Documentary Thread #2

[Devon Malcolm]

Attack of the Murder Hornets

Really neat and interesting little documentary about that invasive species of wasp that invaded the Pacific northwest last year. Not one of those things that's played for laughs or fake thrills, but genuinely interesting, science-immersed stuff that really hammers home how serious a problem this could have been. Unbelievable late pitch for Movie Villain of the Year by one of the subjects here as well.

Sisters with Transistors 

Perfect for any fan of electronic music, a pretty deep dive into the careers of pioneering female musicians and composers like Delia Derbyshire, who also has an excellent docudrama about her on BBC iPlayer directed by and starring Caroline Catz.

Edited November 5, 2021 by Devon Malcolm

[BomberPat]

I watched the BBC Storyville "Dark Secrets of a Trillion Dollar Island", about the investigation into historic child abuse at a children's home in Jersey, that all kicked off in 2007.

I was living there at the time, so remember everything as it happened. Of the politicians interviewed, one of them was briefly a director at a company I worked for, another I had a few drinks with before he disappeared up his own arse, as my old local pub was a regular haunt for a lot of the more left-leaning politicians. The children's home at the centre of it all is somewhere I actually stayed for a couple of nights years after the fact, once it was converted to a youth hostel.

The story, for those who don't remember, is that the Jersey police had reason to believe that there were decades of covered up child abuse stories, and the majority centred around one specific children's home. They started gathering accounts from victims from the '60s through to the '80s, and it just snowballed and became national news, with something like 160+ potential victims. The allegations got more and more serious - children who were "disappeared" and never seen again, suggestions of bodies under the floorboards, all on top of the systemic abuse, and the failings of the children's services at the time to protect children, and of the justice service at the time to do anything about it. As the stories got wilder, more names got added - high-ranking members of Jersey's civil service, former politicians, and eventually grew to include Jimmy Savile being named as a regular visitor to the home, and the Beast of Jersey (a serial rapist of the 1960s) playing Father Christmas there. 

The documentary is a largely accurate account of how fucked up the whole period was, and the investigation in particular, though some of the more lurid suggestions are (probably rightly) glossed over. Politicians like Frank Walker, who has Chief Minister at the time, seems utterly unrepentant about prioritising Jersey's international relationship over bringing anyone to justice - the political class, by and large, didn't want banks and accounting firms to associate Jersey with corruption and child abuse (because, as an old local joke tells it, it would ruin their reputation as an island of tax-evading Nazi sympathisers), so did everything they could to silence people who spoke out about it, particularly other politicians, and to try and disrupt the investigation. The most infamous turning point was the discovery of what was believed to be a piece of child's skull that turned out to be (probably) a piece of coconut - they focus on a couple of local "civilian journalists" who insist that the evidence was swapped and tampered with, but that's not really significant, the point is that even if that particular piece of evidence was invalid, it didn't invalidate the decades of abuse that definitely did occur. But that's exactly the direction the politicians took - that bit was bollocks, so it undermined the whole investigation, and they basically scrapped it all without any real justice being done. 

There's an incredible line from one of the Bailache brothers - one was Bailiff, one was Attorney General, both extremely powerful unelected positions - where he says, "oh just because my brother holds that job people think it's corrupt, but it isn't". You have to applaud the utter shamelessness of it all, just "oh right, that settles it then, Phil".

My only real criticism of it all are that they focus a little too closely on a couple of random "civilian journalists" who really have nothing to add, other than being presented as "regular blokes" fighting against corruption, and not nutters with blogs. They don't really offer anything, and there were real journalists with dissenting opinions at the time that don't get a look-in. There was, and is, a subset of that local blogger type that went completely off into conspiracy theory country, tying any and every celebrity to ever visit Jersey and every politician into "international child abuse rings", Satanism, and all sorts, usually with a fair helping of antisemitism on top too. When in reality the conspiracy was never about powerful people abusing kids, it was about powerful people seeing abused kids and systemic failings as acceptable collateral damage when prioritising big business above all else. That's all conspiracies ever are.

Stuart Syvret, a politician heavily featured as something of a martyr for the cause, was pretty guilty of that too - he went from a voice of reason to a marginalised, screaming nutjob, seeing conspiracy around every corner, and making everything about him, rather than the victims he was initially fighting for. If you've seen Netflix's Son of Sam documentary, where the writer investigating it just starts seeing Satanic Panic stuff in everything, it was a very similar situation. On the other hand, when talking about corruption, they don't mention that Frank Walker, while Chief Minister, "allegedly" was arrested for domestic violence and used his connections to quash any conviction - and it was kept out of the press because he owned the newspaper.

 

So, yeah, overall, I thought it captured the mood of the times very well, and showed the distinction between the political higher ups and regular people in Jersey at the time. There's a Daily Mail journalist featured that's a colossal cunt, but probably a necessary interviewee in many ways. I'd be interested to know how it came across to people less intimately familiar with the subject matter.

[Just Some Guy]

For those who like a bit of radio, Jon Ronson's new series about the culture wars, Things Fell Apart has started on Radio 4.

I've listened to the 1st two episodes and have to say they're very good.

[IANdrewDiceClay]

The second series of Tiger King is up, and its canny. I cried laughing when they set up a hotline for information on Don Lewis whereabouts and someone called and simply said: "That man didnt go missing in a plane overseas, he went missing in a cage with a lion and turned into cat shit." The funniest fucking thing in either season.

[Devon Malcolm]

Derek DelGaudio’s In & of Itself

The magic version of "Have you seen this, sad comedy?" Just thoroughly boring and maudlin and only of interest if you've ever wanted to see Bill Gates cry. Just pull a rabbit out of a hat, man.

[DavidB6937]

Haven't had the chance to watch the first part yet but I definitely find myself more fascinated by the band the older I get so looking forward to it.

[wordsfromlee]

32 minutes ago, Devon Malcolm said:

Derek DelGaudio’s In & of Itself

The magic version of "Have you seen this, sad comedy?" Just thoroughly boring and maudlin and only of interest if you've ever wanted to see Bill Gates cry. Just pull a rabbit out of a hat, man.

I found it really boring too, especially the first half. There's only about four tricks in the whole thing and they're all pretty standard stuff that people like Derren Brown has been doing better for years. Like you said, it's the magic equivalent to a dead dad stand up show.

[Devon Malcolm]

Console Wars (Sky Documentaries)

Doesn't work as well as it could have done by staunchly taking Sega's side, for some reason, but some good memories and funny bits. The right team won in the end.

Billie Eilish: The World's a Little Blurry

Not as focused as it should have been on how she got started which, as someone who doesn't know anything about any music made after 2004, would have really appreciated. But it's good at showing her struggles with trying to be a normal teenager and, of course, the music's ace.

The Go-Go's (Sky Documentaries)

Another decent music doc from this year. Good to see it focus quite a lot on their early punk days and some of the footage they found is really impressive. All of them still looking terrific too.

The Mole Agent (YouTube rental) 

Chilean documentary about an old-timer who's sent undercover into a retirement home to investigate allegations of abuse. Doesn't quite go where I expected and is all the better for it, and becomes really sweet as it goes on.

Val (Prime)

Val Kilmer's apparently got this whole archive of footage he's been shooting all his life and a load of it forms the backbone of this documentary, and it's really good too. The behind the scenes stuff from The Island of Dr. Moreau was especially interesting, and it was good to see him in such good spirits despite all his health issues.

The Rescue

Well made National Geographic documentary about the rescue of the Thai football team. Not a mention of Elon Musk in sight either. I'll bet he's fuming about it. Good. Cunt.

[Jazzy G]

I've been watching a lot of Tom Scott on YouTube, and ended up getting a subscription to Curiosity Stream through a link on a related channel.

It's nirmally $20 a year, but following the link gave me a discount so it cost $14.79 and there looks to be a lot on there. Some of them are from the BBC, but there are a fair few independent ones on there. They do an HD plan, which is $60 so I presume allows downloads and the like as well. Apparently I'm also supposed to get an invite to a service called Nebula as well, which hosts a lot of additional content from some of the YouTube Creators and some original content as well. An interesting one I watched recently was called Money, and used several different game theories to play four contestants off against each other with several thousand dollars at stake. 

I'm currently watching something that was originally on BBC4 called The Joy Of... The first episode I watched was about winning and was presented by lovely Professor Hannah Fry, but there are also episodes about Probability and AI, amongst others. It's fascinating stuff. 

I'm also sensing a massive binge of dinosaur documentaries at some point. 

[wordsfromlee]

The Tinder Swindler (Netflix)

While this was enjoyable and I feel sorry for the women involved, there was more red flags than a Trump rally. Although the third woman spoken to is an absolute badass.

[DEF]

Along the same lines as Tinder Swindler I watched The Puppet Master - Hunting the Ultimate Conman last night. Absolutely terrifying that it can happen. I won't spoil anything but this dude destroys people's lives.

Also I highly recommend My Octopus Teacher on Netflix. Absolutely fascinating stuff. The creepy little watery bastards are terrifying to me but also utterly remarkable.

[neil]

On 2/6/2022 at 2:44 PM, wordsfromlee said:

The Tinder Swindler (Netflix)

While this was enjoyable and I feel sorry for the women involved, there was more red flags than a Trump rally. Although the third woman spoken to is an absolute badass.

Yeah I watched that and thought that last lass played it brilliantly, she did not give a fuck. That said, despite all those warning signs that was a masterclass in scamming someone. I think the core thing was those women were attracted to his alleged wealth and status no doubt, but the real genius was that he'd parlay multiple women so he could do the initial showing of having that much money for real. If someone invited me and I got to go on a private jet, stay in a fancy hotel, expensive dinner etc etc then later on got asked "could you lend me some money" then yeah I could see how I'd be like "well he clearly has it to pay back so whats the risk". Another smart thing he did was to pull the "just a bit more" move as well where the women felt like unless they coughed up more money they wouldn't be able to get back what they originally gave him.

All in all, I think its very easy to watch this kind of thing and laugh at the victims and say it was obvious, but I do think when you're in a situation like this its not as simple.

[Onyx2]

I just watched Belushi (2020) on Now TV and I'm left broken by the sad loss of life. It pieces together audio clips and handwritten letters covering the life and death of John Belushi. It reminded me what a great talent he was, just a naturally funny guy with adored by millions. Like many with addiction the rush of chasing attention proved too much for him and depression overtook him at the end. The final section where he performs Guilty over his last note to his wife and news footage of his death is simply heart-breaking. A good watch though not exactly uplifting.

Oh and the animation covering some of the audio parts is superb. 

Edited February 17, 2022 by Onyx2

[Factotum]

On 2/6/2022 at 8:08 PM, DEF said:

Along the same lines as Tinder Swindler I watched The Puppet Master - Hunting the Ultimate Conman last night. Absolutely terrifying that it can happen. I won't spoil anything but this dude destroys people's lives.

Yeah this was mad and very well done. Again, you have to sometimes think 'how did you believe this?' but I suppose he targets people at weak moments and then controls them. Really scary stuff.

[Tamura]

The Last Mountain on BBC iPlayer, about British climber Tom Ballard and his attempt to climb Nanga Parbat, known to mountaineers as Killer Mountain.



Very thought provoking, since him and his climbing partner decided to climb one of the world's most dangerous mountains in winter using a route that had never been successfully traversed even in good weather.  My thought being how insane you have to be to even think about it.

Edited February 21, 2022 by Tamura