I present here the best general interest true films I've found. I define true films as documentaries, educational films, instructional how-to's, and what the British call factuals - a non-fiction visual account.
As dogged as I have been in tracking down great true films, I have seen only a fraction of the estimated 40,000 that have been made. So I am ready for more. However I will only list true films and documentaries that are available as VHS tape or DVDs at consumer prices. In other words, films that are easy for most people to see upon request. I won't include films that are only shown in theaters, or available via high-priced rentals, or simply out of print.
If you know of an available amazing true film that I've missed please recommend it to me.
Darkon
This is a great film about very ordinary people trying to break out of their humdrum lives. The subjects are the type of people who once seem utterly odd, but now ... less so. They are the folks who dress up in historical costumes and role play in fantasy worlds. They are members of Darkon, a live-action role-playing game that's been continuing for 25 years. Every two weekends hundreds of Darkon enthusiasts take over parks in the DC area and stage physical battles for imaginary cells on a paper map. They use foam padded weapons with intricate rules of combat. Everyone takes the game and their roles almost creepily seriously. The elf clan speaks elfish to each other! It's a combination of martial arts, Dungeons & Dragons, re-enactments, World of Warcraft, and a 25-year strategy board game. Sales clerks become white knights, house dads become heroes. Maybe. We follow the dreams of an upstart wannabe king as he challenges the reigning imperial army to several foam battles. It is what he lives for. The entire time this film magically transverses that very thin line between: grow up, "it's only a game" and "all life is a game," this too counts. The extreme dedication of these multitudes to this surrogate world is both pathetic and totally inspiring. Their enthusiasm is no more misplaced than say someone who spends years trying to put a tiny white ball in a hole in the grass. But it is a hundred times more creative. This film captures the immense passion by which these misfits pursue their vocation. It's a great view of the human spirit. All hail Darkon!
-- KK
Darkon
Luke Meyer, Andrew Neel
2006, 90 minutes
DVD, $10
Rent from Netflix
Available from Amazon
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Think of this as a documentary version of Inception. There are layers of truth and fiction that lead down many levels. The subjects being filmed are sometimes also making the film, and sometimes the subject of a real obsessive documentarian, but it is never clear what level you are watching. On the first level this is a documentation of street art beginning in the 1990s -- and at this level alone it is worth watching. Street art means not just graffiti and stickers, but ironic stenciling, performance art, and even pranks in the manner of the guy who nailed his own painting on the walls of the Museum of Modern Art. That guy was the street artist Banksy, famous for both brilliant pranks and for keeping his real name and face unknown. For the first time Banksy is filmed in in action, pixelated. But who is filming him in this documentary? Is Banksy directing or someone else? This film itself is a prank about street pranks. It is a piece of street art, as much as a documentary can be, as indicated by its title reference to the moneyed art world of galleries (please exit through the gift shop). It is a fun ride and its intimate journey into late night urban art will really help you appreciate what street artists are trying to do (way beyond vandalism), and why it probably is the art of our times.
-- KK
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Banksy
2010, 86 minutes
DVD, $15
Read more about the film at Wikipedia
Rent from Netflix
Available from Amazon
Restrepo
This documentary about life on the battle field in Afghanistan gets high praise from soldiers as being "exactly what it is like." The film begins with cocky young American rookies fresh off the plane getting shelled by insurgents before they reach their first destination. It may look like a first-person shooter video game, but the raw footage makes you quickly realize that this battle is far more pitiful than any game could be. It's a game no one wants to play. When the besieged soldiers finally fight, their adrenaline peaks, but it peters out by the end of this story as they confront the head-banging futility of this war. (Later the outpost they so valiantly conquered is abandoned.) We are given faces to this, the longest war of the US. We get to know the comrades one by one, and the film is named after one beloved guy who is killed. The main achievement of this film (and the parallel book by the author/director) is to convey that what keeps the guys going, the reason they fight, is not any large idea, but to simply not let their comrades down. This movie is a real life Band of Brothers.
(Filming this was life threatening. The co-director was later killed in action while photographing the war in Libya.)
-- KK
Restrepo
Sebastian Junger, Tim Hetherington
2010, 93 minutes
DVD, $12
Read more about the film at Wikipedia
Rent from Netflix
Available from Amazon
Babies
No narration, little dialog, much filming, all babies. Babies without a script. The camera focuses on four babies from four distinct regions of the world: Mongolia, Namibia, Japan and California. Quietly we watch them develop awareness, see them solicit reactions from their parents and siblings, and begin to impress the world with their wills. Each in their own habitat -- as if this were a nature documentary, which it is. The baby of Mongolia shares the bath with a goat; the baby of Namibia eats dirt; the baby in California surveys an over-engineered environment. But as marvelous as these differences are, this wordless wildlife documentary shows that their commonality is even greater. We recognize the overwhelming babiness, or humanness, in each kid. Watching kids be themselves is so much more fun than watching TV, and here we have TV that is just watching kids be themselves. This film is a recursive nirvana!
-- KK
Babies
Thomas Balmes
2010, 78 minutes
DVD, $16
Rent from Netflix
Available from Amazon
Last Train Home
Here is a rare inside look at where your stuff comes from. The central event in China today is the mass migration of 100 million country folk to the cities to work in factories. This documentary follows one family out of those 100 million as it sacrifices everything to gain very little. Just getting the last train home at New Year's is an ordeal worthy of arctic expedition. This raw and candid film is really a coming of age story about a typical teenage girl who can't leave her boring farm quick enough, and the great pain her parents endure to help her succeed. But in the end it is a heartbreaking family drama -- one played out millions and millions of times. With no preaching, you get to see the actual costs of the cheap jeans and electronics we purchase today. A big global picture is painted with this very intimate portrait of real life in the real China.
-- KK
Last Train Home
Lixin Fan
2009, 90 minutes
DVD, $20
Read more about the film at Wikipedia
Rent from Netflix
Available from Amazon
