Storm Surfers (3D)

First Hit:  Somewhat disappointed at the limited scope, and impressed at their ability to continue to push their bodies on those big waves.

For some reason, I thought the film would cover storm surfing around the world and not just around Australia.

For this reason I was disappointed because I think there are storm waves in different parts of the world that would have made the film more interesting (think Cortes Bank, Mavericks, and Ghost Tree).

This isn’t to take away from the storm waves Tom Carroll and Ross Clark-Jones surfed around their home continent. Tom and Ross have an interesting relationship.

They fight and respect each other in deep loving ways. They push each other to surf the big waves (via tow-in) at their ages of 45 and 49. Some of the waves they ride, or attempt to ride, are amazing and powerful.

Justin McMillan and Christopher Nelius directed the sequence and shots in spectacular ways.

Overall:  If you like surfing, you’ll like watching and listening to both Tom and Ross.

We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks

First Hit:  Extremely thought provoking and with new disclosures by Snowden in the news, very timely.

I was driven to and enjoyed learning more about PFC Bradley Manning who decided that the information he had access to, needed to be public.

We, the public of the United States, pay for all of what the government does. We are the employers of our government, we’ve entrusted them with them to make the right decisions about what we do, how we do it, and in the name of protecting us the people who pay them.

Granted I wouldn’t agree with all the decisions our government employees make, but given the type of information of what our government is doing in our (my) name; I think there needs to be more transparency and accountability. 

The film is mostly based round the organization called WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. Assange is a nomadic internet expert and coder. He developed WikiLeaks as a place for people to confidentially post information which would normally be hidden from public view. Assange also lives a nomadic life in crash houses and hotels.

The sharing of information to WikiLeaks by Bradley Manning brought them both into the headlights of public press only after Adrian Lamo let everyone know it was Manning who posted the confidential information. One of the sadder parts of the film was Adrian Lamo, who leaked that it was Manning. 

This guy is troubled about his own history of hacking troubles, the law and his struggles to relate to people. Added to the overall story are the legal troubles Assange is embroiled in because of charges two women have brought against him.

Alex Gibney wrote and directed this interesting film which begins to bring to the forefront the story about government secrecy and transparency.

Overall:  I’ve been thinking about this film for a week now – that’s a good sign that it told a story.

The Gatekeepers

First Hit:  A very interesting film about a subject that has a lot of passion, subtleties, world impact.

The story about how one of the heads of Shin Bet (Israeli secret security agency) was speaking with a Palestinian counterpart in a meeting in London and the Palestinian says to him, “we’ve won”.

The Israeli says, no you haven’t, we are in your territory, we win every battle we have with you, and how can you state that you’ve won? The Palestinian says; because you suffer with each action we take and you take.

I know I’m paraphrasing, and the point to the Israeli was that the Palestinians have succeeded in creating suffering for the Israelis. It means they are controlling their feelings by their actions.

This film interviews 6 former leaders of Shin Bet and although some are more hawkish than others; however in the end you can see that the path these two governments are taking isn’t working. There is a doom with the current path these two peoples are taking. There is a certain amount of righteousness by some of the interviewed Israelis but I actually left the theater thinking they really want peace.

One of the other aspects that was interesting was how they also have to monitor Israeli terrorist radicals who tend to be very conservative and right wing.

Dror Moreh directed this film and I enjoyed seeing actual flashbacks to historical events including Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton attempting to create meetings about peace.

Overall:  It was a very interesting film and gave some insight to the thinking of the Israeli government.

Sound City

First Hit:  A totally enjoyable fun film to watch, if you know anything about music recording, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s bands, and the analogue digital argument.

There is no point is saying that analogue is better than digital. They both have their strengths.

Analogue recording means you've got to be able to play it right first. Digital means you can put pieces of good music together to make is sound like you play it right in the first place. Ok, that is not the only difference but it is important to note that recording in an analogue format means you've put the work in to get the music right.

Digital recording allows for more mistakes and fixing it on the back end. Digital recording is here to stay. The more sound is broken down into samples per second the better the sound. Meaning current CD digital sound sampling rate is 44,100 samples per second, and you get a good sound. MP3 (most all downloaded music) is compressed music which scrapes the edge of the musical information contained on a CD.

Then there is PONO which is Neil Young’s argument/solution by increasing the sampling to get nearly the perfect studio sound with fidelity that the musicians intended – it is like being there live. He does this by sampling at 192,000 samples per second to create the FLAC files.

Enough about this; this film is a journey through the analogue past to the digital present in music recording at Sound City Studio in Van Nuys, CA. Here, great works of music art were created on the Neve (analogue) music engineering board. Tom Petty, Neil Young, Frank Black, Rick Springfield, Lindsey Buckingham, Stevie Nicks, John Fogarty, and the film’s director David Grohl all recorded here and achieved a new level of fame while using the Neve board.

Nirvana’s break out album Nevermind was recorded on this board. Grohl’s wish to keep the board alive is the reason he did this film because he bought the board and installed it into his own studio. The achievements of making a band play songs together and recording on tape in this analogue format is what is important to him and others.

This film gives the history of the Neve board, about how bands work together to create sound, and the people and personalities of the people running Sound City. Although sometimes cheesy in its execution, the movie is heartfelt, interesting, fun, and watching Paul McCartney create with Grohl and his band at the end is phenomenal. As Grohl states: "The Beatles were the reason I got into music, and the Neve analogue board is why I'm still in music today".

We see real musicians working together to create sounds the music - the music of my life.

Grohl did an outstanding job of creating a story around the Neve board, Studio City the building, the people who worked there, and the musicians who came through this studio to record seminal hit records.

Overall: The small theater was full; the appreciation of this story was palpable in the room and I know everyone walked out with a smiling heart.

Chasing Ice

First Hit:  Amazing filmography of the proof that our planet is changing through global warming.

James Balog is a naturalist and photographer who makes a decision to record how global warming is affecting the planet.

The camera crew follows him as he places ~24 cameras near glaciers in Iceland, Greenland, Alaska and Montana. Doing so we see just how difficult it is to make equipment that will work in hurricane force winds, extreme cold (-50 degrees), and unimaginable physical placements.

The first attempt is a failure and we see Balog as heartbroken from all the work he's put in. His knees are falling apart from all the rock hiking, but he perseveres with his team and with new equipment they are able to record amazing photos of how our planet is warming up and how our sea level will rise – no doubt about it.

Many of the still shots in this film are beyond compare and easily compete with filming. However the two events of major calving are sublime and never before seen. I will never forget the second calving where a section of ice, 2/3rds the size of Manhattan Island, breaks off an ice shelf and flips over. The visuals in this film far outweigh any ego Balog shows.

Mark Monroe wrote this film and the excellent direction of Jeff Orlowski made this a must see.

Overall:  The extraordinary beauty of the ice and how nature works is delivered in this film.