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Watch anything by Errol Morris. You can probably start with The Thin Blue Line or, failing that, Fog of War. Make sure you watch Mr Death when you get the bug. Anges Varda, who was the real founder of the French New Wave, did a great documentary called The Gleaners and I (Les glaneurs et la glaneuse). It's about people who pick food left over in fields (in France there's a law saying you can't stop people picking your leftovers after harvest) and goes on from there to people who live off the grid, looks at how the West sees waste and so on. It's really a great documentary. Why not watch this and see if you like Jean Painleve? He apparently did a really good piece on diatoms, but I haven't seen it yet. Man with a Movie Camera by Dziga Vertov isn't what I'd call a documentary, it's more a series of images some done with camera tricks, but everyone else calls it a documentary so what do I know. It's great to watch if you like to kick back and enjoy some visuals. Many people have been inspired by this film. Finally, there's Peter Watkins who is a very complicated but massively interesting documentary maker. He mixes a little fiction in with his documentaries making them unusual and fascinating. For a look at the American cultural revolution/countercultural movement, check out Punishment Park. Although there's acting in it, he's using people who genuinely hold the beliefs they espouse in the film. After that, you're going to want to see The War Game, which "reenacts" what would happen in the event of a nuclear war. Timely. La Commune is supposed to be very good as well, though I haven't checked it out - I'm ashamed to admit this - because of the 6+ hour running time (mind you I've seen Shoah so I have no excuse. There's another one for you to check out!).
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Apr 28, 2017 10:30
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| # ¿ Apr 30, 2024 06:37 |
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Nanook of the North is up, too. It's a 1922 documentary and even in this early period, they'd cheat in order to tell a good story! The Inuits are shown hunting a walrus with harpoons. In fact, by this time they were using guns as harpoons were too ineffective and dangerous. But the film makers wanted something 'authentic'. Nothing new about manipulation in documentary.
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Apr 28, 2017 10:36
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