What’s up, docs? 2008 was a fine year for nonfiction films
January 2, 2009
By Mark Hinson
Docs rocked in 2008.
When it came time to draw up a list of the year’s best films, several fine documentaries kept popping up again and again. Most of these non-fiction flicks were shown at All Saints Cinema, the Miracle 5 or as part of the inaugural Tallahassee Film Festival in May.
So, instead making them compete with “Wall*E” in the overall best-of list, I decided to give special commendations to:
- “Man on Wire”: In the summer of ’74, a French daredevil secretly rigs a tightrope between the Twin Towers in New York and takes a little stroll in the sky. The stunt was akin to pulling off a bank heist — or a terrorist act. And that’s what makes it so eerie to watch. Available on DVD.
- “Trouble the Water”: As Hurricane Katrina approaches New Orleans in 2005, a woman living in the Lower Ninth Ward picks up her video camera and tapes life before and during the flood. One of her uncles doesn’t make it through the catastrophe. The footage and the aftermath are truly shocking. Not yet available on DVD.
- “God’s Cartoonist”: Tallahassee writer-filmmaker Kurt Kuersteiner delves into the strange, secretive world of crusading cartoonist Jack Chick — a fundamentalist Christian whose miniature comic books (or Chick tracts) are as revered by underground artists as they are reviled by some religious groups. Available on DVD.
- “The Lord God Bird”: Director George Butler (“Pumping Iron”), who was here for the film festival, offers up a fascinating look at the media craziness and controversy surrounding the sighting of one rare bird — the ivory-billed woodpecker. Not yet available on DVD.
- “Encounters at the End of the World”: The great German director Werner Herzog (“Grizzly Man”) takes us on a transcendentalist tour of the offbeat folks and weird creatures who call Antarctica home. Available on DVD.
- “A Man Named Pearl”: You don’t see many movies that touch on both the art of topiary and the legacy of racism in the South, but this is one. This quiet film focuses on a quiet man, Pearl Fryar, whose obsession with turning his yard into a topiary wonderland took shape after he was told no one ever won a yard-of-the-month competition in his all-black neighborhood in Bishopville, S.C. Available on DVD.
- “Gonzo: The Life and Work of Hunter S. Thompson”: A wonderful primer and introduction to the life of the hard-living booze hound who gave us “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” and then turned into a parody of himself. Available on DVD.
