“The Forecaster is as serpentine and fascinating as a John le Carré novel...“ LA Weekly  

In September Rialto Channel is working with NZ Listener magazine to present their weekly Thursday night documentaries, which this month have been titled ‘'Big Brother”. The season could not kick off more perfectly then than with tonight’s documentary, THE FORECASTER, an astonishing piece of filmmaking about a very wronged man (or was he?).

Talking about Nick Cave ‘pseudo documentary’ 20,000 Days on Earth was always going to be a stretch for me. For one, I am an unabashed, unashamed, long time fan bordering on obsessive. Prior to writing this I had seen the doco around five times, including at last year’s NZIFF and when it was shown again later in the year when Cave toured New Zealand and presented a Q&A before the screening. To say I was excited would be putting it mildly - I pretty much had a touch of the vapours for days before and afterwards.

NAS: TIME IS ILLMATIC tells one hell of a tale – of a great moment in hip hop, of a grim turn in the history of growing up poor in New York and of a generation of young black men who disappeared into the judicial system en masse following the arrival of crack cocaine.

At its heart is hip hop legend Nas, and it takes the form of a feature length documentary film that delves deep into the making of his 1994 debut album, Illmatic, and the social conditions that influenced its creation.

Twenty years after its release, Illmatic has become a hip-hop benchmark that encapsulates the enduring spirit and collective angst of a generation of young black men searching for their voice in America. It was a line in the sand at the time and still is, and it lives as a touchstone and a distinct turning point in New York hip hop.

The Riot Grrrl movement of the 1990s was essential to my youth, when I’d left West Auckland and (temporarily) the metal scene, and moved into the city to study at Auckland University. Modern feminist literature was top of my reading list, and I was a huge fan of author Kathy Acker in particular.

Another major Acker fan on the other side of the world was Kathleen Hanna, lead singer of Bikini Kill, Julie Ruin and Le Tigre; and well-known punk feminist. Hanna soon rose to international attention as the reluctant but never shy voice of the Riot Grrrl movement, and she became one of the most famously outspoken feminist icons for a new generation of women and a cultural lightning rod.

Many years later her story has been told by Sini Anderson in tonight’s doco THE PUNK SINGER, and it’s a great  - and at times, sad – story at that. Boasting ample archive footage and insightfully intimate interviews, Anderson's film covers Hanna's battles against sexism, press misrepresentation, and (in its later stages) Lyme disease, all of which she confronts head on as she did hecklers in the mosh all those years ago. It is a great watch all round, and comes highly recommended.

Filmmaker Alex Gibney uses archival interviews and performance footage plus highlights of the Broadway production of "Fela!" to tell the story of Afrobeat music pioneer Fela Kuti in tonight’s FINDING FELA!. It’s a clever choice given the at times outrageous tales that lie behind the famous name, highlighting the good and bad sides of an often-controversial man.

Variety very perceptively said (as they often do), “Few films have presented the notion of self-performance as perceptively or provocatively as Robert Greene's extraordinary ACTRESS…” – a documentary that begs definition. Is it a documentary, or is it fiction? And how much of our lives is a very clever mix of both?

It follows actor and mother Brandy Burre, but there’s also the woman known as “Brandy Burre” to discover - a distinction that becomes increasingly muddled throughout the course of the documentary

THE LAST IMPRESARIO is a documentary about Michael “Chalky” White, a man who has been billed as “the most famous person you've never heard of”… He has also been called the unofficial mentor to fashion wild child Kate Moss, and I have to admit that prior to watching the doco, I’d never heard of him.

I am so glad that I have now however, for White really is one of the – to quote Morrissey –last of the famous, international playboys. An unashamed bon vivant and the man who they say transformed Britain’s cultural scene in the 1970s, his fascinating life story is the subject of Gracie Otto’s documentary, which gives us all an amazing look into the even more amazing life of the 'enfant terrible' of London’s theatre-land.

He’s not one for sitting on fences, and the documentary GORE VIDAL: THE UNITED STATES OF AMNESIA is an unashamedly opinionated film about a shamelessly honest man and brilliant commentator.

Nicholas Wrathall’s admiring portrait of Vidal, who died in 2012 at 86, is a great introduction to his opinions for anyone wanting to know more, as well as a brilliant watch for fans (of which there are many).

This week’s subject - IS THE MAN WHO IS TALL HAPPY? – was one of those cinematic outings that definitely fell outside my usually realm of viewing. It is a 2013 French animated documentary film by the amazing Michel Gondry about the philosopher and political activist Noam Chomsky, someone whose work I have read over the years in passing but never been all that taken by. It’s true the man has been lauded as a genius, but just not the kind of genius that catches my eye.

 

 

It has been over 30 years since boxer – and living legend – Muhammad Ali first entered a boxing ring, but the immense frisson of excitement that greets his name has never waned. I personally have been a fan of the boxer (and the man) since I was a small child, encouraged by a boxing-mad dad who coincidentally was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease at around the same time as Ali. I have never failed to follow his every move, but tonight’s documentary THE TRIALS OF MUHAMMAD ALI uncovered another side of the man for me altogether.