Barry Greenwald
I had a lot of reactions to my interview with Diane-Estelle Vicari from the IDA about the list of 25 best documentaries. Here’s one from documentary filmmaker Barry Greenwald (one of my partners on the socialdoc web site):
“I would like to think that a Canadian-created equivalent of the IDA’s ‘Best Documentaries’ would be more reflective of the scope, history, and eclectic quality of international documentary cinema…Perhaps it is time for groups and institutions such as Hot Docs, the Rencontres, DOC, filmmakers in Quebec, POV Magazine, Montage, or an umbrella collective thereof, to develop a truly international ‘Best of List’. Canadian inspired with a global view. Opening such a forum to something along the lines of ‘100 Remarkable International Documentaries’ would be a starter.”
Barry sent out a summary of my interview to the Documentary Organization of Canada discussion group and passed on some of the comments. Sheila Petzold promised to bring the idea of a more inclusive list to the DOC executive. Walter Forsyth commented: “A great subject to fill an edition of POV.” I’ll pass this on to POV editor Mark Glassman.
Well, a little more research turned up some existing lists. This is from veteran programmer André Paquet, “Every time this kind of list is established, there is inevitably a bias. Either because the people who are consulted are more or less representative, or because the circumstances are particular. I find that one of the best list is one published by DOX magazine for their 50th issue in 2003. They consulted people from all over the world. And when I organized the 50th anniversary celebrations for the NFB in 1989 I selected 53 films which represented ONE history of the documentary. Among the people I consulted at the time were Santiago Alvarez, Emile de Antonio, Peter Von Bagh, Michel Brault, Haile Gerima, Jill Godmillow, Bernard Gosselin, Joris Ivens, Johan Van der Keuken, Allan King, Bonnie Sherr-Klein, Jean-Claude Labrecque, Arthur Lamothe, Richard Leacock, Colin Low, Mira Nair, Julia Reichert, Helga Reidemeister, Jean Rouch, Henri Storck, Klaus Wildenhan.
Our friends and colleagues in the U.S. have a tendency to limit their vision to their own cinema – this is true both for fiction and documentary,”
And here’s the good news, in a couple of days I will be able to post the two lists mentioned by André.