Supertramp: The Story So Far (2002)

What a disappointment.

This is more concert video than a documentary of the great British group with a stable of hits including The Logical Song, Fool's Overture, Give a Little Bit and Dreamer.

Only a portion of Supertramp: The Story So Far is dedicated to telling Supertramp's story. The band goes from forming to Rodger Hodgson leaving in 1983 in 12 minutes. Things get more interesting when, after a slew of musical performances from concert dates that year, Rick Davies talks about two post-Hodgson albums, Brother, Where You Bound and Free as a Bird.

We learn very little about albums such as Crime of the Century and Crisis, What Crisis. We hear no stories of how their hits came to be. Again, this changes when Davies talks about songs such as Free as a Bird after Hodgson leaves the group.

Live takes of songs such as From Now On, Goodbye Stranger and Crazy are fine to hear. Don't expect to hear much different from the studio versions.

The disc also features four music videos, including I'm Beggin' You from Free As A Bird (Remastered). Davies shakes his head at the memory of the song being a dance hit. Go figure.

The Story so Far carries a 1990 copyright. Then, Davies suggests the band will get back together. They did - for 1997's Some Things Never Change by EMI International.

Supertramp deserves as a better documentary than this. Will we ever get to see one?

RATING: 6/10

UPDATED: Concert CD, It was the Best of Times, came out in 1999 featuring material from Some Things Never Change. Mark Hart, vocalist recruited following Rodger Hodgson's departure, gets more attention singing new songs and material once done by Hodgson.

UPDATED: This Supertramp fan enjoys listening to Some Things Never Change, but keeps hoping Supertramp will reunite for one last tour with Davies and Hodgson.

Page One: Inside the New York Times (2011)

David Carr gets the best moment in Page One: Inside the New York Times.
The media reporter for The New York Times is attending a conference. He holds up a printout of articles featured on a news aggregator's website. Next, Carr presents the same printout with all the newspaper stories cut out. The page is littered with holes.
Message: newspapers create content that people read online. Fewer newspapers, less content.
I'm a print journalist so this film is tailor made for a film film like myself.
Declining readership, and the move of advertising dollars from print to online, have prompted plenty of job cuts in the newspaper industry. My newspaper employed five editors when I started. Now, there's one. Five reporters now try to cover what eight did before. Papers have stopped operating too. In Canada, the Guelph Mercury in Ontario no longer publishes. The Mercury was a daily paper in a city with a population topping 100,000. Not anymore.
Director Andrew Rossi (Le Cirque: A Table in Heaven, Ivory Tower) spent a year covering the media beat at The New York Times. The 12-month stretch saw some major stories break in the industry including the bankruptcy of the Tribune media company and Julian Assange and WikiLeaks' release of classified diplomatic cables.
We see Times' staff consider edited video released by Assange and their probing television footage suggesting American military involvement in Iraq is over. What gets covered? What is news?
Page One does point to missteps done by major players in the newspaper industry that have contributed to its woes. Carl Bernstein, who broke Watergate for The Washington Post, points the finger at Gannett Media for cutting jobs and hobbling papers that were strong in their markets. Classified and employment advertising - lost to upstarts such as Craigslist. Carr points the finger at "decades of organizational hubris."
But, a hobbled media hurts democratic societies, various NYT staff warn because government and business is not being held accountable for their actions. Could Watergate happen today with decimated editorial departments? Bernstein himself notes the Post is "a lesser paper" because of job cuts.
To have strong media "to really gather information," says NYT executive editor Bill Keller, is "essential to a functioning democracy."
"It just doesn't work if people don't know," he says.
What this reporter would like to see is another documentary follow a newspaper in a smaller town. What happens when school board meetings don't get covered when there's no newspaper staff to attend? How is municipal government watched for its actions?
Another neat thing about Page One is an accompanying book (Page One: Inside The New York Times) with a series of essays bout the newspaper business. These pieces are short - less than 10 minutes to read per contributing writer. I'd suggest reading the book before or after viewing Page One.
Strong media - newspaper, radio, television, online - offer more coverage in the communities they serve. Competition keeps reporters on their toes so they don't get complacent. Politicians, police, school board officials and businesses know their actions will be watched.
Page One offers a look at what if that coverage no longer exists.
RATING: 8/10

Classic Albums: U2 The Joshua Tree

U2 The Joshua Tree is an album that's taken root since its 1987 release.
The band's fifth album has sold an impressive 25 million copies. (For fun, Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water and Phil Collins' No Jacket Required also sold the same number of copies.)
The Joshua Tree earned U2 two Grammy Awards, album of the year and best rock performance by a duo or group.
Two singles from the album, With or Without You and I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, hit No. 1 in the United States.
2017 marks the 30th anniversary of The Joshua Tree's release.
Beat the rush and watch Classic Albums - U2: The Joshua Tree now.
This film fan is also a huge lover of music. The Classic Albums series has explored how more than 40 albums, including Peter Gabriel's So, Steely Dan's Aja and The Doors' self-titled 1967 album were created.
The approach is the same with each album. Give some background about the band before said album came out. Interview the musicians and producers associated with the album. Include snippets of a contemporary performance of some of the album's songs, cut in music video and live concert footage. Voila, an hour-long episode of Classic Albums.
Too bad my DVD copy of Classic Albums - U2: The Joshua Tree included no bonus footage.
But you do get to see Daniel Lanois and Bono sitting side-by-side at a mixing board talking about the album's songs (Bono on I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For: "It's a very odd sounding song."), The Edge sharing his favorite guitar solo from The Joshua Tree. Hint - it's "the most chilled non-dramatic guitar part," who came up with the drum loop to start Mothers of the Disappeared and how many versions of Bullet the Blue Sky were brought together.
Adam Clayton gets one of the doc's best lines when he describes The Edge's demo of Where the Streets Have No Name: "It just seemed like a way of f------ the band up."
Co-producer Brian Eno makes a neat observation about "the creative collision" that helped create The Joshua Tree near the episode's end.
Don't recall previous Classic Albums' episodes delving into B sides, but Sweetest Thing gets some love here. A good chunk of the video for the flip side of Where the Streets Have No Name rounds out this doc.
RATING: 8/10
FUN FACTS: U2 became the third rock band to be featured on the cover of Time Magazine following the release of Where the Streets Have No Name. The Beatles and The Who were first and second.

The Yes Men (2003)

Yes, The Yes Men is worth a look.

Mike Bonanno and Andy Bichlbaun take a slightly different approach than American filmmaker Michael Moore when it comes to their social activist approach to filmmaking.

Moore often shows up with a camera in tow to confront people he may disagree with. A security guard usually shows up or a hand is put in front of the camera.

Bonanno and Bichlbaun pretend they're representatives of the World Trade Organization and make outlandish statements that would never be spoken by the international group.

Their goal is to highlight what they argue are imbalances in trade between nations. Developed countries get the spoils, they say, and underdeveloped counterparts get the shaft.

Bonanno and Bichlbaun set up a faux WTO-like site and wait for business interests who don't notice they're a bogus entity. The boys start this documentary with a presentation in Finland. They argue the northern states were wrong to interfere with slavery during the American Civil War. Posing as WTO reps, they suggest slavery - repositioned as "remote labour" still offers lucrative boosts to the bottom line in the 21st century. The selling of votes for elections is pitched. Their crowning achievement - a gold coloured suit with a phallic-like attachment that allows corporate brass to monitor what their cheaply paid workers are doing thousands of miles away. Oh, receptors are implanted in the bodies of labourers so the boss, with the aid of transmitters, can feel what they're feeling.

No one asks any questions. No one in the audience is outraged. Media later pick up the story and their appearance gets covered in Fortune Magazine and The New York Times.

The Yes Men continues with a visit to an American college campus, where the younger set are a little more attentive to their pair's message - this time suggesting human waste from America be sold as meat in poorer countries.

Bonanno and Bichlbuan's final appearance is in Australia where it's suggested the World Trade Organization will reinvent itself because, given its current model, poor nations are not being helped.

Audience members are surprised to learn of WTO's plans, but welcome a chance for workers who need a hand up to get one with the trade group's reorientation.

The Yes Men won't win marks for its photography, but its message will make audiences think and ask questions. That's a good thing.

RATING: 8/10

Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010)

Reel Popcorn Junkie occasionally reviews more recent fare. This is one of those films.

I remember hearing rave reviews about Cave of Forgotten Dreams when this documentary was released four years ago. This title was quickly snapped up when I happened upon it on the shelf at my public library last week.

This film from German director Werner Herzog (Fitzcarraldo, Aguirre, The Wrath of God) is essential viewing.

A cave, sealed off for 20,000 years following a rock slide, is found by a trio of French explorers in 1994. They find the earliest known paintings, in this case wall drawings of animals, made by man. There's images of horses, bison, rhinoceros and a bird in flight.

The thought behind the art is incredible. Cave of Forgotten Dreams suggests ideas these artists had are represented in works by 20th century man, including animation. The artists from years ago considered the contours of the cave walls in the presentation of their art. Two overlapping drawings were made 5,000 years apart. Incredible.

There's related explorations of weapons used by our forefathers and early musical instruments, including a flute that can do a very nice rendition of The Star Spangled Banner. A spear launcher is an impressive example of early engineering, giving added oomph to efforts to bring home the day's dinner.

The questions raised about early man's creative efforts are thought provoking.

The crystal formations, made over hundreds of years after the cave was sealed, are spellbinding too.

Part history, art and evolution lesson, Cave of Forgotten Dreams is a great film.

Operation: Dreamland (2005)

Occupation: Dreamland opens with white credits on a black background.

Yet, there's nothing black and white about this documentary about American soldiers in Iraq. Directors Ian Olds and Garrett Scott were given full access to members of the 82nd Airborne during their deployment in Al-Falluja, city of mosques, in 2004.

We learn a lot during this film's brief 78-minute running time.

Many of the soldiers featured were misfits before they enlisted. There were brushes with the law, vain efforts to become a death metal musician, little education, low wage jobs and aimlessness about what direction their lives should take. Enlistment officers worked their magic on at least one new recruit who dropped by to ask some questions, had a two-year maximum enlistment goal in mind and signed on for four.

82nd Airborne's objectives are to maintain order and suppress resistance. Many of the soldiers question how effective they are on both counts. Some acknowledge they'd fight back if Iraqi troops showed up at the doors of their homes wanting to search the properties. It's hard to find hostiles who open fire and then slip away without being detected.

These troops also have some wise insights into the big picture. They question the role of oil in America's interest in Iraq. Soldiers note how the war turned Iraq, a country with some significant achievements in its history, into a "s---hole." Efforts to turn Iraq around will take years is another observation that discounts former President George W. Bush's stance on America's achievements. There's a brief argument about American federal politics that a leader isn't keen to have on film. "War is money," suggests one of the grunts. America, a soldier says, will always be in Iraq. "It's our country now." Maybe Dreamland doesn't just refer to the abandoned retreat where the American troops are based.

Iraqi citizens get some good digs in about their frustrations with the American troops. They don't want colonialism. "America can go to the moon," one man suggests. "We're fed up with guns," suggests another. They want jobs and dependable municipal services such as electricity. "Be careful of Falluja," is an early warning in the film.

Operation: Dreamland offers some occasional laughs too. One solider laments the death of Sonny Bono ("That was our last hope to get a f---ing hippie in office.")

The soldiers wonder what Americans would think if they had a better understanding of what was happening in Iraq. Watch Operation: Dreamland to learn more.

RATING: 8/10

And We Knew How to Dance (1994)

RATING: 10/10

Set your sights on this fantastic Canadian documentary.

This 55-minute release from the National Film Board of Canada is an absolute gem of social history from 1994.

A DOZEN WOMEN SHARE THEIR STORIES

Director Maureen Judge's film features interviews with 12 women, aged 86 to 101, who helped on the homefront during the First World War.

They worked in munitions factories, on farms and in hospitals.

These women signed on for various reasons. Their brothers, fathers or men they knew enlisted. Or, they saw recruitment ads. Some, just like teenaged boys, lied about their ages so they could participate in the Great War.

THE GOOD AND THE BAD

They experienced homesickness, sexism and hostility, but also enjoyed great camaraderie, independence and, in 1918, the vote.

The ladies relate some social mores of the day. Some may leave today's women under 20 scratching their heads. Money earned was turned over to parents. It'd be "vulgar" for a woman to wear slacks. Adultery was considered as serious a wrong-doing as murder. Now, websites offer wives a chance to find men for an affair. Times sure have changed.

The documentary features contemporary performances of war-time songs by Canadian musical group, The Holly Cole Trio. The choice is fitting since Cole is known for reimagining older songs.

STORIES THAT NEED TO BE HEARD

There was plenty of media coverage when Canada's last First World War veteran, John Babcock, died in February 2010 at age 109. And We Knew How to Dance was made just in time. Many of the women interviewed in this film are seen in wheelchairs, using walkers or moving slowly with the assistance of others. Their time would soon come to an end too. "I guess they're all gone now," one woman suggests about her former co-workers.

And We Knew How to Dance isn't for sale on Amazon in Canada or the United States, but can be viewed on the NFB's website at www.onf-nfb.gc.ca

Watch it.

Inside Job (2010)

RATING: 9/10

Viewers get their money's worth with this Oscar-winning documentary.

Director Charles Ferguson's 2010 release about the global economic meltdown in 2008 is must-see viewing for just about everyone on the planet.

With actor Matt Damon's sombre narration, Inside Job does a very good job of explaining, in meat and potato terms, how trillions of dollars, thousands of jobs and homes were all lost in the most painful economic hammering the world has seen since the Great Depression.

Folks, you cannot afford to miss this powerul film that deservedly won an Oscar for best documentary in 2011.

If you follow business and politics, see this film. Inside Job speaks with a who's who of the financial sector including Eliot Spitzer, former governor of New York and New York attorney general, Barney Frank, Democratic representative for Massachusetts, key brass from the International Monetary Fund and Paul Volcker, chairman of the economic recovery advisory board.

If you love President Barack Obama and how America is run, see this film. Pundits interviewed in this film suggest his is "a Wall Street government" that plugged leaders from said New York financial centre into major positions with Obama's administration. The American financial sector pours, literally, billions of dollars into lobbying politicians and making campaign donations.

Republicans don't look so hot either. Inside Job suggests the seeds of the 2008 meltdown began about 30 years earlier when President Ronald Reagan began deregulating the American financial industry. The documentary also critical of the last two leaders of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke and Alan Greenspan.

If you think academics in America offer independent thought on economic policy, see this film. Inside Job suggests economics some professors at major American universities earns a very nice side income working for the financial industry. Inside Job interviews some of them. Their responses make for fascinating viewing.

Readers, I have worked as a reporter for more than a decade. Spokespersons for companies and governments are very smooth with the media. Several get tripped up when answering questions. Rather than ambushing leaders as Michael Moore would, the makers of Insdie Job calmly confront business leaders with facts.

If you're curious about how top talent in the American financial industry are wired, see this film. Inside Job suggests earning lots of money, and then finding ways to spend said cash, are their two prime drivers in life. Big houses. Sports cars. Drugs. Prostitutes. Bring 'em on.

If you're an American citizen who feels a little less prosperous these days, see this film. Inside Job suggests a whopping 80% of Americans have lost ground financially between 1980 and 2007.

Inside Job notes financial quagmires have steadily grown more serious since the 1980s. What can the world's population expect the next time disaster hits?

See this movie.

Secrets of the Dead: D-Day (2004)

Hurray for the mavericks.


Several unconventional thinkers helped Allied leaders overcome many of the deadly obstacles Nazi Germany prepared for an invasion of France during the Second World War. Their story is not often told, but the first half of this very well made PBS documentary offers riveting details about their special creations.

THIS DOCUMENTARY HAS PLENTY TO SAY

Secrets of the Dead: D-Day also offers a welcome chance to hear of the experiences of American, British and German men who were part of D-Day on June 6, 1944.


To escape mines, hedgehogs and barbed wire, American, British and Canadian troops needed specialized equipment.


Andrew Jackson Higgins, a New Orleans boat builder, had starting building what would become assault craft used on D-Day a decade earlier. With some effort, he was able to get the American navy to pay attention to what he made. Even Nazi leader Adolf Hitler learned about Higgins and dubbed him 'The New Noah.'


Nicholas Straussler was a Hungarian engineer who created a flotation system for tanks to navigate on to the Normandy beaches and provide firepower for soldiers. The Allies learned the importance of getting tanks on the beach pronto after the disastrous raid on Dieppe, a French port, in 1942.

SPECIAL WEAPONS, THEN AND NOW

Archival films show early protoypes. A British man, Bob Grundy, tries the flotation system with a tank in the present day. A Second World War veteran who 'swam' to shore with such a tank watches.


Major Gen. Percy Hobart was a British military engineer who devised a number of modified tanks for use in the invasion inclduing a crab tank that used flailing chains to detonate landmines. The Bobbin tank put down a canvas cloth for tanks to ride on so they wouldn't sink into the soft blue clay on the beach.


Learning how these machines came to be is fascinating. The last half of this 95-minute documentary focuses on the invasion itself.

VETERANS SPEAK ABOUT OPERATION OVERLORD

Secrets of the Dead: D-Day includes remembrances from British glider pilots and tank crews, American paratroopers and a German soldier who was part of the defence force at Omaha beach where American troops landed.


Their stories are funny, informative and moving.


My big beef with this fine effort is based on being a Canadian. Where are the remembrances from the Canadian veterans? Canadian troops landed at Juno Beach, but receive scant attention here. Why couldn't at least one Canadian veteran been tapped to recount his experiences on June 6, 1944?


Secrets of the Dead: D-Day offers a great package -- details about new military weapons that helped make the difference in June 1944, archival footage that tracks the development of these weapons and interesting interviews with veterans who were at Normandy 67 years ago. Narrator is Liev Schreiber (X-Men: Origins of Wolverine).


RATING: 9/10

The 13th Mission (2004), The Goebbels Experiment (2005)

Two Second World War documentaries make for two very different viewing experiences in the days leading up to Remembrance Day in Canada.


A POWERFUL PAIRING OF STORYLINES


The 13th Mission is a powerful effort from Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that nicely ties together a pair of storylines -- the women who built Avro Lancaster bombers at a factory in southern Ontario and the seven-man crew that flew one of the aircrafts a week after D-Day. It's a good companion piece to Rosies of the North, a National Film Board documentary reviewed in September by this site.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Actors stand in for the real workers and flyers, as if they are being interviewed more than 60 years ago about their experiences. But their words are taken from interviews and letters they wrote at the time. Audiences hear what these people had to say about their experiences, good and bad, without a scriptwriter acting as middleman.


The women describe the pride they took in their job and the importance of making sure each rivet was properly placed.


The bomber crew recounts one of the most amazing stories of the Canadian military during the six-year war. When their Lancaster was hit by a German fire, mid-upper gunner Andrew Mynarski (Scott Gibson) saw rear-gunner Pat Brophy (Shawn Mathieson) was trapped. Rather than bail out, Mynarski crawled through burning hydraulic fluid to try and free his friend. Mynarski was awarded the Victoria Cross, for gallantry, for his efforts.

A VALUABLE EXTRA

Accompanying the docudrama is a 13-minute documentary from The Journal, a CBC Television current affairs program. Five of the seven members of that bomber crew reunite and share their memories of Mynarski. He couldn't get Brophy out and jumped from the bomber with his clothing and parachute on fire. Brophy shares his memories about the night and a special gift he had from Mynarski on that flight.


The 13th Mission, and the documentary, are rivteing viewing.


Not so successful, surprisingly, is The Goebbels Experiment. Joseph Goebbels was the minister of propaganda for Adolf Hitler's Third Reich.

This effort from German filmmaker Lutz Hachmeister (The Real American: Joe McCarthy) also draws exclusively from Goebbels' own words, narrated by British actor Kenneth Branagh.


He describes his lonley childhood, health problems and his barely getting by when he enters the workforce. In 1924, he calls for a firm hand in Germany and the throwing out of the Jewish people. Goebbels meets Hitler in 1926 and is thrilled with the First World War veteran's plans for his country.


"He has it all thought out," said Goebbels. He praises Hitler for his "stupendous mind" and notes he is "a born motivator."


The 13th Mission has a narrator to provide context of Canada's involvement in the Second World war, with one million serving in the military and another military dedicated to the war effort back home.


Such a guiding hand is missing in The Goebbels Experiment. There is startling footage in the film, inlcuding some in colour, and catty comments from Goebbels about others, including British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.


RATINGS: The 13th Mission 9/10
The Goebbels Experiment 7/10

For more information on The 13th Mission, go to www.cbc.ca/canadianexperience

FUN FACTS: Actor Scott Gibson apepared in another Second World War effort, The Pacific. Christopher Jacot guested on Degrassi: The Next Generation.

Classic Albums: Face Value (1999)

Phil Collins was a musical giant during the 1980s.

classic albums face value offers a steady stream of interesting facts about the British musician's debut album and how he came to rule the charts between 1981 and 1991. His own music, and work with Genesis as that band evolved from prog rock to pop with him as frontman, was constantly in the charts with hits such as Take Me Home, One More Night, Invisible Touch, Mama, That's All and I Can't Dance.


COLLINS TOPS THE CHARTS


Face Value, released in 1981, sold 12 million copies and scored three Top 20 hits with In the Air Tonight peaking at No. 2 in England.

This 60-minute documentary dives right into the album that launched Collins' solo career. Don't leave the room in the opening minutes.


Collins, who took over as frontman of British prog-rock group Genesis in 1976 after six years backing lead vocalist Peter Gabriel on drums, wasn't even planning to do a solo album 30 years ago.


Face Value came to be because of the break-up of his first marriage and his desire to learn how to use recording equipment.


The album's creation, he said, was if he had "painted a few pictures in my room and someone wanted to look at them."


A DRUMMER EMBRACING A DRUM MACHINE


The lyrics to the album's first song, In the Air Tonight, were improvised. Collins discusses the track's use of a drum machine. "The drummer would get bored playing anything like this," he suggests.


We learn why Collins decided to record his own version of Behind the Lines, the opening track of the Genesis album, Duke.


An early version of I Missed Again, a second single from the album that soared on the charts, is played.


Collins describes the instrumental, Hand in Hand, as something that would fit into a Disney cartoon. That's an interesting observation. Collins wrote five songs for the 1999 animated film, Tarzan. You'll Be in My Heart spent 19 weeks at No. 1 on Billboards's Adult Contemporary chart.


COLLINS LEAVES IF LEAVING ME IS EASY


There's a generous excerpt of Collins performing If Leaving Me is Easy live. He dropped the mournful tune from his set lists because he tired of concert-goers making noise during the quiet number.


This Classic Albums episode packs plenty of punch with a series of interviews with musicians who played on the album, the production team and even Atlantic Records co-chairman Ahmet Ertegun and string arranger Arif Maradin, both of whom have since died.

Genesis bandmates Tony Banks and Mike Rutherford and band manager Tony Smith. Here.


Genesis sideman, and Collins' collaborator, Darryl Stuermer. Check. Trombonist Lui Lui Satterfield. Present.


Bassist Alphonso Johnson offers some neat insights about his role on the album too.


Horn aranger Tom Tom Washington reveals he had no idea who Collins was prior to working with him on Face Value. Guess he didn't have The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway in his LP collection. Indian violinist L. Shankar was part of this effort too.


British guitar god Eric Clapton, who guested on The Roof is Leaking, is sadly missing. Instead, there's just a photo of an apparently intoxicated Collins posing with the former Cream member.


Collins describes Please Don't Ask as the most intimate of the tracks he wrote for possible use on Face Value. "I've never really written anything like that since," said Collins. But instead, the song appeared on the great Genesis effort, Duke. Yet, there's no explanation why this powerful song was left off Face Value. Pity. But this music fan strongly recommends Duke as the best Genesis album with Collins at the helm.

RATING: 9/10

FUN FACTS: Wikipedia page dedicated to Collins offers some impressive stats about his solo career. As of 2000, he sold 150 million albums. Collins, Paul McCartney and the late Michael Jackson are the only three musicians who have sold 100 million albums-plus as a member of a group and a solo act.

"This record crept up behind everybody," said Collins near the documentary's end.
"Suddenly I had another thing to do apart from Genesis."

The Collins juggernaut would peak in 1985 when No Jacket Required was released. Sussudio and One More Night both hit No. 1 in United States. No Jacket Required went triple platinum in that country.
Collins, now 60, announced his retirement in early 2011. Genesis fans hoping for a reunion of the classic Genesis line-up of Banks, Gabriel, Collins, Steve Hackett and Rutherford mourned the news.

Rosies of the North (1999)

Rosies of the North doesn't exactly soar above the heavens.

But it is a solid documentary about Canadian women who made airplanes during the Second World War.

MANY WOMEN AT WORK

As many as 3,000 women worked in the Canadian Car and Foundry factory in Fort William, now part of Thunder Bay, Ont.

The ladies manufactured Hurricane fighter planes and Hell Diver bombers.

"They [the planes] brought us together," one woman remarks near the start of the 48-minute documentary.

For many, the work marked their first jobs and, while not paid the same amount as their male counterparts, they earned good money. It was a definite step-up from a limited number of other available jobs, including cleaning homes.

FACTORY WAS IN NORTHWESTERN ONTARIO

Director Kelly Saxberg (Letters from Karelia, In Security) includes interviews with about two dozen people, many of them former female employees of the Canadian Car and Foundry plant.

The women, likely in their late 70s when they talked about their experiences for this National Film Board documentary, describe how they were treated, good and bad, by their male co-workers, on-the-job romances, and the importance the cash from their jobs meant for their families just coming out of the Great Depression.

England needed the fighters badly in 1940 when an invasion by Germany appeared imminent and dogfights filled the skies. British fighters were being destroyed as quickly as they were being built.

THE LEADING LADY

Rosies of the North introduces audiences to Elsie MacGill, Queen of the Hurricanes. The Vancouver native, described by her niece as "an unconventional woman," was named the factory's chief aeronautical engineer at 33.

It's interesting to learn how she acted among workers, how she was depicted in the media, and what led to her being turfed from her job.

Given how much time Rosies of the North dedicates to MacGill, a file interview with her should have been included. Audiences don't even know if she was still alive or deceased when the documentary was filmed. Robert Lower's script grates at times. Narrator Martine Friesen has to deliver some pretty hackneyed lines.

A daughter of one of the workers describes how proud she is of her mother's work at the factory. To meet these women in Rosies of the North is a true pleasure.

RATING: 8/10

The film is not available at Amazon.com, but it can be purchased at www.nfb.ca.

Titanic: How It Really Sank (2009)

Take a very heavy anchor. To it, securely fasten every known copy of James Cameron's Titanic. Dump said anchor in the very deepest depths of the coldest, darkest ocean. Ignore for generations.

With that done, sit down with a much better, and far shorter, exploration of the Titanic's sinking in April 1912. More than 1,500 died.

This National Geographic documentary is much better, and far shorter, than Cameron's comic book film. The running time is listed as 50 minutes, but action ends at the 45-minute marker. The rushed last minute is a bit odd, but that's a minor complaint.

How It Really Sank is billed as a drama/documentary. It's an approach that left me a little uneasy at the program's start, but works well.

The documentary offers plenty of contributing factors, I counted nine, that resulted in the great ship's sinking during its maiden voyage.

Some, such as the choice of raw material for the ship's rivets, may already be known. Others, such as the actions of the Titanic's wireless operator in the hours leading up to its demise and the unexpected distance traveled by the iceberg the ship hit, may surprise.

Actors recreate testimony from an inquiry that followed the devestating maritime tragedy. There's also interviews with a forensic metallurgist, oceanographer, White Star Line historian and Millvina Dean, at the time, Titanic's last surviving passenger.

An interesting photo gallery includes about a half-dozen shots of the Titanic on the bottom of the ocean floor near Newfoundland.

RATING: 9/10

Project Grizzly (1996)

Sink your teeth into this Canadian documentary.

Project Grizzly generously offers what Hollywood too often doesn't in a sea of reboots, remakes and sequels.

This National Film Board documentary presents an original story with a lead character who'll stick in your brain for a very long time.

Troy Hurtubise survives an encounter with a grizzly he dubs Old Man.

Rather than resolve to stay miles away from the bush and a big bear's territory, the North Bay, Ont., resident decides to design a bear-proof suit.

This isn't just a weekend whim.

Hurtubise's project spans years, tens of thousands of dollars and continually updated suits. There's footage of him being hurled down the Niagara Escarpment and being plowed into by a pickup truck doing 30 miles an hour. To mimic the swipe of a grizzly bear's paw, an elevated 300 to 400 pound log smashes into Hurtubise and his suit. "I feel great," he says after getting whacked. The suit bears the brunt of baseball bats, gunshots and bows.

This slim, 72-minute documentary from Canada builds up to an excursion to the Rockies so Hurtubise can test the suit in an up-close encounter with a real big bruin.

Project Grizzly works for plenty of reasons.

Hurtubise is a fascinating character. He graduated from community college as a natural resource technologist, but couldn't find work in his field (pardon the pun). Instead, he owns a scrapyard.

He's big on martial arts, wears a buckskin jacket and extols the virtues of carrying very large knives into the bush. Yes, they can be used to ward off a bear but Hurtubise also suggests he is concerned about "the two-legged animals" he might find in the bush.

"You got a lot of wackos out there," he says. "I swear by my knives."

I'm not sure if that's supposed to be comforting or disturbing.

There's a couple of neat scenes with Hurtubise and his mother. She recalls his fascination with
being in really dangerous circumstances as a youngster. Plenty of kids have built plenty of faux volcanoes to replicate an eruption. Hurtubise did too except he used gasoline and started a fire in his bedroom. This is a guy who acknowledges his greatest fear is being average. He drams of becoming "a little Jacques Cousteau" and travel the world with his suit and research team.

Hurtubise notes matter-of-factly the worst thing that could happen to him in another one-on-one with a grizzly is he could die. Why, yes Troy, you could get mauled to death if the suit fails.

A Vietnam veteran who's part of Hurtubise's posse recounts a game bored G.I.s played to get the adrenaline flowing. Pull the pin of a hand grenade and run. Hurtubise isn't the only one who goes to extremes to get his kicks.

He finds his bear in the snowy Rockies, but you'll have to watch the film to see what happens.

Project Grizzly offers more fun than watching bears at your local dump.

RATING: 8 out of 10

FUN FACTS: Wyeth Clarkson, assistant picture editor, went on to direct SK8 life. Director Peter Lynch has also helmed A Whale of a Tale and Cyberman. Troy Hurtubise and his suit were featured on Ripley's Believe It or Not. Project Grizzly was nominated for a Genie (Canada's equivalent of the Academy Awards) for best feature length documentary.

Anne Frank Remembered (1995)

Anne Frank Remembered is must-see viewing.

Director Jon Blair (Bin Laden: The Early Years) includes interviews with several key people who helped the Frank family, who were Jews, hide from the Nazis in the Netherlands during the Second World War and witnessed the final days of Anne, her sister and mother in 1945. This is vital history captured on film.

MIEP GIES HELPED FRANK FAMILY

This 1995 documentary includes contributions from Anne Frank's childhood best friend and Miep Gies, an employee of Otto Frank, who risked her life to get food on the black market for his family and four other Jews who were in hiding with them. Otto Frank appears in interviews from 1976 and 1979. He died in 1980. There are contributions from Frank's childhood best friend, Hannah Goslar, and the woman who confirmed Frank's death to her father.

The Frank family left Frankfurt in 1933 because of Nazism's rise. They moved to Amsterdam where Otto Frank managed a pectin factory. A year after the Second World War's start in 1939, Germany controlled much of Europe including the Netherlands. Freedoms enjoyed by Jews were gradually reduced. Frank prepared a secret hiding place in his office building and created a cover story that suggested his family fled to neutral Switzerland to throw off authorities.

ANNE GIVEN A DIARY FOR HER BIRTHDAY

Anne began to write in a prized gift from her 13th birthday, a diary. Her entries are shown on screen as different passages are read.

There are several fascinating strands that make Anne Frank Remembered compelling to watch.

Otto Frank could have fled to Switzerland, where he had family, but chose to move to Amsterdam instead. There's a powerful scene with the son of dentist Fredrich Pfeffer, one of the eight in hiding, meeting with Miep Gies for the first time. How differently people reacted while in captivity, for two years, is explored. Hopes were raised with the Allied D-Day invasion of Normandy in 1944, but the Franks were betrayed by an anonymous phone call tipping off their location. Everyone but Otto was killed including Anne on March 12, 1945, less than two months before V-E Day.

Anne Frank dreamed of Hollywood stars and becoming a published author who would be known internationally and live on after her death. She achieved her goal, but at a terrible price. Frank was 15 when she died at Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

The documentary ends with a brief clip of the only known film footage of Frank from 1941.

Anne Frank Remembered is narrated by Kenneth Branagh with passages from Frank's diary read by Glenn Close.

The film won the Oscar for best documentary in 1995.

RATING: 10/10

www.annefrank.org

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEXuviihrrs