Hacker Cinema
Burden of Dreams
1982 · Film · documentary · 97 min
Directed by Les Blank
The Amazon rain forest, 1979. The crew of Fitzcarraldo (1982), a film directed by German director Werner Herzog, soon finds itself with problems related to casting, tribal struggles and accidents, among many other setbacks; but nothing compared to dragging a huge steamboat up a mountain, while Herzog embraces the path of a certain madness to make his vision come true.
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9 comments on Hacker News
Have a look at "Burden of dreams", a doc about Werner Herzog moving a boat over a mountain (with a team, to film "Fitzcaraldo") in the amazon. "The birds don't sing, they screech in pain"
Good movie!
Had any of the examples been Lessons of Darkness or Grizzly Man or Burden of Dreams, this conversation would have gone quite differently, but since none of those films were released on Youtube they were not even an option to begin with.
After watching "Fitzcarraldo", be sure to watch "Burden of Dreams".
Another director would have used practical special effects (models) to film dragging the steamship over the mountain and riding it down the rapids. Herzog dragged a real steamship over the actual mountain and he and the film crew rode it down the rapids.
In "Aguirre Wrath of God" the conquistadors war party lose half of their equipment when a flood sweeps one of the rafts away. This was not part of the script, during on location shooting an actual flood swept one of the movie crews rafts away with a lot of the equipment and props.
Thanks, I enjoyed that a lot more than I enjoyed the actual movie. (although I enjoyed that too) A bit like Burden of Dreams vs Fitzcarraldo[0]. In both pairs, the fictional story seems trivial in a lot of ways compared with the real story. Maybe that's often or usually the case? Well, I don't think it's likely I would've enjoyed Terry Gilliam's Quixote or Jodorowsky's Dune more than I did the amazing documentaries about them. (Lost in La Mancha and Jodorowky's Dune)
[0] Fitzcarraldo (1982) is a Werner Herzog movie about a guy who wants to build an opera house in the jungle, which plan involves hauling a ship over a hill between 2 rivers. Burden of Dreams is Les Blank's documentary about the making of the movie.
Great question!
Patricio Guzman: La batalla de chile, Nostalgia de la luz, El boton de nacar (i.e. everything I've seen so far)
Bob Connolly & Robin Anderson - First Contact, Joe Leahy's Neighbours, Black Harvest (Trilogy about a half-white, half-native New Guinean farmer)
Werner Herzog - (apart from those already mentioned) Lessons of Darkness, Les Blank's Burden of Dreams
Everything by Scott Noble - watch on metanoia-films.org/
Bus 174, Harlan Country USA, How To Start A Revolution, Silenced (2014), War on Whistleblowers, The Century of the Self
Man with a Movie Camera, Man on Wire, Dark Days, Kumaré, Dear Zachary, Children Full of Life (2003)
Lots of good ones already mentioned, but here's a few nobody's brought up yet:
Orson Welles' F for Fake: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072962/
Robert X. Cringely's Triumph of the Nerds: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_of_the_Nerds
The Maysles Brothers' Gimme Shelter: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0065780/
Randy Olson's Flock of Dodos: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0800334/
Les Blank's Burden of Dreams: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083702/
Steve James' Hoop Dreams: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110057/
Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker's The War Room: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0108515/
Titicut Follies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titicut_Follies
The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Emperor%27s_Naked_Army_Marches_On
Grizzly Man: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grizzly_Man
Burden of Dreams: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083702/
Boatman: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0106445/
For wild-life I'll pick any Cousteau or BBC documentary
---Below are French movies (but worth trying to find in English)---
Depardon's Profils Paysans trilogy : https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0284409/
L'Inde fantôme : https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0063914/
All documentaries by: Scott Noble (available free at his site http://metanoia-films.org/), Patricio Guzman, Werner Herzog, Adam Curtis, The Yes Men.
Other great documentaries: Man with a Movie Camera, Sherman's March, Burden of Dreams, Bus 174, My Winnipeg, How to Start a Revolution, Merchants of Doubt, Silenced (2014), the Corporation (2003), Man on Wire, The Parking Lot Movie, Land of Look Behind, Intangible Asset No. 82, Brasileirinho, Jodorowsky's Dune, Revolution OS, Facebookistan, The King of Kong, Kumaré, McLibel, Harlan County USA
Why? Because they're amazing, important, will change your life etc. Sorry I don't have hours to go into detail. Enjoy!
ps I found a lot of these by googling best documentaries lists, IMDb lists etc. I judge whether to watch movies/docos by reading 2 or 3 pages of user reviews on IMDb, occasionally Ebert or Urban Cinefile etc also.
Les Blank did a great documentary about Herzog filming Fitzcarraldo, as well. A very interesting pair of films to watch -- it's titled "Burden of Dreams."
Herzog has several short docus worth seeing too. I know the one is on youtube where he goes to an evacuated town and up a volcano that's set to blow, to find a man who has refused to leave his home on the volcano's side.