jueves, enero 29, 2015

The Greatest Documentaries of All Time

Este verano, la revista inglesa Sight & Sound publicó una encuesta realizada a críticos, cineastas, programadores, sobre los mejores documentales de la historia. Fue un honor formar parte del comité de selección. La tarea fue divertida pero dolorosa por todos los documentales que tuve que dejar fuera (incluso mis favoritos). 

Me puse unas reglas y la principal fue no repetir autores sino escoger una obra que a mi modo de ver mejor representase a cada uno de mis elegidos. Así, algunas de mis películas preferidas de toda la historia terminaron sin entrar en esta lista (Time Indefinite, Perfiles campesinos, Nostalgia de la luz...). También, y por varios motivos, decidí concentrarme en documentales más recientes. 

Aquí va mi elección que la pueden ver también en la página de la revista (en algunos casos con comentarios).

With a few exceptions, my choices focus on more recent films, most of which I have programed at Encuentros del Otro Cine since I became its Artistic Director. These films and their authors have defined my views on the art of documentary filmmaking, and have helped me establish the point of view that defines EDOC's programme. It is still too early to know whether some of the films that I have included in this poll will pass the test of posterity, but I decided to take a risk and bet on them.

Moi, un noir 
Jean Rouch / 1958















A movie that opens a new path in filmmaking. Documentary, hybrid, ethnofiction... hybrid, Can anybody label Moi, un noir? A film that  at obliterates boundaries, a celebration of freedom, imagination, reality and truth!

Grey Gardens
Ellen Hovde, Albert Maysles, David Maysles, Muffie Meyer / 1975











La batalla de Chile
Patricio Guzmán / 1975- 1977















Sherman's March 
Ross McElwee / 1986












Délits Flagrants
Raymond Depardon / 1994










No Quarto da Vanda 
Pedro Costa / 2000















Avenge But One Of My Two Eyes
Avi Mograbi / 2005


The comic Mograbi of yesterday has vanished. Now he is in rage. Years have passed since I first watched Avenge But One Of My Two Eyes, and I am still haunted by the distorted face of the extremist who, during a jam session, promises to make the Palestinians pay for at least one of the eyes that the Philistines removed from Samson. A horror movie as much as a documentary.

Santiago
João Moreira Salles / 2007












Carefully crafted in its style, Santiago is a fascinating film, a powerful and beautiful reflection of the essence of documentary cinema. In the modest home of an individual one finds all the possible universality. An intimate and discreet film that never neglects its social content, while captivating the audience with its explosive poetry.

Of Time and the City
Terence Davies / 2008













Archival footage, colossal images captured contemporaneously, a lyrical narration and an interesting selection of music give shape to this visual poem —or this symphony— that the Terence Davies dedicates to his home town, Liverpool.  Of Time and the City is one of the most complex and beautiful films of the past decade.

Leviathan
Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel / 2012


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