Hooray for horror hosts.

JOE BOB BRIGGS? Do you recall, y’all? He and other horror show greats are the focus of the documentary American Scary. WATCH WITH THE LIGHTS ON. (Also available on iTunes.)

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The death of the American Dream now officially good for business.

Add Palladium Boots to the list of brands trying to save the American Dream in its Exploration series.* Detroit Lives feels like it wants to be less about saving and more uncovering though. Previously, we had the likes of Chrysler, Jeep and Levi’s waving their American banners. Here, Johnny Knoxville of Jackass fame is your host who tries to keep the smartass to a minimum in a relatively short three-part doc series exploring the potential for Detroit’s rebirth.

Where Michael Moore’s Roger & Me looked at why things went wrong with manufacturing in Flint, Palladium shines a light on possible fixes for Detroit’s problems. As branded content goes, it’s shot nicely (even though they could do without the ghosted logo), and despite some bleak footage, I actually get a more positive vibe from the people in it than I did with Roger.

Ned Flanders takes on Katrina.

Wherein One Night Only is the new sneak preview, Harry Shearer has one out this Monday night the 30th called The Big Uneasy, at a theatre near you. Tired of hearing the words *natural disaster* when it came to referring to NOLA and Katrina, Shearer decided to make a doc on the real cause of the disaster—as he sees it: The Army Corps of Engineers.

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The Last Journey of a Genius.

Richard Feynman. Physicist. Explorer. Genius. The kind of genius who can explain physics to you in ways that don’t make you feel lousy about not being, well, a genius. One of the things that stood out as I watched was his work on the Challenger commission (45 minutes in). It underscores a constant theme throughout the piece about his belief that the true nature of something will always come through regardless of how we try and change it. In this case, the negative effect on NASA that might occur if the truth were told about the accident. (One bit of retro distracted driving awesomeness comes in around 18:40, where his editor preparing for their trip uses flash cards to learn a new language.)

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It’s archiporn, basically.

But, it draws you in with your Frank Gehry self! Only this doc is about architect Norman Foster called “How Much Does your Building Weigh, Mr Foster?” (Yes, that’s his bridge.) The music is about as epic, deep and ethereal than I can recall for a doc, but the intriguing point of the piece is the idea that “In the very near future, the majority of mankind will abandon the countryside and live entirely in cities.” When you watch the clips through that perspective, you get the sense that (no pun intended), the landscape in a larger sense will become altered as the shape of cities takes on a new role.

(Via C-Monster.)

Calling all Guitar Heroes.

Jimmy Page, Jack White and The Edge talk about the history of the guitar and where it’s headed in It Might Get Loud. Just out on DVD and worth a Redbox run or Netflix add. The way the trailer sells it though, you think it’s going to be this big guitar confrontation hoedown where Earth-shattering secrets are revealed, but it’s not about that at all.

One of the ideas Jack White raises is something we’ll cover on the next episode of AdVerve dealing with music, in that, technology has ruined it for the artist:

“Technology is a great destroyer of emotion and truth. Opportunity doesn’t do anything for creativity. That’s the disease you have to fight in any creative field: ease of use.”

True to an extent, but advancements in technology are what allow the art to be shared with a wider audience in the first place. That catch-22 aside, even his cool as hell MacGyveresque opening trick of making a rudimentary guitar out of spare parts relies on electricity.

If you take his point to extremes and eliminate everything that doesn’t require power or that comes between and artist and their instrument, than does music even make the strides it has? (If so, the ton of effects you see that The Edge uses on every freaking song is rendered moot.)

It’s this concept that forms what White grew up trying to emulate from the White Stripes through The Raconteurs. (He also does another cool thing by bringing in a younger version of himself in the same scene being influenced while learning to play as a kid. Borderline pseudo flashback gimmicky? Maybe, but it works because White comes off ever the raw musician and sells it.)

As a fan or armchair rock god however, see it for a look into the history of some of rock’s biggest tunes from U2 and Led Zeppelin, as well as how the UK skiffle scene (akin to our rockabilly), influenced ska and punk as much as anything.

The Zep factoids are worth the rental alone: The lead in Kashmir was a throwaway riff originally at the end of the song. The location stuff for the recording of Led Zep IV. Page for his part jamming solo in quieter scenes comes off as smooth as ever. While each musician is shown jamming, Page now looks like the coolest grandfather you might ever come across.

Doc on.

Culture Clash.

I mean, I still have a pristine copy of Sandinista on vinyl and all—closet rebel that I was—but the Clash at the time came off more like they just wanted to disrupt the status quo than having this deeper Bonoesque goal of saving the planet as the trailer suggests. But hey, I’ll wait and see when it comes out.

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When advertising gives you lemons...

Well, not just advertising, any industry you get fired from. Dawns on me after promoting Erik Proulx’s Lemonade, that I forgot to throw up a review to it. Erik was nice enough to invite me to the premiere in Boston last month. Disclaimer over as I would’ve reviewed it regardless once it came around. Now available on DVD, it covers the ad business and the rite of passage for anyone in it: Getting fired.

If you don’t know about it, it’s an extension of his Please Feed The Animals blog he started soon after one such discussion with HR. The doc’s gotten good reviews, but one of the comments I saw somewhere was funny. The gist of it was that “Well, advertising should get rid of people who have no desire to be in the industry.”

If that were the case I suppose, but it’s wrong.

Many people in the film wanted very much to work in advertising—and still do, it’s just HR and agency heads had different plans. This is about finding what you want to do with your working life and doing it once the opportunity presents itself if there’s no room in whatever field you work in.

As the tag goes, it’s not a pink slip. It’s a blank page.

From there, the rough script idea came together inside a month and production started soon after. All told, seven months passed from idea to premiere. Along the way, people donated their time, gear and skills to the film.

I’m sure the stories of each person would still resonate had this been shot on some low-end handicam, but props to cinematogrpaher Peter Nelson (Sicko), and director Marc Colucci for donating their time and gear to take it to the next level. I watch a shitload of docs and it’s got a good look with soundtrack that enhances the weight of the topic at hand. (Music also donated by the band Caspian.)

(For anyone who’s tried the Rebel Without A Crew approach, you’re always trying for as much production value as possible. Someone via Twitter offers to shoot for free with a Red, you don’t think twice about saying yes.)

It was cool though to experience a premiere with his family, friends and cast—all standing shoulder to shoulder in an indie theatre lobby beforehand. The energy and support was cool to see, and later you realize you were standing next to half the cast (including Steve Hall). Reminds you that a film experience can be more than a preview of coming attractions and expensive popcorn.

Speaking of, there’s one little thing he did which I have not seen major film studios or theatre chains do much, if at all. Before the movie started, he displayed a Facebook and Twitter url on the screen that said “Tell people you’re here.” (Crappy cell pic, sorry.) It’s a simple thing, yet, how many movies don’t even try that for realtime promotions, let alone having viewers text a code ahead of time for discounts and special offers.

Currently, he’s showing the film where he can across the country and Canada, entering it in festivals, etc., all to build support. It’ll be shown live next at an AIGA event in Boston on 1/14. You can also request a screening in your city here. This is the life of a filmmaker. (His day job still has him freelancing.)

In the meantime, the vibe of the movie has been extended so that people can share stories of finding a new career direction in their lives. If you want to be included in the upcoming book for that, submit your story here. You can also follow Erik on Twitter; the movie on Facebook and YouTube.

Now go out and make lemonade ya freaks.

The Cult of Mac.

The one thing Hulu does do well is offer full-length docs in a way YouTube doesn’t (yet). One of them, called MacHeads, takes a look at the cult of Cupertino. It does a great job of portraying Mac users as a bunch of iGod zombies in much the saem way PC users are regarded as mindless drones. It’s under an hour, but watch it less for the moments of Mac nerdness and more for its approach to marketing in the early days.

Chris Rock and a different kind of Roots.

It's probably the most unusual doc I’ve come across this year, but, we’re still in October. Chris Rock went around to look at the $9 billion industry around African American hairstyles in his Good Hair doc. Just don’t touch Rev. Al’s weave. And, wait for it, Facebook too.

NYC has a skate scene?

I KID. Looks like mah list of docs to watch is growing. Called Deathbowl to Downtown, this one takes a look at the growth of skateboarding in New York City and the East Coast scene, with a focus on late NYC resident Andy Kessler. Interesting how he had to order his gear from California when he was younger because the scene here wasn’t anywhere near what it is now. Which isn’t to say NYC didn’t drive the music and graffiti cultures that feed skateboarding. The East Coast graf scene would influence a lot of what the West Coast later did. Add it to the cue Sept. 15.

The rise and fall of web 1.0.

We Live In Public is a new doc out that chronicles the life of web “visionary” Josh Harris. Yeah, I didn’t who he was either. See what happens when the vision goes unchecked though.

“I get paid to see.”

More rock docness.