Get ready for a gross generalization: There are two kinds of documentaries being made today—those about people you know, and those about people you don’t. This spring, plenty of prominent docs about people you know—or many of us know—have hit theaters, from author Philip Roth to tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams. There have also been documentaries featuring people you probably don’t know. What’s the difference between these two types of documentaries? A whole lot, and also not very much. … Read More
Tag Archives: Anthony Kaufman
Docutopia #46: Bumming in China with the New Documentary Movement
China’s New Documentary Movement—which has its own acronym “NDM”—is not exactly new, and nor is it a coherent movement, per se. But for nonfiction connoisseurs, particularly in the U.S. where the films are hardly known outside of scholarly and intellectual circles, NDM serves as a convenient way of bracketing one of the most auspicious and aesthetically daring outpourings of documentary films in recent memory.
Docutopia #44: Plumbing the Depths of Character at Tribeca 2013
During the actual ten days of the Tribeca Film Festival, with its red carpet star sightings—Naomi Watts! Zac Ephron!—and celebrity talks—Ben Stiller! Clint Eastwood!—it’s easy to forget that the fest has become one of the country’s preeminent launching pads for documentary films. Jesus Camp, Taxi to the Dark Side, and Jiro: Dreams of Sushi are among the stellar nonfiction films that have premiered at Tribeca. While these docs might have gotten shorter shrift from the paparazzi, their legacy has endured … Read More
Docutopia #43: Truthiness and Performance in Portrait of Jason and An Oversimplification Of Her Beauty
Made nearly fifty years apart, Shirley Clarke’s newly restored Portrait of Jason and Terence Nance’s An Oversimplification Of Her Beauty share little in outward appearance: the former consists entirely of direct address interviews with a single person in a living room over one night; the latter mixes animation, documentary and fiction in a postmodern mixed-media mélange that spans years. Yet these two unconventional documentaries both reflect an enduring fascination with the nature of truth, and the ways that people perform … Read More
Docutopia #40: For Interpretation—Room 237 and the Subjectivities of Postmodern Docs
It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that critics hailed Rodney Ascher’s Room 237, opening in theaters and on VOD this week, as Sundance 2012′s best documentary. The film is, after all, about critical interpretation. But the multilayered Room 237 is more than just a cinephile’s inside joke—it joins a long list of acclaimed documentaries that focus on the vagaries of truth.
Docutopia: Oscars Docs Rock Public Awareness
Hollywood frequently talks of an “Oscar bump,” in which films that are nominated or win Academy Awards see an increase in ticket sales. But this year’s Oscar docs have achieved something arguably even more important than a box-office boost: they have penetrated the mainstream.
Docutopia #36: Horror Show—Is Leviathan the Scariest Documentary Ever Made?
While the quotidian toil of fishermen may not at first seem comparable to the depicted terrors of global apocalypse or serial killers, Leviathan re-appropriates the aural and visual language of a mainstream horror film, from shaky camerawork and an eerie nocturnal setting to, and above all, the creaking, clanking, crashing and other ominous noises on its soundtrack.
