Doc Watch: Outsider Art

MATANGI/MAYA/M.I.A. (A) - This mix of contemporary video and home movies by the rapper M.I.A. creates a swirl that is the life of a modern, insurgent artist. With a slight nod to the Kurt Cobain fever dream "Montage of Heck," newcomer Stephen Loveridge curates an intimate portrait of the talented Sri Lankan refugee immigrant who refuses to shut up about the plight of the people she left behind.

M.I.A, aka Mathangi Arulpragasam, aka Maya, shot home video going back to her time in her homeland (where her father was a founder of the Tamil rebel group) around the turn of the millennium. She also was developing her beats and raps on cassette tapes. She was "disovered" by Justine Frischmann of Elastica and before you know it was performing before thousands at Coachella by 2005 on the heels of songs like "Galanaga" and her debut album "Arular." She eventually broke huge with "Paper Planes" on the "Slumdog Millionaire" soundtrack, and before you know it, she was hanging with Madonna and Nikki Manaj at the Super Bowl, infamously giving America the middle finger.

Loveridge does not shy away from either the controversy or the accusations of hypocrisy against an entertainer who celebrates the underclass while luxuriating in the billions of the Bronfman family that she briefly was married into. But we never lose sight of the young girl who grew into the truth-telling woman still pushing to champion people of color. Loveridge plays with the chronology like a pro, and the result is a burst of energy and primal scream, urging us to listen to this voice.

HERE TO BE HEARD: THE STORY OF THE SLITS (B-minus) - This is a fun but somewhat sluggish celebration of the female punk band the Slits, who gained popularity alongside the Sex Pistols and the Clash but who quickly devolved into a noodling reggae band and soon faded into obscurity.

The archival clips are fairly extensive, and the middle-age surviving members are mostly in good spirits as they reminisce. The production values are a little cheap, and the history of the band itself is rather thin, but this helps fill in some of the blanks in the history of punk.

SEARCHING FOR INGMAR BERGMAN (B-minus) - You get the feeling that the filmmakers merely scratch the surface in psychoanalyzing the groundbreaking Swedish director of the New Wave era. His greatest hits are on display here, and the women who indulged him over the years, now wrinkled, wax nostalgic about working with the man who did his best to harsh the vibe of the hippie generation with his heavy films. A move to Germany in the '70s for tax reasons feels under-reported. One of his sons offers an analysis of dear old dad. In the end, we might not know much more than a few Rosebud moments that shaped a man who left his mark on cinema.

BONUS TRACK
From the closing credits of "M.I.A.," "Reload":