Sadly, I have yet to see Bus 174 and my copy of the fantastically well received Tropa de Elite has yet to arrive (it’s taking the entire 3 allotted weeks to get here) so I must take it on word of mouth for the first film and the trailer alone for the second, that director José Padilha is a man of many talents which will, in short time, be expanding a little wider.
Though he may be heading up to Hollywood, Padilha has not given up on shedding light on the social inadequacies of his country and he has churned out another documentary focusing on the social problems affecting Brazil. Titled Garapa, the new film was shot in black & white with hand-held cameras and will be edited with no music. The title of the film refers to a popular South American drink made from sugar cane which is used in many low income communities as a milk replacement (a drink which sadly, is easily susceptible to health hazards).
Considering I have yet to see any of Padilha’s films, I can’t really say much for this new project other than the fact that it sounds interesting and I’m certainly looking forward to seeing anything from a director who, by all accounts, is nothing short of genious.
Garapa is scheduled to open in Brazil in September and considering Padilha’s profile, I expect we may see it pop up at a few festivals before it finally hits a region one friendly DVD.
Nature documentaries are not typically my cup of tea. I am as fascinated as a 10 year old by the way ant colonies work or how anything survives in the middle of the desert but typically these types of, often made for TV or IMAX, specials leave me wanting for more. I’m curious about humanity’s role in all of this. Are we simply here to eventually destroy the planet? Will the impending doom scientists keep talking about ever be so close to home that we will, as a race, make a change? Then there is the question of exploration. For millennia humanity has explored this earth but with nearly every surface of the planet already charted, what is left to explore? With all of our concern with what’s “out there”, we seem to have overlooked the fact that part of this world, a world deep under water and soil, remains uncharted. While I am fascinated by the great mystery of what we don’t know, Herzog is attracted to the people who search for the answers to those mysteries.
After receiving correspondence from metal fans in the most unlikely of places, Dunn and McFadyen decided that their look at metal wasn’t finished just yet and the pair set off to discover the metal offerings from places as varied as India, Japan and Israel. The result, 
