Resurgence of the Documentary
Dateline: 4/09/00
Here's a cause for celebration: Documentaries are back. For a long time, it seemed as if nobody cared to watch anything remotely related to actual events and real lives. But now, full-length features docus are now playing in independent theaters across the country, often filling them, and receiving extensive coverage in the media.
I'm not sure where and how it happened, exactly. Maybe Wim Wender's 1999 Buena Vista Social Club, a commercial and critical success, can be thanked for the resurgence. The joyful and exhuberant film created an international furor over Cuban music, and reestablished the careers of talented but long forgotten musician like Ibrahim Ferrer.
Errol
Morris, an American master in the art, received nationwide distribution
for Mr. Death: The Rise and Fall of Fred A. Leuchter
Jr., a controversial film which chronicles the life of a man who designs
death machines for prisons. New work by Morris can also be found on the small
screen. Errol Morris now has a weekly television series, "First Person"
on indie film station Bravo. The half
hour series, on Wednesday nights at 10:30 p.m., features a different subject
each week. Morris' previous films The Thin Blue Line and Fast,
Cheap, and Out of Control are not to be missed.
Next: Currently in Theaters, Online Documentaries, and more
