The Tribeca Film Festival is in full swing at the moment and though I'm not lucky enough to be there, cinematical is, so check the link for some reviews.
One of the more eye-catching films screening at the festival is an adaptation of Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner's Freakonomics. For anyone who hasn't read the book, it's a lot of fun and certainly the best book on economics I've ever come across (sorry Malcolm Gladwell and James Surowiecki). It's a little hard to explain the outright 'theme' behind the book so I'll cut a corner and give you an excerpt from the website:
Freakonomics establishes this unconventional premise: If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work. It is true that readers of this book will be armed with enough riddles and stories to last a thousand cocktail parties. But Freakonomics can provide more than that. It will literally redefine the way we view the modern world.
That last statement is really full-on but I think the book makes a pretty good go at backing it up.
Anyway, enough books and economics, back to film-making. One of the more notable aspects of the adaptation is the rather unusual way in which the film has been made. Paris, Je T’aime producer Chad Troutwine has taken a similar approach to that film's multi-directorial effort and hired six different documentary filmmakers to film different segments of the book. The chosen directors have all created notable films in the past so I thought I'd explore what they've done, and what they're apparently doing for this portmanteau.
Alex Gibney
He won an Oscar for his disturbing Taxi to the Dark Side, a look at the case of an innocent taxi driver who was tortured and killed by American soldiers in Afghanistan. He was also nominated for the rather disturbing (but for other reasons) Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room an investigation of one of the largest business scandal in American history [above: they know what they did]. He also has another film in the festival about Elliot Spitzer that recently had it's premiere.
His segment in Freakonomics explores cheating in one of Japan's most sacred sports, sumo wrestling. This was one off my favourite chapters of the book if not just for how arcane it is. Who thinks to investigate whether sumo wrestling is fixed using expected win percentages? Steven Levitt, that's who.
Rachel Grady & Heidi Ewing
Jesus Camp was nominated for an Oscar in 2007 but lost to the unstoppable force of An Inconvenient Truth. The film followed some already devout children who attended the titular camp where they learned some rather strong lessons from the Evangelical Right. They also directed The Boys of Baraka, which looks at a rather interesting social experiment that took underachieving black children from Baltimore to a school in Kenya.
The results from the Baraka documentary may have some bearing on their segment which is about whether cash incentives can have positive influence on a child's learning.
Morgan Spurlock
Another Oscar-nominee, his film Super Size Me [above: happy I didn't go with a pic of him eating?] has been surrounded in debate since it premiered way back in 2004. Though plenty like to dismiss his findings by drawing attention to studies where people ate nothing but McDonalds and lost weight, I think it muddies the point of the original documentary where Spurlock used himself as a guinea pig to explore America's relationship with fast food. He also had the honour of directing The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special - In 3D! On Ice!
His segment will be on the curious art of Baby Names. Can how you name your child have any influence on the life they'll lead?
Eugene Jarecki
Most noted for two rather searing war documentaries. The first, The Trials of Henry Kissinger explores the notion that the man may be guilty of several war crimes specifically relating to Cambodia and East Timor. The second, a Grand Jury Prize winner at Sundance, Why We Fight argues that America goes to war because they created a military-industrial complex that needs the business.
He'll be tackling the most difficult and most controversial finding from Freakonomics, that the decision of Roe v. Wade is responsible for the drop in crime rates in the mid-90s. The idea that legalizing abortion reduced the number of 'unplanned' children that grew up to become criminals is certainly not a claim that can be taken lightly, but the book (and I assume the film) states its case using facts and a good deal of tact.
Seth Gordon
The King of Kong is one of the most entertaining documentaries I have ever seen. It tells the tale of two men both competing for the Donkey Kong world record: one the long time champion who has built a life around his fame, the other an unassuming father who just happened to discover he was rather good at the game. The film plays out as a hilarious underdog story about obsession and wanting to leave a mark on this world.
According to the Tribeca Film Guide: Gordon weaves the pieces together with brisk interludes, providing context and commentary from the authors. It's hard to know exactly what this means but we'll find out soon enough:
The film screens on the 1st of May.
One of the more eye-catching films screening at the festival is an adaptation of Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner's Freakonomics. For anyone who hasn't read the book, it's a lot of fun and certainly the best book on economics I've ever come across (sorry Malcolm Gladwell and James Surowiecki). It's a little hard to explain the outright 'theme' behind the book so I'll cut a corner and give you an excerpt from the website:
Freakonomics establishes this unconventional premise: If morality represents how we would like the world to work, then economics represents how it actually does work. It is true that readers of this book will be armed with enough riddles and stories to last a thousand cocktail parties. But Freakonomics can provide more than that. It will literally redefine the way we view the modern world.
That last statement is really full-on but I think the book makes a pretty good go at backing it up.
Anyway, enough books and economics, back to film-making. One of the more notable aspects of the adaptation is the rather unusual way in which the film has been made. Paris, Je T’aime producer Chad Troutwine has taken a similar approach to that film's multi-directorial effort and hired six different documentary filmmakers to film different segments of the book. The chosen directors have all created notable films in the past so I thought I'd explore what they've done, and what they're apparently doing for this portmanteau.
Alex GibneyHe won an Oscar for his disturbing Taxi to the Dark Side, a look at the case of an innocent taxi driver who was tortured and killed by American soldiers in Afghanistan. He was also nominated for the rather disturbing (but for other reasons) Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room an investigation of one of the largest business scandal in American history [above: they know what they did]. He also has another film in the festival about Elliot Spitzer that recently had it's premiere.
His segment in Freakonomics explores cheating in one of Japan's most sacred sports, sumo wrestling. This was one off my favourite chapters of the book if not just for how arcane it is. Who thinks to investigate whether sumo wrestling is fixed using expected win percentages? Steven Levitt, that's who.
Rachel Grady & Heidi Ewing
Jesus Camp was nominated for an Oscar in 2007 but lost to the unstoppable force of An Inconvenient Truth. The film followed some already devout children who attended the titular camp where they learned some rather strong lessons from the Evangelical Right. They also directed The Boys of Baraka, which looks at a rather interesting social experiment that took underachieving black children from Baltimore to a school in Kenya.
The results from the Baraka documentary may have some bearing on their segment which is about whether cash incentives can have positive influence on a child's learning.
Morgan SpurlockAnother Oscar-nominee, his film Super Size Me [above: happy I didn't go with a pic of him eating?] has been surrounded in debate since it premiered way back in 2004. Though plenty like to dismiss his findings by drawing attention to studies where people ate nothing but McDonalds and lost weight, I think it muddies the point of the original documentary where Spurlock used himself as a guinea pig to explore America's relationship with fast food. He also had the honour of directing The Simpsons 20th Anniversary Special - In 3D! On Ice!
His segment will be on the curious art of Baby Names. Can how you name your child have any influence on the life they'll lead?
Eugene Jarecki
Most noted for two rather searing war documentaries. The first, The Trials of Henry Kissinger explores the notion that the man may be guilty of several war crimes specifically relating to Cambodia and East Timor. The second, a Grand Jury Prize winner at Sundance, Why We Fight argues that America goes to war because they created a military-industrial complex that needs the business.
He'll be tackling the most difficult and most controversial finding from Freakonomics, that the decision of Roe v. Wade is responsible for the drop in crime rates in the mid-90s. The idea that legalizing abortion reduced the number of 'unplanned' children that grew up to become criminals is certainly not a claim that can be taken lightly, but the book (and I assume the film) states its case using facts and a good deal of tact.
Seth Gordon
The King of Kong is one of the most entertaining documentaries I have ever seen. It tells the tale of two men both competing for the Donkey Kong world record: one the long time champion who has built a life around his fame, the other an unassuming father who just happened to discover he was rather good at the game. The film plays out as a hilarious underdog story about obsession and wanting to leave a mark on this world.
According to the Tribeca Film Guide: Gordon weaves the pieces together with brisk interludes, providing context and commentary from the authors. It's hard to know exactly what this means but we'll find out soon enough:
The film screens on the 1st of May.
