Documentary

President Obama has his own documentary coming from Edward Norton, and now Obama's mother is becoming the focus of a feature-length documentary film titled Stanley Ann Dunham: A Most Generous Spirit. The project will portray Obama's upbringing with Dunham in Indonesia and Hawaii, and will also highlight Dunham's "pioneering work in the field of Third World microfinance, which assists small entrepreneurs, mostly women, in developing countries." Executive producer Mary Aloe stated:

She gave a lot of the backbone to our current president and his compassion to the people. With these small-scale economies, she took a concept that was emerging just as women were getting their rights and got them to think outside the box. She is a fascinating woman, and she was ahead of her time.

There certainly seems to be enough fodder for a feature-length movie. Do you think you'll want to check out this documentary about Obama's mama?

While I have a few friends who work in advertising, I love getting a closer (though obviously dramatized) peek into the old days of the industry every week when I watch Mad Men. We're inundated by advertisements every day, and it's fascinating to see what goes on behind the scenes before an ad makes its way to our TVs, billboards, and favorite websites. To those uninvolved in the industry, it's an intriguing profession.

So I'm very curious to check out Art & Copy, a documentary that aims to reveal "the work and wisdom of some of the most influential advertising creatives of our time — people who've profoundly impacted our culture, yet are virtually unknown outside their industry." It's an oft-maligned industry but still one that requires — and has featured — some outstandingly creative minds.

Art & Copy is currently having a limited run in theaters. To check out the trailer, read more

You either like him or you hate him, so chances are, if you're actually reading this post, you probably like him at least enough to be curious about his latest documentary. Having made films about General Motors, gun control, and the healthcare industry (to name a few), director Michael Moore is at it again, this time taking a look at the economy. His documentary Capitalism: A Love Story examines "the global financial crisis and the U.S. economy during the transition between the incoming Obama Administration and the outgoing Bush Administration." Moore himself says the movie's "got it all — lust, passion, romance, and 14,000 jobs being eliminated every day."

The movie opens Oct. 2. To watch the trailer, read more

When Isaiah Zagar moved to Philadelphia in the 1960s, he started creating a massive mural made of shards of glass and tile on the side of an abandoned building. The ongoing art chronicled the highs and lows of his marriage and the life of his two sons, one of whom has now made a documentary about the memoir in mosaic, called In a Dream. Check out the trailer below.

In a recent interview, filmmaker Jeremiah Zagar talks about his parents' hippie existence and the impetus for the project: "My mother decided I should film my family, sort of in the same way she decided my father should make art about our family." The documentary, which airs on HBO 2 tonight and comes out on DVD in September, records his father's nervous breakdown and his brother's time in rehab. I love the line in the trailer when Isaiah says, "You know a lot when you lose something. When you got it, you don't know." Now I really want to see this mural.

Chris Rock's documentary Good Hair already made me feel a little emotional back in January when I saw the video of him talking about his project just before it screened at Sundance. In that video, Rock explains that he always believed that if he told his daughter how beautiful she is and how much he loves her all the time, he could help her avoid developing self-esteem issues. But his daughter still told her dad that she didn't like her hair — she wanted "good hair." In his movie, Rock explores this topic — the hair industry in general and the idea of "good hair."

The new trailer for his film is great — entertaining and funny, but also thought-provoking. The movie will have a limited release starting Oct. 9. To check out the trailer, read more

In this little work-of-heart documentary film Don't You Forget About Me, a group of fans travels around on a quest to find and interview beloved director John Hughes. They manage to interview various Hollywood types — mostly actors from Hughes' movies who reflect back on their old director, though others, like Kevin Smith, also add in their two cents. Interestingly, Molly Ringwald apparently refused to participate in the project.

Very soon after Hughes' sudden death last week, a distributor snatched up world rights to the documentary, which Variety describes as "a 75-minute, Roger and Me-like road trip in which Austin-Sadowski and his producers Kari Hollend, Mike Facciolo and Lenny Panzer head to suburban Illinois in their van to try to find the reclusive Hughes. It was made without public funding, something extremely rare in Canadian cinema." So hopefully it will be in theaters before too long.

"No one in my estimation has come close to what John achieved," a voice states toward the end of the trailer. These words ring more poignant now than ever before. To check out the trailer for Don't You Forget About Me, read more

So you've finally gotten to your Summer destination spot, are ready to bask in the sunshine, but you end up getting stuck with rain for the duration of your trip. You can either pull out some books, rent some expensive movies, or you can head to Documentary Heaven and watch some free educational films.

This site which I came across on makeuseof can easily be accessed on an iPhone or laptop and offer documentaries ranging in a wide variety of categories such as evolution, law, psychology, and space.

To learn how to post your favorite websites to our Website of the Day group, read more

All they need is love? The British documentary Hold Me Tight, Let Me Go airs tonight on PBS, taking a yearlong look at the the Mulberry Bush School in Oxford, England, where 40 emotionally disturbed children board. The three-year program centers on patience and kind human interaction as a last resort for these youngsters. According to the summary:

The kids ages five through 12 who attend Mulberry (most of them boys) can broadly be described as having attachment disorders, with some having Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD).

More than 100 dedicated staffers tend to the students, offering them love, support, and structure. The institution exemplifies the notion that every child deserves a chance. Will you tune in?

Ever since I read a New York Times story about the enduring tradition of segregated proms at some Southern high schools, I've been curious to see the documentary Prom Night in Mississippi. The film, which premieres on HBO tonight, tells the story of Charleston, Mississippi, which held its first integrated prom in 2008 with the urging (and funding) of Morgan Freeman.

Sounds uplifting . . . but there's more to the story. Though the prom is embraced by both the school administration and the students themselves, some parents organize a separate "whites only" prom and ban their children from attending the integrated dance. The filmmakers' cameras were forbidden from the "whites only" dance, too — so those parts of the story are told through graphic novel-style segments based on the memories of students who did attend.

But despite the conflict, says HBO, "When prom night arrives, the event is a huge success, with live soul and rap music, a packed dance floor and a pre-recorded appearance on a big screen by Freeman, who cannot attend in person due to a prior acting commitment. There is a sense that history is being made, and that the students have somehow grown from being a part of the process." Did that happen? A follow-up, Prom Night in Mississippi: One Year Later, is available OnDemand and revisits the school this Spring, telling the story of the second integrated prom — held alongside another "whites only" dance.

To check out a preview for this film, just read more

Warning: If you're something of a sap, as I am, the trailer for this documentary The Way We Get By will make you cry a little. Or a lot. I've already mentioned (a few times) that I get misty at pretty much anything having to do with older folks — especially documentaries, and especially when there are poignant scenes of these older folks welcoming home soldiers returning from the Iraq War. The movie's website describes the movie like this:

Beginning as a seemingly idiosyncratic story about troop greeters (a group of senior citizens who gather daily at a small airport to thank American soldiers departing and returning from Iraq) the film quickly turns into a moving, unsettling and compassionate story about aging, loneliness, war and mortality.

So, you know, the light stuff. Critics seem to love this movie, and from the trailer I think I can see why. There appears to be a New York premiere, but I'm not sure where else the film will open theatrically. Surely it will be on DVD before too long. To check out the trailer, read more