Madame Cat and friends discuss documentaries at a Gala.

Photo Credit: Punchface Thunderdog

Lots of documentaries are making the rounds at Sundance and elsewhere, because it’s very important that Hollywood pretend to care about world issues.  Here are the trailers for a few.

Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? – A movie everyone’s talking about from Super Size Me director Morgan Spurlock, this one’s already got distribution locked down from the Weinstein Company.  Meanwhile, all I could think was that “Organ Spurcock” would be a really gnarly porn name. 

Taxi to the Dark Side – “A stunning inquiry into the suspicious death of an Afghani taxi driver at Bagram air base in 2002, the film is a fastidiously assembled, uncommonly well-researched examination of how an innocent civilian was apprehended, imprisoned, tortured, and ultimately murdered by the greatest democracy on earth.”  Hey, this is kinda like that Harold & Kumar movie that’s coming out, right?  I think I heard about that.

Up the Yangtze – My favorite order at the Asian massage parlor is now a documentary about the devastating effects of the Three Gorges Dam in China (bought by Zeitgeist, scheduled for April release). My favorite part is where the head honcho guy tells his employee, "Don’t call anyone old, pale, or fat!"  Guh, bosses are such fascists. 

Shoot Down – “In the mid-to-late 90s, thousands of Cuban refugees attempted to cross the Florida Straits by whatever means available – small boats, homemade rafts and inner tubes. Only one in four rafters made it to U.S. shores, with tens of thousands perishing at sea. A volunteer group based in Miami called “Brothers to the Rescue” was formed to patrol the Straits in small civilian aircraft, offering aid to rafters. On February 24th, 1996, in the midst of heightening political unrest in Cuba and in the wake of a revised U.S. policy toward Cuban refugees, the Cuban government authorized two military fighter jets to attack and destroy two of the volunteer planes.”  Hey, say what you want about Castro, dude’s committed to the beard.

American Teen – No trailer yet, but Paramount is reportedly bidding for distribution rights. "Nanette Burstein’s ‘American Teen’ revolves around Indiana high school seniors. A cheerleader, hipster, jock and band geek are all featured in a film one insider dubbed "a smarter ‘Laguna Beach."’"  Meanwhile, another insider referred to Nanette Burstein as "a manlier Zac Efron."  Sources say she was pleased.