Teaching Op-Docs: Fairness and Representation
Not all documentary characters are represented as heroes, and nor should they be.
Father Knows Best? Not Always! 12 Dad-centric Docs for Father's Day
In the run up to Father's Day, independent journalist Tom Roston checks in with a list of daddy-centric documentaries that by no means put pops on a pedestal.
Doc Soup: Chronicling Child Abduction in Documentary
The 2008 documentary, Dear Zachary, has a strange power over me. Certainly, its subject — an unhinged woman kills a man, gives birth to his baby, flees to Canada where the child’s grandparents fight for his custody, and then she kills herself and the baby — is terribly tragic. It haunts me still. And so […]
Doc Soup: The Last Word on “Dear Zachary”
I’ve always been a little bothered by what I perceive as the different standards with which film critics (and audiences) approach docs, basically giving greater leniency toward a film because of its noble subject matter. That’s partly why I’ve been talking about Dear Zachary here at Doc Soup. Well, I think it’s time to put […]