I also found this video “Twenty-Five Documentaries You Must See Before you Die,” which is, I discovered, a series of great documentaries the World Movie Channel will air during the month of April.
Three Morris films appear on their list: at number seven, The Thin Blue Line, at number 19, Fast Cheap and Out of Control, and at number twenty-one, The Fog of War. If I’m not mistake, he’s the filmmaker with the most films on their top list.
I’d also like to plug a few of the other documentaries on this list: To Be and to Have, which comes in at number three, is amazing. It’s a French film, but you can watch it with subtitles and not feel you’re missing much – its so good it almost transcends language. Its about a man who teaches in a one-room school house, so its got a lot of cute kids and many heartwarming moments, but its beautifully done and the kind of documentary I would expect Morris to make if her were inclined to produce something about the education of young children. Spellbound, at number fifteen, is also quite good, though I’m not so sure it deserved the high ranking it received. In my opinion, its equal with Mad Hot Ballroom, which is much more triumphant than Spellbound; I certainly wouldn’t equate it with a Morris film. Grey Gardens comes in at number two, and is another fine documentary, although it is, I think, a bit bizarre. If you’d like to see the whole list, go to http://www.worldmovies.net/25docs/, and feel free to plug any documentaries you think we must watch!
I really wish I had this station now.