FRONTLINE: the pbs documentary series not the flea medicine

has anyone watched PRISON STATE?
there is a faint undercurrent that rubs me the wrong way but i think it might be the music. it makes me feel like i'm being emotionally manipulated, and i hate that. especially with a topic like this one.

i LOVE christel's mom though. she is such an excellent straight talker and reminds me of my students. i haven't watched the whole thing yet though. speaking of students, they're writing their frontline papers right now. i'm pretty proud of them.

There are a ton of "documentaries" on Netflix streaming that are just propaganda films disguised as documentaries (Morgan Spurlock has a lot to answer for) but they seem to be wildly popular. I wonder if the use of manipulative music in a Frontline doc is an attempt to ride that trend. It's gross, though, and they shouldn't do it.

yeah that is a seriously unfortunate trend
i don't like docs like that even when i agree with what they're saying

Yeah, ditto. They feel greasy.

they are greasy!

I started Prison State, but lost interest. Given its length, it felt like there was way more they could do with the topic. The personal interest side of the story has merit, but I would've preferred more focus on the big picture.

agree
i think we are encountering more films like these two (small picture vs big picture) because, i'm guessing, frontline acquires films the same way that other doc series do? by purchasing broadcasting rights from movies that have already been made? i'm guessing that the films covering the big picture are much more expensive to make (requiring travel, etc) and these films can be done on a much smaller budget. therefore there are more of these films to choose from, and the other ones just aren't getting made like they used to, at least not without larger institutional support. just a thought.

(other PBS doc series like independent lens, for example)

Frontline draws from a roster of producers who pitch them stories...my understanding is that the show commissions original work.

ah, did not know that! interesting.

That's just anecdotal...I have a friend who did one last year and is just beginning work on another. Maybe they do buy finished stuff occasionally, but I would think that because of the show's distinctive pacing and narration they'd need entirely new edits.

Big picture is so important, especially with docs about the prison industrial complex. Individual stories bring it home, but there are connections (connections maaaaaannnn) that need to be explored/highlighted to really convey the depth and breadth of the problem.

yeah i was disappointed in the two incarceration-themed ones so far
disappointed in that they were lost opportunities

most episodes are original commissioned work but not all, for example: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Interrupters

also i like stirring music in my docs ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

i haven't watched frontline in a while but this is good news http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/pressroom/press-release-frontline-wins-major-funding-to-expand-investigative-reporting/

Largest gift from an individual in FRONTLINE’s history and two-year Ford Foundation grant will support the series’ digital transformation

In a media environment where original broadcast journalism is under siege, PBS’ flagship investigative series FRONTLINE – produced by WGBH in Boston – is the recipient of two new major grants to expand its original investigative reporting.

Longtime WGBH supporters Jon and Jo Ann Hagler have made the single largest gift by an individual to FRONTLINE in its 30-year history: $5 million, with the majority going towards a new endowment for continuing journalism. In addition, the Ford Foundation is making a two-year, $800,000 grant towards a new cross-platform Enterprise Journalism Group within FRONTLINE that will deepen the series’ in-house investigative bench.

In to recommend Merchants of Cool, apologies if it has been discussed (hard to determine on phone).

I enjoyed United States of Secrets. Learned a lot tbh as I hadn't really studied the whole affair.

i couldn't make it through the one about losing iraq

too dry or too bleak?

a little of both
it was a huuuuuuuuge bummer to go back to the bush years and seeing their stupid faces again

i still remember vividly how I felt the day they invaded. Incredulous. up to the last minute I was convinced it was all gonna be brinksmanship and they wouldn't really do it. because it was so blisteringly obvious it was the worst fucking idea in history.

yeah it's the combo of realizing how much time has passed on a global and personal level and realizing how little anything has improved. huuuuuuuuuge bummer.
seeing the accumulated damage was a bit much for me
it's important to know/show but man

yeah i never was and never will be a 911 conspiracy adherent but i don't need to be to feel the dizzying horror of the neocons. still a little stunned tbh that a coven of radicals used a legit atrocity as their chance to hijack the nation, ruin the economy and a sizeable portion of the world, & c & c. fuck those guys forever in hell.

it was a huuuuuuuuge bummer to go back to the bush years and seeing their stupid faces again

― cross over the mushroom circle (La Lechera), Tuesday, August 5, 2014 7:27 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Jeff had added a lot of documentaries about the Bush years to our Netflix queue and I can't watch any of them. It may never not be too soon for me, really.

Otm

yeah it's a major anxiety trigger for me! i didn't realize it, but it is.

I was impressed with how they let Obama have it too, thought that needed to happen.

Sometimes I get bugged by the Frontline thing of emphasizing personalities over real information and context, but it worked ok here. I would have loved an overview of the history of the region, the players, the alliances, but that's probably another documentary.

this is kinda cute/sad but not surprising (esp about daniela)
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/media/generation-like/what-did-generation-like-think-of-generation-like/

FRONTLINE: if the ebola doc doesn't give you nightmares, maybe the human trafficking/unspeakable atrocities one will!

Tonight on FRONTLINE: One hour. Two timely documentaries.

First, in Ebola Outbreak, FRONTLINE travels to Sierra Leone for an intimate, on-the-ground look at why the outbreak has spiraled out of control -- and the devastating impact it's having on families and health care workers.

Then, in Hunting Boko Haram, FRONTLINE uncovers video footage of atrocities allegedly by Nigerian security forces in the fight against Boko Haram -- the Islamist militant group that kidnapped nearly 300 schoolgirls in April, and is now seizing territory in northeast Nigeria.

I swear sometimes I think the Frontline producers have a magical viewmaster they can use to look deep into my brain and suss out my greatest fears and then make compelling, hard-hitting TV documentaries about them.

The image they chose for the ebola one is burned on my brain but I couldn't find a linkable version. It's v arty.

How quickly do they put them up to stream on the website? I'd watch these tonight if allowed to!

Either same day or next day, I think?

ok i have watched them both
the one about ebola was educational and sad
the one about boko haram was terrifying and very graphic with bodies and violence

the one that was on a few weeks ago about the small town crime was really interesting. i like the small focus ones as much as the wider focus ones.

this is the grossest headline i've seen in a while
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/health-science-technology/trouble-with-antibiotics/can-e-coli-in-supermarket-meat-cause-utis/

let me clarify -- there is apparently a relationship between "supermarket meat", e coli, and infections in your urinary tract

U got yr chocolate in my peanut butter :(

New Rise Of ISIS episode is excellent and ultimately depressing timeline of the current shitstorm.

agree
it was really illuminating about how isis came to be but also featured actual people being/appearing to be shot dead so please know that there is major violence in there

this time of year frequently makes me want to wallow in horror and misery
for those times, i've got frontline

this liberia/firestone thing i just started it and it's already so o_O

yea it was so intense

also harbel = harbl in my mind

mine too :)

Ok I finally watched the one about Firestone and the Taylor regime and it completely freaked me out -- it's testament to the self-absorption of teenagers that I could be in high school in Akron in the early 90s, be a politically aware young person, and not know this was happening. I do remember hearing the word Liberia a lot, and I remember seeing some video footage/photos of men with guns packed into military-looking vehicles, but that's about it. Also I really think they could stand to put more trigger warnings before this one -- there were executions and children whose hands had been severed, among other atrocities. Honestly I don't know how I watched this considering all the other shit going on in the world right now, but I did.

Can't say I recommend it exactly, but I'm glad I saw it.

when I was watching it and they said Akron I was like "dang I've never heard of this stuff before but clearly LL will have been on this for decades"

Lol. Good job firestone keeping this shit tamped down I guess!

NB I got really freaked out by this episode and have not finished yet

"trigger warnings" for what? i mean what would it trigger?

other than just, you know, horror

Panic attacks? PTSD?

The one about the rise of the NRA is essential viewing. Interesting portrait of propaganda too, for anyone who teaches persuasion.

yea this nra ep is p well done