HBO

Most of the time, I’m a pretty big fan of HBO’s documentaries, so you can imagine my disappointment when I had to sit through the overly long 76 minutes of Naked World, which follows attention-hungry tit-bag Spencer Tunick, as he embarks on a world tour to find idiots wanting to pose for him. They all have their reasons why they’re baring all for the handful of people, who watch this documentary, but the underlying reason is – much like that of Tunick himself – attention. These lunatics may have even convinced...themselves it’s not for attention, but make no mistake – it is. It doesn’t take much in way of talent to snap the shoddy photographs Tunick provides here, and his medium is nothing more than a gimmick, rather than an actual talent. He’s a sniveling, complaining, sideshow huckster demanding recognition as an artist, and there’s nothing more obnoxious to me than that. I’m not inclined towards nudist art, but I will admit, there are sculptors and painters out there with actual talent, who can carry out what Tunick is trying much more effectively.

Even more amusing than the claim that Spencer Tunick is an artist are the delusional subjects for much of his work. There is a woman dying of AIDS, who somehow feels showing her naked body in a group of over one thousand others doing the same thing will somehow make a worthwhile statement to the rest of the world regarding her plight. I’m sympathetic towards anyone dying of a vile disease such as AIDS, but the context in which this is done is a contradiction to her whole purpose. And once you have bared all – so what? What statement does it make? If nobody cares, what’s the point? If your statement is, I know no one cares, and I want them to know I don’t care either, then again – what is the point? If you really didn’t care – like you say – then why do you need to make a statement to begin with? This unfortunate lady is not the only one humiliating herself for five minutes of notoriety in this documentary, but she is one of the most memorable. The best favor you can do these participants is to avoid the film all together and not subject them to the self-deprecation they’re unwittingly committing upon themselves.

Synopsis

The first time I became acquainted with the work of documentarian James Miller and reporter Saira Shah was when I first saw the documentary Beneath the Veil some years back, shortly after the September 11th attacks. It was an unnerving and powerful look at life in the Taliban-led area of Afghanistan, where women were brutalized and humiliated beyond comprehension.

Synopsis

When he was a teenager, firefighter Tony Comes was sexually abused by a Catholic priest. When he and his family move to their new home, and he discovers that his victimizer lives just down the street, the shock forces him to come to terms with his past, and to seek redress. The documentary follows what happens, detailing, among other things, the way the Church circled its institutional wagons, and the terrible emotional cost to Comes and his family as the court battle drags on.

Synopsis

Documentary makers Patrick Farrelly and Kate O’Callaghan followed the creation of the liberal Air America Radio, a deliberate attempt to create an alternative to the all-encompassing right wing dominance of the talk radio airwaves. The making of the film took an unexpected turn when the newly born network suddenly fell into serious financial difficulty, and all sorts of stories of impropriety involving its founder circulated.