Brilliant documentaries

I’ve been on a documentary kick and have recently discovered a number of new ones. A mixture of moving, amusing, horrifying and enlightening , these are eleven examples of the best documentaries of recent times.

• Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father : “In 2001, Andrew Bagby, a medical resident, is murdered not long after breaking up with his girlfriend. Soon after, when she announces she’s pregnant, one of Andrew’s many close friends, Kurt Kuenne, begins this film, a gift to the child.”      Filmed as a letter to a son from his murdered Father, this documents the life of the father through the words of the people who loved him.  Beautiful and heartbreaking, the twist in this film is absolutely shocking.
• Capturing the Friedmans : This documents the story of the Friedman family as the father and one of the sons were arrested for child molestation.  Disturbing yet compulsive viewing, most of the footage is film footage that the family took themselves which captured the unsettling family life and it’s disintegration.
• Food Inc:  “An unflattering look inside America’s corporate food industry.” Very thought-provoking it definitely made me thing twice about what i eat and where it comes from.
• Jesus camp:  Unsettling and well made story of  an evangelical children’s summer camp where the children are taught to “take back America for Christ” using techniques that are worryingly like brainwashing.
• Autism the musical: Good hearted and uplifting it tells the story of a group of autistic children and their parents as they write and perform a musical.
• My kid could paint that : Four year old Marla Olmstead ‘s paintings have sold for thousands of dollars and some have questioned whether she is the real artist behind the paintings.
• Supersize me: Watch Morgan Spurlock as he eats only McDonalds for 30 days and see the resulting health effects on his body.
• Queen of Versailles:  This documentary follows the Siegel family as they build the single largest family home in America.  I was expecting it to be trashy goss tv but it is a surprisingly touching portrait of a family and how the recession affects even the wealthiest in society.
• The American teen: Lively and engrossing story about six Indiana High school seniors as they embark on their final year of school.
• After the apocalypse : About the soviet nuclear testing in Kazakhstan.  Shocking and disturbing it is only the family bonds that life this documentary from the nightmarish.  The soviets used the people of this area as human guinea pigs, the result is high levels of birth defects and genetic disorders.  This documentary follows a pregnant woman from that area and the doctors and nurses who treat her.  The doctor is, in my opinion, the most disturbing thing in the film.
• The bridge: eerie and compelling story of a year in the life of the Golden Gate bridge -the most popular suicide spot in the world. It features interviews with family and friends of people who have jumped off the bridge.