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Posted: 23-07-2013 09:24 Post subject:

Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey

A remake of Carl Sagan's old 1980s series. Hosted by Neil de Grasse Tyson. Release date 2014.

Looks very tasty. Trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMJxjYRXYkU

Posted: 29-08-2013 04:59 Post subject:

A few tasty Fortean focussed docos on this Youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/Documentop?feature=watch

Posted: 29-08-2013 08:43 Post subject:

Posted: 14-09-2013 19:02 Post subject:

The Man Nobody Knew
A doco about CIA director William Colby who commited apparent suicide in 1996. Time Out New York called it a "tour of queasy, morally questionable intelligence endeavors over the last 50 years from the perspective of the spook community’s grand pooh-bah" (source: Wikipedia). This is as good a film as the one made about MacNamara 5 or 6 years ago. Excellent documentaries both.

WARNING: the second half dealing with Vietnam is extremely graphic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irjYWdWY1Vs

More Fortean goodies at the DokiDoc04 Youtube page linked in my previous post on this thread.

Posted: 25-09-2013 12:59 Post subject:

Last week I watched a doco called The Imposter and found it very disturbing. In 1994, 13 yo Nicholas Barclay disappeared from San Antonio, Texas. He apparently turned up in Spain three years later. What happened after that is truly sad, compelling and so bloody inconceivable that I don't really know what to say about it. What I learned about the capacity for human self-deception is shocking. Be warned, there are no redeeming characters at all in this story. It's very very bleak. I lost a little something of my remaining innocence through the viewing.

The film itself is brilliantly crafted.

Reviews: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_imposter_2012/

Posted: 26-09-2013 13:13 Post subject:

Posted: 26-09-2013 14:51 Post subject:

i've seen that, highly enjoyable! Very Happy

All the way through, I was thinking what are they doing! It's obviously not him! Laughing

The reason for the family's acceptance of the imposter is worrying though.

Posted: 26-09-2013 15:07 Post subject:

Well, that's good to know. I'll watch it then. I was afraid it would be soul destroying, but if it's more a study of people's motivations... well... that's par for the course in a documentary. Wink

Posted: 26-09-2013 17:24 Post subject:

It's one of that new strain of documentaries like Searching for Sugarman or Tabloid which relies on you not knowing too much about a sensational case before you watch it.

I had read about the Imposter case in the FT a few months before I saw it, though the dodginess of the family and their possible reasons for accepting what happened as the truth was new to me. You're supposed to be more shocked than soul-destroyed, I'd say, because by nature you recognise the case is far from common.

Posted: 27-09-2013 14:15 Post subject:

I watched Cropsey recently. It was an exploration of an urban legend come true - a murdered child found near an abandoned mental hospital on Staten Island. I liked that it focused more on the community than the murderer. The early 80's were a strange time here because of the shift from mental hospitals to group homes and shelters.

I also liked Girl 27 about a young MGM chorus line dancer in the 30's who was raped during a party for salesman and then was brave enough to go public so the salesman would be prosecuted.

Like Cropsey, this isn't about the rapist, it's about Patricia Douglas herself and it's about us - the type of circumstances that can lead to prosecutors and families selling out. It's about what we believe and how we react to allegations of rape, people in power, and the news.

I've been on a documentary binge lately.

Posted: 27-09-2013 15:27 Post subject:

Posted: 27-09-2013 16:00 Post subject:

I don't think you're naive, just not jaded. I was about 10 years old when Ted Bundy went to trial and the made-for-TV movie about Kitty Genovese was aired. It changed my point of view about the world. I learned that some murderers can blend in - be handsome even, and people might not come to rescue you if they know you're being murdered.

I got into true crime then because this new awareness me feel vulnerable as a young girl (soon to become a young teen) and I wanted to understand the threat. So, I learned that while some criminals are cunning planners, others only get away with it because a family member or close friend refuses to turn them in.

But you're right to hold onto the belief that there are fewer criminals than good decent sorts. But, maybe it's also good to understand that some nice families may not be as nice as they appear. That some people won't do the right thing unless prodded.

Posted: 03-10-2013 06:11 Post subject:

Posted: 03-10-2013 08:31 Post subject:

That's certainly what the documentary makers implied. I feel that we will hear one day what did happen. Perhaps when someone dies or goes to prison, say, and is no longer able to keep others quiet with threats.

Many people are frightened into complicity when they are close to a murderer. Knowing that someone is capable of killing is enough to keep them quiet.

It's easy to say that witnesses should speak out, but if they have been forced to help conceal the crime they are implicated. They would be treated like any other criminal and might not be safe from the actual murderer or the murderer's associates. They are unlikely to take that chance.