A Call for Inspiring Documentary Films

The weekend is approaching, and my girlfriend and I are planning to take in a documentary Saturday night.  Our choices are Crude, an “infuriating story about Big Oil and little people”, according to the New York Times, and Capitalism: A Love Story, the new Michael Moore film.  Both appear to be depressing indictments, although Moore’s film will probably make me laugh, so it’s slightly more appealing. 

 

What are so many documentaries downers?  My girlfriend was very happy last week when we saw The September Issue, remarking, “It was nice to see a documentary that wasn’t depressing.”  Clearly many American documentary filmmakers emerge from a social activist tradition and see their mission as improving upon the status quo.  But why does calling tend to focus on the problem rather than solutions? I have little patience these days for docs that repeatedly pin the bad guy against the wall.  Boring.  And I suspect I’m not alone.  Notably, the Audience Award at the 2008 Sundance Film Festival went to Fields of Fuel, an upbeat documentary about biofuel directed by Joshua Tickell, a charismatic and intelligent optimist.  My hope is that the emerging generation of filmmakers will stage a healthy rebellion against the finger-pointing, nail the bad guy mold and fashion their youthful optimism into thoughtful, inspiring, call-to-action docs.