The Perfect Neighbor - 1 nomination

 

• Best Documentary Feature: Geeta Gandbhir, Alisa Payne, Nikon Kwantu, Sam Bisbee

If you’re a big fan of true crime, you’ll love this one. A woman lives in a communal area where children run around the yard and play and laugh and live life. She doesn’t love the neighbor kids and she constantly yells at them, throws things at them, and generally harasses them. But over time, she ratchets up the abuse, takes an ipad, and over and over again, their parents come to ask her to stop overstepping. These are, after all, children playing in the yard - not at 2 a.m. but whenever they were outside. And at some point, one of the moms goes over to talk, and she pulls a gun and kills her. This being a “stand your ground” state, she figures she can claim that she was afraid and get away with wielding a deadly weapon and murdering a neighbor without consequence.

This excellent documentary asks us to think about what justice means, how communities come together and support one another, and the difficult conversation about race and what people assume they will and won’t get away with. Even if you doubt any disparity in the justice system for different people, you have to ask the question, why might I be nervous that a murderer won’t be held accountable in a situation like this?

Mr. Nobody Against Putin - 1 Nomination

 

• Best Documentary Feature: Helle Faber, Alzbeta Karaskova, Pavel Talankin, David Borenstein

Victor Abakumov is a beloved teacher in a small town in Russia. The kids hang out in his office. The “weirdos” find their place and their voice with him. He is one of those teachers who goes the extra mile because he genuinely loves what he does and the children under his care. But he is not a fan of Putin’s and proudly hangs the flag of resistance in his office. When his job is slowly taken over by near constant filming of teachers and uploading them so that the state can make sure that teachers are teaching a pro-Russian curriculum (obviously full of insane revisionist history), he becomes more and more disillusioned and in more and more personal danger. He volunteers to discreetly smuggle all of his footage of the propagandizing out to journalists in England, and that is primarily how this footage becomes a documentary film. Along the way, he sets up personal testimonies about loving Russia but hating the war, hating the administration and Putin, and dearly hoping that someone will come along to intervene, and hoping that the children he cared so much about will stop being recruited to fight and die in the Ukranian war. (In America, I guess some people would call that, “love it or leave it” though so far in this country, we are rarely jailed and murdered by the state for having opposing views.)

We can see this teacher’s heart breaking as he gets deeper and deeper and clearer and clearer that his only path forward is out. It is an edge of your seat movie, but also so emotional and raw, and frankly, just a bit on the scary side as we see what happens at the endpoint of authoritarianism. Instructive on multiple levels if the brain can accept any form of nuance, and perhaps a must see for a lesson in how those who dabble as authoritarians ultimately become when they succeed.

Cutting Through Rocks - 1 Nomination

 

• Best Documentary Feature: Sara Khaki,Mohammadreza Eyni

This film was completely unexpected. Sara Shahverdi is a different kind of woman living in a small town in Iran with a big family and an incredible work ethic. She runs for city council and not only does she win (the only woman in the entire list of 200 council members across all of Iran), she gets the highest number of votes, which also entitles her to the community’s stamp. She spends her days helping people, stamping legal documents, managing construction, riding her motorcycle and busting gender roles. This is not always welcome in her community, but her strong will and her ability to win people over are incredibly inspiring. Her personal crusade is not only to make people’s lives better, but specifically to help girls be safe, be educated, and to do more with their lives than they ever thought they could (and certainly more than getting married at age 10, 12, 15). What a warrior. But not everyone is on board with her ideas, and suddenly the state accuses her of having too much masculine energy and puts her under review, whose final outcome could be forced gender reassignment surgery. But don’t worry, Sara would never go down without a fight.

While I have never assumed that things in Iran were great for women, this film gives a deep dive into what communal attitudes are, and what it’s like when women have essentially no say in their own lives. Hardly shocking but certainly tragic, and one wonders how much farther that society would advance if they didn’t disempower literally half of their brain trust. What a fantastic documentary well worthy of your time.

Come See Me in the Good Light - 1 Nomination

 

• Best Documentary Feature: Ryan White, Jessica Hargrave, Tig Notaro, Stef Willen

If you know me really well, you know the true delight I feel being able to congratulate genius comedian Tig Notaro on an Oscar nomination. So that alone was enough for me to be excited about this film, but then to meet and really learn about poet Andrea Gibson was the win of watching this film. Facing a difficult cancer, following her through the ups and downs of tumors shrinking then growing, seeing her manage her own grief but also experience that of her wife, and what it is to finish out one’s life while still having goals and joys and experiences - this film captures what sucks about dying and what is magnificent about living.

When you google Gibson’s poetry, you see beauty and laughter and insight and WOW, what a special human taken far too soon from the world. What I loved the most about this documentary is that it altered the “nearing death” genre and choosing to end the narrative before Andrea died, allowing us and those who knew her to remember her only as the very alive spirit that she was, and shielding us from the aftermath. This was the true brilliance of the documentary - it didn’t make death look easy, it didn’t make Andrea look angelic, but it absolutely made the point of the film to be the impact of life rather than the finality of death.

This was one of my favorite movies of this Oscars season, and I can’t recommend it highly enough. It is available on Apple Plus.

The Alabama Solution - 1 Nomination

 

• Best Documentary Feature: Andrew Jarecki, Charlotte Kaufman

It’s one of the deadliest prison systems in the country, an inauspicious description to be sure, where violence, abuse, neglect, and death is ubiquitous. The film captures a number of stories of the worst kind of incidents, and while anyone would argue that prison is not meant to be summer camp, it is also not meant to be a death camp either. While we can’t know the full account, there are former prison guards who have corroborated some of the accusations, and in at least one case, a family’s pursuit of justice for their son is recounted. But the other fascinating part of this film is the sort of Norma Rae level organizing done from inside this prison where prisoner workers went on strike which spread throughout Alabama and beyond, where incarcerated people demanded better living conditions and better treatment.

Naturally, the Governor refused to accommodate any of the requests and moreover, also failed to investigate any of the accusations - despite the fact that illegal cell phones captured and smuggled out video evidence of the abysmal treatment.

Now here’s the challenge that lays before us, friends.

• It’s hard to find empathy for those who have committed evil acts, and yet should the state on behalf of the people of the state commit evil acts upon those who have committed evil acts to teach them not to commit evil acts?

• The law is the law, breaking the law is bad. Smuggling cell phones into prisons is illegal. Taking video evidence without consent is illegal in some states. What happens when illegal cell phones taking illegal video captures illegal behavior from the people who represent the law and not those breaking the law? Is it possible to keep from having one’s head explode with the conundrum of championing the breaking of the law against people who are jailed for breaking the law? (If that’s not an Ouroboros of a problem, I don’t know what is!)

The bottom line here is that this is an excellent documentary that you should watch. I don’t assume that documentaries always represent the full story nor the full truth, but this documentary does what the best of them do… it inspires us to at least want to learn more and to ask ourselves some hard questions that by any moral person would at least be thought provoking if not outright troubling. If you can live in a simple and happy land where this movie makes you shrug and say, “whatever, they broke the law, they deserved it,” then I hope no one in your orbit ever lands in an Alabama prison. (or any prison, for that matter.)

Documentary Features

 

Black Box Diaries

Shiori Ito, Eric Nyari and Hanna Aqvilin

Journalist and filmmaker Shiori Ito takes her sexual assault by a high profile entertainment professional to the police. They ignore it, bungle it, disbelieve it, even with some video evidence substantiating her claim. As a result of her going public, the entire Japanese justice system is put on trial. If you're not filled with outrage when you watch this excellent and very personal story, take a hard look in the mirror.

No Other Land

Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal and Yuval Abraham

In a shocking turn of events, the Oscars once again nominates a film whose sole purpose is to make Israel look bad. I don't know much about the details of this history, and from the documentary, I would agree that Israel is in the wrong. But why is there never, in the history of stories about Israel at the Oscars, anything about just plain old Israelis living their lives? Nothing about the peace activists who spent every day driving Palestinians to medical appointments but getting slaughtered by those very people? It's so one note that this film barely deserves comment.

Porcelain War

Brendan Bellomo, Slava Leontyev, Aniela Sidorska and Paula DuPre' Pesmen

While most of the people in Ukraine have left with their lives, 2 artists and their many friends (who were not soldiers before the war) stay back to fight as citizen soldiers. One of the artists does have military expertise, and he will train anyone who will help. Watching this juxtaposition of beauty and warfare is jarring and heartbreaking. It sure puts recent comments by certain political "leaders" under a microscope in terms of who are the aggressors and despots.

Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat

Johan Grimonprez, Daan Milius and Rémi Grellety

The strange bedfellows of popular jazz and Congolese politics come together in this long and somewhat meandering documentary. I found it hard to watch despite the incredible line up of jazz greats who spoke up when Patrice Lumumba was essentially dragged from office by the United Nations and the United States. Ironically, Russia is one of the countries to speak up against the interference in sovereign nations. This was not really my favorite, and I think it could have used an editor.

Sugarcane

Julian Brave NoiseCat, Emily Kassie and Kellen Quinn

There is a haunting similarity to the Nickel Boys in this documentary, this time with eyes to the Canadian Indian residential school system, the tyrants who ran these schools and the mysterious disappearance of Native family members. Only to discover that these children were often beaten to death. The ones who survived carry years of painful memories and PTSD. It's a hard one to watch, but excellent.

Documentary Features

 

BOBI WINE: THE PEOPLE'S PRESIDENT: Moses Bwayo, Christopher Sharp and John Battsek

Bobi Wine is a famous musician in Uganda who uses his notoriety to challenge the 35-year term of the nation's President. As with any longterm ruler, President Museveni is corrupt and Wine envisions a better future for the people.  He uses his music to rally the people to courageous stand up for what's right.

THE ETERNAL MEMORY: Maite Alberdi

This film CRUUUUUUUUUSHED me. It follows Augusto, who has Alzheimers, and Paulina, an extraordinary actress who is also Augusto's caretaker. At the beginning of the film it is still early in the progression of the disease, and the sweet, kind, accomplished Augusto still reads and worries with his love about what it will be like when he no longer remembers her and worse, when he no longer remembers himself.  But he seems so robust that you almost don't believe that he will have a severe decline. Yet Alzheimers eventually takes everyone and watching Paulina so beautifully and compassionately love him, even in the times when he has no idea who she is, is heartwarming and heartbreaking at the same time. I sobbed.

FOUR DAUGHTERS: Kaouther Ben Hania and Nadim Cheikhrouha

This was an incredible film in which a woman and her two daughters try to unpack the process by which the older two daughters (who are now in jail) became radicalized and joined ISIS.  In unpacking the past, the filmmaker hires two actresses to play the older daughters in reenactments of the horrors that all four girls had to live through, and we see the impact of constant trauma on the psyches of all four children.

TO KILL A TIGER: Nisha Pahuja, Cornelia Principe and David Oppenheim

A young 13 year old girl is raped by 3 young men in a village in India and somehow, the village takes the side of the boys. Under "normal" rape circumstances, they would require the raper and his victim/survivor to get married, since (and I'm not making this up, this is the language villagers used) the girl now has a "terrible stain on HER." But this young girl's father does the unthinkable and supports his daughter. They report the rape to the police and the case gets international attention.  Very few rapes are reported in India, and I can't tell you how many villagers came to threaten this family for taking this to law enforcement. It is absolutely infuriating, but a shockingly outstanding ending to the film.

20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL: Mstyslav Chernov, Michelle Mizner and Raney Aronson-Rath

I sense that this one is the winner.  These incredibly brave AP reporters stay in Mariupol, Ukraine during the first few days of the war and document and show the world the terrible evil that Putin and Russia are perpetrating on the innocent people there. While Putin lies about not targeting civilians, this small town has tanks blowing up apartment buildings. Pregnant women are under fire in the hospitals. And still the filmmakers capture the footage and broadcast it to the world any chance they get. This film is a punch to the face, but hopefully it will help combat the absurd people who are supporting Russia in this war, and maybe will even soften the hearts of a handful of lawmakers to realize that we MUST support Ukraine in this war.

Navalny - 1 nomination

 

Best Documentary Feature
Daniel Roher 
Odessa Rae 
Diane Becker 
Melanie Miller 
Shane Boris 

Isn't amazing that Vladimir Putin always wins elections to the tune of 99% of the voters? One might assume that he never has any opposition nor anyone else even running for office.  Enter Alexei Navalny. This is a guy who cares about Russia and seeks the overturn of Putin's corrupt government. In 2020 while traveling, he was hospitalized in Germany for poisoning by a nerve agent. While the Russian government did everything they could to prevent Alexei's wife from seeing him, and waiting until the poison had cleared his system to even allow for testing, his wife brought the attention of the world to this abhorrent situation. Once the poisoning was confirmed, a team of journalists went to work to confirm that Putin was the one who ordered it and that Russian scientists were involved.  In one of the greatest scenes in movie history, a scientist is caught on tape confessing to the crime (and never heard from again...) and even the team can't believe it. The thing that is so compelling about this story is how Navalny never gives up. Even when he knows for sure that his personal freedoms are threatened, he returns to Russia again and again. He fully expects to be assassinated, and his message to Russians continues to be that old Edmund Burke line, "The only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world is that good men do nothing."  He, and his family who are along for the ride, are truly modern day heroes. What an incredible film.

A House Made of Splinters - 1 nomination

Best Documentary Feature
Simon Lereng Wilmont
Monica Hellstrøm

Children in Eastern Ukraine are living along the 20 mile line where there is not yet fighting with Russia, and the war hasn't officially begun.  They live in a group home while their parents, mostly raging alcoholics, are working with the courts to determine if the children will be returned to their homes, or moved to a foster home or orphanage.  It appears that most of these kids don't have parents who ever show up even to visit.  The social workers and teachers at the home are amazing, they provide so much love and care, but each child has only 9 months to live at this home at which point they will leave for a different destination. We follow a number of children and their stories, most heartbreaking among them is a child whose two younger siblings are also in the home and at maybe 11 years old, he must take care of them both.  The prospect of separating the three kids is devastating. 

One of the most difficult parts of this film is that these children are seemingly caught in a terrible cycle in which they live without caring parents (or without parents who have the capacity to show their care), then they themselves vow to be better parents or to not have children at all, they themselves become alcoholics, they have kids, and their kids end up in this same group home. And, to finally finish off your tender heart, just as the film is ending, the war is beginning in earnest and all of these children must be evacuated, but as the movie notes, there is no safe place anywhere in Ukraine to take them.

For the first time ever, I'll note how truly perfect the name of this film is. It would be nice to be lulled into the belief that these kids are finally, for the first time, in a stable and joyful home where adults take care of them. But no, this home - this seemingly better home - is one that is made of splinters.  These children don't die and there are no stab wounds.  There are just 1000 tiny cuts, each one damages their souls, if not their skins.

Fire of Love - 1 nomination

 

Best Documentary Feature
Sara Dosa
Shane Boris
Ina Fichman

Katia and Maurice Krafft have one hot marriage! The only husband and wife volcanologists in the business, they spend their lives researching and chasing volcano eruptions, and hopefully this helps them identify warning signs and the things that devastate communities who live nearby.  There's a lot to learn in this film about volcanos, including the fact that there are two types - the red version that has very slow moving lava and can be approached by humans; the other a more grey type that is much more deadly because it moves fast and unpredictably. Katia and Maurice have been everywhere and their adventures are not only fascinating, they produce the most exquisite footage of volcanos that we get to see in the movie - Maurice took years of footage, and most of the film that humans have of volcanos was taken by him at some time.  He was the "official photographer and videographer" of the volcanic world. Watching the film, you almost relax watching these researchers go so close to the raging lava, but ultimately and tragically, the pair is killed doing what they love at the Mount Unzen eruption.

All the Beauty and the Bloodshed - 1 nomination

 

Best Documentary Feature
Laura Poitras
Howard Gertler
John S. Lyons
Nan Goldin
Yoni Golijov

Nan Goldin is a famous photographer with an incredible life story. She's a true Bohemian who has done all the drugs, had all the sex, and had all the fabulous gay best friends anyone could want. She's had every experience in the book, and her biopic is outrageous enough without the addition of her courageous activism. That is, without the true story of the film, there's more than enough for a compelling and outrageous life. But Nan Goldin is not one to rest on her fame and her fortune - having been addicted to Oxycontin herself, she takes up the crusade to hold the Sackler family accountable, and to get others to do so, as well. In particular, she has targeted the prestigious art museums that have received money from the Sacklers, and campaigns ruthlessly with die-ins to remind these high profile places that their donor walls are drenched with the blood of those who died because of the lies Purdue Pharma told about their product not being addictive. Nan and her crew formed P.A.I.N. (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now), and they continue to crusade in favor of holding the family responsible, raising awareness, and especially supporting those who are suffering from this terrible addiction. Nan takes serious personal risk by going up against the art museums which display her pieces, but this woman is not deterred by anything. What an incredible film.

All That Breathes - 1 nomination

 

Best Documentary Feature
Shaunak Sen
Aman Mann
Teddy Leifer

Saud and Nadeem are brothers living in Delhi who have devoted their adult lives to taking care of black kites (birds) who are seemingly falling out of the sky due to increasingly poor air quality in India.  They will go to any lengths, they will risk their personal safety, and they deliver medical care with such kindness and gentility that one has to wonder why this has become their crusade.  They barely sleep, even their families know that their top priority is caring for these birds. They do this against a backdrop of a more and more violent city under changing circumstances that makes their life's work all the more meaningful. Their dream is to open a proper clinic with an open air cage on the rooftop where the birds can rest and recuperate, and one of the brothers applies to veterinary school in the United States so that he can become an even more skilled practitioner.  All That Breathes is an incredible and inspiring documentary - I generally am creeped out by birds, and I couldn't look away.  It's lovely to have an Oscars film that is more heartwarming than sad, especially in the documentary category.

Writing With Fire - 1 nomination

 

Best Documentary Feature
Rintu Thomas
Sushmit Ghosh

Well, this was an incredible film and I've saved one of the best for last! A documentary about women citizen-journalists from the lowest caste in India, the Dalits, the most unlikely of folks to be making such a difference in the world.  These are women who grew up believing that their only option for their futures was a life of poverty and marriage and children.  Watching these women with their incredible determination, as they learn to grow their technical skills (in a time when they perhaps have never held a phone in their hands) and their confidence, is beyond inspiring.  Watching them take on large groups of men trying to intimidate them, taking on corrupt politicians and members of law enforcement, and especially watching them push those with power to do the right thing - it truly reminds you the power of the fourth estate.  This was one of my absolutely favorite movies from this year's Oscars crop.  It's an absolute must-see.

Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) - 1 nomination

 

Best Documentary Feature
Questlove
Joseph Patel
Robert Fyvolent
David Dinerstein

Summer of Soul is Questlove's incredible directorial debut. It takes never before seen footage of the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival and mixes it with interviews from those who attended and those who performed.  The music is incredible, of course.  B.B. King, Stevie Wonder, Nina Simone, Gladys Knight and the Pips, The Fifth Dimension, Mahalia Jackson - all of these and more were on the bill.  While Woodstock was getting all the attention not far away in New York State, the most significant festival in the African American community was attracting tens of thousands.  Yet, somehow the footage of the festival sat in a basement for over 50 years collecting dust, and this is the first time I've even ever heard of the celebration.

The festival was about more than music.  It was about civil rights, income inequality, and injustice of all kinds.  During the festival, NASA landed astronauts on the moon and when concert-goers were asked about it, they reflected that the money could have been better spent helping poor people in Harlem and throughout the country.  Nina Simone sings Young, Gifted and Black and your heart shatters.

This film, surely to be the winner of the documentary category, was a soul shaker.  I cried, I danced, I enjoyed every second.

Attica - 1 nomination

 

Best Documentary Feature
Stanley Nelson
Traci Curry

Attica is the incredibly powerful story of the 1971 inmate uprising at Attica prison.  The conditions in the prison were both environmentally and physically brutal, and the inmates just couldn't take it anymore.  In this brilliant film, those interviewed included former inmates, negotiators, politicians, and family members of guards who were taken hostage.  No feeling person could argue that what the inmates lived through represents anything representing humane and I think it would be harder to argue that the uprising was anything but inevitable.  The involvement of politicians who care more about optics than effectiveness is haunting - in fact, this film reminds us that blowhards who say things like, "just punch that guy in the face" didn't crop up recently.  If this film reminds us anything, it's that when you deprive people of liberty, it must be for a good reason and can't constitute government overreach, and that when you do, you become responsible for the living conditions of the prisoner.  There is much to learn from this incredible documentary.

We're getting close to the big day!  If you want to hear a great podcast episode about the nominees, check out my podcast, 2 Movie Jews.

Ascension - 1 nomination

 

Best Documentary Feature
Jessica Kingdon
Kira Simon-Kennedy
Nathan Truesdell

Now this was a truly fascinating film.  It's starts are the bottom - if China had a caste system, this is what it would look like.  The mass numbers of people making stuff, stuff, and more stuff.  As the movie goes on, we rise in class to fancier and better paying jobs, all the way to the top rung of the ladder.  There is very little explanation in the film so we are drawn to our own conclusions - how does one achieve "the Chinese dream?" How does one rise from the underclass, is there ever a path out of one's predetermined place in society?

At first, I thought this might be a kind of "slice of life" film, and those are generally not my cup of tea.  This is because the filmmakers have chosen to let us, the viewers, draw our own conclusions about the data they are presenting.  There is no companion data analysis, and we are left make our own observations and maybe even our own comparisons to the worlds in which we live.  It's a heck of fascinating movie, but don't expect a guide to join you on the path.

Flee - 3 nominations

 

Best Documentary Feature Jonas Poher Rasmussen Monica Hellstrøm Signe Byrge Sørensen Charlotte de La Gournerie

Best Animated Feature Film Jonas Poher Rasmussen Monica Hellstrøm Signe Byrge Sørensen Charlotte de La Gournerie

Best International Feature Film Denmark

Flee is a powerful film telling the story of Amin (not his real name) as his family lives through a refugee crisis.  The family is fleeing Afghanistan and lands in Russia where their travel visas run out, and this puts them under a constant threat of deportation back to Afghanistan, where they will surely be killed.  Amin's mother is desperate to protect him from being sent back to Afghanistan, so she does everything she can to get him out of Russia and to Denmark where they have a relative.  The harrowing tale is truly the story of every refugee, their precarious lives, the tremendous risks they take, and the leaps of faith they must endure to attempt a better, safer life.  

This is the first time that an animated feature has also been nominated for Best Documentary and Best International Feature.  This one is just that good.  The most important thing that I hope this film will accomplish will be to build a sense of compassion for refugees among those who by happenstance were born in first world countries.  It is very easy to condemn and despise people from another country when you don't know their names and you don't know their stories.  It is much harder to act as Pharoah and harden one's heart when you realize that all mothers everywhere just want their children to grow up safely, no matter when they were born.

Documentary Features

Much like the documentary shorts, there isn't a bad one in this bunch.  Most of these are available on streaming services, and all are without a doubt worth your time.

 

Time

Entrepreneur, former convict, and mother of 6, Fox Rich is fighting for her husband's freedom.  Convicted of bank robbery, Rob is serving a 60 year sentence partly because he got bad legal advice and didn't take a plea.  This woman, this fierce and brilliant woman, never gives up fighting, never gives up hope, never gives up on raising her kids to become amazing in their own right - she is the person you want in your corner for any and all things.  I have to add that documentary film making like this one is basically a magic trick.  This film follows this woman and this family for 20 years - how did they know that this passage of Time, this doing of Time, this experience of running out of Time... how could they know that it would ultimately become a beautiful and moving story?

My Octopus Teacher

This dazzling film captures the relationship between a free diver (no SCUBA gear) and an octopus who over time, begins to trust the man.  She shows him her underwater world and he falls in love with it and truthfully with her.  Without anthropomorphizing the octopus, we can see that she has great capacity for connection, even with this person who could be a predator.  We watch her life evolve, and we watch his life rebirth.

The Mole Agent

This film is utterly delightful.  A private investigator hires an elderly man to conduct undercover work in a home for the aging.  They have been hired by the daughter of a resident to confirm that nobody is stealing from her mother, or treating the old folks badly.  Our mole must learn how to face time and use technology, and he must build relationships with the other residents so he can scope out what is happening.  What he discovers is that neglect can come in many forms, and not just at the hands of the people working at the facility.

Crip Camp

This is an incredible film that appears at the start to just be a camp for people with disabilities.  But it is so much more, prompting the alumni of the camp to lead a revolution for access, for equal rights, and for using one's voice for positive change.  The leaders of the movement are alumni of the camp and their fight for agency, for dignity, for equality is awe inspiring.

Collective - 2 nominations

Documentary and International Feature Film

When a devastating fire breaks out in a nightclub, dozens of people are killed but many of those who survived die within days later.  What do we come to discover?  A complete lack of regulation and oversight that allows hospitals to use cleaning products that don't clean sufficiently for sterile environments, a health care system with no functional system, and a corrupt government that allows these abominations to continue unchecked.  Ironically, liberals and conservatives will find something to like in this film - liberals will love proving their point of how lack of regulation can cause actual death, and conservatives will love proving their point that governments are not necessarily the answer to improving that reality. 

BY THE WAY!

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Documentary Features and Shorts

A Note About Today's Blog Post!

Due to the GREATLY decreased time between the Oscars announcements and the show, there are a very limited number of days available to post and share about all of the movies with nominations.  Sadly, that means combining, combining, combining.  So, today, I present to you 10 films - all of the documentary features and the shorts.  This year's crop of documentaries of both lengths were excellent.  Truly not a bad one in the bunch.  There are lessons on cruelty, democracy, the changing nature of business, bravery, and love.  Please try to see a few (many are on Netflix!) - they are worth it.

THESE ARE THE DOCUMENTARY FEATURES

American Factory finds a town in Ohio devastated by the closure of a car manufacturing company that provided the majority of the jobs in the town revitalized by the arrival of a Chinese company that makes glass for cars.  At first, the employees are grateful to have jobs.  But the Chinese model of how you treat employees and what you can expect from them is very different than the United States' model, including the high value placed on safety.  When the Chinese owners begin to take advantage (for much lower wages) and violate safety rules on the job.  The employees begin to discuss forming a union.  So, are the owners the villains?  Or the American employees?  Without any spoilers, we know that whether people work more or less, they will never be as good as machines.

The Cave is an incredible story of a medical hospital in Syria located underground where victims of violence can come for treatment.  The place is run by an incredible woman, which is particularly impressive in a world where women are not meant to be in charge.  These doctors stay in a town that the regime seems determine to wipe out, just to make sure that everyone stranded there can get medical treatment.  It's a task far too big for anyone to have a hope succeeding, and yet, who else will do it if these doctors leave?

The thing about The Edge of Democracy is that it's such a lesson for the United States, and yet, I'm certain that Democrats and Republicans will see this film so differently.  We discover the fragile state of Brazil's democracy in a place steeped in governmental corruption with coups and impeachment trials and scandals, and any American watching this film has got to be at least slightly haunted.

A female documentarian shares her life and her choices with her young daughter as she reflects what it's like to live in Aleppo, Syria.  As part of the resistance in her younger years, she could never have anticipated what it would be like to stay, to fight, to try to resist an oppressive and tyrannical regime with her husband, a doctor who feels he must stay to help.  Having already escaped, her parents try to convince the young couple to escape and emigrate with their young child, but they have a connection to the land and feel they must stay.  This film is part history, part apology, part explanation for the daughter from the filmmaker who knows that this life has been insanity.

Nobody I know who has seen this film thinks it is an actual documentary because of the incredible scenes the filmmakers caught and recorded.  The main character is a woman beekeeper in Macedonia who lives off the land.  She sells her honey at the market, and relies on living in harmony with nature to keep her bees thriving.  When nomadic squatters become her neighbors, they bully her into sharing her production secrets, and they undermine the natural order and affect her livelihood.  They don't care about her, about longevity, they care about making money right now.

Honeyland is also nominated for International Feature!

THESE ARE THE DOCUMENTARY SHORTS

Afghanistan is not a safe place to be a girl, even today when the Taliban are not in power.  Girls are not really supposed to learn, and so these girls who go to school every day are taking their lives into their own hands.  Their mothers see a world of possibility for their daughters because they are getting the education their mothers never could have under the Taliban.  While at school, the girls are also taught courage and grit... and skateboarding!  This is a powerful documentary about bravery and teaching girls to take back their power.

The lives of refugees are just not easy.  Coming from places with governmental corruption and commonplace murder if you displease the regime (or any dangerous people), families have found refuge in Sweden.  But for those coming from extreme danger with their immigration status still uncertain (and in many cases, having been denied asylum), young children are coping with the very strange "Resignation Syndrome."  That is to say, they go to sleep and they don't wake up.  They must be fed through a tube, washed, walked, receive physical therapy - they have simply checked out completely unable to cope with the reality of their uncertain futures that may very well include being sent back home to a place where people actually want to kill them.  There are over 200 children suffering with this syndrome in Sweden, and it is now beginning to appear in refugee centers in Australia.  

St. Louis Superman follows the incredible journey of Bruce Franks who was inspired to run for state representative after the shooting of Michael Brown.  He works to declare gun violence a youth health crisis navigating the tough streets he came from (where his own older brother was shot and killed at the age of 9) and the professional life working the system of government.  Carving out a small piece of justice is Franks' act of leadership in his community, all while being a great dad.

Exploring the lives of a couple married for over 50 years and their history escaping Vietnam.  But they have a secret to their long marriage and to their love story - they have learned how to dance and compete professionally in that world.  This film was so charming and even though their story of their young lives is difficult, immigrating to the United States changed their lives very profoundly.  My husband and I are signing up for dance lessons as a result!  (I want one of those fancy dresses and definitely the shoes!)

In the Absence is the film that is the hardest to shake when you leave the theater.  It retells the story of the Sewell, a passenger ferry in Korea that was sinking for several hours while nobody did anything to evacuate the hundreds and hundreds of passengers on the boat.  In fact, the Captain of the ship was the first to be rescued, leaving an absence of leadership.  Not to mention that the government spent more time trying to get cameras on the scene rather than doing anything.  They even sent away fishing boats who came to try to help rescue passengers.  The haunting moment when one of the teenagers on the boat (videotaped by a phone camera) recounts a story of another disaster when the only people who didn't listen to the instructions given by leadership were the ones to survive... The outraged families and volunteer divers who were involved in the rescue rally the entire nation and help unseat the country's President as a result.