Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth woke up the world to climate change. But with its sequel hitting cinemas now, it’s not clear that ‘big issue’ documentaries make a difference in the long term.
From Netflix docuseries Making a Murderer.
Netflix
Documentaries are vital vehicles for explaining the world.
At the United Nations’ prisoner-of-war camp at Pusan, North Korean and Chinese prisoners are assembled in one of the camp compounds.
Wkimedia/Larry Gahn/US State Department
A pioneering documentary about South African punks, Fokofpolisiekar, doesn’t only focus on the band, but also illuminates the evolution of the documentary form.
Debbie Reynolds poses with her daughter Carrie Fisher backstage after accepting her Lifetime Achievement award at the 2015 Screen Actors Guild Awards.
REUTERS/Mike Blake
After the deaths of Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher in the last days of 2016, the release of a new documentary about their lives, Bright Lights, feels serendipitous. Already shown to some film festivals…
The University of Wollongong's Dr Siobhan McHugh (consulting producer on Fairfax's Phoebe's Fall podcast) speaks with Julie Snyder, Executive Producer of Serial, about making serial audio and the impact of podcasting.
My Scientology Movie avoids taking cheap shots at one of America’s most mockable religions; instead it is a fair, revealing (and sometimes funny) look at Scientology’s methods and leadership.
Janis Joplin in a new documentary, Janis: Little Girl Blue (2015).
Disarming Films
Janis Joplin was once voted the ‘Ugliest Man on Campus’. Sharon Jones was told she was ‘too old, too fat, too short, too black’ to succeed in music. Two documentaries chart the lives of these extraordinary women.
Oscar Pistorius walks without his prosthetic legs at a recent hearing at the Pretoria High Court.
Siphiwe Sibeko/Reuters
Paralympian Oscar Pistorius was sentenced to six years in prison for killing his girlfriend. It comes after a well-publicised TV interview which some believe was used to influence the judge.
Gene Cernan driving a lunar rover in December 1972.
NASA
Hoping to avoid the pitfalls and tropes of drug genre photography, documentary photographer Aaron Goodman spent a year following three addicts enrolled in a heroin-assisted treatment program.
Award-winning documentary film On the Banks of the Tigris explores the influence of Iraqi Jewish musicians in the cultural life of Iraq and paints a portrait of a country that was once a thriving multicultural centre.