Vice - Donkey Sex

Short and sweet (?) post for you today.  I ran into this documentary a couple years ago, and it was just too weird and bizarre for me NOT to mention.  **Explicit subject matter and language ensues**, but it's on Youtube, so how bad could it be?

Oddly enough, this was the first Vice documentary that I had ever seen. Only 15 minutes long the report explores the odd cultural practice of having sex with donkeys.  Set in the northern coast of Columbia, I originally thought that Vice would have to dig to uncover this lost art form, but it seems pretty common in the rural areas. It's succinct, interesting, and has an ending scene you won't soon forget.

BBC Africa

Back when my wife was pregnant, my friend suggested that nature documentaries would be great for playing in the background. I thought it was a brilliant idea, and started playing BBC's Africa.  A problem quickly arose when I realized that the documentary was just too captivating, even with the sound off.

Hosted by the immortal David Attenborough, the 6-part documentary focuses on different parts of Africa.  The beautifully shot scenes transported everyone in my house to endless golden deserts, thick lush jungles, and vast dry savannas.  The documentary showed incredibly interesting creatures, and pieced the footage to create tense and powerful narratives.

In the end, I had to stop playing the documentaries as background because it always became what we did.  Now, I can't wait for my son to get older so we can sit down and watch it as a family.

Vice Japan - Korean Poo Wine

So, this was a pick for the 'Korean Adventure!' series of posts that I was very iffy about.  I had already used a post to talk  about the evil North with my Pyongyang post, and my Lee Hyori pick is woefully outdated.  This leads to a strong disservice to S. Korea's image that I hope I can make up for in future posts after my visit.

That being said, this documentary is just too weird and interesting NOT to post.  Before I can continue, I just need to remind anyone reading that we shouldn't judge an entire culture off of it's most obscure and bizarre practices.

About a year ago, I stumbled onto this Vice International documentary about Korean Poo Wine.  The rumours were that the wine made from human feces was used by some for medicinal purposes.  With hearsay and few leads, Vice Japan sent a reporter out in search of the poo wine, which is an outdated practice that died around the 1960s.  I won't spoil the ending, but the documentary goes exactly where your thinking and the results are...

Talhotblond

This is a fascinating true documentary about an online love triangle that leads to a real life murder.  The majority of the documentary is following chat logs, which sounds boring, but it ramps up pretty quick.  The real draw of Talhotblond is the character study on the subjects that run from deeply emotionally unstable to heartlessly manipulative.  This story shows how far an unhealthy relationship can go and by the end, I couldn't believe what I was watching.

We live in public

Please watch this documentary. I can not stress how crazy and weird and interesting and sad and unbelievable this documentary is. 'We Live in Public' (by Ondi Timoner) follows an internet pioneer Josh Harris back in the early days of the internet and his exploits.

© Ondi Timinor

My opinions and thoughts on Harris became so polarized as the film unraveled more and more of the eccentric mogul's story. Was he a genius, or was he a fool? Was he ahead of his time, or was he out of touch with reality? Was he an artistic visionary, or was he just plain crazy? By the end of the documentary, I really felt he was all of these things.  

© Ondi Timoner

The documentary, and Josh's views, were themed on the loss of privacy with the coming of the internet, and how he could take the idea to its extremes.  Sound familiar? well, Josh saw it coming over a half decade ahead of birth of facebook or youtube.  How he explores the concept is through a off-beat, wild, and utterly insane social experiment that I won't ruin for you in this post.

The key to the documentary to me personally was that it left me with the feeling of "you had to be there" with equal parts "trust me, you didn't want to be there".  It made me feel sympathetic and repulsed by Josh, and was fascinating the full way through.