City of Ghosts (2017)

Director Matthew Heineman's documentary may be a little static, but with its sympathetic depiction of fear and hiding, it paints a vivid and terrifying portrait of life under a powerful, evil regime. read more...

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LA 92 (2017)

While the images in this documentary, made up entirely of archival footage, are still powerful and heartbreaking, a modern-day commentary or historical context would have been an invaluable addition. read more...

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• Anxiety Level ▶ I like my stomach in knots
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• Moralistic ▶ Yes please
• Rules ▶ Rigid or strongly constrained
• Realism ▶ Magical, Futuristic, Fantastic
• How Things Happen ▶ By cause and effect, mechanics, rules or facts
• Comfort Level ▶ Distressed, disturbed, unsettled or unresolved
• Overall Depth ▶ Deep or penetrating

Bus 174 (2002)

This grueling two-hour documentary shows tons of video footage shot in late 2000 during a brutal hostage situation in downtown Rio de Janeiro. A young man, Sandro do Nascimento, held six people hostage on a bus before the day ended in tragedy. read more...

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Night and Fog (1955)

Filmed just ten years after the end of WWII, this 32-minute film tells the story of the Nazi concentration camps with the most cutting, painful urgency of any film. Director Alain Resnais used stills, archive footage and new footage of the deserted camps and combined it with a brilliant score by Hanns Eisler and narration written by Jean Cayrol, who survived such a camp. Absolutely one of the most important historical documents ever made. read more...

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• Moralistic ▶ Yes please
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• Realism ▶ Magical, Futuristic, Fantastic
• How Things Happen ▶ By cause and effect, mechanics, rules or facts
• Comfort Level ▶ Distressed, disturbed, unsettled or unresolved
• Overall Depth ▶ Deep or penetrating
• Takes itself Seriously ▶ Yes please
• Originality ▶ Different or novel for its time

I Am Not Your Negro (2016)

In a year of remarkable documentaries on racism — coming, apparently, just in time — Raoul Peck's I Am Not Your Negro isn't as sensational or essential as O.J.: Made in America, nor as far-reaching and emotional as Ava Duvernay's 13th, but it's certainly the most scholarly. (The trio should be taken together as an important snapshot of racism as an inextricable part of American history.) Director Peck (Lumumba) bases his film on an unfinished manuscript by author James Baldwin (1924-1987), detailing Baldwin's reminiscences of and friendships with civil rights leaders Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X. Samuel L. Jackson narrates from the manuscript, using a surprisingly effective, moderated voice, and matching Baldwin's own beautiful, intelligent manner of speaking. This flows over a stream of powerful images, archival footage of Baldwin speaking about race with clarity that was unheard of at the time, difficult for whites to understand (perhaps less so now, but still difficult). A short capsule review cannot do this documentary's depth of intelligence justice, but suffice to say that it uses history and literature to peel back old wounds and reveal fresh ones. read more...

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• Overall Depth ▶ Deep or penetrating