DVD Reviews
Issue 216 / December 2006 More from this Issue
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The ACLU Freedom Files
ACLU & Robert Greenwald
Disinformation Co.
Street: 07.26
This two-disc collection brings you all 10 episodes of The ACLU Freedom Files, which originally appeared on Court TV. Every episode deals with a different civil liberty that is consistently violated by cops and the government. Topics include: women’s rights, young people’s rights, religious rights, the drug war, dissent etc. Each episode combines shocking interviews with people who have had their civil liberties violated and what they did about it, reenactments, interviews with ACLU lawyers and historical footage. The filming of each episode is less than decent; sometimes you can see video cameras and boom mics in the shots. The editing becomes so creative at times that it begins to resemble a bad PowerPoint presentation; these things detract from the collections message more than once. Most of the stories are ridiculous violations of a person’s civil liberties and left me wondering how much the Bill of Rights counts for. One of the most terrible stories involves a woman whose ex-husband murdered their three children after police failed to make an arrest when he violated his restraining order. It’s one fucked up world we live in. This collection will piss you off. It will make you want to go do as much as you can to take back all the rights that we’ve had taken away. The government was meant to be controlled by the people and it shouldn’t be the other way around. – Jeanette MosesDithers
Various Directors
Triplewide Design Collective
Street: 2004
Dithers is a collection 30 short documentaries about 30 different and innovative artists who are changing the face of the art world; from photographers and stencil makers to graffiti artists. The three-disc DVD catches artists in their studios, on the street doing their art and being interviewed in their homes. The one-on-one interviews in Dithers provides quirky insights about the artists that one wouldn’t find elsewhere, like Ricky Powell’s love for his cat Blackberry. This DVD starts to drag about half way through the second disc, but the artists get progressively more interesting. Some of my favorite artists featured in Dithers were David Choe, whose trademark is a line-drawn whale who advises people to ride the bus, Shepard Fairey, whose responsible for the Obey/Andre the Giant Design and Jeremy Fish, who is known for his silly pink bunnies. – Jeanette Moses
Sculpture of the Louvre
Koch Vision
Director: Martin Fraudreau
Street: 10.03
Sculptures of the Lourve = Sister Wendy + lots of naked people
Very slow cameras pan in and out as soft and hard lighting help the viewer focus on what the deep voice of the narrator is describing. The documentary does very well in balancing commentary on sculpting techniques, the lives of the sculptors and the meaning of the actual sculptures. So what if Michelangelo loved male nudes more than anything else; it is nice to see something that exploits the male form instead of the female. Of course there is plenty of female exploiting, or rather worship, as in the treacherous history of the Venus de Milo. Phrases like "the dying slave is a naked languid form" might be a little overdramatic, but most of the information is presented in a very straight forward manner. Seven different sculptures are analyzed and their stories are as fascinating as they are informative. –Andrew Glassett
ACLU & Robert Greenwald
Disinformation Co.
Street: 07.26
This two-disc collection brings you all 10 episodes of The ACLU Freedom Files, which originally appeared on Court TV. Every episode deals with a different civil liberty that is consistently violated by cops and the government. Topics include: women’s rights, young people’s rights, religious rights, the drug war, dissent etc. Each episode combines shocking interviews with people who have had their civil liberties violated and what they did about it, reenactments, interviews with ACLU lawyers and historical footage. The filming of each episode is less than decent; sometimes you can see video cameras and boom mics in the shots. The editing becomes so creative at times that it begins to resemble a bad PowerPoint presentation; these things detract from the collections message more than once. Most of the stories are ridiculous violations of a person’s civil liberties and left me wondering how much the Bill of Rights counts for. One of the most terrible stories involves a woman whose ex-husband murdered their three children after police failed to make an arrest when he violated his restraining order. It’s one fucked up world we live in. This collection will piss you off. It will make you want to go do as much as you can to take back all the rights that we’ve had taken away. The government was meant to be controlled by the people and it shouldn’t be the other way around. – Jeanette MosesDithers
Various Directors
Triplewide Design Collective
Street: 2004
Dithers is a collection 30 short documentaries about 30 different and innovative artists who are changing the face of the art world; from photographers and stencil makers to graffiti artists. The three-disc DVD catches artists in their studios, on the street doing their art and being interviewed in their homes. The one-on-one interviews in Dithers provides quirky insights about the artists that one wouldn’t find elsewhere, like Ricky Powell’s love for his cat Blackberry. This DVD starts to drag about half way through the second disc, but the artists get progressively more interesting. Some of my favorite artists featured in Dithers were David Choe, whose trademark is a line-drawn whale who advises people to ride the bus, Shepard Fairey, whose responsible for the Obey/Andre the Giant Design and Jeremy Fish, who is known for his silly pink bunnies. – Jeanette Moses
Sculpture of the Louvre
Koch Vision
Director: Martin Fraudreau
Street: 10.03
Sculptures of the Lourve = Sister Wendy + lots of naked people
Very slow cameras pan in and out as soft and hard lighting help the viewer focus on what the deep voice of the narrator is describing. The documentary does very well in balancing commentary on sculpting techniques, the lives of the sculptors and the meaning of the actual sculptures. So what if Michelangelo loved male nudes more than anything else; it is nice to see something that exploits the male form instead of the female. Of course there is plenty of female exploiting, or rather worship, as in the treacherous history of the Venus de Milo. Phrases like "the dying slave is a naked languid form" might be a little overdramatic, but most of the information is presented in a very straight forward manner. Seven different sculptures are analyzed and their stories are as fascinating as they are informative. –Andrew Glassett
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