Doc Corner: Gianfranco Rosi's 'In Viaggio'

By Glenn Dunks

I will be honest with you. I initially had no real desire to watch In Viaggio: The Travels of Pope Francis. I believe my words were “because of the whole pope thing”, which I personally think is entirely fair. Especially after another European filmmaker, Wim Wenders, had his own Pope Francis doc not too long ago. It does, however, prove to be a much more interesting than initial perceptions would have suggested. And, to be honest, director Gainfranco Rosi—a director whose work only seems to be getting better and better (which is saying quite a lot)—deserves better than a ‘thanks, but no thanks.’ After all, I don’t think any other filmmaker can claim both a Golden Bear and a Golden Lion for works of non-fiction.

Rosi’s film is not the immersive experience that recent works like Notturno and Fire at Sea were, but it was probably never going to be. Reset expectations then, and we have In Viaggio, a surprising documentary built almost entirely out of archival footage as Pope Francis jet-sets around the world. Again, it’s better than it sounds.

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Doc Corner: The Best Documentaries of 2022

By Glenn Dunks

There’s only so much one can watch! A recurring refrain inside my brain as I attempt to cram as many more films into my watch pile in order to offer myself, and you dear readers, the best chance at a definitive list of the best documentaries of 2022. It’s always doomed to failure of course. There are many films that I was unable to watch that I wanted to before hitting publish. Some were simply too long to fit in (Mr. Bachmann and His Class) and others were unavailable in my location (Lowndes County and the Road to Black Power), while others make it difficult to even know if they should be eligible. Again, there’s only so much one can watch. I’m already falling behind on 2023!

But here today are my top 15 documentaries of 2022. And because I watched a lot of stuff, a few little extras up top. Are you ready?

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Doc Corner: A to Z of the Longlist (Part 5)

By Glenn Dunks

History can unfold in a lot of different ways. So too, how filmmakers choose to uncover, reveal and tell it in films for audiences. This week’s selection of films through the alphabet of 2022 titles that were eligible for the 95^th Academy Awards (parts one to four available in the archives) show this off to great effect (even if the movies themselves don’t always succeed).

One uses comedy to explain how a man hoodwinked his way through one of the more baffling true crimes (if you can call it that) in modern history. Another takes a brief snippet of archival war footage to unravel a hidden queer love story at a time where such things weren't to be spoken about. Another is more traditional, detailing an incredible story from the annals of cinema history that could very easily have been ignored.

And at least in the first one—we get to see Alan Cumming lip syncing for his life.

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Doc Corner: Surprise Nominee, 'A House Made of Splinters'

By Glenn Dunks

I wasn’t expecting to have to review this movie so early. Until little more than a week before the 85^th Academy Awards, Simon Lereng Wilmont’s film about Ukrainian children didn’t even have an American distribution deal. PBS and POV swooped in just in time, acquiring the rights to a film that nobody had on their predictions and yet ultimately landed a surprise nomination for Best Documentary Feature alongside more recognised titles All That Breathes, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, Fire of Love and Navalny (all titles we have looked at over the last year).

The movie had of course been on my radar for a while. Wilmont’s previous film, The Distant Barking of Dogs, was one of the great documentaries of the 2010s. A House Made of Splinters doesn’t quite reach the five-star heights of that one, because it has less of a laser focus. But it’s a beautiful, aching story and it is definitely not just making up the numbers on the Academy’s five.

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Doc Corner: A to Z of the Longlist (Part 4)

By Glenn Dunks

As we carry forth alphabetically along our merry way through the Academy's 144-title long-list (yes, we'll still be going both after the shortlist as well as after the nominations next week—click here for A through J) we have coincidentally found two consecutive titles about the city of New Orleans. Bost missed the shortlist, which isn't surprising although they each have their virtues. Following these, however, is one film that did make the Oscar shortlist and that doesn't make quite such convenient bedfellows, but rules are rules and we're dealing with what the alphabet gives us.

The strongest of the pair from Louisiana is Katrina Babies, Edward Buckles’ partly autobiographical account of life in the city post Hurricane Katrina. Buckles uses a mixture of interviews, archival news footage and colourful animation to tell the story of how this natural event destroyed the way of life of so many, but in particular a group of children who knew no other life and were quickly forced to grow up.

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