Beyond The Glory: Vince Carter - TV DOC (Blog #1)

This television documentary is about the story of Vince Carter (the professional basketball player). I found this documentary to be great because it showed me all the sides of Vince Carter, not just the basketball player.

Growing up, i was a huge Vince Carter fan so this helped me answer the many questions i had for the pro basketball player. Vince had many controversies growing up, from both his personal and basketball life. Carter's parents got divorced when he was only 7 years old; "it was a tough and ugly thing for me, just being a young kid and experiencing that, and i just knew that there was a reason for it."Vince said. He also had his younger brother (Chris Carter) who seemed to be always living in the shadow of Vince because he was the person everyone was talking about. That led Chris in the wrong direction and ended up in prison several times. Chris made an interesting point when he said "four walls and a door...if you don't get to know yourself in that situation..you'll never know."

Vince Carter's Last Second Shot in Game 7 of the 2001 NBA Playoffs 

Putting Vince's personal life to the side, one of the greatest controversies Vince Carter faced was during the 2001 NBA playoffs when he decided to head over to his graduation in North Carolina which happened to be the same day as game 7 of the 2001 NBA playoffs. He was heavily criticized by everyone but i never got to hear his side of the story. With this documentary, it gave me a better understanding of what was going through his mind during that process.

Vince Carter

Overall, great documentary and i really enjoyed learning more about one of the greatest icons in Toronto's Sport's history.

 My Grade on Doc: A+

Link to Doc: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jSKYrxvUzY

 

 

Marketplace: Stretching The Truth - MAGAZINE DOC PART 1: (Blog #1)

 In this blog, i will be talking about a magazine type documentary  that i watched. This documentary is about something called non-surgical spinal decompression therapy and basically what it does is provide back relief for people who suffer from back issues. However, this type of treatment can cost up to 5 thousand dollars! Which is why this documentary was created...to provide closure and information on everything you need to know about this specific type of therapy.

This is the DRX 9000 Compression system

They do this very well by interviewing people who have done this treatment and ask how it worked for them. One patient ended up with a crushed spine due to the compression bed and the host informed the owner who provides this type of treatment and he always brushed the question to the side by saying "we have an 80% success rate". However, this statistic isn't backed up with scientific proof which allows people to see that this could very likely be a scam.

Another great aspect of this documentary is what they did with a hidden camera. The owner of the company was implying that in order to accepted for this treatment, patients go through an assessment to make sure this treatment is for you, and it wont hurt you. Marketplace then used a decoy to go into the office and just simply show a X-ray of his back and they right away recommended compression therapy without doing any type of assessment. That right there was a great way to get the viewers informed in what's the real truth of this product and my interpretation now after watching this documentary is that I believe it's a scam.

Overall, I really enjoyed this documentary because it provided very interesting facts and made this so called "back relief treatment" look like a complete scam, and I'm glad people who were considering this type of treatment got to see that.

My Grade on Doc: A-

Link to Doc: http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/2010/stretching_the_truth/main.html

 

60 Minutes: Mark Zuckerberg - MAGAZINE DOC PART 2: (Blog #1)

The Famous Facebook Logo

For this blog, I'm going to be talking about a documentary that is about famous Facebook creator Mark Zucherberg. This documentary crosses many subjects such as the making of facebook, the law suit that involved two other individuals who claimed they were the ones who created facebook, and the new features that facebook is updating for their website. However, it was the setup of this documentary that made me question it. They started off talking about the new features of facebook which i didn't find to be a smart decision just because we all have facebook and we're very familiar with the tools the website provides.

Mark Zuckerberg

What I (as a viewer and a facebook user) am most interested in is the making of facebook, how much it's worth, the law suit and a biography of who Mark Zuckerberg really is. Although they did touch upon those subjects, they did it towards the end of the documentary when they should of did that first and then talked about the new features of facebook towards the end because after watching the beginning I really began to get bored and just wanted to fast forward to the stuff most people don't know. Overall, the documentary was very informative, but the setup wasn't properly thought out.

My Grade on Doc: B

Link to Doc: Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_wucE5Giko
                    Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1znhVrb8Yek&feature=channel 

(2002) Biggie and Tupac: Movie Documentary (Blog #1)

This film documentary touched upon the greatest rap artists this world has ever seen. Tupac and Biggie are arguably the two biggest icons when it comes to music period, but were both murdered at such a young age in 1996 and 1997. This documentary focuses on just that as they go on this quest to find out the answers on what lead up to their murders and who was behind it.

Tupac and Biggie were once good friends before outside influences split them apart

They also clear big misconceptions in this film that Biggie and Tupac were born as rivals. We learn in this film that they were actually best friends when they were younger, and they never became enemies until Tupac got shot multiple times and rumours circulated that Biggie orchestrated the shootings. One thing led to another and as the years went by, things became worse because of their affiliation with gang violence. In 1996 Tupac Shakur was murdered in Las Vegas when a car pulled up beside him at a traffic light and fired multiple gun shots that eventually got Tupac killed.  The killer was never found but this documentary's mission was to find clues on who might it been and they did just that. They interviewed people who were involved in tupac's crew and all signs pointed to the one man that no one thought it could of been. Suge Knight, Tupac's business partner and best friend is believed to have orchestrated the entire thing. Suge Knight had unlimited power, he had gangs, his own friends, and even the police working for him! Which then led people to believe he was the reason why Biggie got murdered just a year after Tupac did. This documentary helped the viewer understand that by going out and getting numerous interviews with people (cops, friends, family, group members) who were all involved and saw this entire thing unfold.

Tupac was last seen in this car before he was murdered

Overall, i can honestly say that i loved this documentary and i enjoyed it a lot. It helped me learn not only about their careers, but their deaths, how it happened, and more importantly, why it happened. I truly recommend this documentary to everyone who is interested in learning about the two biggest music icons in history.

My Grade on Doc: A+

Link to 13 part Doc: Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b31YsKKtqfk