 HomeMy StoryFamily FilmsBooksQuotesLinksWeb DesignSoftwareWolvesDeserts |
Documentaries normal spark Oscar controversies
By Mary Shaffer Last week's Oscar nominations didn't include a controversy over the documentary film nominees. That's a change. Such recent, highly praised and influencial films as ''Shoah'' (1985), ''Roger and Me'' (1989), and ''Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse'' (1992) weren't even nominated. Everyone blames the Academy's arcane nominating process. A group of ''experts,'' not just documentary filmmakers, watch all the eligible films (110 in 1992) and pick their five ''best'' based on some obscure criteria no one else grasps. They seem unwilling or unable to pick films released in theaters to public and critical acclaim, as if the best way to highlight the genre by naming winners no one has heard of or seen. 1993 nominees include one familiar title: ''The War Room,'' a behind-the-scenes look at James Carville's successful campaign to elect Bill Clinton president. In the 1970s, documentary Oscars regularly went to popular films, like ''Woodstock'' (1970), ''The Hellstrom Chronicle'' (1971), ''Marjoe'' (1972), and ''Hearts and Minds'' (1974). Recognized by the Academy since 1941, documentary films are memorable, imaginative, dramatic, witty and moving. They allow ordinary people to experience the extraordinary. They recreate the past, capture the present, put us in the front row of a concert or the middle of a disaster, take us on journeys, introduce us to new people, right wrongs or just entertain us. Like books or news reports, they capture human drama, but their combination of images, words and music recorded over time offer a unique intimacy and perspective. Two-time Oscar winner Barbara Koppel's ''Harlan County USA'' (1976) conveys the political polarization of 20 years ago by pitting a community of striking Kentucky coalminers against a powerful, impersonal company. Things are less clearcut in Koppel's ''American Dream'' (1990) about a 1984 Minnesota meatpackers' strike. Worker fights worker, local and national unions argue over tactics, and the company struggles to survive poor economic times. Like Koppel, Leni Riefenstahl created two masterpieces, but won a lifetime of conflict and hostility instead of an Oscar. Commissioned by Adolph Hitler to glorify Aryan ideals, she made ''Triumph of the Will'' (1935), an early look at the charismatic leader who swayed a nation and later horrified the world. ''Olympia'' (1936) is even more impressive and innovative, capturing the exciting and beauty of athletic achievement, including the triumphs of African-American track-and-field star Jesse Owens at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Vilified as a Nazi propagandist, Riefenstahl stopped making films after the war, but her use of hand-held cameras, jump-cuts and sound effects still influences documentarians. Her American contemporary, Pare Lorentz, is known for two short government-funded films promoting large public works projects. ''The Plow That Broke the Plains'' (1936) examines the devastating Dust Bowl. ''The River'' (1937) showcases the Mississippi River, climaxing with construction of the levee system that failed to stop last year's floods. Both feature memorable musical scores by Virgil Thompson. Music has been a documentary staple since D.A. Pennebacker's early look at Bob Dylan in ''Don't Look Back'' (1967) and the Maysles Brothers' portrait of the dark side of the '60s in ''Gimme Shelter'' (1970) with the Rolling Stones. Before winning an Oscar for ''The Silence of the Lambs'' (1990), director Jonathan Demme teamed with David Byrne and the Talking Heads to create one of the best concert films. ''Stop Making Sense'' (1984) feels so real that movie audiences stomp, clap and dance in the aisles. The best documentaries make us feel like we are somewhere else. We can look back at the making of the first atomic bomb in ''The Day After Trinity'' (1980) or ahead to what it might be like to survive a nuclear blast in ''The War Game'' (1966). We can explore oceans with Jacques Cousteau in ''World Without Sun'' (1964) or raft them with Thor Heyerdahl in ''Kon-Tiki'' (1951), trek across unchartered New Guinea in ''Sky Above, Mud Below'' (1961) or accompany astronauts to the moon in ''For All Mankind'' (1989). Or we can discover alien worlds here on Earth. In ''Paris is Burning'' (1991), New York City black and Latino gay men compete at ''drag balls'' by dressing in costumes ranging from military attire to women's evening wear. They talk about their lives and how the fantasy balls offer solace from a world where even families have rejected them. Similar offbeat subjects appeal to Errol Morris whose first film, ''Gates of Heaven'' (1978), is about a pet cemetery. His most famous film, ''The Thin Blue Line'' (1988), used re-enactments and other subjective techniques to suggest that Randall Adams was wrongly convicted of murder in 1976. Morris' investigation helped overturn the conviction and Adams was released from prison shortly after the film premiered. ''Brothers Keeper'' (1992) also seeks justice for an accused murderer: Delbert Ward, 59, an illiterate dairy farmer charged with killing his 64-year-old brother and railroaded into confessing by overzealous authorities. Local townspeople rally to Delbert's defense, raising money, securing legal representation, and learning to accept Delbert and his two, hermit-like older brothers as the trial unfolds. ''The Big Bang'' (1990) is also about life and death. Director James Toback poses basic philosophical questions to people of varying professions and ages, including a mobster, nun, basketball star, mother, Auschwitz survivor, model, astronomer, child, and film producer. Their answers are funny, thoughtful, moving, and startling. ''It's really a movie about the people who are in it,'' Toback tells a producer early in the film. ''About creation and disintegration. God, life, love, sex, crime, madness, everything.'' The same thing could be said about documentaries. Mary Shaffer works at Cal Poly. Jerry Bunin is a Telegram-Tribune reporter.
|