Fearless Netflix Documentary
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Fearless Netflix Documentary

Byrichard


Fearless is a documentary produced by Netflix, exploring the life of bull riders that come from Brazil, to the US to compete in 26 competitions to see who is the best bull rider. This documentary is interesting because, for the most part it is in Portuguese with English subtitles.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT0avi4Qy3E


Big in Brazil


In Brasil there is an event Barretoswhere 900,000 people, at the time the documentaries were made, go to watch bull riders compete against each other. Bull riding is a unique sport because a person tries to hold on to a bucking bull as it tries to throw the rider off. The rider gets point for style, but so does the bull. If the bull throws the rider off within eight seconds then the rider gets zero points. If the rider stays on then they can get up to 90 points.


Dangerous


The sport is very dangerous because it’s a small human being, on a big bull. They can get thrown and land on their head and break their neck, trampled, headbutted, and more. They can get their arms or legs caught. They risk injury in a multitude of ways. The paradox is that it lasts for eight seconds. All of that danger and risk, for an activity that lasts a few seconds.


If you look at the stats you can see how often bull riders are thrown off their bulls. It’s impressive to see that people fall from two or more meters onto the ground and often walk away. it’s interesting to watch the helpers get in front of the bull to block its path when the rider is bucked off.


It’s a strange sport because the humans are injured, rather than the bulls. The bulls are fine aftre the competition.


Glimpses of How They Train


An aspect of the documentaries that I like is that we see that it’s not just that they ride bulls, and that is it. They train. We see a five or so year old child try riding a calf and get thrown several times. “Do you want to ride again?” “yes”. We also see a slightly older girl practice riding on the barrel. “Stay on, don’t let go” as the barrel mounted on a spring goes forwards and backwards, and from side to side.


We also see how the adults train, how they ride the grown up equivalent of a rodeo bull, how they react, how they “dance” to keep their balance and to negate the movements made by the bull to throw them off.


Fear


Although the documentary series is called Fearless it explores the riders and how they deal with fear, injury and continue riding. They explore how the riders are confident, until they are injured, and how they recover from the injury and it’s physiological and psychological effects. They use the analogy of broken eggs, and how one or two riders get injured, but seem unphased.


One rider speaks about how he retired, and never once missed bull riding. Another questions whether to retire at the end of the season.


And Finally


I am familiar with Razeteurs, bull fighting and the Running of the Bulls. I have even witnessed the running of the bulls in a small village. Bull riding is one version I have never really thought about, because in Europe Bullfighting, bull running and Razeteurs are more common. I watched this documentary by fluke, and I like the subject matter.


It explores family, bull riding in the US and Brazil, about family, life as a migrant in the US, with little to no English, and more. It’s a good subject matter. It is well filmed, well edited, with good use of event commentator and bull rider interviews.

Nanook Of The North
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Nanook Of The North

Byrichard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkW14Lu1IBo


Two days ago I watched Nanook of the North, a documentary about an Inuit man and his family. This isn’t a documentary in the conventional sense. This documentary dates back to 1922 when the Documentary film was a brand new genre. This is one of the first documentaries, if not the first. I read about it for years, until, when I was watching Northern Exposure I did a search and came across the documentary on Filmin.


No Voice Over


The documentary has no voice over because it’s a silent film. You get intertitles instead that explain what you’re seeing. For many decades the documentary genre existed hand in hand with anthropolgy, the idea that the documentary could be used to document old ways of life, fascets of life and more. Nanook of the North was an early experiment


The Setback


At first Robert Flaherty filmed when he had time during an expedition. He would take the free time he had to document the lives of the Inuit. Eventually, the rushes burned due to a fire. He had shot 70,000 feet of film, almost twelve hours of 35 mm film. Hee was left with just the edit print. He showed it around before deciding that he didn’t like it, so he reshot Nanook of the North. (source: A New History of Documentary film, Jack C. Ellis and Betsy A. McLane, p12, 2005)


The content


Nanook of the north is a series of static shots that show an inuit family living their lives. We see them at a trading post, discovering the gramophone tasting it and more. We read about the children enjoying some sweets, to excess, and then taking castor oil, and smiling. We also see a seal hunt, a walrus hunt and the trapping of a fox, among other scenes. We see some traditional forms of doing these various activities.


At the start of the documentary there is an amusing moment where the Kayak comes to shore, and you see the entire family climb out of it, including a dog.


If not for Nannok of the North then such a scene would be read or heard about, but never seen.


The Interior Igloo scene


Nanook of the North did some controversy because it was seen as setup, as not really illustrating inuit life, especially the igloo scene. It’s interessting to see how clear ice was used as a window, with the adding of a block of snow as a reflector to get more light inside. I mention this because at least two or three times we see scenes that are supposed to happen within the iglood.


Due to how cramped an igloo is, and due to the lack of light, and film stock of the time, it would have been impossible to film within the igloo, so they faked it, outdoors. It illustrates the morning ritual. At one point we read, and see, the wife chewing a shoe, to defrost it in the morning, due to the cold night freezing it over. If the Igloo scene had not been faked outdoors, then the interior layout of an igloo would have been lost. By taking a small liberty we preserve history.


Watchability


Although the film is 101 years old, at the time of the writing of this post it is still easy to watch today, and it is pleasant. It shows various moments of inuit life, without being boring. At moments it even feels more like a home video than a documentary. I found myself thinking that anyone with a family could watch it and enjoy it. It has survived the test of time.


The Man With the Movie Camera


For historical context, the Man with the Movie Camera would be shot seven years later, in 1929.


The Digital Age


One of the luxuries of the Digital Age is that many of these films have been digitised, and in so doing they have been made easier to access. When I was reading about these documentaries I had to imagine them. I had to rely on frames of the film and descriptions. Now with a quick Google or other search we can find and watch these documentaries. They may be old, and they may be part of history, but students of the genre don’t need to search through university libraries to find VHS copies of old films like I did. Within seconds you can find content that took me years, or even decades to find. Nanook of the North is a key film, so to understand documentary we must watch it.

Documentaries about JavaScript Frameworks

Documentaries about JavaScript Frameworks

Byrichard

Within the last week Honeypot Originals have released a number of documentaries. Each episode covers a different JavaScript Framework. So far that have Vue.js, Ember.js, Elixir and GraphQL. Each of these documentaries is about half an hour long and interviews some of the key players. What is nice about these documentaries is that they take names and projects that may be familiar to us, but add faces and context to them. I have heard about some of these people via podcasts and more. With these videos I get to listen to them, and watch them explain the importance of their projects.


Vue.js: The documentary from Vue.js: The Documentary by Honeypot Originals


After watching these videos you may get a better understanding of why you would, or would not want to study a specific language. It takes a project from just being a name in the title of a video to something less abstract.


The video about Vue.js cleared some of my hesitancy about studying the framework. Hearing about how the Laravel and other communities grew to be interested in the framework is interesting. It seems like a worthwhile alternative to React and Angular, the two giants in the space.


When I watched the video about GraphQL I didn’t really get the answer about why I should choose it over JSON. So far the answer seems to be “because it only returns the data you want to use. I will need to spend time trying to understand what its key selling point is.


I wanted to take a break from the usual studying habit today, to have a rest day whilst still moving forward.


I am now fourty percent through a Udemy Course to master javascript and I am struggling more, now, than before. It isn’t easy to master such a complex subject. I should practice more, from outside of the course. I thought strings would be simple but there are details that I need to explore further.


That’s it for today.

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Spoonley Wood Roman Villa and Mosaic

Byrichard

Roman remains may be found and excavated but sometimes nature reclaims them. These ruins were discovered in 1882 but nature returned and hid them safely away again. Such tweets should inspire archeological departments, and film and TV or BA Media Studies to document the process of re-excavating these ruins, with photogrammetry and other modern tech used.


https://twitter.com/MSFMagic/status/1493179373431803904

One And A Half Years of Pandemic fatigue

Byrichard

For the first one hundred days of the pandemic it felt long but we had a hope, and the impression that respective governments were working to eradicate the pandemic so that we could resume normal life. Eventually though people against lockdowns, and against other measures began to be heard and so societies around the world reopened, and with the reopening of society so the virus flared up again. In the French part of Switzerland society is opening up despite half of people tested for covid testing positive, and despite knowing that the numbers are climbing by around 30 percent per week.


The number of children falling sick is increasing in Switzerland but some cantons are allowing children to stop wearing masks and it is written about as if it is a liberation. Before this pandemic falling sick, or being exposed to illness was either never, or rarely seen as a right. Health was seen as a right.


Vaud is going to remove the obligation to wear masks in crowds and in towns, meaning that now, if you want to stay safe, you have to stay away from crowds, cities and to some degree even villages.


Today when I wrote that with the new measures I would continue to avoid towns and cities as people are not wearing masks I was told “well it’s your choice to continue, if you wish. Leave the choice to others” to which I responded that self-isolation isn’t our choice because the risk of being infected comes from those who are either not masked, not vaccinated, or not self isolated. I was called a liar so I blocked the troll.


I recognise that logic. It is the logic of alcoholics and drunks. “I can do what I want because it doesn’t harm anyone.” and “Let other people have their freedoms” and other such attitudes. Selfishness. For the entirety of this pandemic the idea of people being selfish has permeated the pandemic conversation.


To get out of this pandemic we need selflessness and empathy. We need people to vaccinate, to wear masks, to aerate, to socially distance and to show empathy for others. At the moment the opposite is happening. Those who think there is nothing to worry about are forcing those who want to remain safe, to withdraw to the countryside and minimise any and all social contact.


Those who don’t want measures, are forcing those who want to minimise risk of catching the virus to live in solitude, ostracised from society for taking a pandemic seriously. This ostracism has lasted for two years and there is no sign of it getting any better for months or even years to come.


The Infection Paradox


The biggest challenge we face as a society is that there is the notion that the current variants are safe. There is the misplaced idea that we can fall sick, but because we’re not ending up in hospital, that it is safe. With the speed at which the virus spreads through society it will take weeks to infect everyone. That’s where the discussion about intentional eugenics comes in.


If we are optimists then we think there is nothing to worry about and in a few weeks the pandemic is over. If we are well-read realists then we have seen that from 10 percent to 60 percent of people develop Long Covid, and that many are being infected two or three times within a month or two.


Europe is falling sick, and we don’t know what the long term effects of Covid-19 are. We will see how history remembers this moment in time. We have to sit and wait for this pandemic to end.


On twitter I have found a bubble of likeminded people who think we should be working towards covid zero, and minimising risk, rather than the opposite.

Seeing the Pandemic As A Journey

Seeing the Pandemic As A Journey

Byrichard

Last night I was reading and began seeing the pandemic as a journey. The pandemic has been a journey for everyone, but especially for those in solitude. For those of us in solitude, it has required that we completely change how we consume the media and how we interact with the world. We go for weeks without hugs, without kisses, without meals with other people. For weeks, we may exchange a few words at a shop or petrol station but without ever having in person conversations.



This changes us. I believe that this is why I walked two to three kilometres further, sometimes, to avoid being within meters of others. Solitude is painful when we are reminded that others are not solitary. Bizarrely, with time, the pain of pandemic solitude diminishes as we give up on some aspects of life.


Giving up on those aspects does mean avoiding most films, television series, current affairs podcasts. Instead of listening to the usual content, I ended up with podcasts about journeys, whether the American thru-hikes or other forms of journeys. I am currently reading “Le Camino Seule, enfin presque” and this is what made me think of the pandemic as a journey, where we work on ourselves, on our inner journey, while waiting impatiently for normality to return.


It isn’t easy to turn fourty in solitude during a pandemic. It wouldn’t be easy out of pandemic either, because we know that doors are closing. The energy to be lively around toddlers, of not going on road trips and sitting in cafés alone. Of never speaking about “we” because of the never-ending I of solitude.


I am fine with solitude. What bothers me is ageing and theoretically running out of time to experience certain chapters in the standard model life, as I like to call it.


The pandemic has forced us to accept two years of solitude, and to cope with it, to be fine with it. I refuse to accept the fatalism of married people, and people who have a home life. I want society to do what it can to end this pandemic. Teenagers, children and single people are forced to grow old without being able to enjoy a “normal” life because those who are not alone make excuses for not self-isolating.


I like solitude because I am not expected to feel sorry for people who have more than me, emotionally. I am not forced to hear things that make me miserable. Whether we are miserable or not, during this pandemic, depends on what we are subjected to. Solitude is pleasant. Fatalism about the pandemic being out of control is soul-destroying.


Pandemic life is absurd, so the sooner it ends, the sooner people who are not in solitude, do what they can to end the pandemic, the sooner people in solitude, can start experiencing social lives again.


I want the pandemic to end, and I want people in power to stop making excuses for why this evergreen pandemic can’t end. The pandemic could end within two or three months, if we had ambitious optimists in power, rather than corrupt individuals. For clarity, I mean corrupt in the sense that people are too afraid to lose their job, than to fight for human rights. The right to health, the right to live out of pandemic.

Day 33 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A video walk
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Day 33 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – A video walk

Byrichard

Today I went on a video walk with the DJI OSMO pocket three or whichever number it has and I took a series of frames. Before going for my daily walk I searched through the Vision Du Réel virtual Film Festival list of films and I found “The Bridge“. It’s available for all to watch during the festival. I didn’t watch it in full but from what I saw it’s a series of shots in the style of Dziga Vertov’s Man With the Movie Camera.


This inspired me to get out and go for a walk and try an experiment of my own. It’s nine minutes of footage of a village during lockdown in Switzerland. You can hear birds cheeping, banging of some kind or other, people playing in the distance and more. You can also see the occasional car, pedestrian or cyclist. If ever you wanted to go and get B-roll for a post-apocalyptic film it would be now.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsYjDnzj0EM
A few minutes of footage for a small village in Switzerland during self-isolation.


The footage was quickly edited using DaVinci resolve and I simply removed the chrominance. It would take seconds to prepare the version with normal colours. This is as an hommage to the vision Du Réel documentary.


Walking And Finding Old Trees

Walking And Finding Old Trees

Byrichard

Walking and finding old trees is still possible if you look around. If you’re attentive you can find trees that are hundreds of years old. They are massive compared to younger trees. Their trunk is broad and their branches are complex.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWb2iO9F0KM


If you walk around the Mediterranean you will find thousand-year-old olive trees and if you walk around Switzerland it is also possible to find old trees. There are two or three parks in Geneva where you can find them. You can find them at the Chateau De Penthes and other places.


The Sequoia that once stood tall and proud in the Chateau de Penthes. It was struck by lightning. This is its stump, with a sapling growing out of its remains.



There was a branch growing out of the tree to the left that was growing sideways and almost touched the floor when we were younger. It was fun to stand on the branch and make it move. Since then that branch has grown and now touches the floor so the game is over. In the background you can see the Lac Léman, with the alps and the Mont Blanc in the distance.


Old trees are instantly recognisable because they are either tall and broad like the Sequoia that used to live at the Chateau De Penthes or the one by the lake in Nyon before it died and was cut down. Others, such as the one featured in this blog post are broad with a complex system of branches. Another one is near the sports centre in Crans. It is located here.


It’s easy to drive or cycle by this tree without noticing. When you stop and stand next to it you see that the trunk is broad and the branch system is interesting.


Sequoias by the Parc Mon Repos in Geneva.


If you walk by the lakeside in Geneva you can see a few old trees. These sequoias are by the road that enters or leaves Geneva, depending on whether you live inside or outside of Geneva. If you’re ready to walk a few minutes you will find them easily.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00H1_MLTfWQ
Flying around a tree in Eysins


Of course one of the advantages of old trees that are in the middle of fields is that you can get footage of them from various angles that would only be accessible with a crane camera or other tools. With video you will see the complex branch system, the width of the trunk and if you’re filming at the right time of year, the biome that lives within it. I flew around this tree in spring, when it was flowering. Enjoy the majesty of this tree.

Objectified – A Design Documentary Split Into Individual Interviews.

Byrichard

Objectified is a documentary about industrial design that has been divided into interviews with individuals about a diversity of designs, from the casing of the Mac Book Pro to chairs, a CD player that behaves like a fan and much more.


On Linkedin, this documentary has been cut up and split into chapters so that you can either watch the documentary in its entirety or you can watch it as video on demand with the designers you’re interested in or familiar with. It’s a contemporary implementation of the documentary genre because it assumes that you have five minutes at a time to devote to this documentary.


You also have the option of reading the transcript instead of watching the videos if desired. Some interviews are in French, German, Dutch, Japanese or English so you are not obliged to listen to an actor dubbing the interview or read the subtitles. You can simply lesson.


The reason for which I thought this documentary was blogworthy is that once you have watched the final edit version of the documentary you can watch the rushes. You can watch the interventions that were interesting but that was too long-winded or not compelling enough to make the final cut.


I like this. As an editor, we often work on videos and we rough cut to a video that’s three or four times longer than it should be and we listen, and we remove a phrase, and then another before we finally end up with the short version that is youtube or Instagram worthy. We feel that other sentences were interesting but because of limits with time and attention stay in the rushes bin.



In these clips we see the adjustments in shot size, we hear the person ramble and repeat themselves. We also see the video without cutaways or other embellishments. This lends a cinéma verité/direct cinema feel to the documentary. It’s easy to get half an hour to an hour’s worth of interview with each artist or designer and be forced to keep just the two most relevant minutes for the documentary.


Luckily with platforms like Linkedin Learning we can follow the course, i.e. Objectified, in this case, and call it a day, leaving the rest of the videos unwatched. We also have the option to expand and to learn more. I’m using Objectified as the example but there are plenty of topics and documentaries that would benefit from this approach to film making.


Plenty of Linkedin videos are of people reading from a prompter and you can see their eyes moving across the screen, and you can see that they’re pretending to be spontaneous rather than natural.


Documentaries, and Linkedin Learning are well suited, and more documentaries should make their way onto this platform.