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Pepsi, Where’s My Jet?, a miniseries that was gripping
Can a half-a-line plot make a gripping mini-series? To see one, watch the Netflix show Pepsi Where’s My Jet? It is about a twenty-year-old John Leonard in the 1990s, fighting the mighty PepsiCo to make good on their promise of rewarding a Harrier fighter jet for those who collected seven-million Pepsi points in 1995. The four-episode series was not a courtroom battle, not a thriller of corporate espionage, not of unexpected twists, yet it was interesting and made me complete over an evening. If you ask what John Leonard did was audacious, yes it was! I liked the way the director Andrew Renzi focused on the two main individuals, John Leonard…
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Our Great National Parks (2022)
Our Great National Parks, a nature documentary blew my mind with its stunning 4K visuals, coverage of extremely hard-to-reach wildlife forests on land & water, and a well-written commentary. Complimenting these was the majestic voice of the former American President, Barack Obama. If you have a Netflix subscription and even a faint amount of curiosity about our natural world, then don’t miss this series. Without any hesitation, this one gets a Ripe from Mangoidiots. The five-part miniseries travels to the most exquisite National Parts around the world: Africa’s beaches, Japan’s islands, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, Chilean Patagonia, Kenya’s Tsavo Conservation Area, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and the Gunung Leuser…
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Made You Look: A True Story About Fake Art (2020)
Made You Look: A True Story About Fake Art (2020) was so engaging that you soon forget that it is not fiction, and is actually a documentary based on true incidents. To learn that the best of the best, the experts in the field of art could have been so easily fooled for two decades in a scam worth $80 million was unbelievable. Fictitious works like The White Collar pale in comparison to this real story. The documentary is available on Netflix. In 1995, an unknown art dealer, a lady by the name Glafir Rosales, approaches Ann Freedman, New York’s renowned art dealer and director of the 165 years old…
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Winnebago Man (2009)
This documentary Winnebago Man (2009) describes a 1980s viral video, its presenter (Jack Rebney) and traces him after twenty years. Because of the abundance of swear words in the video, Jack Rebney was nicknamed by his fans as the “The Angriest Man in the World”. The film is available on Kanopy. To understand this film you need to imagine a time before TikTok and YouTube. It was the 1980s, Video Cassette Recorders have become ubiquitous in every house, handy cams and Home videos were in trend. People exchanged cassettes or copied them between friends. As a term, viral videos were yet to be invented, wider distribution of amateur funny videos…
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24 City (2009)
24 City (2009) is a Chinese film that had won accolades in international film circuits. A fictional take on a supposed Chinese state-owned factory in Chengdu that had produced aeronautical components in its heydays and is now in a bad shape. Its huge landholdings are parcelled off as a new apartment complex called “24 City”. The film is a documentary-style take on this in the way of interviews with former employees and their children. It is available on Kanopy.com. A former worker, a lady says I used to work before getting laid off in the 1990s and now I am doing tailoring as part-time work. She adds “If you have…
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The Bit Player (2019)
The Bit Player (2019) is a documentary film by IEEE that was engaging to watch and shouldn’t be missed. It was a biography of Mr Claude Shannon, called as the father of information theory and credited with most of the fundamental mathematical and theoretical inventions powering the current digital era we are living in. The documentary by Mark Levinson is a collection of interviews with Mr Shannon, historic footages from Bell Labs, recreated enactments of his early years, descriptions of his works by renowned experts & scientists – this style makes the film enjoyable and not having a dull moment. Mr Shannon had worked at The Institute for Advanced Study…
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Ellas crean (2018)
Ellas crean (2018) aka Creative Women is a Cuban documentary film by Lourdes de los Santos that is being screened online by ICAF in partnership with the Embassy of Cuba. When you hear Cuba, there is an unmistakable allure that comes to your mind. This film documents the women of the island who have achieved great heights in their creative field of choice. We see and hear from fork dancers, innovative choreographers, a love poem writer, a designer of jewellery from odd materials, a filmmaker, an artist who gives emotions to coffee makers! big and small musicians, and a singer. Each of them has achieved against odds. A collection of…
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Becoming You (TV Series 2020-)
If you have an Apple device (laptop/iPhone/iPad) then check out the “Becoming You” in Apple TV+. It is about how human kids develop in the first 2000 days. The first 15-20 itself was priceless. Seeing those little kids in 4K melts away the worries of the pandemic. The opening story is about a 3-year old boy “Ruru” living in Tokyo, going out to buy sushi all by himself and returns safely. Something unthinkable in most places outside of Japan. The five-minutes long sequence was so touching. Similar was the next sequence of a boy in Nepal running around everywhere and taking breathtaking pictures with his camera. As a parent of…
