Post by v9733xa on Jun 17, 2017 11:41:35 GMT -5
Jesus, I love documentaries. I really do. They are among my very favorite films. I watch as many documentaries, at least in the last five years or so, as other movies. Maybe more.
With that said, I know that that view is not shared by a lot of people, and perhaps not a lot of people that frequent the movies section of this site. That’s okay. I also love turning off my brain and watching a dumb superhero flick – they’re fun! There’s nothing wrong with that.
But what I do want to do here is try to convince a few more people to give documentaries a try. There are SO many great ones. I easily could have made this a list of 50 and wrote long paragraphs about each one. No trouble. You’ve just got to search. Many are there right on Netflix, and of course on some other channels if you’ve still got “regular” TV. And my goodness, PBS, please support your local broadcasting station and contribute to them and watch the amazing stuff they produce.
So here we go. Ask any questions you like about these, or others, and I’d be happy to tell you more or direct you to other films you might enjoy.
Honorable mentions: Religulous, Crumb, The Overnighters, Jodorowsky’s Dune, The Last Waltz, Kedi, Winged Migration, Grizzly Man, pretty much every Michael Moore film but especially Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko, Roger & Me, Capitalism: A Love Story, and the one I chose here
10. Inside Job (2010)
A handful of films on here are really required viewing if you just want to be goddamn informed. So, while not quite a “history” film, because it was made so recently after the “Great Recession” that rocked the U.S. and much of the world in 2007-2009 (and arguably longer), this movie was remarkably well done for having such a brief time to reflect on that economic collapse. The reason why is that director Charles Ferguson tracks the financial industry from the 1980s (Reaganomics) to the 1990s (derivative stock sales) to the 2000s (the housing bubble) to drive home clear points: this was a self-inflicted wound, and anyone that tells you that recessions or “downturns” are cyclical does not understand how monetary and fiscal policy combined with regulation (or lack thereof) can influence the macroeconomy. One of the best parts of the film is the frame story of Iceland, exemplified by this clip:
As he often does, Roger Ebert summarized it well, describing Inside Job as “an angry, well-argued documentary about how the American financial industry set out deliberately to defraud the ordinary American investor.” Any Economics class needs to watch this film, high school or college, because there simply was not enough analysis of “why?” when the recession happened, only “now what?” Solving financial meltdowns like this necessitates a strong federal government with regulatory powers, not a stock market and credit default swap hucksters who only care about their bottom line. Those who walked away with multi-million dollar golden parachutes – while hundreds of thousands lost their jobs, houses, and/or life savings – have yet to really face any consequences. Fuck them, and see this film so you can get angry too. [/soapbox]
9. Looks Like Laury, Sounds Like Laury (2015)
I like reserving the number 9 spot for unknowns and underdogs on my list. Certainly Looks Like Laury, Sounds Like Laury fits the bill, as it does not even appear on letterboxd.com’s list of films to mark as watched. You can only find it as a part of PBS’s America Reframed series, a beautiful collection of documentary films now in its fifth season. If you are fortunate enough to watch this film, as I was the week it came out, you might react like I did: full on ugly crying, openly weeping at the sadness and heartbreaking nature of what you see. Laury is a friend of the documentarians, Pam and Connie, and when she could feel what eventually turned out to be early-onset frontotemporal dementia she asked them to film her life and how it changed. Laury is only 45. By the time she was 47, she could barely speak. She had two children, one of them quite young, and the scene of her young daughter and friend talking about what the disease means, how to handle it, and what the future holds… I’m telling you, you haven’t seen much that is as emotional and powerful as these children facing what is ahead. This was not an acclaimed documentary, though it won a handful of awards, and maybe that’s because the style is unpolished and sometimes a little uneven. But in my opinion, that was the point, as it simply follows Laury as her mind literally wastes away, and you see her turn from a vibrant eloquent actress into a barely functioning invalid in just a couple years. I will never, ever forget how I felt watching this film.
8. The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert McNamara (2003)
I think my list would completely lack credibility if I didn’t have at least one Errol Morris film on it. As it is, I’ve got one, the brilliant Fog of War, featuring ex-Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara of the Vietnam War era, under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. McNamara, as I hope you know, was instrumental in much of the early (i.e. “build up”) policy that led from a conflict to all-out war by the mid to late 60s. Morris somehow got the then-85-year-old McNamara, a man who I came to respect a great deal after watching this movie, to ruminate on his time as Defense Secretary, and American foreign/war policy for much of the 20th century. The film uses 11 “lessons” about conflict to frame the story, among them “empathize with your enemy” (i.e. “the hearts and minds” of Vietnamese), “belief and seeing are both often wrong” (Gulf of Tonkin incident), and “never say never” (McNamara takes responsibility but blames LBJ for much of the War, saying JFK would not have engaged so heavily). While some people think that pure historical documentaries can be pretty heavy (I am not one of those people, I do have a degree in History after all), this is as entertaining as any sit-down interview can possibly be. This is an indispensable film for history and political science classes of all levels. It also won the Academy Award for Best Documentary, and it furthermore features a stunning score from Philip Glass, perhaps the greatest living composer. Watch it with your dad this weekend.
7. Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace and Music (1970)
We have certainly all seen various clips of the Woodstock Music Festival from time to time, whether it’s Joe Cocker’s emotional and sweaty performance, Jimi Hendrix’s amazing Anthem rendition, or simply the thousands of young people enjoying the music, mud, recreational drugs, and one another. Yet another Academy Award winner for Best Documentary, Michael Wadleigh’s timeless film features over 30 songs recorded at the festival just a year prior. At the time of release, it was a runaway smash success (raking in over $50 million from a budget of only $600,000), essentially for the millions of people who weren’t lucky enough to have attended the seminal event that now remains one of the single most important cultural landmarks in American history. Now decades later, there have been several versions released. If you have the time, I suggest the epic Director’s Cut, released in 1994, topping out at 225 minutes. Even if you don’t particularly like this style of music (remember, most of the bands that played were folk or variants thereof, you’ve not going to find Led Zeppelin or Deep Purple here), the historical importance of a film like this, simply literally a recording of an event that would never be replicated, makes it a crime to even ignore. And maybe the techniques are commonplace today, but for fans of trailblazing cinematography, the use of split screen and wide screen (not to mention stereo sound) more than make the huge undertaking of purely watching the film in its entirety an enriching task. In case you’ve never seen the performance, somehow, let’s end with Jimi himself.
6. Man on Wire (2008)
Our third Oscar winner in a row, Man on Wire is probably in the bottom half of this list in terms of notoriety and cultural imprint. But that doesn’t make it any less compelling. You may, instead, have seen Robert Zemeckis’s picture The Walk, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, one of the best films of 2015 in my opinion; that was a dramatic biopic version of this documentary. James Marsh directed, and conducted the interviews, in this riveting recounting of Philippe Petit’s unthinkable high-wire walk between the World Trade Center buildings in 1974. What makes this movie great – and honestly the story of the feat as well – is how Marsh frames it like a heist film. That’s not inaccurate to reality either; in order to make something like this happen, there was a team of men and women sworn to secrecy that had to find a way for Petit and his equipment to make it up the towers, and then find a way out of trouble. You don’t have to be a fan of acrobats or high-wire stunts to enjoy this at all. Petit is such a remarkable storyteller than you really just need him in front of the camera, combined with a few clever re-enactments and well-placed never-before-seen videos and photographs of the incident. Essentially sweeping every documentary prize in 2008 and 2009, this is a film that I found so enjoyable and so fun, that I vividly remember smiling and laughing at the joy Petit has in describing his dangerous stunt. Unlike a few other films here, aside from a brief scene with a little nudity (hey, he’s French), this is something I think most families can watch together and really love.
5. Bowling for Columbine (2002)
Make that four Oscar winners in a row. Yes, there is no question this is the most divisive film on the list (well, I could have picked Fahrenheit 9/11 but I find this film superior). Firebrand director Michael Moore’s brilliant takedown of the gun industry/lobby and American gun lovers everywhere is his greatest piece of movie-making, largely because at the time of filming he was not yet widely known, and he could catch the interviews and camera footage that would later be more difficult to get because he became so famous (or, as some would say, infamous). While some decry it as an attack on the Second Amendment (also, read it, context clues people), the real storytelling here is attempting to assess the validity of gun culture vis-a-vis our culture of violence in the United States. Two incredible examples of this will follow. The first, the history of America’s violent political involvement over the second half of the 20th century via a “What a Wonderful World” montage; the second, a cartoon (that South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone reportedly thought ripped off their style and never really forgave Moore for) tying the racism inherent in slavery and the American South to the desperate need to cling onto weapons in the name of “freedom.” Enjoy these clips.
Moore’s subversive humour is of course ever-present, interwoven with heartbreaking interviews and discussion about the Columbine High School massacre in 1999 and its after-effects. While some criticize, in particular, Moore’s devastating interview of then-NRA president Charlton Heston as “gotcha” questioning, you can’t help but watch him struggle for substantive answers when Moore prompts him on the killing of a young girl of his hometown of Flint, Michigan and the juxtaposition of NRA rallies after that event and the Columbine shooting in Littleton, Colorado. This movie should make you angry. It is no less urgent today.
4. O.J.: Made in America (2016)
Producer and director Ezra Edelman is responsible for one of the greatest documentaries ever made, as we really ratchet up the talent in the last portion of this list. Our fifth Oscar winner in a row (yet last for the list), what separates this film from all the others here is simple: its epic length and presentation. Edelman’s masterpiece is seven-and-a-half hours long. Originally released on ABC and ESPN as a five-part series, it was allowed into Oscar competition due to its short run at Sundance and in a handful of Los Angeles and New York cinemas (with a brief intermission). Now, we are at no loss for O.J. TV specials, documentaries, and theories. But what makes this film so indispensable is the historical context. The most important part of the title is in fact the second part: Made in America. The first half of the film, thus, follows not just Simpson’s sports and Hollywood career, but parallel to that a narrative of racial animus and a violent predisposition of the LAPD from 1965 to the early 1990s (see: Watts and Rodney King), along with a celebrity culture that further complicated his trial. His rise to celebrity is contrasted with his epic fall to murder suspect, then subsequent (and unfathomable to many) acquittal. Maybe Edelman’s most incredible piece of handiwork is the compelling evidence, in fact the overwhelming evidence of his guilt, and how at the end of the trial the simplest question you could have asked to get someone’s opinion on the verdict was “are you black or white?” In a time full of hot takes and loud opinions, Edelman’s exhaustively intelligent and calmly nuanced film is a must-watch. I watched every minute of this when it first premiered (complete with the unedited ugly crime photos) with my parents and we were spellbound and speechless. You will be too.
3. Burden of Dreams (1982)
I’m kind of amazed that I made this whole list without including a Werner Herzog film, legendary documentarian and avant-garde filmmaker of the New German Cinema movement that he is. Well, I still haven’t, because Burden of Dreams is a documentary about Herzog making a film, Fitzcarraldo. In the pantheon of films about films, and in the smaller pantheon of films about incredibly difficult films (Lost in La Mancha, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, and Lost Soul among them), this is the best, the greatest movie about making a movie ever made. Director Les Blank followed Herzog’s crew around the jungles of South America to document his audacious and over-budget adventure film about a European rubber trader and his tribulations traversing the Amazon, including literally carrying a small steamship over a hill to cross into a tributary. Herzog being Herzog, he decides to actually do this task, and engages the indigenous tribes of wherever the hell they are in the jungle to make this impossible stunt happen. Yes, ropes and pulleys are involved, and people are very nearly killed. Could he have just filmed this around Quito, a relatively large city in Ecuador with the same sort of elements near it? Sure. But this is Werner Herzog, and instead he dives into the darkness. Combine the horrible conditions with an initial lead actor who gets horribly sick and has to drop out (Jason Robards) and a supporting actor who leaves because of a concert tour (Mick Jagger, yes really), and you’ve got the recipe for a beautiful disaster, that somehow comes together. Dreams can be a burden, indeed.
2. Tim’s Vermeer (2013)
I stumbled on this film about a year after it was released, and recorded it on a whim. While the initial premise seems odd – a Penn & Teller movie about a guy who thinks he can paint like Johannes Vermeer – I didn’t know what to make of it until I started watching. And then my friends, I found the most remarkable documentary I have seen in a long time. Penn and Teller are known for their silliness, or at least silliness on the surface and sometimes profound truth on the inside. It made me think this was about some magic trick. Well… sort of? Dutch master painter Vermeer is responsible for some of the most exquisite artwork ever created: Girl With a Pearl Earring, The Geographer, The Astronomer, View of Delft, and the painting on which this movie focuses: The Music Lesson. But these intricately-painted masterpieces were done 350 years ago, and with the relatively primitive methods and technologies available at that time, how he could have crafted some of his artwork has been a mystery for years. To put it simply, they are too good, too perfect to have been done by simple brush and canvas and naked eye. Tim Jenison, simple inventor and curious dude, has a theory. Using mirrors, painstakingly building a perfect replica of Vermeer’s study in which he painted (don’t forget the lighting), and mimicking as close as he can 17th century technology, you will see some of the most incredible images put to screen, as Penn and Teller find a miracle of discovery in what has baffled art historians for generations.
Should I mention that Tim has never painted before? Yeah, amazing. Sure, it’s an “artsy” film I guess (no pun intended), but it’s fascinating, and it has the usual subversive Penn and Teller humour. But they’re entertainers, and they know how to craft a story that will leave you speechless and inspired. The degree to which some people go, just to search for the truth or to get as close as they possibly can, is sometimes astounding. Tim’s Vermeer gave me the feeling that with enough blood, sweat, and tears, you too can pull off a miracle.
1. Hoop Dreams (1994)
There isn’t a better sports movie ever made than Hoop Dreams. It also happens to be arguably the best documentary as well. Director Steve James originally planned about a half-hour story. Instead, he filmed over 250 hours of footage over five years. In what feels today as a low-budget and intimate story, he follows two young high school students (William Gates and Arthur Agee) in Chicago as they live their life through basketball, and hope to become stars to pull them and their families out of poverty and crime in the city. The kids take 90-minute commutes to their respective schools because of their basketball talent, and their tribulations in a city full of distractions and danger are heartbreaking. Aside from the minute details of these boys’ dreams and if they may be deferred, it examines race, poverty, education, and class in ways that few films ever have. Now, look, I know you say you’ve seen things like this before on PBS, half-hour specials or whatever. But watch the clip below, so you have an idea of how transformative this story is.
Roger Ebert (I can’t help but quote him), in his initial review, called Hoop Dreams “one of the best films about American life that I have ever seen.” Later, he added more: “one of the great moviegoing experiences of my lifetime.” He listed it not only as the best overall film of 1994, but the best overall film of the 1990s. He’s right. There was not a better film made in that decade. In fact, when Hoop Dreams didn’t even receive an Academy nomination in 1995 (or the awesome and bizarre doc Crumb), the Academy revamped its voting process to make it more transparent and fair, such was the outcry after a masterpiece of filmmaking didn’t get recognized in any official way. Since that time, the movie’s status has only grown, as it is certainly rated as the best documentary of the last 25 years, if not of all time. If you are not moved by this riveting story, then I don’t know what will move you. If you haven’t taken the time to watch Hoop Dreams, either because you don’t like sports/basketball that much or just don’t catch many documentaries, correct that error. You might not see a better coming-of-age film in your life.
~~
Ah that was a blast. I enjoyed writing this even more than the other lists. Thanks for reading/watching (except for Zeke).
Stick around til next weekend, when a still to-be-determined list will be posted for your viewing pleasure.
What do you think? Action? Science fiction? Romance? Biopic? Non-documentary sports/athletics? Open to ideas.
With that said, I know that that view is not shared by a lot of people, and perhaps not a lot of people that frequent the movies section of this site. That’s okay. I also love turning off my brain and watching a dumb superhero flick – they’re fun! There’s nothing wrong with that.
But what I do want to do here is try to convince a few more people to give documentaries a try. There are SO many great ones. I easily could have made this a list of 50 and wrote long paragraphs about each one. No trouble. You’ve just got to search. Many are there right on Netflix, and of course on some other channels if you’ve still got “regular” TV. And my goodness, PBS, please support your local broadcasting station and contribute to them and watch the amazing stuff they produce.
So here we go. Ask any questions you like about these, or others, and I’d be happy to tell you more or direct you to other films you might enjoy.
Honorable mentions: Religulous, Crumb, The Overnighters, Jodorowsky’s Dune, The Last Waltz, Kedi, Winged Migration, Grizzly Man, pretty much every Michael Moore film but especially Fahrenheit 9/11, Sicko, Roger & Me, Capitalism: A Love Story, and the one I chose here
10. Inside Job (2010)
A handful of films on here are really required viewing if you just want to be goddamn informed. So, while not quite a “history” film, because it was made so recently after the “Great Recession” that rocked the U.S. and much of the world in 2007-2009 (and arguably longer), this movie was remarkably well done for having such a brief time to reflect on that economic collapse. The reason why is that director Charles Ferguson tracks the financial industry from the 1980s (Reaganomics) to the 1990s (derivative stock sales) to the 2000s (the housing bubble) to drive home clear points: this was a self-inflicted wound, and anyone that tells you that recessions or “downturns” are cyclical does not understand how monetary and fiscal policy combined with regulation (or lack thereof) can influence the macroeconomy. One of the best parts of the film is the frame story of Iceland, exemplified by this clip:
As he often does, Roger Ebert summarized it well, describing Inside Job as “an angry, well-argued documentary about how the American financial industry set out deliberately to defraud the ordinary American investor.” Any Economics class needs to watch this film, high school or college, because there simply was not enough analysis of “why?” when the recession happened, only “now what?” Solving financial meltdowns like this necessitates a strong federal government with regulatory powers, not a stock market and credit default swap hucksters who only care about their bottom line. Those who walked away with multi-million dollar golden parachutes – while hundreds of thousands lost their jobs, houses, and/or life savings – have yet to really face any consequences. Fuck them, and see this film so you can get angry too. [/soapbox]
9. Looks Like Laury, Sounds Like Laury (2015)
I like reserving the number 9 spot for unknowns and underdogs on my list. Certainly Looks Like Laury, Sounds Like Laury fits the bill, as it does not even appear on letterboxd.com’s list of films to mark as watched. You can only find it as a part of PBS’s America Reframed series, a beautiful collection of documentary films now in its fifth season. If you are fortunate enough to watch this film, as I was the week it came out, you might react like I did: full on ugly crying, openly weeping at the sadness and heartbreaking nature of what you see. Laury is a friend of the documentarians, Pam and Connie, and when she could feel what eventually turned out to be early-onset frontotemporal dementia she asked them to film her life and how it changed. Laury is only 45. By the time she was 47, she could barely speak. She had two children, one of them quite young, and the scene of her young daughter and friend talking about what the disease means, how to handle it, and what the future holds… I’m telling you, you haven’t seen much that is as emotional and powerful as these children facing what is ahead. This was not an acclaimed documentary, though it won a handful of awards, and maybe that’s because the style is unpolished and sometimes a little uneven. But in my opinion, that was the point, as it simply follows Laury as her mind literally wastes away, and you see her turn from a vibrant eloquent actress into a barely functioning invalid in just a couple years. I will never, ever forget how I felt watching this film.
8. The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert McNamara (2003)
I think my list would completely lack credibility if I didn’t have at least one Errol Morris film on it. As it is, I’ve got one, the brilliant Fog of War, featuring ex-Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara of the Vietnam War era, under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. McNamara, as I hope you know, was instrumental in much of the early (i.e. “build up”) policy that led from a conflict to all-out war by the mid to late 60s. Morris somehow got the then-85-year-old McNamara, a man who I came to respect a great deal after watching this movie, to ruminate on his time as Defense Secretary, and American foreign/war policy for much of the 20th century. The film uses 11 “lessons” about conflict to frame the story, among them “empathize with your enemy” (i.e. “the hearts and minds” of Vietnamese), “belief and seeing are both often wrong” (Gulf of Tonkin incident), and “never say never” (McNamara takes responsibility but blames LBJ for much of the War, saying JFK would not have engaged so heavily). While some people think that pure historical documentaries can be pretty heavy (I am not one of those people, I do have a degree in History after all), this is as entertaining as any sit-down interview can possibly be. This is an indispensable film for history and political science classes of all levels. It also won the Academy Award for Best Documentary, and it furthermore features a stunning score from Philip Glass, perhaps the greatest living composer. Watch it with your dad this weekend.
7. Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace and Music (1970)
We have certainly all seen various clips of the Woodstock Music Festival from time to time, whether it’s Joe Cocker’s emotional and sweaty performance, Jimi Hendrix’s amazing Anthem rendition, or simply the thousands of young people enjoying the music, mud, recreational drugs, and one another. Yet another Academy Award winner for Best Documentary, Michael Wadleigh’s timeless film features over 30 songs recorded at the festival just a year prior. At the time of release, it was a runaway smash success (raking in over $50 million from a budget of only $600,000), essentially for the millions of people who weren’t lucky enough to have attended the seminal event that now remains one of the single most important cultural landmarks in American history. Now decades later, there have been several versions released. If you have the time, I suggest the epic Director’s Cut, released in 1994, topping out at 225 minutes. Even if you don’t particularly like this style of music (remember, most of the bands that played were folk or variants thereof, you’ve not going to find Led Zeppelin or Deep Purple here), the historical importance of a film like this, simply literally a recording of an event that would never be replicated, makes it a crime to even ignore. And maybe the techniques are commonplace today, but for fans of trailblazing cinematography, the use of split screen and wide screen (not to mention stereo sound) more than make the huge undertaking of purely watching the film in its entirety an enriching task. In case you’ve never seen the performance, somehow, let’s end with Jimi himself.
6. Man on Wire (2008)
Our third Oscar winner in a row, Man on Wire is probably in the bottom half of this list in terms of notoriety and cultural imprint. But that doesn’t make it any less compelling. You may, instead, have seen Robert Zemeckis’s picture The Walk, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, one of the best films of 2015 in my opinion; that was a dramatic biopic version of this documentary. James Marsh directed, and conducted the interviews, in this riveting recounting of Philippe Petit’s unthinkable high-wire walk between the World Trade Center buildings in 1974. What makes this movie great – and honestly the story of the feat as well – is how Marsh frames it like a heist film. That’s not inaccurate to reality either; in order to make something like this happen, there was a team of men and women sworn to secrecy that had to find a way for Petit and his equipment to make it up the towers, and then find a way out of trouble. You don’t have to be a fan of acrobats or high-wire stunts to enjoy this at all. Petit is such a remarkable storyteller than you really just need him in front of the camera, combined with a few clever re-enactments and well-placed never-before-seen videos and photographs of the incident. Essentially sweeping every documentary prize in 2008 and 2009, this is a film that I found so enjoyable and so fun, that I vividly remember smiling and laughing at the joy Petit has in describing his dangerous stunt. Unlike a few other films here, aside from a brief scene with a little nudity (hey, he’s French), this is something I think most families can watch together and really love.
5. Bowling for Columbine (2002)
Make that four Oscar winners in a row. Yes, there is no question this is the most divisive film on the list (well, I could have picked Fahrenheit 9/11 but I find this film superior). Firebrand director Michael Moore’s brilliant takedown of the gun industry/lobby and American gun lovers everywhere is his greatest piece of movie-making, largely because at the time of filming he was not yet widely known, and he could catch the interviews and camera footage that would later be more difficult to get because he became so famous (or, as some would say, infamous). While some decry it as an attack on the Second Amendment (also, read it, context clues people), the real storytelling here is attempting to assess the validity of gun culture vis-a-vis our culture of violence in the United States. Two incredible examples of this will follow. The first, the history of America’s violent political involvement over the second half of the 20th century via a “What a Wonderful World” montage; the second, a cartoon (that South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone reportedly thought ripped off their style and never really forgave Moore for) tying the racism inherent in slavery and the American South to the desperate need to cling onto weapons in the name of “freedom.” Enjoy these clips.
Moore’s subversive humour is of course ever-present, interwoven with heartbreaking interviews and discussion about the Columbine High School massacre in 1999 and its after-effects. While some criticize, in particular, Moore’s devastating interview of then-NRA president Charlton Heston as “gotcha” questioning, you can’t help but watch him struggle for substantive answers when Moore prompts him on the killing of a young girl of his hometown of Flint, Michigan and the juxtaposition of NRA rallies after that event and the Columbine shooting in Littleton, Colorado. This movie should make you angry. It is no less urgent today.
4. O.J.: Made in America (2016)
Producer and director Ezra Edelman is responsible for one of the greatest documentaries ever made, as we really ratchet up the talent in the last portion of this list. Our fifth Oscar winner in a row (yet last for the list), what separates this film from all the others here is simple: its epic length and presentation. Edelman’s masterpiece is seven-and-a-half hours long. Originally released on ABC and ESPN as a five-part series, it was allowed into Oscar competition due to its short run at Sundance and in a handful of Los Angeles and New York cinemas (with a brief intermission). Now, we are at no loss for O.J. TV specials, documentaries, and theories. But what makes this film so indispensable is the historical context. The most important part of the title is in fact the second part: Made in America. The first half of the film, thus, follows not just Simpson’s sports and Hollywood career, but parallel to that a narrative of racial animus and a violent predisposition of the LAPD from 1965 to the early 1990s (see: Watts and Rodney King), along with a celebrity culture that further complicated his trial. His rise to celebrity is contrasted with his epic fall to murder suspect, then subsequent (and unfathomable to many) acquittal. Maybe Edelman’s most incredible piece of handiwork is the compelling evidence, in fact the overwhelming evidence of his guilt, and how at the end of the trial the simplest question you could have asked to get someone’s opinion on the verdict was “are you black or white?” In a time full of hot takes and loud opinions, Edelman’s exhaustively intelligent and calmly nuanced film is a must-watch. I watched every minute of this when it first premiered (complete with the unedited ugly crime photos) with my parents and we were spellbound and speechless. You will be too.
3. Burden of Dreams (1982)
I’m kind of amazed that I made this whole list without including a Werner Herzog film, legendary documentarian and avant-garde filmmaker of the New German Cinema movement that he is. Well, I still haven’t, because Burden of Dreams is a documentary about Herzog making a film, Fitzcarraldo. In the pantheon of films about films, and in the smaller pantheon of films about incredibly difficult films (Lost in La Mancha, Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse, and Lost Soul among them), this is the best, the greatest movie about making a movie ever made. Director Les Blank followed Herzog’s crew around the jungles of South America to document his audacious and over-budget adventure film about a European rubber trader and his tribulations traversing the Amazon, including literally carrying a small steamship over a hill to cross into a tributary. Herzog being Herzog, he decides to actually do this task, and engages the indigenous tribes of wherever the hell they are in the jungle to make this impossible stunt happen. Yes, ropes and pulleys are involved, and people are very nearly killed. Could he have just filmed this around Quito, a relatively large city in Ecuador with the same sort of elements near it? Sure. But this is Werner Herzog, and instead he dives into the darkness. Combine the horrible conditions with an initial lead actor who gets horribly sick and has to drop out (Jason Robards) and a supporting actor who leaves because of a concert tour (Mick Jagger, yes really), and you’ve got the recipe for a beautiful disaster, that somehow comes together. Dreams can be a burden, indeed.
2. Tim’s Vermeer (2013)
I stumbled on this film about a year after it was released, and recorded it on a whim. While the initial premise seems odd – a Penn & Teller movie about a guy who thinks he can paint like Johannes Vermeer – I didn’t know what to make of it until I started watching. And then my friends, I found the most remarkable documentary I have seen in a long time. Penn and Teller are known for their silliness, or at least silliness on the surface and sometimes profound truth on the inside. It made me think this was about some magic trick. Well… sort of? Dutch master painter Vermeer is responsible for some of the most exquisite artwork ever created: Girl With a Pearl Earring, The Geographer, The Astronomer, View of Delft, and the painting on which this movie focuses: The Music Lesson. But these intricately-painted masterpieces were done 350 years ago, and with the relatively primitive methods and technologies available at that time, how he could have crafted some of his artwork has been a mystery for years. To put it simply, they are too good, too perfect to have been done by simple brush and canvas and naked eye. Tim Jenison, simple inventor and curious dude, has a theory. Using mirrors, painstakingly building a perfect replica of Vermeer’s study in which he painted (don’t forget the lighting), and mimicking as close as he can 17th century technology, you will see some of the most incredible images put to screen, as Penn and Teller find a miracle of discovery in what has baffled art historians for generations.
Should I mention that Tim has never painted before? Yeah, amazing. Sure, it’s an “artsy” film I guess (no pun intended), but it’s fascinating, and it has the usual subversive Penn and Teller humour. But they’re entertainers, and they know how to craft a story that will leave you speechless and inspired. The degree to which some people go, just to search for the truth or to get as close as they possibly can, is sometimes astounding. Tim’s Vermeer gave me the feeling that with enough blood, sweat, and tears, you too can pull off a miracle.
1. Hoop Dreams (1994)
There isn’t a better sports movie ever made than Hoop Dreams. It also happens to be arguably the best documentary as well. Director Steve James originally planned about a half-hour story. Instead, he filmed over 250 hours of footage over five years. In what feels today as a low-budget and intimate story, he follows two young high school students (William Gates and Arthur Agee) in Chicago as they live their life through basketball, and hope to become stars to pull them and their families out of poverty and crime in the city. The kids take 90-minute commutes to their respective schools because of their basketball talent, and their tribulations in a city full of distractions and danger are heartbreaking. Aside from the minute details of these boys’ dreams and if they may be deferred, it examines race, poverty, education, and class in ways that few films ever have. Now, look, I know you say you’ve seen things like this before on PBS, half-hour specials or whatever. But watch the clip below, so you have an idea of how transformative this story is.
Roger Ebert (I can’t help but quote him), in his initial review, called Hoop Dreams “one of the best films about American life that I have ever seen.” Later, he added more: “one of the great moviegoing experiences of my lifetime.” He listed it not only as the best overall film of 1994, but the best overall film of the 1990s. He’s right. There was not a better film made in that decade. In fact, when Hoop Dreams didn’t even receive an Academy nomination in 1995 (or the awesome and bizarre doc Crumb), the Academy revamped its voting process to make it more transparent and fair, such was the outcry after a masterpiece of filmmaking didn’t get recognized in any official way. Since that time, the movie’s status has only grown, as it is certainly rated as the best documentary of the last 25 years, if not of all time. If you are not moved by this riveting story, then I don’t know what will move you. If you haven’t taken the time to watch Hoop Dreams, either because you don’t like sports/basketball that much or just don’t catch many documentaries, correct that error. You might not see a better coming-of-age film in your life.
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Ah that was a blast. I enjoyed writing this even more than the other lists. Thanks for reading/watching (except for Zeke).
Stick around til next weekend, when a still to-be-determined list will be posted for your viewing pleasure.
What do you think? Action? Science fiction? Romance? Biopic? Non-documentary sports/athletics? Open to ideas.