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Top Ten Documentaries Films of the Decade
Documentaries are an odd subject to qualify. More so than any other genre, sometimes a compelling story can overcome director inadequacies, unsympathetic leads, or even the need for an objective reality. Many of the films in my Top Ten do not reflect the best “constructed” documentaries (though some of them do). Some documentarians presented here aren’t the best editors or researchers, but were just lucky enough to stumble on a subject so amazing, it was able to trump other subpar aspects of the filmmaking. Perhaps saying that proves my status as documentary dilettante or something, but oh well. Suck it up.
The Almost Made-Its: Dig!, Tyson, Deliver Us From Evil, Supersize Me, Darwin’s Nightmare, Metallica: Some Kind of Monster
10. the Devil and Daniel Johnston, 2005 Dir: Jeff Feuerzeig
To validate my previous claim, the Devil and Daniel Johnston may not be a perfectly constructed masterpiece, but it’s about one of the most interesting figures making music today, and someone who should be more well-known than he already is. Bi-Polar, possibly acid-deranged, Daniel Johnston is a mythic figure in Austin, but his notoriety drops off steeply outside of Texas. Since the early eighties, Johnston has been making tapes of his slightly deranged, sincere signer/songwriter songs, handing them out one by one to everyone he’s met. His earnestness, dedication, and his songwriting ability helped propel his popularity with the artist crowd, and it’s safe to say Johnston is the only American artist who incited a major-label bidding war while he was in a mental institution. Director Jeff Feuerzeig does a thorough job gathering recordings, whether music or spoken word, and filling out the atmosphere and environment of his film. This movie, along with a certain other music documentary to be mentioned later, made me fulfilled by an art-form that so often makes me hollow. Daniel Johnston is a portrait of a true artist, and the Devil and Daniel Johnston is a worthwhile gaze at that portrait.
9. No End in Sight, 2007 Dir: Charles Ferguson
There were many amazing documentaries made in the last ten years about the decade’s defining conflict. Control Room, Taxi to the Dark Side and Standard Operating Procedure specifically were enthralling and showcased very different segments of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. But when all is said and done, Charles Ferguson’s No End in Sight is a cut above the rest. Completed in 2007, a fair amount later than the rash of war docs, this film runs through the now-standard rigmarole of talking heads, but these talking heads are much higher up the chain of command than we are used to. Obviously Colin Powell or Condy Rice won’t appear (at least not for another 30 years…more foreshadowing), but talking to disgruntled former heads of under-funded, improperly managed government organizations are just as powerful. The film concisely piths the reasons for the quagmire in Iraq and discusses what could have been done differently without coming off preachy and condescending. Without the Michael Moore-like proclamations of certainty, Ferguson is able to taka a back seat, allowing the actual experts in the field to discuss what they want the American people to know. Huh, silly concept.
8. the Aristocrats, 2005 Pro: Paul Provenza and Penn Gillette
I know Paul Provenza’s the Aristocrats won’t make many Top Ten lists this decade, but a lot of people don’t have a deep love and appreciation for the comedy art form. Provenza and Penn Gillette interview the endless names and faces of stand-up comedy and get them all to discuss (and tell) one of the most famous comedian-to-comedian jokes in American history – the Aristocrats. Perhaps hearing the same joke told 100 times isn’t interesting to anyone other than me, but the distinctive styles, cadences and contents showcase brilliantly not only the history of a silly joke, but also the range and capability of current American comedy. The free-jazz-like format of the joke allows each comedian to make the joke his or her own, and they really do. And of course names like George Carlin are aboard, but it was great to see other comedians like Larry Miller, Don Rickles, the Smothers Brothers, the Amazing Jonathan, Michael McKean, Billy Connelly, Tim Conway, and many, many others all adding to the discussion. For a complete list of comedians, (<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Aristocrats_(film)#Featured_comedians”>check out the Wikipedia page); it’s very long. I love this film more and more with each watch, and it’s easily my most-watched documentary of the last ten years. That fact alone gives the number eight film a deserving spot on this list.
7. Capturing the Friedmans, 2003 Dir: Andrew Jarecki
I tried hard not to overload this list with shocking exposé documentaries that make you feel terrible and what not. There were some very good ones this decade that drop your jaw thoroughly. Deliver Us From Evil ripped out my innards, Hell House was utterly ridiculous, but they’ve got nothing on Andrew Jarecki’s Capturing the Friedmans. Playing out like a perfect three-act tragedy, with new revelations every twenty minutes, the film follows the descent of a Long-Island family torn apart by very serious criminal allegations. The documentary neither exonerates nor criminalizes the accused, but lays out the facts and speculations of an extremely emotional case. All this is crafted perfectly by Jarecki, but what throws the film over the top (and also helped the number five film) is the large amount of home movies the filmmaker gained access to. Instead of listening to talking heads, or just hearing audio over Ken Burns-style photo montages, we watch the Friedmans make delightful amateur films, celebrate special events, and ruminate to the point of near violence over events of the trial. Capturing the Friedmans becomes very hard to watch, but that just makes it better.
6. In the Realms of the Unreal, 2004 Dir: Jessica Yu
In the Realms of the Unreal is another example of a less-than-incredible documentary style helped greatly by incredible subject matter. By now, the myth of Henry Darger has no doubt trickled down to just about everyone. A solitary Chicago janitor dies penniless and alone, but hidden in his apartment are vast treasures: Several hundred watercolors, a 10-year daily weather journal, a 5,000-page autobiography and two unpublished novels. The first novel is over 10,000 hand-written pages entitled Crazy House, and the second is surely one of the longest novels, published or unpublished, ever written. Giving the documentary its title, In the Realms of the Unreal is an epic fantasy war story clocking in at over 15,000 pages. Jessica Yu tells three simultaneously stories, complete with three narrators: the biographical history of Darger’s life, the life of his work, and finally how and where the two lives intersect. Chock to the brim with animated versions of Darger’s own collage-like watercolors, the story is as dynamic and lively as it is powerful. The few interviewees who did know Darger knew nothing of his lifetime artistic passion, nor his invented universe of the Vivian Girls – a group of young girls who help turn the tides in the great Glandeco-Angelinian war. Darger’s life is full of unbelievable idiosyncrasies which Yu illustrates into being one after another. The film has received criticism for its style, and I understand. For a man so dynamic, the film at moments is ironically bland, but a more literal recount of Henry Darger is just as good a way to approach such a unique subject. Pragmatism is sometimes required to balance such frivolity. Henry Darger in many respects defines outsider art, and we are so privileged to gain access to his life, as all of this work could have been trashed by a lackadaisical landlord.
5. Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father, 2008 Dir: Kurt Kuenne
Remember that thing I said earlier about “shocking exposé documentaries”? Yeah, I think Dear Zachary is that subgenre’s king. Filmmaker Kurt Kuenne decided to make a eulogy film about his good friend Andrew Bagby, after Bagby’s grisly murder supposedly by his ex-girlfriend. Bagby was the outgoing type who charmed everyone he met, and when his close friend Kurt (Bagby was Kuenne’s best man) realized he didn’t know everything about a man he thought he knew so well, he wanted to create a complete picture of his recently deceased friend, not just for him, but for everyone he knew. However, not long after he started this process, he discovered that the same ex-girlfriend accused of killing Bagby was pregnant with his child. The film quickly transformed into a love letter for Andrew’s son, so that little Zachary could have a portrait of the father he would never know. Little did Kuenne know, the film’s direction would change again, and again.
Do not read anything about this documentary, read nothing about the case, read nothing on the Wikipedia page; go out and watch this film right now. You can read all about it later. The story is so heartbreaking, I have never been so thankful for poor filmmaking in my life. Kuenne’s awkward editing and questionable, sometimes downright bad music choices are the only reprieve you have from this gut wrenching tale of insanity, inanity, and love.
4. Fog of War: 11 Lessons from Robert McNamara, 2003 Dir: Errol Morris
We should be so lucky. Vietnam was the most confusing time in American politics (at least, for the general public), and the contrasting images in the media, all muddled up with the seemingly disparate messages from the government led to an irresolvable suspension that unsurprisingly led to civil unrest. And we should be so lucky, that thirty years from now, a chief architect in the cluster-blank that is our current war, will stand up and talk about what happened and why. That’s exactly what Vietnam mastermind Robert McNamara did for Errol Morris’ camera in Fog of War. It simply blew my mind to watch such a key figure in history talk frankly (and cunningly) about such a controversial topic. And I couldn’t think of a visual documentarian better suited to such a strong topic than Errol Morris. The film is mesmerizing, and now with McNamara’s death, it appears a stark and final portrait on the war in Vietnam. And a haunting reminder that the people at the top are just like the people underneath.
3. Anvil! The Story of Anvil, 2008 Dir: Sacha Gervasi
Anvil! The Story of Anvil might be number three in my head, but it’s number one in my heart (which speaks very strongly about my actual number two and number one). This film has made me cry both times I’ve seen it, and although the documentary is edited without chronology to add a stronger story and happy ending, I don’t care. The members of the 30+-year-old metal band Anvil, have won me over completely. At every turn the band showcases what makes the band so universally loveable. Each event is something that happens to every bands – tearful fights in the recording studio, lackluster tours that promised to be brilliant, etc. – but with Anvil, both original band members are in their fifties, and the band is already an icon in their genre, so seeing such petty tragedies is infinitely becoming. So back and forth the film rips you up; on one side you feel for their instantly relatable struggle, but on the other side is the band members’ lack of recognition about Anvil’s decidedly “has-been” place in music history. This dichotomy perfectly describes the thoughts of any young artist questioning how long they should be willing to scrape along the bottom doing what they love. Anvil’s responds with a resounding “As long as it takes!” It’s such an uplifting, encouraging statement, it completely overshadows their music that I don’t really enjoy.
2. Lake of Fire, 2006 Dir: Tony Kaye
Abortion is the most talked-about issue in America since civil rights. Rightfully or not, Roe vs. Wade, instead of ending the debate on terminated pregnancies, actually started it, and the issue remains extremely divisive to this day. It’s very easy to make a documentary that lands on one side of this debate, and it’s been done many times before. But what makes Tony Kaye’s fifteen-years-in-the-making Lake of Fire such an accomplishment is how well it stays close to the middle. Sure there are a lot of nuts who are pro-life – and Kaye was actually in the midst of the interview process with a particular nut when he decided to kill an abortionist in Florida – but it’s impossible to deny the impact of a doctor sifting through a tray of blood for the miniscule organs of an aborted fetus. The film gives ample time to everyone who has a say, and at a run time of 152 minutes, it’s safe to assume that a lot of people have a say – or at least want to. Lake of Fire’s grayscale works perfectly as a metaphor for the infinite degrees of shading involved in the complex, subtle subject and at the same time, the black and white stance so many people are able to take on the issue. Above all these incredible things going for Lake of Fire, the movie proved to me that Tony Kaye could actually make an awe-inspiring, nuanced film, making up for that silly American History X.
1. “Planet Earth” & ”the Blue Planet”, 2002 & 2006 Executive Producer: Alastair Fothergill and BBC
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