The Bibi Files

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The Truffle Hunters

I thought this was a movie. 

It started off super slow and it must jjave been a good twenty minutes into the film when I realised it was a documentary but done in a very unintrusive manner with long scenes where not too much happens.

It's about four truffle hunters in the North West, Piedmont region of Italy. It's just a handful of old men who still hunt for truffles. They know each other as their paths cross from time to time. One of them, Angelo refuses to hunt any more as it's too commercial, cut throat and dangerous. Competing truffle hunters leave poisoned bait to kill the truffle hunters dogs. Angelo is a poetic figure with a strong sense of principle due to his disillusionment with the greed and corruption that have infiltrated the trade. He is shown rejecting offers from dealers who try to coax him back into the field, emphasizing his resolve to leave that life behind. His decision is rooted in a desire to preserve the purity of the tradition against the encroaching commercialization and unethical practices

The other three guys are Carlo - An elderly truffle hunter in his 80s, who goes out at night with his dog to avoid detection. He is portrayed as somewhat reckless, ignoring his wife Maria Teresa's concerns about his safety due to his age and the risks of nighttime hunting. Aurelio - A 90-year-old truffle hunter who is deeply attached to his dog, Birba. He is a bachelor with no children and expresses a hope that someone will care for Birba after he’s gone, reflecting his solitary yet dedicated life in the truffle forests. Sergio - Another truffle hunter and the youngest of them in his mid sixties, who hunts with his dogs, Biri and Fiona. He is shown as methodical and protective of his tradecraft secrets and likes to play the drums on his patio when he's not working.

It's a bucolic documentary about a way of life that is, if not quite dying out due to the extraordinary prices the truffles can command, is lived by an aging workforce who have no incentive to give away their knowledge.

White truffles, like those in Piedmont, are rarer and harder to quantify than the black truffles — estimates suggest 10-20 tons annually, but much goes unreported due to cash transactions and tax evasion. At prices ranging from $1,000 to $3,000 per pound for white truffles (and up to $6,000 for exceptional specimens), Piedmont’s white truffle trade alone could be worth $20-60 million yearly, conservatively.

There was something very charming about this film and it reminded me of the Italians we would meet driving from Germany to Malta as a child. Authentic, deeply connected toi the land and proud of their heritage. The old couple Carlo and his wife Maria Theresa had a small wine production and garden vegetable harvests with canning of tomatoes and so forth.

Their lives are guided by the seasons and customs and the growing or fermenting calendar. We don't have that any more. I sort of remember it, but it was evaporating, even back then as a child. 

The Truffle Hunters reminded me of it once again.

The Sparks Brothers - Documentary

When I first saw Sparks on Top of the Pops music show as a young lad I couldn't figure out why Ron had a Hitler mustache, and over subsequent years I still couldn't figure it out. It was too macabre to be a gimmick but it never went away.

I also assumed they were British as did many in the music industry, so I was on to something.

Then a couple of years ago I was noodling about on Youtube and I rediscovered them. I Started to listen to more of their work, and for every hour I put in they became increasingly more important. I came to realise their work was genius level. 

Visually, lyrically and musically. 

They're Brechtian but instead of a play for a couple of hours, their entire career over 5 decades plus is one long performance that always delivers the same values with ongoing experimentation and reinvention.

Just as I was getting into them in a big way they released a track with a video of the brothers and Cate Blanchett. It was terrific and as I'd caught on to their ouvre of work it made perfect sense from the first listen, and so I wrote about it last April.

This Documentary is very good and stitched together a few parts of their story I wasn't so familiar with, as well as confirming my observations from quite a few reputable music industry voices in this production.

Get Me Roger Stone

I was always into US politics much more than the British political scene and when I got a brilliant political mentor he really raised my game such that I would smash US CEOs on post war president discussions in luxury business hotel bars. I don't care about that now, and even the left right dialectic isn't important. Nothing is permanent and so if an allegiance to a political ideology is, one day it's self destructive.

Someone highly recommended this documentary on X and so I checked it out. It's compelling and sent me back in time to my politically attentive days. I've always been positive about Roger Stone for reasons I'll leave to the end. Watching this documentary I was taken aback how dirty the political consultancy and lobbying scene was and is. I can really see how the left or liberals as they say in the US have reason to, on the surface loath political operators like Stone. In fact I have a fair amount of understanding why the left are afraid of what's going on but they are wrong and hating on them doesn't work for me. There's a lot of decent 'liberals' but the stakes are higher than political partisanship this election in the US.

One reward of this documentary was how it refreshed my memory of US political history. I also got to know some of the names I was unsure of before such as Paul Manafort. A greater understanding of Machiavellian characters and business practices emerged, and in some ways it totally revised my overall view of Roger Stone. I like Roger's flamboyance and sartorial image. He's always been a close match to my own views but this documentary appraised me of how dirty his business is and I had to think about it and how it integrates with my any beliefs I had or changes them. It's a real deeper and darker dive than I was expecting.

Disclaimer: Roger Stone Jr followed me on my first Twitter account. I wasn't sure why at the time but I have a better idea now. He's a highly professional character.

VUK JOVANOVICH MARK PHILLIPS & CATHY O'BRIEN - CIA'S MK-ULTRA MIND CONTROL PROGRAM DOCUMENTARY

12 years later and I finally got to see Cathy O'Brien's daughter Kelly. I also learned that Dick Cheney and George Bush Sr raped them both. At a lodge.

WOW - New Forest ¬ A Year In The Wild Wood

Exclamations - Many of them

One of my weaknesses [I have them] is I thin-slice people I meet, which is to say that I pigeon-hole them in a few seconds rather than allow their character to shine through.... in its own time.

I don't mind confessing, I thought Peter Owen-Jones was kitted out in the best New Forest squire-attire and was thus fake.

I couldn't have been more wrong. After multiple WOWs I was a fan. I know the New Forest and Lymington fairly well, but I probably quadrupled my knowledge listening to Peter. WOW indeed.

If only the BBC could sell off their propaganda division?

Let the talent flourish I say. It's boastful to pigeonhole this kind of filmmaking as unequalled throughout the world. 

It's more accurate in my mind, to say no media institution makes more of this quality.

It's a compliment

Hearts of Darkness - Francis Ford Coppola's Documentary of Apocalypse Now

For a long time one of my all-time favourite movies was Apocalypse Now. It still is but, y'know, things move on and change.

It was no surprise to discover that at some point I'd randomly downloaded a documentary of the making of the film.

What I didn't anticipate was the documentary coming to life without my assistance while working on a computer, and discovering it was so compelling that I had to stop my tasks, watch it properly and then watch it again.

There's a few books that are just overrated flim-flam and have a suspicious smell of agenda more than talent. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad is one, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is another, and so is Moby Dick by Herman Melville, although that particular book didn't take off till after his death.

Don't mistake me. All three books have magnificent flourishes of writing but just don't stand up all the way through, and dozy academics can't even call it out, as I noticed on an 'In Our Time's recent episode'.

In a way Coppola is grappling with this weak story ending, and tries to fill the gap with a very bloated, uncooperative and superficial Marlon Brando.

What is exceptional is watching the making of the movie unfold and learning for the first time that Francis Ford Coppola (It's always a triple whammy when it comes to triplet names if we're paying attention) funded the movie himself before Vietnam movies became a thing in the eighties and early nineties, and it was acceptable to portray a soon to be 'defeated' Pentagon.

We now know much of that was scripted by Bell Helicopter and Daniel Ellesberg who is portrayed as a hero, but actually worked as a throat slitter for the CIA in much the same manner that Snowden isn't NSA, but a CIA contractor.

It's all about optics you see. That's why Snowjob gets a movie made about him, and Julian Assange languishes in the worst prison in the UK, Belmarsh.

Coppola starts off this documentary with a fine set of man boobs and a pasta-gut that wouldn't look out of place on a man 20 years older. However, when the shit hits the fan he starts losing kilos at a time, and by the end is a slender motherfucker at the screening. 

He did go through hell, but also had the balls for it.

I really fell in love with Francis in this documentary, as I have with his daughter's work in recent years. He has that Italian American body language that my political mentor had back in the day, and I wish I could have observed this before he passed on, his wife too only weeks ago.

Oh well, Joe and Kathy are reunited again and they're still in my thoughts. You were both great with me and it was a privilege to know you both.

One thing I never talked about with Joe was that his wife's first lover died in Vietnam. I never shared it with her husband but it was a vista of life I'd only ever known previously, on film.... such as Apocalypse Now.

New Extended Documentary - 2 & 1/2 hours of Kubrick

Warner Brothers, like every Hollywood studio is in deep trouble. 

When the masses discover how Hollyweird works it will tank, along with it's celebrity spunkdom, Faustian pacts and child raping directors including Spielberg and Woody who both appear in this new documentary, but obviously to airbrush Stanley's legacy when there's so much more to the man.

Kubrick was the Illuminati's film director and had access to a lot of information unavailable to most people before the internet. In this documentary I was reminded that Adrenochrome is mentioned in Clockwork Orange, in addition to the main theme of MK Ultra programming.

Kubrick took a lot of risks and may have paid the highest price. Or he might have just run out of being useful and thrown under a bus. One day we'll know.

Finders Keepers - A Documentary

Finders keepers is a terrific little documentary, set in the southern parts of the United States. It's the kind of film that Hollywood would ordinarily cast Billy Bob Thornton in, and which he excels at.

Instead of Hollywood, it's a grounded documentary about the influence of the media on very normal people. Well, I say ordinary people but these characters are the kind of people who are simple but also very complex.

It would be easy to critique these homely people and the effect that a concentrated media presence had upon them. However, it was the appearance on a TV show that lead to one of the protagonists finally seeking help for his alcohol and drug addictions.

It's also a documentary about ownership and possession, and how in some respects we don't own things, because its things that end up owning us. In the end everything works out for the better, though not without many tears, pain and heartbreak. 

The greatest learning from this documentary is that sometimes ill intentioned people can be a catalyst for our own growth and this is a learning and mindset we should carry with us each day.

There is a loser in this movie, but only because he doesn't recognise the lesson delivered to him for what it is.

Mountbatten - Secret Lives Documentary

Update - Original video removed. Close approximation used to replace.

This documentary is far more informative than the Brian Hoey puff piece "Secret Story".

Searching For Sugarman - 2012

As good a music documentary as you'll ever watch. This is heart warming and also obliquely informative about apartheid South Africa which, we learn, didn't have television until 1976 it was so authoritarian.

It's a great example of how music and art can connect with people who are in a long dark tunnel.

Racing Extinction - 2015

Every subject is weaponized so I understand those who mistakenly conflate climate change politics with ocean acidification because of their mutual connection to carbon dioxide levels.

This documentary is a powerful wake up call and even though research is often weaponized to prove one point or another I see no reason for not being the best custodians of the oceans and seas that we can. The Manta Ray scene above is very moving and a possible example of emergence.

The question remains what will the post-Anthropocene age look like?

The Source Family

It took a week to download The Source Family through a torrent, but it was worth the wait. There's some crucial points in it not mentioned in the earlier presentation I posted. It's still a remarkable story and it's impossible not to find this information among the most interesting available. 

Anyone seeking their way around the Knights Templar, Sufi Mysticism, Illuminati and Freemasons while also exploring sexual magic and tantra surrounded by some of the most interesting people of the time is worth exploring. Some of his disciples went on to become multimillionaires in software, stem cell research and of course a few are left bitter with their experiences ,but once again I can't spot any outside interference as we have seen from CIA shenanigans through the Jim Jones Massacre or Children of God.

There's a lot of symbolism in this documentary posted above, that I would ordinarily feel uncomfortable with, but like the photo with an infant covering Jim Baker's genitals it's self evident there's no dark side involved in the scene, though as I learned in this documentary Jim Baker had indeed done criminal acts before he became Father.

Beware of Mr. Baker (2013) - SXSW Movie HD

Watching it for the second time in a row. It's that good.

Marty Feldman

I had no idea Marty Feldman was English, well educated and only developed his bulging eyes after an overactive thyroid operation. Lot's of Mel Brooks and Gene Wilder connections in this documentary as well as Monty Python, Spike Milligan and a milieu of comedy writers, actors and editors.

I only laughed once but I still highly recommend it.  

Charles Manson

One of the more credible explanations for Charles Manson is his mind control programming as part of the CIA's/Network's MK ULTRA program. There are still unanswered questions like Who was his handler, How was he triggered (by telephone?) and What methodology was used (Trauma Based Mind Control/Harmonics/Drugs?).

The synchronicity pointing to this mind control link, lies with Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate and Rosemary's Baby and will be elaborated later. 

Capturing The Friedmans

The 2003 documentary Capturing the Friedmans, about a son and father who abused children in their home-based computer classes is a freak show. 

In some ways it acts as a spearhead for false memory syndrome (a discredited psychiatric "syndrome") to undermine children's testimony despite the admission of the the protagonists Jesse and Arnold Friedman to abusing children. The film's director Andrew Jarecki does a good job of muddying the waters as the above clip reveals. 

The full documentary is here on Youtube but cannot be embedded. It's well worth watching. My own feelings are the most insincere characters are David Friedman who changed his name to David Kaye and is a professional clown entertaining the children of the rich famous in New York, and pulling in six figures for it; and the the only victim to record his testimony on film identified anonymously and silhouetted as Gregory Dough. Both of them come across as more insincere than Jesse and Arnold who admitted to abusing children.

One striking element in this predominantly Jewish movie, is the memory correlation with german prison camp survivors often called the holocaust. I was on a train, I was in trauma, I was in a prison camp against my will, people died and therefore the gas chambers are real and so is the figure of 6 million.

Cycling´s Greatest Fraud - Lance Armstrong

I can highly recommend this documentary. The olympian ability of Lance Armstrong to lie over and over again straight into the camera while forcing him and his team mate cyclists to take blood transfusions to hide the cocktail of drugs they were taking shocked me.

The more power and money something is associated with the less likely it has any chance of being real.

Amy Winehouse Comedy Sketch - Video Majorca - August 2006

We still miss Amy Winehouse

The Last Romans - Sagalassos

In my view Sagalassos is more Roman Byzantium, and so as the documentary doesn't really emphasize that, it's worth pointing out that this is historically, an Eastenders production and not really W1. 

It is however a gorgeous documentary that does the best renditions-on-ruins of Roman architecture (the Byzantines called themselves Romans and still do in parts of Greece) I've seen yet. 

If Mary Beard's speciality is bringing ordinary Romans to life, this production restores the high society architecture of Roman living to its former glory.