Obsessed & Scientific (2009), Timeline: The Legend of Zelda (2012)

Over the last few days, I've watched two comparatively short documentaries showcasing fringe obsessions.

 

First up was Jay Cheel's feature on the subject of time travel. From enthusiasts to naysayers, this 20 minute tries to cover all aspects of the debate. I was struck by how Obsessed & Scientific hit on many of the usual features of recent documentaries; the talking heads speaking over the credits, live action sequences interspersed with images of charts and documents. Footage sped up and slowed down. A soundtrack with well-known artists. In this case Sufjan Stevens' music makes an appearance. (As compared to Radiohead in The Island President.) None of these things are bad. In fact it makes for a pleasant viewing experience in general! However, the more I watch documentaries, the more aware I become of tropes common to the medium.

I have to admit I did not come into this movie with the best frame of mind. I went searching for documentaries on John Titor, and I thought this movie would focus on that subject entirely. I was about ten minutes in when I realized this focused on time travel in general. One man talks about replicating a time machine seen in one of his favorite movies. He has no illusions about actually being able to travel in time, but one senses that that's not the point. The purpose of the exercise is to create a tangible object related to his favorite subject. Online forums have put the enthusiast in contact with people who share a similar fascination with time travel. Indeed, the internet is a constant presence in this film, from chats about building model time machines, to lively debates about the truth behind John Titor.

I would like to see Jay Cheel do a documentary focused solely on John Titor, because, given what I've seen here, he has has a nice grasp on informative, appealing documentaries. It's a lesser known mystery, but one with many potential areas of debate, and more than its fair share of devotees. There's a great deal to mine here.

As it stands, my favorite segment in this had to be when one of his interview subjects- a theoretical physicist- talked about how there's probably no reason for us to be visited by people from the future. They would be far too advanced to care about the people of the past! As he spoke, the filmmaker inserted images of tourists visiting museums. People pay big money to see relics of the past safely ensconced behind glass. Would there be people willing to go back in time to see something more vivid; history unfolding? 

Obsessed & Scientific suggests that the answer is yes. 

 

Timeline: The Legend of Zelda is GameTrailer's handsomely made documentary on... yep, the timeline of the Legend of Zelda series. 

As video games go, it's hard to get much more iconic. It might also have one of the most obsessive fanbases out there. All credit to nintendo here; it's quite a feat sustaining interest in a series for nearly thirty years.

Some of this devotion might have to do with timeline theorizing. You see, in the Legend of Zelda games there are clues- some small, some blatant- that these games follow in some kind of chronological order. This isn't like Final Fantasy where there's a new world and story for nearly every single game. Most stories feature new characters, even if they have the same names, and are set in the same world. Some games are announced as sequels, some as prequels, and some get no such label at all. However, there is clearly an overarching mega plot. With the internet's tendency to bring like minded people together, there's long since been a dedicated group of followers who pore over hints in the game and try to construct the order of the games.

It's not an easy task; As of Ocarina of Time, the series has introduced the element of time travel. End result? It was widely accepted that the chronology branched into two different timelines after that game.

As you might be able to guess, I have had my forays into forum discussions on this very topic! I had to kill time during the wait for Twilight Princess somehow.

I haven't picked up this topic in years, but a friend alerted me to this documentary a few days ago. When I sat down to watch it, I was delighted from the moment I hit play. I found that some of the theories of my teenage years were correct, while I was way off based in other aspects. As a short film, it expertly conveys a convoluted subject, rather than drifting off into esoteric minutiae. Timeline: The Legend of Zelda probably has a small target audience, but if you're into the series and you're curious about worldbuilding, then I heartily recommend giving this a shot. 

Obsession is a common theme in many documentaries I've seen. Particularly ones from the past decade. Both of these films are part of a thriving milieu non-fiction films focusing on  collective fascination with a niche subject. This might be the first time I review I review movies of this nature, but it won't be the last.

The Pluto Files: Nova (2010)

I think, if you check my facebook, I'm still a member of a group entitled "When I Was Your Age Pluto Was Still A Planet." Somehow that irreverent, nostalgic name feels complementary to the tone of this documentary.

The Pluto Files is not an incisive look into Pluto's status (or lack thereof) as a planet. It's a fluffy piece on the history and debate surrounding this celestial object. In a prologue of sorts, Dr. Neil Degrasse-Tyson discusses being inundated with stern letters over his planetarium's decision to not depict Pluto with the solar system's eight planets. The rest of of the documentary is framed as his journey to hear many different points of view on the subject. It takes him all across the country. No two scientists share exactly the same opinion.

Nothing really gets below surface level, even if this makes for a pleasant viewing. The most thought-provoking segment is when Tyson meets with the family of Clyde W. Tombaugh, the discoverer of Pluto. Tyson gets to take a look at Tombaugh's telescopes dating back to the 30s.  They weren't the most sophisticated telescopes around, even back in the day, but evidently they got the job done. There's something sort of fantastic about the idea of a hardworking 23-year-old researcher uncovering a whole new planet.

As I write this review I'm hampered by what to call Pluto, by the way. "Planet" is apparently incorrect, but "dwarf planet" takes getting used to and feels a bit ungainly. Or perhaps I'm like Steven Colbert who, in a clip from his show, starts grumbling about how the planets seem like they should be one of the few constants out there.

Pluto is vindicated in one way. During the beginning of this documentary, Tyson chats with some scientists about the oddities of Pluto. Way too small, weird orbit, etc. Research is beginning to show, however, that there are many dwarf planets out in the far reaches of the solar system, and they all share similar characteristics. Pluto may have been demoted, but in the process it has gained a ton of new buddies.

And it will always have its fans on earth.

The Island President (2011)

  

There's a moment, in the middle of John Shenk's captivating 2011 documentary, where President Mohamed Nasheed is starring on a British radio show. The host notes Nasheed's record of political protest, and his fight against global warming upon assuming the presidency of the Maldives.

"You do like a battle don't you?"

"It won't be any good to have democracy if we don't have a country," Nasheed replies. 

This exchange is the bridge between the film's two segments.

The Island President begins by detailing the recent history of the Maldives, a country comprised of a chain of islands in the Indian Ocean. For decades, the political scene was dominated by Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. The crystalline blue waves appeal to rich tourists but dissidents, such as Mohamed Nasheed, were often locked into tiny shacks on those same beaches. Captives were tortured and terrorized in prison cells, and the 2004 tsunami wreaked havoc on the general populace. Despite this multitude of disasters (or, likely, because of them) citizens organized, protested, rioted, and eventually elected Nasheed into office. 

This portion of the movie depicts Mohamed Nasheed as a true believer in democracy. However, after fighting tooth and nail to abolish dictatorial rule in his country, the knowledge that the Maldives might vanish completely is a bitter pill to swallow. But the aforementioned radio host is correct on one count; Nasheed is a fighter, and he begins gearing up for the Copenhagen Summit on climate control. He sends out researchers, he meets with other world leaders, and he engages in publicity stunts like holding meetings under water. His efforts are nothing if not creative.

 

As is probably obvious, I came out of this documentary with a great deal of appreciation for Nasheed, as least as far as his environmental efforts were concerned. I tend to feel kinship with enthusiastic people, and the president's love for his country was palpable. He was a politician, and this is an overwhelmingly positive portrayal, and I've since read accounts that, after electing him, Maldivians were frustrated with how little things changed. However, given that Nasheed is invested in the survival of small island nations- not just his own, but many others- he has a compelling, sympathetic mission. And Shenk clearly fell in love with the Maldives too; every shot is expertly composed and overflowing with natural beauty. It's difficult to not root for both; democracy and the environment alike.

This is what makes the second half of the movie frustrating beyond belief. 

Although Nasheed's greeted by rapturous crowds in an environmentalist rally, things are quite different on other aspects of the world stage. Nasheed is railroaded by the politicians of the world powers (China and India in particular) and must answer reporters' questions on whether global warming is a conspiracy theory. Maldive's issues are treated as a footnote to history, and sometimes Nasheed is taken to task for being too vehement. The president responds that the Maldives has a culture and history of its own, and it deserves to continue to exist. He stresses the urgency of their problem. He bargains, negotiates, and fails to sleep for days on end. Team Maldives uses every trick in the book to come out of the Copenhagen Summit with an agreement, even if it's not their ideal. They succeed in this mission, but the sobering credits reveal that carbon levels continue to rise, and Nasheed was ousted from office by politicians associated with the old regime.

 As far as I can recall, the word imperialism was never once used in this movie. And yet, here we have the decisions of super powers having disastrous consequences on countries thousands upon thousands of miles away. At one point Nasheed invokes various historical wars, and how the world powers rushed to defend threatened countries at the time. He caught some flack for this, but it seems apt to me. After all, in the course of man's inhumanity to man, certain imperialistic actions have all the immediate impact of a bomb.

But at other times, imperialistic actions are insidious and intractable, much like the act of slowly drowning.

introductions and such

Justin Duerr in Resurrect Dead: The Mystery of the Toynbee Tiles

The long and short of it, is that I'm fascinated by documentaries and want to blog about them.

At times this is a genre that has a reputation for being staid or boring, and certainly some of these movies rely on formula and mediocrity. Many more still have fascinated me, scared me, angered me, or galvanized me. Some of them- like the movie pictured above- even make me feel positive and even hopeful.

This blog will discuss every documentary I watch; from the highly-acclaimed, Oscar nominated films, to those serial killer documentaries I watch at 2 a.m. I called this blog "Documenting Documentaries" because I wanted a title that gave me a bit more leeway in terms of content. Namely, I'm not just going to review the movies, I might also get into the nature of documentaries. I think the process of documentary creation is fascinating; picking topics, putting hours of footage into a narrative, creating a thesis statement out of the chaos of real life etc.

So, yes, welcome to Documenting Documentaries! I hope you enjoy this blog.