Just before Christmas we held our annual film-clip night. The theme was ‘documentary’. Choices ranged quite widely over the terrain of factual film and managed to encompass both the sublime (Humphrey Jennings) and the more-or-less absurd (Harold Baim). Wildly varied directorial approaches showed that ‘documentary’ is a large field. Here are the films from which the extracts were taken:
- Lucy chose Sleep Furiously, directed by Gideon Koppel, 2008
- Dan chose Oil City Confidential, directed by Julien Temple, 2009
- Robert J chose Thin Blue Line, directed by Errol Morris, 1988
- Simon chose Happy People, directed by Werner Herzog and Dmitry Vasyukov, 2011
- Olly chose Into Eternity, directed by Michael Madsen, 2010
- Robin chose Culloden, directed by Peter Watkins, 1964
- Peter chose The Power of Nightmares, directed by Adam Curtis, 2004
- Lisa chose Portrait of Jason, directed by Shirley Clarke, 1967
- Robert B chose Listen to Britain, directed by Humphrey Jennings and Stewart McAllister, 1942
- Jonathan chose Telly Savalas Looks at Birmingham, directed by Harold Baim, 1981
- Ben chose Everything is a Remix, directed by Kirby Ferguson, 2010–2011
- Bunny chose Terminal Bar, directed by Stefan Nadelman, 2003
- James chose Man on Wire, directed by James Marsh, 2008
- Fulla chose Vernon, Florida, directed by Errol Morris, 1981.