Fabulously Fun Documentaries 2024
The best music and inspirational documentaries of 2024.
Every year is good for documentaries!
Inspirational Documentaries
Skywalkers: A Love Story (USA/Russia)
The Lost Children (USA set Colombia)
Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa (USA set Nepal)
Tiger (USA set India)
Hatching Eagles (Finland, about China’s ski kids)
There are more important documentaries such as ‘The Bibi Files, but this post is about joy.
The daring of ‘Skywalkers’ was a rollercoaster, with me literally feeling nauseous and exhilarated. It’s the WOW in cinematography.
'The Lost Children’ is a remarkable true story about a plane that crashed in the Amazon jungle, killing the adults, but leaving the children as survivors. A media sensation ensues, and ensures an epic challenge to Catholic special forces soldiers and superstitious indigenous people who don’t trust the other. The ending couldn;t have been written better if it were fiction.
‘Mountain Queen’ is different to the mountaineering movies I’m tired of. This is about resilience to life. I’m still rooting for Lhakpa!
I'm also hesitant to watch nature documentaries for fear of repetition but Disney's latest touched me - 'Tiger' is set in India, and makes the 'Lion King' timid.
‘Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story’ is about an actor that played a hero and became one. However, it would turn out that his wife was the most super of all.
Because it will be the least known, and stay that way, you should do your best to watch ‘Hatching Eagles’. It left me with a bunch of questions and mixed feelings, but you should first take it at face value. Can a child be taught anything in 10,0000 hours? What if you believe that true but are given only 7,000 hours, and half the children are teenagers traditionally hesitant to change. This is the setup for Finnish trainers preparing Chinese who have never skied to become Olympic jumpers. The biggest takeaway is that our human race can do much more when we focus and work together.
Music Documentaries
Midnight Oil - The Hardest Line (Australia)
Music by John Williams (USA)
ZEF: The Story of Die Antwoord (USA/South Africa)
Blur - To the End [UK]
The pain of youth, music, activism and my nostalgia are the ingredients that make ‘Midnight Oil - The Hardest Line’ my favourite.
I'm aware of Stevie van Zandt a.k.a. Miami Steve a.k.a Little Steve a.k.a. Silvio Dante. However, I'd no comprehension of how big his life has been, from his work with Bruce Springsteen and his fight against apartheid in my South Africa, to his roles on 'The Sopranos' and 'Lillyhammer'. This is an exciting documentary about an interesting, talented, earnest, straight-talking and likeable overachiever. There wasn’t a moment to miss in its 140 minutes.
'Music by John Williams' doesn't show William's downside, but I forgive because his genius has much to share. I never realized his influence on the movies, especially Steven Spielberg, and that he's one of the soundtracks to my youth e.g. 'Jaws', 'E.T.', 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'. You'll find this wondrous.
Rather than me chat about the other three when you can follow the links and watch the trailers, let me move onto those that never made the list but will reach for the souls of those who’ve lived in the underground.
‘Flipside’ tugged hard at my lust for a more meaningful generation. It’s about hanging on and letting go, and in the middle of that paradox is a rundown record store in a small town.
'Teaches of Peaches' deserves attention for those in love with counterculture. Peaches was and is against society's boxes, and, at 56, is still "fucking the pain away" for fans half her age.
Kudos to Ghost’s concert in 'Rite Here, Rite Now', and the fictionalised biopic of Ireland’s rebellious 'Kneecap'.