The death of documentaries has been greatly exaggerated

The form has its problems- but plenty of outstanding ones are still being made.

Thomas Kinkade in ‘Art For Everybody’ (MPRM)

The Hollywood trades seem invested in the notion that the documentary is dead.

The Hollywood Reporter, over the weekend, asked the question: “Are Music and Other Celebrity Films Killing the Documentary?” The argument is centered on… the top contenders for this year’s Emmys, in the Nonfiction special category, are dominated by celebrity-focused documentaries, about such subjects as Bruce Springsteen, Celine Dion, John Williams and The Beatles.

“These Rock and Roll Hall of Fame excursions suggest a world in which nonfiction TV has become an exercise in brand management, say documentary leaders, marginalizing robust storytelling and journalism,” THR says. Earnest documentaries about the Vietnam war and political issues used to dominate that character; now, they tend to go to celebrity-focused films.

There’s more bad news elsewhere in the trades: Deadline reported Sunday that at the recent Cannes Film Festival, not a single documentary was part of the competion, for the second straight year.

Now, I agree to a point: There is a big problem with celebrity documentaries being too stage-managed by the celebrities themselves, and they look more like PR than honest inquiry, and I’ve said as much before. Also, it’s more difficult than ever for filmmakers to find funding or distribution for their work.

But that’s only a small percentage of what today’s documentary films are.

Also, who said the Emmy nominations were the be-all and end-all of what documentaries are all about these days? I follow documentaries obsessively, and I’ve never paid much attention to that Emmy category, because most documentaries aren’t eligible for the Emmys. The docs mentioned above, meanwhile, are merely a months-early speculation of what might get nominated, and they aren’t finalists or anything.

If one looks at the Oscar-nominated documentaries, that branch tends to reject celebrity docs, and give awards to daring journalistic projects, either about heroic dissidents or intense visits to war zones (the last three winners were the former — Navalny — and the latter, 20 Days in Mariupol and No Other Land.)

“That these shifts are happening at a time of crisis — from social injustice to climate disasters to the slashing of the federal safety net — makes the tragedy that much greater, say nonfiction experts. Documentaries are unavailable at the exact moment they’re needed most,” THR says.

The problem is… those documentaries exist! They’re made and released all the time, everywhere, from PBS to various streaming services. In the last five years, I’ve probably seen a half-dozen documentaries each about policing, climate, America’s racial history, and Israel-Palestine.