Five Things that They Need to Make Documentaries About:

As an educator, there might be one thing that bests standardized testing for totally antagonizing experiences in the classroom environs.

Public speaking units.

Kids are scared, they can’t write to begin with and they’re all voer the map. I try to lessen the pain by letting them pick their topics about things they love and adore. Of course, this is akimbo to asking them to rebuild Brooklyn Bridge.  They whine and kvetch and talk about how horrible of an educator I am by asking them to work on something they enjoy.

Gee, what was I thinking?

But, sometimes, just once and while, there is a cord that is hit. The one girl who loved the pop singer Usher so much that she actually created a powerpoint presentation that rivaled a VH-1 “Behind the Music” episode.

And I’m not a fan of Usher.

With her presentation? I was.

Another student elaborated on remote control cars. I could never get this student to turn in homework, let alone look up from his paperbacks.  Let him talk about his five RC cars?

Gold.

I, too, seriously contemplated buying such a toy after his presentation.

It was that good.

The fact is, when someone loves someone or something so much, if they can express their feelings correctly, even the diehard anti-something-or-other really can come to love it too. I really had little feeling about guns until I saw Bowling for Columbine,  or thought I knew all the stories of the Holocaust until I indulged in Shoah.

Documentaries, when done correctly, take you to much better places.  Now, there is one caveat I should implore you, Dear Reader, to recognize. All documentaries, no matter how much they look like a slick BBC production, all contend with horrible bias. Once a watcher is okay with the person’s opinion, go with the flow.

Now, my first list, as I was contemplating, I realized was truly graced with White Man’s Burden. Nothing of weight, nothing of heft. Seriously. The world might be falling apart around us, if you were listening to the media, and I was acknowledging none of it. So? I reconsidered my choices.

Then I saw this:

This is a fucking documentary about “Sounding Gay.” Fuck. I was riveted.

So, I guess, truly, it is the eye of the beholder, in this situation. It doesn’t matter what I pick as my documentaries. They will probably reflect me more-the depth comes from the filmmaker and the relevancy. Not by my choices.

If I were a documentarian? Here’s some things I would not mind seeing-

Education:  I refuse to watch the corporate shrill of Waiting for Superman, a pure self-justification for channeling money to private schools only the wealthy congressman can afford. I hate it when I hear of teachers watching it. Instead, I would love to see the powerful sway private industries have over congress. A large governing body that had no children in the fight. It needs to cover how we lag behind so many other countries in the world (in fact, we don’t), yet refuse to enact their successful systems.  Instead, publishers swayed the states to enactlonger, unvalidated (IE: the tests are measured on grade level appropriateness-they’re just….written) tests and then use that to judge the system and then, when failed (they wrote the tests, after all), remove money that can be channelled into, yep, their private coffers and for their private schools. There’s a huge conspiracy here. And it’s hiding in plain sight.

Deaf Smith:  I saw some posts recently about Caitlyn Jenner and it was bit upsetting. Not her coming out, that’s awesome. But the fact that many people decided to air their transphobia and talk about her not being a hero.

THAT bothered me.

A hero is defined in many, many ways, I hope people realize that. My mother, for all that she’s been through, is my hero.

And she’s never beat up anyone.

I’ve looked up to the legend of Harvey Milk, an out gay man who played the politics game and won.  A hero, yes, and never had to join the military.

So? WHen it came to this column, I pondered the concept of hero. I needed a hero that defied the norm and stood up by just being himself.

Deaf Smith: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deaf_Smith

A full-on Deafie who fought for Texas...and won! How cool is taht? I can’t help there are so many heroes out there that just aren’t getting noticed. Here’s one. Let’s see it happen.

When Gay was Okay:  Currently, I’m reading about the Gay Rights movement from before Stonewall. That, in and of itself, would be a great movie-there are several lines of importance in there-but they mention so many things that happened in ancient history in relation to homosexuality and no one seems to mention.

Gay sex was acceptable in Greece. In Samurai Japan. With the Huns. There was even symbolic marriages. I shit you not.

Then Christianity happened. They needed followers and babies to keep their business moving forward. So? Made anything that didn’t make babies illegal. No touching. No same gender coupling.

But there’s a history there. Even the History channel took a stab at it iwth the History of Sex, but, well, that tended towards the other end of the spectrum.

A Writer’s Life for Me: I find that everyone wants to read my stories, but, since they know me, they’re always trying to find links to my reality and the fictional accounts I create.

Then I diatribe about who is based on who follows.

But what about a series of authors writing their latest works? Following them on a daily excursion and then, alongside, having someone digitally animate their tales as they compose? I’d love to see if they run in parallel-or don’t!!!!

A Walk in the Park: A few people I used to hang with are starting up a documentary about themselves and their fandom, ala Trekkies and other movies about being addicted to something that isn’t immediately health impairing. It got me thinking, too, about there is something there-but what about those that make the magic happen?

I go to Disney much more than normal people should healthly should. I cannot stop. I read twenty blogs trying to get some step up, some moment in time that will keep the happy going for me. I don’t think it’s a bad thing and it says volumes about how my brain and personality works. Some are Jesusfreaks. Some like Star Trek to the point of costuming.

It’s all in how you use it.

But every once and awhile, there’s a moment, a blink into the open door behind the counter- and my brain starts to tick. Even as recently as this weekend, a light was left on while I was going to plunge to my doom on the Tower of Terror and I was transfixed. I couldn’t help leaning away fro the storyline that I had heard a gazillion times and wanted to know what was just beyond there. It ruined the magic, yes, but not for me. No one, I believe noticed.

And it got me thinking.  

What about a behind the scenes documentary, one of those 24 hours in the land of dreams and joy? I say, follow three families and three employees over a day at the Walt Disney World resort and see what all happens and the stress of making others happy.

Or? What about widening it to the world? Each one of the parks as it goes through one day. But, aha, there’s the rub, you can’t go anywhere else. Just the parks, all cameras activited on the same day, no excuses.  Personnally? I think it would expand just beyond the fans. It would talk about what the tourists don’t experience. That the smiling, minimum wage, job is oging through hell to keep you higher ups cheerful and not yelling at them. I think that’s saying something.

Abs of Steel (tales of the incurably healthy):  I go to the gym and it’s massively discouraging. Truly. I see men my age, who are blessed, drink their special kale protein shakes and have abs a person can rebound bullets off of. I’ve switched to heading over there in the morning, since my vacation has arrived and I noticed something. They’re still there. The little hottie McBeefwhistles are there, in the morning too.

Then I realized something. They are there constantly. And the gym is very, very expensive. What do they do for a living? I have noticed a trend. Some work for the gym directly. Some are service members like firepersons and cops. But, still, that amount of exercise they complete has to be incredible. And the diet to keep it.

The ponderances continue. How does having a six pack really change their lives? I look to my husband and he doesn’t have to do a thing about it. They just magically appear and he eats another 22 cookies. Rahrahpancakeeater chows down at a buffet and then wonders what speedo would look best for going into the tanning booth.

But such beautiful things are under a person’s shirt.

Surely, being so blessed must have a result in daily living. LIke being able to suddenly do four hundred crunches at the Starbuck’s.

I noticed, recently, since moving to Florida, that people still die. And their abs? It’s not usually on display, for some reason.  I guess I’m starting to wonder the purpose of such an endeavor? It is to conquer the limitations of society’s food craze? Like running a marathon, to prove something?

I want to know. And there’s a documentary in that. Please don’t make it pornographic, either. Just document.

So? Lemme get some popcorn....Lemme know what you think!