Recently, over the last couple of months, I have been spending more and more time actively watching and following up on various issues, ideas, and intrinsic questions put forth by a growing number of independently-funded, self-motivated documentaries. The scope of these documentaries varies in so far as they can be described to fall under several rubrics or overarching themes such as political activism, global environmental campaigns, and the alternative re-interpretation of facts, events, and ideas provided by the general blend of corporate establishments. So, to be succinct, these documentaries can most aptly be characterized as visual testaments to the growing grassroots-led campaigns whose main preoccupations lie in raising awareness in issues seldom brought forth by CNN, MSNBC, C-SPAN, and other media conglomerates. Their messages are filled with, should we say, left-leaning, anti-establishment political overtones that might appear inherently ideological -providing for an uncalled for and deeply adulterated criticism of present-day concentrated systems of power. However, in defense of many of these socio-cultural and political expose' programmes (which, I would add, do not need to be defended, if one only has the political sensitivity to sit down and listen to their arguments), I would have to say that their efforts are not overtly political, motivated by a concern to topple and regain power that has been usurped over the past fifty years. This thread of political activism -collective political activism - resonates deeply within a growing number of such documentaries to the extent that, I think, documentaries ranging from the most disparate of subjects find areas of convergence and their specific themes find a place within a global, interwoven strand of public concern, public responsibility, and public awareness.
So, without further ado, I post my current list of favorite documentaries.
Top Ten:
1. The Corporation (2003), www.thecorporation.com
2. The Revolution Will Not Be Televised (2003) www.chavezthefilm.com
3. Black Gold (2006) www.blackgoldmovie.com
4. Hijacking Catastrophe (2004) www.mediaed.org
5. The End of Suburbia (2004) endofsuburbia.com
6. The Future of Food (2004) thefutureoffood.com
7. Power & Terror: Noam Chomsky - In Our Times (2002) powerandterror.com
8. We - Arundhati Roy (2006) weroy.org
9. Noam Chomsky: Rebel Without a Pause (2005) docurama.com
10. 1 Giant Leap (2001) 1giantleap.tv
This is an abridged list, one that is in the continuous process of being rearranged to include more and more non-partisan, libertarian, free-voiced, and activist-friendly flicks. More and more such documentaries will be included in the ensuing months so that one can get an idea of what I think modern/contemporary documentaries ought to resemble, and to bear in mind that one of their principal aims is to provide information that is deemed 'impartial'; information that under no circumstances circulates freely and unregulated on the airwaves of mainstream, capitalist media systems.
Additional Resourceful Docs:
Who Killed the Electric Car?
Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room
An Inconvenient Truth
Howard Zinn: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train
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