David Tamés: How did you get involved with Septentrional in the first place?

Whitney Dow: I got involved with Haiti because a friend of mine, Jane Regan, who is also one of the producers on the project. She lived there for a dozen years, and she and her partner, Danny Morel, who’s also a producer on the project, had come to me after the fall of Jean-Bertrand Aristide, and they had all this footage. They had traveled with the Cannibal Army and wanted to know if we could develop some films together.

Tamés: What films did you develop?

Dow: We developed three films: this film, one on democracy, and a third on betrayal that’s going to be about Aristide, the gang leader, based on Julius Caesar. I’m not sure if the third one’s going to get made. When I was down in Haiti making the film about democracy Jane and Danny introduced me to the band. I was really interested in the idea of making a film bout something in Haiti that worked, this band that’s been around for 60 years.

Tamés: And so you filmed the band, their performances, and touring?

Dow: I started to make a film about the band, and I thought it was just going to be about the band, just about music, and when I cut the film and showed it to people, it was boring. It didn’t have any context. So their talk about things being tough sounded like whining because the imagery was so pretty that things did not look so tough.

Tamés:What year was this?

Dow: I think I finished that cut in late 2007.

Tamés:So then what happened?

Dow: In 2008 I showed it to a lot of people. I took it back to the funders, and we talked about it. And I went back to the drawing board and decided to make a film that was about two stories, the rise of Nicole, the main character in the film, and the fall of Aristide and compare and contrast their leadership styles and what makes a successful leader. And I made that film and it was pretty good, I thought, and then the earthquake happened.

Tamés: And what happened in the wake of the earthquake?

Dow: It did two things. One, people wanted something about Haiti, you had to have the earthquake in it, and, Two, it made me realize that what I was doing by making the story about Aristide was again reducing Haiti to a particular component because before the earthquake, Haiti was Aristide. Before Aristide, Haiti was Duvalier. Before Duvalier Haiti was an American occupation. Before that it was colonialism. It’s always being reduced into this thing, and I said, in effect, if I want to get the earthquake, all these things have been earthquakes. Columbus was an earthquake. Colonialism was an earthquake. Slavery was an earthquake. The revolution was an earthquake. The American occupation was an earthquake. Duvalier was an earthquake. Aristide was an earthquake. All these earthquakes built up to create the conditions for this massive natural disaster to take place that was really, in effect, a human disaster built over 500 years.

Tamés:Part of what made it so devastating was the infrastructure was unprepared for any kind of disaster. It was so fragile to start with.

Dow: Yes. There’s no state in Haiti. I mean, it’s actually one of the things I like about Haiti, especially post-9/11 where the state is more and more intrusive into our lives on a day-to-day basis, how we could travel in the air, driving our car, what you can take pictures of. And you go to Haiti, and there’s no state. You have to enter this organism, which is the society, without a safety net. There’s 3,000 police for seven million people. There’s no one to go to, if there’s a problem. You have to figure out a way to navigate it yourself, and it’s an incredibly freeing, yet scary feeling to spend time in that environment.

Tamés: In the film you begin the earthquake sequence with stunning surveillance camera footage. Tell me about that. How did you find that footage?

Dow:I was looking for a way to tell the story of the earthquake, and I felt — and we’ve all seen so many images of disasters, news footage and everything, I was trying to figure out how do you tell the story so it doesn’t feel rote or disconnected or how do you make emotional connection? And a friend of mine, Mario Delatour, who also worked as one of the field producers on the project, was in the camps one day and this guy came up to him and said, “Mario, I crawled into the wreckage of the palace, and I found the hard drives from the security cameras. Do you want this footage? I’ll load it onto your laptop.” And he said, “Of course.”

Tamés: That’s an incredible scenario.

Dow:Yes. So he then gave it to me and said, “This was just amazing footage, You should look at it, Whitney.” And I was really stunned by it because it was the first time I felt an emotional reaction, a very, very, personal emotional reaction to earthquake images through these objective computer-generated images by the security things. Because there was nobody behind the camera, it had much more impact just seeing those images.

Tamés: I was filled with a sense of fear and empathy for that person in the view of the camera trying to find a way out.

Dow: And you know what it is also because you know someone’s not behind the camera. You know he’s alone. You’re so used to — when you see a camera, you’re like — some people I hear say, well, there’s a guy with him. There’s a crew. There’s someone around, and he’s dying alone and you’re watching.

Tamés: There was that sense of helplessness. That footage really got me. It hit me in the gut.

Dow: The first time I saw it raw brought me to tears. I mean, I was stunned by it, and the other thing that was interesting about it is that as you watch the film — the palace is a recurring shot. You see the palace throughout the history of the country, and then you see it destroyed as a metaphor for the country. Seeing this constant in the country utterly destroyed is also very devastating.

Tamés: What led you to weave together the story of the band and the history of Haiti? In many music films there’s only a little, if any, context but with When The Drum is Beating it feels like I’ve seen two films in conversation with each other. There’s a film about Haiti’s history and there’s a film about these musicians and there’s a beautiful ballet between the two.

Dow: That’s exactly what I think it is; a conversation between the two films. This idea about context and context is something I constantly think about, the context of how I lived in America, the context of our conversation, the context of everything because content is driven by context. And I think that many times people confuse context with narrative or context with that people are their context. And what I wanted to do was show two things, this immediate context of Haiti today in the aftermaths of the earthquake but also this broader context of history, the events that you’re watching now doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

Tamés: So what we watch connects us with the world?

Dow: It’s part of a point on a continuum, for me that was the epiphany moment in my development as an adult. I remember so clearly being in school and taking a course and suddenly realizing that everything I learned was one thing, that art was connected to history, was connected to politics, which connects to architecture was connected to music. And up until then I thought I was learning these individual disconnected ideas but without the certain political events … certain paintings don’t exist without the context of these things, it was all one thing. Going back to this idea, context provides a way of understanding the crisis de jour. I think it’s also an altruistic thing. When I did a film a few years ago called Two Towns of Jasper, I remember getting down to Texas after this murder, and I was so consumed with figuring out what happened. Well, the guy left here and he walked here. He was picked up there and they drove him. It was 2:00 O’clock in the morning. They dropped him off. And suddenly I realized, I think that by understanding what happened, I’m going to understand why it happened, and they’re two different things. What happened doesn’t really matter at all. Why it happened is a much more complex question and a complex investigation, and I immediately pulled off the case, essentially, and went into the community and started talking to the people. And again, that’s what I feel about the earthquake in Haiti. What happened in Haiti doesn’t interest me as much as why and the real why. You can’t take steps to go after [the story] until you can understand the why. You often hear people say, we must remember so this never happens again, but nobody really wants to remember. They don’t want to know. If you talk about September 11th, people don’t want to talk about the causes of September 11 since cause can implicate.

Tamés: It hits too close to home?

Dow: It hits too close to home (pause).

Tamés: What has been the band’s reaction to the film?

Dow: There’s been two reactions. One, they’re incredibly proud that a film was made about them, they were a little confused by the film because they thought I was making a film just about the band, and they didn’t know what to expect. The younger guys, loved it. I had them literally in tears over talking about it because they were so overwhelmed by seeing their story played out the way it does, one member said, “I’m so proud of this film. It doesn’t matter that I’m in it because my band’s in it. My country’s in it and it tells a story. I want this to go out to the world and people can see it.” I think some of them recognized that a story just about the band is not going to be that interesting, you need a broader context to bring people to the table. So in their mind the broader context brings people to their music. Maybe in other people’s mind the music brings people to the broader context. But they probably will never tell me what they really thought about it, because of my relationship to them. Oh, we love it. It’s great. Michel Tassy (vocalist) refuses to see the film.

Tamés: Really? Has he given you a reason?

Dow: He came to New York for the Tribeca Film Festival and wouldn’t come to any of the screenings. He didn’t want to watch it. He said, “I’m a singer, not an actor.” He said, “The movie business is for other people. I’m a musician.” All the guys would say, “Well, you’re the star of the film — one of the stars of the film,” and he likes that. When they came to New York, Tribeca had them play at the drive-in. I think his voice is slipping. He doesn’t want people to see that, if you hear the old music in the movie, his voice was just beautiful, I mean, just phenomenal. And now, it’s still the most interesting voice in the band, but it’s a different voice. It’s the voice of a 70-year-old man who smokes, as opposed to a 30-year-old man who doesn’t smoke.

Tamés: It is what it is.

Dow: Yeah.

Tamés: The film is currently in the festival circuit. It got very positive reception at Tribeca and the audience here at the New Hampshire Film Festival loved the film. What are your plans for the film? How are you going to get this out into the world beyond film festivals?

Dow: Everybody wants their films to be seen, and I’ve been lucky enough to make this film. It’s been at a number of really great festivals, Silver Docs, Hot Docs, Traverse City, and a couple Korean festivals. It’s going to IDFA. It’s doing as well as a documentary can be doing, and because of that I’ve had two offers. First Run Features has picked up the film, and they want to put it in the theaters in February, and PBS is going to put it on Independent Lens in April, however, there’s a caveat: I’m in deficit on the film, and I need to raise money for rights clearances. I need to raise money to clear the archival footage because I never thought I was going to have so much archival footage in it. I also made a deal with the band that if the film was done and we got distribution, I’d pay them a fair rate to the rights to their music used in the film.

Tamés: So how are you going to raise the money you need to get the film into distribution?

Dow: I’ve started a Kickstarter campaign where people can go and contribute to the campaign. In return they can get rewards that include downloads of the music, DVDs, albums, tickets to the premier, depending on your level of contribution. I feel this is a context setting film, and I hope, when people see it that it helps them see Haiti and, by extension, places like Haiti, differently, and that they see the people not necessarily as helpless victims of their circumstances, but people who live their lives within those circumstances, not who are defined by it. I remember so clearly the War in the Balkans, you’d see Sarajevo on the news and two women crouching in doors with kids with snipers shooting at them, and I was asking, why are they there? Why don’t they leave? Why are they staying there? And it wasn’t until September 11th, I live in Lower Manhattan, and my first reaction was Goddammit, these motherf*ck*rs, I’m not going, did you think that I would leave my city? I’d been in New York 20 years at that time, when I first really felt like a New Yorker. This was an attack on my city, and there was no way that I would leave there. Now, I don’t think I necessarily did a good Kickstarter pitch in that answer.

Tamés: Perhaps not, but this conversations is not just about Kickstarter. My wife and I have a friend who lives down in the Wall Street area. I remember standing on her roof deck and looking over at the World Trade Center only a few blocks away. We were visiting her only a few weeks after 9/11 And I can relate to the reaction so many people I know in New York had at the time, “I’m not going anywhere.”

Dow: Yeah. It’s like, this is my home, dangerous smoke or not.

Tamés: Let’s get back to Kickstarter, why is it so critical to get funding from your audience?

Dow: People think of movies as sort of this business, and in a sense the documentary world is not a traditional market the way a Hollywood movies are. It’s more like the non-profit world where you get money from PBS for a film, they’re not looking for a financial return on it. They’re looking for me to create something that communicates a message and gets something out, and I think that that’s how now you have to look at these films, that it’s not a market. And so because of that, we, as filmmakers, are now put in this position. We’re always been fundraising, but the traditional avenues of fundraising are getting more competitive and shrinking. And this great thing about the Internet is now you can avoid gatekeepers and be your own gatekeeper and go out to bring your project to the world. So I hope that people will visit the When the Drum is Beating page on on Kickstarter and look it over and if they think it’s a valuable project and a valuable message, that they’ll consider contributing to it and help get the film out there. The deal is, if I can raise this money, it will be seen by millions of people. It’s a sure bet. I’m not someone saying, fund my film. When I get it done, it’s going to be great. I have these offers on the table from PBS and first run. If I get the money, it will be seen by millions of people.

Tamés: So there’s a high likelihood of success in this campaign if it resonates with enough people. [Disclosure: I have contributed to the campaign.] Success from the point of view that if I donate, you’re going to achieve your goal?

Dow: Yes. The film is finished. It’s won awards. It’s been to a number of festivals. It’s doing well, and how many documentaries get actual distribution and national hard feed broadcast slots? There’s not that many slots out there. So to have that opportunity and be able to take advantage of it is something that I’m really hoping will happen. I think it’s important.

Tamés: It’s great you have those slots waiting for you. Now, it’s up to us through Kickstarter to help you get there.

Dow: Absolutely. Have you been involved in other Kickstarter campaigns?

Tamés: So far only as a donor to several projects. I know a number of filmmakers who have used Kickstarter to help fund their films, it’s rewarding to see someone you have contributed to reach their goal and know you helped make that happen. I hope to do one for a documentary currently in development that I’m involved with, but that’s a ways off. I think it’s important to demonstrate that the funds you are contributing will result in a project being completed, getting into distribution, some major milestone.

Dow: What’s interesting about Kickstarter, one of the nicest thing about it for me has been the community, for example, the guy who’s really running the Kickstarter campaign, started a music festival in Florida on Kickstarter. Raised the money for it. Called me and said, “Can I have your film?” And I looked at what he was doing. I said, “Sure. Of course you can have the film and show it.” He really liked the film, and now he’s helping me run the campaign. He said, “I love what you’re doing. I love the film. I want to help it succeed. I’m not really doing much right now. I’ll work on it. I’ll help you.” He’s been my coach, gave me a list of 10 things I have to do every day, and I’m meeting people who are in the same boat. If you donate to me, I donate to you. We can build this community to support each other’s work. I’ve helped him, and he’s helped me.

Tamés: Well, the good thing about movies is just because somebody watches your movie doesn’t mean they’re not going to watch my movie. I mean, people watch a lot of movies.

Dow: Exactly.

Tamés: It ties into what Tiffany Shlain was saying a while back about how independent filmmakers have to start thinking of themselves as interdependent filmmakers and help each other out because there really are two film businesses. There’s Hollywood, and then there’s the rest of us.

Dow: Hollywood is a franchise, basically it’s a marketing program with story grafted on top of it. So you can’t get stuff made in Hollywood without having all the marketing tie-ins built into it first and the product base and all that stuff. And then the stuff is retrofitted with an action movie or romantic comedy, and that’s not to say there aren’t some great films that come out of Hollywood. I think that there is, but in general that it’s a very different thing that people are doing in Hollywood than independent filmmakers. Whether they are documentary filmmakers or narrative filmmakers, it’s a very, very different thing that we’re doing.

Tamés: I hope your Kickstarter campaign is successful and When The Drum is Beating gets the release it deserves.

Dow: And thank you for coming to the film. Again, I hope that I can find a way to position it so that it does find an audience.

Tamés: Will there be a soundtrack album?

Dow: I’m trying to raise money for that as well. Branford Marsalis has agreed to produce an album, if I can raise the money.

Tamés: That would make another interesting Kickstarter project. Before we wrap up, let’s get back the film. I’d like to hear more about why this topic, why this approach?

Dow: I had the opportunity, I had access that nobody else had in Haiti. I wanted to make what in my mind was a big concept film. While doing the first film I read a ton on Haiti. I read tons of history. I watched tons of things. I saw movies and books and everything, and it was a big epic story. And I felt that it was a story that hadn’t been told before. When I thought of the idea of music and history, it scared me, something I haven’t seen before, and my thought was, I don’t know if I can pull this off, but, if I do, it’s going to be amazing. And I really took it as a personal challenge that to try and undertake this idea. Haiti’s history was a big canvas.

Tamés: And why you, as an outsider?

Dow: I’m very wary of perspective, I look at myself and ask, who am I as some middle-class white guy to think he can tell some sort of definitive story about Haiti? Why should I do that? And I feel I’m very, very sensitive to this idea of white people telling black stories, and I was — and I’m — sort of doing films on race, I’ve thought a lot about this and that why — who am I to be telling this? And I got a lot of push-back originally. What do you have? And I really sort of felt like it was more for me in a selfish way an artistic undertaking that I really wanted to tackle as a way of challenging myself as a filmmaker. A big portion of my body of work is on race, and I think about it. It’s one of the things that fascinates me. It’s something that I constantly think about and am working at.

Dow: I think also that race is — I’m not the first person to say it, but race is — a fault line in America that we’re constantly navigating and constantly look at. That’s the reality that we live in. And I also think that our experiences living in the world as white, black, or Latino are so fundamentally different that we are fundamentally different. Under the skin we’re not the same. Our experiences are so different that we’re living in a fundamentally different reality, and so of course we’re different. We have different experiences but we’re attracted to the difference. We’re attracted to what’s different about us. I’m attracted to difference. That’s what excites and interests me, as opposed to being attracted to something that we share. I’m not so much interested another film about some horrible thing that white people did in the past or the current.

Tamés: We could talk about this for another hour, but I know you need to get on your way to New York. Thanks for taking the time to talk with me about your film.

Dow: Thank you.

David Tames: What was the impact of Who Killed the Electric Car? from your perspective?

Chris Paine: The film told the story of what happened to about 5,000 electric cars out in California that most people had never heard about. That motivated a lot of people (including me) to keep the pressure up for change and that in turn motivated a lot more people both inside and outside industry.

Tames: How did Revenge of the Electric Car evolve?

Paine: We started hearing rumors that the car industry was rethinking its decision to quash electric cars. High gas prices in 2008, national security pushback around oil dependence, and people fed up with gas car impact also played a role. We had some connections so we decided to go inside the system and see how things can — sometimes — change from the inside out.

Tames: What’s different this time around as far as electric cars go?

Paine: Most people understand that oil is finite and putting it in cars is not smart when you can use electricity and get a better result. Technology costs have come down and a lot more people know about them. You also have some incredible people leading the charge.

Tames: How did you decide to focus on the people you did end up focusing on in this film?

Paine: We started with about seven folks and over three years, narrowed our focus to four of the most fascinating who we were able to stay in touch with.

Tames: Were there some people you spoke with that did not make it into the film?

Paine: Hundreds. You meet so many interesting people of all kinds in the course of a long form documentary and eventually you have to decide how many your audience is going to be able to track in 90 minutes. Better known people include Shai Agassi who we tracked in Israel, Dave Barthmus, GM’s corporate spokesman in first film, Simon Peres, Rainn Wilson, the President of Iceland, a couple getting married on electric bikes and on and on….

Tames: Are there some people you wanted to talk with who would not talk with you about their work?

Paine: Plenty. We approached many car companies at first and few would take the risk of letting our crew in.

Tames: What are you driving right now? How do you like it?

Paine: I traded in my Prius and bought a Chevy Volt, for full price I might add. Got to know the car over its development and it won me over. 40 miles electric then turns into a 38 mpg car for longer trips. My girlfriend drives a Leaf and that’s pretty great too. And of course, I still have the very early edition Tesla I bought after finishing the first film.

Tames: What do you hope viewers will take away with them?

Paine: I hope they take the time to test drive or if they can afford it, buy one of these new generation plug-in cars. What got me going on this originally was how emotionally thrilling it was accelerating in all electric mode. If the film inspires that, I’ll be happy. It really makes for a better future if we continue to use cars.

Tames: What was the most challenging moment while making the film?

Paine: End of 2008 when markets collapsed and all the characters we were following hit the wall. Like them, you have to pick up the pieces and keep moving…

Tames: Are there filmmakers or other artists you draw inspiration from?

Paine: Everyone I work with – my co-writer Peter, my producer Jessie, my editor Chris, our composer David, and on and on. I get the credit for a big team effort. Outside of our crew, I really like the wit of Kurt Vonnegut and almost anyone making really entertaining films that don’t rely on a gun to move the story forward.

Tames: What has been the most dramatic change in terms of making a film back when you were making Who Killed the Electric Car? and now with Revenge?

Paine: Aside from the digitalization of the entire production process, I’d say it’s the changing nature of the audience and distribution of films. Documentaries can reach people in more and more ways even without the theatrical launch we’re lucky enough to have and marketing via social networks (like yours) makes the difference between success and failure.

Tames: How did you get started as a filmmaker?

Paine: My 4th grade teacher, Mrs. Landreth. “Gold Rush – SUtters Mill” class movie. Super 8. Hooked me.

Tames: That’s amazing, for me it was my 5th grade teacher, Miss Beachum, we made a film in class about the American Revolutionary War, Super 8, that hooked me too! So what happened as far as filmmaking after 4th grade?

Paine: My friend Roger (a producer on both Who Killed the Electric Car? and Revenge), and I made short films in high school and then in college I spent a summer at Stanford University’s documentary program. That led to a semester at NYU and a summer job at AFI. I had a turn with an MTV pilot series the wake of the Velvet Revolution and several other TV jobs So a bit here and there leading to an assistant job for Michael Tolkin (The Player, The New Age) who impressed me with his brilliance. If I was going to stay in LA, I had to work for someone really smart. Eventually one of my old friends the UK pulled me into his documentaries, and somewhere in there, I decided to try my hand directing a feature documentary.

Tames: What advice would you like to share with the next generation of documentary filmmakers?

Paine: Find amazing people, build trust, let them tell their stories without interrupting, ask hard questions, listen.

Tames: The film is now showing in theaters. What are your hopes for the film from this point forward?

Paine: That more and more people hear about it and see it and get inspired. For me it’s much more than a film – though my job as story teller is first.

Tames: Filmmakers always have to kill some of their darlings, is there something you left out of the film you wish you could have covered?

Paine: One of the biggest users of electricity in the country is the oil industry – simply to refine gasoline from crude oil. Wish I could have fit that story into this film. Maybe the next one. All we need to do is put that electricity directly into our cars and bypass the oil.

Tames: Sounds like we have a lot to think about. It’s been a pleasure talking with you today.

Paine: Thanks for doing this!

Links:

Revenge of the Electric Car (Official Site)

Who Killed the Electric Car? (Official Site)

• The Gleaners and I (Agnès Varda, 2000, French title: Les glaneurs et la glaneuse)
• Dogtown and Z-Boys (Stacy Peralta, 2001)
• In the Mirror of Maya Deren (Martina Kudlácek, 2002)
• A Kalahari Family (John Marshall, 2002)
• Spellbound (Jeffrey Blitz, 2002)
• The Kid Stays in the Picture (Nanette Burstein and Brett Morgen, 2002)
• Winged Migration (Jacques Perrin, 2002, French title: Le peuple migrateur)
• The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (Errol Morris, 2003)
• My Architect (Nathaniel Kahn and Susan R. Behr, 2003)
• Tarnation (Jonathan Caouette, 2003)
• The Corporation (Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott, 2003)
• The Weather Underground (Sam Green and Bill Siegel, 2003)
• Super Size Me (Morgan Spurlock, 2004)
• Darwin’s Nightmare (Hubert Sauper, 2004)
• March of the Penguins (Luc Jacquet, 2005, French title: La marche de l’empereur)
• Grizzly Man (Wener Herzog, 2005)
• Al otro lado (Natalia Almada, 2005)
• The Cats of Mirikitani (Linda Hattendorf, 2006)
• Mirror Dance (Frances McElroy and Maria T. Rodriguez, 2005)
• Favela Rising (Jeff Zimbalist and Matt Mochary, 2005)
• Havana — The New Art of Making Ruins (Florian Borchmeyer and Matthias Hentschler, 2006, German title: Havana – Die Neue Kunst Ruinen Zu Bauen)
• An Inconvenient Truth (Davis Guggenheim, 2006)
• Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman (Jennifer Fox, 2006)
• When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (Spike Lee, 2006)
• Shadow of the House (Allie Humenuk, 2007)
• Helvetica (Gary Hustwit, 2007)
• Iraq in Fragments (James Longley, 2007)
• Made in L.A. (Almudena Carracedo, 2007)
• Waltz with Bashir (Ari Folman, 2008)
• Man on Wire (James Marsh, 2008)
• The Garden (Scott Hamilton Kennedy, 2008)
• Intimidad (David Redmon and Ashley Sabin, 2008)
• King Corn (Aaron Woolf, Curt Ellis and Ian Cheney, 2009)
• Herskovits at the Heart of Blackness (Llewellyn Smith, 2009)
• Shooting Beauty (Courtney Bent and George Kachadorian, 2009)

It was tough reducing the list down to thirty five, there are some really good films that fell off the list simply because I made an arbitrary decision to limit myself to thirty five. And so it goes.

Minor revision 12/27/2010 to correct typo.

1. Lumière Brothers’ First Films (Auguste and Louis Lumière, 1895-1897). A collection “actualities” made by the Lumière brothers between 1895 and 1897. While some historians trace the origins of documentary to Edvard Muybridge, others suggest these short films like “Workers Leaving the Lumière Factory” (French title: La Sortie des Ouviers de L’Usine Lumiere a Lyon) and “The Arrival of a Train at the Station” (French title: L’ Arrivée d’un train à la Ciotat) demonstrate the beginnings of documentary cinema. The films consist of scenes from everyday life, providing an early example of documentary filmmaking and the aesthetics of photographic realism that would pervade the form to this day. For the Lumière brothers the new technology of motion pictures afforded them and their colleagues the opportunity to go out into the world and record everyday life. Audiences marveled at the beauty of simple things like seeing leaves moving in the wind. Imagine after a lifetime of seeing the stillness of photographs, paintings, and sculptures to walk into a darkened room and see on the screen images that looked like photographs, but they moved.

2. Nanook of the North (Robert Flaherty, 1922). Considered by many the first ethnographic film, “Nanook of the North” raises all the issues of representation we still deal with today. Through the character of Nanook (his real name was actually Allakariallak), Flaherty documented the “everyday life” of the Inuit Eskimos. We observe Nanook catching a seal and building an igloo, activities that the Inuit had abandoned by the time Flaherty was filming, but performed at Flaherty’s request. Flaherty did not allow Nanook to use any steel instruments or weapons in the film. Nanook’s re-enactments fit Flaherty’s Rousseau-inspired romantic vision of a culture that was rapidly fading. “Nanook of the North” has become a classic documentary, however, upon close analysis it has more of the characteristics of a fiction film, formed by western imagination. The debate over representational issues in documentary film started with Nanook and continues to this day.

3. Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929, Russian title: Chelovek s kino-apparatom). Among the best examples of poetic documentary to this day, a camera person travels through post-revolution Russia capturing images of everyday life. The protagonist of this film is the collective Russian people themselves. The film is loosely organized around the cycle of a day with music and editing moving the story along. The film makes explicit the many kinds of cinematic manipulation and serves as an encyclopedia of all of the techniques Vertov and his collaborators had access to including time-lapse, superimposition, cross-fade, etc. The filmmakers make themselves very evident in this film, a self-described experiment in cinematic communication. Vertov’s writings are also quite interesting, see “Kino-Eye: The Writings of Dziga Vertov,” edited and with an introduction by Annette Michelson.

4. Triumph of the Will (Leni Riefenstahl, 1935). A documentary record of the Nazi Party Convention in Nuremberg, Germany. The film stands as one of the most disturbing, yet poetic, propaganda films every made.

5. The City (Ralph Steiner & Willard Van Dyke, 1939). Contrasts industrialized city life with pastoral small-town America. The film was adapted by Lewis Mumford from the story by Pare Lorentz and includes music by Aaron Copland.

6. The Memphis Belle (William Wyler, 1944). The story of the final mission of the “Memphis Belle,” a B-17 Flying Fortress that became the first U.S. heavy bomber during World War II to complete twenty-five missions over Europe and return to the United States in one piece. The film was made by the U.S. Army Air Forces First Motion Picture Unit to boost morale by showing the courage of “the boys who flew those planes.” Despite the hazards of combat, Wyler and his collaborators filmed multiple bomber missions (not all of them aboard the “Memphis Belle”) using 16mm cameras placed in the nose, tail, and other positions around the bomber. The original crew (which was back in the States for a war bond drive) was brought into a Hollywood recording studio to record their own dialog while watching the film, providing a sense of authenticity. In 2001 the United States Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the National Film Registry. The “Memphis Belle” bomber is now at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio. In 1990 a narrative feature with the same name was produced directed by Michael Caton-Jones, providing an interesting compare and contrast opportunity.

7. Night and Fog (Alain Resnais, 1955). Resnais revisits the Nazi concentration camps ten years after the end of World War II. The film is made up of Resnais’ own shooting on location with Nazi footage of the camps, newsreels, and variety of other sources including Leni Reifenstahl’s Triumph of the Will. The film sparked controversy upon release. West German officials applied pressure on French officials to censor the film and it was removed from the Cannes festival line-up, yet eventually was screened out of competition. The film met with favorable reception by most critics and it eventually screened at numerous festivals. The film has sparked a number of debates, especially in terms of Resnais’ failing to disclose that a majority of the victims of the death camps were Jewish.

8. Primary (Robert Drew, 1960). Among the first American direct cinema masterpieces and the first intimate behind-the-scenes view of a political campaign. Robert Drew and his colleagues had film crews with both the Kennedy and Humphrey campaigns during the one of the state primaries.

9. Crisis: Behind a Presidential Commitment (Robert Drew, 1963). Multiple camera teams around a crisis makes this one-of-a kind documentary come alive. This was among the early documentaries along with “Primary,” et al.. to make use of new lightweight cameras and sync sound. The film came about about when President Kennedy screened “Primary” and asked Drew what he wanted to do next, to which Drew replied, “to make a film about a President in crisis.” Three years later in the June of 1963, President John Kennedy and his brother Robert were in the midsts of a landmark racial confrontation with Alabama Governor George Wallace over opening the all-white University of Alabama to enrollment by two black students. With never-again-permitted access inside the oval office, we see the President and Attorney General making crucial, time-sensitive, historic decisions.

10. 7-Up Series (Michael Apted, 1964, 1971, 1978, 1985, 1992, 1999, 2007). The 7-Up Series started in 1964 when Granada television interviewed fourteen 7-year-old British children from a variety of social and economic backgrounds. The film was among the first attempts on television to record real people living real lives. Every seven years since, Michael Apted has returned to interview the now-adults about their lives and how they have changed. Titles in the series are: 7-Up, 7 Plus Seven, 21-Up, 28-Up, 35-Up, 42-Up, and 49-Up.

11. Tokyo Olympiad (Kon Ichikawa, 1965). A montage of the 1964 Olympics. A large number of camerapeople captured the event which through editing become cinematic poetry.

12. Bob Dylan: Don’t Look Back (D.A. Pennebaker, 1967). Follows Bob Dylan on his 1965 tour in England. An excellent example of American Direct Cinema offering a glimpse into the private life of Dylan at a time when he is gaining popularity and transforming his style.

13. Monterey Pop (D.A. Pennebaker, 1968). Pure concert film, and the first one of it’s kind, the film that launched the concert film genre and still among the best examples of the genre. The movie is on the DVD The Complete Monterey Pop Festival: Disc 1: Monterey Pop.

14. Salesman (Albert and David Maysles, 1968). This seminal documentary follows four bible salesmen as they travel far from their families across the country selling expensive bibles to housewives who really can’t afford them. One of the finest examples of American cinéma vérité.

15. The Sorrow and the Pity (Marcel Ophüls, 1969), French title: Le Chagrin et la pitié. Ophüls explores the multi-faceted response of the French to occupation during World War II.

16. Land of Silence and Darkness (Werner Herzog, 1971). Who else but Herzog could make a film about people who are deaf and blind through which he explores philosophical issues of communication and knowledge that have engaged philosophers for centuries?

17. Hearts and Minds(Peter Davis, 1974). A documentary about the Vietnam War that premiered at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival, however, distribution in the United States was delayed by legal maneuvering, due to the controversial nature of the film. The title is from a phrase spoken by Lyndon B. Johnson, “the ultimate victory will depend on the hearts and minds of the people who actually live out there.”

18. Harlan County U.S.A. (Barbara Kopple, 1976). Excellent documentary of the 1973 coal miners’ strike against the Eastover Mining Company in Kentucky as the workers try to join the United Mine Workers Association.

19. Gates of Heaven (Errol Morris, 1980). A documentary about the pet cemetery business told through interviews that launched Morris’ career. Among the cast of characters is Floyd “Mac” McClure whose pet cemetery fails and he must dug up and transport hundreds of animals to another pet cemetery. A documentary classic dealing with mortality for which Werner Herzog ate his shoe.

20. The Atomic Cafe (Jayne Loader, Kevin Rafferty, & Pierce Rafferty, 88 min., 1982). Documents a defining period in history and presents a chilling and humorous look at cold-war era paranoia in the United States through newsreel footage, government archives, military training films, etc.

21. Burden of Dreams (Les Blank, 1982). One of the best making-of/behind-the-scenes documentaries ever made. Essential viewing.

22. Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio, 1982). With stunning photography and a score by Phillip Glass, the film presents a prophetic indictment of western culture. The title is taken from the Hopi language,meaning “life out of balance,” Reggio, a filmmaker deeply involved in progressive political causes, states in Essence of Life, a documentary film available on the DVD edition of Koyaanisqatsi, “It’s not that we use technology, we live technology. Technology has become as ubiquitous as the air we breathe, so we are no longer conscious of its presence. So what I decided to do in making these films is to rip out all the foreground of a traditional film—the foreground being the actors, the characterization, the plot, the story—I tried to take the background, all of that that’s just supported like wallpaper, move that up into the foreground, make that the subject, ennoble it with the virtues of portraiture, and make that the presence.”

23. The Times of Harvey Milk (Rob Epstein, 1984). Not only a compelling story, but an example of excellent structuring and documentary editing. Recently made into a feature film, offering another interesting opportunity for comparing and contrasting the narrative and documentary versions of this story.

24. This is Spinal Tap (Rob Reiner, 1984). A classic, among the best examples of the mocumentary genre.

25. Shoah (Claude Lanzmann, 1985). Survivors, witnesses, and former Nazis talk about the events of the Holocaust. Lanzmann does not use reenactments nor historical footage, instead, uses only interviews and visits to the various places his interviewees discuss. Not only is this compelling storytelling, but demonstrates the awesome power of good interviews (along with The Last Days).

26. Seventeen (Joel DeMott and Jeff Kreines, 1985). A fine example of American direct cinema, and while not as well known as the classics (e.g. Salesmen), it deserves a place among them. The project was originally designed to be part of a series (conceived by Peter Davis) as one of six television documentaries under the collective title of ‘”Middletown.” Five of the films were broadcast by PBS in 1982, but Seventeen was excluded, probably due to its raw, honest, observational approach looking at teenage life in America including strong language, drinking, drugs, a romance between a seventeen year old white girl and a young black man, and no artificial plot or crisis structure. And yet these qualities—which led PBS to not show the film—are exactly what makes Seventeen a unique and honest portrayal.

27. Sherman’s March (Ross McElwee, 1986). McElwee originally received funding to document General William Sherman’s effect on the South. But before he start the project, his girlfriend leaves him, and his journey through the South becomes personal as he meets several women in his travels and examines his own life rather than that of General Sherman’s, fueled the the personal documentary movement

28. The Thin Blue Line (Errol Morris, 1988). Morris has a unique style all his own. When most people do re-creations it’s pretty much the documentary equivalent of Velveeta cheese, however, when Morris does re-creations, it’s in the category of cinematic art, pushing the boundaries of what we consider is, and is not, a documentary film and providing the genre with some of the best examples of John Grierson’s quixotic definition of documentary as “the creative treatment of actuality.”

29. For All Mankind (Al Reinert, 1989). Reinert documents the Apollo space program with a focus on the human aspects of the missions. Rather than use voice-over narration, the film presents us with the voices of the astronauts and mission control personnel. A score by Brian Eno sets the emotional tone.

30. Tongues Untied (Marlon Riggs, 1989). Poetically celebrates the difficult life of gay black men who must deal with double discrimination in terms of race and homophobia. The film is available on the POV 20th anniversary collection DVD along with other documentary classics like Silverlake Life: The View from Here, Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision, Regret to Inform, and many others.

31. Notebook on Cities and Clothes (Wim Wenders), 1989. A cinematic essay on film vs. video by way of fashion design. Wenders was invited by the Georges Pompidou Centre to make a film in the context of fashion and the result is this unusual documentary made from a mix of 16mm and video materials exploring the work of Japanese fashion designer Yohji Yamamoto. Wenders follows the designer from Tokyo to Paris as the designer prepares for Yamamoto’s latest showing. Through dialog with the designer and his own musings, Wenders offers a mélange of reflections on the ephemeral nature of fashion and the essential differences between shooting on film vs. video.

32. Roger & Me (Michael Moore, 1989). I have serious issues with Moore’s documentary ethics. Moore pioneers a new form of rhetorical documentary that places the demands of entertainment and the director’s thesis over discourse and facts, and while I would not argue that it’s not a documentary, it’s not in he same league of documentary as Barbara Kopple’s American Dream.

33. American Dream (Barbara Kopple, 1990). A good example of a respectful filmmaker-subject relationship, the antithesis of Moore’s style as exemplified in Roger & Me.

34. Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse (Fax Bahr, George Hickenlooper, and Eleanor Coppola, 1991). A film about the making of Apocalypse Now and among the best “making of” documentaries.

35. Madonna: Truth or Dare (Alek Keshishian and Mark Aldo Miceli, 1991). An entertaining documentary about Madonna’s persona behind the scenes shot during her “Blond Ambition” tour. A great deal of 16mm black and white film flowed as Madonna performed for the camera, including a famous scene with a coke bottle.

36. In the Shadow of the Stars (Allie Light and Irving Saraf, 1991). An affectionate look at the path to stardom inside the world of opera. In a refreshing twist, the filmmakers focus on the singers who stand “in the shadows” behind the divas and sheds light on the lure of celebrity and offers a privileged look into the world of opera. The opening sequence is beautiful.

37. Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick, 1992). The film presents Noam Chomsky’s ideas through interviews, stock footage and illustrations in a manner suitable to a new generation that does not read and prefers to watch.

38. Man Bites Dog (Remy Belvaux & Benoit Poelvoorde, 1992, French title: C’est arrivé près de chez vous). A mockumentary that takes a satirical look at how media promotes violence as a documentary crew follows a serial killer on his murderous activities.

39. Visions of Light (Arnold Glassman, Todd McCarthy, and Stuart Samuels, 1992). Interviews with cinematographers are inter-cut with beautiful clips from their films as they discuss the art and craft of cinematography. The interviews were shot in High Definition video in an attempt to demonstrate that high definition video was ready to be taken seriously as a tool for cinematography. It would take another ten years before that became true.

40. Silverlake Life: The View from Here (Tom Joslin & Peter Friedman, 1993). A personal diary that addresses the issue of living with AIDS and the acceptance of gay couples by their family, among the new crop of films shot on Hi8 (at the time) that helped open up distribution to documentaries shot on prosumer video formats.

41. The War Room (Chris Hegedus & D.A. Pennebaker, 1993). An behind-the-scenes look at Clinton campaign headquarters where George Stephanopoulous and James Carville perfected the art making the news cycle work for them.

42. Hoop Dreams (Steve James, 1994). This well crafted film shot over several years follows two boys from inner-city Chicago with dreams of becoming basketball stars. We follow them through high school and some of their college years as they win scholarships and face obstacles along the way. Among the first wave of documentaries shot on miniDV that achieved theatrical release, once and for all removing the stigma of shooting on video rather than film.

43. Crumb (Terry Zwigoff, 1994). A wonderfully done and intimate portrait of Robert Crumb, the comic book artist known for his biting social criticism through comics like “Mr. Natural” and “Fritz the Cat.” Over a six year period, Crumb allowed Zwigoff access to his family, friends, ex-wife, and former lovers.

44. Fear of a Black Hat (Rusty Cundieff, 1994). A mockumentary on the evolution and state of American hip hop music in the spirit of This is Spinal Tap. Rusty Cundieff, the director and writer also was the lead actor (Ice Cold).

45. Maya Lin: A Strong Clear Vision (Freida Lee Mock, 1995). About the life of American artist Maya Lin, whose best-known work is the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

46. When We Were Kings (Leon Gast, 1996). A documentary about the “Rumble in the Jungle” heavyweight match between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman held in what was then called Zaire in 1974, capturing the run-up to the fight, the controversy surrounding the event. A wonderfully crafted film.

47. Little Dieter Needs to Fly (Werner Herzog, 1997). This film tells the story of Dieter Dengler, Vietnam veteran who grew up in a Germany. Dengler recalls an early memory of American fighter-bombers destroying his village in which he saw one of the pilots and from that day forward he had to be a pilot. He eventually became a U.S. Navy pilot and while flying in Vietnam he was forced to make a crash landing in Laos. He was captured and became a prisoner of war. Eventually Dengler escaped. For the film Dengler returns to Laos and Thailand with Herzog in order to recreate his experiences. A character based documentary done in a manner only Herzog could make. But wait, there’s more. Herzog also made a fiction film based on the story titled Rescue Dawn, providing an opportunity to reflect on the differences between documentary and narrative filmmaking (especially since Herzog often makes documentaries with narrative elements as well as narratives with documentary elements).

48. Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control (Errol Morris, 1997). Presents the profiles of four men with intense passion for their chosen careers: a robotics scientist, a mole-rat expert, a lion tamer, and a topiary artist. As he did in “First Person” and “The Fog of War,” Morris used the “interrortron” to film the interviews in the film.

49. Four Little Girls (Spike Lee, 1997). On September 15, 1963, a bomb destroyed a black church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls. The crime became a defining moment in the American civil-rights movement. This film tells the story of the bombing through testimonials from members of the victims’ families along with interviews with others, including George Wallace, the former Alabama Governor.

50. The Last Days (James Moll, 1998). There have been many documentaries made about the Holocaust, however, The Last Days is among the best (along with Shoah). Rather than telling the story with archival images and narration (which provides viewers a safe intellectual distance), this film presents personal stories that puts in sharp relief the evil of the Holocaust. From a documentary maker’s perspective, an example of the power of well crafted interviews is evident.

51. Buena Vista Social Club (Wim Wenders, 1999). A poetic documentary wherein guitarist Ry Cooder gathers together twelve legendary musicians and resurrects the music of pre-revolutionary Cuba for a series of recording sessions and performances. A variety of performances and observational footage are inter-cut with interviews of the musicians reminiscing in a backdrop of a decaying but colorful Havana. The lush and colorful images were captured using a mix of miniDV and Digital Betacam in the PAL format, helping to de-stigmatize the use of video for films destined for theatrical release.

52. American Movie (Chris Smith, 1999). Smith documents a filmmaker’s attempt to make an independently produced horror film, capturing wonderfully the painful truth about independent filmmaking.

53. This Is What Democracy Looks Like (Jill Friedberg & Rick Rowley, 2000). Edited from footage shot by over a hundred media activists, this film presents a political and emotional account the 1999 WTO protests in Seattle. An important example of the power of collaborative filmmaking. Presents a unique point of view made possible by weaving together footage from a hundred cameras. A glimpse of the future of documentary film made possible by collaboration on a grand scale.

54. In the Mirror of Maya Deren (Martina Kudlácek, 2002). A beautifully crafted portrait that weaves together fascinating interviews with Deren’s poetic images. Maya Deren, along with Stan Brakhage, is among the most important filmmakers of the American avant-garde. Kudlácek demonstrates Deren’s contributions to cinematography, editing, and how filmmakers discuss their work.

55. Bowling for Columbine (Michael Moore, 2002). This film, like “Roger & Me,” raises questions about documentary ethics. The film is full of deceptive editing that twists and stretches the truth, yet through his storytelling skills, Moore, like a good magician, hides the mechanisms behind the tricks, resulting in a compelling argument that appeals to the emotions, but falls apart during the fact checking process. Moore unwittingly offers right-wing fanatics fodder for discrediting leftist arguments.

56. Capturing the Friedmans (Andrew Jarecki, 2003). In the words of Roger Ebert, “an instructive lesson about the elusiveness of facts.”

57. The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill (Judy Irving, 2003). Delightful story of a modern-day St Francis and his relationship with a flock of wild parrots in San Francisco. Beautifully shot on 16mm film, it’s not only a great story, but a feast for the eyes, the soft image with rich colors does justice to the story.

58. My Architect: A Son’s Journey (Nathaniel Kahn, 2003). Nathaniel Kahn examines in a cool, understated, and respectful manner the life and work of his father, architect Louis Kahn, whose work included innovative buildings including the Yale University Art Gallery, Phillips Exeter Academy Library in Exeter, New Hampshire, Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas, Salk Institute in La Jolla, California, and the Parliament and Capitol Buildings in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Ironically, the senior Kahn left the world broke and mostly in obscurity despite being among the most innovative architects of his time weaving a distinctive personal vision and the international style.

59. Earthlings (Shaun Monson, 2003). A provocative examination of our dependence on and relationship to animals. The film examines how the food, medical, and entertainment industries use animals and how they are linked to the global economy. The film challenges our overall lack of respect for animals with searing facts and harrowing images. Joaquin Phoenix narrates.

60. Super Size Me (Morgan Spurlock, 2004). An excellent example of a personal documentary in which Spurlock documents thirty days during which he eats only fast food from McDonald’s. This diet has a drastic effect on his health. The film offers an entertaining and cleverly constructed reflection on the fast food industry and bad nutrition. Spurlock gained 24 pounds during the thirty days which in turn took fourteen months for him to lose. A model of activist and personal filmmaking coming together.

61. Born into Brothels (Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman, 2004). A portrait of children of prostitutes living in Calcutta’s red-light district, a slickly produced documentary with beautiful images.

62. Control Room (Jehane Noujaim, 2004) A fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the media’s vital role in manufacturing history. In the early days of the war in Iraq, Americans could see on their televisions twenty-four hours coverage of the war and observe a “U.S. victory.” At the same time, a different story was being played out on television sets throughout the Arab world as Al-Jazeera broadcast images of Iraqi civilian casualties and American POWs (both taboo on American media, so much for the so-called liberal media).

63. Grizzly Man (Wener Herzog, 2005). Herzog explores what he calls “the ecstasy of truth” in this documentary that reflects on the life and death of Timothy Treadwell, a serious bear enthusiast. Combines interviews with people who knew Treadwell and Treadwell’s own footage of his interactions with grizzly bears before he and his girlfriend were killed (and partially eaten) by a bear in 2003.

64. Who Killed the Electric Car? (Christopher Paine, 2006). A well structured, informative, and entertaining documentary in the form of a whodunnit. Recounts the story of the EV-1, an electric car that General Motors introduced in California and then suddenly pulled off the road, crushing most of them, much to the dismay of drivers who loved the car. The California Air Resources Board passed the Zero Emission Vehicle mandate in 1990, providing an incentive for GM to introduce the EV-1 into the California automobile market. The mandate was eventually reversed after suits were bought by automobile manufacturers and the oil industry who feared losing out on profit from the oil-fueled transportation monopoly. The film also presents a critical look at hydrogen vehicles and a positive discussion of plug-in hybrids.

65. Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman (Jennifer Fox, 2006). An amazing six-hour, six-part, documentary of epic proportions in which we follow the filmmaker as she travels around the world asking her women friends how they construct and imagine their lives as she struggles to figure out her own. In her attempt to capture how women talk, Fox filmed her conversations with friends using a technique she calls “passing the camera.” Read my post on the film, “Flying takes documentary form to new heights.”

66. Operation Filmmaker (Nina Davenport, 2007). An insightful look at the filmmaker-subject relationship. Read my review of the film, “Operation Filmmaker offers crisp angle on subject-filmmaker relationship.”

67. Intimidad (David Redmon & Ashley Sabin, 2008). A beautiful film that weaves together a mix of home movie, cinéma vérité, and informal interview footage to present a gently observed portrait of Cecy and Camilo Ramirez and their daughter Loida, a hard-working young family living in Reynosa, Mexico. Read my interview with the filmmakers for more about the film and how it was made.

That’s it for now. There are many important classics missing from this list, but in many cases (e.g. “Chronicle of a Summer” and “Eyes on the Prize” to name just two) films missing from this list are not available through Netflix. I’ll be expanding this list over time and will eventually post a revised list of one hundred excellent documentaries available either through Netflix or online. Your comments are most welcome.

Image credit:

Flying investigates these conversations, in a manner that is, in Fox’s words, “intensely interested in the two-way conversation women have and the horizontal nature of it. I had decide that I couldn’t ask other women to be intimate if I was willing to share and put myself on the line equally.” And thus she began to experiment with “passing the camera” back and forth with her friends, “almost like a traditional talk stick, except the person talking didn’t have the camera, the person being the witness held the camera [...] we just ‘passed the camera’ back and forth in conversation.”

Fox found that the technique created some powerful effects in the people involved in the process, “it seemed to immediately make people relax because they were not put on the spot alone, but also the technique is so simple and the camera so small [that the] camera actually becomes part of the conversation.” Flying is highly personal, however, it did not start out that way. Through the process of making the film, Fox realized she has to put more of herself into the film, “as filmmakers, we cut interesting stories that occur between the filmmaker and the subjects out, or we don’t film those moments.” But she could not do that in this film, knowing that, “in order to make a film about women’s intimate lives, I couldn’t pretend that I was not in the picture, I couldn’t pretend that I knew nothing about the subject, how could I ask women to tell me about their intimate life if I wasn’t willing to put my own private life on the line?”

Fox began shooting Flying in 2002 and ended up with 1,600 hours of video, which took an additional year and a half to edit. The result is a personal journey to discover what it means to be a woman today. It’s nice to watch a documentary that is as long as it needs to be, rather than shoehorned into a standard broadcast slot of 60, 90, or 120 minutes. Flying provides a depth of experience that is very rare in documentary cinema. I watched the film when it first came out and recently recommended it to my documentary students (since I only had time to show a short clip in class). The response of those who watched it was resoundingly positive. I hope more documentary filmmakers will consider breaking the boundaries of traditional broadcast time slots and make documentaries as long as they need to be. Flying proves that there’s a place for long form documentary in our increasingly diverse media ecology.

Note: The quotes in this post are from an interview with Jennifer Fox by Alice Apley and I conducted at MassArt in Boston on April 18, 2008 when Fox was in town for a screening of Flying at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Image Credits: 1. Photo by David Tames, 2. Photo courtesy of Zohe Film Productions.

HERSKOVITS AT THE HEART OF BLACKNESS, 57 minutes, 2009, Produced by Llewellyn Smith, Vincent Brown and Christine Herbes-Sommers, a co-production of Vital Pictures and the Independent Television Service (ITVS), Executive Producer for ITVS Sally Jo Fifer.

For readers in the Boston area, HERSKOVITS AT THE HEART OF BLACKNESS screens as part of the Roxbury Film Festival on Saturday, August 1st, 2009 at 3:30 PM at Wentworth University. It’s currently making the rounds at film festivals, so you should be able to catch it soon in your area. It will also screen on PBS stations as part of the Independent Lens 2009-2010 season. An institutional and educational DVD edition (see link below) is available from California Newsreel. I think that every library and school should consider adding this film to their collection.

Links:

• Trailer on YouTube
• Roxbury Film Festival Site
• Purchase Tickets for Roxbury Film Festival screening on August 1, 2009
• California Newsreel
• Vital Pictures

Later the same day at 4:15pm my new short, Smile Boston Project, screens at the Music Hall along with Front Wards, Back Wards. Hope to see you there!

This weekend my short documentary, Smile Boston Project, (which won Best Short Documentary at the Woods Hole Film Festival) joins a slate of wonderful documentaries screening at the Newburyport Documentary Festival. Check out the schedule, if you live in the area, consider a day trip on Saturday or Sunday to catch some of the wonderful documentary films screening this year. On Saturday night the festival is screening Beth Murphy’s Beyond Belief, which won Best Film at the Woods Hole Film Festival. On Sunday afternoon at 1:45pm Smile Boston Project screens along with Steven Delano’s No Bigger Than A Minute, which premiered in October 2006 on PBS. There will be a Q&A following the screening. Then at 4pm Bren Bataclan (the subject of my film) and I will be at a reception at A Hog On Ice Gallery. If you plan to come to any of the screenings, I suggest you purchase tickets in advance, many of the films are expected to sell out, and opening night on Friday is already sold out.

Summertime is gazpacho time. This cold soup is popular in Spain’s Andalusia during the summer and when Alice and I were there for our honeymoon, I gained an appreciation for it. The soup has its origins in ancient Andalusian cuisine as a mixture of stale bread, garlic, olive oil, salt, and vinegar. It is not always easy to find a flavorful yet subtle gazpacho here in the states, I was once served a bowl at James Gate that tasted like salsa pored right out of an industrial sized container. The best way, by far, to experience good gazpacho is to make it yourself from fresh vine ripened tomatoes in season. Here’s my recipe.

Ingredients:

• 4 or 5 Medium tomatoes, vine ripened or fresh local produce as available
• 3 Garlic cloves
• 1 Roasted red pepper
• 1 Green pepper
• 1 Cucumber
• 6 Tsp. Red wine vinegar
• 6 Tsp. Extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Tsp. salt
• 2 or 3 Eggs

Preparation:

Roast the red pepper over a grille and remove the skin (or purchase ready-made in a bottle) and place in blender; Dip tomatoes in boiling water to ease the removal of skins, cut into small pieces, and place in blender; Using the same boiling water, make two or three hard boiled eggs (12 minutes), once cooked, place eggs in ice water to cool, peel and slice right before serving; Put garlic through garlic press (or chop very fine) and place in blender; Slice cucumber and green pepper and place in blender; Pour red wine vinegar, salt, and olive oil in blender; Blend to perfection, taste, and add a tiny bit of additional vinegar or salt if needed (depends on the nature of tomatoes used); Place blender pitcher in refrigerator until ready to serve; Serve in chilled bowls, garnish with three thin slices of hard boiled eggs.

While tomato is an important ingredient in many variations of gazpacho, tomato need not be used, for example, white gazpacho is made with almonds, bread, garlic, vinegar and olive oil. Gazpacho is often accompanied on the side by hard boiled egg as well as other garnishes including Serrano ham, chopped onion, or parsley.

Most entries in this blog have one thing or another to do with media or film, so where’s the connection here? In Pedro Almodovar’s film, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, a pitcher of gazpacho provides quite a few laughs, so I suggest preparing a blender full of cold gazpacho, invite some friends over, and put on this movie for a perfect cold soup and a movie experience, however, I’m not suggesting the addition of a sedative to the soup as depicted in the film. In the photo the soup is accompanied with two tapas based on leftovers from a meal Alice prepared the night before, grilled zucchini and squash, and grilled shrimp on a bed of wild rice medley. As Werner Herzog said in Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe, “I’m quite convinced that cooking is the only alternative to filmmaking.”

Behind the Rhyme: A Hip Hop Documentary - Conducted over the period of two years in the city of Boston, this film is a collection of interviews and performances providing a look behind the scenes of lifestyles, concepts, and expression of hip-hop culture.

Bourbon – Frank and Joe, a couple of low rent gangsters, hatch a plan to make it big by trafficking drugs cross-country. But when Joe gets greedy and brings on his pal Vince to do his errands, things go bad and everything comes crashing down…

Hidden Wounds - Psychological wounds suffered by veterans returning from war may be as hard to overcome as the physical injuries of combat. Through three disturbing portraits of Iraq veterans, this powerful documentary highlights the issue of post-traumatic stress disorder, estimated to affect as many as one in five soldiers returning from Iraq.

Make Levee Not War – Plymouth filmmaker Ted Maguire’s short film about the effects of Hurricane Katrina in support of the ongoing recovery. Interviews and comparison maps of the Boston area to the devastated regions are used to help the audience better relate.

No Match – Plymouth resident and doctor at Jordan Hospital, Peter Pillitteri produced this short film about addition. When a busy photographer cannot find a match to light his cigarette, his day is substantially disrupted. Ordinary events taunt and entice him. His need for a smoke becomes desperate.

Remembering John Marshall - A portrait of filmmaker and activist John Kennedy Marshall who began his career in the 1950s documenting the lives of the Ju/’hoansi people of Namibia—among the last remaining hunter-gatherers. He made important contributions to cinéma vérité filmmaking and leaves behind an extensive ethnographic film archive including over 20 films on the Ju/’hoansi.

The Plymouth Independent Film Festival (July 18-22) kicks off with its opening night reception on Wednesday, July 18 at 7pm at the Memorial Hall Blue Room. Live Cuban band, hors d’oeuvres. $50/$75 (supporter level). Celebrate film at the Awards Night, Saturday, July 21 at John Caver Inn, 7pm. $25/$40 supporter level. Includes appetizers. For more information on PIFF and a complete listing of films visit www.plyfilmfest.org

Download the Binta-RJM-Slim NIFF Flyer (PDF, 1 MB).

REMEMBERING JOHN MARSHALL (Alice Apley & Dave Tamês, 16 min, DV, 2006) Remembering John Marshall weaves together photographs, film clips, archival footage, and interviews with family, friends, and colleagues to present a brief portrait of John Kennedy Marshall (1932-2005) who spent fifty years documenting the lives of the Ju/’hoansi people of Namibia. Marshall began his filming in 1951 and in the 1980s became an activist helping the Ju/’hoansi fight for their land and water rights. Marshall produced over 20 films on the Ju’/hoansi beginning with The Hunters (1957) and culminating with A Kalahari Family (2003).

BACK TO BASICS (Minou Norouzi, 5 min, DV, 2002) A portrait of several Somali women living in London, centered around the “Back to Basics” arts and crafts program that empowers these women trying to understand their place in a culture very different from their own.

GLASS SHRIMP (Minou Norouzi, 14 min, DV, 2003) The London-based collective gLASSsHRiMP publishes a magazine, promotes club nights, and presents a weekly radio show. The film shows some of the independent musicians and performers, including a controversial, nude performance piece about Mary Magdalene.

MURIEL (Kim Romano, 21 min, DV, 2006) Through quirky and sometimes hilarious anecdotes, a Jewish New Yorker living in Key West reveals her unusual spin on a cheating husband, orgasm, a troubled teenager, mental illness, food, and a bedroom ceiling fan. Muriel describes the relationships she has with her husband; the teenage son he had through an affair; her gay friend; and her grown son with bipolar disorder. Winner of Best Documentary Short at the Woods Hole Film Festival.

Alice and I plan to go down to New York for the screening, if you live in New York and can attend the screening, please join us after the films for a drink and/or a bite.

The film is Havana – The New Art of Making Ruins (2006, German title: “Havana – Die Neue Kunst Ruinen Zu Bauen”) made by German filmmakers Florian Borchmeyer and Matthias Hentschler. It is currently making its run of festivals and will be shown on television in Germany, France, and I hope many other territories as well. Any broadcast buyer looking for programming that is compelling and in HD is sure to fall in love with this timely film (give the recent news events related to Raul and Fidel Castro).

Havana has many ruins and some of the buildings are inhabited. The filmmakers discover beauty and poetry in the ruins through interviews with five residents of the ruins in various states of decay. One of the residents interviewed, Ponte, is a writer who explains his philosophy of the ruins to explain the gradual collapse of the city and Cuba’s political system. The film captures the final moments of these buildings before they are renovated or simply collapse altogether.

The filmmakers knew that Havana – The New Art of Making Ruins needed the resolution and color depth that only a high-end HD camera could provide so they shot for five weeks with a Sony CineAlta HDCAM camera package that included a set of Zeiss DigiPrime lenses. These tools helped them express the sense of place by maintaining texture, color, and detail in the many wide shots and the wide frame interviews. A HDV or DV camera could not have delivered the same experience, and the sensual quality of the film is not only a big-screen phenomenon, the quality translates to the SD DVD version of the project. The filmmakers also made excellent use of ambient sound, weaving the sounds of the city into their beautiful architectural shots as well as the interviews.

Next stop on their festival tour is the Los Angeles Latino Int’l Film Festival, and it should be coming to a festival near you in the future.

One of the films is a short to make up for the epic length of another one of the selections. Ask me tomorrow and my answer will be a different, ask me next year and it will be really different. So here’s the list in chronological order:

• Man with the Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)
• Don’t Look Back (D.A. Pennebaker, 1967)
• Titicut Follies (Frederick Wiseman, 1967)
• Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe (Les Blank, 1979)
• Notebook on Cities and Clothes (Wim Wenders, 1989)
• Dialogues with Madwomen (Allie Light, 1993)
• When We Were Kings (Leon Gast, 1996)
• Buena Vista Social Club (Wim Wenders, 1999)
• A Kalahari Family (John Marshall, 2002)
• Bowling for Columbine (Michael Moore, 2002)

There are so many amazing documentary films, choosing ten is impossible. Here are some notes on each of the films:
 

Man with a Movie Camera
Dziga Vertov, 1929, Russian title, Chelovek s kino-apparatom
 
This classic avant-garde documentary shows a camera person traveling through post-revolution Russia capturing images of everyday life. The protagonist of the film is the collective Russian people in an attempt to show the new socialist society. The film is loosely organized around the cycle of a day with music and editing moving the story along. The film makes explicit the kinds of cinematic manipulation and serves as an encyclopedia of all the techniques Dziga Vertov and his fellow filmmakers had access to at the time including time-lapse, superimposition, cross-fade, etc. The film was way ahead of its time and films like Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio, 1982) are very evocative of The Man with a Movie Camera in terms of the techniques used. I was very much inspired by this film in graduate school and fascinated with the parallels between the way the film was assembled and the research I was doing around multiple point-of-view documentary, it was as if Vertov was telegraphing the future of documentary as well as reflecting the state of cinematic art of his time.

Titicut Follies
Frederick Wiseman, 1967
 
This film provides a scathing look at the poor treatment inmates were receiving from guards, doctors, social workers, and psychiatrists at a prison hospital for the criminally insane in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. John Marshall’s handheld camerawork provides a very intimate portrayal of the events. The film brings up issues of access, privacy, the right-to-know, the role of documentary film in society, you name it. The Commonwealth of Massachusetts sued Wiseman and the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled that the film constituted an invasion of inmate privacy and ordered its withdrawal from circulation. Was it really about Privacy? Or was it the nature of the exposé? The ban on Titicut Follies in Massachusetts was not lifted until 1992.

Don’t Look Back
D.A. Pennebaker, 1967
 
Pennebaker’s camera follows Bob Dylan on his 1965 tour in England. One of the best examples of Direct Cinema (a.k.a. American cinéma-vérité) offering a glimpse into the private life of Dylan at a time when he is gaining popularity and transforming his style. It’s amazing that the agreement between Dylan and Pennebaker to work together to make this film was sealed with a handshake and continues to this day. These days the legal fees required for such an agreement would dwarf the production budget of most cinéma-vérité films.

Werner Herzog Eats His Shoe
Les Blank, 1979
 
A short documentary film in which Blank meets Herzog at the San Francisco airport and then follows him to Chez Panisse where Alice Waters helps Herzog cook his shoe in duck fat. The next day Blank is at the U.C. Theater in Berkeley where Herzog eats a piece of shoe in front of an audience. Why did this happen? Years before Werner Herzog had been talking to a U.C. Berkeley student and encouraged him to be a filmmaker with a unique challenge: he said that if the student ever succeeded in making a film that was shown at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley, he would come back and eat his shoe. The student was Errol Morris who eventually made Gates of Heaven, a documentary about the moving of a pet cemetery. True to his word, Herzog came back to Berkeley and ate his own shoe. In 1982 Blank followed Herzog again, this time to the Amazon jungle to film the making of Fitzcarraldo, which became one of Blank’s most popular films, Burden of Dreams.

Notebook on Cities and Clothes
Wim Wenders, 1989
 
An unusual documentary in which Wenders is invited by the Georges Pompidou Centre to make a film in the context of fashion and the result is a mix of 16mm and video materials exploring the work of Yohji Yamamoto, a Japanese fashion designer. Wenders follows the designer from Tokyo to Paris as the designer prepares for his latest showing. Through dialog with the designer and solo musings, the film offers a mélange of reflections on the ephemeral nature of fashion and the essential differences between shooting on film vs. video. Today this film vs. video discussion may seem tired, but it was a serious ontological concern among filmmakers in the late 80s when the film was made.

Buena Vista Social Club
Wim Wenders, 1999
 
A poetic documentary of guitarist Ry Cooder gathering together twelve legendary musicians and resurrecting the music of pre-revolutionary Cuba for a series of recording sessions and performances. A variety of performances and observational footage are inter-cut with interviews of the musicians reminiscing in a backdrop of a decaying but colorful Havana. The lush and colorful images were captured using a mix of miniDV and Digital Betacam in the PAL format, helping to de-stigmatize the use of video for films destined for theatrical release.

Dialogues with Madwomen
Allie Light, 1993
 
This highly personal documentary explores the idea that a woman who speaks her mind and acts in her own interests must be insane is a myth that goes way back in our society. Light and Saraf present seven “madwomen,” including Light herself, describing their experiences with schizophrenia, manic depression, euphoria, and recovery. Interviews, reenactments, and home movie footage combine to tell each woman’s story and reveal the abuses they experienced under the care of their doctors. The film challenges us to consider that what we sometimes perceive as “madness” is actually a women’s self-expression. Allie Light said, “A lot of people think that madness, so-called, comes out of nowhere. But the film links it up with their environment.” In the same interview she later says, “Somebody once said to me, women are in mental hospitals, and men are in prison.” (quotes from an interview by Gary Morris in Bright Lights Screen Journal, Issue 14, September, 1995).

When We Were Kings
Leon Gast, 1996
 
This film offers perspectives on the complicated story of Muhammad Ali and the 1974 “Rumble in the Jungle” fight between Ali and George Foreman in Zaire that included a concert featuring musicians like B.B King and James Brown. Fight Promoter Don King contracted the two fighters offering each five million for the fight. Zaire’s President Mobutu Sese Seko put up the prize money, hoping that hosting the event would help him create a better image of his dictatorship. Gast provides a contemporary perspective on the fighters, the dictatorship in Zaire, history, politics, Black identity, and the fight through interviews with George Plimpton, Norman Mailer, and Spike Lee. A superbly crafted documentary film.

A Kalahari Family
John Marshall, 2002
 
A five-part, six-hour series documenting fifty years in the lives of the Ju/’hoansi Bushmen of southern Africa, from 1951 to 2000. This ambitious film of epic scope presents a story of how once independent hunter-gatherers experience dispossession, confinement to a homeland, and the chaos of war. Then as hope for Namibian independence and the end of apartheid grows, Ju/’hoansi fight to establish farming communities and reclaim their traditional lands. The series challenges stereotypes of “Primitive Bushmen” with images of development projects initiated by the Ju/’hoansi. Tsamkxao, a Ju/’hoansi, states in the film, “There are two kinds of films. Films that show us in skins are lies. Films that show the truth show us with cattle, with farms, with our own water, making our own plans.”A Kalahari Family documents the Ju/’hoansi’s struggle for self-determination and access to land and water as NGOs, foundations, and aid organizations conspire against them with other ideas that would blast them back into a “plastic stone age.” The film consists of footage that Marshall shot starting in the fifties on family expeditions to the end of the millennium, and it’s interesting to see how Marshall’s camera work, style, and voice evolved as time went by, the technology changed, and his relationship was transformed over time from friend of the Ju/’hoansi in the 50s to an activist helping them fight for land and water rights in the 80s. A rich, deep, and complex story about a group of people and their struggle for self-determination and basic human rights.

Bowling for Columbine
Michael Moore, 2002
 
An exploration of the relationship between guns and violence in the United States. Moore travels around the United States and Canada talking with a variety of people including NRA president Charlton Heston, James Nichols (brother of Oklahoma bombing accomplice Terry Nichols), and members of the Michigan Militia. The film draws the connection between America’s violent society and its role in the world. But more importantly, this film provides a focal point for discussion of documentary filmmaking ethics, as the film is full of deceptive editing that twists and stretches the truth, yet through his storytelling skills, Moore, like a good magician, hides the mechanisms behind the tricks, resulting in a compelling argument that appeals to the emotions, but falls apart during the fact checking process. This film is not a documentary in most senses of the term, but it’s certainly entertaining.

This page was revised on October 18, 2008 (images and slight edits to the text were added)

After a long hiatus I’ve relaunched and renamed my audio podcast. Under the new name of Art Film Talk the podcast will feature conversations on the art, craft, business, and technology of filmmaking. This week’s episode is an interview with Chris Paine, director of Who Killed The Electric Car? recorded during the 15th Woods Hole Film Festival. The film is currently showing in several U.S. theaters. I invite you to listen and subscribe to Art Film Talk, and please let me know what you think.

Arin Crumley and Susan Buice were the guests at the Boston Media Makers meeting today. The talked about their Four Eyed Monsters Video Podcast that started as a tool for promoting their film and now has grown into its own thing. Arin and Susan made many astute observations related to podcasting and how it can help independent filmmakers reach their niche audiences and discussed how they have used MySpace to build an impressive audience for their film and video podcast. The meeting was held at Sweet Finnish in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.

There are a lot of films with the primary goal of entertaining the audience, and then there are others with a loftier goal to motivate social change. Whenever I start to doubt that film and media can have a real effect on communities and can help mobilize people into action, along comes a film that renews my faith in the power of good documentary filmmaking to inspire pople out of their slumber and think. “Favela Rising” is of those films.

More and more films are getting hard to categorize, are they a narrative or documentary? “Favela Rising” raised this question again, and in very interesting ways. As Mike Nichols suggests in his book “Introduction to Documentary,” there are two types of films: documentaries of wish fulfillment, commonly referred to as fiction films, and documentaries of social realities, commonly referred to as documentary films. “Favela Rising” is a film that sits in both camps.

On the one hand the film tells a solid story and shares the aspirations of Anderson Sá, a leader of the AfroReggae cultural movement that exists to counteract the drug violence in a handful of the favlelas in Rio de Janeiro. The film plays a role in creating the myth of Anderson Sá as a leader and co-founder of the movement, without getting into the messy details of too many facts and details. Not that the film should. Anderson Sá’s position as a role model is more important that any mission of documentary purity for specific facts of what actually happened when. The truth lies beyond the fact, and myth is a powerful vehicle for social change.

The film at the same time is a documentary, not a documentary about it’s central character, for that story plays out more like a narrative, but the film is a poweful documentary about the social realities that lead to a third of the population of Rio being abandoned and ignored by the other two thirds. The citizens who live in the favelas are not afforded the same rights as other Brazilian citizens, for them the law is in the hands of teenage drug gangs and the police are accomplices to the drug lords providing arms, looking the other way, and collecting a handsome sum.

This reality is clearly depicted in other films like the documentary “Bus 174” and the narrative “City of God“. While “City of God” is clearly in the narrative camp, “Bus 174″ is clearly in the documentary camp. “Favela Rising” is different from these two films dealing with similar social realities in that it clearly and unapologetically staddles the line between narative and documentary and is better for it.

I suspect that this staddling is one of the reasons for not only the films popularity, but it’s ability to motivate people. The film has caught the attention of the Ford, Hewlett, and Kellog Foundations as an entertainment vehicle that can be used as a device to inspire other communties with parallel problems to look at how they can solve their problems from inside-out using their internal resources. The film has the potential to go way beyond the festival circuit and small audience of documentary film lovers and become an agent for social change.

So, yes, “Favela Rising” is a documentary, and it’s a powerful documentary, because it is both types: a documentary of both wish fulfillment and a documentary of social realities. And as a film, it stands as a potentially more powerful agent of change than it could be if it had followed either the conventions of narrative alone or the conventions of documentary alone. Maybe films like this are bringing to the fore a new mode of documentary, the narrative documentary.

An interview I did with Jeff Zimbalist, co-director of the film, appears in the September issue of NewEnglandFilm.com.