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It’s a Fyre, Y’All (Netflix Documentary Edition)

I remember almost as if it were yesterday. It was late April 2017 – as I am apt to do on any given day, I found myself thumbing through my multiple social media accounts, check checking up on the latest news.

I don’t recall exactly at what time, but suddenly my various feeds were inundated with a slew of posts talking about the disaster that was taking place down in the Bahamas; something called the “Frye” Festival? Yeah, I thought it was a festival sponsored by one of my favorite leather goods brands. My bad.

Of course I was soon corrected – it was the FYRE Festival which, pun intended, was going up in flames. Posts containing real-time photos of cheese sandwiches and disaster relief tents filled my head. What exactly was going on? Who is involved/responsible for this mess? Well in a matter of days, most of my “burning” questions would be answered. In the immediate wake of this story dropping, I am (almost) embarrassed to say that I was filled with a great deal of bemusement. My fascination with the events of the Fyre Festival were punctuated by moments when, while chatting with friends, I would find myself crying with laughter at the poor folks who got duped into paying for a “luxury festival experience” on a (not) private island in The Bahamas.

The Netflix original documentary Fyre: The Greatest Party That Never Happened, looks back on those harrowing days as well as the calamitous lead up to the event which reverberated through social media for days.

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The Public Image is Rotten (2018)

I entered The Public Image is Rotten, a portrait of Sex Pistols’ frontman Johnny Rotten (John Lydon), not knowing exactly what to expect. Frankly, it is how I approach all musical documentaries – I feel like the less one knows about the subject the better. In the past, this exercise has served me well – that is watching documentaries on folks I may not know and whose music I cannot pretend to listen to. It is a fun project, a musical journey of sorts in which I venture into a musical arena I may not have otherwise explored.

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Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (2018)

Full Disclosure

I am quite biased and immovable when it comes to the subject of this Focus Features documentary Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (Fred Rogers). No one can tell me that Fred Rogers was not an angel sent down from the very heavens as an example of what we should all aspire to emulate. His ability to talk to and more importantly, to LISTEN to youngsters in a way that made us who were brought up watching Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood feel important and special is unrivaled.

And to the folks (as featured in the film) who taken a more misanthropic look back on Rogers’ life and impact on culture – sorry but you are wrong.  Very much like the film suggests, I do not think Rogers’ message to young people ever carries any self-importance, privilege or sense of entitlement. In fact, the message is quite the opposite; we are all different – physically, emotionally, spiritually. The lesson he taught us is to never be ashamed of those differences; instead we should make sure to value and hold dear those things that make us uniquely who we are. This is the thread which runs through the documentary.

Won’t You Be My Neighbor? is not the first documentary to probe into the life and work Fred Rogers. And like all the profiles I have seen, this one continued the streak of leaving me with more than a couple of tears in my eyes at its conclusion.

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