Interesting study. I wonder how I would fare if I ate nothing but say...Chevy's or Applebee's for a month. I bet I could get 5000 calories a day out of that. Plus, I wouldn't have to purposely limit my activity, since I'd be too full to move anyway.

All comes back to the same thing over and over.

"Moderation is the Key"

I'd write more, but I'm currently suffering from a big mac attack and have to go...damned addictive chemicals!

Excellent movie. One of the best comedies I have seen in a long time and also just great commentary on the fast food industry. I think he makes a very strong point of the culpability of McDonalds in nutrition deficiency in America and spreading around the world.

Of course people on the right or going to complain that it is one sided but I think he makes his stand very clear and shows that it isn't 100% McDos fault, but the amount of money spent on advertising, particularly advertising to kids, should should be accounted for.

The Corporation should cover this subject in greater detail and I am looking forward to that as well. The two films will compliment each other very well.

So what's a "worthwhile" documentary? My personal favorites from the past couple of years were both about unsing musicians. Standing In The Shadows of Motown and Welcome To The Club: The WOmen of Rockabilly.

I think both did a good job of presenting musicians who deserved more credit without being whiny.

loved lately:
The Clash: Westway to the World
If I Should Fall from Grace: the Shane McGowan Story
The Fog of War: Robert Mcnamara
IFC's In The Company of Women: Women In Film

American Pimp

Control Room
The Corporation
Unprecedented: The 2000 Presidential Election (2004 election year DVD re-releases 7/6)
Fog of War
Uncovered: Buildup to the Iraq War
F9/11
The Atomic Bomb Movie (plus others in series: Atomic Filmmakers, Atomic Journeys, Nukes in Space)
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky & the Media
Don't Look Back (Bob Dylan)
Fugazi--Instrument

Capturing the Friedmans is a bit troubling, but so well made, very provocative. Like Fog of War- it makes you think and question the opposing points of view. It's thorough, focused, balanced- near impossible to tell what the creator's opinions are. History is so hard to document but I think these 2 get damn close, esp. for an outsiders POV.

have you seen "life & debt?"

it's actually a really beautiful film. it's about the economic state of jamaica as affected by their dealings w/the imf.

there are liberal quotes from jamaica kincaid's "a small place" and they change the location from antigua to jamaica. amazing how well it works.

the dvd also has a long interview w/michael manley, who was prime minister of jamaica when they had to go to the imf.

Documentaries that I have especially enjoyed over the past year:

Spellbound
Capturing the Friedmans
The Five Obstructions
Metallica: Some Kind of Monster (I'm not even a Metallica fan, but this is excellent.)
Fahrenheit 9/11

Has anyone seen Keep the River on Your Right? It was really special when Tobias and the directors came to Amsterdam to show it at IDFA in 2000.

Here's IMDB's description:

Plot Summary for
Keep the River on Your Right: A Modern Cannibal Tale (2000)
In 1955, while a Fulbright scholar, a Manhattan painter named Tobias Schneebaum spent seven months in the Amazon basin with the Harakambut. When he returned to the US, he could no longer paint. What happened? Nearly 45 years later, filmmakers want Tobias, now 78 and suffering from Parkinson's, to return to Peru. He refuses but allows that he will revisit the Asmat in New Guinea where he spent an idyllic time years before. That trip goes well, including a serendipitous meeting with Aipit, an aging native and once Tobias' friend and lover. Tobias then agrees to go to Peru to look for the people whom he joined on a murderous raiding party. The scars of war remain as does fear.

I just loved "Gimme Shelter" --that is one fine documentary

Senorita Extraviada (means: Missing Young Woman)

is a superb documentary about the young women in America's neighboring border town, Ciudad Juarez. Discusses the mysterious disappearances of young women factory workers (this has been happening for at least 12 or 13 years now and there is close to no media coverage, 90% of these factories are US owned). This documentary is an incredible step towards spreading awareness of mass femicide.


equally noteworthy:

The Take: unemployed workers in argentina work together as a strong community to take back their factory jobs, running the factories as cooperatives. very, very inspiring.

Capturing the Friedmans blew my feet off. Caught it on Movie Extra here in Australia and had no idea what i was watching. It was great going into it with no expectations or understanding, all the synopsis in the guide said was 'starring the Friedman family' or some such. I went and got it on DVD immediately. This case has no media coverage here, so I devoured the 2 some hours of extras also. So what about Jesse? Did he or didn't he or to what extent? I still don't know.

Also, Ramones "End of the Century" especially seen around the time of Metallica's "Some Kind of Monster" - the group dynamics are rivetting, you can see the similarities between Lars and Johnny Ramone and get an idea of what kind of control freak it takes to keep a machine like either of these bands together.

Rock School was also a good watch I thought (another control freak at the head of the organisation there too!).

One of my favourite all time docos is Jane Elliot's 'Blue-Eyed' on rascism, I've used it in the classroom when I was teaching high school, the kids were especially fascinated when she reduced ADULTS to tears! (I think they also got the point too!).

Couldn't go too much further than the barf after the supersized quarter pounder meal with that film. Bowling for Columbine I thought better than Fahrenheit 911 which laboured the point a bit (in my humble opinion).

Will prob see Control Room after the good raves it has had here. You gotta love The Life Aquatic as satire on the whole Jacques Clousteau/ Bob Ballard doco genre too!

Does anyone out there remember Alby Mangels? I got all his stuff on video recently: he made docos, like an early Steve Irwin, on Australia (and also notoriously out of it, almost killing the blonde ex-model, Judy Green, he took with him to South America I think. She ended up with permanent brain damage). He'd make these things and flog them at independent cinemas in the late 70s and early 80s and people would FLOCK to see them, they are a true cult classic!