This Year’s Oscar Documentaries Are Tough to Watch |
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The Oscars may be self-congratulatory—and were first created as a union-busting scheme. But when viewed at a macro level, the annual event is still an instrument for good. It regularly highlights quality films that aren’t necessarily financially successful, prompting many to seek them out. (What that means this year is that everyone should fire up their Netflix accounts and watch the small-but-marvelous Train Dreams, about a railroad worker in the early 20th century, nominated for four Oscars but likely to win none of them.)
This extra attention is even more valuable to feature length documentaries, but this years’ spotlight must come with a warning. Four of the five nominated pictures are pretty damn depressing, and the fifth one is “life affirming,” which is marketing code for “still very sad.” It’s not out of the ordinary for this category to be a bit of a downer—it’s been five years since Summer of Soul, Questlove’s reminiscence of a mostly forgotten 1969 concert series in Harlem, won the prize—but these choices are reflective of the times we live in.
The Oscars may be self-congratulatory—and were first created as a union-busting scheme. But when viewed at a macro level, the annual event is still an instrument for good. It regularly highlights quality films that aren’t necessarily financially successful, prompting many to seek them out. (What that means this year is that everyone should fire up their Netflix accounts and watch the small-but-marvelous Train Dreams, about a railroad worker in the early 20th century, nominated for four Oscars but likely to win none of them.)
This extra attention is even more valuable to feature length documentaries, but this years’ spotlight must come with a warning. Four of the five nominated pictures are pretty damn depressing, and the fifth one is “life affirming,” which is marketing code for “still very sad.” It’s not out of the ordinary for this category to be a bit of a downer—it’s been five years since Summer of Soul, Questlove’s reminiscence of a mostly forgotten 1969 concert series in Harlem, won the prize—but these choices are reflective of the times we live in.
Unlike last year, where the subject matter of all five nominees extended beyond U.S. borders, this year just two of the films are “foreign”—one about Russia, the other Iran. But of the remaining three “domestic” films, two are still likely of interest to those who follow policy news. With this in mind, however, after my overview of what’s in the running, I’ve added some further suggestions, in case you plan to program your own mini-festival from the comfort of your own home—including a choice or two that won’t leave you reaching for a bottle of ibuprofen afterwards.
Mr Nobody Against Putin
Directed by David Borenstein and Pavel Talankin
When I was 7 years old, a controversial (though now mostly forgotten) half-hour of television aired on the Mobil Showcase anthology series called The Children’s Story. The short film promised to show what ordinary life would be like if the United States lost a war. As a Cold War kid, this terrified me, so I expected something gruesome. What I got was an adaptation of a James Clavell short story about how a new teacher would one day come to class and, with smiles and good cheer, slyly indoctrinate children with anti-Americanism. (It included the kids slicing up an American flag.)
I thought the show was lame and ribbed my parents for making it appointment viewing, but the fact that I remember it so well 44 years later clearly means something. And it came to mind watching Mr Nobody Against Putin, which takes us inside a Russian school undergoing a radical, immediate shift from teaching to indoctrination.
Pavel “Pasha” Talankin is the young, cool teacher at a school in Karabash, a small town in the Urals known for its ugly copper smelting plant and pollution. (There is a bit of gallows humor, even a sense of pride, about living in such a notorious spot; I’m from New........