Doc Corner: The 25 Best Documentaries of 2021 (and where to see them)
Thursday, January 20, 2022 at 2:01PM By Glenn Dunks
Dear readers, I watch a lot of movies. Then again, what else was I supposed to do throughout yet another pandemic year with city-wide lockdowns and curfews? Which is why it was no real struggle at all to think of enough titles to make this list of the 25 best documentaries of 2021. Nor why I do not consider it the least bit excessive. Movies are great, so let's celebrate them! Each of the films listed are deserving of your eyes, although often for very different reasons—I hope my pseudo-weekly reviews and below captions help explain why.
It was a strong year for films about artists and art more broadly. Nearly half the films on the list below are related to film, music, painting, dance and/or the people to make them. Queer themed docs were also prevalent. The longest film here is 194 minutes. The shortest is 61. There is almost a 50/50 between male and female directors across 25 films that travel the globe from sex doll factories in China to political campaigns in Zimbabwe, a jail cell in Guantanamo Bay and the streets of Harlem...
THE 25 BEST DOCUMENTARIES OF 2020
25. NO STRAIGHT LINES: THE RISE OF QUEER COMICS, Vivian Kleiman
On one hand, this is a rather simple doc. Functional and linear. But as I watched this colourfully assembled film, I was struck by how the story of queer comics is just as much the story of a revolution (+ Fun Home). Like the comics themselves, No Straight Lines educates as well as entertains, telling a story of how many found their voice through the fanciful and the erotic, the intergalactic and the down the earth. And, to me, that was something special. [Where to see it: Still in festival rotation; released limited theatrically in November]
24. THE FOREVER PRISONER, Alex Gibney
Alex Gibney's works are often no fuss—they have to be given how prolific he is—journalistic undertakings where he reveals fact after fact about one form of American crime after another. This one is no different, boldened by first-person illustrations in the place of illegally destroyed evidence about the story of Abu Zubaydah. Used as a guinea pig by the United States government, Gibney traces his story through an embarrassment of shameful revelations. That we sit it comfort hearing about all of this only confounds the effect it has. [Where to see it: Streaming on HBOMax]
23. FILM ABOUT A FATHER WHO, Lynne Sachs
From my review: It’s a deeply personal work of biography (via autobiography), of course. … Sachs, in fact, builds her own cinematic grammar to help construct an understanding of her father, reckoning with the mistakes that lead to where they all are in 2020. [Where to see it: Streaming on the Criterion Channel]
22. FAYA DAYI, Jessica Beshir
This sombre doc from Ethiopia is perhaps a touch too elliptical in its narrative (if that's what you could even call it). Nevertheless, Beshir’s own striking black-and-white cinematography really does lend it a quality that feels unique, reconfiguring the way we look at its own story and Africa more broadly. It’s probably no surprise I thought instantly to Ralf Schmerberg’s Hommage á Noir. This is a film of tone and poetry and images that pierce out from the dust, so much so that I am willing to extend some cultural leniency in the process. [Where to see it: Streaming on the Criterion Channel]
21. CIVIL WAR (OR, WHO DO WE THINK WE ARE), Rachel Boynton
From my review: Civil War finds interesting crevices within which to explore education and class-driven divides and the way the war's lessons are taught and absorbed by the next generations. Spoiler alert: it’s not entirely comforting. [Where to see it: Streaming on Peacock, rentable online]
20. CAN YOU BRING IT: BILL T. JONES AND D-MAN IN THE WATERS, Tom Hurwitz, Rosalynde LeBlanc
From my review: Where others may glide over entire works like a brisk walk through a gallery, there is far more nuance to be found in the way Can You Bring It illuminates on D-Man's thorny subtexts and subtle textures. [Where to see it: Rentable online]
19. WOODLANDS DARK AND DAYS BEWITCHED: A HISTORY OF FOLK HORROR, Kier-La Janisse
3hr+ documentaries about scary movies are surprisingly common, but this dissection of where cinema meets cultural manifestations of violence and horror is probably the best one yet. It’s academic—perhaps too much so for its own good, but this long (194 minutes!) and in-depth history is wonderfully, even wittily assembled, thoroughly detailed and richly educational. [Where to see it: Streaming on Shudder]
18. THE LOST LEONARDO, Andreas Koefoed
Sometimes documentaries can just be really entertaining. Easily the best doc I’ve seen in some time about the world of fine art world—and I have seen a few—because while it luxuriates in much of the scene's pretentions, it also interrogates them and the absurd clash of money, ego and power that come with it. This isn't just a film about how great it is to have money, but about what comes from it. It lost me a little bit when it got into Tenet territory, but it's a exhilirating story. [Where to see it: Rentable online]
17. NO ORDINARY MAN, Aisling Chin-Yee and Chase Joynt
From my review: It dismantles the very politics of disclosure, and tells its story of self-discovery with empathy and tenderness while utilising film craft in a way that offers genuine inclusive insight. [Where to see it: Rentable online]
16. WITCHES OF THE ORIENT, Julien Faraut
In the depths of yet another months-long lockdown, the Tokyo Olympics actually proved to be a surprising diversion. Surprising because recent editions went by without much notice. Nestled alongside those was Witches of the Orient, a spiky (pun unintended) documentary about perhaps the best volleyball team of all time that emerged out of a Japanese factory’s recreation program and took its players to the 1984 Olympics. Julien Faraut (director of another sports doc, John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection) injects a whole lot of style including manga illustrations when he isn’t letting us luxuriate in the company of these lovely, now older champions. [Where to watch it: Rentable online via virtual screening rooms]
15. LISTENING TO KENNY G, Penny Lane
From my review: What makes Listening to Kenny G so invigorating of a watch is because of the greater story within which this narrative is placed. One that interrogates the controversial anti-populous appeal of the multi-instrumentalist’s smooth jazz stylings from all angles. [Where to see it: Streaming on HBOMax]
14. MOMENTS LIKE THIS NEVER LAST, Cheryl Dunn
Cheryl Dunn’s second feature in ten years is a portrait of an artist who, it seems, was a complete dickhead. Which is what lends it a fascinating friction. Capturing a strange post-9/11 commercialisation of contemporary punk, it straddles a really fine line of celebrating Dash Snow, while also wanting to get underneath. Like another artist portrait further up the list, Cheryl Dunn’s follow-up to 2013’s Everybody Street is cut with the ferocious spirit of its subject, making copious use of archival footage and Dunn’s own material that, like the art world money that came his way, intoxicates. Was Snow for real, though? Who can tell…? [Where to see it: Streaming on MUBI, rentable online]
13. THE VELVET QUEEN, Marie Amigut
A nature documentary that is more concerned with patience and waiting than it is Attenborough style up-close education or the biographical anthropomorphising of last year’s unconventional Oscar winner My Octopus Teacher. Beautifully shot (although, as good as it is, Warren Ellis and Nick Cave's score gets in the way of the sounds of nature from time to time) and richly rewarding in its conclusion. I was surprised by Marie Amigut’s debut feature. It just won the Lumière in France. [Where to see it: Currently in limited theatrical release]
12. NORTH BY CURRENT, Angelo Madsen Minax
From my review: Minax tells the story of his family in sombre tones but with affection as well as a keen eye to collage and even a slight avant-garde sensibility. [Where to see it: Streaming on PBS; still in festival rotation]
11. SUMMER OF SOUL (…OR, WHEN THE REVOLUTION COULD NOT BE TELEVISED), Questlove
From my review: …Questlove has used this opportunity (his first as a director) to not just string together the material filmed over those six weeks. Rather, he has used it to explore what made those six weeks so special in the first place. [Where to see it: Streaming on Hulu and Disney+]
10. PRESIDENT, Camilla Nielsson
Camilla Nielsson’s earlier feature, Democrats, about the political plights of Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe, was mere preparation for President, a compelling film of two starkly differing halves. In one, the hope of a new dawn for the African nation is on the horizon. Both politically and visually, it evokes the era of Obama as Nielsson’s camera captures the emphatic crowds and playbooking. Its second half, is a legal thriller that bolds, italicises and underlines just why the first half was so important. Impeccable work. [Where to see it: Currently in limited theatrical release]
9. THE VELVET UNDERGROUND, Todd Haynes
From my review: Haynes pushes the concept of a conventional bio-doc about as far as he can while remaining something your average punter might potentially watch on Apple TV+... But its Haynes’ eye as a master stylist within his knack for heightened drama that gives The Velvet Underground what makes it special. [Where to see it: Streaming on AppleTV+]
8. FLEE, Jonas Poher Rasmussen
From my review: The key to the success of Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s film is that it embraces traditional documentary form as much as it pushes it… [Where to see it: Currently in limited theatrical release]
7. LITTLE GIRL, Sébastien Lifshitz
The most recent discovery and latest addition to the list; sorry Questlove, maybe an Oscar will have to suffice instead of a place in this top ten. Sébastien Lifshitz’s direction here is among the very top highlights of the entire list, following moments major and minor in the life of Sasha, an eight-year-old transgender child. The filmmaker quite masterfully observes with humane patience and deep empathy for this family of just very nice people as they confront an all-too-unforgiving society head on. Heartbreaking and inspiring. [Where to see it: Rentable online]
6. WOJNAROWICZ: F**K YOU F*GGOT F**KER, Chris McKim
From my review: Big, boldly stylized and defiantly queer; it’s a documentary about an artist that, for once, feels truly in sync with its subject’s style. “I’m not gay as in ‘I love you’, I’m queer as in fuck off!” [Where to see it: Rentable online]
5. THE ANNOTATED FIELD GUIDE OF ULYSSES S. GRANT, Jim Finn
From my review: ...Finn mixes narrated passages like Ken Burns, an avant-garde musical soundtrack, and playful battle recreations using roadside tourist trap trinkets, board games and playing cards. I found it an entrancing and divine work of experimental historical documentary. [Where to see it: Streaming on OVID]
4. ASCENSION, Jessica Kingdon
Finds stark yet cinematically witty ways to portray China's economic shift. From sex doll factories to butler school and the pomp and circumstance of performative capitalistic excess, Kingdon uses cinematography, editing and music in some really extraordinary ways. Hard to believe this is the filmmaker’s first feature given how precise and refined it is. And in a sea of films about China, it stands tallest. [Where to see it: Streaming on Paramount+]
3. BULLETPROOF, Todd Chandler
From my review: Handler’s quite remarkable film takes something of a more removed tactic with its subject—the scourge of mass shootings in American high schools and the efforts made to avert such disasters happening in the future. [Where to see it: Rentable via a virtual sreening room]
2. STATE FUNERAL, Sergei Loznitsa
One of my favourite directors delivered once again with this beast of a documentary and a true feat of editing. Perhaps even better than The Event, which I ranked as the 7th best doc of the last decade, so... you know. That’s pretty damn good! Masterfully connects the mourning for Stalin across the USSR in ways that captures both the pomp and the absurdity and the mundanity. It will most likely not be for many people, but if you have jived to Loznitsa’s wavelengths before, don’t miss it. [Where to see it: Streaming on MUBI, Rentable online]
1. PROCESSION, Robert Greene
From my review: It’s become somewhat predictable that a new Robert Greene will challenge an audience as much as it enthrals. He doesn’t exactly pick the most digestible of subject matter, but the way he comes at them is always so interesting and refreshingly unique that it becomes more than just a dour excursion into humanity’s darkest corners…. His latest, the Netflix-distributed Catholic Church abuse drama Procession is no different. More so, it’s the best documentary of the year. [Where to see it: Streaming on Netflix]
And there you go, folks. Another year of documentaries down. You can follow me on Letterboxd to see everything I watch and keep following Doc Corner for (usually) weekly reviews.
Reader Comments (8)
This is always so helpful, thanks!
I particularly appreciate knowing where/how to see these docs, since they tend to get buried under all the studio hyped stuff.
See, and now I know that I can watch the best documentary of the year on Netflix this weekend!
So so happy to see my favourite documentary of 2021, LITTLE GIRL, feature in your top ten. It's a gem.Thanks for the whole list, it will give me another set of movies to check off.
Thank you, for this great list of reccommendations!
I have not seen 12of the 25, but not even as high as the 3rd and 5th place on your TOP (the next I haven't seen is on your 13th)!
But for example Little girl, President and Lost Leonardo are also in my TOP10 of 2021 docs.
My favourite doc of the year was The dissident, since I missed it in 2020, but my 2nd favourite was THE RESCUE (really exciting even though the outcome was known...but the whole process itself, did you really not get into that? :)) and on my 5th there is IN THE SAME BREATH, mostly because I found the ending was like a prophesy, that was already coming true, when I watched it at Sundance. My 7th is TRY HARDER (it made me cry!) and 8th COME BACK ANYTIME (what a nice film about beloved Ramen restaurant, but of course more about the people, mostly the owner, who has had a long life, but still had to keep on going, because the people loved the place). My 9th is another thriller or spy doc about a danish guy who infiltrates into top level N.Korean country management in MOLE: UNDERCOVER IN NORTH KOREA and rounding up my TOP10 is an interesting interview-documentary with Soviet Union's last president, who started giving independency to all the forced members governed for decades by the higer power in Moscow in GORBATCHEV. HEAVEN.
Kris, I liked COME BACK ANYTIME too, but I don't think it was theatrically released beyond theatres. I would've put IN THE SAME BREATH on there, but I really didn't like the over use of narration. TRY HARDER was fine.
Travis, literally the second last movie I watched before putting this together. It made an impression!
As always I'm gonna make recommendations from México (because is almost the only I watch lately LOL)
Una Película de Policias (A Cop´s Movie) - Partially fiction but is very interesting the experimental tone and does some accurate observations about cops and how they are perceived by citizens.
La Luz del Alba - Is about five regions from México that are auto-sustentable but they are in constant fight and resistence against outsiders that tries to change their way to live. Inspiring and heartbreaking.
Tengo Un Sueño - It documents the work from "Semilleros" (associations in rural places to teach young people artistic disciplines) and the preparation they have to an event with the name that titles the movie. Totally charm and with the special appearence of the unique Regina Orozco, a talent that I know this site will appreciate if you give yourselves the chance to know.
Special mention: The mini-series "Duda Razonable" it makes you anger about the indignant levels of corruption in the judge system in México. Immensely crude but necessary.
As always I'm gonna make recommendations from México (because is almost the only I watch lately LOL)
Una Película de Policias (A Cop´s Movie) - Partially fiction but is very interesting the experimental tone and does some accurate observations about cops and how they are perceived by citizens.
La Luz del Alba - Is about five regions from México that are auto-sustentable but they are in constant fight and resistence against outsiders that tries to change their way to live. Inspiring and heartbreaking.
Tengo Un Sueño - It documents the work from "Semilleros" (associations in rural places to teach young people artistic disciplines) and the preparation they have to an event with the name that titles the movie. Totally charm and with the special appearence of the unique Regina Orozco, a talent that I know this site will appreciate if you give yourselves the chance to know.
Special mention: The mini-series "Duda Razonable" it makes you anger about the indignant levels of corruption in the judge system in México. Immensely crude but necessary.
Cesar, thanks for highlighting those titles! Every country has their own great works that unfortunately do not get released beyond their borders. It can make it very hard to follow them especially without festivals as regularly due to the pandemic. I wasn't a fan of A COP MOVIE, but I would like to say I'll keep my eyes open for the others.