Category Archives: Documentary

About a week ago, Nonfics posted the results of their Best Documentary of 2015 poll. The overall results may be found here.

My list appears at the very end of that article, which I’m reproducing below as well. I’ve restricted my list to nonfiction features that have been officially released in 2015, omitting festival favorites that have not yet been made commercially available as of yet.

Before 2015 fades into memory, here are pointers to what I’ve previously written about my top fifteen docs of the year on what (not) to doc. The films are unranked and in alphabetical order:

ALMOST THERE

AMY

BEST OF ENEMIES

CARTEL LAND

DEMOCRATS

DREAMCATCHER

HEART OF A DOG

IN JACKSON HEIGHTS

LISTEN TO ME MARLON

THE LOOK OF SILENCE

MERU

THE RUSSIAN WOODPECKER

WESTERN

WHAT HAPPENED, MISS SIMONE?

THE WOLFPACK

Coming to PBS tonight, Wednesday, December 30: IN DEFENSE OF FOOD

Michael Schwartz’s adaptation of Michael Pollan’s bestseller about healthy eating had its world premiere at Mill Valley this Fall. The doc has also screened at the Austin, Life Sciences, and Feast on This film fests.

In interviews and a filmed live stage presentation, the likeable Pollan serves as a guide through the minefield of information, misinformation, and marketing that has served to confuse our comprehension of what we should – and shouldn’t eat – for decades, and, consequently, has led to an obesity epidemic and a litany of health problems for consumers of the typical western diet. Early on, he reveals that the solution is surprisingly simple, concisely put as: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.” That’s food, in contrast to what he refers to as heavily processed “foodlike substances;” moderate amounts, rather than fall for super-sized marketing and other more subtle factors; and a vegetable-heavy diet, with meat and other typical staples the exception rather than the rule. The straightforward filmmaking approach, and Pollan’s compelling reasoning, make for an easily digestible, if conventional, public television documentary that might encourage viewers to make some sensible changes in their relationship to food.