Hey everyone. Capone in Chicago, with a couple of choice documentaries to throw your way.
I know this site isn't as good as it should be when it comes to spotlighting docs, and I blame myself. I will travel far and wide to see a great "non-fiction" films (as Werner Herzog likes to call his docs). I've just always loved learning, and the less I'm familiar with the subject at hand, the more involved I become. So here are two excellent works making their way to an art house near you, I hope.
SURFWISE
One of the most captivating profiles of an American family that I've seen since CAPTURING THE FREIDMANS, SURFWISE begins by telling us the story of a man--Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz, who grew up handsome, well off and gifted at nearly everything he did. He was an avid surfer, who always felt more at home on a wave than he did being a doctor or a husband in two unsuccessful marriages.
Dorian is an old man now with many health issues, who looks even older than he is thanks to leathery tanned skin. But when he was a young man, he was a bronzed Adonis with an arresting personality who yearned for a life without connections and with total freedom. So he married a woman who taught him how to have great sex, had nine children (eight boys and a girl) and lived a nomadic lifestyle that allowed them to live healthy, unattached lives and surf whenever they damn well felt like it.
Director Doug Pray (HYPE!; SCRATCH) does exquisite work here illustrating this family, who became folks heroes to many and attracted a media frenzy wherever they went in their 24-foot camper loaded with surf boards and dreams. As much as the Paskowitz family put on a unified face when the kids were still young, the clan began to fracture the older the kids got and the more famous the family became.
Living under Doc's dictatorial rules about eating and surfing, several of the children rebelled when they got old enough to understand that it was okay to rebel against the ultimate anti-establishment guru. Much as Doc predicted, the minute money entered their lives, their world began to crumble and family members stopped talking to each other. Still, nearly every son and daughter went on to be successful, including working as a surfware designer, musician, model and other pursuits. But the kids still resented their father because he never gave them the option of going to school or pursuing other ways of life.
SURFWISE features some fantastic archival footage of the Paskowitz family, and I was impressed with how much material there was on Doc prior to him building his legacy. He was the man who single handedly introduced surfing to the beaches of Israel. But it's the family stuff that really hits you in the heart. They were envied by so many—the first family of surfing, they were called--but are the children better off today as a result of their upbringing? Each one probably has a different answer, but I guarantee each response will be interesting. SURFWISE manages to be both a celebration of this lifestyle and a cautionary tale, and it's all worth taking in.
GLASS: A PORTRAIT OF PHILIP IN TWELVE PARTS
My first real awareness of Philip Glass wasn't even by hearing his music; it was hearing someone make fun of his music. On one of the first seasons of "South Park" (maybe even THE first season), the kids are forced to put on a non-denominational holiday musical.
To emphasize how droll the pageant is, the music and lyrics are said to be by "New York minimalist composer Philip Glass." The kids are all dressed in black leotards, spinning around while the singer sings, "Happy Happy Happy. Everybody Happy." I had no idea what it meant, but I loved it.
Since that episode of "South Park," I've certainly heard my share of Glass music in the scores of such filmmakers as Godfrey Reggio and Errol Morris, and films like THE HOURS, HAMBURGER HILL, CANDYMAN, KUNDUN, TAKING LIVES, UNDERTOW, THE ILLUSIONIST, NOTES ON A SCANDAL; NO RESERVATIONS, and most recently in Woody Allen's CASSANDRA'S DREAM. If you haven't heard his newly written scores for Bela Lugosi's DRACULA and Cocteau's BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, they're quite nice. And while I'm far from a hardcore Glass fan, I appreciate his talents more than I did when Trey and Matt poked fun at him.
NO RESERVATIONS director Scott Hicks (who's probably best known for helming SHINE) has taken his cameras inside the life of Glass and his work, peeling back the mystery behind his process and showing us that Glass is not at all the serious artist I'd imagined him to be. He's full of life, spiritual passion, an attentive family man and he might be the most extreme workaholic I've ever seen profiled. He is not a composer who treats every note like a precious object and seems exceedingly easy to collaborate with. Watching him work side by side at the editing bay with Woody Allen kind of blew my mind.
Even on a more substantial project like his opera premiere for "Waiting for the Barbarians," he seems relaxed and open to ideas (to a point). Always with five or six project going at once, Glass sometimes sacrifices time with his wife and two young sons to fly around the globe finalizing some work or another. With his dark, out-of-control curls and deep set eyes that still seem to pop out a bit, Glass is a favorite subject for portrait photographers and artist, including his old friend Chuck Close who painted his likeness on more than one occasion. But the serious mystique gives way to an easy laugh, open conversation and intelligence beyond my comprehension.
Hicks' profile (perhaps bordering a bit too much on the "tribute" category) is endlessly revealing, especially in off-guard moments from Glass's current wife, who admits their marriage struggles sometimes with his busy schedule. But that only makes him more compelling. I remember seeing a documentary not too long ago about avant-garde stage director, Chuck Wilson, which covered among other things his legendary collaboration with Glass, "Einstein on the Beach," which is also covered in great detail here as a pivotal work in Glass's career. It's always fun for me to piece together a person's life in my head via a thorough documentary like this, which takes my fragmented knowledge of Glass and turns it into something comprehensive.
I will probably never own anything by Glass outside of the occasional film score I receive in the mail, but for those of you who rip on his work regularly, this film might be more for you than the die-hard aficionado. I haven't grown to love his work because of this movie, but I have a much greater respect for him as a person and artist.
Capone
