I watched two great documentaries last week.

The first is called ‘Please Vote for Me‘ and follows a central Chinese 3rd grade class’s attempt to democratically elect a new Class Monitor. The film was broadcast on television networks worldwide last year as part of the ‘Why Democracy?‘ project, which saw 10 filmmakers’ interpretations of democracy, but I watched it on the new issue of Wholphin. Here’s a trailer ↓

I also watched a documentary Mike Mills made last year called ‘Does Your Soul Have a Cold?’ In it he explores the cultural perception of depression in Japan and how it changed with the introduction of antidepressants in 2000. Really it’s just five medicated people talking about their experience of depression. There’s an excerpt on Mike Mills’ site and the film was recently made available in its entirety on iTunes (for $4), but be advised that listening to people talk about their depression for an hour and a half can put you in a strange headspace.