This year the 149th Open Championship that was to be held at Royal St George's Golf Club in Sandwich, England, got cancelled due to obvious reasons. Last time the Open Championship was cancelled happened during the World War II.
On the official Open Championship site you can still enjoy some great content like one of my favorite documentary series "Chronicles of a Champion Golfer" and Open Championship recap videos from 1970 until now, among other video materials.
To start watching for free, you just add your email adress (this is also your login username and password). No other information is no longer required to join their "The One Club", a reason why I personally hasn't used this free service until now.
The documentary "Becoming Warren Buffett" (2017) produced by HBO is full of good lifestyle and investment principles from one of the greatest investors of our time, principles that have the capacity to enrich your life.
With a net worth of over $60,000,000,000, Warren Buffett is truly a one-of-a-kind billionaire. The legendary investor still lives in a modest home in Omaha, and drives himself to the office every morning to manage Berkshire Hathaway. This documentary chronicles Buffett's evolution into one of the wealthiest and most respected men in the world.
'Instant Dreams' is the title for a documentary that follows individuals from all walks of life that still use Polaroid cameras and its instant film.
Instant Dreams is a feature documentary by Willem Baptist (Wild boar, I’m Never Afraid!) about the fascination and love for Polaroids. When Polaroid announced the end of instant film in 2008, the last still working factory was bought by a small group of enthusiasts. Among them is the retired scientist Stephen Herchen who previously collaborated with the inventor of Polaroid and is still trying to unravel the secret of the lost chemical formula.
The TV series "Contact: Magnum Photos" explores in ten 30 minutes long episodes some of the most iconic photos from around the world shot by photographers from the Magnum photo agency.
This is a real treat for photography lovers so watch it over at archive.org while you can.
Watch the trailer for the upcoming theater release "Free Solo" about soloist climber Alex Honnold as he prepares for and climbs the face of the rock El Capitan in Yosemite National.
I wrote about the street photography documentary "Everybody Street" in 2013 as one of the best documentaries I had seen recently. In it, you'll get to know some of the best street photographers out there, and get lots of great New York scenery.
Yuko Okumura who lives in Bloomington, Indiana loves and collects all possible things related to strawberries. In this uplifting short film "Strawberries Will Save The World" directed by Okumura's daughter Yoko Okumura, we get to see a part of her very large collection of strawberry merchandise and collectibles.
Directed by Tony Silver and produced by Tony Silver and Henry Chalfant, it was awarded the Grand Prize for Documentaries at the 1983 Sundance Film Festival. STYLE WARS is regarded as the indispensable document of New York Street culture of the early '80s, the filmic record of a golden age of youthful creativity that exploded into the world from a city in crisis.
STYLE WARS captured the look and feel of New York's ramshackle subway system as graffiti writers' public playground, battleground and spectacular artistic canvas. Opposing them by every means possible were Mayor Edward Koch, the police, and the New York Transit Authority. Meanwhile MCs, DJs and B-boys rocked the city with new sounds and new moves and street corner breakdance battles evolved into performance art.
I enjoyed the Polaroid documentary "Time Zero: The Last Year of Polaroid Film" (2012) and now there's another one in the making, this time from the team behind The Impossible Project, who took over the production and machinery for Polaroid film when the original Polaroid factory closed . The documentary is called "The Impossible Project" and was shot on 35mm film, and below is an extended trailer.
Find out more about this documentary by visiting the project's Kickstarter page.
One of the best made documentaries about Donald Trump can once again be seen online for free – the documentary "Trump: What's the Deal?" (1991). I wrote a post about this documentary last summer in which I wrote the following:
Elements of extortion, poor working conditions, exaggerations and dissatisfied and overcharged tenants – it's all here in the resurfaced documentary "Trump: What's the Deal?" that Donald Trump successfully managed to prevent from airing 25 years ago until now.
The short documentary "Roadliners" is a documentary about the occupational group that is responsible for roadmarkings. Watch a day in the life of Glasgow roadliner Thomas 'Tam' Lilley as he creates some nice street typography.
The documentary "Gringo: The Dangerous Life of John McAfee" (2016) directed by Nanette Burstein focuses on computer programmer and businessman John McAfee's, the inventor of the famous antivirus program McAfee VirusScan, life in Belize where he has been accused of serious crime.
Mysteries abound in the life of John McAfee. He made millions creating antivirus software, then reinvented himself as a yogi, a proponent of herbal medicine, and a serial entrepreneur. He was known for his charm and generosity. Then his life took another turn. He moved from the US to Belize and built a heavily armed compound in the jungle, like a modern day Heart of Darkness. McAfee never shied away from media attention and boasted of his libertine lifestyle, maintaining a harem of young women. In 2012 his neighbour in Belize, an American named Gregory Faull, was found murdered by a gunshot. Sought for questioning by local authorities, McAfee fled to Guatemala, then returned to the US where he pursued the Libertarian Party nomination for President in 2016.
Over the years, journalists have told pieces of McAfee's story (including the infamous Vice report accidentally revealing his secret location). Here the Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Nanette Burstein delivers a deep investigation that sheds new light on the shadows around the 70-year-old mogul. McAfee refuses her requests for an interview, but continues a strange cat-and-mouse email correspondence for months.
"Maradona '86" (2014) is a short documentary directed by Sam Blair that chronicles footballer Diego Maradona's and Argentina's way to win the 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico. Even though I'm not a true football fan, I thought this documentary was so captivating and well made when I watched it last year, it didn't matter.
In the 1986 World Cup, Diego Maradona, the world's greatest football player, reached his apotheosis, redefining what is possible for one man to accomplish on a football pitch. His ability to take control of the ball -- the game -- an entire tournament -- split the world in two.
It was both illuminating and an affront, beguiling and an outrage, and the fervor that surrounded him was unprecedented, bordering on the religious. Constructed from archive material, "Maradona '86" is an ode to this ultimate footballing idol, basking in the operatic intensity of his performance in Mexico as he wrote his name on football history forever.
"Becoming Bond" is the title of an documentary produced by Hulu that tells the story about how car salesman George Lazenby, with no prior acting experience, could land the role of James Bond in "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969).
The PBS Frontline documentary "The Madoff Affair" (2009) tells the story about investor Bernard "Bernie" Madoff and the gigantic Ponzi Scheme he constructed and operated during many years until it all unravelled in 2008.
In the mid-1960s, Bernard Madoff tapped money from Jewish businessmen at exclusive country clubs with the promise of steady guaranteed returns on their investments. He then set his sights on Europe and Latin America, brokering deals with powerful hedge fund managers and feeder funds from Buenos Aires to Geneva. Billions of dollars were channeled to Madoff's investment firm, and his feeders became fabulously wealthy. The competition wondered how the man could produce such steady returns in good times and bad. There were allegations that Madoff was "front-running" or operating a Ponzi scheme, which the SEC investigated several times over the last two decades. But Madoff remained untouched until Dec. 11, 2008, when he admitted it was all "one big lie." FRONTLINE unravels the story behind the world's first truly global Ponzi scheme — a deception that lasted longer, reached wider and cut deeper than any other business scandal in history.
The documentary "Silicon Cowboys" (2016) tells the story about Compaq Computer Corporation's successful attempt to take a large chunk of market share from a market that was dominated by IBM by selling a portable personal computer capable of operating IBM desktop PC software.
I watched the documentary a few months ago, and found it interesting. Watch the full version below.
Yesterday, I watched an interesting and captivating documentary called "Citizen Jane: Battle for the City" (2016) that tells the story about author and activist Jane Jacobs, author of the 1961 book "The Death and Life of Great American Cities", and her fellow citizens that fought to save the historic buildings and neighborhoods in New York in the 50's and 60's against modernists like city planner Robert Moses.
Directed by Matt Tyrnauer (@mtyrnauer), the documentary contains lots of beautiful archive footage of New York architecture, and close-ups of magazine and newspaper articles from the 60's era that I so much appreciate.
The documentary also evokes lots of reflections regarding our modern cities and how we can go ahead and develop our urban areas without sacrificing too many historic buildings, an issue I feel is very relevant regarding the city I'm living in, Gothenburg, where some beautiful and historic buildings that neither are uninhabitable or totally run-down, are at risk to be replaced by modern high-rise buildings.
"Into the Inferno" (2016) is the title of Werner Herzog's latest documentary that is released by Netflix. In the documentary Herzog explores active volcanoes from around the world.
From the synopsis:
Werner Herzog's latest documentary, Into the Inferno, heads just where its title suggests: into the red-hot magma-filled craters of some of the world's most active and astonishing volcanoes—taking the filmmaker on one of the most extreme tours of his long career. From North Korea to Ethiopia to Iceland to the Vanuatu Archipelago, humans have created narratives to make sense of volcanoes; as stated by Herzog, “volcanoes could not care less what we are doing up here.” Into the Inferno teams Herzog with esteemed volcanologist Clive Oppenheimer to offer not only an in-depth exploration of volcanoes across the globe but also an examination of the belief systems that human beings have created around the fiery phenomena.
Here is the trailer for the documentary "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth To Power Trailer" (2017), produced by the creators behind the much appreciated "An Inconvenient Truth" (2006) that raised public awareness of the dangers of global warming. In this sequel, we once again follow Vice President Al Gore on his travels around the world and his work for the environment.
A decade after AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH brought climate change into the heart of popular culture, comes the riveting and rousing follow-up that shows just how close we are to a real energy revolution. Vice President Al Gore continues his tireless fight traveling around the world training an army of climate champions and influencing international climate policy. Cameras follow him behind the scenes – in moments both private and public, funny and poignant -- as he pursues the inspirational idea that while the stakes have never been higher, the perils of climate change can be overcome with human ingenuity and passion.
