Checkin’ out the intimidating weather system that moved in at sunset while on the way back from Mu Koh Hong, Krabi. We were bookin’ it across the choppy water on that longtail to get back to Tubkaak safely. Areas seen are Koh Yao Yai, Koh Phi Phi (in the distance), Koh Poda, Koh Kai, Railay, Ao Nang, Nopparathara, Khlong Muang, Tubkaak and back north towards Mu Koh Hong (an archipelago).
A Storm’s A Brewin’
July 20, 2010
Phuket Vegetarian Festival Finale
June 18, 2010
Taken in Phuket during the final night of the nine-day Vegetarian Festival that takes place throughout Southern Thailand. An insanely awesome event with more fireworks than you could possibly imagine.
http://www.thegoldbrick.net/video/phuketvegetarianfinale01.flv
http://www.thegoldbrick.net/video/phuketvegetarianfinale02.flv
http://www.thegoldbrick.net/video/phuketvegetarianfinale03.flv
Rockers
May 16, 2010
Rockers features Leroy “Horsemouth” Wallace as a drummer looking to earn extra cash by selling and distributing records to the soundsystems throughout Kingston. Also featured in the film are Dillinger, Big Youth, Burning Spear, Kiddus I, Jacob Miller, Gregory Isaacs, Richard “Dirty Harry” Hall, Robbie Shakespeare, and Harry J’s studio. A classic look into the late-70s Reggae scene that is filmed as a narrative, but, since nearly everything is presented in its true element, it comes across as a documentary.
“I’m like a stepping razor, don’t you watch my size, I’m dangerous…“
Rockers – Directed by Ted Bafaloukos, 1978
Pt.1, Pt.2, Pt.3, Pt.4, Pt.5, Pt.6, Pt.7, Pt.8
Sepak Takraw
April 29, 2010
Took this video back on Loy Krathong Day, in November 2009, in Bang Niang, Phang Nga. Friendly exhibition of sepak takraw from the locals. The first time I came across this game here in Thailand, I was amazed. Crazy acrobatic flips, kicks and headers. Check it out if you’ve never seen the action.
http://www.thegoldbrick.net/video/sepaktakraw.flv
Need more comedy in your sepak takraw video? The Onion has you covered with their recap of the 2008 King’s Cup and the antics of Chonburi Tigers’ striker Nguyen Thi Buch Thuy (a Vietnamese, not Thai, name by the way). As usual with The Onion…classic.
The Union
April 20, 2010
Ever wonder what British Columbia’s most profitable industries are? Logging? Fishing? Tourism? Ever think to include marijuana? If you haven’t, think again.
No longer a hobby for the stereotypical hippie culture of the ‘60s, BC’s illegal marijuana trade industry has evolved into an unstoppable business giant, dubbed by those involved as ‘The Union’. Commanding upwards of $7 billion Canadian annually, The Union’s roots stretch far and wide. With up to 85% of all ‘BC Bud’ being exported to the United States, the BC marijuana trade has become an international issue with consequences that extend far beyond our borders. When record profits are to be made, who are the players, and when do their motives become questionable?
Why is marijuana illegal? What health risks do we really face? Does prohibition work? What would happen if we taxed it? Medicine, paper, fuel, textiles, food, etc. Are we missing something?
Follow filmmaker Adam Scorgie as he dives head first into Canada’s most socially acceptable illegal activity. Along the way, Adam demystifies the underground market and brings to light how such a large industry can function while remaining illegal. By interviewing experts from around the globe, including growers, clippers, police officers, criminologists, economists, medical doctors, politicians and pop culture icons, Scorgie examines the cause and effect nature of the business behind getting high.
Nobody’s innocent in this exploration of an industry that may be profiting more by being illegal. Join Adam Scorgie as he unravels the mystery of The Union.
The Union – Written by Brett Harvey & Adam Scorgie; 2007
Pt. 1, Pt.2, Pt.3, Pt.4, Pt.5, Pt.6
Blood and Oil
March 25, 2010
The notion that oil motivates America’s military engagements in the Middle East has long been dismissed as nonsense or mere conspiracy theory. Blood and Oil, a new documentary based on the critically-acclaimed work of Nation magazine defense correspondent Michael T. Klare, challenges this conventional wisdom to correct the historical record.
The film unearths declassified documents and highlights forgotten passages in prominent presidential doctrines to show how concerns about oil have been at the core of American foreign policy for more than 60 years – rendering our contemporary energy and military policies virtually indistinguishable.
In the end, Blood and Oil calls for a radical re-thinking of US energy policy, warning that unless we change direction, we stand to be drawn into one oil war after another as the global hunt for diminishing world petroleum supplies accelerates.
Blood and Oil – Directed by Jeremy Earp; 2008
Pt.1, Pt.2, Pt.3, Pt.4, Pt.5, Pt.6, Pt.7, Pt.8
Takuapa Vegetarian Festival
March 19, 2010
Filmed at the Guan Ou Shrine procession, in Takuapa, Phang Nga, during the annual vegetarian festival that takes place throughout the south of Thailand.
http://www.thegoldbrick.net/video/takuapavegetarianfestival02.flv
http://www.thegoldbrick.net/video/takuapavegetarianfestival03.flv
Bomb It
February 28, 2010
Bomb It is the explosive new documentary from award-winning director Jon Reiss investigating the most subversive and controversial art form currently shaping international youth culture: graffiti.
Through interviews and guerilla footage of graffiti writers in action on 5 continents, Bomb It tells the story of graffiti from its origins in prehistoric cave paintings thru its notorious explosion in New York City during the 70’s and 80’s, then follows the flames as they paint the globe. Featuring old school legends and current favorites such as Taki 183, Cornbread, Stay High 149, T-Kid, Cope 2, Zephyr, Revs, Os Gemeos, KET, Chino, Shepard Fairey, Revok, and Mear One. This cutting edge documentary tracks down today’s most innovative and pervasive street artists as they battle for control over the urban visual landscape. You’ll never look at public space the same way again.
Bomb It was shot in Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Tijuana, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Hamburg, Berlin, Cape Town, São Paulo, and Tokyo.
Bomb It – Directed by Jon Reiss; 2007
Pt.1, Pt.2, Pt.3, Pt.4, Pt.5, Pt.6, Pt.7, Pt.8
Food, Inc.
February 16, 2010
In Food, Inc., filmmaker Robert Kenner lifts the veil on our nation’s food industry, exposing the highly-mechanized underbelly that has been hidden from the American consumer with the consent of our government’s regulatory agencies, USDA and FDA. Our nation’s food supply is now controlled by a handful of corporations that often put profit ahead of consumer health, the livelihood of the American farmer, the safety of workers and our own environment. We have bigger-breasted chickens, the perfect pork chop, herbicide-resistant soybean seeds, even tomatoes that won’t go bad, but we also have new strains of E. coli—the harmful bacteria that causes illness for an estimated 73,000 Americans annually. We are riddled with widespread obesity, particularly among children, and an epidemic level of diabetes among adults.
Featuring interviews with such experts as Eric Schlosser (Fast Food Nation), Michael Pollan (The Omnivore’s Dilemma, In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto) along with forward thinking social entrepreneurs like Stonyfield’s Gary Hirshberg and Polyface Farms’ Joel Salatin; Food, Inc. reveals surprising—and often shocking truths—about what we eat, how it’s produced, who we have become as a nation and where we are going from here.
Food, Inc. – Directed by Robert Kenner; 2008; Pt.1, Pt.2, Pt.3, Pt.4
Note: I made this post back in December, looks like the links are dead now and I don’t have any to re-up. Nonetheless, you should check this movie out one way or another as it’s an excellent documentary.
Blue Gold: World Water Wars
January 31, 2010
In every corner of the globe, we are polluting, diverting, pumping, and wasting our limited supply of fresh water at an expediential level as population and technology grows. The rampant overdevelopment of agriculture, housing and industry increase the demands for fresh water well beyond the finite supply, resulting in the desertification of the earth.
Corporate giants force developing countries to privatize their water supply for profit. Wall Street investors target desalination and mass bulk water export schemes. Corrupt governments use water for economic and political gain. Military control of water emerges and a new geo-political map and power structure forms, setting the stage for world water wars.
We follow numerous worldwide examples of people fighting for their basic right to water, from court cases to violent revolutions to U.N. conventions to revised constitutions to local protests at grade schools. As Maude Barlow proclaims, “This is our revolution, this is our war”. A line is crossed as water becomes a commodity. Will we survive?
Blue Gold: World Water Wars – Directed by Sam Bozzo; 2008
Pt.1, Pt.2, Pt.3, Pt.4; Password = irfree.com
Afro-Punk
January 25, 2010
Afro-Punk explores race identity within the punk scene and tackles the hard questions such as issues of loneliness, exile, interracial dating and black power. It follows the lives of four people who have dedicated themselves to the punk rock lifestyle. They find themselves in conflicting situations, living the dual life of a person of color in a mostly white community.
The documentary laces interviews from scores of black punk rockers from all over the nation with scenes from our four protagonists’ lives. They each come from different regions, generations, genders and sexual preferences, but their stories are amazingly similar. Thousands more with similar tales exist throughout the world to form a subculture within a subculture.
The Afro-Punk movement presently exists as an online community at afropunk.com and also as a festival that tours throughout the country and abroad spread the messages of unity contained within the full-length feature. Support it when it comes to your town.
Afro-Punk - Directed by James Spooner; 2003
Pt.1, Pt.2, Pt.3, Pt.4, Pt.5, Pt.6, Pt.7, Pt.8, Pt.9, Pt.10, Pt.11
Inside Outside
January 8, 2010
Inside Outside is a documentary about vandalism, art, and vandalism as art. It follows the lives and works of ZEVS from Paris, Ron English, SWOON and KR from New York City, Adams & Itso from Stockholm and Copenhagen respectively, and Os Gemeos from São Paolo, among others.
Inside Outside is a film about the energy artists get when working in the street. An energy they’re missing when exhibiting in galleries and museums, an energy that brings life to their art and to their own lives. It’s an energy that’s partly caused by the fact that everything these artists do in the street is illegal.
The Visible is Ephemeral
Inside Outside – Directed by Andreas Johnsen; 2005
Pt.1, Pt.2, Pt.3, Pt.4, Pt.5, Pt.6, Pt.7, Pt.8, Subtitles
“Inside Outside: Evolving Grafitti”; Chiemi Isozaki – PingMag
Tsunami Memorial in Bang Niang
January 6, 2010
Tsunami memorial, at the 813 Marine police boat in Bang Niang, Phang Nga, held on December 26th, 2009 to mark the 5th anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami.
Waveriders
December 23, 2009
Waveriders is the previously untold story of the unlikely Irish roots of the worldwide surfing phenomenon and today’s pioneers of Irish big-wave surfing. The story unfolds via the inspirational and ultimately tragic history of Irish/Hawaiian legendary waterman, George Freeth. Freeth, son of an Irishman, was responsible for the rebirth of this sport of Hawaiian kings in the early twentieth century.
With its distinguished cast of world-renowned Irish, British and Irish/American surfers, Waveriders journeys full-circle from Hawaii to California and back to the Irish shores following Freeth’s wave of influence. This journey reaches a spectacular climax when the surfers conquer the biggest swell ever to have been ridden in Ireland catching monster waves of over fifty feet.
Waveriders – Directed by Joel Conroy; 2009
Pt.1, Pt.2, Pt.3, Pt.4, Pt.5, Pt.6, Pt.7, Pt.8
Big River Man
December 11, 2009
In February 2007, Martin Strel began an insane attempt to be the first person to swim the entire length of the world’s most dangerous river, the mighty Amazon. Martin is an endurance swimmer from Slovenia, who swims rivers – the Mississippi, the Danube and the Yangtze to date – to highlight their pollution to the world. Martin is also a rather overweight, horseburger-loving Slovenian, in his fifties, who drinks two bottles of red wine a day… even when swimming.
Big River Man – Directed by John Maringouin
