Tracing the evolution of documentary film through the decades

“The U,” director Billy Corben, 2009 — After the Dolphin’s 1972 perfection and before Dan Marino (and even into his tenure), the University of Miami, aka “The U,” was defining what football meant to South Florida. Billy Corben’s documentary of the same name is a fascinating depiction of how the social and racial unrest of early Miami of the 1980s manifested itself in the Miami football program.

The players coaches Howard Schnellenberger and Jimmy Johnson recruited were as brash and unpredictable as the rapidly developing city itself. The interviews and footage are brilliant snapshots of how gangster and thug culture were really received before hip-hop took them to the mainstream. — Adam Lukach

“Man on Wire,” director James Marsh, 2008 — “Man on Wire” follows Philippe Petit, a 24-year-old wire walker from France, as he sets out to fulfill an extremely lofty dream. Petit wanted to perform a high-wire walk between the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers, which were the tallest buildings in the world in 1974 when the events of the film took place.

As the fascinating events unfold, interviews with Petit’s friends add richness to the narrative and offer insight into Petit’s motivations. “Man on Wire” won the 2009 Academy Award for Best Documentary, a collection of other prestigious awards and the hearts of audiences everywhere. — Corin Chellberg
 
“Super Size Me,” director Morgan Spurlock, 2004 — “Super Size Me” follows filmmaker Morgan Spurlock as he sets out to eat nothing but food from McDonald’s for 30 days. His goal is to illustrate by exaggeration the health risks of the country’s increasing consumption of unhealthy fast food.

He goes through an ever-worsening range of symptoms as the film progresses, starting with weight gain and eventually including depression, sexual dysfunction and heart palpitations.

By the time Spurlock completed his experiment, he had gained almost 25 pounds. This entertaining but stomach-turning film will make you think twice before ordering a Big Mac the next time you are at McDonald’s, and that’s probably a good thing. — CC

“Sherman’s March,” director Ross McElwee, 1986 — “Sherman’s March” begins with a shot of a massive empty apartment as McElwee narrates how he always dreamed of making a movie tracing Northern general William Sherman’s march through the South during The Civil War and seeing if its effects are still relevant today.

However, it quickly turns into a tale of McElwee’s love for the women in his life and his failures in connecting with them. At times heartbreaking and hilarious, “Sherman’s March” is the film Woody Allen would make if he made a documentary. — Mikel Kjell

“Jesus Camp,” directors Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, 2006 — In the last decade, dozens of skeptical filmmakers have directed their vitriol at organized religion, blaming its influence for everything from the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 to the corruption of young children.

While Bill Maher’s much more successful “Religulous” uses humor to aim at the former, Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady’s “Jesus Camp,” the far superior documentary, seeks to shine light on the latter.

Scenes like the one of home-schooled children of Evangelical Christians pledging their allegiance to the flag of the Christian nation after being taught by their mother that evolution is an unproven theory are truly disturbing. The film should serve as a call to arms to stop extremists from teaching their kids whatever they want. — Brad Sanders

“For All Mankind,” director Al Reinert 1989 — Filmmaker Al Reinert documented the history of the Apollo space missions using footage shot by the astronauts themselves.
The film features a classic score from Brian Eno, the perfect accompaniment to Reinert’s celestial visuals. No fictional movie to date has represented anything as visually stunning as the documentary footage used here. — Brian Marks

“F for Fake,” director Orson Welles, 1974 — Orson Welles’ final film was this free-form documentary that was part a study of reality and fiction, a pure experiment in filmmaking, a biography of an international art forger, an autobiography of Welles’ career, factual to the smallest detail, and part lying through his own teeth.
It’s a bizarre work of art by the greatest of all directors, and real or fake, it’s absolutely mesmerizing. — Brian Welk

“An Inconvenient Truth,” director Davis Guggenheim, 2006 — “An Inconvenient Truth” is the famous documentary of former Vice President Al Gore’s efforts to teach people around the world about global warming by giving detail-rich and visually stunning presentations. A large portion of the film is that very presentation, presented on a massive scale.

That format combined with Gore’s reputation as a bland speaker may sound more like a nap-inducing lecture than a documentary film, but the presentation is dramatic, compelling and backed by a mountain of widely accepted data. The film paints a chilling picture of a slowly warming planet and serves as a clarion call to action, and it was the first to do so for the masses. — CC

“Night and Fog,” director Alain Resnais, 1955 — Alain Resnais’ documentary about the Holocaust is one of the shortest made on the subject and also one of the most important. Resnais avoids minutiae and instead focuses on why something so unimaginable could happen. The answer: There is no explanation. — BM

“Woodstock,” director Michael Wadleigh, 1970 — “Woodstock,” directed by Michael Wadleigh, helped to define an entire generation.

Wadleigh (with the help of editors, including a young Martin Scorsese) used innovative visual techniques to catalogue all of the music and mayhem of the famous festival. See it if only for Jimi Hendrix’s closing performance. — BM

The “Up” Series, director Michael Apted — The “Up” series became the most ambitious collection of films ever made, fact or fiction, after starting in 1964 with 14 students and the mantra, “Give me a child until the age of 7, and I will give you the man.”

Michael Apted faithfully followed how 14 kids from different parts of Britain grew and developed in seven-year intervals, and his project has not stopped. In 2005, Apted’s subjects turned 49 in the series’s seventh installment, and “56 Up” has been announced for a 2012 release. — BW

“The Man With the Movie Camera,” director Dziga Vertov, 1929 — Regardless of whether you can call it a documentary, “The Man With the Movie Camera” is one of the greatest films ever made.

Released in 1929 with an average shot-length as rapid as today’s action extravaganzas, the film was the first wholly cinematic experience of the time.
It has no plot, no characters and no intertitles, and it proved that audiences could watch the shooting, editing and screening of a film about the day in the life of the people of Moscow. It’s one of the most remarkable cinematic experiments of all time. — BW

“The Cove,” director Louie Psihoyos, 2009 — The Oscar-winning documentary of last year is one of the most heartbreaking, empathetic documentaries I’ve ever seen.
It condemns the practice of dolphin slaughter in Japan on an emotional, environmental, ecological, political, cultural and medical level.
It does all of this as though the viewer were watching a crime caper. Try not to cry at the horrific footage of dolphins being stabbed to death in a secret cove off the coast of Taiji, Japan. — BW