An Impossible Job: ILX's 40 Favorite Documentaries

oh I wonder if The Devil And Daniel Johnston will be in here. I would have voted for that!

Yes, Alan was on his own for Vinyl, and also for the next two (I Curmudgeon and Loved)--I was interviewed but wasn't used. He made another one after that, and seems to be doing well now--he got a retrospective at last year's Hot Docs festival here--so maybe he's got others who go on shoots now. I wish I could remember the film I saw that sparked the Denny McLain idea. The director spoke beforehand, and said he'd never touched a camera till he started whatever film he showed that night. (Wondering if it was the Arthur Kane documentary.)

I was surprised that Tarnation didn't get a single vote. The Devil and Daniel Johnston got a couple.

i think i'd be de-railing if i went too far into my thoughts on the DJ doc here, partly b/c i assume it's discussed elsewhere & partly because my complaints are fairly vague and not well remembered, but i think i was less enthusiastic about it than some. i kinda feel like it never reconciled the key weird paradox with him, which is how the sort of heaviness of everything meets the artist part. like there are such heavy moments in which he's gone off the rails, + been in terrible situations, and i didn't feel they connected with the portrait of him other than as sort of detail, as biography. i don't know.

when i saw tarnation i loved it; i think it's probably suffered since from seeming unique as a production rather than as a film, or for maybe seeming a little emotionally heavy-handed (which obv how could it not be, but). i think there are weird things about it.

Of the two, I liked the Daniel Johnston better at the time. But I remember very little in terms of specifics now, other than Tarnation was the more unconventional.

i remember loving tarnation too; i think i considered putting it on my ballot but thinking id need 2 watch it again and make sure it was actually good

I saw some new work by Jonathan Caouette recently...I kind of wish I hadn't

TARNATION is an atrocious film. Ignoring all the narcissism, I find it mindboggling that anyone found it aesthetically exciting ("lol 2003"?)

The narcissism was intriguing enuff, but the iMovie raindrop overlay was a bit too much.

i hate tarnation so fucking much. like in that thinking of it makes me angry sort of way.

otoh i was one of the votes for devil daniel johnston etc. so it is DOOMED

I love you guys who hate Tarnation. I wasn't going to say anything, so I'm glad you did.

Receiving a vote from jjjusten was the latest blow for Daniel Johnston in a life filled with tragedy.

I'll resume this with #25 tomorrow morning. My only regret so far is not naming the thread "Documentaries! The Story of Documentaries."

feel terrible using this thread for non-top-40-related material, but it seems so much smarter than reviving another docu thread, since everyone's here:

skimming this earlier, i wondered if anyone has seen any of tsuchimoto noriaki's films

I said I was going to make note of first-place votes, and then forgot all about it. I'll start doing that with today's films. It's a little ambiguous on a few ballots, where there are point values but the films aren't numbered, and two or three films are tied at the top with the most points. I'll assume the one that's listed first is that person's #1.

There were three films not in the Top 40 that each drew one first-place vote: With Orson Welles: Stories from a Life in Film, Sans Soleil, and Eyes on the Prize. Of the films I counted down on Friday, each of these also received one first-place vote: Être et Avoir, The World at War, Spellbound, WR: Mysteries of the Organism, and Shoah.

Sans Soleil

ILX, you fucking bastard!

#25: Paris Is Burning (Jennie Livingston, 1990)

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_mJhtf0fqf7s/TCItcK_623I/AAAAAAAAEIw/k7KynMzaAgU/s400/paris+burning+3-1.jpg

32 points/3 votes

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydA7-qCv570

Oh shit, there's a Ronald McDonald biopic?

#24: Winter Soldier (Fred Aronow/Robert Fiore/David Gillis/David Grubin/Jeff Holstein/Michael Lesser, 1972)

http://www.fromthevaultradio.org/home/wp-content/images/FTV008_Memorial%20Day%20Special/john%20kerry%20winter%20soldier.jpg

32 points/4 votes

www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucmDbv-Ck60

No director is listed for Winter Soldier, so I listed the cinematographers. To head off any complaints, I chose the Kerry still simply because its dimensions were most suitable--if I remember correctly, he's not in the film much.

Don't be afraid to watch WS, Kerry's not in it that much.

xp!

Not only did I psychically divine complaints, I psychically divined where they'd come from!

http://www.liketelevision.com/liketelevision/images/lowrez/jckarnak211.jpg

#22: The Century of the Self (Adam Curtis, 2002)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/documentaries/images/bernays_lead.jpg

35 points/2 votes/1 first-place vote

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUYFr-uDQgg

#22: Hype! (Doug Pray, 1996)

http://thefilmist.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/hype3.jpg?w=280&h=175

35 points/2 votes/1 first-place vote

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZh_qP6lv98

Don't be afraid to watch WS, Kerry's not in it that much.

For a second, thought there was a documentary called "Would Smash"

Nice that Paris is Burning placed, but I'm reading you all so hard over the Marker snub.

#21: Don’t Look Back (D.A. Pennebaker, 1967)

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_cTV4oFOmN74/Svmunhm_clI/AAAAAAAAAao/3elVrc4hyp8/s320/dylan_l.jpg

35 points/3 votes/1 first-place vote

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lc6HcA6kEJc

Don't give a shit.

I like DLB fine but didn't vote for it. Hype! is nice but for fuck's sake.

who voted for Paris Is Burning besides Eric and me?

#1 in this poll is gonna have, like, 6 votes total.

#20: Grey Gardens (Albert Maysles/David Maysles/Ellen Hovde/Muffie Meyer, 1975)

http://www.mayslesfilms.com/films/images/greygardens/greygardens.jpg

35 points/5 votes

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyaRYMFWYxs&feature=related

Eric, you're not even close. But by all means, keep the complaints coming.

Happy gay day, An Impossible Job: ILX's 40 Favorite Documentaries poll thread.

Century of the Self was my adam curtis selection.

I'm really glad someone gave Hype! a first place vote. I gave it 5 points and wasn't sure if it would rank, but I think it owns really hard.

The banana I ate for breakfast is as close to being the best documentary ever.

But by all means, keep the complaints coming.

I'll keep quiet so long as stuff like Grey Gardens are in the mix.

But the next lame music doc that shows up, I'm paging Tape Store to thread.

#19: Koyaanisqatsi (Godfrey Reggio, 1982)

http://i2.listal.com/image/113777/600full-koyaanisqatsi%3A-life-out-of-balance-photo.jpg

35 points/6 votes

www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY4L5npPdao&feature=related

damn, wouldn't have even thought of koyaanisqatsi. forever since i saw it, also.

I voted for it. Koyaanisqatsi was a very moving experience the first time I watched it. Powaqqatsi bored me to tears, and I never saw the third one.

#18: Stop Making Sense (Jonathan Demme, 1984)

http://silverdocs.com/media/images/films/lg/StopMakingSense-a.jpg

38 points/5 votes

www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHJmPcILfg8&feature=related

also don't look back is excellent just as a study of bob dylan's bubble, milieu, brain, fans, times, &c, irrespective of it being a music doc.

i actually think powaqatsi's good, just incredibly frustrating if you go in expecting something molded by recurrence and rhythm, like the first. it has that great really-long-train shot. koyaanisqatsi's one of those things that i loved first seeing, but was p young when doing so, so am inherently suspicious of my judgment of.

Eric, there isn't much music in Don't Look Back; I don't think you hear BD perform a complete song aside from the Subterranean Homesick "video."

I haven't seen Stop Making Sense since it came out--not a fan--so I hope the YouTube clip is indeed from the film.

Srsly, people.

as I've said, Demme's is my favorite concert film, but I chose not to consider them documentaries. Just like many of you apparently chose not to consider political films documentaries.

i ignored concert films with one exception, but Stop Making Sense is way up there with the best and a personal fav. good album too

i actually think powaqatsi's good, just incredibly frustrating if you go in expecting something molded by recurrence and rhythm, like the first. it has that great really-long-train shot. koyaanisqatsi's one of those things that i loved first seeing, but was p young when doing so, so am inherently suspicious of my judgment of.

― bruce actual springsteen (schlump), Monday, August 15, 2011 11:10 AM (34 seconds ago) Bookmark

yeah you might be right. my predominant memory of it is as a movie consisting of slow shots of indian peasants herding cattle. it didnt have the same pizzazz for me, i guess

what do you mean by political films, morbs

#17: Brother’s Keeper (Joe Berlinger/Bruce Sinofsky, 1992)

http://media.ifc.com/img/movies/main-image/310x229_brotherskeeper.jpg

40 points/2 votes

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlDSGMAyUrE

The corrected totals for Brother's Keeper.

I mean documentaries about political matters. xxp