People at work / inside view

The Tokyo sushi chef Jiro has done the same thing at work every day for 60 years, no vacations, no holidays. He says he has loved every day of this repetition. The secret to his happiness is that everyday he tries to make his sushi even better than the day before. According to his customers he succeeds since his tiny 10-seat shop in a subway station is sold out a year in advance at $300 per meal. This documentary is an insightful and inspirational portrait of a craftsman seeking mastery, and the quest for perfection. Jiro's life is now an inspiration for others following mastery as a way to find their passion. Oh, and the film is also a tremendously great view of the quality of work that world-class sushi really entails. You'll look at sushi differently now. This is a deliciously perfect film about a perfect craftsman.

-- KK

Jiro Dreams of Sushi
David Gelb
2011, 82 minutes
DVD, $25

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This small portrait of over-educated parking lot attendants in a college town is surprisingly entertaining. The guys profiled rank at the bottom of society's status, but become the "Gods of the Corner Lot" and enter into a constant battle with the owners of expensive cars and SUVs. Their whole war with the "parkers" is all in their heads, and since they spend a lot of time sitting in their tiny shack doing nothing, they live in their heads. The great joy of this film is that it gets you into their big heads. Their tiny patch of sub-culture is charming and amusing.

-- KK

The Parking Lot Movie
Meghan Eckman
2010, 71 minutes
DVD, $15

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Here is a rare inside look at where your stuff comes from. The central event in China today is the mass migration of 100 million country folk to the cities to work in factories. This documentary follows one family out of those 100 million as it sacrifices everything to gain very little. Just getting the last train home at New Year's is an ordeal worthy of arctic expedition. This raw and candid film is really a coming of age story about a typical teenage girl who can't leave her boring farm quick enough, and the great pain her parents endure to help her succeed. But in the end it is a heartbreaking family drama -- one played out millions and millions of times. With no preaching, you get to see the actual costs of the cheap jeans and electronics we purchase today. A big global picture is painted with this very intimate portrait of real life in the real China.

-- KK

Last Train Home
Lixin Fan
2009, 90 minutes
DVD, $20

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The Hollywood hit, The Devil Wears Prada, fictionalized the life of legendary fashion magazine editor Anna Wintour. As Editor-in-Chief of Vogue for several decades, Wintour has become the most powerful person in the global fashion industry, and she has long had a reputation for wielding her power coldly -- thus the tyrant in the movie portrayed by Meryle Streep. However in The September Issue we get to see the actual Anna Winatour, and surprisingly I found her very likeable. She is filmed overseeing the fattest-ever issue of Vogue (September, 2007), a huge undertaking, while dealing with tempermental photographers, stylists, designers and advertisers. Although billed as a profile of Wintour, this film is really a profile of a magazine. The drama present in making the Septmeber issue only rehearses the drama present every month and in almost any large national magazine. It reminded me of my own time spent at Wired (now owned by the same people who run Vogue). This documentary is about talented people trying to amaze and surprise, who keep seeking excellence, even at the cost of bruised egos. It's a wonderful inside peek at how great magazines are produced, even if it does not crack the reserve of Anna Wintour. The people around her, who do all the creative work, are very open to the camera, and they make their genius transparent.

-- KK

The September Issue
R.J. Cutler
2008, 90 min.
DVD, $23

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Filmed in 1975, this award-winning documentary still has bite. It's won much applause for its support of poor hard-scrabble miners in a Kentucky coal community, and their struggles to unionize a job that no human should do. The start of the film gives you an idea of the dirty hell fired up by this kind of low-tech coal mining. But equally important, this film is a deep immersion into the tangled small town Appalachian life of 1975 -- a community and lifestyle that no longer exists. It captures the bloody drama of the strike including the climatic standoff with "scabs" shooting machine guns. Sadly the local villains play out the stereotype of corrupt southern white racists bullies. You could not cast their roles more perfectly. Watching this documentary feels like you spent 2 years sitting on the front porch with these characters, which is what the filmmaker did.

-- KK

Harlan County, USA
Barbara Kopple
1976, 103 min.
DVD, $25

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What a brilliant film-poem! I like how the marketing puts it: "There is a hidden society at the end of the world. One thousand men and women live together under unbelievably close quarters in Antarctica, risking their lives and sanity in search of cutting-edge science."

Superficially this is a film about strange other-worldly creatures and ice formations beneath the the South Pole, and about the eccentric people who live in harsh and unappetizing conditions to study them. But musically scored with a soundtrack of eerie religious chanting, this film feels more like a prayer. It has the same mix of science discovery and spiritual awe you might expect if you were accompanying astronauts on a visit to another planet of life. Which they are. You can feel souls being expanded, and that soul expansion is what is captured here, at the bottom of the world, where unattached philosophers seem to collect as they float over unknown species on this planet. Tempering this exaltation are scenes of the brutal industrialization of a pristine place, annotated by a haunting, depressive narration. The film's title indicates not just the bottom of the world, but also its end in time. It delivers soaring, stunning visions of life made possible by, or in spite of, dirty, mechanical probes into its heart. Somehow this duality of uplift and pessimism works for me. Others may find it too esoteric. I take it as a visual hymn to science.

In fact if there was such a thing as a religion of science, this film would be a good recruitment trailer for it.

-- KK

Encounters at the End of the World
Werner Herzog
2007, 101 min.
DVD, $20

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Everything in China is leaning towards the extremes, including the biggest fastest transformation into modernity. Nowhere is the relentless push toward the extreme felt more than in the mind-boggling, humongous scale of the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze. To make China's gigantic and impersonal change fathomable and personal, this documentary follows two young adults living in poverty along the Yangtze, and shadows them as they sign up to work on a tourist river boat delivering foreign visitors to the dam. Their story is a remarkable and surprisingly intimate portrait of two ordinary citizens doing what hundreds of millions of their Chinese cohorts are doing -- getting a job. Neither protagonist in this film is even particularly likeable or heroic, which makes their lives all the more real. Their faults and failures are universal. You get a very clear picture of how wrenching, how abrupt, how enticing these vast changes are. You have only to multiply this exceptional intimacy into two people's struggles by a billion to see the country.

So far, this tiny window is the best picture of big change in China that I've seen.

-- KK

Up the Yangtze
Yung Chang
2007, 93 min.
DVD, $27

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A mixed family of dwarfs and tall folks stars in this reality program. The father and mother are both dwarfs, their daughter and one young son are not. They also have teenage twins; one is a dwarf and one is not. Two layers keep this multi-year show captivating. One is the how-do-they-manage curiosity about being a little person in a big world. How do they drive, work, date? The other attraction is the drama of the usual parent-child, husband-wife, and sibling relationships, but all raised up a notch by the stress of dwarfism. Emergency surgery, near-death accidents, and even arrests by cops keep it lively. The father is an ambitious, creative, hard-driving, bigger-than-life little guy, and his family struggles to keep up, or get out of his way. In the third season the father was cited, but acquitted after trial, for a DUI charge. Even his own father (normal height) can find his dwarf son's bossiness exacerbating. At one point grandfather tells the crew, "I've had it up to here with these dwarfs." It's that kind of candid honesty that is both entertaining and educationally compelling. Their dwarfism is neither romanticized nor overtly exploited, but is portrayed realistically. The series also benefits from its uncommon longitudinal stretch of 3 years, so you can watch characters mature and evolve. Because this unusual family is fundamentally likable, yet keeps overcoming obstacles both self-made and circumstantial, it's a joy to watch them march forward.

-- KK

Little People, Big World
(Season 1)
The Learning Channel
2006, 440 minutes
DVD, $20

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This reality series is far more educational than I expected. Sure, host Mike Rowe shovels a lot of shit and dispenses very funny jokes (potty humor anyone?) but these documentaries are about more than dirt. They are about admiration for the skill and hard work of the folks doing unwanted jobs. Rowe takes great pains to show how and why these essential hidden jobs are done. You feel his respect. He makes you appreciate their challenges. You get inside views, see things you ordinarily would not, learn how the world works. You get the thrill of being backstage. Kids love the shows, and I strongly encourage them to watch them all.

-- KK

Dirty Jobs: Collection 1
Mike Rowe
2005, 493 min.
$11, DVD, 2 discs

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Unblinking access to a strange underworld in Japan. It's a story about professional pretty boys who are paid a lot of money to be platonic friends to pretty young girls, who are paid a lot of money for sexual favors by Tokyo salarymen. The boys are bored pretending to be friends to the girls who are bored having to pay for friendship. This circle of broken hearts, each unhappy soul trying to buy happiness or "healing," is mesmerizing, and in the end heart-wrenching. Because their roles allows no one in the "great happiness space" to develop real relationships, they pay high dollars for fake friends and "healing." Yet all of the "healers" need to be healed. As one reviewer on Netflix said, "I wanted to give them all a hug or send them to summer camp or something." But the honesty and candid peek into this private world is totally captivating. An invisible subculture illuminated.

-- KK

The Great Happiness Space
Directed by Jake Clennell
2006, 75 min.

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In this short film "hackers" is used in its original MIT meaning for someone who comes up with an ingenious or daring "hack" or invention, shortcut, or prank. Not coincidentally, some of the hackers here are legends in the digital era: Steve Wozniak, Ted Nelson, Andy Hertzfeld. This records the first time three generations of hackers meet each other. They gather in a camp to relive old exploits, show off recent hacks and plot the future. I was involved in organizing the event in 1984 and appear briefly in the part about the first multiple player game.

-- KK

Watch the whole thing on YouTube:

Hackers: Wizards of the Electronic Age
Directed by Fabrice Florin
1986, 26 min.
$15, DVD

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What a marvelous treat! This exquisite documentary transforms the hugely institutional (if not imperial) Apollo journey to the moon into something very intimate and personal. Sort of a home movie version of "my trip to the moon and back." The film score by Brian Eno assists the lift-off. This film really made me proud to be a human.

-- KK

For All Mankind
1989, 79 min.
Directed by Al Reinart
$36
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A superb genesis story about that most essential invention, the personal computer. Before it was an industry, the personal computer was a strange hobby for nerds, who were definitely not cool back then. In three parts, tech gossip columnist Robert X. Cringely gives a very personal, breezy, witty, and remarkably lucid technical summary of the origins of Microsoft and Apple. Even better, he focuses on the forgotten founding companies and figures who did not make it. Cringely turns this story about hardware into one about humanity. By taking you step by step through the process of invention, counter-invention, claim of theft, bankruptcy, and bad timing, you see how accidental success was for the winners. And how vital their ability to listen to the technology. This classic documentary series should be required watching for anyone who uses a computer -- that is, everyone. It's that good.

-- KK

Triumph of the Nerds
1996, 165 min.
Directed by Robert X. Cringely
$50
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Who are these guys, the beefy ones standing at the gates of nightclubs and discos deciding who gets in? Are they as beautiful as the beautiful people they control? I never tire of seeing what really happens behind the scenes, or of hearing about what really goes into other peoples occupations, and with this documentary I now know more about bouncers than I thought possible. For a bit of drama, there's an opening at a hot club, so we follow a few wannabees who hope to get the job. I was rooting for the meek giant who lived with his mom. It's a satisfying journey into a world you often cross but never see.

-- KK

Bounce: Behind the Velvet Ropes
Director: Steven Cantor
2000, 71 min.
$13, DVD

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A quick look at the work of stage hands on the very elaborate set of the epic Wagner Ring Cycle opera. Stage hands are like sailors (all that rigging). These guys seem to date only ballerinas, and they endure long spells of boredom between intense physical coordination. The title of the film comes from their eternal desire to close the last act: "come on, sing faster" they mutter. The best parts of this short peek behind the scenes are the interviews where stage hands give their New Yorker street version of the convoluted plot of the Wagner operas playing endlessly around them.

-- KK

Sing Faster
Directed by Jon Else
1999, 60 min.
$24, DVD

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The concept is simple. Reveal what really happens as a world-class couture designer develops, in fits and starts, his fall line. Show the factual side of a fashion show. The result is both hilarious and mesmerizing. Unexpectedly I came to appreciate fashion designers as artists, even though I have zero fashion sense.

-- KK

Unzipped
Directed by Douglas Keeve
1995, 73 min.
$18, DVD

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It ain't news that kids play the turntable as if it was a musical instrument but this fast-paced history of how DJ scratching was invented is pretty cool. Profiles of four famous "turntable-ists" give a clear picture of how remarkable their scratching skill is; they can essentially sing by deftly oscillating appropriate portions of several records. With fine detail the film reveals the scratchers extreme dedication to innovation, constant practice, and an obsessive knowledge of records. It's quite a trip, very geeky in many ways, but it increased my respect and admiration for this weird little achievement 1000%.

-- KK [recommended by Matt Vance and by Alexey J. Merz]

Scratch
Directed by: Doug Pray
2001, 92 min.
$23, DVD

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In the pre-dawn of the WWII, an ambitious outdoorsman convinces President Roosevelt to fund an elite army corp who are expert in mountain skills -- to compliment US water and amphibious forces. They round up all the ski bums, mountain climbers and wilderness die-hards in America at that time, long before such activities were mainstream. Among those who respond to this call is sierra club founder-to-be David Brower. The soldiers camp and train in Colorado, near the then unknown Aspen. They develop the snowmobile, the snow cat, early versions of modern camping, and modern ski techniques. Then off to the Alps in Italy where the US mountain unit defeats Nazi troops in a key mountain battle. Then they return to the US to invent the ski industry, Nike shoes, and run most of the ski resorts in the West. What holds all this together is the intense camaraderie of these outdoor fanatics. As one old soldier said, "This wasn't an Army unit. It was a fraternity."

-- KK

Fire on the Mountain
1996, 72 min.
Directed by: George Gage, Beth Gage
$27

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The Cruise
1998, 76 min
By Bennett Miller
$38
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An unforgettable portrait of a truly original human being who happens to give tours of New York City on a double decker bus. The hero, Timmy "Speed" is either mentally ill or one of the most profound living poets. Or both. You can't tell. For sure, here is someone who "thinks different." By the end you get to see cities, society, the whole world in his offbeat, zany way, and it's a real kicker. The tour is worth repeating several times.

Two themes that normally don't intersect in true films come together surprisingly well in this simple documentary: history and the last five minutes. Revolution OS explores the significance of trendy open-source software by going deep into its short history, acting as if open-source technology was a world-changing event of such magnitude that everyone will someday demand to know how it began. Which they probably will. Here is the film they will show later this century. The stress in on the political, not the technical. No drama, either; just clean geek history of a big idea when it started out small.

Revolution OS
Directed by J.T.S. Moore
86 minutes, 2002

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Boy, did this documentary of a dot-com startup and meltdown resurrect old memories. It's been what, two years? Internet stock hysteria was so inflated that there are few families in America who were not touched by it in some way. Hundreds of thousands of urban workers had direct experience in this madness, but little knowledge of how the particulars worked. This fly-on-the-wall view of the birth and flameout of an Internet startup is the real thing, and should be prescribed as a catharsis if you ever owned stock in the last 5 years. Do you wonder where you pension money went? Watch this.

Startup.com
Jehane Noujaim
2001, 103 min.
DVD, $10

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A gentle, polite and very mid-western look at how a hard-working Iowa farm family loses their farm and sells it off in a mid-winter auction. Sounds boring, but the filmmaker manages to make it dramatic and insightful, because it is the filmmaker's own family losing all they have. This very intimate window makes this film a real ticket into the deepest crevice of heartland America.

-- KK

Troublesome Creek
Directed by Jeanne Jordan & Steven Ascher
1995, 88 min.
$18, DVD

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