During the crazy rainstorm here in LA yesterday, I caught up on CBS Sunday Morning, one of my favorite weekend morning treats. The show featured a profile commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Triangle Waist Company fire, one of New York City's grimmest days. In a month where we've seen terrible tragedy in Japan and challenges to labor unions here in the U.S., this was a compelling reminder of a time when tragedy spurred labor reform.
In 2009, HBO aired a great documentary Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags, detailing the rise and decline of New York's garment industry. The film covered the Triangle fire, so it was no surprise that its filmmakers, Marc Levin and Daphne Pinkerson, expanded on the subject with a full documentary premiering tonight on HBO. Triangle: Remembering the Fire, details that horrific day when 146 mostly female garment workers perished, many of whom lept to their deaths from the top floors in front of horrified pedestrians. The event revealed terribly unsafe working conditions - including locked doors which could have saved many lives - and led to some of the first government legislation to protect workers, including safety and fire regulations, child labor laws and worker's compensation. The film pays tribute to all of the deceased workers in the hopes that we don't forget the price they paid.
It's another reminder of the protections people now have because of the suffering and heroics of those who came before us. Another reminder of how documentaries continue to tell their stories, so we don't forget them.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Sunday
Back at the blog in the (not so) new year!
This month happens to be bookended with my two favorite annual Sunday events - the pro football championship game and the Oscars®.
Although I'm not a Green Bay fan per se, I did enjoy their championship win mainly due to a recent viewing of the engrossing Lombardi documentary on HBO.
Vince Lombardi is a mythic and transcendent figure in sports history, a seminary school dropout who became the pope of Green Bay and the patron saint of football. Once an assistant coach of my beloved New York Giants, he gained iconic status and defined athletic excellence as the coach of the Packers in the late 1950s through late 1960s - leading them to multiple consecutive championships. He was a complex and driven man who was ultimately uncomfortable with the famous quote attributed to him, "Winning isn't everything but it's the only thing". It is quite touching and fitting that the championship trophy named for Lombardi is once again at home in Green Bay.
I confess to being slightly behind on my Oscar® documentary nominee viewings this year - I am catching a screening of Inside Job later this week, but have enjoyed Restrepo, Waste Land, Gasland and Exit Through the Gift Shop. What a great lineup and tough choice for voters.
Can't wait to settle in for another fab Sunday!
This month happens to be bookended with my two favorite annual Sunday events - the pro football championship game and the Oscars®.
Although I'm not a Green Bay fan per se, I did enjoy their championship win mainly due to a recent viewing of the engrossing Lombardi documentary on HBO.
Vince Lombardi is a mythic and transcendent figure in sports history, a seminary school dropout who became the pope of Green Bay and the patron saint of football. Once an assistant coach of my beloved New York Giants, he gained iconic status and defined athletic excellence as the coach of the Packers in the late 1950s through late 1960s - leading them to multiple consecutive championships. He was a complex and driven man who was ultimately uncomfortable with the famous quote attributed to him, "Winning isn't everything but it's the only thing". It is quite touching and fitting that the championship trophy named for Lombardi is once again at home in Green Bay.
I confess to being slightly behind on my Oscar® documentary nominee viewings this year - I am catching a screening of Inside Job later this week, but have enjoyed Restrepo, Waste Land, Gasland and Exit Through the Gift Shop. What a great lineup and tough choice for voters.
Can't wait to settle in for another fab Sunday!
Friday, December 31, 2010
Waste Land
Role credits on another great year for documentary film.
One of my favorite films this year, Lucy Walker's Waste Land, has been collecting awards throughout 2010, including the International Documentary Association's Feature Film Award and the World Cinema Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. For good reason.
Brazilian artist Vik Muniz is renowned for creating photographic art from found objects. For his latest project on garbage, he decides to journey from New York to his native Brazil - the site of the world's largest landfill, Jardim Gramacho. He meets a group of professional recyclable material pickers trying to make a living amid poverty and despair, and finds his inspiration.
Muniz collaborates with his photographic subjects and in the process, uplifts them. They each help build their art pieces with the materials they collect each day, while sharing their individual, often heart-breaking life stories. It is an intimate and moving film experience to behold.
Filmed over the course of three years, Waste Land offers a wondrous lesson in the power of art and a helping hand to transform the human spirit - fantastic reminders as we enter a brand new year of life and documentaries.
Make it a great one!
One of my favorite films this year, Lucy Walker's Waste Land, has been collecting awards throughout 2010, including the International Documentary Association's Feature Film Award and the World Cinema Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival. For good reason.
Brazilian artist Vik Muniz is renowned for creating photographic art from found objects. For his latest project on garbage, he decides to journey from New York to his native Brazil - the site of the world's largest landfill, Jardim Gramacho. He meets a group of professional recyclable material pickers trying to make a living amid poverty and despair, and finds his inspiration.
Muniz collaborates with his photographic subjects and in the process, uplifts them. They each help build their art pieces with the materials they collect each day, while sharing their individual, often heart-breaking life stories. It is an intimate and moving film experience to behold.
Filmed over the course of three years, Waste Land offers a wondrous lesson in the power of art and a helping hand to transform the human spirit - fantastic reminders as we enter a brand new year of life and documentaries.
Make it a great one!
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