The Year in Film – Documentaries

As I wind down my series of posts on the 2019 year in film, I’ll conclude with a piece on documentaries.  I managed to see a number of them this year and there were a few I really enjoyed and thought would be good recommendations.  These span a wide range of topics, so hopefully you can find a few you will like.

Apollo 11

This was probably my favorite of the year – truly a stunning achievement in filmmaking, telling the story of the Apollo 11 mission, commemorating the 50^th anniversary of the Moon landing.  Using only film and audio footage that was available in 1969, much of which was recently discovered, it tells the story in a compelling and suspenseful way, even though we know how the story ends.  This film received strong critical reviews, but was surprisingly not nominated for the Best Documentary Academy Award.  I was fortunate enough to see this on an IMAX screen when it was released in March and it was a fantastic experience.  If you watch this one at home, I highly recommend turning out the lights, turning up the sound and putting down your phone for the length of the movie. 

American Factory

This movie was picked up by Netflix after it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and released in August.  You may have read about this in the media as it is the first film from Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company.  It is also the favorite to win the Academy Award for Best Documentary.

This is a classic story of what happens when two cultures clash following a new business venture.  A Chinese company (Fuyao) opens a glass factory at a former General Motors plant in a suburb of Dayton, Ohio.  At first, the workers are excited to have jobs again, albeit at lower wages.  As the months move on, we see the conflict between the Chinese and American ways of working in a factory.  There is even a movement by some of the workers to unionize.  After working in Corporate Finance for 25 years, I wasn’t surprised by the inevitable conflicts that arose, but I was stunned at the brazen comments some of the people made about their counterparts from the other country.  However, there were some nice moments when people looked beyond cultural differences to appreciate the work and comradeship of their colleagues.  This was a good film and worth the watch.

Mike Wallace is Here

One of my favorite podcasts on The Ringer podcast network is called The Rewatchables.  They pick an older movie and dissect it, using some fun categories.  I was recently listening to one where they discussed The Insider, the excellent 1999 film about whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand (played by Russell Crowe) who exposed the tobacco industry’s knowledge of the dangers of cigarette smoking.  CBS News and 60 Minutes are featured prominently in the film, with Al Pacino playing executive producer Lowell Bergman and Christopher Plummer playing Mike Wallace.  While I was listening to the podcast, they mentioned the documentary Mike Wallace is Here, which premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, so I decided to check it out.

Director Avi Belkin took a unique approach in telling the life story of Wallace, who died in 2012.  By accessing over 1,400 hours of footage from 60 Minutes, he told Wallace’s life story using interviews that Wallace conducted and interviews of Wallace himself by other journalists.  It covers all aspects of his career and also included some interesting details about his personal life, particularly the difficulty he faced following the death of his 19 year-old son in 1962.  It was fascinating to watch how the state of the media has changed over the last several decades, but even more so, how much of the media world has stayed the same, especially the last decade.  If you are interested in the world of journalism, you might like this one.

The Edge of Democracy and One Child Nation

Two stories by international filmmakers who travel to their home countries to present compelling stories about difficult topics.

The Edge of Democracy tells the story of political upheaval in Brazil over the last decade as scandal throws the government and the country into chaos.  The story spans the presidency of two pro-Labor leaders and shows what can happen when a new (and fragile) democracy gets tested.  Director Petra Costa brings in her conflicted personal experiences growing up in Brazil, including her family’s construction company’s involvement with the scandal that helped topple a presidency.  There were times that I thought the filmmakers were trying to shove a message about U.S. politics down the viewers’ throats, but I tried to ignore that aspect and stay with the story as it was presented.  I’m not a fan of a director pushing their agenda on the viewer – I’d prefer they present the facts and let me make the decision on how I feel.

I had a similar reaction during a part of One Child Nation, a gripping film about China’s one-child policy, which lasted from the late 1970s until 2015.  While I vaguely knew about the country’s restrictions on childbirth, I had no idea how barbaric the government became to enforce this law.  Director Nanfu Wang, who was born under the policy in 1980 and later moved to America, returned to China to tell the story, interviewing those who lived through this era.  The story is comprehensive as she interviews midwives, family planning officials, human traffickers who sold unwanted children to adoption agencies, and her own parents.  The one part of the film I struggled with was her interview with an artist, which was particularly graphic and I felt a little too on the nose for presenting a political angle.  But that was a small portion of the movie, so it doesn’t distract from the overall story.  This one is a tough watch, but very well done.

Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice

Over my many years of listening to music and learning about musicians’ lives and journeys through their careers, I’ve always been impressed by those musicians who take risks in their careers and try something different.  I will be devoting more time to this topic in an upcoming blog, but I thought about this concept while I watched this film about singer Linda Ronstadt. 

I didn’t have much experience listening to Ronstadt’s music while I was growing up.  My first recollection of her was when she took the radical step of leaving the world of pop/rock music to record an album of traditional jazz/pop standards in 1983.  This was a big deal at the time and I learned in the documentary that she received significant resistance from her record company, but she ultimately prevailed.  The album was a success, leading to two similar follow up albums.  At the time Ronstadt made this decision, she was coming off a very successful decade, in which she had five straight albums to go platinum (a million copies or more sold).  In 1980 she auditioned for and starred in the Broadway musical The Pirates of Penzance, and later starred in the film version.  Following her three traditional jazz/pop albums, she recorded a country album with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris, and then decided to record an album of traditional Mexican folk songs, in tribute to her heritage as part Mexican.  While she eventually made her way back to contemporary music in the 1990s, her range of projects and choices is quite impressive.  Unfortunately, she was forced to retire from singing due to Parkinson’s disease in 2011.

I love films like this, where I can learn about a new musician or a band that I had very little exposure to.  The video and audio footage in the film is great, and there are a number of singers, producers and executives who provide some insights into working with Ronstadt that complemented the archival footage.  And another fun fact which you may not know – one of her first bands included Don Henley on drums and Glenn Frey on guitar.  They were rooming together on the road and started writing songs together.  They decided to leave her band and start their own band which became, of course, The Eagles.  Speaking of which, if you haven’t seen The History of the Eagles, I highly recommend that one too.

All of these films are on DVD or streaming services so you can see them now.  If you are wondering where to find them, I recently discovered JustWatch, an app that you can use to find where any movie or TV show is available to stream or rent.  I found it to be useful, especially since many services rotate their content pretty frequently. 

I hope you enjoyed this week’s post.  That concludes my review of the 2019 year in film.  I’m already scoping out upcoming releases for 2020 (including this year’s Sundance Film Festival), but next week I’ll be shifting gears a bit to dive into some different topics.  Enjoy the Oscars this weekend.  If you missed my preview, you can read it here. Thanks again for reading.