Here are seven documentaries from this year I heartily recommend to you. Links go to my full reviews.
#1) “Secret World Of Sound.” David Attenborough raises the bar ever higher with his latest nature documentary series for Netflix, giving us access to sounds we couldn’t otherwise hear. His cinematographers and audio specialists capture lions roaring to mark their territory, meerkats avoiding a pack of hyenas, flamingoes and their baby flaminglets (yes!) communicating across a noisy flock, and a colony of 40,000 bees waiting for a new queen to emerge. The final episode is my favorite, showing baby animals using sound to stay with their families, call for help when lost, and beg for food from their parents. This goes on from the very moment they’re born — and even earlier! Attenborough’s team somehow managed to get super-sensitive microphones inside a crocodile nest, where dozens of about-to-be-newborns communicate with each other while still in their shells. You have to see and hear them to believe it. This is the only project I gave a perfect 10 out of 10 rating this year.
#2) “The Last Repair Shop” deservedly won the Oscar this year for Best Documentary Short Subject. It is about people who work for the Los Angeles Unified School District, which provides musical instruments for students who can’t afford them to play in class and practice with at home. The employees, who have all been there a long time, work in a warehouse where, from the outside, you wouldn’t know about the remarkable restorations they perform daily. Thanks to directors Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers, we get to meet these devoted craftspeople who keep over 80,000 student instruments in good condition. Interspersed with scenes of the employees and their personal stories are several LAUSD students explaining what the schools’ music programs have meant to them.
#3) “The Greatest Night In Pop” reveals how “We Are The World” came into being in 1985 at the behest of Harry Belafonte, who loved the British pop star charity single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” and wanted American singers to make a similar song. He took the idea to talent manager Ken Kragen, who started working the phones, getting Quincy Jones to produce, with Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson writing it. They decided to record it in Los Angeles right after the American Music Awards — which Richie hosted — because many of the stars would be in town already. But others weren’t, like Bruce Springsteen, who would play the final date of his Born In The USA tour the night before in Buffalo and didn’t like to travel the day after a concert. When he agreed to be there, that opened up the door to contacting other rockers, many of whom agreed to come on board once they heard The Boss was taking part. That’s just one of the stories that makes “The Greatest Night In Pop” so special.
#4) “For Love and Life: No Ordinary Campaign” is a documentary about Brian Wallach, who — on the same day in 2017 he and wife Sandra Abrevaya took their second daughter home from the hospital — was told by a neurologist that he had ALS. That doctor, and every other one they went to, told Brian he had six months to live, because there was no cure for this terminal disease. With Sandra’s support, Brian became an activist to try to get Congress to spend more money on research into the disease and to speed up access to disability benefits, which some ALS sufferers had been forced to wait five months to receive. When you’re only going to live six more months, that’s forever. This uplifting doc follows them as Wallach testifies before Congress in 2019 and tracks the growth of their non-profit organization, called I Am ALS.
#5) “Cirque du Soleil: Without A Net” is about the theatrical company dealing with the closure of all of its shows globally in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, which meant laying off 95% of its employees because there was no money coming in. But 400 days later, as Las Vegas was reopening, Cirque went back into business, bringing back many of its performers and technicians to get “O” up and running again. Documentarian Dawn Porter was given access to eight weeks of rehearsals as the acrobats, swimmers, and dancers got themselves back in shape. The technicians and costume shop had to do the same. We see the drama of one aerialist being forced to work with a new partner on short notice, while others try to bring their acts up to their previous form. “Without A Net” is a fascinating look at the process and people who make “O” the best of the Cirque shows.
#6) “Remembering Gene Wilder” is full of clips from his career, from his small supporting role in “Bonnie and Clyde” to his breakout in “The Producers” and “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory” to Wilder’s two other masterpieces with Mel Brooks, “Blazing Saddles” and “Young Frankenstein.” There’s also a longer segment on the movies Wilder made with Richard Pryor as well as with his wife, Gilda Radner, and the anguish of helping her deal with cancer. He was married again to a woman named Karen who ended up guiding him through the last years of his life when his capacities were diminished by Alzheimer’s. She’s the one who provided the home movies of Gene which director Ron Frank uses judiciously through the documentary.
#7) “Stax: Soulsville USA” is about the Memphis-based music label and studio which, in the 1960s and 1970s, grew to become one of the most influential producers of soul music. It launched the careers of Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, Booker T. & The MG’s, Carla Thomas, Sam & Dave, and more. The documentary series includes lots of footage and interviews with the musicians, songwriters, and producers who created the signature Stax sound. I didn’t write about it earlier this year, but strongly recommend it for anyone who wants a music lesson — or just to see and hear great music as it was being created.