Documentaries that stay with you

Nine films I never managed to shake off, from nine hours of testimony to a beekeeper alone.

Bookmarks

1. The Thin Blue Line

   5/5

   Morris, 1988. Staged reconstructions, and an interview that freed a man.

2. Honeyland

   5/5

   Kotevska and Stefanov, 2019. Half for you, half for the bees, or it all ends.

3. Grizzly Man

   5/5

   Herzog, 2005. He listens to a tape he refuses to play us; that is the film.

4. Shoah

   5/5

   Lanzmann, 1985. Nine hours of witnesses, no archive footage, all present tense.

5. Hoop Dreams

   5/5

   James, 1994. Five years with two Chicago teenagers; really about their families.

6. Free Solo

   4/5

   Chin and Vasarhelyi, 2018. El Capitan without a rope, filmed by friends.

7. Sans Soleil

   4/5

   Marker, 1983. A travel film made of letters: Tokyo, Guinea-Bissau, memory.

8. Man on Wire

   4/5

   Marsh, 2008. A wire between two towers in 1974, told like a caper.

9. Harlan County, USA

   4/5

   Kopple, 1976. A Kentucky mining strike, filmed from inside the picket line.