Lately, we’ve been gifted a few astounding documentaries with the rare ability to educate and influence opinion, as well as being riveting viewing over their entire length. Documentaries can be a grind with no worthy content omitted as part of an effort to provide a comprehensive overview of a subject. The result is something that’s an essential item for any university library, but at over two hours a mission to watch.

Much more satisfying are the recent documentaries that come in at a lean hour and a half, and key to this achievement is the extensive research and painstaking editing and storyline work. Along with Food Inc, other outstanding examples include The Cove and Exit Through the Gift Shop.

Food Inc takes apart the American Agricultural Industry from all angles, cleverly letting the information itself damn the participants. My favourite part is the organic free-range chicken farmer who explains how healthy and popular his chickens are, while slitting their throats in preparation for sale.

It’s a reminder that no matter how humane the process, the meat on your table still had to die. Being an avid meat eater myself, I appreciated the honesty, as the temptation would’ve been to show such sustainable farming practices in the rosiest possible light.

SPONSOR

Actual footage from inside Burma, shot by Burmese, many of whom ended up in jail or tortured by Burma’s oppressive military regime. The material is shot using small handycams by Burma’s VJs (Video Journalists), then smuggled out of the country and broadcast back into Burma via satellite and offered free to the international media.

The video in the film centres around marches by monks through Rangoon in September 2007, protesting against the governments treatment of the people. Historically the monks stay out of politics, so there is hope that the marches will spark a revolution. As no foreign media is allowed in the country, all that the outside world knows of these protests comes from the video journalists, and the images beamed back into the country help to inspire further protests. It’s a compelling documentary from inside one the world’s most brutal regimes.

Does Israel use the Holocaust as an excuse for their continued issues with the Palestine people? According to this film, yes. Are people who criticise Israel’s foreign policy often unfairly labelled anti-Semitic? Again, yes according to this brilliant documentary made by an Israeli-Jew. Instead of passing judgment himself, filmmaker Yoav Shamir is smart enough to put himself and his camera in the right places, surrounded by the right people, and let the people damn themselves.

The American-based league against anti-Semitism is shown up for the over-officious waste of time and money that it is, while a typical tour group of Israeli students heading to Auschwitz are basically brainwashed by group leaders and minders. It’s a fascinating documentary, exposing how an unmentionable atrocity has been manipulated for control and political gain, while at the same time it has a brilliant sense for the absurd.

Set in the bustling metropolis of New York, this brilliant documentrary by Marilyn Agrelo takes an insiders look at the annual ballroom dancing contest that sweeps through the public school system every year, wrapping a select group of Gotham kids up in the excitement and emotion that characterises the event. Who would have thought such a traditionally staid pursuit could be so dramatic?

These days it seems that everyone has an angle, every communication is a means to an end, and every action is loaded with meaning and purpose. It is invigorating then to learn of the true story of a man who never sold out and believes in art for art’s sake. Frenchman has never been classically trained in tightrope walking, and claims to have been obsessed with the wire and climbing since a young age. His most famous feat involved erecting and then walking across a wire between the Twin Towers in New York, an achievement it is now impossible to replicate, and that achievement is the focus of this documentary. It also covers the public and illegal wire-walks leading up to this momentous event, and goes in painstaking detail over the preliminary work and planning, training and finally the good fortune required. The technical explanation perhaps drags in places. However, it is still a worthy portrait of one of the most memorable and unique occurrences of all time.

SPONSOR

How this man lived to the ripe old age of 68 is anybody’s guess. Remember how the brow furrowed as you sunk yourself deeper into the calamity that was his assignment to Las Vegas? ‘The trunk of the car looked like a mobile police narcotics lab. We had two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high-powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers … and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of Budweiser, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls.’ Reading Fear and Loathing at the tender age of fourteen wasn’t the catalyst behind my decision to pursue journalism, but at least proved that jobs did exist outside the office. He’s a hero of everyone’s, even those too proud to admit it — the stiff, conservative hack who’s privately salivating over the thought of a job where leisure rules the day. So it’ll be interesting to see whether this documentary reveals the full scope of his life, including the obviously vicious undercurrent that caused such extreme living, and dying.

There’s a cool little documentary doing the rounds at independent cinemas in London at the moment, bringing back to life a sadly lost treasure of the city’s music scene. Back in the early 1960s, Hackney’s Four Aces Club became the UK home of Jimmy Cliff, Desmond Dekker, Prince Buster, and more, even hosting Bob Marley a few times. Chrissie Hynde played there later, as did the Sex Pistols and Bob Dylan. Moving with the times, it then became a focal point for acid house raves, another of London’s legendary counter-culture gatherings. There’s a poignancy to the timing of the film’s release: the building where the club once stood is being torn down, another victim of Olympic regeneration plans.

Narrated by Johnny Depp, who played Hunter in the film adaptation of the book Fear and Loathing in Los Vegas, this documentary covers the life of the enigmatic writer who invented Gonzo. The lines blur between reality and fantasy, as they did whenever Hunter was talking about his own life in his writing, but it is fascinating nevertheless as an insight into how he worked and the highs and lows of his life. Perhaps too long, it is understandable considering the amount of content to cover, from his first articles right to his famous suicide. As his fame grows, his behaviour becomes even more questionable and towards the end of his life Hunter becomes less coherent. And to the film’s credit it does not shy away from the less flattering aspects of his life. Perhaps the most entertaining parts are the interviews with artist and long-time collaborator Ralph Steadman, whose style evolved along with that of his famous muse.

There is a strange voyeuristic pleasure in watching an incompetent and unenthusiastic loser trawl through the detritus that is his love life. The fact that Chris Waitt eventually made this film indicates that he’s not quite as useless as he makes out, but watching as doors slam and phones are slammed in his ear is both cringe-worthy and extremely entertaining. Part of the way through Chris chooses to pursue laughs instead of trying to figure out what has gone wrong with all his past relationships, which does make for some hilarious moments but means the question that instigates his journey is forgotten for a while. It all ties together well in the end though and through being so honest and recording the most uncomfortable and personal of experiences, including visits to a dominatrix, sexual therapist and disastrous dates, the film is honest and personal in a way that few documentaries ever are.

SPONSOR

The BBC’s Planet Earth series kept the mandatory blues that kick in on a Sunday night at bay for a long time. Going into work the next day suddenly didn’t seem so bad when you knew the hot topics of conversation would revolve around last night’s viewing, and not today’s admin prospects. There’s one bit in the series that really stood out; something so exceptional it can be watched over and over again and still draw gasps. There’s a segment at the end of one episode where David Attenborough tiptoes up to a Lyrebird – the greatest mimic of them all – the cameras start rolling, and the result is pretty staggering. That’s all I’ll give away, but note the sheer poignancy of the final few shots.

Recent developments in technology and communication mean that the critiques of any event hit the news faster than ever before. This allows artists to react while events are still happening. Redacted is one brilliant example. The film industry is producing a raft of films around the ongoing ‘War on Terror’, but none reproduces the reality of the Iraq conflict with more honesty. Inspired by actual events it follows a unit of American troops that have become disillusioned and restless, the product of an army forced to scrape the bottom of the barrel of society for recruits. It shows the consequences of sending poorly educated and quickly trained troops into a confusing situation with high-powered weapons and little consideration of consequences. This film provides a gripping, accurate and balanced portrait of this confusing conflict and should be viewed by anyone interested in the reality behind the media reports.

I watched the Danielson family documentary the other night, which juxatposed the rise and rise of ethereal and devastatingly unpolished part-time bandmate Sufjan Stevens against the backdrop of these Christian rockers’ theatrical surrealism. In comparison to the gentle and unforced beauty of Stevens’ music, Danielson’s tunes — and overtly preachy stage show — all seemed a little too much. Though this track, Headz in the Cloudz, is a killer. Someone should really sample that drum beat and sell it to Daft Punk.

Dalton Trumbo was the first blacklisted writer to win an Academy Award. However, he could not claim the award until years later because he had been forced to write under a pseudonym. Trumbo was one of the Hollywood Ten and even spent a year in jail as a result of investigations into Communist influences in the motion picture industry. This documentary is fascinating not just for its examination of a bizarre period in American history where fear replaced reason and innocent men were jailed, but also for how Trumbo dealt with these hardships. One of the most successful writers in Hollywood’s history, he fled to Mexico and struggled by, earning a pittance for his phenomenal work. He shared his frustration with friends through extraordinarily entertaining letters, read out with vivacity by some of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Letters to the phone company and his son are some of the most entertaining. Previously I knew little of Dalton Trumbo, but now feel terrible for not discover this extraordinarly entertaining and touching story earlier. The devotion, conviction and creativity with which Trumbo attacks every hardship is inspirational, and the story is intelligently put together with archive footage, interviews along with the reading of the letters.

SPONSOR

An examination of the importance of the moon landing through interviews with astronauts, scientists and extensive use of archive footage, this documentary doesn’t just look at what happened, but at how and why it happened. First person accounts of looking back at the earth, then travelling around the dark side of the moon are fascinating. The process of developing the technology to achieve something that had never been attempted before was also compelling: it’s full of anecdotes of narrow escapes and scientific assumptions and estimations. While the media might have made a lot of the space race those involved come across as personable and humble, more concerned for what the moon landing would do for the human race, instead of thinking of themselves as Americans. In parts overly sentimental, this is still a fresh and interesting take on one of the most important single events in human history.