A very influential documentary that was far ahead of its time in both its talking head approach and its LGBT themes, though for few films am I more confident saying “your mileage may vary.”
Category Archives: Documentary
TONGUES UNTIED (1989)
A documentary featuring the voices of Black gay men, which in 1989 was enough almost to turn Washington upside down.
OLYMPIA (1938)
Considered the first great film made about the Olympics, it is also, unfortunately, a highly effective piece of Nazi propaganda.
ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER (1999)
A meticulous documentary that presents a lot of information I didn’t know about the darkest moment in Olympic history.
HOOP DREAMS (1994)
A documentary ostensibly about high school basketball, but possibly about basically all of modern America.
HARLAN COUNTY, USA (1976)
A portrait of a coal mining community in 1970s Kentucky, where the company is king but the locals risk life and limb to unionize, as did the filmmakers to tell their story.
MAN OF ARAN (1934)
A documentary so early it doesn’t know the rules about documentaries, about life at the edge of human existence.
SHOAH (1985)
An absolutely essential first-person historical document about one of the worst events in history.
GATES OF HEAVEN (1978)
A documentary about pet cemeteries and also the meaning of life, maybe low-key one of my all-time favorites.
MAN WITH A MOVIE CAMERA (1929)
This “experiment” shocked contemporary audiences but influenced filmmaking decades after its initial release.
