Chattanooga Pulse

Lately I’ve been on a documentary freak-out. I’d been collecting them in my Netflix queue for quite some time.  The minute I hooked a computer up to my TV and signed up for the on-demand “instant view” option, I don’t think I left the house for five or six days.

I’m not real picky about the subject matter. I watched one about a guy who planned and ultimately performed a tightrope walk between the twin towers of the World Trade Center right after their construction was complete. It was as interesting to learn about the infrastructure of the ill-fated buildings and the weather conditions at that height in that location as it was to watch him spend all night sneaking a line across the void between them and then walking across it at daybreak.

I watched a documentary about a guy whose goal in life was to set the world’s record for the highest score in Donkey Kong. In spite of this rather boring-sounding premise, the film turned out to be a pretty intense drama that I liken to “Ocean’s 11 with geeks.” A mild mannered laid-off father of two is an OCD-impaired, shoulda-coulda-woulda kind of guy who spends countless hours in his garage pecking away on the old stand-up arcade game someone gave him. Meanwhile as news spreads of his progress, there is a flurry of skeptical activity from the nemesis geeks who control the country’s video arcade game high score rankings from a centralized compound in Iowa. The riveting story of zeniths and zits unfolds from there.

I’d have to say my preference of documentaries is rockumentaries. The turmoil of a band of immature, self-destructive creative types always intrigues me. On a recent trip to New York City, I actually went to the movies to catch one that won’t make it here—Anvil: The Story of Anvil. This band that, in truth, inspired the inception of Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer to name a few, acted more like a real-life Spinal Tap during the film’s recount of their recent reunion tour. I watched another one right after that about the original bass player of the New York Dolls. After years of inner struggle and a strange turn of events, he finally had the opportunity to re-live the dream before it was too late. Both films are kind of sad, but sweet.

Not too long ago I re-watched a documentary about two guys who spent years trying to make a horror film using friends, back yards, fake blood and a lot of improvisation. That one hit home because my friends and I used to make movies in our own back yards using a VHS camera about the size of a Prius hardwired to the top-loading video recorder the size of a Lincoln that was hardwired by miles and miles of extension cord to an outlet in the closest basement rec room with a sign that read, “DO NOT UNPLUG!!!”

Speaking of homemade movies, there’ve been a few documentaries made about the ‘noog. Most focus on our unfortunate role as a famous backdrop during the Civil War, but some recognize other interesting stories that happened around here. A good friend of mine did a documentary several years ago about the Bessie Smith Strut that aired on PBS. And now there’s a highly acclaimed piece on the middle school teacher in Whitwell credited with illustrating the impact of the Holocaust to her students by having them link paperclips to represent each of its 6 million victims. I have yet to watch that one—but it’s in the queue.

can’t explain my recent attraction to watching other people’s stories. It doesn’t take Sigmund Freud to figure out that peering through someone else’s looking glass can be very telling as to the level of satisfaction with your own story. But to me it’s the fascination of seeing what makes other people tick.

I like to think that most of my friends and I live pretty interesting lives. And maybe that’s why I appreciate people who take things up a notch, whether it’s to realize a dream or even if it’s simply because they have one good thing going for them. Regardless, there are tons of real stories about real people out there to be told. And not all have “real housewives” in the title.

Chuck Crowder is a local writer and general man about town. His opinions are just that. Everything expressed is loosely based on fact, and crap he hears people talking about. Take what you just read with a grain of salt, but pepper it in your thoughts. And be sure to check out his wildly popular website  www.thenoog.com