Design
Is One
(2013/Vignelli/First Run DVD)/Dinosaur
13 (2014/CNN/Lionsgate
Blu-ray)/Tricked
(2013/First Run DVD)
Picture:
C+/B-/C+ Sound: C+/B-/C+ Extras: C+ Documentaries:
B/B-/B-
Here
are some new documentaries for you to consider catching...
Kathy
Brew and Roberto Guerra's Design
Is One
(2013) tells
the story of Leila and Massimo Vignelli,
those designs combined modernist design with a sense of Italian
sensibilities in the cleverest ways resulting in them creating some
of the most important, enduring and lasting graphic arts, designs,
furniture, devices, logos and architecture ever made. You've seen
their work for corporations and product makers and not even known it,
so successful and long-term prolific in their production they have
been. This new documentary at a tight 79 minutes (I wish it were
longer, but would recommend one
called Helvetica
that you can see on Blu-ray elsewhere on this site) that shows their
amazing work and legacy.
We
spend plenty of time with them and they are interviewed, along with
many of their friends and associates. We see how far their works
have gone, how effective the work has been and this also includes
vintage film and video clips with all kinds of stills. Definitely
catch this one!
Extras
include text Biographies, text Resources, In Memoriam section and 11
Bonus Shots to be seen after watching the documentary.
Todd
Douglas Miller's Dinosaur
13
(2014) is
the story of how a complete T-Rex dinosaur was found that was not
only amazingly complete, but was the largest ever found. The amazing
team that found it did everything as correctly and as legally as they
thought, but by trusting a man who turned on them and not consulting
a lawyer and getting a proper contract going, landed up having the
dino seized not just via legal error, but by the federal government
who (guided by investigators who made it a bigger deal than it needed
to be) said the discoverers had violated dozens of federal laws and
thus a Kafkaesque nightmare began for all involved. This was bad for
the town Sue (as the dino was named) was found in, the great people
who found it and for anyone who loves great discoveries.
In
fairness to some of those criticized, they were not interviewed and
the 100 minutes might get a little one-sided, but this still has
great footage and interviews throughout, becomes a cautionary tale of
why you should ALWAYS have lawyers in special situations like this
and how this luckily has somewhat of a happy ending for fans of Sue
and all archeological and dinosaur research. I actually had a chance
to see Sue a few years ago, extremely well preserved and saved, so I
want to thank those who saved her. You may have been through some
unfair, rough and ugly things, but it will always be your legacy,
even if you don't get the credit you deserve for it.
Extras
include Digital HD Ultraviolet Copy for PC, PC portable and iTunes
capable devices, while the Blu-ray adds raw footage of The
Complete Auction Of Sue,
Deleted Scenes (some of which could have stayed in the program),
Complete
Story Of Sue
featurette, short How
To Build A Dinosaur
and Fossil Whales Of Peru.
Jane
Welles & John-Keith Wasson take on a tough subject of human
trafficking and sexual exploitation in Tricked
(2013), a recent documentary about
men who become pimps by beating, terrorizing, kidnapping and
manipulating young ladies to make money for them and keep 100% of the
profits. Myths about grown women 'doing that willingly' (similar to
some critiques of the XXX sex business on film and video) are quickly
and rightly disproven throughout the often hard-to-watch 75 minutes
that have the exploiting men amazingly candid about their hatred of
women and open willingness to exploit, use and much, much worse
throughout. Why none of them have been arrested or worse since this
was released is pathetic.
We
meet the survivors of the exploitation, including one who was
targeted at her college and got used very quickly with nowhere to
turn, her kindness taken as weakness to say the very least. What is
captured is so rotten, you'd think you were watching a recruiting
film or propaganda that says this is somehow acceptable behavior, but
all these men (including the customers) should go to jail and worse.
The co-directors sometimes even miss how bad things are and not
enough is being said. How Hip Hop/Rap culture celebrates these
criminals is insane, down to extravagant shows in Las Vegas (!?!),
but we interview more than a few great police officers fighting
against these situations that are no more than modern slavery
targeting women of color and (usually) poor white females.
Most
telling of all in the subliminal terror these criminals use is this
bizarre woman who produces the glitzy, gaudy drinking mugs with all
kinds of designs and 'bling' on them for these pimp types. She roots
for them and hopes they'll prosper and do well as she self-censors
herself severely about the female victims who she re-victimizes with
her stupid junk production. Capping all off is a shrine she has to
the pimps and these goblets where she is practically doing mamalois
voodoo chants as good luck. This includes supernatural, religious,
spiritual and evidently Satanic terrorism too!
This
one is worth a good look, but expect some dehumanizing moments
throughout. Laws and law enforcement needs to change (along with
bigger budgets to combat it all) because this is an extremely
unacceptable situation.
Extras
include extensive text resources and 4 more scenes that should have
stayed in the main program.
The
1080p 1.78 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer on Dinosaur
show the age of the older analog and low definition digital video
materials used, but that is an issue with all the releases here, but
it just
passes up the anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image on the two DVDs
that look as good as you would expect for that older format. The
DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Dinosaur
is also the best sonically here, but it also share rough older audio
issues (monophonic sound, location audio limits) that all three
releases do, as the lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo on the DVDs hold
their own sounding as good as they could. Especially Tricked
with all of its surveillance footage.
-
Nicholas Sheffo