poll – Asian Docs

List of lists – best documentaries of 2015

Let’s go “meta” once in a while, this is the idea I had few days back when I thought it would be interesting to make a list of lists, of course about documentaries. So, for the fun of it, but also because it might turn out into something surprisingly fascinating, I’ve decided to collect as many lists about “best non-fiction/documentary of 2015” as possible, newspapers, blogs, websites, magazines, personal lists and anything else will go. As usual with best-of-the-year-lists, and it’s particularly true for non-fiction movies, the most insightful part of the endeavour will probably be to see what other people have watched, that is what documentaries were distributed in different countries (in theatres or in other formats) during 2015, more than agreeing or not with someone’s choices.

This page will be updated periodically

Indiewire – The 20 Best Documentaries Of 2015 (here the original article):

20. “The Hunting Ground” (Andrea Pino)
19. “Heart Of A Dog” (Laurie Anderson)
18. “Prophet’s Prey” (Amy Berg)
17. “Seymour: An Introduction” (Ethan Hawke)
16. “The Seven Five” (Tiller Russell)
15. “The Jinx” (Andrew Jarecki)
14. “The Pearl Button” (Patricio Guzmán)
13. “The Salt of the Earth” (Wim Wenders)
12. “In Jackson Heights” (Frederick Wiseman)
11. “The Black Panthers: Vanguard of a Revolution” (Stanley Nelson)
10. “Junun” (Paul Thomas Anderson)
9. “Dreamcatcher” (Kim Longinotto)
8. ”Listen To Me Marlon” (Stevan Riley)
7. “Best of Enemies” (Robert Gordon, Morgan Neville)
6. “The Look of Silence” (Joshua Oppenheimer)
5. “Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck” (Brett Morgen)
4. “Amy” (Asif Kapadia)
3. “(T)error” (Lyric R. Cabral, David Felix Sutcliffe)
2. “Meru” (Jimmy Chin, E. Chai Vasarhelyi)
1. “Cartel Land” (Matthew Heineman)

Men’s Journal – 13 must-watch docs of 2015 (original article here):

Cartel Land (Matthew Heineman)
Stray Dog (Debra Granik)
Winter of Fire (Evgeny Afineevsky)
Montage of Heck (Brett Morgen)
Listen to Me Brando (Stevan Riley)
Racing Extinction (Louie Psihoyos)
Going Clear (Alex Gibney)
Amy (Asif Kapadia)
Meru (Jimmy Chin, E. Chai Vasarhelyi)
Call Me Lucky (Bobcat Godthwait)
Best of Enemies (Robert Gordon, Morgan Neville)
The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)
All Things Must Pass (Colin Hanks)

NonFics – The 6 Must See Musical Dicumentaries of 2015 (original here):

Amy (Asif Kapadia)
Don’t Think I’ve Forgotten: Cambodia’s Lost Rock ‘n’ Roll (John Pirozzi)
Junun (Paul Thomas Anderson)
A Poem is a Naked Person (Les Blank)
Rubble Kings (Shan Nicholson)
Seymour: An Introduction (Ethan Hawke)

Paste – The 20 Best Documentaries of 2015 (here the article):

20. Finders Keepers (Bryan Carberry, J. Clay Tweel)
19. What Happened, Miss Simone? (Liz Garbus)
18. The Wolf Pack (Crystal Moselle)
17. Amy (Asif Kapadia)
16. Best of Enemies” (Robert Gordon, Morgan Neville)
15. The Nightmare (Rodney Ascher)
14. Welcome to Leith (Michael Beach Nichols, Christopher K. Walker)
13. Approaching the Elephant (Amanda Wilder)
12. We Come as Friends (Hubert Sauper)
11. Stray Dog (Debra Granik)
10. Heart Of A Dog” (Laurie Anderson)
9. Western (Bill Ross, Turner Ross)
8. Brand: A Second Coming (Indi Timoner)
7. Iris (Albert Maysles)
6. Seymour: An Introduction (Ethan Hawke)
5. Janis: Little Girl Blue (Amy Berg)
4. In Jackson Heights” (Frederick Wiseman)
3. The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)
2. (T)error (Lyric R. Cabral, David Felix Sutcliffe
1. Cartel Land” (Matthew Heineman)

Screen Daily – critics’ top documentaries of 2015 (complete article here):

Fionnuala Halligan

My Nazi Legacy (David Evans)

Tom Grierson

(T)error (Lyric R Cabral, David Felix Sutcliffe)

Allan Hunter

The Fear of 13 (David Sington)

Dan Fainaru

Hitchcock/Truffaut (Kent Jones)

Lee Marshall

Behemoth (Zhao Liang)

Jonathan Romney

De Palma (Noah Baumbach, Jake Paltrow)

Lisa Nesselson

Where To Invade Next (Michael Moore)

Charles Gant

Amy (Asif Kapadia)

Wendy Ide

Behemoth (Zhao Liang)

James Marsh

The Look Of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)

Awards Daily – Seven Great Documentaries of 2015 (here the original article):

The Look Of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)
Heart Of A Dog (Laurie Anderson)
Amy (Asif Kapadia)
In Jackson Heights (Frederick Wiseman)
Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (Alex Gibney)
Montage of Heck (Brett Morgen)
Listen To Me Marlon” (Stevan Riley)

Philly.com – Best documentaries of 2015 (original article here):

Amy (Asif Kapadia)
Hitchcock/Truffaut (Kent Jones)
Listen to Me Marlon (Stevan Riley)
What Happened Miss Simone? (Liz Garbus)
The Wolfpack (Crystal Moselle)

Keyframe – The Best Documentaries of 2015 (here the original):

1. The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)
2. The Iron Ministry (J.P. Sniadecki)
3. In Jackson Heights (Frederick Wiseman)
4. The Pearl Button (Patricio Guzmán)
5. The Royal Road (Jenni Olson)
6. Heart of a Dog (Laurie Anderson)
7. Amy (Asif Kapadia)
8. What Happened, Miss Simone? (Liz Garbus)
9. Iris (Albert Maysles)
10. Listen to Me Marlon (Stevan Riley)

Nonfics – The 15 Best Documentaries of 2015 (here the original):

15. Evaporating Borders (Iva Radivojevic)
14. Best of Enemies (Robert Gordon and Morgan Neville)
13. Finders Keepers (J. Clay Tweel and Bryan Carberry)
12. The Nightmare (Rodney Ascher)
11. In the Basement (Ulrich Seidl)
10. The Iron Ministry (J.P. Sniadecki)
9. Stray Dog (Debra Granik)
8. Approaching the Elephant (Amanda Wilder)
7. The Salt of the Earth (Wim Wenders)
6. We Come as Friends (Hubert Sauper)
5. Amy (Asif Kapadia)
4. In Jackson Heights (Frederick Wiseman)
3. The Russian Woodpecker (Chad Gracia)
2. A Poem is a Naked Person (Les Blank)
1. The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)

Doc Soup – Top Ten Documentaries of 2015 (original article here):

10. Hunting Ground (Kirby Dick)
9. Listen to Me Marlon (Stevan Riley)
8. The Wolfpack (Crystal Moselle)
7. Hitchcock/Truffaut (Kent Jones)
6. Almost There (Dan Rybicky, Aaron Wickenden)
5. Winter on Fire (Evgeny Afineevsky)
4. Stand By for Tape Playback (Ross Sutherland)
3. Montage of Heck (Brett Morgen)
2. Cartel Land (Matthew Heineman)
1. The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)

Peter Bradshaw – Best documentaries of 2015 (read the original here):

Amy (Dir. Asif Kapadia)
The Look of Silence (Dir. Joshua Oppenheimer)
He Named Me Malala (Dir. Davis Guggenheim)
A Syrian Love Story (Dir. Sean Mcallister)
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (Dir. Alex Gibney)
We Are Many (Dir. Amir Amirani)
The Last of the Unjust (Dir. Claude Lanzmann)
Beyond Clueless (Dir. Charlie Lyne)
Best of Enemies (Dirs. Morgan Grenville, Robert Gordon)
My Nazi Legacy (Dir. David Evans)

Ray Pride – Fifteen Feature Documentaries For 2015 (original’s here)

1. The Look Of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)
2. Amy (Asif Kapadia)
3. Heart of a Dog (Laurie Anderson)
4. Hitchcock/Truffaut (Kent Jones)
5. In Jackson Heights (Frederick Wiseman)
6. The Iron Ministry (J. P. Sniadecki)
7. The Russian Woodpecker (Chad Gracia)
8. We Come As Friends (Hubert Sauper)
9. Almost There (Dan Rybicky, Aaron Wickenden)
10. Iris (Albert Maysles)
11. Listen To Me Marlon (Stevan Riley)
12. The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (Stanley Nelson)
13. Arabian Nights (Miguel Gomes)
14. Sembène! (Samba Gadjigo, Jason Silverman)
15. Going Clear: Scientology And The Prison of Belief (Alex Gibney)

3rd Annual Nonfics Year-End Poll (the complete list, 103 docs, here)

1. The Look Of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)
2. Amy (Asif Kapadia)
3. Best of Enemies (Dirs. Morgan Grenville, Robert Gordon)
4. Listen to Me Marlon (Stevan Riley)
5. In Jackson Heights (Frederick Wiseman)
6. Stray Dog (Debra Granik)
7. Cartel Land (Matthew Heineman)
8. Montage of Heck (Brett Morgen)
9. Finders Keepers (J. Clay Tweel and Bryan Carberry)
10. The Wolfpack (Crystal Moselle)

The Film Stage – The Best documentaries of 2015 (here the original):

Amy (Asif Kapadia)
Ballet 422 (Jody Lee Lipes)
Best of Enemies (Morgan Neville and Robert Gordon)
Call Me Lucky (Bobcat Goldthwait
Cartel Land (Matthew Heineman)
Cobain: Montage of Heck (Brett Morgen)
Democrats (Camilla Nielsson)
Finders Keepers (Bryan Carberry and J. Clay Tweel)
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (Alex Gibney)
Hitchcock/Truffaut (Kent Jones)
The Hunting Ground (Kirby Dick)
In My Father’s House (Ricki Stern and Annie Sundberg)
Iris (Albert Maysles)
Junun (Paul Thomas Anderson)
In Jackson Heights (Frederick Wiseman)
Listen to Me Marlon (Stevan Riley)
The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)
The Pearl Button (Patricio Guzmán)
The Russian Woodpecker (Chad Gracia)
The Salt of the Earth (Wim Wenders and Juliano Ribeiro Salgado)
Stray Dog (Debra Granik)
We Come as Friends (Hubert Sauper)
Leith (Michael Beach Nichols and Christopher K. Walker)
What Happened Miss Simone? (Liz Garbus)
The Wolfpack (Crystal Moselle)

Ray Pride – Fifteen Feature Documentaries For 2015 (original’s here)

1. The Look Of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)
2. Amy (Asif Kapadia)
3. Heart of a Dog (Laurie Anderson)
4. Hitchcock/Truffaut (Kent Jones)
5. In Jackson Heights (Frederick Wiseman)
6. The Iron Ministry (J. P. Sniadecki)
7. The Russian Woodpecker (Chad Gracia)
8. We Come As Friends (Hubert Sauper)
9. Almost There (Dan Rybicky, Aaron Wickenden)
10. Iris (Albert Maysles)
11. Listen To Me Marlon (Stevan Riley)
12. The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (Stanley Nelson)
13. Arabian Nights (Miguel Gomes)
14. Sembène! (Samba Gadjigo, Jason Silverman)
15. Going Clear: Scientology And The Prison of Belief (Alex Gibney)

3rd Annual Nonfics Year-End Poll (the complete list, 103 docs, here)

1. The Look Of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer)
2. Amy (Asif Kapadia)
3. Best of Enemies (287)
4. Listen to Me Marlon (220)
5. In Jackson Heights (193)
6. Stray Dog (164)
7. Cartel Land (159)
8. Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck (146)
9. Finders Keepers (139)
10. The Wolfpack (138)

Best Japanese documentaries’ poll – results

More than 2 months have passed since I launched the best Japanese documentaries of all time poll, it’s time to wrap things up and to take a look at the results. Thanks everybody for your votes, for your support and for helping me spreading the word. sdgblog Before digging into this fascinating trip through the history of Japanese non-fiction film, let me add some overall thoughts.
On the negative side, I have to admit that I’m a bit disappointed that I couldn’t get many people to vote, and this is partly my fault, the blog is pretty new and relatively unknown and I’ve been lazy and shy about pushing it through the social networks world. Besides, Japanese documentary is a niche subject inside a niche (Japanese cinema), and there are not so many people interested in documentary film as an art form, so I should have expected this. Many people, most of them cinema professionals, were kind enough to decline my invitation, honestly admitting their lack of knowledge in the field. After all, one of the purposes of the poll was indeed to check how much exposure Japanese non-fiction movies have in the world of cinephiles, so I shouldn’t really complain too much.
On the positive side, I was really surprised by the deep knowledge of the voters, most of them, I have to add, cinema professionals: festival programmers, critics, professors, and so on.
Below you’ll find the list, when possible I’ve added some information about each movie’s availability on DVD/BD.
Thanks again everyone, feedback and comments are, as always, welcomed.

1)Included in their lists by 40% of voters
Extreme Private Eros: Love Song 1974 「極私的エロス・恋歌1974」 (Hara Kazuo, 1974)

Available on DVD (with English subtitles).

2)Included in their lists by 33% of voters
Children in the Classroom 「教室の子供たち」(Hani Susumu, 1954)

Available in Japanese in this Iwanami DVD box

Tokyo Olympiad 「東京オリンピック」(Ichikawa Kon, 1965)

Available on DVD in Japanese or with English sub, but the Criterion Collection edition is out of print.

Minamata: The Victims and Their World 「水俣患者さんとその世界」(Tsuchimoto Noriaki, 1971)

Available on DVD with English sub by Zakka Films

The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On 「ゆきゆきて、神軍」(Hara Kazuo, 1987)

Available on DVD with English sub

3)Included in their list by 27% of voters
Without Memory 「記憶が失われた時」(Koreeda Hirokazu, 1996)

Not available

4)Included in their lists by 20% of voters
A.K.A. Serial Killer 「略称・連続射殺魔」 (Adachi Masao, Iwabuchi Susumu, Nonomura Masayuki, Yamazaki Yutaka, Sasaki Mamoru, Matsuda Masao, 1969)

There used to be a VHS in Japanese….

Fighting Soldiers　「戦ふ兵隊」(Kamei Fumio, 1939)

Available in Japanese on DVD (the quality of the transfer is pretty low though). Here my analysis of the first scenes.

A Man Vanishes 「人間蒸発」(Shōhei Imamura, 1967)

Available on DVD with English subtitles by Master of Cinema and by Icaruswith 5 bonus documentaries made for TV by Imamura in the 70s (reccomended).

The Shiranui Sea 「不知火海」(Tsuchimoto Noriaki, 1975)

Available by Zakka Films with English sub.

Antonio Gaudi 「アントニー・ガウディー」(Teshigahara Hiroshi, 1985)

Available with English sub by Criterion Collection.

5)Included in their list by 13,3% of voters
For My Crushed Right Eye 「つぶれかかった右眼のために」(Matsumoto Toshio, 1968)

The work is in the Matsumoto Toshio DVD collection – volume 2 – released by Uplink (now out of print?) in Japanese.

Goodbye CP [さよならCP] (Hara Kazuo, 1972)

Available with English sub by Facets Video.

Narita: Heta Village 「三里塚・辺田部落」(Ogawa Production, 1973)

Not available on DVD or VHS

God Speed You! Black Emperor 「ゴッド・スピード・ユー!」(Yanagimachi Mitsuo, 1976)

Available in Japanese on DVD (used and expensive).

The Cherry Tree with Gray Blossoms 「薄墨の桜」(Haneda Sumiko, 1977)

Available on DVD (only in Japanese) by Jiyū Kōbō or in this Iwanami Nihon Documentary DVD-BOX

Magino Village – A Tale / The Sundial Carved With A Thousand Years of Notches 「1000年刻みの日時計牧野村物語」(Ogawa Production, 1986)

Not Available

Embracing 「につつまれて」(Kawase Naomi, 1992)

Available in Japanese with English sub in this DVD-BOX

A (Mori Tatsuya, 1998)

Available with English sub by Facets Video

The New God 「新しい神様」(Tsuchiya Yutaka, 1999)

Available on DVD in Japanese

Memories of Agano (阿賀の記憶, 2004 Satō Makoto)

Available on DVD with English sub by SIGLO.

Campaign 「選挙」(Sōda Kazuhiro, 2007)

Available on DVD with English sub.

Best 10 Japanese documentaries – my list

As a reminder that you still have a month to join the poll “Best 10 Japanese documentaries of a time” I’ve put together my list. I left out many good and inspiring documentaries made in recent years (Genpin, No Man’s Zone, Flashback Memories and others) and I’ve cheated twice, but anyway:

Fighting Soldiers (戦ふ兵隊, 1939 Kamei Fumio)

Children Who Draw (絵を描く子どもたち, 1956 Hani Susumu)

A.K.A. Serial Killer (略称・連続射殺魔, 1969 Adachi Masao, Iwabuchi Susumu, Nonomura Masayuki, Yamazaki Yutaka, Sasaki Mamoru, Matsuda Masao)

Onikko (鬼ッ子　闘う青年労働者の記録, 1969) and
Motoshinkakarannu (沖縄エロス外伝　モトシンカカランヌー 1971) by NDU/Nunokawa Tetsurō

Minamata: The Victims and Their World (水俣患者さんとその世界, 1971 Tsuchimoto Noriaki)

Sanrizuka: Heta Village (三里塚辺田部落,1973) and
Magino Village – A Tale / The Sundial Carved With A Thousand Years of Notches (1000年刻みの日時計牧野村物語, 1986) by Ogawa Pro

Song of the Akamata–The life histories of the islanders, Komi, Iriomote Islands, Okinawa (海南小記序説・アカマタの歌-西表・古見, 1973 Kitamura Minao)

Extreme Private Eros 1974 Love Song (極私的エロス・恋歌1974, 1974 Hara Kazuo)

The Cherry Tree with Gray Blossoms (薄墨の桜, 1977 Haneda Sumiko)

Memories of Agano (阿賀の記憶, 2004 Satō Makoto)

Poll: Best 10 Japanese documentaries of all time

If you’re a movie critic, a movie fan, a scholar or just a Japanese cinema lover, I’d like to hear your opinion about Japanese documentary/non-fiction. I know that very few works are available on DVD (even in Japan) or with English subtitles, and I’m also aware that the only chance to see them is at festivals, nonetheless I would really like to know which are your favourite Japanese documentaries of all time, so please name your best 10 (or 5)!
It doesn’t matter if you haven’t seen so many or if you only saw documentaries produced in Japan over the last two/three decades. One of the aims of this poll is also to discover which are the docs usually watched (or available to watch) by a non-Japanese audience.
You can leave a comment on this post or send an email to: matteojpjp at gmail.com, of course you’re free to add some lines of explanation and your name, if you wish. The deadline is February 6th. The results will be published on this blog at the end of February, so you have plenty of time, please spread the word! Thank you.

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