The Greatest Documentaries the Past Year
'The Eternal Memory', 'Four Daughters', 'Fire Front', 'The Contestant', 'Beyond Utopia', 'Smoke Sauna Sisterhood', 'Beyond Revolutions', 'Take Care of Maya', and more.
I calculate (or fantasise) that my readers are atypical human beings who care about others, and swim in podcasts, audiobooks and documentaries. Consequently (or foolishly), I’m doing another mammoth dive into one of those.
The best documentaries give us insight into a life or culture we don’t know, and create empathy or horror. Some serve as metaphors for our own lives, reawakening past trauma. Some create wonder and consequent hope.
Documentaries have power.
FAVOURITE DOCUMENTARIES 2023/2024
Over the past year, these educated or made me emotional. Often, they did both. Let’s begin with one of the greatest love stories, and the winner of the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance Festival 2023.
The Eternal Memory (Chile)
Four Daughters (Tunisia)
Fire Front (Australia)
20 Days in Mariupol (Ukraine - with caveat at page bottom)
The Contestant (Japan)
Beyond Utopia (USA but North Korea & other Asia)
Take Care of Maya (USA)
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (Estonia)
Iraq's Secret Sex Trade (watch for free)
Film - The Living Record of Our Memory (Spain but English)
Apolonia Apolonia (Denmark set France)
While We Watched (India)
American Symphony (USA)
The Pigeon Tunnel (USA set UK)
Wild Life (USA set Chile)
Between Revolutions (Romania and Iran)
Project Iceman (watch for free)
Israelism (USA)
Unknown: Cave of Bones (South Africa)
The Last Repair Shop (USA - watch for free)
Queen of the Deuce (USA)
The YouTube Effect (USA)
Peace, War and 9/11 (USA - watch for free)
BS High (USA)
Chowchilla (USA)
Million Dollar Pigeons (South Africa)
Billy & Molly: An Otter Love Story (UK)
THOUGHTS ON A FEW
I was deeply moved by 'The Eternal Memory, watching deep love and the loss of it. Over 4 years, director Maite Alberdi videoed Paulina Urrutia caring for Augusto Góngora, her husband being gutted by Alzheimer's.
All disease is a terror, but affects my emotions more when it happens to productive people. Góngora was a famous journalist who bravely distributed news exposing the Chilean dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. I write in the past tense because he died this year.
Pauli, as she's affectionately known, shredded me with her smiles, tears and patience. She’s a winner of television and theatre awards for her acting, and was a minister in the first democratic government. 17 years his junior, she has a lot of life to look forward to, and I hope I get to follow her on the big screen. What a lady!
‘Smoke Sauna Sisterhood’ and ‘Between Revolutions’ are unique and poignant but ‘Four Daughters’ more so. It retells a tragic story in Tunisia by inserting actors into a family as replacement for their missing members. This is as much about meeting radical Islam as it is about a damaged mother and the daughters she loves (and damages). It’s also about healing. I wish I could hug them all.
Ever since experiencing the Great Knysna Fire, I’ve been unable to resist watching fire disaster movies and documentaries. They make me cry. The most powerful is ‘Fire Front’.
‘20 Days in Mariupol’ is propaganda but that doesn’t mean it’s not valuable, or that the director and cameraman aren’t brave.
As with ‘Navalny’, the narrative is that Russia is evil, and we’re manipulated towards that conclusion. We’re visually led to believe that Russia is attacking a Ukrainian city that isn’t fighting back. If that had been the case, Russia would have marched in without a bullet flying or home destroyed. The reality is that Azov Battalion, the neo-Nazi Ukrainian outfit, was fighting from positions among civilians.
I rank the documentary high because people like us are the victims of corporate and political wars. Their suffering is awful and should be acknowledged.
If you want to witness more, find ‘Mariupolis 2’. That’s less spectacular, a fly on the wall of a church basement sheltering daily struggles. Both, of course, fail to mention Russia’s reconstruction of the city.
2022’s ‘House Made of Splinters’ doesn’t need propaganda. It’s an excellent observation of orphaned children in East Ukraine.
‘The Contestant’ is wild. Before reality programs became popular in the West, insane Japanese television put a man in a small room, and told him to survive by entering magazine competitions for food and clothing. Psychological revealing, as much about the audience and producer as the ‘victim’. It’s proof that hardship can be used to recreate ourselves.
What makes an American Jewish teenager think that Israel and Palestine are his or her land? Why do so many Americans volunteer for military service in Israel? Why are 60,000 Americans living in the Occupied Territories, the land stolen from Palestinians? The brave Jews in ‘Israelism’ prove that anti-semitism is wrong, and emphasises that standing against Zionism is right. Get a 24-hr digital rental for $5.
‘Wild Life’ shows what love, passion, courage and money can do to make our world beautiful. Watch when you’re feeling low, so that you can fly high.
THE END IS THE BEGINNING
Others documentaries worth watching include ‘The Bloody Hundredth’ (the real story behind the miniseries ‘Masters of Air’), ‘Last Song From Kabul’, ‘The Thief Collector’, ‘187 Minutes: The January 6th Insurrection’, ‘Scout's Honor: The Secret Files of the Boy Scouts of America’, ‘George Michael - Portrait’, ‘This Is Not Financial Advice’, ‘Against the Tide’, and ‘Murder in Mayfair’.
There are many I haven’t seen that are sure to compete for my applause. Time and availability are factors, so I’ll probably be watching 2023 movies in 2025. Those intentions are ‘King Coal’, ‘To Kill a Tiger’, ‘The King of Wuxia’, ‘Our Body’, ‘Pignorant’, ‘Great Photo, Lovely Life’, 'Kokomo City', ‘The Stroll, ‘Girls State’, 'Judy Blume Forever', ‘Kiss the Future’, ‘All the Eyes’, ‘The Disappearance of Shere Hite’, ‘Islanders’, ‘How to Rob a Bank’, Occupied City’, ‘The First 54 Years’, ‘The Deepest Breath’, ‘Cyndi Lauper - Let the Canary Sing’, ‘You Are Not Alone: Fighting the Wolf Pack’, ‘Lakota Nation Vs. United States’, ‘The Lady of Silence - The Mataviejitas Murders’, ‘Name Me Lawand’, ‘Menus Plaisirs Les Troisgros’, ‘Orlando, My Political Biography’, ‘The Man Will Burn’, ‘My Mercury’, ‘Holy Archipelago’, and ‘Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project’.
Hopefully I deliver a ‘More Greatest Documentaries’ before the year ends.
EXPLORE
Hardly anyone saw my previous lists because I was new to Substack. Thankfully, documentaries don’t die.
On my other substack, I have the best movies of 2023:
Thanks Mike. This'll keep plenty of people occupied. Myself included.
What a nice play list to start my week
Its nice to enjoy art and avoid the world for a while. 🤠