One of my favourite time wasting, guilty pleasures is regularly checking in on the Jezebel.com website, which carries a mix of current affairs, celebrity news and comment, usually with a feminist bent. I have long been horrified by their constant reporting on the prevalence of rape and sexual assault within the confines of US tertiary institutions, which also happens to be the subject of this week’s documentary for discussion, THE HUNTING GROUND.

We are demanding a dignified life for ourselves...”

It comes as no surprise how bleak the livelihoods of agricultural labourers around the world have always been, as the vast majority live below the poverty line and are working all hours just to ensure the survival of their families. Tonight’s documentary by director Sanjay Rawal, FOOD CHAINS looks deeper into how dismal the situation in America has become with the rise of increasingly powerful supermarket corporations whose influence beggars belief. 

Executive produced by ex-Desperate Housewife Eva Longoria and narrated by Forest Whitaker, FOOD CHAINS is predominantly set in southern Florida, where a group of farm workers battles the global supermarket industry and reveals the abuse of farm labourers in the United States. These people work long days, full-time, and they lift about 4,000 pounds of tomatoes per day. For this, they take home about USD $40 a day, tops.

'This is a story that's far from over...' director Nick Broomfield on his HBO serial killer doc, TALES OF THE GRIM SLEEPER 

When I was given the task of reviewing this week’s Double Exposure documentary duo for Rialto Channel I was pretty stoked. The topic of both is essentially “True Crime”, but what was so amazing is that both films go beyond that genre into something that is so much more. But back to me! I admit I am an absolute freak for true crime stories both in print and on screen, and have been since I was a teenager. There is something so terrifying and yet so fascinating – for me, anyway – about real life horror, so much more so than the latest incarnation of SAW. That is how I approached the first film, tonight’s TALES OF THE GRIM SLEEPER, which explores the suspected crimes and subsequent arrest of one Lonnie Franklin Jr., a community figurehead in South Central LA by day and a brutal killer by night.

This week’s Double Exposure documentary duo has con artists as its theme; a term usually reserved for architects of Ponzi schemes and long lost relatives “trapped” in Nigeria. The pair showcased in this week’s  are from quite a different world entirely, and even more fascinating to watch.

The first is Thursday night’s AN HONEST LIAR, which is a compelling – and at times amusing - documentary about the world-famous magician, escape artist, and world-renowned enemy of deception, James 'The Amazing' Randi. The film brings to life Randi's intricate investigations that publicly exposed psychics, faith healers, and con artists with quasi-religious fervour, and exposes his own deceptions along the way.

A master deceiver 

My performance in science class during my high school years could be pretty much summed up by the image of an exploding Bunsen burner, so when I was handed two science-related docos to review for Rialto Channel’s Double Exposure documentary series I have to admit that I was a little scared! I needn’t have been though as both proved to be a bloody great watch – expert wielder of a Bunsen or not.

This week sees two amazing street art documentaries hit Rialto Channel screens in the form of FINDING VIVIAN MAIER and BANKSY DOES NEW YORK. The former recounts the story of the late Vivian Maier, a nanny whose previously unknown cache of 150,000 or so photographs earned her a posthumous reputation as one the most accomplished street photographers thus far. It is both inspiring and frustrating, as her fame came mostly after her death. John Maloof, curator of some of Maier's photographs and co-director of the film, summarised the way the children she nannied would later describe her: "She was a Socialist, a Feminist, a movie critic, and a tell-it-like-it-is type of person. She learned English by going to theatres, which she loved. ... and was constantly taking pictures, which she didn't show anyone."

BANKSY DOES NEW YORK focuses on the quasi-anonymous British street artist Banksy’s 2014 trip to New York, where he did some of his guerrilla art on the streets of the iconic city. As part of this adventure he set up a public artwork or a street piece every day for a month all over the city. This documentary tells the story of these installations and their reception, and how a bunch of art-followers made it into a sort of scavenger hunt.

In light of both of these I thought I’d share some of my favourite films about artists – both documentary and biographical – and why they should be on your future viewing list: 

Many years ago now I worked for energy drink bigwigs Red Bull in New Zealand, and was thrown into a world I hitherto hardly new existed. I was hired as a copywriter and journalist, interviewing some of the brand’s brightest ambassadors about their work and then firing off pieces to various magazines. To say it was a fun job would be putting it mildly, and it also exposed me to a family of people who really do go harder before they go home.

These are the people we call “extreme” athletes, and others who just like to pursue their hobbies to the nth degree regardless of the consequences. The two documentaries I was given to talk about this week are full of people who do just that, and from various walks of life. 

“…the gripping Snowden documentary offers a portrait of power, paranoia and one remarkable man.” The Guardian

More gripping than your average blockbuster thriller and twice as worthy, Oscar-winner Laura Poitras’ documentary CITIZENFOUR is as stressful to watch as it is to ponder, post-viewing. It even begins in an intriguing way, when after Poitras receives encrypted emails from someone with information on the government's massive covert-surveillance programs, she and reporter Glenn Greenwald fly to Hong Kong to meet the sender, who turned out to be the now-legendary Edward Snowden. It sucks you in from the get go, and then spits you out the other side, horrified, paranoid and ever so slightly despressed.

THE INTERNET’S OWN BOY was always going to be a hard watch. For those familiar with the subject at its core the process serves as a reminder of the dangers of the online world and the machine behind it, and for those unfamiliar? The early ‘reveal’ is heartbreaking at best.

Opening with the sad news of Internet "hacktivist" Aaron Swartz's untimely death at the age of 26, the documentary traces the rise and fall of a tech industry prodigy. Interviews with his friends and family emphasise Swartz’s still very young career as a martyr of freedom of information, and they celebrate his brave fight for the public's right to access tax-funded academic and scientific research, culminating in an emotionally devastating two-year Federal lawsuit.

The documentary DINOSAUR 13 certainly starts on a joyful enough note. Then it descends into frustration, absurdity and the realm of just plain bloody annoying. Annoying as in the ridiculous stream of events that took place in the early life of a dinosaur fossil named Sue, in this most definitely David vs. Goliath-type tale that will have you shaking your fist at the tele before you know it.   

Described  by the esteemed Roger Ebert as “’Kramer vs. Kramer’ for paleontologists”, it is an absorbing documentary that recounts a torturous, decade-long “custody battle” over the amazingly well-preserved skeletal remains of a Tyrannosaurus Rex that were discovered along a remote stretch of the South Dakota prairie.