Library Corner
Highland Branch LIbrary
Highland Ca.

There are a lot of documentary films made each year and most of them go unnoticed because of the media blitz that accompanies blockbuster feature films. The latest, unfortunate word out of Hollywood is that it takes more to promote a film than it does to make it.

On Sunday a few minutes were devoted to this year’s nominees for best documentary. There were fifteen that originally were chosen but ten of them did not make the “final cut.” Only five were considered for an Oscar.
Unlike many video stores, the Highland Library tries to get notable documentaries into our collection for our users to check out.

Fame in the art world is the topic of a quirky film from the British artist Bansky with the intriguing title “Exit through the Gift Shop.” “Gasland” Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic takes a look at the controversial method of extracting natural gas from deep below the earth’s surface. The process, called fracturing, uses enormous amounts of water and might be endangering some water tables.

“Restrepo” was directed by Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger. Journalists embedded with American troops in Afghanistan show the constant danger of war. One of their comrades, Restrepo, is killed shortly after their deployment.

Maybe the most anticipated documentary was about trash pickers who work and live in the world's largest landfill on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. Filmed by Lucy Walker, “Waste Land” tells a bizarre story that is about, according to one critic “the transformative power of art and the beauty of the human spirit.”

There is popular theme in business circles about how government regulation restricts and constricts the free market economy. In some cases this may be true, but it was the scaling back of government oversight and the weakening of checks on speculative activity by banks that led to the 2008 global economic collapse.

Charles Ferguson’s searing documentary “Inside Job” examines the ivy leaguers who were supposed to be financial experts but who, along with cronies from the White House, were only in it for the money. Ferguson’s film deservedly won this year’s Oscar for best documentary.

You won't hear any of the top executives at Goldman Sachs or the other big banks in the film. They refused to be interviewed. The chief economist at the International Monetary Fund presented a paper in 2005 warning of a “catastrophic meltdown.” He was ignored. So was everyone else. No one wanted to hear things like that. “The economy is in great shape,” they said.

I say “Let’s have more government regulation.”

Check out “Inside Job” and these other Oscar-nominated documentaries when they arrive at the library. We check out them out for 7 days and we don’t charge a dime.

February 28, 2011 by John Grimm
The print version of this posting will appear in the Highland Community News on March 4, 2011