Posts by The Doctor
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I'm the Doctor. And I love documentaries. Not the kind of ninny crap that too often passes for documentary programming in free-to-air prime time, but the kind you usually have to BitTorrent because there's zero prospect of them being shown here, at least in any reasonable timeslot.
Which is why I'm encouraged by the looming launch (Sunday November 5, with a launch lig tonight, Friday) of the Documentary Channel. It's not free-to-air, but it is "basic tier" on Sky, which means every Sky customer gets it, and it is programmed in New Zealand "for New Zealanders", as they say.
So what is it offering? Well, it's not all gold, of course: old episodes of Piha Rescue pad out the schedules, along with Singles, "an observational series that follows single people looking for love." But the hit-rate still looks a lot better than that of the existing factual channels.
Schedules are arranged in thematic strands: a regular investigative slot, a time for shock-docs and crime and court strands (although I fear I've seen all the JonBenet Ramsey I need to see). A Premiere of the Week will screen every Sunday at 9pm, and 9pm Wednesdays is the World View slot, which covers stories from "outside the Western sphere".
On the other hand, you'd be surprised at the catalogue of New Zealand documentaries that have premiered at festivals and the like but never seen on television. One example from the DC's opening month schedule is __Father of the House__ (9pm, Monday Nov 13), Simon Burgin's day-in-the-life portrait of former Speaker Jonathan Hunt, which premiered at last year's inaugural New Zealand Documentary Festival and was described as "hugely amusing" by someone on Rotten Tomatoes.
Launch month also sees the New Zealand television premiere of Doug Aubrey's "football war story" Louder Than Bombs (9pm Monday Nov 27), which follows convoy driver and football coach Scotty Lee through Balkan countries ravaged by ethnic conflict but still united by a common language. The followup, A Different Pitch, screens next month. The website of Aubrey's Glasgow-based production company, Autonomi is worth a visit in itself.
In a political vein, there's the Emmy-winning Thames TV/PBS four-parter The Kennedys (screened elsewhere in 1993, but never here; starts 8pm Wed Nov 8). I couldn't find much about Poisoned (8pm Friday Nov 10) but I gather it takes the case of the Ukraine's Victor Yushchenko a starting point for a look at the use of poisoning as a political weapon in the former Eastern bloc countries. A cheery little number, then.
There's also Noam Shalev's Primetime War (8pm, Monday Nov 13), which screened recently in the New Zealand Documentary Film Festival. It follows two TV cameramen - one Palestinian, one Israeli - as they negotiate the hazards of the Occupied territories. It also screened at the Toronto Jewish Film Festival, where it was summarised thus: "The film poses the question, does the presence of cameras incite violence? There's no simple answer, but it's fascinating to listen to the men justify, explain and finally film the violence that has become part of daily life in Israel."
The British skateboarding history Rolling Through the Decades has a crappy title and I'm told it lacks the soul of our own No More Heroes, but ain't all bad. It debut as 5pm Nov 8 and plays at various times through the month. Trailers and info from the film's website here.
The Documentary Channel appears to have picked up on a vein about which TVNZ continues to be shy: the desire for more anglophile, BBC-style factual programming. Channel founder Richard Driver recently signed off on the purchase of about 200 hours of BBC documentary programming. If Sky sees the Documentary Channel as a Freeview killer - and it almost certainly does - it would seem to be going the right way about it.
Among the acquisitions is the first series of Melvin Bragg's The Adventure of English which, having recently torrented in its entirety, I can honestly say is splendid. That was buried on a Saturday afternoon by TV One, but there's also a second series that has never screened here.
At the time of writing, the Documentary Channel website isn't live, but I assume it will be later this evening.
For now, if you have any comments, go ahead ..
BTW: It's on channel 49 on Sky Digital.