Not A Doom and Gloom Film

What docs do you watch when you’re not working on one?

I’m excited to see the new HBO documentary Alternative Endings. It’s about dying, but as Psychology Today reports, it’s “not a doom and gloom film”.

On the other hand, there’s Roberto Minervini’s What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire? I’ve read conflicting reviews. According to critic Lillie Ross, it’s a race documentary that “wallows in tragedy but offers no solutions”.

This collection of interviews with black people in Mississippi and Louisiana is, in Ross’s eyes, “the most unproductive type of sociopolitical film, especially in today’s climate, in that it aims to incite but not to motivate.”

I haven’t seen the film, but reviews like that are my red flag. I eschew tragedy porn and, I’m a sucker for problem-solving, hopepunk docs!

Speaking of which, I’m eager to gather friends to watch The Biggest Little Farm. According to director John Chester, who interviewed with IndieWire, most non-fiction films about farms or the environment are “fear-based”.

“The enemy is a human corporation or greed,” he says. “The victim is always the planet. And at the end the audience leaves feeling fear or despair or depression, their eyes are more tight, not more wide. I wanted to show … the cure.”

“It’s a forward-thinking, problem-solving heart-tugger,” says critic Anne Thompson.

So, what documentaries are beckoning the hopepunk in you?