Documentary Films – Summer 2015

Japan: Memoirs of a Secret Empire (PBS – 3 part documentary)
The cultural story of Japan from the 16th century onward.

 

Pressure Cooker (Available on Hoopla)
A tough teacher, Wilma Stephenson, works in a poor neighbourhood high school to train students in the culinary arts to earn scholarships for college.

 

Citizenfour (Oscar Winner for Best Documentary Feature, 2015)
The story of Edward Snowden and his revelation of the NSA files – filmed as it occurred.

 

Good Hair
Comedian Chris Rock explores the commercial, cultural, and personal dimensions in the hair upkeep of the African American community and what it reflects of our society.

 

The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness
Showing the workings of the famed Studio Ghibli, with focus on its formidable founder Hayao Miyazaki.  I particularly enjoyed the special features showing a visit by John Lasseter and the view of the studio from the “resident cat’s” point of view.

 

The Gatekeepers (Oscar Nominee for Best Documentary, 2012)
Six former heads of the Shin Bet, Israel’s Secret Service, reflect on the successes and failures of the agency’s past actions, then wishing to veer away from the previous hardline approach to a more conciliatory one based on the two-state solution.

 

Red Obsession
The story of the newly rich in China driving up the demand for ultra premium red wine and its subsequent price collapse in the years following.

 

Cirque du Soleil - Flow: A Tribute to the Artists of "O" (Available on Hoopla)
Thoughts and lives of the artists and athletes from the “O” show in Las Vegas performed by Cirque du Soleil.

 

Vanishing of the Bees
Around the world incidents of sudden, dramatic, and mysterious honeybee colony collapse are occurring with no definitive cause.  The film documents the role of bees in agriculture, the perspectives of the bee keepers and possible next steps.

 

The Gruen Effect: Victor Gruen and the Shopping Mall
Victor Gruen, the man often thought of as the Father of the Shopping Mall, had created the malls to bring the feel of European city centres to the burgeoning suburbs to America.  Seeing his creation morphing into monuments focused on profit maximization, however, he spent the rest of his life dissociating from this concept so attached to him.

 

The Cove (Oscar Winner for Best Documentary Feature, 2010)
Filmed in secret, a group of activists uncovers the practice of dolphin fishing activity inside a cove in Japan, and argue that it’s cruel, unnecessary, and seek to bring to awareness that the meat sold to consumers is contaminated with mercury.

 

Born into Brothels (Oscar Winner, 2004)
Intending on filming the lives of prostitutes in Calcutta, India, the documentary photographer Zana Briski ended up making friends with 8 children born here and taught them photography, which depicted the poignant, toiling, and treacherous daily lives of those in the red light district from a child’s perspective.

Fall and Winter 2014 Reading

There’s a lot here.  I might try to update more regularly in smaller increments to see how it works.

Books

How was the modern world build?  Johnson shows that through the pervasive use of glass with its optical characteristics, understanding and building infrastructure to separate the clean from the dirty, the amplified ability to project and perceive sounds, the ubiquity of electric lighting, and the precise measurement and calculation of and with time, our modern world emerges from a world hardly imaginable not too long ago.

Computers, the ubiquitous thinking machines we now carry in our pockets and wear on wrists, had its first uses as calculators for modeling nuclear explosions, building the hydrogen bomb, and predict the weather.  Dyson show the quirky team of mathematicians and engineers, philosophers and physicists, led by John von Neumann and following Turing’s seminal thesis, that laid the foundation of the architecture in this digital universe still in use today.

Thanks to my friend Justin for the recommendation.
In this book, Newport argues that contrary to the belief that one should do where passion leads, it is a better alternative to build a rare and valuable skill, build up “career capital”, and in turn grow into position endowed with aspects that one can enjoy, such as autonomy and purpose.  I still believe that passion is important in one’s work, but I’m glad Newport has contributed another viewpoint in the diverse view on career path.

The Second Machine Age: Work, Progress, and Prosperity in a Time of Brilliant Technologies

 

Documentaries

Kinshasa Symphony

The Danish Solution: The Rescue of the Jews in Denmark

看見台灣 (Taiwan from Above)

Tiny: A story about Living Small

The Internet’s Own Boy:
The story of Aaron Swartz

No Impact Man

Shredded

The Queen of Versailles

Interviews

Jack Ma, (馬雲),founder of Alibaba, Interviewed by Charlie Rose at Davos:

雷軍(Lei Jun, founder of Xiaomi)來台演講 (In Mandarin):

Podcasts

From Stanford Entrepreneurship Corner:

• Ben Horowitz, VC and founding partner of Andreessen Horowitz: Nailing the Hard Things
• Matt Rogers, Co-founder of Nest: Tackle Projects Others Don’t Want

Introduction to the Middle East

In the past, my interests in history have mainly focused on the “east” and the “west” – China and Japan versus the U.S., Britain, Germany, France, and occasionally Russia.  But what of the area in the middle, the parts that connect the two ends?  For centuries, the middle east enabled and fostered trade from both sides.  I wondered, what was their history and relationships as the neighbours changed or stayed the same.  Were the tense relations with the west in recent years always the case in history?  What are its origins?

Below are my first attempts in looking for some answers.  They are only an introduction, and by no means is my study on the subject complete at the end of this post.  In fact, it opens more questions – this merely educates me on the background of the land, and the terms often used in conjunction with these cultures.

I felt in learning about the middle east it’s imperative to understand its predominant religion – Islam, and the establishment of Israel in Palestine, for these colour the political rhetoric, the legal framework, and fuel the fundamentalist cause. The material below reflects this focus, and so far covers the history of Jews, Arabs, Persians, but not yet the Turks.  This is merely a starting point.

Through it all, I have been equally fascinated by the scene of devoted and joyous Jews holding up their Torah up high and by a Muslim’s submission in prayer in practicing their faith.  While the Jews contributed greatly to the development of finance in Europe, the contribution of Muslims in preserving ancient texts made Renaissance Europe possible.  These are important peoples in history.

I hope you’ll find something below interesting.

9/11

Documentary
Inside 9-11 (3 parts), by National Geographic

Book
The Eleventh Day: The Full Story of 9/11, by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan

 

Islam

Documentaries
Science and Islam (3 parts) with Jim Al-Khalili, by BBC
Explores the history of Islam during its golden age from around 9th to 12th century and its contribution to math, medicine, astronomy, and more
Inside Islam (3 parts), by The History Channel
Prophet Muhammad (3 parts), by BBC

Movie
Wadjda
The first feature length film directed by a female Saudi director, this is the story of a free spirited 11 year old Saudi girl who joins the Quran recitation contest at school with the dream of using the prize money to buy a bike and race with her neighbour, in a land that frowns on girls riding bikes.  It portrays the daily life of  Muslim women, including their devotion to the faith.

 

Iran

Documentary
Iran and the West (3 parts), by BBC
30 years after the Iranian Revolution in 1979, Iran’s relationship with the west is still uneasy.  This series describes the amicable relationship America had with Iran prior to the revolution, how the revolution changed this dynamic by the leader Ayatollah Khomeini, how his stern stance changed the power relations between the west and the middle east, and brings us to today.

 

Israel

Documentaries
The Story of the Jews (5 parts), with Simon Schama, by BBC
Israel and Palestine: a Divided Land (45 min), by Knowledge Unlimited – a concise introduction on the history of Israel
Defamation, directed by Yoav Shamir
Director Yoav Shamir, himself a Jew, wonders and explores in this film what anti-Semitism means in the world today.  He interviews ordinary Jews, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, and investigates anti-Semitic claims.  From it emerges a contrarian and entertaining view.

Book
Anti-Semitism: The Road to the Holocaust and Beyond, by Charles Patterson