I wasnt able to make it to the film festival in Durango, but I had the pleasure of watching four very diverse documentaries at home over spring break, their previews are as follows:






















Each of these documentaries cause some form of tension due to the fact that they are all so controversal. I enjoyed watching each of them and I also enjoyed the conversations they promoted with the people who watched them with me.

"On Native Soil" was an excellent documentary. It was very informative about how our government is run and what an important role we as citizens have in this country. The way that this documentry was accomplished, by using home videos and professional filming, really portrayed the mood in the most effective way. I highly recommend this film.


"Jesus Camp" was definitely an interesting one to watch. It captures a very extreme version of Christianity. Even though I was raised in a Christian home this documentary was very difficult for me to swallow because it was so extreme. The filming itself was well done as far as I observed, the content itself was definitely a lot stronger than any technical issues that may have occured with the filming process.


"Religulous" was also very interesting. In this documentary Bill Maher does a great job of asking some very simple, yet complicated, questions to make one really think about religion. I liked watching this documentary because a lot of great points were presented and it made for good dicussion. The filming was well done, the picture would slightly jump occasionally, but I know what a diffult task it can be to make a smooth transition sometimes. ;) I highly recommend this documentary.

"Paradise Lost 2" was definitely intriguing to me. I have always been interested in following murder cases, watching forensic files, CSI, Law&Order, Cold Case, Unsolved Mystery's, and so on... After Watching this documentary I am leaning with the bias of the filmmakers- That of- Mark Byers being guilty of the murder of the kids. This is part of filming though, they did a great job portraying a certain bias and convincing the viewers of that bias. I highly recommend this documentary.


The goal I would like to set and accomplish in the documentary we have to film for this class- is to create something that will cause talk, something slightly, if not totally, controversial. I feel that a controversial film is a successful film for sure. A film that leaves people in shock, awe, disbelief, or total-belief, a film that gets a "below the surface" reaction, is a film worth making, or at least worth trying to make... Im looking forward to this assignment and I hope I am able to accomplish this goal with the help and guidance of my wonderful peers. :)