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

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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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“Inside Outside: Evolving Grafitti”; Chiemi Isozaki – PingMag

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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.

http://www.thegoldbrick.net/video/tsunamimemorial.flv

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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

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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

Pt.1, Pt.2, Pt.3, Pt.4, Pt.5

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The Cove begins in Taiji, Japan, where former dolphin trainer Ric O’Barry has come to set things right after a long search for redemption. In the 1960s, it was O’Barry who captured and trained the 5 dolphins who played the title character in the international television sensation Flipper.

But his close relationship with those dolphins – the very dolphins who sparked a global fascination with trained sea mammals that continues to this day — led O’Barry to a radical change of heart. One fateful day, a heartbroken Barry came to realize that these deeply sensitive, highly intelligent and self-aware creatures so beautifully adapted to life in the open ocean must never be subjected to human captivity again. This mission has brought him to Taiji, a town that appears to be devoted to the wonders and mysteries of the sleek, playful dolphins and whales that swim off their coast.

But in a remote, glistening cove, surrounded by barbed wire and “Keep Out” signs, lies a dark reality. It is here, under cover of night, that the fishermen of Taiji, driven by a multi-billion dollar dolphin entertainment industry and an underhanded market for mercury-tainted dolphin meat, engage in an unseen hunt. The nature of what they do is so chilling — and the consequences are so dangerous to human health — they will go to great lengths to halt anyone from seeing it.

Undeterred, O’Barry joins forces with filmmaker Louis Psihoyos and the Oceanic Preservation Society to get to the truth of what’s really going on in the cove and why it matters to everyone in the world. With the local Chief of Police hot on their trail and strong-arm fishermen keeping tabs on them, they will recruit an Ocean’s Eleven-style team of underwater sound and camera experts, special-effects artists, marine explorers, adrenaline junkies and world-class free divers who will carry out an undercover operation to photograph the off-limits cove, while playing a cloak-and-dagger game with those who would have them jailed. The result is a provocative mix of investigative journalism, eco-adventure and arresting imagery that adds up to an urgent plea for hope.

The Cove – Directed by Louis Psihoyos, 2009

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Bukowski: Born Into This chronicles the life and times of the hard-drinking, hard-living, and hard-loving author Charles Bukowski. It is an intimate story of struggle and redemption, pain and humor, and above all, artistic truth and authenticity.

Bukowski: Born Into This - Directed by John Dullaghan, 2006

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Celebrated writer-director Jim Jarmusch serves up this witty and intoxicating brew that’s as addictive as caffeine and as buzzy and ephemeral as, well, coffee and cigarettes. Sneakily delirious and way cool, this funny cluster of eleven stories delivers inspired eccentric match-ups from an incredible all-star cast, making Coffee and Cigarettes an absolute must for fans of film, fun and fantastic wit!

Coffee and Cigarettes – Directed by Jim Jarmusch; 2003

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Photo by JD Beley

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Starting with the band’s origins in Forest Hills, Queens, New York City; End Of The Century: The Story Of The Ramones gives a fascinating background portrait of the eccentric group of individuals who came together to be one of the most influential punk bands in history.

This documentary about the New York City renegades who made their mark in the mid-1970s with counterculture lyrics and underground performances at rundown joints like CBGB on the Bowery, shows how the band eventually earned recognition, even being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002. But it is the insider look at the blue collar upbringing of the band members, and their desire to be part of Manhattan’s burgeoning hard-rock scene, that is most endearing about this particular film.

In candid interviews with Dee Dee Ramone, he tells stories about the group’s total lack of complexity in its earliest days. Going to see contemporary acts like the New York Dolls and Iggy and the Stooges, the Ramones quickly created their own sound and practiced frenetically. When they finally made their debut with an extremely-loud sound, furiously-fast and short songs, and lots of drama such as blatant on-stage arguments, they practically scared away their fans.

The film follows the Ramones’ subsequent rise to punk stardom, providing wild stories about sex, drugs, chaos, and tragedy; however, it is the truly interesting story of the band’s start that will linger in viewers’ minds.

End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones;

Directed by Jim Fields & Michael Gramaglia; 2005

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Dogora captures the daily routines of the people of Cambodia. It is a street level, non-verbal, documentary, without any explanation. Your imagination must answer any questions you may have.

The film captures the interaction between the people of Cambodia very well with particular attention paid to the children of Cambodia, which proves to be a fascinating subject. The everyday lives of people traveling, sleeping, eating, working and playing are all shown in a natural manner. Sweatshop factories and rubbish dumps are shown, giving a reminder of the poverty found in Cambodia. However, the obvious images of Angkor Wat and other temples are not present. This is clearly a deliberate decision.

The musical score of Dogora was created by Étienne Perruchon. The music was scored before the film was shot and served as inspiration for the director to set the scene and add rhythm to the shot. The score is, surprisingly, not traditionally Eastern, and the choirs and classical music it is comprised of can seem a little misfitting at times. The chants used in the recordings are an invention of the composer, which he called ‘Dogorienne’, this is where Dogora takes its name.

Dogora – Directed by Patrice Leconte; 2004

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