1 of 3
2 of 3
3 of 3
At year’s end documentary movies suffer from a serious case of the bridesmaid blues. While 2014’s greatest cinematic spectacles get cherry-picked among year-end lists or shortlisted for Hollywood’s top awards the world of non-fiction is often overlooked.
Still 2014 has been an especially dynamic year for documentary cinema with everything from a fascinating profile on one of the world’s most beloved Muppets (I Am Big Bird) to a passive 118-minute study of subjects idly ascending a mountainside on a cable car (Manakamana). With the breakthrough of crowdfunding and an array of avenues of distribution (iTunes on-demand) the year’s best docs haven’t just breathed life into 2014’s cinema they’re helping to forward the film movement.
The Overnighters
The Overnighters is a mesmerizing doc that puts the spotlight on a tiny town in North Dakota that suddenly turned into an overpopulated oilpatch boom town but the film’s real resonance lies in a local pastor named Jay Reinke. Against the wishes of his congregation and the townsfolk Reinke converted his church into a crash pad for the influx of workers. But filmmaker Jesse Moss soon uncovers a shocking revelation that raises stunning questions about Reinke hypocrisy of faith and the demons that lie inside everyone. “Jay was extremely open — probably more open than someone ought to be with a camera that shows up in your life” said Moss during an interview in April. “But I think he felt it was an important story to document.”
Citizenfour
Directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Laura Poitras this stirring espionage doc unfolds around infamous whistleblower Edward Snowden and the few days he spent hiding in a Hong Kong hotel to spill the beans about illegal American government surveillance. While many have called Snowden a traitor in Citizenfour the former National Security Agency subcontractor conveys genuine character as he reveals the government’s covert collusion with telecommunications companies and Internet providers to control information of everyday citizens. More importantly the film simplifies the complicated issue of surveillance in the name of security — a freedom that is shrinking with every computer keystroke.
Mistaken for Strangers
Mistaken for Strangers is less a music documentary about Ohio-based indie act The National than it is a comedy of errors about the singer’s brother who slacked his way onto the screen. After Matt Berninger asked his idle 30-something sibling Tom to help out during a year-long tour the inept would-be roadie instead filmed his own reckless lifestyle on the road. It makes for both outrageous farce and a painstaking study of self. “Our motto in the editing room was that anything creative you do is always bad until it’s good” admitted Tom Berninger in an interview earlier this year. “It wasn’t good until it finally got good and then we spent another eight months on it to make it great.”
Rich Hill
Filmmakers Tracy Droz Tragos and Andrew Droz Palermo follow three teens living in squalour in the devastating town of Rich Hill Missouri. Taking a cinema verite approach that allows the audience to see the resiliency of innocent children born into desperate circumstances not only personalizes the hardships of poverty-line Middle America but it also allows the film to truly stir moviegoers’ emotions. “I think it would have been hard to keep our objectivity so ultimately we didn’t” said Tragos in September about her Sundance award-winning feature. “We were able to gain some of the access and intimacy because they knew we weren’t going to be poker-faced when the shit was hitting the fan.”
Other notable docs of 2014:
Particle Fever: A look at the launch of the world’s largest particle collider a.k.a. “the doomsday machine.”
Life Itself: Steve James’ (Hoop Dreams) sentimental hagiography of film critic Roger Ebert.
Point and Shoot: The story of an American that inadvertently becomes a Libyan rebel fighter.
Keep On Keepin’ On: An emotionally affecting look at ailing jazz legend Clark Terry and his mentorship of a blind piano prodigy.
The Internet’s Own Boy: The tragic tale of Aaron Swartz a young computer wunderkind that took his own life under mounting pressure of prosecution by the government.
Steve Gow is creator and writer of StrictlyDocs.com
