By one measure, 2023 was a very tough year indocumentary.
On the continuum of feast and famine, its been mostly famine.
Exceptional films premiered at festivals throughout the year from Sundance to Cannes, Telluride and TIFF.
Clockwise top left: ‘Kokomo City,’ ‘The Eternal Memory,’ ‘Smoke Sauna Sisterhood,’ ‘In the Rearview’Magnolia Pictures, MTV Documentary Films, Alexandra Film, Film Movement
Looking back on the year, easily 25-30 documentary films thrilled me with their creative vision.
Below, I highlight 10 documentaries that have stayed with me, my cinematic companions over many months.
Are they the best of the best?
Apolonia Sokol, protagonist of ‘Apolonia, Apolonia’Danish Documentary Production/HBO Max Central Europe
So many films merit inclusion.
These are the 10 I feel compelled to highlight as 2023 nears its end.
Echoes of Mephistopheles and Faust.
As such, its a feminist story that applies to women everywhere who are straightjacketed by patriarchy.
I emerged from a screening at Telluride thinking the film should immediately be awarded an Oscar nomination.
Its as exciting as anything a Hollywood narrative film could deliver.
Bobi, his wife Barbie and their four kids charm with every glimpse into their private lives in Kampala.
Sabri, in particular, proves equally captivating.
Maciek Hamelas film consists almost entirely of footage shot in a minivan that transported Ukrainian civilians fleeing Russias invasion.
Wiseman edits all his films as well recording audio in the field and overseeing the cinematography.
The first thing I do is look at all the material and make an initial evaluation.
I use a classification system based on the Guide Michelin: one, two, or three stars.
What he accomplishes through his process, in more than 40 films now, boggles the mind.
Wisemans was not the only documentary of the year to reach or exceed the four-hour barrier.
So didOccupied City,directed by Oscar winner Steve McQueen.
McQueen pulls off an incredible feat, making a film about history without a single frame of archive.
His subject is his adopted city of Amsterdam, which was occupied by the Nazis from 1940 to 1945.
A narrator evenly points out locations, seen today, where Nazi outrages were committed 80 years earlier.
In the smoke sauna, no one is clothed.
In the nude, the women come clean.
Her film is a healing experience for the participants, and equally healing for many who see it.
Stamped From the Beginning.
Stampedadapts the bestseller by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, the nonfiction opus that measures over 600 pages with notes.
Still: A Michael J. Guggenheim deserves enormous credit for his interviewing skill.
Perhaps most movingly, he asks Fox toward the end of the film, Are you in pain?
Fox pauses, admitting that no one asks him about that.
He answers that, indeed, pain is a constant part of his experience.
Foxs incredible toughness as a human being comes through, as does his admirable capacity for honest self-assessment.
The context of the documentary is the disturbing reality that most sexual crimes in India go unreported.
But they press on even as their lives comes under increasing threat from angry villagers.
The astute reader will have noted my top 10 list includes more than 10 films.
Ascribe that to the typical failing of journalists, who are notorious for being bad with numbers.
The vicissitudes of the acquisition market notwithstanding, its been an outstanding year for documentary.
