146 replies to this topic

[frautotenkinder]

Waking Sleeping BeautyIt's a doc comprised of home movies from Disney animators. It concentrates on 1984-1994.It was okay, I'm not a huge Disney freak, but I've seen most of the movies this movie covers. If you're a fan of awkward office politics, there's a pretty magnificent capture of Eisner/Katzenberg/Roy Disney tension.

[BigDMcGee]

brvheart, on Monday, September 13th, 2010, 10:57 AM, said:

This was the most dishonest part of the movie, I thought. It was scary, for sure, and obviously they find the outliers to interview, but Monanto isn't going to try to bankrupt a farmer that hasn't ever used their seed.

This isn't true. Monsanto has brought lawsuits up against many, many farmers who use their own seed. I haven't seen the documentary, but what happens is, a farmer grows their own seed corn. Their neighbor uses monsanto. They corn gets cross pollinated, so some of the corn on the border of the farm pollinates with Monsanto corn, taking in "monsanto genetic material" Monsanto sues the farmer for stealing their product. Farmers are basically given the choice between using monsanto seed or getting sued into bankruptcy. almost all chose to go with Monsanto. Other farmers that make their own seed, see what happened to their buddy and switch to Monsanto before they too get sued. yadda yadda yadda, virtually all independent seed producers are forced to stop producing their own seed and buy from Monsanto. Basically all members of the WTO recognize Monsanto's right to sue over seed copyright violation. I think genetic copy writing is one of the most horrific developments of the past 20 years in business.

[fighter]

http://www.vbs.tv/wa...ansplant-1-of-2http://www.vbs.tv/ne...plant-2-of-2--2I thought this was very interesting. VBS make some amazing documentaries. Their vice guides are just crazy . http://www.vbs.tv/wa...uide-to-liberia

[brvheart]

BigDMcGee, on Tuesday, February 1st, 2011, 5:49 PM, said:

This isn't true. Monsanto has brought lawsuits up against many, many farmers who use their own seed. I haven't seen the documentary, but what happens is, a farmer grows their own seed corn. Their neighbor uses monsanto. They corn gets cross pollinated, so some of the corn on the border of the farm pollinates with Monsanto corn, taking in "monsanto genetic material" Monsanto sues the farmer for stealing their product. Farmers are basically given the choice between using monsanto seed or getting sued into bankruptcy. almost all chose to go with Monsanto. Other farmers that make their own seed, see what happened to their buddy and switch to Monsanto before they too get sued. yadda yadda yadda, virtually all independent seed producers are forced to stop producing their own seed and buy from Monsanto. Basically all members of the WTO recognize Monsanto's right to sue over seed copyright violation. I think genetic copy writing is one of the most horrific developments of the past 20 years in business.

That's not what I was talking about. I know farmers that have purchased Monsanto seed and then used seed from that for the next season, but that's not what I'm talking about.There are plenty of farmers that use their own seed and don't get sued. They just have to be careful.

[BigDMcGee]

brvheart, on Tuesday, February 1st, 2011, 10:22 PM, said:

That's not what I was talking about. I know farmers that have purchased Monsanto seed and then used seed from that for the next season, but that's not what I'm talking about.There are plenty of farmers that use their own seed and don't get sued. They just have to be careful.

That's not what I'm talking about, either. I'm not talking about using their crop from one season to the next. I'm talking about, making your own crop, year after year, going back generations, and then getting sued by monsanto because your corn gets cross pollinated with a neighboring farm. For example, Monsanto has a copywrite for the "Round up ready" gene. Round up is a herbicide made by Monsanto. It kills basically every plant that doesn't have the round up ready gene. Monsanto leases the right to use this gene to seed companies. However, they also make it so when a farmer buys the seed, they are licensing the right to use that gene for 1 year, 1 crop. This insures that private farmers can't buy a Round up ready gene seed one year, and then use that crop to make their own seed year after year. IF they do, Monsanto sues them. But, they don't just sue farmers who bought Monsanto genes and then " stole" the right to use them. They sue farmers who's crops have these genes, who have never purchased a Monsanto product. THe gene's presence in their crop, in even one plant in their field, is a product of cross pollination. And since Monsanto gene crops overwhelmingly dominate the market, it's highly likely your farm will be surrounded on all 4 sides by Monsanto farms, making cross pollination inevitable. It's not a matter of "Being careful". You can't just like, put up a fence and wear gloves. You can't block the wind. You can't block pollinatatory insects. These farmers haven't stolen anything, they haven't broke any contracts. They just do what they've been doing for generations, farming. And they get sued by Monsanto. And Monsanto wins, in basically every country, because of WTO trade agreements. These independent farmers end up losing their farms due to legal costs/rulings against them, or agree to stop producing their own seed and plant official monsanto licensed seed. Other independant farmers see what happens to the guy down the road, see the example that gets made out of a neighbor, who did absolutely nothing wrong. And they switch over to Monsanto Seed out of fear. That shit ain't right. I'll grant you, Round up Ready is a great product, it's made farming incredibly productive. We use it on the farms I own. But it's basically true that you have no choice but to use a Monsanto product, and Monsanto has actively tried to establish a monopoly by bullying farmers. And it's worked. The round up ready copywrite runs out soon, I think in 2014. Round up is already phasing it out infavor of "round up ready 2" (which is essentially the same gene, in a different spot on the genome) so farmers don't just start making their own seed after the copywrite expires.

[hank213]

The Corporation. The film starts off with discussion of legal decisions that basically granted corporations "personhood." Then they use the DSM-IV to proffer a diagnosis as to what type of personality is exhibited by most corporations. The whole Monsanto discussion made me think of it as they were kind of getting their asses handed to them by little old Indian ladies.

[custom36]

I'm thoroughly enjoying "An Idiot Abroad." I figure I'm the last one to hear about this, but if you haven't, Ricky Gervais sends a buddy of his, who is incredibly ignorant and very uncomfortable in new situations, on a world tour of the 7 wonders of the world. This is hilarious.

[BigDMcGee]

custom36, on Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011, 8:52 PM, said:

I'm thoroughly enjoying "An Idiot Abroad." I figure I'm the last one to hear about this, but if you haven't, Ricky Gervais sends a buddy of his, who is incredibly ignorant and very uncomfortable in new situations, on a world tour of the 7 wonders of the world. This is hilarious.

dunno if I'd consider it a documentary, but Karl is god

[coesillian]

I just watched Gasland, a documentary about the effects shale gas extraction is having on the drinking water in the US. The fact that they have been extracting the natural gas with such environmentally damaging methods without having to to answer to any environmental regulation because of bs legislature from 2005 is appalling. The process and effects it has had is pretty shocking. Its really relevant to me because its a big issue right now in Quebec as a lot of prospectors are buying the rights to exploit shale gas across the province. Our Natural resource minister quit his post to join a corporation exploiting the gas. The regulations on shale gas are just as vague here as they are in the US but public outcry is actually leading the government to take position and revise the regulations. After watching that doc it really opened my eyes to the huge environmental risks associated to shale gas. Its a highly desirable and lucrative resource, but we can't just let private venture extract it an wreak havok on the environment.

[Mercury69]

GONZOIt's about Hunter S Thompson. He is as awesome as he is overrated. Lots of good archival footage.

[SuperJon]

I Am ComicPretty good. It's on Netflix instant queue.

[frautotenkinder]

The Times of Harvey MilkI first saw this in the early 90's, so this was a delayed rewatch for me. This is a great, great doc--both in subject matter and in the filmmaking. It's difficult to make a compelling talking heads movie, but this has enough archival footage to keep the tension nicely.I was shocked in the beginning--there were a few photos of Harvey he has a striking resemblance to Rahm Emanuel. (I guess it's not so shocking, but I hadn't thought of it before...)

[brvheart]

Waiting for Superman. Amazing.

[DinkDonk]

I just watched Restrepo and absolutely loved it.

[brvheart]

DinkDonk, on Monday, March 7th, 2011, 3:44 PM, said:

I just watched Restrepo and absolutely loved it.

Its on Netflix instant watch now, and I've been meaning to watch it.

[DinkDonk]

brvheart, on Monday, March 7th, 2011, 4:46 PM, said:

Its on Netflix instant watch now, and I've been meaning to watch it.

I just felt so attached to each soldier on a personal level. I thought it did an amazing job of showing them as just regular human beings and not some machines that were born to kill. There are a lot of shots where they use pieces of film from interviews where they just show guys lost in thought and I was honestly pretty moved with each one.

[JubilantLankyLad]

Restrepo was very very good. I saw Exit Through the Gift Shop and Inside Job recently, too. Inside Job was good, but all very familiar. ETtGS was incredible, just a great story that's too bizarre to not be true and gripping from start to finish. I don't know how it didn't win. Probably political.

[DinkDonk]

JubilantLankyLad, on Monday, March 7th, 2011, 6:17 PM, said:

Restrepo was very very good. I saw Exit Through the Gift Shop and Inside Job recently, too. Inside Job was good, but all very familiar. ETtGS was incredible, just a great story that's too bizarre to not be true and gripping from start to finish. I don't know how it didn't win. Probably political.

I'm going to get to ETtGS tonight and probably Inside Job and Waiting for Superman by the end of the month.

[BigDMcGee]

JubilantLankyLad, on Monday, March 7th, 2011, 5:17 PM, said:

Restrepo was very very good. I saw Exit Through the Gift Shop and Inside Job recently, too. Inside Job was good, but all very familiar. ETtGS was incredible, just a great story that's too bizarre to not be true and gripping from start to finish. I don't know how it didn't win. Probably political.

Spoiler

I think it didn't win because A) there was a huge controversy on how much of it was legitimate, and how much of it (if any) was a prank B) If it was a prank, I think many, many of the voters, who bought Mister Brainwash art, would be members of the academy. C) I think there was a huge question to how reverently banksy would have taken the proceedings. I think the movie should have won best picture, I think it's easily the most memorable movie of the year.

[BigDMcGee]

DinkDonk, on Monday, March 7th, 2011, 5:23 PM, said:

I'm going to get to ETtGS tonight

Let us know what you, think. I predict it will blow your mind. My favorite documentary of all time, knocking off roger and me.