Harlan County, USA (Kopple, 1976) is still a gut punch some fifty years later. Watching the violent and bloody events unfold as miners strike to be recognized for their union organization, for better wages and more safety measures, and simply to live by the end of their shift, their voices…
When we first see Mona, she is already dead. In Vagabond (1985), Agnès Varda then sets about to reconstruct the last days and weeks of this young woman’s life, as witnessed and retold through the eyes of others. We learn that none of these people really seemed to know Mona,…
Kazuo Hara’s The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On (1987) is a documentary like few others. Watching Kenzo Okuzaki cut a swath through his old squad mates in search of the truth is unsettling, especially as the process intensifies. Is that because he will resort to violence and deception to get…
When they were first tasked with making a documentary about the Bouvier family and their reminiscences of East Hampton, Albert and David Maysles soon realized that they were dealing with some “staunch” characters in Big Edie and Little Edie Bouvier Beale, and that these women would make much more interesting…
I usually seek out documentaries to find a fresh perspective or insight on the film’s subject. When the documentary is about a person, I want to try to understand, to know the person. Part performance, part rehearsal, part behind-the-scenes documentary, Michael Jackson’s This Is It (Ortega, 2009) chronicles the preparations…
John Huston’s Let There Be Light (1946) was the final installment in a trilogy of wartime documentaries produced for the U.S. Army. He set about following a group of soldiers who had experienced severe battle fatigue and were undergoing treatment in a military psychiatric facility for a wide array of…