FanFare

After the indomitable and beloved founder of a scrappy theater camp in upstate New York falls into a coma, the eccentric staff must band together with her clueless “crypto-bro” son to keep the thespian paradise afloat.
posted by garrett on Dec 14, 2023 - 5 comments

In 1993, a amateur filmmaker, Warren Werner, shoots his first feature length film, a horror film titled Pumpkin. After a local screening and an intense local backlash, Werner and his girlfriend commit suicide. A group of filmmakers attempt to make a documentary about their deaths, but never completed it. The Nobodies is Werner's film Pumpkin spliced with the documentary footage. [more inside]
posted by miss-lapin on May 14, 2023 - 7 comments

Jury Duty is a documentary-style comedy series that chronicles the inner workings of an American jury trial through the eyes of one particular juror. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan on Apr 22, 2023 - 17 comments

[TRAILER] A forgotten Peter Jackson film? Yep. Co-written and co-directed by Jackson and Costa Botes, this mockumentary purports to tell the story of "forgotten" New Zealand filmmaker Colin McKenzie, and the rediscovery of his lost films, which presenter Peter Jackson claims to have found in an old shed. McKenzie is presented as the first and greatest innovator of modern cinema, single-handedly inventing the tracking shot (by accident), the close-up (unintentionally), and both sound and color film years before their historically documented creation. The film also shows fragments of an epic Biblical film, Salome, supposedly made by McKenzie in a giant set in the forests of New Zealand, and a "computer enhancement" of a McKenzie film proving that New Zealander Richard Pearse was the first man to invent a powered aircraft, several months before the Wright Brothers. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Mar 16, 2023 - 6 comments

Philomena Cunk's epic 5-part essay on civilization, tracing humanity's journey from prehistory to the present day. [more inside]
posted by SPrintF on Feb 4, 2023 - 35 comments

For Halloween 1992, the BBC decides to broadcast an investigation into the supernatural, hosted by TV chat-show legend Michael Parkinson. Parky (assisted by Mike Smith, Sarah Greene & Craig Charles) and a camera crew attempt to discover the truth behind the most haunted house in Britain. This ground-breaking live television experiment does not go as planned, however. [more inside]
posted by DirtyOldTown on Mar 3, 2022 - 12 comments

When the 57 residents of Arizona border town Sangre de Cristo are massacred in a single night in 2011, the sole survivor, a Mexican immigrant, is quickly arrested, charged, and convicted of single-handedly murdering all of them. In 2015, a documentary examines the case and raises questions: Why doesn't the evidence seem to implicate him? Why were people so eager to blame him, no matter how implausibly? And do the horrors captured on the roll of film he shot that night provide a more plausible explanation for the killings? [more inside]
posted by Pope Guilty on Jan 15, 2022 - 6 comments

In an abandoned house in Poughkeepsie, New York murder investigators uncover hundreds of sequential tapes showing decades of a serial killer's work. [more inside]
posted by miss-lapin on Oct 12, 2021 - 7 comments

From Eric Idle, Neil Innes, George Harrison, and more, came the Rutles: an affectionate parody of Beatlemania, and a musical legend that will last a lunchtime. They were discovered by their manager, Leggy Mountbatten, in a lunchtime disco. Their first album was made in 20 minutes. Their second album took even longer. [more inside]
posted by one for the books on May 5, 2021 - 15 comments

Steve Coogan has been asked by The Observer to tour the country's finest restaurants, but after his girlfriend backs out on him he must take his best friend and source of eternal aggravation, Rob Brydon. [more inside]
posted by MoonOrb on Jun 16, 2020 - 7 comments

Sherman's Showcase is a fictional music / dance / variety show that has run for 47 seasons. Now, the mostly-complete 23-DVD set is out, thanks to Mad Decent Records, leading to this eight-episode retrospective of Sherman McDaniel's decades of introducing the world to the finest in soul, funk, and blaxploitation cinema. [more inside]
posted by Etrigan on Aug 30, 2019 - 5 comments

Documentary Now! continues to highlight the best in contemporary documentary. This season includes Batsh*t Valley (Wild Wild Country and The Source Family), Original Cast Album: Co-Op (Original Cast Album: Company), Waiting for the Artist (Marina Abramović: The Artist is Present), Searching for Mr. Larson: A Love Letter from the Far Side, (Dear Mr. Watterson), Long Gone, (Let's Get Lost) and Any Given Saturday Afternoon (A League of Ordinary Gentlemen.)
posted by eotvos on Jun 29, 2019 - 5 comments

The vampires get embroiled in local Staten Island politics as their first step to world domination. [more inside]
posted by oh yeah! on Apr 3, 2019 - 10 comments

The vampires try to plan a lavish blood feast in honor of a visit by their ancient master from the Old Country. (FX Channel series) [more inside]
posted by oh yeah! on Mar 27, 2019 - 13 comments

The All Stars put their acting skills to the test in a "Sex and the City"-inspired mockumentary, and Felicity Huffman and Jason Wu sit in on the judges' panel. [more inside]
posted by filthy light thief on Feb 9, 2019 - 8 comments

An aspiring director and the marginally talented amateur cast of a hokey small-town Missouri musical production go overboard when they learn that someone from Broadway will be in attendance. [more inside]
posted by MoonOrb on Feb 22, 2018 - 23 comments

When the class troublemaker is blamed for the spraypainting of dicks on every car in the faculty parking lot, two intrepid reporters from the school's morning announcement program tear apart the case against him in this eight part mockumentary. Produced for Netflix and very reminiscent of it's Making a Murderer, this spot on parody of long form investigative docmunetaries distinguishes itself by allowing its characters to grow beyond the stereotypes of nerds, jocks, and burnouts. At some point after the first few episodes you realize it stopped being just a comedy and has become as complex and asorbing a mystery as the documentaries its meant to mock. [more inside]
posted by Stanczyk on Sep 17, 2017 - 19 comments

Set over the course of a weekend tournament for chess software programmers thirty-some years ago, COMPUTER CHESS transports viewers to a nostalgic moment when the contest between technology and the human spirit seemed a little more up for grabs. We get to know the eccentric geniuses possessed with the vision to teach a metal box to defeat man, literally, at his own game, laying the groundwork for artificial intelligence as we know it and will come to know it in the future. [more inside]
posted by fleacircus on Jun 10, 2017 - 3 comments

Jon Glaser loves gear. He loves it so much that he pitched a reality show to TruTV about gear: shopping for it, buying it, using it. Through the first season Jon has gone camping, played hockey, and chilled out, _{and alienated his family} , among other things. The first season of Jon's quest for gear concluded yesterday with "Sailing". [more inside]
posted by codacorolla on Dec 22, 2016 - 2 comments

A look into the world of competitive mascots. [more inside]
posted by altopower on Oct 18, 2016 - 7 comments

“Following a long fascination with the religion and with much experience in dealing with eccentric, unpalatable and unexpected human behavior, the beguilingly unassuming Theroux won't take no for an answer when his request to enter the Church's headquarters is turned down. Inspired by the Church's use of filming techniques, and aided by ex-members of the organization, Theroux uses actors to replay some incidents people claim they experienced as members in an attempt to better understand the way it operates. In a bizarre twist, it becomes clear that the Church is also making a film about Louis Theroux. Suffused with a good dose of humor and moments worthy of a Hollywood script, MY SCIENTOLOGY MOVIE is stranger than fiction.”
posted by Fizz on Oct 14, 2016 - 5 comments

Dame Helen Mirren returns to host the best documentaries of the past 51 years. [more inside]
posted by lmfsilva on Sep 15, 2016 - 10 comments

Spinal Tap, one of England's loudest bands, is chronicled by film director Marty DeBergi on what proves to be a fateful tour. [more inside]
posted by MoonOrb on Mar 21, 2016 - 19 comments

The story of a festival dedicated to legendary Chicago mobster Al Capone in a small city in Iceland. [more inside]
posted by lmfsilva on Sep 18, 2015 - 0 comments

THE SPIRIT OF 99 VIEWING CLUB - A documentary crew following a small town beauty contest discover that some people will do anything it takes to win. [more inside]
posted by The Whelk on Nov 11, 2014 - 3 comments

In which we learn that 75% of pimping is book-keeping.
posted by drezdn on Jul 19, 2014 - 4 comments