Category Archives: Documentary

Coming to DVD today, Thursday, October 16: EVERY THREE SECONDS

Daniel Karslake’s look at practical solutions to poverty made its debut at Orlando’s Global Peace Film Festival last month. Community, university, and museum screenings have followed and the film will be screening at the New Orleans Film Festival, which begins today.

Named after the statistical incidence of death due to extreme poverty, and timed to be released today, World Food Day, Karslake’s film profiles five inspirational individuals who take their concerns about poverty and hunger and transform them into positive action. Senior Gloria organizes volunteers to glean unused crops from local farmers to provide fresh vegetables for a food bank. Pre-teen Charlie is motivated to raise funds for Haiti relief, only to unexpectedly have his campaign go viral. Ingrid, a Swedish woman living in Kenya, formed a microfinance bank to encourage street beggars to become green grocers. Lisa, a former beauty queen, becomes involves in efforts to address conflict in Congo and to help its victims. Medical student Josh develops an innovative program to use cellphones to provide better coordination between health workers in Malawi. As is clear by the diverse topics and locations covered by Karslake’s subjects, his film takes a sweeping survey approach to universal issues, interweaving the various threads to make the simple but necessary point that these individuals have not just acknowledged that poverty exists – they’ve actually set out to do something about it, even if their impact is on a relatively small scale. While the film is fairly conventional in approach, and could have used some trimming, its message is a worthwhile one.

Coming to DVD/VOD today, Tuesday, October 14: BOOBS

Stone Roberts and Jon Bulette’s look at a model’s so-called “search for perfection” makes its debut today. In addition to DVD, the doc is now available via VOD on iTunes and Vimeo.

Precious Muir is a 24-year-old British model based in NYC who is convinced she has been typecast as a teen because of her modest breast size. Pinning all her hopes on breast augmentation as the key to furthering her career – and finally appearing in Playboy, her greatest dream – Muir makes an arrangement for surgery, cameras and reluctant but supportive boyfriend Guy in tow. Roberts and Bulette document the surgery, which might be instructive to curious viewers, especially to women contemplating a similar procedure, but the bulk of the film is concerned with the aftermath, from a longer-than-expected recovery and initial dissatisfaction to the need for a second surgery and how Muir unveils the results to family and friends. It’s a very simple premise, and the film’s ultimate success – or more likely, failure – for the audience entirely hinges on how they respond to Precious, because it’s all about her – there’s absolutely no concern here for addressing larger questions around body image, conceptions of beauty, or the media or fashion industry’s role in determining either. Instead, the film comes off as a reality TV-style calling card for the career-driven and sometimes irritating Muir, shadowing her visit to the Playboy Mansion or joining in solidarity over her outrage at her disappointing first surgery.