Robinson in Space (1997)

Recommended

UK

Feature Documentary

Writer/Director/Cinematographer: Patrick Keiller

Narrator: Paul Scofield

Following on from the oft delightful London (1994), Keiller’s docu-essay again sees an unseen narrator and his companion, Robinson, setting out on a journey to paint a picture of the state of the nation, this time leaving behind the capital to explore the provinces, seeking out sights of historical interest whilst lamenting modern trends, and whilst it’s just as insightful and informative as its predecessor it is decidedly less witty. Iain.Stott

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London (1994)

Recommended

UK

Feature Documentary

Writer/Director/Cinematographer: Patrick Keiller

Narrator: Paul Scofield

Our narrator, accompanied by his former lover, Robinson, take us on several journeys around London throughout 1992, imparting pithy observations and pessimistic insights about the state of the nation, observing John Major’s re-election, the IRA’s sustained bombing campaign, and numerous other rather depressing events, in Keiller’s delightfully irreverent but decidedly unnerving docu-essay. Iain.Stott

Followed by Robinson in Space (1997)

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4 Little Girls (1997)

Recommended

USA

Feature Documentary

Director: Spike Lee

Cinematographer: Ellen Kuras

Composer: Terence Blanchard

Featuring: The family friends of Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, & Cynthia Wesley, & Arthur Hanes Jr., Wyatt Tee Walker, David J. Vann, Bill Baxley, Rev. Andrew Young, Rev. James Bevel, George Wallace

Spike Lee’s powerfully moving, respectfully sober, and utterly compelling documentary takes as its starting point the bombing of a church in Birmingham, Alabama in 1963 that resulted in the deaths of four adolescent girls who were attending Sunday school, and jumps off from there to examine the local civil rights movement in general, interviewing family, friends, and numerous other relevant parties. Iain.Stott

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The End (2008)

Recommended

USA/Germany

Feature Documentary

Director/Cinematographer: Nicola Collins

Composer: Nick Page

Featuring: Les Falco, Victor Dark, Mickey Goldtooth, Danny Woollard, Roy Shaw, Jimmy Tibbs, Mickey Ganella, Matt Attrell, Bobby Reading, Mickey Taheny, Alan Mortlock

Nicola and Teena Collins’s fascinating, nauseating, and neither glamorising nor judgmental monochrome documentary presents to us a collection of ageing, greying eastend gangsters, villains, and rascals (including their father, Les Falco, as well as numerous of his friends and colleagues), in a series of interviews, allowing them to relate to us (mostly unapologetically) their lives of crime. Iain.Stott

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The Cove (2009)

Not Recommended

USA

Feature Documentary

Director: Louie Psihoyos

Writer: Mark Monroe

Cinematographer: Brook Aitken

Composer: J. Ralph

Featuring: Richard O'Barry, Louie Psihoyos

Although it’s hard to fault the basic sentiment behind the making of this admittedly eye-opening film – a polemical attack on dolphin fishing in Japan, highlighting both the inhumane slaughtering methods employed by the fishermen and the mercury related health risks of its meat – its thriller like structure (complete with blood-splattered finale), its rather manipulative score, and the fact that it was made by American rather than Japanese film-makers (giving it something of a patronising, colonial feel) ensure that the overall effect is somewhat distasteful. Iain.Stott

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Which Way Home (2009)

Highly Recommended

USA

Feature Documentary

Director: Rebecca Cammisa

Cinematographers: Lorenzo Hagerman, Eric Goethals, Rebecca Cammisa

Composers: James Lavino, Alberto Iglesias

Rebecca Cammisa’s remarkable, eye-opening, and deeply moving documentary follows the plights of a number of guardianless Central American child migrants attempting to reach the USA in search of a better life, documenting their precarious train top journeys, detailing their hopes and dreams, and following home those lucky enough to escape with their lives (and the bodies of those not). Iain.Stott

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Temenos (1998)

Recommended

UK

Feature Documentary

Writer/Director: Nina Danino

Cinematographers: David Scott, Nick Gordon Smith

Composer: Pavlo Beznosiuk

Cast: Sainkho Namtchylak, Shelley Hirsch, Catherine Bott, Nina Danino, Vicka Ivankovich, Sr. Anne-Marie Magermans, Fille de la Charité, Paris, Madame André Beco, Sandra das Neves Pereira

Nina Danino presents images of barren landscapes from the scenes of reported sightings of the Virgin Mary – in Banneaux, Fatima, Medjugorje, Gibraltar, Paris, Pellevoisin, and London – scoring them to the vocal stylings of various female vocalists, with occasional readings of accounts of witnesses, in this simultaneously ugly and beautiful, disquieting and calming, and haunting and frustrating experimental film. Iain.Stott

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Waveriders (2008)

Cautiously Recommended

Ireland/UK

Feature Documentary

Director: Joel Conroy

Writers: Joel Conroy, Lauren Davies

Cinematographer: Daniel Trapp

Narrator: Cillian Murphy

Featuring: Kelly Slater, Richard Fitzgerald, Gabe Davies, Chris Malloy, Keith Malloy, Dan Malloy, Rabbit Kekai, Kevin Naughton, Craig Peterson

Joel Conroy presents a diverting and stylish if slightly unfocused look at Irish surfing, from pioneering Irish Hawaiian and Irish Americans to today’s professional and soul surfers on the west coast, mixing standard talking heads, stylised archive, and arresting action footage. Iain.Stott

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The Horse Boy (2009)

Recommended

USA/UK

Feature Documentary

Director/Cinematographer: Michel Orion Scott

Writer: Rupert Isaacson

Composers: Lili Haydn, Kim Carroll

Featuring: Rupert Isaacson, Kristin Neff, Rowan Isaacson, Simon Baron-Cohen, Temple Grandin, Roy Richard Grinker, Tulga, Ghoste

Michel Orion Scott chronicles the seemingly foolish, slightly disturbing, but ultimately rather miraculous journey taken by Rupert Isaacson and Kristin Neff with their autistic son Rowan to Mongolia in search of the healing powers of the country’s renowned shamans, in this eye-opening and somewhat troubling yet decidedly uplifting documentary. Iain.Stott

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An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

Recommended

USA

Feature Documentary

Director: Davis Guggenheim

Cinematographers: Davis Guggenheim, Bob Richman

Composer: Michael Brook

Featuring: Al Gore

The charismatic Al Gore presents his warm, witty, and accessible lecture on the dangers of global warming, captured by the unobtrusive camera of Guggenheim, scored portentously by Brook; with the result being thoroughly compelling, informative, and decidedly worrying. Iain.Stott

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Sleep Furiously (2008)

Highly Recommended

UK

Feature Documentary

Director/Cinematographer: Gideon Koppel

Featuring: The inhabitants and friends of the Trefeurig community

Click for review.

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Young@Heart (2007)

Cautiously Recommended

UK

Feature Documentary

Directors: Stephen Walker, Sally George

Cinematographer: Eddie Marritz

Featuring: The Young@Heart Chorus

Young@Heart is a documentary depicting the build up to a concert, featuring OAPs performing pop and rock songs, concentrating on the rehearsal process; and whilst it benefits greatly from both the often bizarrely incongruent situations and the no-nonsense charm of its subjects, the film-makers’ decidedly exploitative decision to focus upon the oldest and weakest members of the chorus leaves something of an acidulous taste. Iain.Stott

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Triumph of the Will (1935)

Not Recommended

Germany

Feature Documentary

Original Title: Triumph des Willens

Director: Leni Riefenstahl

Writers: Leni Riefenstahl, Walter Ruttmann

Cinematographer: Sepp Allgeier

Although technically dazzling and historically fascinating, Riefenstahl’s propaganda film – documenting the Reich Party Congress of 1934, with its multiple scenes of uniformed drones marching and saluting and lapping up the hate-filled messages of patriotism and obedience spouted at them – leaves something of an acidulous taste. Iain.Stott

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Audition/Talent Competition (1964)

Recommended

Czechoslovakia

Feature Documentary

Original Title: Konkurs

Director: Miloš Forman

Writers: Miloš Forman, Ivan Passer

Cinematographer: Miroslav Ondrícek

Composer: Miroslav Ondrícek

Cast: Jirí Suchý, Jirí Slitr, Marketa Krotka, Ladislav Jakim, Karel Mares, Vladimír Hrabánek, Jaroslava Razova, Vera Kresadlová

Originally conceived and produced as two separate short films, Forman’s (sort-of) feature debut – comprising of beautifully observed documentary footage of musicians and singers of various ages rehearsing (in the first part) and auditioning (in the second part), with some additional scripted interludes – is a fascinating and strangely moving minor-work from the great Czech director. Iain.Stott

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