For your Thanksgiving break, I thought I would offer some suggestions as to some classic documentaries for you to watch. While the celebrations may be more limited this year, the time on the sofa watching Netflix or other streaming services will no doubt be the same or more as usual. So why not consider these classics of an under-appreciated genre and marvel at the skills of the filmmakers here?

 

I believe all these films are family friendly, at least PG-13, but you can always consult commonsensemedia.org for more information.

 

Spurlock emerged from anonymity with a bold experiment that he captured on film: what happens if you eat nothing but McDonald’s for every meal for thirty days straight? This Academy Award nominee combines humor and a serious look at consumerism, with lots of lessons on nutrition as well. You’ll never think of a Big Mac and fries the same way. (I also recommend Spurlock’s series 30 Days, in which he lives the life of someone in a certain situation for a month.)

 

Morris is one of the boldest non-fiction filmmakers working today, because he skillfully blends elements of fiction films with elements of traditional documentary. This exploration of a crime and the false imprisonment of an accused man is one of Morris’s first documentaries and the one that gained him international acclaim. I recall being totally riveted by this movie the first time I saw it. The musical score by Philip Glass is one of the most mesmerizing in film history.

 

A thorough exploration of the under-representation of women in positions of power. Interviews with many prominent women in politics and media are interspersed with narratives from other women whose stories we don’t know. Although this film is almost ten years old now, it still holds up. Your eyes will be opened to the ways that women are depicted in advertising and pop culture and the extent to which gender stereotypes proliferate in the media.

 

This Academy Award winner tells the story of a coal-miners' strike in Kentucky. One of the best examples of American cinema verité, Kopple’s film painstakingly shows the lives of people in Appalachia and sets up a classic David vs. Goliath scenario. The film crew faced threats and uncertainty while shooting the footage, and the movie took nearly four years to complete.

 

Spike Lee’s first documentary is a must-see based in the Civil Rights era. The focus of the film is the 1963 Birmingham church bombing which claimed the lives of four children and served as a catalyst to national outrage. Lee has since ventured into other documentary topics, including this year’s concert film David Byrne’s American Utopia which is drawing comparison to Jonathan Demme’s classic Stop Making Sense. This new film is on my watch list for the break.

 

One of the strangest and most wonderful films of all time. This classic from the American documentary pioneers Albert and David Maysles chronicles the lives of a mother and daughter, relatives of Jackie Kennedy Onassis. Once among the social elite of Long Island, the two now live in virtual poverty and spend their days together in a dilapidated mansion. And I would be remiss in the category of shameless promotion if I didn’t note that you can also find a book about the Maysles Brothers here on Amazon. Written by yours truly almost two decades ago now(!), this represents a labor of love. https://tinyurl.com/yyq6uxpx