Category: Documentaries

  • Garbage documentary review

    While You Were Sleeping have organised another documentary screening at the Labia. This documentary looks at the issue of waste and is called Garbage! The Revolution Starts at Home. It’s a simple and endearing documentary with a powerful and scary message. The producer, Andrew Nisker, decides to get his friend’s family to keep all their…

  • The Nature of Life review

    I’ve seen many documentaries about climate change in my life and most of them have been quite depressing and leave one feeling a bit hopeless. Nature of Life is the first one I’ve seen which tackles this topic from a positive perspective. Not only that but it looks at the topic from an African perspective…

  • Age of Stupid review

    I’ve thought long and hard why it is that we, as human beings, find it so difficult to take decisive action to combat the climate catastrophe we face. The answer is complicated and multi faceted but I think one of the biggest reasons is that the impact of our actions now will only be noticeable…

  • 11th Hour review

    Few things annoy me more than product endorsements by celebrities or ‘models’. Some celebrity actress will tell you that she uses this wrinkle cream to help her look young, when in fact what helps her look young is good genetics and photoshop. The same thing for sport supplements and equipment, some sports star will attribute…

  • Earthlings review

    This documentary has affected me. I am torn between telling people to watch Earthlings because it’s important for them to know this stuff, and telling people not to watch it because it is genuinely disturbing. I closed my eyes during many scenes in the movies and I wish I had closed them more because I am…

  • Escape from Suburbia review

    While You Were Sleeping has organised a screening of Escape from Suburbia at the Labia. I went to watch the documentary last night. Often one can watch these documentaries online or obtain the DVD to watch at home, but I like to go to these screenings because the discussion afterwards is always interesting. There are often…

  • The world according to Monsanto review

    I have watched a lot of documentaries on GM foods and Monsanto and although they each have their own style and there is always some new information, they generally cover a lot of the same material. This recently released documentary is not like that. It takes a very different angle, looking at the history of…

  • The War on Democracy review

    This is the last of the documentaries I selected to watch at the Tricontinental Film Festival, and it was a great one to end on because it exposed the United States’ involvement in South America for what it really is, the expansion of empire. America likes to use the words “democracy”, “freedom”, “capitalism”, etc when it describes…

  • 1000 Days and a Dream review

    With each passing day I become more and more anti big corporations. If you haven’t seen the documentary The Corporation, you need to make it a priority. It is available for online viewing here. Whilst it can be argued that corporations do a lot of good work, that work is far, far outweighed by the…

  • War Made Easy review

    So,  thefirst documentary I watched at the Tri Continental Film Festival 2008 was War Made Easy. A documentary about America’s foreign policy and the complicity of the media in promoting the policies. I didn’t learn many new things, but it was interesting to see the evidence for what I already knew. War Made Easy looks at…