Rewind
This! (2013/Filmbuff
DVD)/Tupac Double Feature
(2007, 2009, 2013/MVD DVDs)/Where
I Am (2012/MPI DVD)
Picture:
C+/C/C+ Sound: C+/C/C+ Extras: B-/C-/D Documentaries:
B/C+/B-
These
documentary releases have intriguing subjects that might interest
you...
Josh
Johnson's Rewind
This!
(2013) takes a look at a long-neglected field of interest, home video
fans who actually still collect the pretty dead VHS videocassette
format. So fired up about it that they go to every flea market,
antique store, thrift store and old (especially folding) video store
that they have caused a revival and some titles are being issued or
reissued on VHS. Why?
Because
hundreds (maybe thousands) of titles, especially Horror B-movies have
never been issued on DVD and for these actually shot on film,
Blu-ray. That is starting to slowly change thanks to this community,
but so many still are not available. In the case of key Horror
releases, an original tape is going for a few hundred dollars a
piece! Turns out camera negatives or final video masters (as they
remarkably have for many major network TV movies in the 1980s) to
many have been misplaced or even lost forever, creating a huge list
of orphan releases, especially of the low budget kind. The VHS and
Beta boom caused a whole new second-rate B-movie market to merge that
created cheaper silly product than the Hollywood B-movies up to the
1970s could have never dreamed of.
Besides
interviews with serious collectors, we visit with the heads and
former heads of video labels, here talk about companies here &
gone, see the rise of the tape market and even the box cover art that
looks ambitious (if sometimes cheap depending on the cover) versus
the tired photoshopped hack jobs the major studios issue too often.
They also go into video shop culture, brief notes on the XXX
industry, expected tape wear and many more sideroads, but I like the
idea this undiscussed culture that is a motion picture culture is
finally getting archived and discussed. You'll get a kick out of the
exercise video cycle too.
At
90 minutes, it does a great job of discussing and showing an
important moment in cinema history that studios and our public
discourse have treated as disposable too quickly. Even Super VHS
gets discussed, though CED Select-A-Vision discs (they played with a
video needle and bombed for RCA to the tune of $140 Million (nearly
$300 Million by the beginning of 2014) and high definition attempts
to save tape like ED Beta, W-VHS and D-VHS/D-Theater are skipped. A
nice bit on the 12” LaserDisc format (the precursor to Blu-ray and
DVD) does turn up as a deleted scene in the extras, but all deserve
more time, maybe in a sequel. There is certainly enough missed
material to cover and we'll see where the VHS revival goes. This one
is worth your time if you are a movie or pop culture fan.
Extras
include a feature length audio commentary track by Director Johnson,
Director Of Photography/Editor Christopher Palmer & Producer
Carolee Mitchell, original unused animations cut to not slow down the
main program (though interesting), a Music Video and over an hour of
cut material, some of which should have stayed in the main cut and
suggests a sequel is very possible.
The
Tupac
Double Feature
update two looks at the murder of prolific and controversial rapper
Tupac Shakur in updated versions of two previously released programs
by Richard Bond: Tupac:
Conspiracy
and Tupac:
Aftermath.
As many know, after surviving one set of gunshots in a shootout,
Shakur was in Las Vegas when another hail of bullets showered his
way, but this time, he did not survive and was killed. Outside of
personal revenge rumors or possible dissatisfaction by his former
label Death Row Records that his contract was over, others have said
it was part of the so-called East Coast/West Coast feud and others
have gone as far as to accuse the CIA (among other U.S. Government
agencies) of being the true culprit.
So
what happened? Both programs ask many questions, examine all kinds
of evidence, wonder aloud about complacency and worse with the Las
Vegas Police Department and examines many sides of the matter
including various interviews and even stock footage. At least we get
updates, but these works are both far more speculative than
journalistic and even at their boldest, some ugly possibilities seem
unexamined (the government got rid of Tupac, et al, out of a
pre-Obama fear of an African American community uprising against who
knows whom) and fans will find this interesting if no one else. All
I was reminded of is how Rap and Hip-Hop have been in free fall since
his death and who knows what we lost artistically and personally
since.
A
preview for a third examination on Tupac due soon is the only extra.
Last
but not least is Pamela Dryden's Where
I Am
(2012) about the writer Robert Drake, a Quaker and Gay man who moved
to Ireland, found the love of his life, was prolifically writing and
building his career when in the early 2000s, he was jumped, attacked
and left for dead by what turned out to be two young Irish males in
their early 20s. Drake barely survived and the men were quickly
caught by authorities, but despite the permanent damage they caused
Drake, they only served 8 years each when they should have received
far more.
As
of this release, Drake can barely walk, has permanent brain damage,
has trouble talking, can barely type and needs help 24/7 to live.
Recuperating in Philadelphia, this remarkable work follows him in a
return to Ireland to see where he used to live. He does not remember
anything about the attack. but has publicly forgiven the duo who he
wants to meet when he goes back. He is an amazing person and the
support he has from friends and others is great, but even at only 72
minutes, this has amazing impact, made me feel there was not enough
justice in the matter (the attacker's lawyers tried an idiotic gay
panic defense that they tried to kill him when they realized he was
gay; that deserves a separate essay to expose the many nuances of
hate and ignorance in that asinine idea) and I hope Drake finds peace
and more ways to recover if possible. This is also very
journalistically impressive.
There
are no extras.
The
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on all three releases have
their softness and limits from being digital shoots, but the Tupac
works have rough analog video, some new badly shot footage, aliasing
errors and other raw, rough quality images that hold back their
presentations, though it cold be argued that it is the nature of the
programs they look that way. Rewind
also has its share of older footage, but it is more consistently
good.
The
lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on Rewind
has some of the best audio here, but it also includes plenty of old
and rough analog monophonic audio from old TV ads and old VHS &
Beta tapes. The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on Am
can more than compete because most of it is newly recorded simple
stereo interview audio. Tupac
offers lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 sound that is barely stereo, often
compressed and has a bit of hum throughout both programs.
-
Nicholas Sheffo
