I’ve split my list into two though. The first part is for films that I skipped out of and spluttered with superlatives because they resonated on me with such an immediate level of captivation. The second list is for clever documentaries that I found utterly brilliant, especially as I thought about them afterwards. The two lists are obviously not binary; some films could have made it onto both, and other documentaries are nowhere to be seen, but I still carry them round in my thoughts. Anyways, here it is, docs I’ve loved from 2008’s offerings, with links to what I’ve written about them.

PART 1
1. Mechanical Love
2. Severing the Soul
3. Japan: A Story of Love and Hate
4. Man on a Wire
5. American Teen

PART 2
6. Solitary Life of Cranes
7. The Doctor who hears voices
8. The English Surgeon
9. My Winnipeg
10. The Shock Doctrine

What have you guys enjoyed, hated or been inspired by? Think theatrical, television and festivals, as well as your fave FourDocs ever.

There is a great article about theatrical docs, with some insight from the producer, Simon Chinn, about why people flock to life-affirming, but won’t leave their houses for misery that doesn’t go anywhere.

And ironically enough, A J Schnack’s own documentary Kurt Cobain – About a Son is on True Stories on More 4, tonight at 10pm. He managed to secure many hours of audio interview between Kurt Cobain and the music journalist Michael Azerrad, and with it weaves us through Kurt’s life, from his own perspective and his own words. The visuals are footage from the three major cities in Kurt’s life – Aberdeen, Olympia and Seattle, haunting precisely because they lack the man you are imagining. The film is reminiscent of Chris Marker’s San Soleil and Saint Etienne’s psychogeographical films, all very artfully crafted, with acute attention to sound.

A quick glance at the Storyville home page shows that tonight on BBC4 at 10pm is Prodigal Sons, which follows an old football hero who is now a post-operative transgendered lesbian woman, home for a school reunion, and was the film my festival comrade James Newton recommended most. In next Monday’s slot is Elizabeth Stopford’s touching film I’m not Dead Yet about an inheritance battle within her family, and apparently there is a twist in the middle that changes your perspective on everything. Strangely the film that played in last Monday’s slot, Operation Iraqi Filmmaker, played at Sheffield a whole year ago, and was picked up as an acquisition there, to be aired much later than its festival outing.

The slick opening night film Thriller in Manila is playing on True Stories tomorrow at 10pm, and already played at BritDoc earlier this year. It goes behind the scenes of the famous Muhammad Ali fight with Joe Frazier, from Frazier’s rarely heard perspective of who Ali was and how he operated through intimidation tactics. There is some amazingly strange archive footage unearthed which shows Ali joking with the Klu Klux Klan affectionately. The film really informs how the myth of celebrity can be created and how we can buy into an idea of a sports hero and happily ignore some ugly and brutal truths about their behaviour and attitudes. James Toback’s Tyson documentary, which I saw recently at the London Film Festival not Sheffield, similarly delves behind the headlines propping up a later heavyweight champion. Toback has been close friends with Tyson for over 20 years, but rather than use that relationship as the basis of the film, he decided to go in the opposite direction, and have Tyson’s perspective on himself singularly. There is no denying the charges laid against him, and so the film operates in almost the exact opposite way to Thriller in Manila by reinforcing Tyson’s strength and skill in the ring, despite the activities outside of it.

Next Sunday night sees the screening of Morgan Matthews’ new film The Fallen. It’s an epic tribute to, and about, the people who serve in the British Armed Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Both Morgan Matthews and the exec Steve Hewitt (who also chairs the Sheffield board of directors) questioned the proposed length, but Richard Klein insisted it should be an expansive three hours, and so it stands proud as the most ambitious single documentary commissioned by the BBC. The film works wonderfully, attention never swaying, and I heard reports that the entire cinema was crying throughout the screening – just to warn you. Touching tales, told compassionately. Lastly, although not screened at Sheffield, I was chatting to Zac Beattie who’s Cutting Edge film Rich Kid, Poor Kid plays this Thursday. It’s about two girls who live on the same street, but lead lives a world apart from each other’s existence etc, and is meant to be very good.

Should films that already have a secured broadcast home dominate film festival schedules? Obviously ones that push boundaries, such as length, form and access, have a deserved place, but it was interesting to note the difference compared to last year. For example, Mum, Herion and Me, Jane Treays recently broadcast Cutting Edge, played. It is an entirely excellent film about how to love a daughter who you can’t force help on, who sleeps homeless down the road from the family home to ensure a better routine for all, and who is unable to enjoy birthday pampering without slipping off for a hit, paid for by mum for a bit of peace. The quality of the film is not under question, but previously a television screening would have voided a festival screening because of premiering status issues, and an opening night film would have been a national, if not worldwide premier. What do people think about this – are strict rules relating to where the film has already played becoming outdated in a bid to play the best films?

The line-up for London Film Festival was announced at this morning’s press launch, after an exhausting list of sponsor thanks. The 2 documentaries I most immediately want to see, having already read much about them, are Alex Gibney’s Gonzo and American Teen.

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S Thompson uses Alex Gibney’s forensic skill of finding and weaving archival material together, to illuminate his contradictory life and gonzo approach to writing. Johnny Deep narrates from Hunter’s own words, a wise move following his apt casting as Hunter in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. The film was immediately more profitable than his previous, Oscar winning documentary, Taxi to the Dark Side. It plays as the Documentary Gala choice.

I have been anticipating seeing American Teen greatly, since it’s rave reviews at Sundance, where Nanette Burstein received the Documentary Directing Award for it. Set in Warsaw, Indiana, the film focus on five students in their final year of high school. Each fits one of the archetypes we know from, well, high school movies. So there is the jock, nerd, cheerleader, loner and rich kid. This cliche has been used to brilliant effect in the poster – a marketing rip off of The Breakfast Club poster.

Nanette Burstein spent a year filming constantly with the kids, to make a verite style documentary that captures all of their key moments and adventures. However, there has been some critics who have question just how authentic parts of the footage is, as the film cuts almost like it’s been scripted, especially phone conversations filmed from both ends and scenes captured with gratuitously good timing of the crew’s presence. Whether this is due to her relationship with her characters is to be discovered – none of the kids captured say they were acting in any way.

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.

Jennifer is annoyingly self-involved, and you may want to slap her frequently. She is very rich and spoilt and her flaunting of her coloured married lover in bed is such strange showing off it’s almost untrue. Also her voice is very annoying. However, her extreme self confidence grates so much she prompts you to ask questions and deconstruct her own assumptions. I would term this provocative anthropology and dare you to watch.

I got the train back from Britdoc with the Producer, after his winning Best British feature, to add to his double win at Sundance (Documentary Grand Jury and Audience Award), and learnt the extent of the energy spent to make the film so perfect. For example, the amazingly fortuitous archive footage of the training wire was shot by a prolific cinematographer, but never developed. After discovering it in Phillipe’s dusty cellar, obtaining the rights to use it involved lawyers and religion and multiply witnesses. This is a film born out of the dedication of everyone involved, and must be seen.

A Complete History of My Sexual Failures has been met with mixed feelings in the documentary world. Some have suggested the documentary label has been falsely plastered to a dramatised version of his past life, and Chris has played up his deadpan image extremely. Is he for real? I met up with Chris to find out whether the film is actually an authentic authored doc, and how deeply buried the serious filmmaker is behind the funny man…

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