Via Eclectic Needle @ Flickr.
Almost a week after attending the Silverdocs film festival, I am still thinking about “Racing Dreams” (full disclosure: my friend worked on the film). As Hollywood produces uninspired remakes and formulaic flicks featuring stale caricatures, the documentary film world serves up much more engrossing fare. Since I tired of the rom-com and bromance genres long ago – and what else is there? – the Netflix queue is comprised largely of documentaries.
The documentary is my favorite method of storytelling. I love getting a glimpse into the worlds of three-dimensional “characters” whose lives are often deemed unimportant and whose stories are seldom told. It’s refreshing to see diverse bodies represented on screen, too, and not just for laughs. Some people are fat. Some people have disabilities. Some people have frizzy hair. Big deal. Women are not just hookers, victims and doormats*; they’re themselves.
Some of my personal favorites tell stories around children, including “Racing Dreams,” which follows three kids – two boys and a girl – for a year as they compete in Extreme Kart Racing. Kids are as diverse and complex as adults, but rich kids planning their Super Sweet 16 parties dominate the entertainment-about-kids market. I am also crazy about This American Life, in both radio and television formats.
So tell me: What documentaries do you recommend? It’s time to update the queue.
*Shirley MacLaine adage about good parts for actresses falling into one of these three categories.
I think my all time favorite, which takes some commitment, is 7 Up. It’s a series of British documentaries that follow a bunch of people from different sort of classes in England, interviewing them every seven years from when they are seven until they are like 56 or whatever (my brain lost time tables some years ago). I think you can get it on Netflix; it has really stayed with me and I reference it all the time.
I’m not much one for documentaries, but I recently saw Dark Days and it was a really eye-opening experience for me.
It’s about people who have made homes for themselves in underground train tunnels. As a middle-class white girl, my experience of the homeless is from the serving side of the soup line; it’s absolutely incredible getting to hear their stories, from them. It also really shattered some of the stereotypes and preconceptions I had about the homeless/homelessness. Some of them were quite content!
(Also, as a result of the making of the film, many of the people featured in it were given “real” homes and jobs!)
We (boyf and I) watched “Dark Days” last weekend, Liz N!
Thanks for reminding me about the “7 Up” series, JD. We are always saying, “oh I want to see that,” but it’s not on the queue so I’m adding it now.
Actually, god this is so American of me, it is not called 7 UP, that is a the name of a soda. It is called Seven Up! aka the Up series.
oh good i can’t wait to talk to you about it. i know i don’t have to tell you to keep your eye on the girls (in the doc), but their development in that era was really eye opening to me.
Has anyone seen “Street Fight?” It’s about the race for mayor in Newark NJ a couple years back, which pitted 32-year old Cory Booker (aka Barack-in-training) against corrupt old sleazeball Sharpe James. It reminded me of “The Wire” so much that the not-boyfriend and I kept going “sheeeee-it” every time Sharpe James came onscreen.
Becky, “Street Fight” was directed by the same filmmaker who did “Racing Dreams.” My friend worked on that, also. It’s due to arrive in a few days, squeee!
@SarahMC: No way! I loved that film. So did the not-boyfriend, since he’s campaigning full-time now.
Sarah, have you seen The King of Kong? So awesome.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0923752/
All the Up movies are excellent, even if by 56, we’re a bit tired of seeing the same clips. And King of Kong is a window into crazytown, and a blink away from brilliant satire. See also: Life After Tomorrow, about the experiences of girls who performed in Annie and its fallout for their lives. i also recommend The Education of Shelby Knox and What Would Jesus Buy? Netflix is finally allowing me to catch up on all the docs I slaver to see.
I love, love, love, love This American Life. That is all.
I have not, Bluebears, but it looks great.
And Trouble the Water. And In the Realms of the Unreal. And Word Wars and Spellbound, which I’ve mentioned before.
Documentaries are my favorite. Two I’ve recently enjoyed:
Ghengis Blues (1999) is pretty touching and the Tuvan musician Kongar-ol Ondar may be one of the most lovely people on earth.
Man on Wire (2008) is beautiful, won the Oscar this year.
We watched “Man on Wire” earlier this year, Person. It was haunting and whimsical all at once.
My favourite remains Hoop Dreams, which I just love and consider one of the finest films ever made as is When We Were Kings for pro sports. The guys behind Hoop Dreams also made a wonderful death penalty documentary – At The Death House Door about a pastor at a jail.
Off the top of my head and recently watched: The Power of Nightmares is interesting if flawed, Dig is the funniest music documentary I’ve seen for a while, One Day In September is good, Harlan County USA is incredible, Etre et Avoir was lovely. Oh and the best and most harrowing film I saw in the last two years was When The Levees Broke but you’ve almost certainly seen that. Ghosts by Nick Broomfield about the death of a boat of Chinese cockle pickers in Morcambe, Lancashire is also an incredible film, the subject matter might not sound much but the film is amazing.
generally anything that comes under either the Arena or Storyville strands are amazing but I don’t know how easy they are to track down outside of the UK.
I just re-watched The Corporation on DVD a couple nights ago. I saw it in the theater when it first came out and the 2nd viewing was just as powerful. Highly recommended but NOT a good movie if you’re looking for something light and uplifting!
http://www.thecorporation.com/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379225/
Another documentary that I love is Wordplay, all about the NY Times crossword and “puzzle master” Will Shortz. It was so much fun to see interviews so many famous folks who love crossword puzzles (e.g., Jon Stewart, Indigo Girls, Bill Clinton).
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0492506/
Many many good ones have been named here. You say the queue like it’s netflix, so here are some you won’t have to wait for if you have an xbox or a computer big enough to watch movies on:
My Kid Could Paint That, which is about that family from upstate new york a few years ago who sold modern art paintings saying their young child had made them. Of course, it’s about other things, namely truth and family but also (a little solipsistically) the relation between a documentary filmmaker and his subjects.
The other is Dear Zachary, and it is very, very, very sad. This also has themes of parent / child relations, as well as death.
They’re both up on netflix instant. Enjoy!
I just saw Escape to Canada, about Canada’s legalization of both same sex marriage and decrimilization (and re-criminalization) of marijuana.
The scenes of gay couples saying their wedding vows made me blub.
And American Drug War: Last White Hope which was terrifying!
Thank y’all so much for this thread, I replenished my netflix queue with all of your suggestions.
!! The Great Happiness Space is an incredibly well-done documentary about host clubs in Osaka. It was difficult to watch for a couple reasons, one being that we repeatedly paused to discuss each new layer of complexity.
And Anvil! The Story of Anvil is a sweet, though slightly painful story of a heavy metal band from Toronto and their thirty year, not-so-successful career.
(Documentary is my favorite type of film and I know very few others who like them. I couldn’t help but comment on this old post to pass on the recommendations. Enjoy!)