Docs and their makers.

"61 years ago this week, the United States became the first and (to this day) only nation ever to use a nuclear weapon." At the Huffington Post, Why We Fight director Eugene Jarecki examines the ways Truman's decision "haunts the crisis in Lebanon" and "the ongoing crisis in Iraq, which, though temporarily knocked off the front page by other events, continues to deepen."

Matt Zoller Seitz highly recommends Anytown, USA: "It's a dazzlingly accomplished and complex movie: a straightforward record of a particular time and place, a frank but affectionate portrait of small-town life, a satire on American hypocrisy, a bruising drama about ambition and ethics, a mostly wry but sometimes ruthless comedy, and - most surprisingly - a dialectical drama about the tension between the crude iconography and childish hostility that invariably erupts during tight political races, and the deep human desires that make low tactics irresistible." Click the title and watch that trailer.

David Byrne on Jesus Camp: "I can see future suicide bombers for Jesus - the next step will be learning to fly planes into buildings.... When one sees religion perverted - in the US or in Israel, Pakistan, Afghanistan or India, one wonders if the spiritual seeds, planted by visionaries and enlightened prophets like Jesus, Mohammed, Marx and others, are just too volatile for large societies to deal with." Related: Brian Newman on the dust-up between the film's distributor, Magnolia, and Michael Moore's Traverse City Film Festival: "[I]t strikes me as another example of what's best for the distributor not always being what's best for the filmmaker, the film, the support system (festivals) or the audience."

Meantime, Moore's got other things on his mind: "Let the resounding defeat of Senator Joe Lieberman send a cold shiver down the spine of every Democrat who supported the invasion of Iraq and who continues to support, in any way, this senseless, immoral, unwinnable war."

"'Women are as immoral as men,' says Aury in American filmmaker Pola Rapaport's fascinating documentary Écrivain d'O (Writer of O), newly released on DVD. 'But,' she continues, her eyes twinkling with girlish mischief, 'no one has noticed.'" A review in Bookforum by Toni Bentley.

For the New York Times, Felicia R Lee talks with Spike Lee about his four-hour Hurricane Katrina documentary, When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts: "Like him or not, Mr Lee, 49, is an artist many people feel they know. People, black and white, approached him and the Levees crew here, he said, imploring: 'Tell the story. Tell the story.' 'It becomes like an obligation we have,' he said."

Gary Hustwit is making the first full-length feature film about a font. Helvetica, via Typographica and Jason Kottke.

The Corporation, argues Nick Davis, is "an emblem of leftist cinema at its most honest and effective. Indeed, The Corporation does a magisterial job of raising all sorts of urgent alarms about the traumatic effects of modern capitalism, without privileging reductive cant over concise, illustrated argumentation, and without preaching only to the pre-converted."

John McElwee at Greenbriar Picture Shows: "Hollywood: The Dream Factory is included as an extra on the Meet Me In St Louis DVD, and it's well worth the price of the disc just to get this documentary."

Anthony Kaufman points to Kirby Dick's petition to the MPAA.

Online viewing tip. Jim's got a few for you at Listology.

Posted by dwhudson at August 10, 2006 2:59 PM