting characters interviewed, and plenty of info, especially for anyone interested in exploring the thriving underground music scene in modern Tokyo. Well-done! (Good Charamel Records via MVD Visual)

Official site with trailer

"Bag It" (director: Suzan Beraza)

This smart and enlightening, yet thoroughly engaging and entertaining documentary began as a study on the effects of all the disposable plastic bags we have used for years. Think about it. Every time you went to buy groceries, you got a stash of throwaway plastic bags. Sure, if you're like me, you "recycle" them as cat litter bags, trash can liners, etc. But do we really ever question where these bags go? The director has a valid point. We throw them away, but where, exactly, is "away"? There is no such thing.

We have created a vast sea of floating plastic garbage, ensnaring and stifling sea life for miles and miles, and in several spots around the world. But does that affect any of us, who live in the mainland? Out of sight, out of mind, right?

Director Beraza enlists the affable "everyman" Jeb Barrier to narrate and host this film, and it's a real winner. But before you turn away shouting "guilt trip from the environmental tree-hugging extremists", this one is optimistic and hopeful, and certainly "must-see" viewing for anyone looking to educate themselves on the world and our unnecessary impact upon her.

Diverging from the simple plastic bag, "Bag It" also looks at plastics at large. Cheap, useful, and, in modern times, an essential part of our survival, this chemical-based building material has been a blessing and a curse on our culture. But as stated earlier, the likeable host here, Barrier (and his wife) provide enough comic relief and humility to make what could be heavy-handed easy-to-digest and to show that we have the ability, knowledge, and technology to make things so much better for our children. Do yourself (and your friends and family) a favor and see this!

"Bag It" is set for National Public Television screenings beginning this month, too, so check your local listings or search your DVR...

To purchase DVD/merch


To find the nearest public screening

"I Think We're Alone Now" (director: Sean Donnelly) DVD

For better or worse, I am like most others in that I am prone to judging people. It's easy and convenient for us to label and use prejudice towards others when we see or hear of their differences or qualities we see as somehow "beneath" us or "wrong". This documentary is a sensitive and telling account of a pair of very different individuals who have been labeled by society as "stalkers", and despite their differences, are labeled as marginals of society, and thus have encountered much adversity in their own respective personal journeys.

What do Jeff Turner and Kelly McCorrmick have in common? They are both confessed super-fans, to the point of obsession, of 80's teen-pop star Tiffany. Through restraining orders and unfulfilled passions, Turner (a charismatic 53-year old with Asperger's syndrome) remains convinced Tiffany is a Christ-like figure who he must get closer to. McCormick is an intersex (hermaphroditic) person who believes Tiffany and him/her are destined to be together. Sure, both people are clearly slightly out of touch with consensus consciousness, but, through the wonder of first-tiime director Donnelly's lens, we see both as individuals, frailties obvious but with unexpected (and even perhaps admirable) strengths as well.

Sure, labeling these people as "crazy" is convenient, but seeing them as real humans is also easy, thanks to "I Think We're Alone Now". It's an engrossing and fascinating (even slightly touching) look at life just to the left of "sanity". I say bravo! (MVD Visual)

Official website

Robert Millis - "My Friend Rain" DVD

This brief documentary presents an almost-surreal travelogue of Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, and Thailand, and, in the true tradition of Sublime Frequencies, these are disembodied images of real life, as raw and rough as it must really be. Forsaking any sort of narration, there are only the native sounds to accompany the rich visuals. Bits of radio pop music filter into the stew, as the camera captures street musicians, celebrations, food preparation, labor, ecstatic dancing, marketplaces, and some oddly morbid artworks and murals. Interspersed with these scenes are wonderful images of monsoons blanketing the ancient cities and streets.

"My Friend Rain" makes no attempt to embellish or tie together the images and sounds. It's presented to you, the viewer, as a look into a window of cultures far off the beaten path. There's no touristy views here. It's an honest slice of these Asian countries' everyday life, an attempt to capture the raw realism of a culture far removed from Western eyes and ears. Succeed? You bet. (Sublime Frequencies)