documentaries

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Google Map of Accents for Actors: Great Idea or Dumb Idea?

May 6, 2010 | 7 comments

accentmap-screenshotHere’s the idea: make a Google Map wherein each placemark on the map contains a link to an audio or video source of that place’s authentic accent/dialect — for example, documentaries which can be rented or found at libraries, or radio segments that are archived online (like at the NPR website, and the sites of some specific public radio shows). The important thing is that the media sources contain the speech of ordinary people (i.e., non-actors). See also the screenshot at right for an example of what a placemark on the map would look like.

Great idea or dumb idea? Vote in the comments. And comment in the comments, if you are moved to do so.


HarlanCountyDVD

Harlan County U.S.A. (1976) Directed by Barbara Kopple; watched on Criterion Collection DVD. An urgent, immersing documentary of an Appalachian coal mining community’s more than year-long strike against corporate overlord Duke Power. The camera gets itself everywhere you would hope it could – the families’ homes, union meetings, planning sessions by the miners’ wives (who show at least as much grit as the men, often more), on the picket lines when the strikebreaking gun thugs attack, a mile underground in the mines themselves, at Duke Power shareholder meetings, and more. Unforgettable characters emerge, underscored by the raw honesty of the area’s indigenous bluegrass songs vocalized by subjects of the film. Parallels to recent WV mine explosion & 29 deaths are, unsurprisingly, present in several instances. A work of passionate storytelling, made at no small personal risk, richly deserving of its Best Documentary Academy Award, and absolutely among the great documentary films of the last 50 years. See it.


May 1, 2010 | 1 comment