Ballet is tough.

Have you guys heard of city.ballet? It's a twelve-part online documentary series about New York City Ballet, narrated by Sarah Jessica Parker. Each episode is about 6 minutes, and I watched them all in one blast last night. You hear from apprentices who are trying desperately to get into the company, corps de ballet members who are hoping to stand out, soloists who feel stuck in the ranks and principals feeling all eyes upon them. It's inspiring and fascinating, and another example of how it's hard to make something look easy.
(A bunch of little ones auditioning for the school! Those little bellies!)

P.S. Toby taking ballet.

(Photos of the School of American Ballet auditions by Greg Gilbert/Seattle Times and Jason DeCrow)

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A fourth grader's documentary about school lunch

Have you guys heard about Yuck, the documentary about school lunches written and directed by a fourth grader? Zachary is the brave filmmaker who goes undercover to reveal the truth about the gross meals at his NYC elementary school. He's hilarious, adorable (love his polo shirt and gelled hair!) and totally intrepid ("I could get in big trouble for this," he says, while sneaking his mini HD camera into the cafeteria). He has a big future ahead of him!

Here's the trailer, below, and you can watch the full 20-minute documentary online here.

P.S. 20 favorite documentaries, and cooking with toddlers.

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New Yorker cartoonists documentary

Director Leah Wolchok is filming a documentary about New Yorker cartoonists. Did you know that the regular cartoonists submit 10 to 15 cartoons a week, every week, to the magazine; even some of the best cartoonists sell just one a month; they commiserate about rejection during weekly lunches, a tradition that started in the early days of the magazine; and their day jobs include gravestone portraiture, fit modeling and furniture reconditioning?

Leah is about halfway through her fundraising goal on Kickstarter. I made a a contribution, since I'd love to see this funny film. Back it here, if you'd like. Good luck, Leah!

P.S. 20 best documentaries.

(Cartoons above from the Conde Nast Store, by Christopher Weyant, Roz Chast and Charles Barsotti)

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56 Up!

As you may know, the Up series is a series of eight fascinating documentary films that has tracked the lives of fourteen English schoolchildren since 1964, when they were seven years old. Every seven years, the director Michael Apted releases a new documentary that checks in on their increasingly varied lives (when they're aged 7, 14, 21, 28, 35, 42, 49...). The children all came from very different socio-economic backgrounds, and the director, Michael Apted, wanted to see how this would affect their futures.

The documentary films are wildly compelling—you follow these people as they graduate from school, move cities, find jobs, lose jobs, have children, get married, have affairs, dash their dreams, find happiness, lose their way, face whatever life brings. Each episode, you think you know where their lives are headed, but I've been shocked, thrilled and devastated to see certain updates. The most recent installment—56 Up—came out in England this past May, and I've been waiting with baited breath for it to reach the United States.

Well, 56 Up is finally released today! (Right now I see showtimes for just New York, but it should be hitting more cities on January 18th.) Film critic Roger Ebert called the films, "Brilliant! The 'Up' series is on my list of the 10 greatest films of all time." He also wrote a great overview here.

Will you see it? I highly, highly recommend the series.

P.S. 19 more fantastic documentaries...

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