We may be living in the golden age of documentaries. they are cheaper to make than animated or live action motion pictures, the proliferation of outlets means there are more possible places to display them, and we live in a target rich era. Here are a few entries that have entertained or enlightened me so far this year.
“Alternate Endings” (HBO) looks at six different people who chose untraditional ways to deal with death and dying. One dispenses with casket and cemetery and choses a biodegradable burial as essentially mulch, another embraces an update of the Viking funeral by having their ashes shot into space. By far the most interesting is a terminal patient who lives in a state that permits assisted suicide. As the end approaches, he carpenters his own coffin with a friend, throws his own farewell gathering for friends and family, says his good-byes, lies down on the couch, takes the prescribed drugs, and quietly slips away. Everyone should have the ability to make such a choice.
“American Factory” (Netflix) is a fascinating story of culture clash at an auto plant near Dayton, Ohio. It is shut down by GM, bought by a Chinese company, retooled to make auto glass, then staffed by locals who must adapt to a far different working experience which includes longer hours, less pay, no unions and unfamiliar mores imposed by Chinese management. Some resist, some protest, some are fired, some survive in an altered, less prosperous reality.
“Minding the Gap” tells the tale of three friends in a Rust Belt City who skateboard, work menial jobs, cope wth dysfunctional families and poor prospects, and try to figure out how to grow up and find a place in the world crumbling around them.
“Maiden” tells the story of the boat of that name and Tracy Edwards, the skipper. She had been a wild teen in England, set out for adventure, became as cook on a sailing ship where she learned the ropes, literally, and at 24 decided she wanted to compete in the Whitbread Round the World Race, something few men had ever done and no women. She assembled a crew of similarly daring women, bought a beat-up boat that they worked to refit and surprised everyone by completing the race in 1989.
It is an amazing tale of luck, grit, and daring. Sponsorship is provided by King Hussein of Jordon who Edwards met by chance in a previous job. The women were mocked by virtually everyone and given no chance of success, yet they captured the imagination of the world. Though they did not win, they came close, and to their surprise were met after each leg by huge crowds on the docks cheering their arrival. Amazing footage from the voyage survived and the result is a thrilling, tear-jerking tribute to can-do women who refuse to believe they have no business playing with the boys.
“The Great Hack” (Netflix) is an alarming look at the Cambridge Analytica scandal that persuades you our data, our elections, and our freedom are at the mercy of unscrupulous cyber-villains, and ought to make Facebook users rethink their use of that tainted platform. It is an uneven picture that devotes too much time to a minor character, but still packs a punch and is worth seeing, the better to understand how forces of malign intent are empowered by technology.
Several biographical docs are worth a look. “Echo in the Canyon” is about one of those moments in history when a bunch of creative people happen to inhabit the same space and their cross-pollination produces magic. In this case it is Laurel Canyon in Los Angeles in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Here are Crosby, Stills, Nash, Young, Judy Collins, Linda Ronstadt, Joni Mitchell, the Beach Boys, Mamas, Papas, Jackson Brown and many more. Jakob Dylan produced, narrates and takes up too much space with a concert of fellow fans playing covers of the original tunes. Still “Echo” is an interesting look at a moment when a California sound was born.
“The Eyes of Orson Welles”(Netflix) is a quirky, personal exploration by a fan of the life of the auteur film maker using newly discovered archival material. It reveals the habitual sketching of Welles which sheds interesting light on the visual sense he brought to bear in his stage and film work.
“Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”(HBO) is a touching look at the life of Fred Rogers who seems to have been too good to be true, yet there he is.
“Deadline Artists” (HBO) concerns two iconic, New York, tough guy, newspaper columnists and proletariate poets —Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hamill. We shall not look upon their like again, especially since the medium they made their own has all but vanished.
“Srpingsteen on Broadway” (Netflix) captures the autobiographical one-man show of the Boss.
“100% Julian Edelman”(SHO) follows a season in the life of the MVP receiver for the New England Patriots and includes a touching look at his family, especially his comically tough and tender relationship with his dad and first coach who kept assuring the diminutive teen-age Edelman that he’d eventually grow big enough to play college and pro ball. It also follows him through a harrowing look at surgery, rehab, and comeback. Not for sissies.
“Country Music” (PBS) is the latest magnum opus by Ken Burns, devoting 16 hours to the origin, rise, various mutations, and triumph of an indigenous American art form — a companion piece to his Jazz. Both of them show these homegrown arts are rich gumbos of various ethnic and historical streams.
Finally, I have previously recommended the remarkable reconstruction by Peter Jackson of World War I footage from the archives of the Imperial War Museum that brought that conflict to surprising, vivid life for the 100th anniversary of the armistice, “They Shall Not Grow Old.” (HBO and Amazon Prime).
Many more documentaries are in my queue this year and others are promised for release in the near future. They include “Memory: The Origins of Alien,” “Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool,” a look at Trump’s mentor in the dark arts of white collar crime — “Where’s My Roy Cohn,” “Western Stars,” another look at Springsteen at work, biodocs on Toni Morrison, Harvey Weinstein, Lucian Freud, Pauline Kael, and Mozart. Something for everyone.