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What's Up, Doc?By Chris HydeJanuary 1, 2004
2003 was a great one for the cinema sons and daughters of Robert Flaherty and John Grierson, as releases of documentaries were quite plentiful. While none of this year's entries approached the financial success of 2002's Bowling for Columbine, here's a look at some of the past year's triumphs in the nonfiction film category. The reason for the resurgence in documentaries of late is somewhat hard to pin down, but in the main it seems the result of both production cost and a willingness on the part of the public to go see certain documentary films, resulting in enough box office success to keep the dollars flowing. Documentaries have in general always been much cheaper to produce than feature films, and with the advent of good quality, inexpensive digital video the means of production are even more within the grasp of aspiring filmmakers. But coupling this price advantage to the recent art film circuit success of works like Winged Migration, Spellbound and Bowling for Columbine will hopefully open the door for even more work in the medium in the future. The documentaries that have made their premiere in 2003 truly run the gamut, from nature film to cinema verite style to more "hands on" reality shaping. There is a wealth of difference in approach between documentary filmmakers, and the choices that they make in depicting "reality" for an audience of necessity both inform and instruct the movies that they create. While some nonfiction directors strive to depict reality in an objective manner, others take a far more postmodern approach to their material -- acknowledging their part in the showcasing of reality and deploying whatever devices they might desire to get their point across. This documentary argument over whether there is in a fact any way to "objectively" portray reality is a very old one, and I sure wouldn't expect it to be settled anytime soon. For my part I believe that the viewer should in general not choose sides staunchly in this ideological debate; for both perspectives are actually capable of making great films that can at least hint at the truth, if nothing else. Philosophical perspectives aside, during this past year a large number of high quality films in the documentary category debuted on cinema screens all over the world. In fact, there was so much nice work that a nonfiction top ten could easily be fashioned that would make an utterly respectable list of films for 2003. So without further ado, let's now take a brief look at some of the important non-fiction films that showed up in the last 12 months.
To Be and To Have (Nicholas Philbert)Here's one done more or less in the straight cinema verite style, as Frenchman Philbert depicts a year in the life of a rural schoolhouse in his native France. A ruminative and powerful meditation on life that holds up its schoolteacher subject to the light and sees him for the real hero that he is.Winged Migration (Jacques Perrin)After bringing us into the insect world previously with his brilliant Microcosmos, filmmaker Perrin takes to the skies with an elegiac 35 mm tribute to our feathered friends. Personally, I would have liked this one a lot more without the faux tribal drumming and painful Enya-esque warbling of the soundtrack, but not even that auditory horror could subtract from the gorgeous visuals of the soaring avian world.Blind Spot: Hitler's Secretary (Andre Heller, Othmar Schmiderer)This movie may actually be considered a 2002 product, but as the DVD just streeted and it only had its first Boston screening just recently, it's going into my 2003 list. An incredibly simple film, its essence is an hour and a half talk with a woman who was the Fuhrer's amanuensis during his final days. Valuable both as historical documentation as well as in its delineation of just how far people can go so as not to see what they do not wish to see.The Fog of War (Errol Morris)Well-known documentarian Morris here turns his eye towards the past in an interview with Robert S. McNamara, the Secretary of Defense under Kennedy and Johnson. As this film has still only made it to cinemas in places like New York and Los Angeles, I can't yet say personally whether it's any good or not - but given the director's track record, you can be sure that I'll be plunking down my hard earned cash as soon as it debuts in my town.Bus 174 (Jose Padilho)A fascinating dissection of a famous Brazilian hostage incident gone terribly awry, this excellent film examines that single day of tragedy and the many social ripples that its calamitous events both reflect and touch upon. A riveting look at the event itself as well as the social conditions from which it arose.Lost in La Mancha (Louis Pepe, Keith Fulton)This nice little film on film seems to have come out so early in the year that at this point it's been almost completely forgotten; and while this story of the crash and burn of Terry Gilliam's disastrous The Man Who Killed Don Quixote doesn't quite reach the heights of metafilm documentaries like Hearts of Darkness or Burden of Dreams, there's enough of worth here to rate a mention. Peeking backstage at the puppet show of film production may very well be as stomach churning as a trip to the sausage factory, but it never hurts to be reminded that those beautiful dreams that you see on screen are borne in the sordid and belching belly of the corporate beast.Spellbound (Jeffrey Blitz)One of the year's true box office successes in the documentary category, this movie follows a group of eight students engaged in competitions that ultimately determine the United States spelling champion for 1999. Somewhat of a fluke hit, the film's interesting perspective and the charm of the participants shown seem to have struck a chord among audiences everywhere. No matter what the general state of film, every single year there is at least one out-of-the-blue phenomena of a film that represents a beacon of hope to film lovers all over - and this letter filled extravaganza is this year's model.My Architect: A Son's Journey (Nathaniel Kahn)Louis I. Kahn was renowned as one of the 20th century's greatest architects, and yet he was to die indigent in a New York train station bathroom in 1974. This documentary shows his son, who was but 11 when his famous father died, attempting to piece together the jigsaw that was the architect's life through interviews with his father's former colleagues as well as found archival footage.Desperately Seeking Seka (Christian Hallman, Magnus Paulsson, Stefan Nylen)We're going to cheat a bit here, as this film hasn't played much beyond the festival circuit in the States as yet - but we're hopeful that its profile will be raised with an upcoming Q1 DVD release to Region 1. In any case, with the pornumentary a fairly hot going concern these days (witness last year's disappointing Ron Jeremy art house biopic Porn Star and the upcoming "Deep Throat as culturally significant" historical docu now being made by bigwig producer Brian Glazer), this Swedish entry into adult film verite certainly bears mention. This one follows a fan searching for now retired Golden Age XXX icon Seka, whose superstar status in the eighties allowed her to become one of the most influential porn actresses to ever grace the sordid screen. Will he find her?The Weather Underground (Sam Green)A look back at one of the infamous revolutionary groups that arose from the hysterical turmoil of the late 1960s from the perspective of 30 years' distance. Archival footage is combined with contemporary interviews to showcase the group's history, its social contexts and the government's responses to the challenge that the Weather Underground represented. An invaluable historic document, this film certainly deserves much wider acknowledgement than it has thus far garnered.Capturing the Friedmans (Andrew Jarecki)An intriguingly ambiguous look at a Long Island father and son accused of child molestation, and an inquisition into the nature of truth that is perhaps more provocative than any other film made this year. Jarecki's approach offers no easy answers; and though there are certainly accusations of exploitation to be answered, the film's measured perspective allows this incisive project to easily transcend its more prurient aspects. Given the eleven films above, one might think that this piece has already utterly exhausted the interesting documentary category for the past year. But, in fact, that is not at all the case-for I haven't even yet alluded to such 2003 movies as Love & Diane, An Injury To One, Rivers and Tides, Stone Reader or The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. Whether in fact we are now living in an real age of documentary renaissance or not still remains to be seen, but the early indications are that nonfiction film has now at least entered a period wherein many depictions of "reality" will be coming soon to screens near you. And though it may be pretty subjective of me to say so here, that sure sounds like a good thing for film.
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