Blackfish (2013) - ★★★★★

Director: Gabriela Cowperthwaite
Writers: Gabriela Cowperthwaite, Eli B. Despres

Blackfish is one of the most engrossing, well made documentaries I've ever seen. Its style, consistency, and powerful message is what separates it from other great documentaries. There's sentimentality, but only enough to make one really passionate about the subject. There's hard-hitting facts and opinions from respected killer-whale specialists, making it both educational and thoroughly interesting. There's awe-inspiring testimonies from actual Sea-World employees, who have all had plenty of experience handling killer-whales, and dealing with the corruption of the company. There are jaw-dropping stories that made my blood boil with anger, but also extremely saddened. If I had to pick one film to use as an example of "what makes a good documentary," I'd pick Blackfish without even batting an eye. It is also my choice for Best Documentary, 2013.

Roger & Me (1989) - ★★★★★

Director: Michael Moore
Writer: Michael Moore

Roger & Me is the very first documentary that Michael Moore ever made, and in my opinion, it is his best. He returns to his hometown to find that the CEO of General Motors, Roger Smith, has decided to close down several car manufacturing plants. At the time, this caused the loss of approximately 30,000 jobs. Moore achieved his goal of showing the audience how detrimental the downsizing was to the people of Flint. As an added spark, we see much of the Michael Moore Flare, as he follows Roger Smith around the country to try to get answers. It's one of the most effective documentaries I've ever seen. Even though the subject is of a much smaller scale than what most documentaries tend to tackle, it's the way Moore presents his case that shows just how important the subject is. It's not a film that changed the world, but it's a very powerful film in itself. The little guy, the unimportant factor in the equation, is fighting back against the careless acts of the big guys.

A family getting kicked out on Christmas Eve.

Capturing the Friedmans (2003) - ★★★★★

Director: Andrew Jarecki

This documentary had my mind doing flips. Did he do it? Didn't he do it? He must have done it! But maybe he didn't... Capturing the Friedmans is one of the best documentaries ever made. The Friedmans was your average, loving family... until allegations against Arnold Friedman destroyed their world. He was charged with over 100 accounts of child molestation, as was his son Jesse. This documentary unfurls all of the drama, the history, the opinions, and the facts that surround such a dark, disturbing, and sad story.

We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks (2013) - ★★★★

Director: Alex Gibney
Writer: Alex Gibney

The Story of WikiLeaks would rank up there as one of the most interesting stories from the past 10 years. This is a pretty thorough and engrossing documentary, showing signs of bias here and there. Overall it paints a pretty cloudy picture of the infamous Julian Assange. In the end, I feel like I don't know anything about the REAL Assange. That's not really what interested me though. I wanted facts... cold hard facts. While we got some pretty good facts, I found the actual story to be so bloody interesting, especially when it focused on the REAL man behind the US military leaks, Bradley Manning. It's not a wildly entertaining documentary, or a very emotionally stirring documentary... it's just really effective and purely interesting.

The Cove (2009) - ★★★★½

Director: Louie Psihoyos
Writer: Mark Monroe

The Cove won the Best Documentary Oscar at the 2009 Academy Awards, and it was a very well deserved win. It takes a special kind of film to evoke so much emotion out of me. By the end of the film, I was left speechless. There was so much that I wanted to say, but I couldn't, because I found it too hard to say anything without crying profusely. It's a very informative look at the cruelty towards dolphins, whether it be from captivity in aquariums, amusement parks, or the killing of them for meat. The primary focus of this film is to show the world the horrific slaughter of dolphins at a cove in Taijii, Japan. Not only do we see their suffering, but we hear their suffering too. It's one of the most powerful scenes in cinematic history, and a scene that moved me to tears.

Blood of the Beasts (1949)

Director: Georges Franju
Writer: Georges Franju

Blood of the Beasts is an extremely confronting documentary that simply shows us the methods that French slaughterhouses used to kill animals in the late 1940s. Georges Franju shows us the implements they used to kill the animals, including an axe, a large knife, a gun, and a long reed. We then see exactly how they used them... It is these images that have the power to drastically change a persons outlook on the meat industry and animal cruelty.

The Corporation (2003) - ★★★★

Directors: Jennifer Abbott, Mark Achbar

The Corporation is a highly informative, mostly riveting documentary that (as expected) both enraged me and left me a little depressed. There is so much material in this film that I was constantly learning something new, which in the end is the ultimate objective of a documentary (that, and making a difference). It teaches us about the rise of 'The Corporations', as well as the atrocities that have been committed and the atrocities that are still being committed. There is a diverse range of people interviewed throughout the film, from extreme left-wing film-maker Michael Moore to the actual managers of mega-corporations such as Shell. The style of the film looks very amateur (probably from primitive computer software) and they stated the obvious too much for my liking. What makes this a great documentary is that it has a huge array of interesting information, stories, and facts that at times really shocked me.

Marjoe (1972) - ★★★★½

Director: Sarah Kernochan, Howard Smith
Stars: Marjoe Gortner

Marjoe is one of the most interesting and infuriating documentaries I've ever seen. It exposes the scamming, despicable ways of many Evangelist preachers and the tricks of how they do it. I think this is a film that everyone should see. The person that stars in this documentary, Marjoe Gortner, was a former child preacher himself. He doesn't tell you flat-out that 'religion' is a scam, what he does is prove how easy it is for religious sectors to con people out of their money. You'd have to be deaf, dumb and blind to ignore the fact that so many people out there are getting manipulated and conned by religious factions. Marjoe clearly and consistently displays that many of these churches are just cash-cow corporations taking from their adherents to feed their own pockets. If they ever make a movie based on the life of Marjoe Gortner, then the best actor to play him would be Matthew McConaughey. It won an Oscar for Best Documentary, which it thoroughly deserved for its gutsy and entertaining material.

Crazy people freaking out and speaking in tongues... weird.

Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (2010) - ★★★★

Director: Ricki Stern, Anne Sundberg
Writer: Ricki Stern
Stars: Joan Rivers, Kathy Griffin, Don Rickles, other comedians.

I love Joan Rivers. I’ve always found her to be hilarious. That’s why I really enjoyed her documentary, because she truly has led an interesting life. From starting on the Johnny Carson show in the 60s to winning The Celebrity Apprentice a few years back, A Piece of Work covers many of her most intimate moments. There are times where she really opens up and shows us how vulnerable she can be, which is what separates this bio-documentary from most. Even though I loved it, I feel like they could have covered a lot more in her career that has spanned over 50 years.

Up the Yangtze (2007) - ★★★★

Director: Yung Chang
Writer: Yung Chang

Up the Yangtze is an extremely interesting documentary that really opened my eyes to how unfair things are for many families living in China. It doesn't go into great detail about political and economic situations, and it doesn't quite have a particular message to give.

Yung Chang quite simply presents to us the struggle of young Chinese people who go to work on a cruise-ship. More importantly, he details the detrimental effects the Three Gorges Dam is having on a poor family that lives by the Yangtze River, who will lose their home as the water rises.

The Rep (2012) - ★★★

Director: Morgan White
Writers: Christopher Field, Morgan White


The Rep is one of the most depressing documentaries a film fanatic could possibly see. It shows us the decline, the death if you will, of repertory cinemas across Canada and The US. We see why they're dying through the struggle of three movie buffs that try to maintain their newly bought cinema. Anyone who loves movies will be highly interested all the way through the film, I know I was. It's a little long and doesn't exactly give us ground-breaking facts to go on, but you can tell it's a labour of love. I liked The Rep, but it's an average documentary in all honesty.

If this film achieves anything, it's that it makes us respect independent theatres and rep-cinemas on a whole new level. After seeing this film, I'll definitely be paying visits to the local rep more often.

Bully (2011) - ★★½

Director: Lee Hirsch
Writers: Lee Hirsch, Cynthia Lowen

Bully is an average documentary that tackles a subject that is very dear to my heart. That is bullying in high-schools. I say it's average because it doesn't fully explore the kinds of bullying that goes on (there's not one mention of cyber-bullying I believe). It's pretty heartbreaking to see, but I don't think it's close to scraping the implications that bullying can have on a child. They cover suicides and self-harming, but it just doesn't quite get through to us the way it should. We don't get the facts or figures of bullying, but rather the stories of a few children and parents that have been through it. It just doesn't do justice to such an important subject.

Katy Perry: Part of Me (2012) - ★★★

Director: Dan Cutforth, Jane Lipsitz

Here's a simple breakdown for you:

If you like Katy Perry, then you'll like this movie.

If you don't care for her music or story, then avoid this one.

Sicko (2007) - ★★★★½

Director: Michael Moore            Writer: Michael Moore

Sicko is a shocking documentary. Coming from Australia, I knew nothing about the US healthcare system. Michael Moore is notorious for having biased documentaries, but in the face of all the evidence he presents, this documentary holds up as truthful and genius. It's genius because the point Moore tries to make comes across as plausible and clear. This film proves that the healthcare system in the US is broken and shows us the who, what, when, where and why.

The Invisible War (2012) – ★★★★

Director: Kirby Dick
Writers: Kirby Dick, Amy Ziering

The Invisible War is a very well made documentary showcasing testimonies of men and women who were victims of sexual-assault in the military. The facts that are presented are not only shocking, but infuriating. The interviews are incredibly heart-wrenching. This is a documentary that might just change the way the military handles cases of sexual-assault, which is why it is one of the best documentaries of 2012.

Zeitgeist (2007) - ★★★★★

Director: Peter Joseph
Writer: Peter Joseph

After watching Bill Maher's essentially anti-religion documentary 'Religulous' I told my friends that it was entertaining, funny and that it brings up valid points. One of them then asked if I'd seen Zeitgeist and told me that it was the most interesting documentary that I will ever see. He wasn't wrong.

Zeitgeist is controversial, intelligent and has a raw, amateurish feel about it. The documentary is split into three parts: i) Refuting religion. ii) The 9/11 conspiracy, essentially saying that the American Government was behind it all. iii) The rise of the power of banks and their stranglehold on the world.

The first part of the film aims to discredit religion, particularly taking aim at Christianity. It does this through showing all the 'hand-me-down' stories that were taken from ancient religions which are now part of the Christian belief. One way they did this is by comparing the Ancient Egyptian god of Horus to Jesus (there are unbelievable likenesses). There were many eye-opening and valid points that were made in this section of the video, which was the highlight of the documentary for me.

The second part aims to make the audience question the open and shut case that was 9/11. When I say 'open and shut,' I mean that a thorough investigation was not conducted and many loose ends were not tied. Once again this documentary gave a glimpse into many of the facts that the public weren't shown about the collapsing of the towers, in particular tower '7', which was not hit by a plane yet also collapsed. This film continued to intrigue me and ask questions.

Perhaps the most shocking and disturbing information in Zeitgeist for me was the way that the banks of America and around the world were presented. This film suggested that they were responsible for the US fighting in many wars, including WW1, WW2, Vietnam and Iraq/Afghanistan. It was very informative in regards to the history of the banks, and the suffering they caused the people during the depression back in early 20th century.

This is a well thought-out, plausible and unwaveringly interesting documentary. It has a long running time of nearly two hours, yet I was hooked from start to finish. I learnt many things that I would have otherwise been ignorant about, and I was compelled to start asking questions myself about religion, 9/11 and the control the banks have over the world. Although all the facts may not be correct, the arguments that are put forth are displayed clearly and effectively by the narrator. Everyone should see this film.

Religulous (2008) - ★★★

Director: Larry Charles
Stars: Bill Maher

Bill Maher's Religulous was compelling enough to keep me entertained throughout the documentary, but I ended up wondering what the point of making it even was.

No religion was left unscathed in Maher's hilariously funny interviews with people that span from the uneducated Christian's of the South to the man who claims he is the second coming of Jesus. Much of the film is Maher giving his opinion on religion, which I found interesting, however, I was disappointed in the lack of information presented from the pro-religion side.

Much of the interviews were from, excuse my bluntness, idiots. It could have been so much better had Maher interviewed more authorities on the subject. I understand that he is blacklisted from many religious foundations across the world, but interviewing ignorant and clueless strangers just didn't add up to make a great documentary.

There wasn't much of a point made. Obviously Maher wants to prove that religion is silly and inhibits the progression of mankind, but that just doesn't come across in this film, which is the fatal flaw of it all. I was expecting cut-throat facts and evidence from his part, but all he gave was peoples opinions on the subject, which disappointed me deeply. I will however mention one scene that had me laughing for a while. Maher interviews a man that 'used to be' gay, and when they hugged at the end the theme to Brokeback Mountain started playing, which I thought was extremely subtle, clever and hilarious.

I admire Bill Maher very much, and I love his viewpoint on religion. This documentary just seemed half-assed and presented nothing new. It was the same old debate from Christians, Jews, Muslims, Mormons alike. Regardless of its unoriginality, this film is entertaining, which is why I give it a thumbs up.