My Ode To Documentary Films
I’ve always been fascinated by stories. Not just the fictional kinds you see on TV or in the movies, but also the true life stuff, the things that happen in this everyday world that we live in. So I guess It’s not surprising I indulge so heavily in documentaries, as It’s truly the realest form of storytelling there is. I honestly can’t remember the first documentary film I ever saw, but I can tell you the one that first impacted me in a heavy way.
Titled the “Up” Series, it’s a documentary that follows the lives of fourteen British children. Spanning from 1964 until 2012, It’s the type of documentary that draws you in from the very beginning. Just knowing you’ll be watching these kids from the age of seven until fifty-six is fascinating enough, but as the series continues on and the kids grow up, you realize It’s more than just a voyeuristic peek. At times It’s thought provoking and at others, heartrending, making you wonder why fate favors some while cruelly overlooking others.
Grittier in style and depicting homeless youth in Seattle, “Streetwise” is a documentary that was shot in 1984. Both sad and beautiful in its documentation, it gives you a view into the lives of street teens, some selling their bodies while others push drugs to keep themselves going. It’s shot in a way that makes you forget It’s on screen, and like a fly on the wall you feel compelled to see what’s next. Even after it ended I was left feeling haunted, wishing certain tragic events hadn’t taken place while hoping the best for the surviving vagabond teens.
Just as visually arresting is “80 Blocks From Tiffany’s,” a gang culture documentary from the 1970s. Shot with a hand held camera, it provides a glimpse into bygone days, a time when hip-hop culture was just beginning to root and subways were covered in graffiti. At the focus are two street gangs: the Savage Skulls and Savage Nomads. The neighborhood they inhabit is destitute, with burned-out buildings and prostitutes who walk the streets, but the community is filled with colorful characters, who further enliven this visual time capsule.
Much more modern and released in 2015, “The Wolfpack” has become one of my current favorites. Following the lives of six brothers who were confined to their NYC apartment, this unique and engaging narrative tells the strange but true story of the Angulo’s. Controlled by a father who rarely allowed them outside, the Angulo brothers became film aficionado’s, memorizing movies line by line and even acting them out in homemade costumes. Their sister, Visnu, is rarely seen on camera, but she is a captor as well. By the middle of the film one of the brothers make a break, venturing out in a self-made Michael Myers mask so he can remain unrecognized on the streets. It’s not until the end, however, that we see how the brothers fare, and how their lives begin to unfold post house-break.
Directed by Crystal Moselle, The Wolfpack is a view into the lives of these six young men, a study of what It’s like to grow up cut off from the outside world. Spanning five years, the documentary is a character study of sorts, interspersing home movie recordings with current day footage.
It’s unconventional storytelling like “The Wolfpack” that pulls you in, makes you wonder about the subjects even after the credits roll across the screen. One also questions how the filmmakers gain access to certain moments, those exceedingly private times which make you feel as if you’re somehow intruding.
Whether poetic, investigative, or controversial, documentaries are a non-fictional slice of life, meant to expose and share, while also being artful and making one think. Documentaries allow the viewer to experience through visuals, to learn about people, or animals, or things they otherwise wouldn’t have. The possibilities are endless, allowing anyone or anything to be filmed and turned into a story.
But most of all, documentaries allow us to live through the subject, and sometimes it’s the simplest of moments that really stand out and grip the viewer.
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