Director Brian Standing (War is Sell, Pedalphiles), and founder of Prolefeed Studios kindly sent a list of his 12 favorite documentaries. And here they are–along with Brian’s comments on the films:
1. Gap-Toothed Women (Les Blank, 1987)
www.lesblank.com/more/gap.html
Les Blank is a huge influence for me, not just for his
joyous documentary style, but also for the way he has
successfully remained completely independent of the
Hollywood/television system. I love all of his films,
but this curious exploration of the nature of beauty
is the one that sticks with me the most.
2. Fast, Cheap and Out of Control (Errol Morris, 1997)
www.errolmorris.com/film/fcooc.html
Another huge influence on my work. Morris is best
known for the Thin Blue Line, and of course for The
Fog of War, which won an Academy Award. This film,
however, for me completely redefines how a documentary
can look. Masterful storytelling that starts simply
and gradually ventures into more and more metaphysical
territory.
3. Lessons of Darkness (Werner Herzog, 1992)
www.wernerherzog.com/main/index.htm
Together with Blank and Morris, Herzog completes my
holy trinity of documentary filmmakers. (The three of
them, by the way, are close friends. Their film lives
intersect in Les Blank’s Werner Herzog Eats His
Shoe, in which Herzog settles a bet that Morris would
never complete his first film, Gates of Heaven.) In
Lessons of Darkness, Herzog recasts the Kuwait oil
fires left behind by the retreating Iraqi army as a
science fiction movie. Hypnotic, disturbing and
occasionally very funny.
4. Six O’ Clock News (Ross McElwee, 1994)
www.rossmcelwee.com/sixoclocknews.html
I usually don’t care for the “video diary” school of
filmmaking. I prefer filmmakers to stay in the
background. I make an exception for Ross McElwee,
because he’s such a weird, obsessive personality. 6
O’Clock News finds McElwee trying to discover what
happened to people after their 15 minutes of fame.
5. Salesman (Albert & David Maysles, 196 
Together with Primary, this film cemented the
Maysles brothers as the American masters of
documentary cinema. Brilliant editing, intimate
cinematography and a deeply cynical worldview make
this one of the few acknowledged “classics” that
really deserve the term.
http://www.mayslesfilms.com/companypages/films/films/salesman.htm
6. Rainbow Man/John 3:16 (Sam Green, 1997)
www.samgreen.to/trm.htm
Sam Green was nominated for an Academy Award for The
Weather Underground, but for my money, this is his
masterpiece. Rollen Stewart, the omnipresent Rainbow
Man who showed up in the stands in nearly every
sporting event was eventually arrested on federal
kidnapping charges. His rise, decline and fall serves
as a cautionary tale for anyone who’s ever watched too
much T.V.
7. This is Nowhere (Douglas Hawes-Davies, 2002)
www.highplainsfilms.org/fp_nowhere.html
Doug Hawes-Davies’ High Plain Films has established a
reputation for lyric, beautifully photographed odes to
the natural environment. In This is Nowhere, Davies
breaks with his usual subject matter to interview the
drivers of recreational vehicles (A.K.A. “land
yachts”) who travel the country, from WalMart to
WalMart, to sleep in the parking lots of Sam Walton’s
retail empire.
8. Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey (Steven M. Martin,
One 1995)
www.mgm.com/title_title.php?title_star=THEREMIN
The great appeal of documentaries for me is the
process of discovery. You never know where the story
is going to take you. In Theremin, it’s easy to
imagine the filmmakers nudging each other, saying “Can
you believe this?” as the story unfolds before their
camera. It starts out as a simple historical
documentary about the creation of the world’s first
electronic instrument, but quickly turns into a
first-class cold-war thriller.
9. Harlan County, USA (Barbara Koppel, 1976)
www.cabincreekfilms.com/films_harlancounty.html
Another direct-cinema “classic” that deserves all the
praise that has been heaped upon it. Koppel’s
fly-on-the-wall view of a 1974 West Virginia coal
miner’s strike set the vocabulary for activist movies,
but still manages to surprise.
10. Time and Tides (Julie Bayer & Josh Salzman, 2006)
www.wavecrestfilms.com//#/timetide/
I saw this film when I served as a juror for the 28th
Big Muddy Film Festival, where we unanimously voted it
the best documentary feature. Lyrical cinematography,
themes of globalization, cultural preservation, the
internet economy and global warming, all wrapped up in
a multi-layered, well-told story, with rich
compassionate characters. Absolutely stunning.
11. The Last Cowboy (John Alpert, 2005)
www.dctvny.org/productions/last_cowboy.html
This was the runner-up for best documentary at the
28th Big Muddy Film Festival. Alpert, an
award-winning war correspondent, spent 24 years
turning his camera on Vern Sager, one of the last to
make a living herding cattle in the American West.
12. Through the Wire (Pip Starr, 2002)
http://web.mac.com/pipstarr/starr.tv/Misc/Entries/2002/3/28_Through_the_Wire.html
Pip’s a filmmaker from Melbourne Australia, whom I met
several years ago when he was filming a documentary
about coffee. Through the Wire is a short piece
that had its North American premiere at my now-defunct
monthly film screening Electric Eye Cinema (also one
of the first practical uses of video on demand over
the internet, many years before YouTube). Through
the Wire is the best example of an activist film I’ve
ever seen, a brilliant use of imagery and voiceover.
One other thought on the topic of documentaries. My
favorite book on the topic is “Documentary” by Eric
Barnouw. A great summary.
http://www.amazon.com/Documentary-History-Non-Fiction-Erik-Barnouw/dp/0195078985
