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You might not know the name Wayne White, but you’re bound to have seen the works he has created over the last thirty years or so of his artistic career.
From stop motion animation, puppets and set design for PeeWee’s Playhouse, to music videos (Peter Gabriel’s Big Time and Smashing Pumpkins’ Tonight, Tonight) to his fine art series, which features 3-D text painted into classic lithographs.
Wayne White is an amazing artist, his talent is such that he’s left no artistic medium untouched, and there seems to be no limit to what Wayne can accomplish, so why has it taken so long for someone to make a documentary about him? Probably because all the money has been tied up in making supernatural teen love stories and Romcoms. Oh well, better late than never I suppose…
The 1982 film Koyaanisqatsi, although beautiful, was 82 minutes long with no dialogue or narration. Wyatt Hodgson sped it up 1552% to fit into five minutes, which is a treat for the eyes you surely have time for. The music is “The Holy Egoism of Genius” by The Art of Noise. -via I Am Bored
Whether or not you agree with graffiti as an art form, you have to respect the heart and passion this fallen street artist exhibits in this trailer for the upcoming documentary Getting Up.
Bedridden and paralyzed with ALS, graffiti artist Tony “Tempt” Quan gets a second chance to create art via new technology that allows him to paint with his eyes, and as you can see that, despite being immobilized, his mind is still soaring.
–via Booooooom
Iconic comic book illustrator Rob Liefeld, aka the Man who Never Ages, and celebrated cartoonist Ty Templeton starred in this enlightening episode of the Canadian TV show The Anti Gravity Room from 1996, which shows what it takes to put together a comic book.
If you’ve ever wondered how a comic book goes from script to store shelf, this ugly VHS rip will fill you in on the particulars, and offers some pretty sweet insight into how much work goes into creating comics.
Link –via ComicsAlliance
The man calling himself the Eyeborg has put together a short documentary detailing modern bionics and cutting edge prosthetics, part of which was filmed using his eye camera.
Rob Spence lost his eye in a firearm accident a few years back, but the filmmaker refused to stop doing what he loved, so he had a prosthetic eye camera specially designed, and thus became the first person to have a implanted camera replace their eye.
Square Enix are Rob’s newest sponsors, and they have commissioned him to make a video that compares modern prosthetics and bionics to the bodily enhancements found in the new game Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
Follow either of the links below and check out this amazing, cutting edge video by the first bionic cameraman, and see how medical science is quickly catching up to science fiction.
Spiderman hasn’t come to save the day, he’d rather go around annoying people while capturing all the fun on video camera. In Poland, Spiderman hits the streets and harasses the people he once saved, using his arsenal of silly string and lasso to really tick them off. You’d think this wannabe superhero would be in better shape, considering how often he has to run from the cops!
-via ComicsAlliance
For the Street Fighter fanatic in all of us, a documentary has been made detailing Mike Bison’s (aka Balrog) rise to fame as one of the greatest video game champions of all time! Watch as he turns from a skinny twerp who was constantly bullied to the head butting machine we all know and love. Be sure to check out the parts with Mike’s dad, Greg, who will warm your heart with his amazing performance.
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With lots of new super hero films coming out every summer it’s no wonder that some people think it’s a good idea to put on a cape and go out and try to fight crime themselves. This new documentary “Superheroes” from HBO explores the lives of real life would be crime fighters. However they may be doing more harm to themselves then any good. What do you think; should people try to fight crime themselves or are they just adults playing dress up?
Printing a book was different in 1947. The process required quite a few skilled workers performing tasks you won’t see anymore, outside of historical videos like this. Contrast this process with a more modern method of publishing. -via Metafilter
Jambe Davdar worked for four years on the ultimate Star Wars commentary fan film. Clips from the original trilogy and behind-the-scenes recordings are accompanied by explanations from those involved in the films, with text added when more information is available. Like the trilogy, these commentaries are divided into three parts: Star Wars Begins, Building Empire, and Returning to Jedi. Find links to all the YouTube segments at Metafilter. This could keep a Star Wars fan busy the rest of the winter. Link
People who bag groceries for a living have to work quickly and efficiently without breaking anything. Not everyone is good enough to make it as a bagger, but some are superb at the task. And they can enter the world of competitive bagging. The above video is a trailer for Read, Set, Bag!, a documentary about this sport.
Link via Brian J. Noggle | Competition Website | Film Website
We posted previously about Mark Hogancamp and the miniature world he created called Marwencol (actually more than once). The documentary film about Hogancamp and his project, also called Marwencol, has collected awards on the film festival circuit, and will be in limited theatrical release beginning on October 8th. Link -Thanks, Chris Shellen!
A secret corps of photographers and filmmakers documented US nuclear testing in the 1940s through the ’60s. The “atomic moviemakers”, officially known as the Lookout Mountain Laboratory, established in 1947, made at least 6,500 films for the government.
Two new atomic documentaries, “Countdown to Zero” and “Nuclear Tipping Point,” feature archival images of the blasts. Both argue that the threat of atomic terrorism is on the rise and call for the strengthening of nuclear safeguards and, ultimately, the elimination of global arsenals.
As for the atomic cameramen, there aren’t that many left. “Quite a few have died from cancer,” George Yoshitake, 82, one of the survivors, said of his peers in an interview. “No doubt it was related to the testing.”
Link -via the Presurfer
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Twisted, a documentary about balloon twisting, was an Official Selection at the South by Southwest Film Festival. The film is simply amazing, showing people whose lives have been changed, for the better, because of balloon twisting. This trailer gives just a glimpse into the film, which is available in full on DVD.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by nmiller.
The 1975 song Bohemian Rhapsody is a long strange song that became such a lasting hit that you know there’s a fascinating backstory. The BBC produced an hour long show about it in 2004, in which Brian May and Roger Taylor of Queen discuss the song’s genesis and other musical artists marvel at the juggernaut it became. TYWKIWDBI has all six segments of the show embedded in one post. Link
You may think the baboon is not too smart because it fell for that old trick, but at least it knows where the water is! From the 1974 documentary Animals Are Beautiful People. -via Cynical-C
I was actually going to post an informative piece about how bears hibernate during the winter, but a quick Wiki reveals that bears aren’t true hibernators.
In true hibernators, body temperatures drop to near ambient and heart rate slows drastically, but the animals periodically rouse themselves to urinate or defecate and to eat from stored food. The body temperature of bears, on the other hand, drops only a few degrees from normal and heart rate slows only slightly. They normally do not wake during this “hibernation”, and therefore do not eat, drink, urinate or defecate the entire period. Higher body heat and being easily roused may be adaptations, because females give birth to their cubs during this winter sleep.
Of all mammals, North American bears continue to fascinate my adult mind, as much of what I remember being taught about them as a child isn’t nearly what they’re capable of.
This immediately reminds me of the Animal Planet piece this year chronicling Charlie Vandergaw’s story of feeding black and grizzly bears on his property (Stranger Among Bears). This show was made possible mostly due to the work of photographer/filmmaker Richard Terry. Check out this audio commentary by Richard while browsing amazing photos of his time with the beautiful animals, and realize he had already seen Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man.
Always let them know where you are, what you are doing.
Photo: Juliet Mills
Wiki (Top photo: Ursus americanus, Wikimedia)
Substitute science teacher Alex Dolan took covert footage of students in London and Leeds to document and uncover deficiencies in the local school system.
And what did she get for her trouble? Why, she was found guilty of professional misconduct, of course! Didn’t she ever heard of the adage "no good deeds go unpunished?"
Alex Dolan recorded the footage covertly at four schools in London and Leeds in 2005, exposing apparent attempts by the school to dupe Ofsted inspectors.
A General Teaching Council panel found her guilty of taking advantage of pupils, breaching their trust – and that of colleagues – and abusing her position.
Dolan was praised at a hearing of the panel last week for showing integrity, and acting as a whistleblower to expose conditions in the schools in which she had taught.
But in its judgment, the panel said it did not accept that the public interest issues raised by the film Undercover Teacher justified the use of covert filming.
Carts of Darkness is an interesting documentary film about a subculture of street life involving the homeless and the extreme sport of cart racing.
The National Film Board of Canada has recently posted the entire film online along with the usual trailers. The film by Murray Siple
“follows a group of homeless men who have combined bottle picking with the extreme sport of racing shopping carts down the steep hills of North Vancouver. This subculture depicts street life as much more than the stereotypes portrayed in mainstream media. The film takes a deep look into the lives of the men who race carts, the adversity they face and the appeal of cart racing despite the risk”.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by whitespace.
How do the things that we buy become things in the first place?
Documentary filmmaker Gary Hustwit (who also did Helvetica – yes, a film about the typeface) takes a look at product designers and their industrial designs his new film, Objectified:
Objectified is a feature-length independent documentary about industrial design. It’s a look at the creativity at work behind everything from toothbrushes to tech gadgets. It’s about the people who re-examine, re-evaluate and re-invent our manufactured environment on a daily basis. It’s about personal expression, identity, consumerism, and sustainability. It’s about our relationship to mass-produced objects and, by extension, the people who design them.
Here’s the trailer: Link [embedded YouTube clip] – via Fimoculous
