The Best Documentary Short-List

[Precious Doll]

If We Were Here, the greatest AIDS documentary since Common Threads which made the short list and failed to gain a nomination last year I don't hold hope for How to Survive a Plague. Whilst HTSAP has many strong points, it's a riveting look at AIDS activism and the unravelling of ACT UP, the film for me was brought to it's knees towards the end by the smugness and self satisfaction of these white middle class men, who deserve all the praise you can heap on them for the hard and consistent battle that they waged during this era, who appear fail to recognize that whilst they continue to leave due to much improved treatments that the fought tooth and nail for, many people in the world, including the poor in America, are unable to afford these medications. That aspect of the film really annoyed me because the AIDS crisis is still alive and kicking and people are still dying.

Of the documentaries I've seen I'd list in them in the order of quality as follows:

5 Broken Cameras
The House I Live In
Searing for Sugarman
This Is Not a Film
How To Survive a Plague
Bully

All of them are good films, though from The House I Live In Down I do have some major problems with.

It's a shame that what I consider the three best documentaries of the year have made the list, though they may not have been eligible:

Outing - a film that covers three years in the life of a 26 year old self confessed pedophile and his struggle to not act upon his desires
Hitler's Children - interviews with descendants of major players of Nazi Germany
The Flat - a terrific example of a filmmaker setting out to make a film about one thing and which goes on to tell more about his own neurosis's then he appears to even realize.

[Sabin]

Having at this point only seen The Imposter, I'm pretty sure it's not getting in. Same problem that Errol Morris has faced over the years.

My guesses:
Bully
The Gatekeepers
How to Survive a Plague
Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God
Searching for Sugar Man

For whatever reason, everyone in my life has seen Searching for Sugar Man but me. People/The AARP Crowd are gravitating towards this thing. It's probably going to win.

Weakest pic from this bunch is Bully which The Weinsteins may be able to push to a nomination, but I hear it's not a very good movie. The Gatekeepers, I've heard, is a better movie than 5 Broken Cameras. The latter might get in, or something like Ethel which I can't go a day without my parents telling me to see.

[anonymous1980]

"Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry," Never Sorry LLC
"Bully," The Bully Project LLC
"Chasing Ice," Exposure
"Detropia," Loki Films
"Ethel," Moxie Firecracker Films
"5 Broken Cameras," Guy DVD Films
"The Gatekeepers," Les Films du Poisson, Dror Moreh Productions, Cinephil
"The House I Live In," Charlotte Street Films, LLC
"How to Survive a Plague," How to Survive a Plague LLC
"The Imposter," Imposter Pictures Ltd.
"The Invisible War," Chain Camera Pictures
"Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God," Jigsaw Productions in association with Wider Film Projects and Below the Radar Films
"Searching for Sugar Man," Red Box Films
"This Is Not a Film," Wide Management
"The Waiting Room," Open’hood, Inc.