To Die For... The Killing of America (Leonard Schrader & Sheldon Renan, 1981)

What film can't I live without? Tough question, and one I can't really answer in a single film. There are so many films, from the highbrow to the lowbrow, that I love with a passion. So how do I decide on just one? I could say The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, or a bunch of Russ Meyer movies, or loads of Godard, or Bunuel, or Lynch. They'd all be valid choices. But I'm going elsewhere. There is one film that sticks out, simply because it seems to be my go-to movie for showing people. Come round to my house more than once and you'll probably end up sitting through The Killing of America.

  

 

 This documentary film was made in 1981, financed by Japanese backers who were expecting another Faces of Death (that movie having, according to legend, outgrossed Star Wars in Japan). Instead, they got a bleak study of violent crime in America, written, produced and co-directed (with Sheldon Renan) by Leonard Schrader, bother of Paul.The two Schraders were clearly cut from the same cloth – this would make a good 'decline of American civilisation' double bill with Taxi Driver. The film charts American violence – mostly, though not exclusively gun violence – from the JFK assassination to the murder of John Lennon. Narrated with perfect pacing and somber tone by Chuck Riley, the film features news footage – no fake reconstructions here – as well as interviews with killers like Sirhan Sirhan and Ed Kemper. It's dark, angry and nihilistic, expertly structured and the footage is uncompromisingly shocking – there is plenty of real death shown here, but it is never sensationalised or pitched at the sort of inadequate ghouls who enjoy films like Faces of Gore. Rather than the shockumentary that was expected, The Killing of America is both history lesson and polemic, an angry cry of despair at a nation that seemed to be on a downward spiral through lax gun laws and a culture that glorifies violence.

 

Such a message was hardly going to appeal to US audiences – it was far too close to home and on the nose. The Killing of America notably failed to secure an American release, even on video. It's legend would grow somewhat over the years, thanks to bootlegs and an uncut UK DVD release (even the BBFc recognising it as a serious work), but the film is still widely and ignorantly dismissed as just another sensationalist mondo movie. It's not a film for everyone, but it honestly deserves to be better known than it is.

David Flint

David Flint writes about pop culture, sexual politics, censorship and beer. You can find his blog here, and you can follow him on Twitter here. David is the editor of the new book Sheer Filth: Bizarre Cinema, Weird Literature, Strange Music, Extreme Art, which you can buy here.

Coming soon...Birth of the Living Dead

In 1968 a young college drop-out named George A. Romero gathered an unlikely team - from Pittsburgh policeman, iron workers, housewives and a roller rink owner – to create a low budget horror film that would revolutionise the industry, and spawn a new flesh eating monster that endures to this day… that film was ‘’Night of The Living Dead’’.

With a range of candid interviews and fascinating insight ‘’Birth of the Living Dead’’ is an absolute must have for any horror fan, enter the original Zombie Universe, but remember ‘they're coming to get you, Barbara’.

BIRTH OF THE LIVING DEAD (cert.15) is out on DVD & VOD on 12th May 2014, courtesy of Solo Media.

Director Rob Kuhns

Cast George A. Romero ((Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead)

        Larry Fessenden (Producer; The Innkeepers, Stake Land)

        Mark Harris (Author; Pictures at a Revolution)

        Gale Anne Hurd (Producer; Terminator, aliens, AMC's The Walking Dead)

Certificate 15tbc

Running Time 76 mins

Genre Documentary

Distributor Solo Media

New Empress review: Slice & Dice: The Slasher Film Forever

Over on the New Empress Magazine website you can find my review of Calum Waddell's Slice & Dice: The Slasher Film Forever. Click on the link below to see what I made of this low-budget, celebratory look into one of horror cinema's enduring sub-genres.

New Empress: Slice & Dice

Watched - no 26 - The Interrupters (Steve James, 2011)

Steve James, the director responsible for the highly acclaimed Hoop Dreams in 1994, has delivered one of the year's finest documentaries with The Interrupters. Due for release on DVD courtesy of the always interesting, and increasingly vital, Dogwoof label, James' latest non-fiction film follows Chicago's violence interrupters programme over the course of one year, beginning in summer and ending the following spring. Largely culled from ex-gang members, erstwhile drug dealers and former prison inmates the violence interrupters intervene, as you'd imagine, in situations between the city's warring gang members and troubled, vulnerable citizens with one goal in mind - to stop the moments of high tension spilling over into outright violence. With the city's police force and government officials seemingly making little headway in reducing the crime, murder and assault figures, and the media portrayals of the city as a war zone becoming ever more trenchant, the violence interrupters face, on paper at least, a nigh on impossible task in cleaning up their streets and changing the reputation of the city's poverty stricken areas.

James's non-interventionist technique (he is never seen nor heard) allows for the violence interrupters and the people they come into contact with to remain as the central focus of the film, developing as it does into a portrait of inner city life that stands as a richly detailed microcosm of world-wide urban problems. Poverty, lack of education, diminishing life prospects, crumbling social structures and territorial pride dominate the everyday lives of The Interrupters' subjects. Ameena Matthews, daughter of one of the city's most infamous gang leaders, and one time gang member herself, Cobe Williams, whose relative youth provides an important link to the city's youths,and Eddie Bocanegra, who killed a rival gang member during his life as a one time prolific car thief, are just three of the interrupters followed as they try to keep tensions between the gangs and the locals at bay. These alternately fearsomely straight talking, rueful, experienced and reformed characters are the eyes and ears of the audience on these sadly embattled streets. Moments of tenderness, humour and humanity counter-balance the grimly depressing surrounding environment, senseless violence and inter-family divides.

What could have been a worthy, 'educational' documentary is, in the hands of James, a thoughtful, enlightening and ultimately hopeful insight into the ongoing attempts of largely neglected communities to bring an end, or at least a noticeable reduction, to the crime, drug abuse and sense of despair that threatens to engulf their neighbourhoods. Inspirational and unmissable.

watched - no 25 - Happy People: A Year in the Taiga (Dmitry Vasyukov, 2010)

Before tackling 3D with his critically acclaimed documentary The Cave of Forgotten Dreams and helming the forthcoming death row expose Into the Abyss, Werner Herzog executive produced and narrated Dimitry Vasyukov's Happy People: A Year in the Taiga, due to be released on DVD in the UK on the 28th of November. Vasyukov's simple yet hugely illuminating examination of a year in the life of a small Siberian village and its inhabitants, reachable only by helicopter, takes in the very Herzogian themes of man versus nature, isolation, the cycle of life and self-sufficient outsider communities. Focusing on the village's Sable trappers (a dwindling and increasingly economically fraught way of life), Herzog guides us through the seasons, beginning with Spring and ending in Winter, as the menfolk continue the centuries old tradition that takes them away from their friends and families for the duration of the hunting season.

The sheer physical vastness of the Taiga, stunningly captured in all of its seasonal glories, and the rustic lifestyle of the villagers dominates the film, slightly spoiled by the villagers voices being overlaid by irritating, drone-like American translators, to provide an insight into this largely unseen community. Living off the land and beholden to the seasonal changes, these hardy villagers survive with only the barest of modern accoutrements to assist them with their daily chores. Boats and traps are made by hand, the diet of the villagers largely consists of bread, potatoes and fish and, as is repeated by all of the hunters, a good hunting dog is essential to survival in such an inhospitable environment. Sharing similar thematic concerns as Herzog's own Grizzly Man and Encounters at the End of the World, Happy People is a fascinating glimpse into a world far removed from our own. It may not quite reach the operatic, abyss staring heights of many of Herzog's non-fiction films but nonetheless it leaves the viewer in awe of the landscape, its inhabitants and their deeply ingrained, symbiotic relationship.

Rogue Cinema review - September

This month's review for Rogue Cinema is of the low-fi,

independently financed documentary The Death of Andy Kaufman.

Follow the link at the bottom of the post to check it out.

http://www.roguecinema.com/article2869.html

Competition week 5

The final DVD giveaway courtesy of the good folk at Dogwoof is Shannon Walsh's H2Oil. This 4 star (Total Film) documentary described by Empire as 'hard hitting eco-activism' takes a look at Canada's tar sands and how they are fast becoming the debating ground in the battle of oil profit versus ecological awareness. To win the DVD simply email me at neil.mitch1972@googlemail.com no later than midnight on Friday the 26th of August.

Competition week 3

http://youtu.be/ZEopisQUfiA - trailer

This week's DVD giveaway courtesy of Dogwoof is Leslie Iwerk's Dirty Oil. Described by Total Film as 'disturbing & illuminating' and narrated by Canadian actress and environmentalist Neve Campbell Dirty Oil is a behind the scenes look at the toxic Alberta Tar Sands, from where the US gets the majority of its oil and the impact on the environment of the 'largest industrial project on the planet today'.

To be in with a chance of winning the DVD simply email me at neil.mitch1972@googlemail.com with the answer to this question -

In which country can the Alberta Tar Sands be found?

The competition closes at midnight on Saturday the 16th.

Competition week 2

This week's documentary up for grabs courtesy of Dogwoof is Chris Smith's 'Collapse'. The director of the wonderful American Movie (1999) turns his camera on controversial 'author, radical thinker and investigative reporter' Michael Ruppert. The former police officer's views on 9/11 and energy issues have seen him labelled a paranoid 'conspiracy theorist' by his detractors. To win this eye opening look into Ruppert's divisive views just email me the answer to this question -

Who directed this year's Oscar winning documentary Inside Job?

Send your answers to - neil.mitch1972@googlemail.com no later than midnight on Saturday the 9th.

Competition Time

The lovely folks at Dogwoof - http://www.dogwoof.com/ have generously donated five of their thought provoking documentaries for me to giveaway. Each Monday for the next five weeks I'll run a competition to win one of the DVDs. I'll draw the winner on a Sunday and post the winner's name at the start of the next week's competition. The first film up for grabs is Danish film-maker Michael Madsen's extraordinary Into Eternity - a look into the complex and dangerous world of nuclear waste management - my favourite documentary of the year so far.
All you have to do to win the DVD is follow the blog and leave a comment below this post stating what your favourite documentary is. If you're already following just leave the comment. Cut off point for this week's draw is midnight on Saturday, so good luck to one and all.

There seems to be technical/gremlin issues with following and leaving comments on the blog. If you have trouble you can also enter by 'liking' The Fourth Wall on its Facebook page and leaving a comment under the post about the competition here - http://tinyurl.com/6fh9kcz

Demand Zero Day - Countdown to Zero

http://countdowntozerofilm.com/screenings -

Demand Zero Day comes to a town near you tonight. You can join the nation in taking a big step in the campaign toward the elimination of nuclear weapons. From Aberdeen to Penzance, the premiere of Countdown to Zero will be swinging by Glasgow, Grimsby, Manchester, Belfast, Newport, Oswestry, Brighton...the list goes on. After the film a live Q&A panel discussion from BAFTA will be screened live to each cinema and audiences can put forward questions to the assembled guests.

Be sure to find your nearest screening and go along for this latest must see documentary from director Lucy Walker (Wasteland) and production/distribution compant Dogwoof (Gasland).

If ever a documentary was must see, it's this one.

Watched - No 7 - Gasland (Josh Fox,2010)

http://tinyurl.com/23p42ht

There's no doubt that we are living through a Golden Age for the documentary film, and for investigative, awareness raising film-makers in particular. Ever since arch prankster/careerist Michael Moore took the Palme D'or at Cannes for Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) an explosion of citizen journalists, activists, campaigners and agitators have graced the big screen. The exposes of Governmental subterfuge, industrial farming, animal cruelty, war and oppression have come thick and fast as production,equipment and editing costs have fallen. Add to that the rise of social networking, alternative platforms for the spreading of information and an air of Global disaffection and the time is ripe for the documentary film.

The latest eye catching expose comes in the form of Josh Fox's Gasland, which utilises all of the recognisable traits of both the traditional and contemporary documentary forms - to-camera monologues, voiceover narration, onscreen titles and graphics, archived and present day footage,interviews and an intervensionist, subjective director - to shed light on the practice of Hydrolic fracturing, or 'Fracking'. The process, essential in releasing the enormous quantities of natural gas hidden underneath vast stretches of the US, involves wells being drilled thousands of feet deep into the earth before water, sand and chemicals are injected into the shale to crack it open and let the gas escape, a huge profit making concern for powerful energy companies. After being offered around $100,000 to allow a company acces to his land to drill a hole, the concerned Fox investigated the process and discovered a mind boggling array of deceit, potentially fatal incidents, extreme health risks and environmental damage. By finding households and sometimes whole towns with poisoned water supplies, which are in no doubt related to the fracking process despite the protests of the energy companies and their lobbying groups, Fox accidentally stumbled on a shocking example of the 'little guy' suffering at the hands of big business. Needless to say he kissed the money goodbye.

The amiable, thoughtful and wryly humourous Fox guides us through an increasingly murky moral and ethical minefield in a film that bares all the hallmarks of a conspiracy thriller that reaches the highest echelons of American officialdom. The familiar and depressingly predictable figure of Dick Cheney and his assorted cronies raise their heads amidst a dizzying melange of statistics, counter-arguments, corporate and political negligence and rapacious profiteering that is foolish at best and downright criminal at worst. The almost total refusal of any of the energy companies and politicians to grant Fox an interview for the film simply adds to the weight of the damning evidence laid out. Any potential dis-engagement for audiences outside of the US is brought into stark relief by the revelation that Europe is the next potentially huge market for natural gas extraction before other parts of the world are drawn into this hugely controversial practice. Gasland and many other similar documentaries run the risk of preaching to the converted ecologially aware and anti-capitalist masses, but that in no way diminishes the need for these films to be circulated, debated and acted upon. Recommended.