Five not-to-be-missed documentaries screening on Neon
Tony Hawk: Until The Wheels Fall Off
If all you know about Tony Hawk is that he skateboards, watch this to witness an awesome rags-toriches story. This guy might have fallen over more than any other human in history. Which also means he has got back up more times. He’s a beast. In a genuine, gentleman type of way.
His rise coincided with the advent of home video, meaning his early competitions are here in all their grainy glory. He was a tiny kid up against much, much bigger skaters, who had every physical advantage, so he developed new ways to skate and changed the sport forever. By the time he sized up, he was unstoppable.
The 900 is the trick he’ll be remembered for, but he invented more than 100 over 40 years and still skates four or five times a week. If he has peers, they’re all interviewed here, including an impossibly youthful Rodney Mullen, who says people like him and Tony Hawk will keep skating until the. . . oh, I see that’s the film’s title.
Crazy, Not Insane
This studies the research of forensic psychiatrist Dorothy Otnow Lewis, who dedicated her life to studying why people murder. A fascinating human being blessed with an inquisitive, analytical mind, at a young age she became interested in why people turned into Nazis.
Her work brings her in contact with murderers and there are plenty of disturbing scenes with clearly disturbed convicted felons (some very famous ones). Lewis finds that most, if not all, the death row inmates suffered violent abuse as children.
In the course of her work, almost by accident she becomes a spokesperson for dissociative identity disorder and a go-to witness in high-profile American law trials.
Lewis doesn’t like the legal definition of insanity and that’s what the title refers to. She contends people who have suffered abuse since they were children shouldn’t be put to death. Lock them up sure, maybe even forever, but according to her research, all violent criminals were victims first.
Spielberg
Don’t go into this expecting revelatory details about what makes him tick as a human and you’ll be fine. He really is a very plain sort of fella. The most dramatic thing that’s happened in Steven Spielberg’s life has been his parents’ divorce and thank god they did, otherwise E.T. wouldn’t exist.
Do go in expecting a highlight reel from the best visual storyteller of his generation and true cinema genius. Everyone says so. Scorsese says so. Lucas says so. Dustin Hoffman only speaks once and says, ‘‘Spielberg is like a person who works for Steven Spielberg’’, which sums up everyone’s opinion – he’s a cinema machine.
The footage of him directing 8-year-old Drew Barrymore is so good it makes you want to cry along. Light, easy to watch and pretty much perfectly paced, it’s much like a Spielberg film itself.
Sidebar: the divorce of his parents actually ends up being very eventful. Both of them hide who was truly having the affair for years to protect his mother’s image. He grows up hating his father (who seems an absolute saint) then, later in life, not only do his mum and dad reconcile – they fall back in love.
After Truth: Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News
One of my favourite documentaries is 2011’s Page One: Inside The New York Times. It captures one of the world’s most important newspapers facing a financial crisis, it foretold the challenges media would face in coming years and asked important questions about the value of the fourth estate.
From the same director (Andrew Rossi) comes After Truth, which details the rise of fake news, the weaponisation of it, the use of it by both sides of the political spectrum in America and the total mess the rest of us find ourselves in.
The film introduces us to the very nice staff at the pizza shop at the centre of ‘‘Pizzagate’’. Then, we go on tour with conspiracy theorist Jacob Wohl and fraudster Jack Burkman, as they crusade to unveil former FBI director Bob Mueller as a child molester.
It might seem crazy that two charlatans would let a camera crew follow them and reveal their shady tactics, but such is their brazen nature. They don’t care about coming across as dishonest or incredible – so long as their big fabrication is out there and being talked about, they’re winning.
A lot of blame lands at the feet of big tech and shady, unknowable algorithms. You may feel sick of the whole fake news topic, but the more you know, the better equipped you are to protect yourself in an increasingly murky world.
Phoenix Rising
A two-part documentary about domestic violence advocacy, this is also about the abusive behaviour of Marilyn Manson towards multiple women.
Evan Rachel Wood entered a relationship with Manson when she was 18 – and he 37 – and this story starts out as her story. A famous provocateur who peddles in violent imagery, it turns out Manson is a wolf in wolf’s clothing. (That description comes from Wood’s brother).
Grooming, love-bombing, isolation and monitoring become chapter headings, as Wood deconstructs the systematic methods he used to strip her of her independence. In short, he tortured her and the victimsharing session in part two is disturbingly graphic.
The film also shows Wood’s campaign to extend the Statute of Limitations in California to allow victims of more than three years to bring forward charges. The law passed, but isn’t making huge differences. Just four weeks ago, Manson had charges brought by a former assistant dismissed by a judge who said the victim’s testimony was ‘‘too little, too late’’, and Manson has a defamation case against Wood pending.
Brutal to watch, but an important reminder to believe women’s voices and a powerful personal testament to make public.