If You Need a Cure For Being Too Happy...

It has been difficult for me to find content for posts lately. I've had a bit of writer's block, and the documentaries I have watched recently just aren't quite inspiring me in that special way. Or maybe more accurately I've been watching amazing documentaries with subject matter that is hard-hitting, important, and frustrating. I know it sounds like a cop-out to say that I am too fired up about these topics to want to write about them. The opposite should be true. I typically love to delve into the dark recesses of the human soul and promote the brilliant filmmakers who bring us the truth. However, I also didn't want to rain down post after post of doom and gloom and my angry ranting.

Deciding it was best to share what I've seen rather than keep silent, I will present some of the saddest and most frustrating documentaries I've seen as of late. The descriptions are short and sweet. Make of these what you will. If you are in the mood to get up in arms check out these titles.

12th & Delaware (2010)

If you are pro-choice get ready to get rabid. This documentary is about two buildings across the street from each other in a Florida town. Both appear to be abortion clinics. Only one is. Watch as pregnant women enter the impostor building, only to be given ultra sounds and shamed into keeping her unborn baby. Watch the pro-life activist who runs it, tell a pregnant woman who has an abusive boyfriend that keeping the baby may change him for the better.

Hot Coffee (2011)

Everyone has heard the story of the woman who sued McDonald's because she was burnt by their hot coffee. I bet you think she was real dumb and this is an example of a "frivolous lawsuit." What if I told you that the burns she received we so bad that she had to have skin grafts, and it greatly effected her health for the rest of her life and she deserved and needed every penny that she won in that lawsuit? What if I told you that lobbyists for major companies love to make lawsuits like these seem frivolous in order to save a buck; promoting a lack of liability in businesses?

The Devil Came on Horseback (2007)

 

In 2004 Marine Captain Brian Steidle went to Sudan to document a ceasefire in the Darfur region for the African Union. He witnessed the now famous genocide unfold on a daily basis, coming to the villages in the aftermath with his camera. After almost a year of this he could take no more, went back to the US, and broke his story to the New York Times. To his surprise, despite all of the horrific photographic proof, very little came of it.

 S-21: The Khmer Rouge Killing Machine (2003)

In case you don't know about The Khmer Rouge, you should first read up on it. I did not learn about this in school, maybe because it happened in the 1970s and most "world history" classes only get to WWII by June. This documentary follows one remaining survivor and several men who were teen guards at Tuol Sleng Prison, a Hell that a majority of the population was taken to. All were accused of treason and tortured until they implicated all the other people they knew as well. The torture described specifically plays out some of my worst fears.

Your welcome.