Here is one of my favourite docs of this year – and a grand example of the kind of thing that goes down well on the festival circuit.

Pinny Grills’ Peter and Ben is a dreamy and emotional film depicting the friendship between two lonesome outsiders; a man and a sheep.

In contrast to Pinny’s unconstrained use of the camera and beautiful visual style, there is a definite construction of a story. There is an actual narrative arch, rather than just a character portrait.

The soundtrack also really compliments the underlying nature/nature theme, and helps tie the film together.

Peter and Ben has been selected at numerous festivals, including all the big doco ones – SilverDocs, IDFA, HotDocs and SXSW.

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We have opened up for applications! In this first round, FourDocs will be awarding 3 people £1000 each to finish their documentary in tip-top shape for festivals. It’s up to you how to spend the cash. You might want some animation, a specially written soundtrack, or to hire a top notch editor to re-structure it. All you need to apply is a documentary project you are already working on, and some idea of what you’d do with the money to make the film better. There are full details of how to apply on our bursaries page.

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Never have I known a documentary to aggrivate audiences like Jennifer Fox’s epic 6 part Confessions of a Free Woman (the first 2 installments aired on Storyville last night). Jennifer is an 46 year old American documentary maker, who wanted to push the idea of getting past ‘the performance’ of when people act up for the camera. She spawned a way of filming, which like cinema verite, means she is control of a small camera without a crew. She also “passes the camera” so that the her subjects film her when she is talking, it is more like a circular conversation without a power hierarchy or contrived end point. The way she talks about (I saw her give a talk at this years Birds Eye View) is analogous to the way lesbians make love, which is fitting because the central feminist investigation is into how women see themselves in the world today. It’s also structured around women experience time – fluidly, like a chat over a cup of tea.

Much like Carrie Bradshaw, Jennifer wants to discover what it means to be a woman today, working and living ‘without man and children’. She has affairs and talks freely about sex, like a man, but she isn’t man, cue existential crisis that takes her around the world to ‘pass the camera’ with woman and chat about rape and marriage and masturbation and even FGM in a bid discover why women (but not her) defer to men, and how men stake their claim through cultural rearing practices. This of course give Jennifer ample opportunity to reflect on her own childhood (the only girl with 4 boys), and lifestyle choices. She concludes that only men can be truly free. Except her, presumably. read more

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How To Break Up is a pretty hilarious 3 min cartoon I found on YouTube. It’s made by Lev Yilmaz, from San Francisco. Watch it now then read on.

At first glance it’s a generalisation of human behaviour that isn’t factual. It’s a particularly funny fictional account of mister average, so it strikes a cord at points in its circular story with most of us. However, you know where this stuff comes from – the painful personal experiences of the scribe. I’m going to suggest that How To Break Up therefore inverses a major rule of documentary – you know the one about how you’re meant to take the particular experience you’re filming and imply its universal ramifications. What do you think – could this lo-fi cartoon be considered a type of personal documentary, or possibly as lying within the fast sinking sand between fact and fiction?

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The new set of First Cuts started last Friday, with an investigation into what’s happened to Britney Spears and how society treat celebs, made by established producer and new director Bruce Fletcher.

I’m more excited about tonight’s installment though -Time Warp Wives.

I know people who adopt an era from the past closer to their heart than the present day, and style their lives and record collections accordingly. However, the line between their values and the perks of the modern world mesh somewhere between the comforts of digital technology and short haul holidays. Tonight’s film shows us fanatics of the 30’s, 40’s and 50’s who are entirely dedicated to the lifestyle, resources and attitudes of their chosen time.

More excitingly, the documentary is made by Sally Hewitt, who directed the 3 Minute Wonder series Little Worlds, one of the best to make use of the idea of 4 people’s stories with the same visual rock. Each episode is about a different dolls house owner, and as you hear them talk about what and who they see within, you’re transported towards into their imagined other world. Every character is confronting some issue through their play – an anorexics self image, an immigrants sense of upper class Britishness, a shoddily housed woman’s sense of communal life and a retired mans sense of worth. Collected within the miniature buildings are larger than life aspirations. Hopefully Time Warp Wives will similarly show how that what people do is an indicator of how they want the world to be.

Time Warp Wives, Channel 4 tonight, 7:30pm

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Man on Wire is a faultless fantastical film. Philippe Petit is so charismatic, and it’s such a killer story engulfing adventure, artistry and accolade, that the stage is set for exclaiming the magnificence of real life. Yet it is the subtleties of the film that makes it soar above most other factual theatrical releases. It’s a polished journey, which stirred in me a fierce jealousy that I have no desire burning nearly as deep as Phillipe’s dream to cross the tallest towers in all the lands. The romance, the spirit, the freedom! read more

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