Sixty-two Films That Shaped the Art of Documentary Filmmaking
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/sixty-two-films-that-shaped-the-art-of-documentary-filmmaking
http://archive.is/rq18D
Godard fanboi Richard Brody has become extremely annoying with recent writings that champion not just contemporary wokester cinema but even corporate capeshit. This list was potentially redemptive with plenty of fresh documentary recommendations mixed with some lesser-known favorites of mine. But on closer inspection the new titles aren't quite as interesting as they first appeared; many seem to be chosen for their shitlib idpol value.
At any rate here's his list:
“Salt for Svanetia” (1930, Mikhail Kalatozov)
“The Forgotten Frontier” (1931, Marvin Breckinridge)
“Enthusiasm” (1930, Dziga Vertov)
“The City” (1939, Ralph Steiner and Willard Van Dyke)
“Let There Be Light” (1946, John Huston)
“Farrebique” (1946, Georges Rouquier)
“Strange Victory” (1948, Leo Hurwitz)
“Night and Fog” (1955, Alain Resnais)
“Chronicle of a Summer” (1960, Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin)
“Integration Report 1” (1960, Madeline Anderson)
“The Children Were Watching” (1961, Robert Drew)
“Belarmino” (1964, Fernando Lopes)
“Take This Hammer” (1964, Richard O. Moore)
“Love Meetings” (1964, Pier Paolo Pasolini)
“A Time for Burning” (1966, William Jersey)
“Portrait of Jason” (1967, Shirley Clarke)
“The Lenny Bruce Performance Film” (1967, John Magnuson)
“The Queen” (1968, Frank Simon)
“Symbiopsychotaxiplasm: Take One” (1968, William Greaves)
“Original Cast Album: Company” (1970, D. A. Pennebaker)
“Numéro Zéro” (1971, Jean Eustache)
“Growing Up Female” (1971, Julia Reichert and Jim Klein)
“Joyce at 34” (1972, Joyce Chopra and Claudia Weill)
“Marjoe” (1972, Sarah Kernochan and Howard Smith)
“F for Fake” (1973, Orson Welles)
“El Sopar” (1974, Pere Portabella)
“Welfare” (1975, Frederick Wiseman)
“Grey Gardens” (1976, Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Ellen Hovde, and Muffie Meyer)
“Not a Pretty Picture” (1976, Martha Coolidge)
“The Battle of Chile” (1975-79, Patricio Guzmán)
“A Grin Without a Cat” (1977, Chris Marker)
“Word Is Out” (1977, Mariposa Film Group)
“The Police Tapes” (1977, Alan and Susan Raymond)
“Poto and Cabengo” (1979, Jean-Pierre Gorin)
“With Babies and Banners” (1979, Lorraine Gray)
“Fannie’s Film” (1982, Fronza Woods)
“Shoah” (1985, Claude Lanzmann)
“The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On” (1987, Kazuo Hara)
“Lightning Over Braddock” (1988, Tony Buba)
“Rock Hudson’s Home Movies” (1992, Mark Rappaport)
“Thank You and Good Night” (1991, Jan Oxenberg)
“The Devil Never Sleeps” (1994, Lourdes Portillo)
“A Plate of Sardines” (1997, Omar Amiralay)
“Histoire(s) du Cinéma” (1988-99, Jean-Luc Godard)
“Nat Turner: A Troublesome Property” (2003, Charles Burnett)
“The Beaches of Agnès” (2008, Agnès Varda)
“Phyllis and Harold” (2010, Cindy Kleine)
“The Missing Picture” (2011, Rithy Panh)
“This Is Not a Film” (2011, Jafar Panahi)
“Actress” (2014, Robert Greene)
“Field Niggas” (2015, Khalik Allah)
“No Home Movie” (2015, Chantal Akerman)
“Coma” (2016, Sara Fattahi)
“Rat Film” (2016, Theo Anthony)
“The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman” (2016, Rosine Mbakam)
“Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun?” (2017, Travis Wilkerson)
“Shirkers” (2018, Sandi Tan)
“Infinite Football” (2018, Corneliu Porumboiu)
“One Child Nation” (2019, Nanfu Wang and Jialing Zhang)
“My First Film” (2019, Zia Anger)
“Dick Johnson Is Dead” (2020, Kirsten Johnson)
My contempt for Richard Brody continues unabated...