I’ve spent the morning combing the various Sundance line-up overviews, wherein reporters for a variety of publications digest the four competition line-ups announced yesterday in an attempt to find an overarching theme/predictive slant which they can then hand-deliver to their mainly mainstream audiences. One thing I’ve learned: such stories should never be read back-to-back.
“Sundance’s writers and directors are turning toward more uplifting narratives,” writes John Horn in the LA Times. Oh good! Oh, but wait — according to USA Today, “The comedies are dark, and the dramas are even darker at the annual showcase of low-budget moviemaking.” What am I supposed to believe?
But seriously, folks. One observation from Horn’s story is worth a ponder:
[Sundance programming director] Cooper says the festival’s 16 competition documentaries, selected from 879 submissions, continue the nonfiction filmmaking trend toward advocacy and away from impartial journalistic observation. “They are basically telling you what to do, versus ‘This is something that is going on,’ ” Cooper says.
I guess the word that rankles there is “trend.” I’ve never been to a documentary-heavy film festival that didn’t have its share of edutainment, but looking at the most successful nonfiction films of this past year (whether at the box office or with critics or with awards bodies, or all of the above), what’s notable is that surprising lack of prescriptive, “Here’s a problem … and a solution!”-style filmmaking.
I mean, Man on Wire? The best reviewed documentary of the year and the apparent Oscar frontrunner? What is that advocating, exactly — art crime? Is the lesson of Trouble the Water that aspiring rappers who live in the path of hurricanes should try to have video cameras handy at all times? As far as high grossing films, there’s U2 3D, which tells us to … be U2, and get shot in 3D. You could definitely say that Religulous steers “away from impartial journalistic observation,” and there’s no question that it’s been a success, but there is some question as to whether or not an insult comic’s staged road trip really counts as “documentary”, let alone “advocacy.” And of course, there’s my favorite work of advocacy, Encounters at the End of the World, in which Werner Herzog tells us to steer clear of “abominations” like yoga studios and ATMs, and attempts no impartiality in regards to suicidal penguins.
Bottom line: it wouldn’t be crazy super weird if there were a lot of documentaries “telling you what to do” at Sundance, but the most successful nonfiction films of 2008 didn’t.
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