Unlawful Killing (2011)

When I was seven years old me and my best friend Kristian were playing with a tape recorder at my mothers house, outside Sigtuna. Kristian brought some cassettes from home, belonging to his father. His father was, like almost everyone at this quiet community, an recovering alcoholic and a deeply religious man. We put one cassette into the recorded and pressed play.

What we heard was his father confessing a murder. He killed someone. He was in deep angst, I remember him sounding sad - almost crying. It was scary and we turned off the tape and I ran to my mother... Anyway. Nothing came out of this. It was forgotten and for many years I didn't think about it. Until my mother mentioned she heard that Kristian's dad nowadays had his own religious community, some kind of church. And it all came back to me. I think this imprinted my mind to look for mysteries, the unexplained.

Everyone loves a conspiracy, especially me after this episode of my life. But I'm also a sceptic. I'm an atheist, I don't believe in UFO's, Bigfoot and too absurd government cover-up's. What I do believe in is the eternal evil and greed of humans and I know, for a fact, that a person - or several - can do what ever is in their power to get what they want. Remember, it takes only two persons to create a conspiracy.

Like all decent human beings I pretty uninterested in royal families and crap like that. They're a left over of a very non-democratic way of reasoning and for me they're just spoiled brats who toys around with the peoples money for their own pleasure and luxury. And no, they're not good PR for the countries either - because that means every country who doesn't have a royal family sucks at tourism - and that's just not true. Even the smallest damn monkey understands that. They're a waste of money, energy and intelligence.

Actor, comedian and author Keith Allen, part conspiracy nut, part smart dude, has made the most interesting and wittiest documentary on the "murder of Princess Diana" so far, Unlawful Killing. Before I watched the movie I read what ever I could find on the case - on the net, I just don't have time to read books nowadays - and got myself a pretty clear view on the pro's and con's of the theory. Allen and his team has a clear anti-Royal stance in the movie (and no, there's hardly any objective documentaries made - ever, because all of them are made by a filmmaker who have decided to tell a story, whether he understands that or not) and that can be bad, but for an anti-royalist like me it's like heaven. He goes through everything around the accident, points out clear - and confirmed misses from the police and media - ask questions that never got answered, lets the people who didn't believe in the accident-theory and was heard by the police talk about what they know. It's not a sloppy production, it's well-made and rude in that wonderful British way we love so much. There's no ass-licking here towards the inbred family living a life in glamour behind those castle walls. Of course there's people who will refute the evidence presented here, but let them do that. They've done it since the accident and always had the media and cops behind them anyway.

There's a lot of chilling moments, of course - like all good docs - constructed to evoke more emotion for the victims, Diana, Dodi and Henri Paul, the driver. Dodi's father has his son buried in his garden and burns the former royal symbols from Harrods outside his house. It's a man who spends most of his time talking to his dead son and the story of Dodi is told in a more respectful and intelligent way than how he was portrayed by the world media. What I found most interesting his that there's never been any proof that the paparazzi's was near their car. Not even the verdict states this - it's just in the imagination of newspaper editors and us fools believing in them. There's a lot of stuff like this in Unlawful Killing.

I can't say this documentary is wrong. I can't say it's true. But it's a fine piece of conspiracy theory, far from the typical nutcase-films produced by home grown wackos in the US. It delivers suspense, satire and criticism in an elegant manner. But still, it's a documentary. And a documentary, like all kind of journalism, only delivers the opinion of the creator. Remember that the next time you're upset about something your read in the newspaper, on Facebook, Twitter or any other timewaster that blocks your mind.

Supermen of Malegaon (2012)

Made during seven months in 2008 but not properly released until this year, Supermen of Malegaon will go to the history as one of the best and most heart-warming documentaries ever made - and even better, it's connected deeply to the world weird cinema culture me and many others enjoy so much. It's not one of those hip, shallow, funny anecdotes docs that's been flooding the market during the last years, this is something much more closer to reality, something that's for real - as real as a documentary can be, because we all know those are often closer to fiction than the normal Joe can imagine. It's all about telling a good story.

Supermen of Malegaon tells the story of filmmaker Shaikh Nasir and his team of local talents in the poor, dirty city of Malegaon in the north of India. He has just hired weaver Shafique to play Superman in a new action-comedy-adventure where our hero is fighting pollution, drugs and all the other things that's destroying our world. With a budget of a couple of hundred dollars and a fantastic amount of imagination and enthusiasm they go on a journey to make their dreams come true, from the depressed screenwriter who's been fighting for 15 years to go to Mumbai to a director that refuses to leave his town - and in-between them the quiet, shy hero with a Superman-suit that gets more and more worn for each day of fighting, jumping and slapstick!

With a simple digital video camera and an energy, that we all should envy these supermen (and a couple of superwomen also), we follow them in their quest to make a local blockbuster. It would have been an easy task of make fun of these heroes, but director Faiza Ahmad Khan walked the line perfectly and delivers a touching and dramatic film about passion and love. Instead of laughing a the director when he accidentally drops his only camera into a dirty lake we're terrified, because we want him to finish this movie, for him and his team's sake. Khan never shies away with the camera, and there's both hard times and happy times during the making of Malegaon ka Superman - not everyday is easy and money is always a problem, but nothing is stopping them.

In the middle is the adorable, soft-spoken, gentle and slightly shy leading man Shafique, a man who can't weight more than 50 kilos. His dream is to play a hero and he gives everything in his performance, from wild stunts to dancing. The whole movie is sprinkled with quotes and dreams and it's impossible to dislike a guy that willingly does this and still is so happy. He died one year after the movie was shot, in cancer, but his dream became true: everyone is calling him Superman and he truly became a real, true star.

As a filmmaker myself, sometimes, I'm so impressed by the creativity of Shaikh Nasir and his team. They make a camera crane from an old wagon, uses an old bicycle for wild tracking shots, doing their own green screen effects behind a barn etc. A lot of spoiled Swedish indie-filmmakers should watch and learn from this documentary.

The only complaint I have is that it's too short. I could have watched an hour more, because I love these people so much.

Easily one of the best movies this year and it's something you have to watch at once!

Kubrick's Odyssey: Secrets Hidden in the Films of Stanley Kubrick; Part One: Kubrick and Apollo (2011)

Jay Weidner is a man with a lot of imagination. I like that, make no mistake. I love finding subtexts, I'm a strong believer in the entertainment value of certain conspiracy theories and pseudo-sciences. There's a reason why I'm always watching Ancient Aliens, UFO Hunters, Brad Meltzer's Decoded etc: because I love imagination and deconstruction of what most people take for granted. That doesn't mean I believe in it. I'm a born sceptic, an atheist since childhood and I see documentaries like Kubrick's Odyssey as entertainment, like a almost-real life Indiana Jones adventures but with lonely nerds trying to get some attention.

The 16th of October 2002 the French TV-channel Arte released (or should I say unleashed) William Karel's Opération Lune on an unsuspecting audience. It's a documentary that tells the truth about the Apollo 11 mission, that it was all staged by Stanley Kubrick on earth, including reliable witnesses (including Henry Kissinger and Kubrick's wife) and strong proof. There's just one fat problem: it's all a hoax, a clever and witty mockumentary. If you stay to the end of the production the proofs is getting more and more absurd and it's quite clear that everything is just made up - but I doubt Jay Weidner stayed that long. He was already searching the NASA homepage for high resolution photos, maybe calling his friends to see if any of them had any of Kubrick's movies on DVD or VHS (this was a few years ago, you know...). The result came last year with this highly speculative documentary that basically wants to prove three things:

1. Kubrick got hired by the US government to fake the moon landing-footage.

2. That he used Stephen King's novel The Shining to reveal this story.

3. He got killed because he wanted to tell media about this secret.

I'm not the one saying "No thank you, Sir" to speculative conspiracy docs, but I like to see some evidence. Some ambitions. What we have here is a few analysed photos in the beginning and then it's just Mr Weidner who speculates about what he sees in The Shining. And he sees a lot. He connects everything to the moon landing, from numbers to pieces of art. Jack and Danny is just two sides of Kubrick: the workaholic slave under the secret government moon landing project and the suffering artist. The room 237 represents the 237 000 miles there is to the moon, the Apollo 11 shirt that Danny is wearing is just not a coincidence and yada yada yada. I love stuff like this, but come on! You can read anything into everything! That's just lame.

But it's still fairly entertaining and fans, like, of moronic and badly researched conspiracy documentaries will have a field day with this. Can't wait until the other parts of Jay Wieder's Kubrick-project is released. I wonder what he will find in Barry Lyndon? Maybe a secret Masonic message about world domination? Who knows, but one thing is for sure: I'll be there and watch.

Primitive London (1967)

I dislike mondo films, mostly because I want to be enjoyed by movies, not disgusted by them. But there is of course mondo-esque films I can watch: the cute ones. The cuddly. The innocent. The charming and silly. Mondos that are far away from circumcisions and “real” executions. Sweden: Heaven and Hell is one mondo I can handle, mostly because it’s so absurd when you actually is Swedish and live in Sweden. Another one is Primitive London, released on a stunning BD from BFI. It’s also more entertaining then London in the Raw, which mostly featured people eating at “exotic” restaurants and a few tits here and there.

Primitive London also sets out to show the real London, the reality behind the headlines and rumors and manages to show everything except the real reality. And that’s what I want. This time we’re getting a closer look at hat making, beatniks and mods (a couple of amazing interviews here), a striptease school, a goldfish-surgery (and feeding whisky to the goldfish afterwards), more nude dancing, a stand-up comedian, female judo, a guy showing his muscles, pop artists, more nudity and even more nudity. Everything connected with a dry voice-over pretending to do something serious.

Not that the movie itself is serious. Most of the footage is made up, not real stuff, and at least twice the voices of the producer and director breaks into the soundtrack and starts bickering about how much nudity the movie shows. The director wants to make something more serious, while the producer wants more girls and tits! A bit stiff written, but still kinda funny. What I enjoy with a movie like this is the sensationalism that is constructed around subjects that aren’t that sensational. It gives an innocent aura around totally absurd subjects, which is my kinda aura.

What feels unnecessary is the graphic birth scene, complete with everything you don’t wanna see in HD! I never felt why this should be included in every shockumentary about there, because what I know it’s around 267 births per minute all around the world, so why even include such a common thing in a shockumentary about strippers in London is beyond what I can understand. Another scene which can be a little bit disturbing is a visit to the chicken-factory where we get to see in close-up how a chicken is slaughtered. Not fun.

But 99,8 % of of the movie is filled with fun and joy and morality tales about the youth of today, which are evil, selfish and not able to take care of themselves. As usual then, always blame it on the kids!

Jesus Christ Saviour (2008)

Klaus Kinski as Jesus. You've seen the few minutes of rage that opens up Werner Herzogs My Best Fiend, you've seen the clips on YouTube. You've seen nothing!

In 2008 Peter Geyers reconstruction of Jesus Christ Saviour, the name of Kinski's show, finally appeared in cinemas and on DVD. I don't know if this was a big thing in Germany, but very little has been written about about this fantastic movie outside the country. It was just by coincidence I found about it, and of course I ordered the DVD directly from Amazon.de.

For the first time we're getting a look into what really happen that night at Deutschlandhalle in November 1971, and it shows an emotional man getting hurt by the fucking idiots in the audience. I'm not usually the one that sits and talk back to the TV, but this time I had a hard time stopping myself from trying to keep quiet. Kinski tries, I think two or three times to start the show. With thirty memorized pages in his head, he demands, like all actors on stage, concentration and respect. But he get's nothing. People, or idiots, start hurling insults at him, talking back, stops listening to him, screaming rude things and at one time one fucking guy comes up one the stage and wants to take the microphone from Kinski. Kinski orders the guards to take this intruder away, and the audience starts calling him (Kinski) a fascist! God damn, who's the facists here?

But Kinski is working hard, one time after another he continues the show (still wearing a very ugly shirt), working his way thru the complicated text and some improvisations here and there. He really tries not the get provoced, and on a couple of occations he stops, standing quiet to focus - to not get angry and scream back at the retards in the audience. You can see in his eyes how his whole dream is falling apart, how he's desperate is trying to get back into his text again. There's sadness, more than anger. Finally he have to stop the show, and all those 5000 in the audience leaves...

Now, this could have been the end - but if you sit back in your sofa and waits until after the credits, you'll see one of the most powerful things I've seen in a documentary. Around one hundred people is waiting for him at the stage. He comes out, walks down to them and PERFORMS THE WHOLE FUCKING SHOW AGAIN, just for them... After a few minutes of disorder, they sit there, quiet and concentrated and Kinski can perform his show, over ten years in the making and planning.

Fuck, I wish I had a time machine to be able to go back to be one of those lucky, serious people who really wanted to listen to him. Kinski is sad and exhausted, but do what he came there for... and leaves.

Such a master-actor, such a fucking professional. I would like to see any other superstar do that now.

With this DVD you'll be able to see a big part of his Jesus-show, and it's a pity he never could tour with it - because it's a damn fine one man show. Intelligent, emotional, a brilliant analyze of the historical character of Jesus, a rebel.

Jesus Christ Saviour is a MUST in any Kinski-fans collection.

Cropsey (2009)

I love a good documentary and Cropsey is very intelligent and creepy true crime-story that will haunt you for a long time afterwards. Everything began with directors Joshua Zeman and Barbara Brancaccio going back to their childhood home, Staten Island, to investigate the legend of Cropsey - a mentally disturbed killer haunting the old ruins of a closed down mental asylum. You heard of Cropsey before, in movies like The Burning for example. Madman was based on the same legend that's been told everywhere around the US, by children for children. In the Staten Island-case a man, Andre Rand, was arrested and convicted for one of the murders - the only one where they found a body. But is he just a madman, a scapegoat? Or is he the real killer playing with everybody's minds?

There's something creepy with forests. Especially forests that has big abandoned buildings in them with signs of what was there before. Old wheelchairs, beds, clothes, furniture laying everywhere. In this case it's Willowbrook State School that haunts the memories of everyone. Involved in several scandals, which the biggest one was in 1972 and probably is some of the most disturbing stuff I've ever seen. Geraldo Rivera, then a new hot journalist, took his crew there unannounced and filmed the terrible state the place was in. Mentally and physically sick children laying, sitting everywhere - naked, in their own shit, in the darkness, screaming, crying or just laughing. This is some really fucked up footage. Really fucked up. You won't believe it until you see it. And this was in 1972, but it feels like a concentration camp in WW2 Germany or Poland.

In this environment Andre Rand worked, and maybe was this one of the things that triggered him the crimes that he later performed - or did he? The film makers, Joshua and Barbara interviews his old friends and neighbors, polices, the families of the victims... and not everyone is convinced that he's guilty. But those don't believe of his innocence thinks he was a necrophiliac, a satanist, involved in cults and had a sect of homeless and mentally ill people following him in the forests and ruins of Staten Island. The typical stories evolved from many years of urban legends.

It's easy to see how the legend of Cropsey on Staten Island could have emerged. With the spooky ruins, the old hospitals and schools, homes for the poor and all these children gone missing over the years. A safe little community buried in it's own dark secrets. The film is never boring and it always stays on fact - or what people believe is fact. A threat through the whole production is the directors communication by letters with Andre Rand, and how the letters is growing more and more weird. We follow the woman who still today walks around in the area trying to find the bodies of the missing children. We meet the retired cops believing in his guilt and the man that claims that the police asked him to house Rand just so they could monitor him better.

This is not just a story about an urban legend. Or a true crime. This is also a story about Staten Island and the burden this place always will bear.

The official homepage with more info and how to purchase the movie.

Bloodline (2008)

Bruce Burgess has made a lot of speculative documentaries. He always "forgets" to bring up the critical points of the subject, but at least his stuff is never boring. I've seen Dreamland before, an entertaining piece about Area 51, and now he's investigation the famous bloodline-theory.What's the Bloodline you ask? It's the theory that Mary Magdalene and maybe Jesus himself travelled to France after the crucifiction (he survived or at least they took his dead body to France) to hide there.

It's a cool idea and as an atheist that believes that there wasn't any resurrection from the dead or whatever, it's extra fun! We follow Bruce Burgess from the US, England and France. He interviews researchers and people who claim they are involved in the conspiracy. The last person he meets is Ben Hammott, a man who says he discovered the ancient tomb with the body of Mary! And he has proof and Bruce continues to search together with him. And it get's quite spectaular actually...

This is a very speculative documentary that never fails to bore you. I'm sure the documentary itself isn't a mockmentary (I heard that some people believe that), but if the people in it are telling the truth - that's a whole other discussion. Bruce and his team uncovers a lot of interesting facts and physical proof that there is a hidden grave in this french area, and it's almost like a "real" Indiana Jones-mystery. Or at least Dan Brown-book. But this Ben Hammott... well, I don't know. It's almost TO good to be true. It's really like from a movie, and not from the real world. But they find the tomb, they find relics, they find a body and so on. But anyone could have put this stuff there I guess. At the same time Bruce is getting warned to not investivate further, a person they're gonna interview dies and so on. Maybe it's just a big hoax so Ben Hammott (an anagram of The Tombman by the way) could get some attention?

So, should you see it? Yes, of course. If you're not one of those people with out a sense of humour who can't stand the fact that some people choose to see everything one way. Most people out there seem to believe in something supernatural, so if you believe in that you should be able to buy this. I'm not sure. Like I wrote above, it's to good to be true. A funny detail is that there's something that made me loose faith in Ben Hammott... and I will take a screenshot sooner or later of what it is that I react to. It's nothing, but it's to big of a coincidence for me to let it go.

I'll be back.

Conspiracy of Silence (1994)

It's always interesting with obscure and controversial documentaries, and Conspiracy of Silence is one of the most obscure and talked-about. It was produced by Yorkshire Television in a co-production deal with Discovery Channel and was about the alleged Lawrence King-pedophile case that stunned US politics for a short while. Lawrence, or Larry, was a famous black republican who owned a bank, took a lot of money for his own purposes and also was a pedophile with sex-parties in his luxery home. He had a deal with Boy's Town, an organisation who's helping homeless or troubled boys to a new life, and some suspects they gave him boys after he supported them with a lot of money. 

This documentary claims that the pedophile-case led directly to the White House and with a lot of republicans and other right wing-people involved. But the film was never aired. It was pulled back by the channel and someone (it's said) payed a lot of money for all the material regarding the film, and just made it disappear. A couple of years later a copy surfaced, and it's that one that's out on torrents and on youtube now.

What's scary about it is that it's so serious. The proofs that are being delivered seems okey, and there's not the usual crazy stuff going on - but later one of the participants wrote a book claiming that satanism was involved in the orgies... so you can never know about the seriousness here. But anyway. It's a dry film, with facts and facts, investigation and it feels very real. What's even more absurd is how people got in jail for witnessing in the case, got killed in a plane crash or just denied everything. 

Like it never happen. 

It's a good documentary, but I'm not sure what to make of it. Truth or just another hoax? 

Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! (2008)

I just wanna say one thing and keep it short: this is the most happy documentary I've never seen. It's so filled with love for movies, people, culture, stunts, violence, sex, boobs, explosions and more people. From the first second to the last we're bombarded by anecdotes, movie clips, cool people and so much fun information that I just wished it would never end. We're getting an exposive look through the exploitation-ages of Australia, first with sex-movies and stupid comedys, to horror and the action. Everyone is here talking, and most of them seem very proud of all the wacky movies they've been involved with. From directors, producer, marketing-guys, actresses and actors, stuntmen and fans. 

There's nothing bad to say about, except it could have gone on for a couple of hours more. And it's bad because now I have to find every single movie mentioned! And I've missed so much... and I need it all. This is a dvd you have to buy! 

The Mysterious Monsters (1976)

"The motion picture you're about to see was filmed with many teams of camera men and in more than hundred locations around the globe. Scientists representing the worlds foremost research-centers took part in the examination of the evidence. The facts that are to be presented are true. This might be the most startling film you'll ever see..."

With these confident words Peter Graves opens The Mysterious Monsters, a very typical seventies documentary in the wake of Chariot of the Gods, the Erich Von Däniken-documentary who was a great success a couple of years earlier. Though it focuses on Bigfoot, and all the other reincarnations of apemen in the US, it also takes us to a journey around the world for a quick look at other famous monsters. The Loch Ness-monster is presented as a fact, not speculation, and in the end Peter Graves says something about that Bigfoot soon will be as accepted as Nessie and the Gorilla. 

The critical view of the phenomena is more or less non-existant, but a few voices have the opportunity to say a few words to shoot down the Bigfoot-legend - but these voices are quickly shot down by other people, without any discussions. I love that. That's how an exploitation-documentary should be. It has a lot of eyewitness-interviews, some photos and movie footage I've never seen before (among them a longer version of the infamous Patterson-Gimlin film from 1967) and two-three clips of Nessie swimming around. 

But the highlights are the numerous reenactments with the original witnesses and couple of quite good ape-suits! Some of these are creepy, and looks great - and I'm surprised that these costumes haven't been seen in fake Bigfoot-footage after this movie! There's an army of suits to, most of them looks good and even has some kinda of facial movements. A nice thing for us monster-loves out there. 

The best thing is Peter Hurkos, psychic detective, that Peter Graves brings a closed briefcase and Hurkos identifies what's in it - and of course he's starting to talk about something half-man, half-beast, very hairy, lives in cave! Peter Hurkos was a famous psychic who claimed himself to have helped the police with the Boston Strangler-case and a lot of other famous crimes. But most of this where hoaxes to make PR for himself.

A fun, silly, well-made "documentary" with a Peter Graves so serious that he probably got a very big paycheck to do this work of art. Recommended. And I noticed that it's soon out on official dvd. Get it!

Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale (2000)

Tobias Schneebaum is a typical jewish homosexual painter. And this is the true story about he got lost in the Amazonas and became a cannibal. I saw this documentary on television quite a few years ago and it never left me. I bought the dvds and I found it that it was even better than I expected. A slightly bizarre, funny and emotional story about a man who travels back to the places that sealed his destiny and at the same time tells the story about his life. 

At the time of the shooting of this movie Tobias was in his late seventies, suffering from Parkinsons and have a good life in New York with a fifty year younger boyfriend. He survives and earn money on holding lectures on luxery cruises around Indonesia, telling rich, fat americans about his life in the jungle. He kinda enjoys it, but it's a doubled-edged sword. Because everytime a tourist - or even himself - visits one of the tribes, something is destroyed in their culture. 

We follow him to the Asmat-people in New Guinea, where he spend many years researching their art. By chance he run into his old lover (in the Astmat-culture almost every man has a male lover) and it's almost love again. The trip goes on to Peru where he finally meets the people that made him a cannibal fifty years earlier...

It's an amazing documentary! Tobias was quite a character, a funny and open-minded man who was terrified of mouses (as his old friend Norman Mailer recalls in the documentary) but had no hesitations to go out in the jungle alone for many days! He loves New York, Coney Island and hot dogs, but seems to be as relaxed there as with a primitive tribe somewhere on earth. Thru the movie there's a couple of old clips from tv-shows which is very interesting, but the coolest is the few clips from his super-8 movies taken in the jungles. It's like something that's been left over from Cannibal Holocaust. 

But it's really not about the natives themselves. Tobias Schneebaum has avoided to go back to Peru after the cannibal-incident, and just don't want to talk about it. It was a small part of his life, but still something he just can't cope with. Here he get's an opportunity to revisit his past and go full circle with his life-history. And yes, for those who have seen Welcome to the jungle, the Asmat is the same people that was rumored to have eaten Michael Rockefeller in 1961.

We have adventure, cool locations (shit, I really, really, really have to go to Machupicchu!) and a unique personality. For fans of good documentaries, this is the one to get!

(I'm sure I've mixed up the tribes here in the review, so I hope you can live with that...)