Ah, how to describe a documentary? Filming real life? Is a tortoise eating its vegies a documentary? I think Baraka is one of the most stunning pieces of non-fiction film you may ever behold, but I don't think you could call it a documentary.
According to Wikipedia, "documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record" [my italics].
Very well then, I nominate Paris is Burning. I saw this film as part of my cultural studies class 'Reading the Body'. It had so much in it—race, gender, underground culture—and it was such an eye-opening doco that I watched it three or four times even though I only needed to see it once (or twice if I were particularly studious).
The most fascinating aspect was not the queer and transvestite culture depicted, although that was the most fun to watch, but the individual lives that this culture touched. The spectre of the AIDS era and the ever-present danger of being found out in a straight world added a dark reality to what is otherwise a colourful, often garish film.
See IMDb and Wikipedia entries.
Day 23 - Favourite director?
Day 24 - Favourite sequel?
Day 25 - Favourite movie franchise/series?
Day 26 - Popcorn?
Day 27 - Total number of films you own on DVD and video.
Day 28 - Last film you bought.
Day 29 - Last film you watched.
Day 30 - Five films that mean a lot to you.
Twenty-one categories of this meme are from Books and Movies and Wordsmithsonia. The rest of the categories are my own creation.
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