Another interesting documentary by Werner Herzog. It’s basically the story of a dude named Graham Dorrington, an aeronautical engineer that built a teardrop-shaped airship and wants to fly it over the forest canopies of Guyana. There are some good segments about Kaieteur Falls, in Guyana, where supposedly nobody knows what is behind the waterfall because nobody has explored it, and legend among the natives is that it is full of treasure. Werner Herzog had a cameraman drop down to film behind the falls, but their footage won’t be shown.

One of the most interesting people in the film is local miner named Marc Anthony Yhap, who is searching for his family that migrated to Spain. Marc Anthony seems like an awesome person, I hope he has found his family.

You know who Danny Trejo is. You might not know the name, but you’ve seen him in like every movie, ever. Films such as Blood In, Blood Out and ConAir, Dusk Till Dawn and probably 500 other movies.

I just watched a great documentary called Champion: The True Story of Danny Trejo (Rent movies from Netflix!). You should check it out for some crazy stories from Danny Trejo himself.

Danny Trejo is a legit badass. He’s been in nearly every prison in California for crimes like armed robbery and assault, and he is a former drug addict. He’s not a very tall guy, but was a prison boxing champion (lightweight and welterweight). Fortunately he was able to turn his criminal life around and build a successful acting career. Of course, he generally plays a thuggish character because he looks like a mean dude, but they guy is really likeable and seems like a good guy who is very happy to be away from his past life.

Man, Werner Herzog is so awesome. I’ve said it before, but the guy is a film genius. Whether he is doing feature films or documentaries, pretty much everything I’ve seen of his has been brilliant. I admit, I only learned of Herzog a few years ago, and still have some catching up to do on his films, but I went through and added everything I haven’t seen to my Netflix queue.

In this documentary, Encounters At The End Of The World, he travels to the South Pole and does a film not about penguins (as he tells you at the beginning) but about the people who live and work at the South Pole, and the land itself. He asks oddball questions and makes the mundane seem interesting. The guy just has a way of talking and using words that make you want to keep watching. The cinematography is amazing also (done mostly by Peter Zeitlinger), taking you to places most of us will never get to see, under the ice and above the ice.

See also my previous blog post: Mister Lonely

Ok, I watched this documentary about the Young @ Heart Choir, which is a group that some dude put together of old people who sing rock songs. Before you think it’s just a movie about old people singing, it’s really pretty good.  The movie is funny, and sometimes emotional. I think it’s cool, because it gives these old folks a chance to travel and tour all around the world. Of course, one of the unfortunate things about a band full of old people, is that the members go & come as often as the members of Menudo. Check out the movie trailer video below, and then below it you can watch one of the old dudes sing Fix You by Coldplay, while hooked up to an oxygen machine.