Documentary Directors Who Made the Transition to Feature Filmmaking

The Los Angeles Times takes a look at top documentary filmmakers who successfully made the leap to Hollywood moviemaking. It's not as natural a transition as you might expect, but what fascinates us is the qualities they bring with them -- which add up to exceptional visual storytelling abilities.

Documentary directors may be better equipped than most to deliver something that's frequently missing from narrative movies: emotional truthfulness. What's more, nonfiction storytellers directing narrative features are comfortable shooting in the increasingly popular verité style that mashes extemporaneous camera moves with scripted action and dialogue.

Michael Apted is a pioneering example, having produced the 7 Up series, and then giving us features such as Gorillas in the Mist (based on a true story), and now exploring terrain far removed from real life: the next Chronicles of Narnia film.

Paul Greengrass spent the first ten years of his career making documentaries, and his trademark handheld-camera technique ("To be perfectly honest, I couldn't afford tripods") has served him well with hit features such as United 93 (a 9/11 film based on real-life people and events) and two Bourne films.

Some other examples:

Nanette Burstein (pictured)
Documentaries: American Teen, The Kid Stays in the Picture
Feature: Going the Distance

Andrew Jarecki
Documentary: Capturing the Friedmans
Feature: All Good Things

Seth Gordon
Documentary: The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters,
Features: Four Christmases, Horrible Bosses (upcoming)

James Marsh
Documentary: Man on Wire (Oscar-winner)
Feature: Red Riding: In the Year of Our Lord 1980

Amir Bar-Lev
Documentary: The Tillman Story
Feature: Biopic of Jerry Garcia (upcoming)

Jose Padilha
Documentary: Bus 174
Features: Elite Squad 2, The Sigma Protocol (upcoming)

The documentarians-turned-dramatists say the two genres are unexpectedly comparable, and that their nonfiction backgrounds often helped them in critical ways. Even though a feature film may have a manufactured story, directors of documentaries and features are constantly looking for openness from the people in front of their cameras.

Padilha says directors with documentary training tend to be adept at telling stories, and shooting in a style that invites, rather than distances, the audience. "You don't have a script, so you have to focus on the narrative. You come up with a shooting plan based on what you decide the story is," Padilha says.

Documentary directors, Padilha adds, know how to use their cameras in service of that story. In a feature, "Instead of moving the camera by itself, you move the camera with the actors." In a documentary, he says, "The camera is always trying to find what matters in the action, so the audience can find what's relevant."

The documentary filmmakers interviewed for the Times story acknowledged that their hearts may be in non-fiction storytelling, but their wallets do better when they apply their talents to fiction -- especially considering that this year's excellent feature-length Oscar winner, "The Cove," grossed just $857,000 in the U.S.

As feature-length video distribution over the internet becomes more viable (as is already happening via Netflix, Hulu, et al), that financial picture is likely to improve considerably. Might feature filmmakers someday turn their lenses to nonfiction stories?

15 Documentaries Tapped for Oscars

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has announced that, of the 89 films that had qualified in the Documentary Feature category, 15 have been selected to advance in the voting process for the 82nd Academy Awards®.

* “The Beaches of Agnes,” Agnès Varda, director (Cine-Tamaris)
* “Burma VJ,” Anders Østergaard, director (Magic Hour Films)
* “The Cove,” Louie Psihoyos, director (Oceanic Preservation Society)
* “Every Little Step,” James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo, directors (Endgame Entertainment)
* “Facing Ali,” Pete McCormack, director (Network Films Inc.)
* “Food, Inc.,” Robert Kenner, director (Robert Kenner Films)
* “Garbage Dreams,” Mai Iskander, director (Iskander Films, Inc.)
* “Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders,” Mark N. Hopkins, director (Red Floor Pictures LLC)
* “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers,” Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith, directors (Kovno Communications)
* “Mugabe and the White African,” Andrew Thompson and Lucy Bailey, directors (Arturi Films Limited)
* “Sergio,” Greg Barker, director (Passion Pictures and Silverbridge Productions)
* “Soundtrack for a Revolution,” Bill Guttentag and Dan Sturman, directors (Freedom Song Productions)
* “Under Our Skin,” Andy Abrahams Wilson, director (Open Eye Pictures)
* “Valentino The Last Emperor,” Matt Tyrnauer, director (Acolyte Films)
* “Which Way Home,” Rebecca Cammisa, director (Mr. Mudd)

The Wrap noted the absence of Michael Moore's high-profile "Capitalism: A Love Story," and James Toback's well-received "Tyson," which covers the life of boxer Mike Tyson in his own words.

And the screening committee obviously doesn't like rock 'n' roll, because neither "Anvil! The Story of Anvil" nor Oscar winner Davis Guggenheim's "It Might Get Loud" made the cut.

Cinematical notes those absences, along with "The September Issue" (about Anna Wintour and Vogue magazine), and adds: "Last year's best-reviewed documentary, 'Man on Wire,' went on to win the Oscar; 'Anvil!' holds that title this year (98% at Rotten Tomatoes), but it's not even going to be nominated."

How many of these feature-length documentaries have you seen? Any of your favorites missing? Which of the selected films do you think will be nominated? Which one will win an Oscar?

Nominations will be announced on Feb. 2, 2010. The awards ceremony will take place March 7, 2010.

Best Documentaries of the Past Decade?

Paste, the award-winning pop-culture magazine, has published a thoughtful list of the 25 best documentaries of the past decade.

Our first reaction was: "Wait! The decade's almost over?"

After that cold rush of reality set in, we devoured the list with glee, nodding in agreement at the selections we've personally savored, and adding those we haven't to our wildly out-of-control Netflix queue.

Upton Sinclair, Bob Woodward, and Carl Bernstein may have set the standard for muckraking in the 20th century, but their heirs apparent are as likely to pick up a video camera as they are a pen when they fight the battles of the 21st. Technical advances have put professional tools into the hands of amateurs, but they explain only part of the reason that so much muckraking has moved from newspapers to video....

The 25 Best Documentaries of the Decade (2000-2009)

1. Man On Wire
Director: James Marsh

In 1974, high-wire walker Philippe Petit fulfilled a longstanding dream by sneaking into New York’s World Trade Center, stringing a cable between the tops of the two towers, and—with almost unfathomable guts—walking across it without a net. The man is clearly a nut, but he’s also a great storyteller with a heck of a story, and Man on Wire gives him a chance to tell it.



2. Iraq in Fragments (2007)
Director: James Longley

Applying the full spectrum of cinematic technique to a nonfiction film, Longley made one of the most striking movies this year, an immersive view of life in Iraq; a record of opinions and faces from across the country, all captured at close range.



3. Grizzly Man (2005)
Director: Werner Herzog

This profile of nature lover Timothy Treadwell, who unwisely tried to live among wild bears in Alaska until he was devoured, cuts a Herzogian swath across the hillside: A man attempts to find harmony with nature but instead finds, as Herzog puts it, “chaos, hostility and murder.”



4. The Fog of War (2003)
Director: Errol Morris

For those who lived through the ’60s, the name Robert McNamara provokes an entire range of emotions and experiences. But even those too young to remember the former U.S. Secretary of Defense will find Errol Morris’ amazing film an incredibly relevant portrait of a man who helped shape the 20th century.



5. Bowling For Columbine (2002)
Director: Michael Moore

Michael Moore can sometimes seem glib and shrill, driving even his supporters nuts. But with Columbine, arguably his most important film, he successfully tackles the insanity of America’s gun problem—a problem so insane that Marilyn Manson, in a candid interview, emerges as the voice of reason.



Check out the rest of the list here -- plenty of good viewing to last you through 2010!

Please share with us your favorite documentaries of the past decade that did not make this list.

What will the 2010 - 2019 list look like? According to Paste, given the industry's economics, it might be a short list indeed:

Given the troubled state of theatrical distribution, many documentaries are more likely to be seen at home than the mall. But who will finance them? Even with so many outlets -- from traditional theaters and aging broadcast television to new and unproven avenues like SnagFilms, YouTube, and Netflix Instant -- most documentarians are unlikely to earn enough to keep working. It’s a gap that’s yet to be bridged: the distance between the obvious value of hard-nosed reporting and the cost of getting the results in front of an audience.

P.S. One response to Paste's list can be found on In One Eye, Out the Other, a blog by a 26-year-old U.K. documentary filmmaker named Charlotte, who offers a list twice as long. ("I tried to limit to 25 but it’s just impossible.") Here are her top 10:

1. The Fog of War (Morris, 2003)
2. The Staircase (de Lestrade, 2004)
3. When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts (Lee,2006)
4. Journeys with George (Pelosi, 2002)
5. Guerrilla: The Taking of Patty Hearst (Stone, 2004)
6. Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story (Forbes, 2008)
7. Jonestown: The Life and Death of Peoples Temple (2006)
8. Dark Days (Singer, 2000)
9. Power of Nightmares (Curtis, 2004)
10. Grizzly Man (Herzog, 2005)

For Charlotte's full list (with links to trailers), go here.

'Smile Pinki': Best Documentary (Short) Oscar

That other Indian film is getting all the Academy Award attention, but we're intrigued by the 39-minute true story about an Indian girl's million-dollar smile... and wondering where and how we can see it for ourselves!

Best Picture winner 'Slumdog Millionaire' is still in theaters, but good luck trying to find 'Smile Pinki' on YouTube or Netflix. It won the Oscar for Best Documentary (Short Subject), and it sounds terrific, but we scoured the Web in vain for viewing info.

So we'll share with you what we've been able to find.

Directed by San Francisco-based Megan Mylan, it's a fairytale-come-true about a poor five-year-old girl who's born with a cleft lip deformity, but thanks to the global Smile Train Project, she receives plastic surgery and her life is transformed . By all accounts, it's a true Kleenex dampener.

We found the trailer (also over here); a talk show featuring Mylan, Pinki, Pinki's dad, and Pinki's surgeon; and a transcript of an interview with Mylan. But please let us know if you find the actual movie itself -- we're eager to see it!

Meanwhile, the good news is that the Best Documentary Feature winner is still in theaters, and as we've previously reported, it is phenomenal. James Marsh's breathtaking 'Man on Wire' offers a behind-the-scenes re-creation of Philippe Petit's 1974 vertiginous tightrope waltz between the World Trade Center towers, and all the preceding years of strategizing the historic spectacle that became known as the "artistic crime of the century." Go see it! Here's the trailer: