Do You Want To Be More Curious in 2024?
Y2K // Einstein // Frank Sinatra // Doppelganger // Canada's Boyfriend
Yo…
One of the annoying aspects of film festivals is…buzz.
You hear about a dope documentary and the dope director is doing interviews (like on My Summer Lair!) or even worse, you decide you’re all-in after seeing a few video clips circulating online. I wanna watch this. But…how?
Sundance is running from Thursday, January 18 to Sunday, January 28. You going to Utah for that? Or are you like me just seeing cool stuff from the festival bubble up?
So, you wait.
Still, hope is not a strategy.
Sometimes a documentary isn’t sold to a popular streamer. I know with My Summer Lair I enjoy the documentary discussions I record but I feel bad.
I want the listeners to see and connect with the documentary.
Let’s all get into it…let’s unpack this and grasp what’s truly going on. Let’s make connections and put unfolding events into historical context.
What are you seeing that I have overlooked?
In a My Pal Sammy newsletter last year I offered a number of 2023 Hot Docs recommendations pulled from that documentary film festival.
If you missed those #PantsWorthy recommendations at that wonderful Canadian documentary film festival; I’ve got good news.
6 of them have streaming dates; you can #SetTheVCR and feed your curiosity.
So that’s #CouchWorthy nice! Let’s get curious, shall we?
Over Christmas Break 2023 I watched the following documentary:
🎥 SAMMY SUGGESTION: TIME BOMB Y2K
Director: Brian Becker & Marley McDonald
#SetTheVCR: Now streaming on HBO Max & Crave
Why #CouchWorthy? I’ve lived through Milli Vanilli and Y2K. Plus the Satanic Panic of the 80s and 90s. (More on that below!).
All my life adults in authority and in suits have cried wolf. So let’s revisit one of those popular panics. As the year 2000 approaches, the tech industry discovers a computer flaw that could ignite the largest technological disaster in human history. Crafted entirely through archival footage, the documentary examines the rising hysteria and concerning fragility of the technological world we have created.
Co-directors Marley McDonald and Brian Becker vividly recreate the mood of the time, with computer experts and doomsday preppers alike warning of the impending disaster. Doom!
And you know? I still don’t understand why the public was informed. It’s the late ‘90s: there’s limited computer programmers.
And most of us do not have access to the electrical grid, nuclear power planets, airports etc. the expected and fated catastrophes.
Having lived through Y2K, this recent pandemic...Deep Impact and Armageddon...telling the public is often a terrible idea.
Transparency doesn’t create comfort. I had no way to fix/address the Y2K bug. Most of us were powerless. So, go ahead and just fix it. I’ma take a nap.
Same thing with the pandemic. Just fix it. Lemme know. I have no medical knowledge and I’m not not going to discover some cure.
None of this is scary...it’s the NBA all over again. There are only a handful of players/teams who truly and deeply care.
Every industry and level of government has the same thing: there’s only a handful who deeply care. The ones who care are obligated to fix the current mess. Send me an email when you’re done; I’m napping.
Here the delightful docs (mostly) offered during Hot Docs 2023 that have confirmed streaming dates.
Many of these are compelling Canadian stories.
🎥 SAMMY SUGGESTION: SATAN WANTS YOU
Director: Steve J. Adams & Sean Horlor
#SetTheVCR: Now streaming on Tubi // CBC Gem
Why #CouchWorthy? Sean Horlor and Steve J. Adams, are the duo directors behind the documentary Satan Wants You. They trace Satanic Panic Ground Zero to Victoria, British Columbia a sleepy Canadian city. And the surprising spark by a non-fiction book Michelle Remembers published on November 1, 1980.
What Michelle Smith "remembers" is ritual Satanic abuse...seriously? She visits her psychiatrist, Dr. Lawrence Pazder to deal with depression following a miscarriage. Instead her psychiatrist helps her to uncover repressed memories.
This documentary challenges preconceptions especially about memory. It exposes the roots of a moral panic that has been used to harm and destroy so many lives often needlessly and leaves you with a frustrated understanding of the human experience.
I wrote about this documentary and interviewed the filmmakers Sean Horlor and Steve J. Adams in Satan Wants You to Question Your Memories: Even If The Devil Is In The Details...
🎥 SAMMY SUGGESTION: THE MAN WHO STOLE EINSTEIN’S BRAIN
Director: Michelle Shephard
#SetTheVCR: Streaming on January 21st on CBC Gem
Why #CouchWorthy? An Oppenheimer post-script! Ready for this? “Upon Einstein’s death in April 1955, Dr. Thomas Stoltz Harvey, the chief pathologist at Princeton Hospital, conducted the autopsy. While the family prepared for the body’s burial, Harvey covertly maneuvered to keep the esteemed physicist’s brain, hoping research could reveal the secrets to its brilliance and bring him acclaim.” Seriously?
Can you even...absorb or even soak up Einstein’s intelligence...like that? Or once he’s dead...that’s it?
There’s rumours of Hitler’s brain floating around as well. Docs like these have an obligation to separate fact from fiction. The problem is that...fact can sometimes be wilder than fiction. Truth is bizzare sometimes.
Programming Note: You can check out Einstein and the Bomb a BBC Studios docu-drama which will use archived footage and dramatizations of Albert Einstein’s life and his scientific work’s impact on the world. That’ll be on Netflix on February 19th, 2024.
🎥 SAMMY SUGGESTION: THE LEBANESE BURGER MAFIA
Director: Omar Mouallem
#SetTheVCR: Streaming on January 26th on Paramount+ Canada
Why #CouchWorthy? Directed by Omar Mouallem, The Lebanese Burger Mafia follows the story of a wave of Lebanese immigrants who arrived throughout the 1970s and independently owned and operated Burger Barons in small towns throughout Alberta.
Through interviews with the owners and their descendants, the doc showcases the opportunities and obstacles of their family businesses, and how they’ve been successfully integrated into the Canadian fabric.
This is the classic hope and resilience of immigrants (Alberta is not an easy joint), this is classic Canadiana and community and this is classic Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Jay-Z rapping about New York City said: “Eight million stories out there in the naked
city.” There’s a natural eloquence talking about NYC that makes the line fit; and yet it’s true everywhere you go.
Check out this Canadian saga that will leave you hungry.
🎥 SAMMY SUGGESTION: 299 QUEEN STREET WEST
Director: Sean Menard
#SetTheVCR: Streaming on January 26th on Crave
Why #CouchWorthy? As most of you know on Saturday, August 1, 1981, at 12:01 a.m. Eastern Time, MTV was launched with the words “Ladies and gentlemen, rock and roll” played over footage of the first Space Shuttle launch. And we’re off! Now everybody knows just how hot Duran Duran is.
Then on Friday, August 31, 1984 MuchMusic went on the air in downtown Toronto: the Nation’s Music Station. And we’re off! Now everybody knows just how hot Corey Hart is.
The task for both music stations was basically the same: funky cool VJs throwing to funky cool music videos. As well as doing funky cool interviews.
And yet...MuchMusic was different than MTV. Canada has always struggled to craft culture: it reacts to culture more than it creates culture. Especially in the ‘80s.
MuchMusic was one the early attempts at creating culture...as we’ve seen with SCTV. If you grew up in the ‘80s and ‘90s you will naturally connect with this special documentary.
Bonus Recommendation: In 2024 I’m advocating for more media literacy. Fools be accepting "news" from TikTok and how is that any different than listening to Alex Jones? TCM is the ideal home for The Power of Film which seeks a deep understanding of cinema. The first two episodes have already been broadcast. Every Thursday at 8 p.m. on TCM.
🎥 SAMMY SUGGESTION: COVEN
Director: Rama Rau
#SetTheVCR: Streaming on January 28th on CBC Gem
Why #CouchWorthy? Generally you don’t see many female magicians. Magic is popular…in TV shows like The Mentalist and of course classic casino shows.
In the past it was because women were associated with witchcraft which is…bad. Or at least interpreted as bad or worse evil.
That witchcraft has historically been associated with oppressed groups like women or mysterious indigenous mysticism defies easy understanding of the discipline.
So, the history of the witch trials is a conflict over power. One marginalized group…Black Americans, ignited the civil rights movement to establish their value. In contrast to witchcraft, feminism and the sexual revolution have more effective at elevating women’s status in our culture and society.
We tend to know the past but…what is a modern witch? Is it…just a religion or a spiritual practice?
When this documentary screened at Hot Docs the description included this line: “Coven attempts to undo a fraught view of witches and shines a light on a modern retake of an ancient worldwide practice.”
This is what documentaries do well: they open a window into a world I would not traditionally visit. I mean for me…Witchcraft is an outstanding Frank Sinatra song, one of my favourites.
There’s lots more going on for the curious.
A June Carter Cash documentary called June is now streaming on Paramount+. Of course June was married to Johnny Cash.
Streaming on CBC Gem is Another Body; this is a deepfake pornography documentary. It’s one thing to have nude photos you took leak online. But imagine having your face superimposed in a porno you never made…now what do you do?
(CBC and CBC Gem will broadcast Without Precedent: The Supreme Life of Rosalie Abella on Sunday, February 4th at 8:00 p.m. The Honourable Rosalie Abella - the first Jewish woman and refugee to sit on the Canadian Supreme Court - was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame in December 2023. I constantly see American battles in their media about their Supreme Court but I know little about Canada’s Court.)
Lastly, I wrapped up My Life as a Rolling Stone: four hour-long films, each an intimate portrait of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts. It left me curious about Brian Jones (a founding Stone who died in 1969.). Thankfully the recent Nick Broomfield documentary The Stones and Brian Jones is now streaming on Hoopla (handy if you got a Toronto Library Card.).
Witches, Satanic Panics, hamburgers and MuchMusic. What are you curious about today?
#CouchWorthy: Oh, yo: Naomi Klein’s Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World will light your head on fire. Fantastic book that deftly diagnoses the modern condition: the con in consensus.
I miss the US in suspicious.
Plus Naomi Klein is a noble punk much like George Stroumboulopoulos so this conversation has teeth. Highly recommended book.
New Music for a New Year: It might be a tall order but on Friday January 19th, Tall Trees is the debut single from Shawn William Clarke’s upcoming album Softer Scissors.
Oh Yes...
He suggests: “Follow Shawn William Clarke on your favourite streaming platform today!” I second this emotion.
Beating the odds the killed the curious cat…
Sammy Younan
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Sammy Younan is the affable host of My Summer Lair podcast: think NPR’s Fresh Air meets Kevin Smith: interviews & impressions on Pop Culture.