An Inconvenient Truth

One of the things I look forward to most about the annual Academy Awards nominations is the documentary category. Each year, I get to see which films slip through the cracks of major movie houses and practically straight to the video shelves (read Netflix browsing page.) And in the past, the Academy has generally picked some great films, some that go on to be my favorites and others that are entirely new to me.

My personal favorite documentary of 2006 was Jeff Feuerzeig's "The Devil and Daniel Johnston", a fantastic look at underground music's most well respected delusional, which could not have been presented more eloquently. It was much more than a typical biopic. But this film is nowhere to be found in the "Best Documentary" column. (Note: Looking more closely, I believe the film was technically released in 2005, but it's neither on the ballot for the 78th awards nor the 79th.)

Instead, it is filled with melodramatic, headline-laced choices about corrupt religion (“Deliver Us from Evil”; "Jesus Camp"), the Middle East (“Iraq in Fragments”;"My Country, My Country"), and of course, "An Inconvenient Truth." All of these films are certainly more than worthy of a nomination, and they are all great topics to discuss. But this only encompasses a small fraction of what a documentary can be.

Although one of the objectives or documentary is to pull viewers further into the unknown world, but I'm convinced (if only formed by my own opinions) that people also want to watch them to escape from the world just for a couple of hours.

On a related Oscar note, congratulations goes out to Ryan Gosling, the Cinderella nominated for leading actor in "Half Nelson", a film that sits somewhere near the top of my 2006 films. Watch out for "Little Miss Sunshine"; Best Motion Picture all-the-way.