Strangers to Fiction

This week in honor of the opening of the 2020 Baseball season (finally) we decided to look back at this 2014 film, The Battered Bastards of Baseball, about the fabled Portland Mavericks, a short lived independent class A team that operated in Portland Oregon from 1973-1977.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi is a meditative character study about an 85 year old sushi master in Japan. This 2011 film was released in 2011 and shot and directed by David Gelb. We discuss this film and if you like it we suggest a few other films that are similar that you might enjoy.

After a brief hiatus and while sheltered in place, Strangers to Fiction is back to talk about Netflix's much-memed documentary series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness. The series goes inside the world of private zoo owners, in particular Joe Exotic and the characters that surround him. SPOILERS AHEAD!

This week we are joined by documentary filmmaker David Wraith to discuss the 2016 film Check It. The film follows a group of gay and transgendered youths in Washington D.C. who started a gang to protect themselves. Directed by Dana Flor and Toby Oppenheimer, the film was originally released by comedian Louis C.K. on his website, but is now available for rent on Amazon Prime.

On this episode of Strangers to Fiction we watch the 2004 Academy Award nominated documentary Super Size Me from director Morgan Spurlock. The film follows Spurlock as he eats McDonald's three times a day for 30 days. It also takes a hard look at the fast food industry and the rising levels of obesity in America.

This week we watched the 1994 documentary Hoop Dreams which follows two boys from impoverished Chicago neighborhoods as they chase their dreams of becoming professional basketball players. Shot over five years as the boys were in high school, Hoop Dreams was universally acclaimed with Roger Ebert calling it "one of the best films about American life that I have ever seen".

This week we watched the first film from acclaimed historical documentary filmmaker Ken Burns - Brooklyn Bridge. We discuss the career of Ken Burns, his impact on  documentary filmmaking and the elements that constitute a Ken Burns film.

This week we are watching the 1999 cult-favorite documentary American Movie. The film follows filmmaker Mark Borchardt as he attempt to make a short independent film.

The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters is a 2007 documentary that looks inside the world of competitive arcade gaming. The film follows upstart Steve Wiebe as he challenges "the world's best gamer" Billy Mitchell for the high score in Donkey Kong.

In 1989 Michael Moore released his groundbreaking directorial debut Roger & Me which chronicles Moore's efforts to get a meeting with then General Motors CEO Roger Smith following the closing of several GM facilities in Moore's hometown of Flint, Michigan. 

On this episode of Strangers to Fiction we discuss Roger & Me, but more broadly the impact of film and the career of Michael Moore.