Documentaries List Discussion & Suggestions (Genre Project)

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

My spotlight title is 'Kilka opowiesci o czlowieku' from Bogdan Dziworski.
It's not inconceivable that a top 50 could be made up from the PWA collections alone. Zedz and MichealB have been instrumental in highlighting titles in the eponymous thread.
It's also where I championed Bogdan's work and looked forward to his Skiing short that was going to appear in a volume that unfortunately got cancelled. Here's a chance to see the original of the film that was subsequently revised and partially re-shot for the BBC as the Prisoner. Others to look out for are 'Hockej' (Ice Hockey) where his Tatiesque sound design comes to the fore and 'Szapito' a wondrous look at the circus school outside Warsaw.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_igQajLQZJ0" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[knives]

Don't forget Marcel Lozinski in that case. Along with Marc Isaacs and John Krish he's probably going to have the most spaces on my list.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

Don't forget Marcel Lozinski in that case. Along with Marc Isaacs and John Krish he's probably going to have the most spaces on my list.

We sup from the same cup of delights.

[matrixschmatrix]

Nabob, is there a DVD release of that?

[zedz]

Oh, and that reminds me that you all MUST SEE Maciej Drygas' Hear My Cry. One of the most devastating films I've ever seen, with one of the most powerful uses of found footage.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

Nabob, is there a DVD release of that?

Only private copies and unfortunately mine is in storage in a galaxy far far away. When I get back to it I will do some copies and let anyone interested know

[Mr Sausage]

Oh, and that reminds me that you all MUST SEE Maciej Drygas' Hear My Cry. One of the most devastating films I've ever seen, with one of the most powerful uses of found footage.

What's the best way to see this?

[swo17]

This set. And yes, it's mighty powerful.

[zedz]

And you're well advised to read nothing at all about the film before going into it. The whole film is a slow reveal of its subject.

[Mr Sausage]

And you're well advised to read nothing at all about the film before going into it. The whole film is a slow reveal of its subject.

Too late. I read a review of it immediately after reading your recommendation.

[YnEoS]

Definitely won't be able to come up with a top 50 for this list, but I'll follow along with the recommendations as best I can. Very excited for this one.

[MichaelB]

It's not inconceivable that a top 50 could be made up from the PWA collections alone. Zedz and MichealB have been instrumental in highlighting titles in the eponymous thread.

Yes, I'm going to have a real problem eliminating Polish and British bias from my list, as they're the two countries whose documentary output I'm most familiar with. But I have to remind myself that although both countries have made disproportionate contributions to the genre, they're not the only ones!

What I'll probably end up doing at least as much as highlighting individual works is highlighting good representations of particular types of documentary filmmaking. As a result, I can safely predict that Czech filmmaker Helena Třeštíková is guaranteed a place on my final list, because I don't know of anyone else quite like her. Or rather, while there are other documentary-makers who have spent years painstakingly making their films, I don't know of anyone else whose entire modus operandi is based on shooting her films over years and sometimes decades, with dozens of projects on the go at any given time.

Two excellent examples are René (2008) and Katka (2010), which respectively look at a recidivist jailbird and a heroin addict, in both cases over the course of more than a decade. In fact, let's give Katka a spotlight right now, as that would currently be my first choice amongst her extensive filmography. This is what I wrote about it when I first saw it:

Katka (Helena Třeštíková, 2010, Czech Republic)

Riveting but relentlessly grim portrait, shot over 14 years, of a heroin addict as she ages from 19 to 33. A surprise box office hit in the Czech Republic, this has apparently been seized on by schools nationwide as an Awful Warning, and I suspect it'll have quite a bit of impact, much like the not dissimilar Christiane F. did for my generation - young girls in particular are unlikely to miss the significance of the many repeated close-ups of Katka's face and how it visibly blotches and ages (she looks a lot older than 33 when the film ends).

Given that most junkies are terminally tedious, Katka herself is surprisingly sparky and witty, but there's no doubting the downsides of her lifestyle, especially when she gets pregnant and has to enter the Czech medical bureaucracy that she's avoided thus far. Třeštíková (a hugely experienced documentary-maker who specialises in long-gestating projects like this) tries to maintain her usual cool detachment, but becomes a part of the film herself on at least two occasions, not least when Katka's boyfriend Roman turns to her and asks for her help by name as the police prepare to evict them from their squat.

It's an exceptionally powerful portrait of the grip that addiction exerts because it's impossible to imagine anyone voluntarily choosing this lifestyle over such a long period (this is where the film really packs a punch: most equivalent portraits are only shot over weeks or months) - and although she tries to control certain elements (for instance, by being choosy about her clients when reduced to street prostitution), there's no doubt that the drugs have long ceased to be a rational choice.

[NABOB OF NOWHERE]

Yes, I'm going to have a real problem eliminating Polish and British bias from my list, as they're the two countries whose documentary output I'm most familiar with.

I wonder if 'Moon and the Sledgehammer' will stay the course for you Michael?
Very much a cause celebre of the 1970's British documentary movement, its initial impact will be perhaps hard to realise post Fat Gypsy Weddings / Skint /The Man with the ten stone testicles Zoo TV.
However unlike these modern day quasi-documentaries replete with minor celebrity voice-over to point us like an unremitting GPS up and down every cul-de-sac this is the poetic/ballad style of Britdoc at its best.
Frank Zappa said that Britain had the best eccentrics in the world and this could just back up that claim.

It shares some of the spice of Errol Morris' Vernon,Florida or perhaps Grey Gardens and its exotic flavour may be hard to fathom from a US perspective since cranky Hillbillies are presumably easy pickings but part of its haunting mystery is that this family is but a short bus ride from central London.
Here's a trailer from the DVD which is only available direct from the source along with an intriguing companion piece with contributions from a.o Andrew Kotting and Molly Dineen, who both should be also on any discerning viewer's menu.
http://themoonandthesledgehammer.com/trailer.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[zedz]

It's not inconceivable that a top 50 could be made up from the PWA collections alone. Zedz and MichealB have been instrumental in highlighting titles in the eponymous thread.

Yes, I'm going to have a real problem eliminating Polish and British bias from my list, as they're the two countries whose documentary output I'm most familiar with. But I have to remind myself that although both countries have made disproportionate contributions to the genre, they're not the only ones!

I made a quick list last night based simply on what I had on DVD and I hit fifty titles before I even got a third of a way through the shelves, even though I was being extremely parsimonious with my inclusions, and not even thinking about the hundreds of great docs I don't happen to own. I think it might be sensible - for my sanity's sake - to impose a 'one film per director' rule, at least provisionally, until I see how my list shapes up. I have no idea which Herzog I'd choose if I went down that route (it's probably between Land of Silence and Darkness, La Soufriere and Lessons of Darkness).

So many riches, and lots of interesting borderline cases, like Svankmajer's The Ossuary, whose documentary status is quite incidental to its genius, but it's the only travelogue that's ever motivated me to actually travel to the place it documents.

Lozinski (the Elder)'s How to Live is a likely inclusion. It might not sound promising: a film about Polish families at a mildly dreary, Socialist-approved holiday camp - but just you wait.

And I can't imagine The House Is Black not making my final top ten.

There's also a fair bit of experimental cinema that I'll be including, or considering.

Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One might not have sprung to mind, but in one of its dimensions it's pure documentary.

Brakhage's The Act of Seeing with One's Own Eyes is an obvious contender in the feel-bad category.

At the opposite end of the giddy delight spectrum is Joyce Wieland's collaboration with Hollis Frampton, A and B in Ontario, which is a pretty pure 'document' of a filmmaker's game. The two of them go into a park, armed with Bolexes, and the aim is to film the other person without being filmed oneself - Laser Tag with cameras - and this film is the rushes.

Probably the only 'making of' that will figure on my list (unless Burden of Dreams gets my Les Blank slot, which it probably will when I cave to inevitability) is Pere Portabella's extraordinary Cuadecuc, Vampir. He's ostensibly documenting the filming of Jesus Franco's Count Dracula, but what he actually does is create a parallel adaptation of the novel which, given Portabella's idiosyncratic stylistic choices (extreme high contrast, lots of silence, weird angles on the action dictated by where the real film crew were stationed) - and the fact that he's a much better filmmaker than Franco - makes for a film about a hundred times more eerie and atmospheric than its absentee parent.

And Michael, will you be voting for The Shovel? I can't think of a more perfect film for my number 50 slot, and if we do a sort of blood brother pledge to both rank it there it will achieve the lowest possible ranking without being orphaned, which seems exactly the kind of renown the film deserves.

Yeah, I'm already trying to manipulate the final outcome, in fine documentary tradition.

EXISTENTIAL CRISIS: My God, will placing The Shovel at number 50 mean that I have to leave Gus Visser and His Singing Duck off my list entirely!!!!????

[knives]

Hell, I feel that Herzog's docs are his A material and I know I won't even have room for In the Land of Silence and Darkness. This is a jam packed list. Even amongst the films in the BFI's two big boxsets I'll probably only have room for the Krish's and Stone Into Steel which is a mini-city symphony masterpiece. Fuck, I might not even have room for Lindsay Anderson which would be a crime.

[Matt]

Although PBS' long-running series Nature has aired approximately 923,572 documentaries throughout the years, I do want to spotlight one from a few years ago, The Queen of Trees, by Victoria Stone and Mark Deeble. It's a film about the symbiotic relationship between a sycomore fig tree and fig wasps: the tree depends on the wasp for pollination, the wasp depends on the tree as a place to lay its eggs, and the whole ecosystem depends on their relationship. It was filmed over the course of two years and the structure of the film parallels a complete year in the life cycle of the tree. It's a visually beautiful film, exquisitely narrated by Patricia Clarkson, and goes into great depth about the interrelatedness of these species and how a single species impacts an entire ecosystem (but does so in a fashion that takes the whole film to unfold).

The bad news is that it's not available on any streaming or rental service. You can buy a DVD-R directly from WNET, but I doubt anyone is interested in such a blind buy. You might be able to find it in a library, though. You can see a couple of clips at that link in the previous paragraph to help you decide if it's something you might like. It's not as flashy as the Attenborough/BBC series, but I think it's a much better-made film than any of those.

[barbarianeggplant]

Although PBS' long-running series Nature has aired approximately 923,572 documentaries throughout the years, I do want to spotlight one from a few years ago, The Queen of Trees, by Victoria Stone and Mark Deeble. It's a film about the symbiotic relationship between a sycomore fig tree and fig wasps

Queen of Trees is indeed engaging, beautifully shot and worth watching. Although it's cutting corners on the gorgeous imagery, it is available on youtube here.

[Matt]

Queen of Trees...is available on youtube here.

Didn't think to look there. I'm glad people will have a chance to watch it if they choose.

[Satori]

I plan on participating as much as I can for this lists project, so I would like to make a spotlight title. I hope this film isn't too well known, but I searched and couldn't find any real discussions about it on the forum, so I figure that it might be okay. It is available on R1 DVD and last time I checked it was streaming on Netflix.

Paris is Burning (Jennie Livingston, 1991). Livingston's footage of drag performances of various kinds by predominately African American men in NY in 1987 is on the one hand a document of a specific queer subculture, but it also effortlessly spirals out to suggest insight into the larger cultural moment of the late 1980s: heteronormativity, racism, the specter of AIDS, the poverty exacerbated by neoliberal economic policies, consumerism, and, perhaps above all, the complicated ways in which we all negotiate our various identities (race, class, gender, sexuality) against the backdrop of socially constructed norms. Yet there is no voiceover describing these issues for the viewer; Livingston simply allows these issues to build organically from the stories of some of the participants in the Balls (the drag contests). The footage of the Balls is wonderful and creates a utopian space within the film in which all normative codes are effortlessly exploded. Not only do some of the performers dress up in what we traditionally think of as drag, but there are also contests for who can best “pass” as a straight person, showing us how straightness is every bit as performative and constructed as queerness. The discussion of “houses,” or the chosen and created families that many of these participants belong to, shows a powerful utopian alternative to normative family structures. The film is simultaneously hopeful and tragic (there is a particularly devastating moment in the film's 1989 coda), but is an absolutely indispensable study of a unique subculture.

I will post about some other queer documentary filmmakers that I like later on, but I would love any recommendations. My own knowledge skews heavily toward lesbian rather than gay male directors, so any recommendations for the latter would particularly be appreciated.

Finally, while I'm asking for recommendations, can anyone with a good knowledge of Third Cinema point me toward some good documentaries from that movement? I'm familiar with the work of Patricio Guzman, Raymundo Gleyzer, and Fernando Solanas, but I'd love it if someone could point me toward any lesser known works.

[matrixschmatrix]

Wow, Dom, your spotlight is goddamn infuriating to watch- I grew up Catholic, and weirdly it made me defensive about Catholicism, since all this shit is totally foreign to my religious experience. It definitely makes a pretty solid case that religion is a bunch of petty rules designed to exert social control, particularly since in the whole thing and the constant warnings that "you'll never really be able to share your spiritual life", the only actual point of theological difference addressed is the Catholic prohibition of contraceptives; everything else seems to be petty, meaningless rules enforced by the concern trolling priests and ministers. The families, too, are horrifically passive aggressive, somehow worse than if they flat out started claiming that Catholics were blood drinkers and Protestants were heretics or whatever. The thing with the bris is pretty mysterious, too- like, a lot of Christians get circumcised, it's not the end of the world. The conflicts all seem artificial or externally imposed, but that one's particularly half-assed.

It feels very much like a plea against miscegenation, too- the kids are dedicated to the ideals of pluralism and compromise, which one would normally expect to be feted in a film like this (presumably, even a non-"mixed couple" is going to have things they don't agree about), and at every turn they're essentially told that such things are childish dreams, and that if you marry anyone who is even the tiniest bit different from you, you'll never 'really' be unified. Not really.

I love the mise-en-scene, though- the giant ass crucifix in the girl's house, particularly, which I think they just moved into the priest's chambers, with set dressing that's otherwise all vague pictures of empty fields and grey furniture against grey wall. I'm not sure if it's lack of imagination or an unwillingness to show their hand that stops the film from making the Catholics identifiably ethnic, but at least if they were Italian or something the set dressing could have had some kind of character to it.

I'm guessing part of why this seems so absurd to modern eyes is that the makers could safely assume that its viewers would view the idea of just telling the church to go fuck itself abhorrent, and not to be considered- whereas I would imagine that any such video now would be grovelling in hopes that someone would stick to their faith. Though my understanding is that evangelical churches still make this kind of shit all the time.

[matrixschmatrix]

MichaelB, I'm updating the spotlights list- is there a release of Katya you can link anywhere?

[domino harvey]

Though my understanding is that evangelical churches still make this kind of shit all the time.

They def still do-- one of my favorite college pastimes was staying up late and watching the "witnessing tools" that aired all nite on TBN and another local channel was trying to be TBN. Some amazing TV occurred at those hours, most of it literally apocalyptic. My favorite though was a documentary "debunking" evolution-- and this remains one of the best things I've ever seen-- that supposedly presented both sides, but the Christian TV station had clearly hired an actor to play the stereotypical Liberal Professor and he spouts off these hilariously scripted, clichefest lines, the best of which I will never forget as long as I live: Poofy-gray-haired academic leans forward smugly in leather chair, addresses the camera with a smirk and loudly proclaims: "Everyone KNOWS man descended from APE!"

Glad you sought out Should I Marry Outside My Faith? Matrix, even if it resulted in a few holes being punched in the wall!

[knives]

Though those punched walls now make me extra curious to see it.

[matrixschmatrix]

I always watch that kind of thing thinking I can distance myself from it and laugh at how ridiculous it is and then get super invested and argue-y. I suspect that habit informs a lot of my ways of seeing.

I haven't seen a lot of evangelical stuff- mostly things just linked on whatever blog to be mocked- but they usually give off way more of a cultish vibe than this did, which is probably because this genuinely was pretty mainstream when it was made, which makes the whole thing way weirder. Particularly given that the various religious groups all seemed pretty equally represented (though I'd put my money on Protestants having made it), and it's not really about sex/gays/abortion or evolution, which would put it into a rare class these days. It's definitely worth watching, though one might get more out of it if one had a lower blood boiling point.

[knives]

I have no relationship with religion so I don't think my blood boiling should be an issue.