Customer Reviews

Full Frame Documentary Shorts, Vol. 1

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This DVD was hard for me to find, but, once I located it and was finally able to view it, it was well worth the time and effort! This is a collection of documentary shorts by various filmmakers on various topics. While some of the filmmakers are very well known (Mira Nair, as an example), other pieces are made by filmmakers who are up and coming, emerging as a new chapter in the journey and vision of documentary filmmaking.

The subject matter varied from "Laughing Club of India" (by Mira Nair--- a humorous look at an organized club, situated in Mumbai, where people of varied generations come together to laugh together, on a regular basis as a cathartic and Yoga-based method of stress release and physical therapy), to "Why Can't We Be a Family Again" (a moving piece done by Roger Weisberg and Murray Nossel about a couple of young boys growing up in Brooklyn, being raised by their maternal grandmother, while their mother is in drug rehab). The other films are also very interesting, and some of the subject matter was rather zany and even chilling. These topics ranged from a group of elderly Jewish women in New York, playing mah jong and recalling memories from their rich and interesting lives ("We Got Us"), a two minute look at a Bulgarian filmmaker and her various experiences in filmmaking ("Lucy Tsak Tsak"), a lesbian couple and their small business centered around cleaning up crime scenes ("Family Values"), a gritty flop house in the Bowery (called, ironically "The Sunshine") and the famous phone booth that once stood in the Mojave Desert in California, and was the destination for callers and visitors to the desert, while it stood until its demise in 2000 ("Mojave Mirage").

This collection is almost beyond description or comparison to anything I have ever viewed before. You just have to check it out for yourself. What a wonderful education!!! Eye opening and very intriguing.......

FULL FRAME DOCUMENTARY SHORTS is a terrific collection of seven documentary films. My favorites include the weirdly haunting Mojave Mirage, about that Mojave telephone booth in the middle of nowhere that became a cult destination (its number rang constantly from callers worldwide) and The Sunshine, an intimate and non-judgemental look at the eccentric, colorful and resiliant residents of one of the Bowery's last flop houses. Laughing Club of India is about people who religiously gather in groups to laugh themselves silly. Weird and wonderful stuff here.