“Flee”
The animated documentary “Flee” tells the life story of Amin, a man in Denmark who has not shared the true story about his life as a young refugee from Afghanistan until now. Using audio from intimate interviews that are then animated, “Flee” details Amin’s harrowing journey as a refugee from Afghanistan, to Russia, and later, after many years and heartbreaking chapters, to Denmark. Rasmussen illustrates the arduous experiences of putting one’s safety in the hands of greedy traffickers, of watching loved ones disappear, while rhyming the animated passages with news footage that shows the dire, dehumanizing circumstances. The film contains so much trauma that world-at-large needs to understand if we are going to claim to be civilized, but it is bound by the friendship between Amin and his interviewer, animator, and director Jonas Poher Rasmussen. “Flee” is not only one of this year’s best documentaries, but one of its most immense displays of compassion. – NA
“The First Wave”
It’s not too soon for a documentary about the early days of COVID-19 in America. “The First Wave,” directed by Matthew Heineman, proves this with its immersive, sharp take on the first weeks of the pandemic in America, as it follows a group of medical professionals working through a phenomenon no one has seen before. With a crucial delicacy for tone that never turns manipulative, the documentary observes the experiences of a few patients and their families who wait at home, and also the psychological toll that such heroism had on first responders. Heineman runs head-first into the harrowing unknown like his previous documentaries “Cartel Land” and “City of Ghosts,” but comes out with an unbeatable message of hope, detailing the whole spectrum of the will to live and to help others. Some of the most powerful moments in “The First Wave” involve first-person testimonies from those working in the hospital, facing such an untenable beast; Heineman’s film becomes a special document of those on the front lines, but also the winning effects of empathy, and science. – NA
“Faya Dayi”
One of the most cinematic films from 2021 has to be Jessica Beshir’s “Faya Dayi,” a documentary with its very own approach to capturing real life in motion. Beshir’s film, paced like a daydream and made of evocative silhouettes of love, loss, and longing, casts its own spell shot by shot. Everything is centered around the business of khat, a leaf used by Sufi Muslims that has created its own industry in this film’s quiet corner of Ethiopia. It’s the type of documentary that constantly makes one ponder “how did they get that shot?” while Beshir’s tender black-and-white cinematography makes one appreciate the infinite shades to be found in monochrome, and the humanizing approach to the many souls it captures. “Faya Dayi” is both dreamy and of-the-earth all at once, using khat—harvesting it, chopping it, chewing on it, getting a high from it—as just one piece of its five-senses cinematic experience. – NA
“A Cop Movie”
If everyone was testing the boundaries and limits of what a documentary could be in 2021, perhaps no one was deconstructing and decimating the form quite like director Alonso Ruizpalacios, the maker of some great dramas like “Museum” and “Güeros.” Utterly fascinating, “A Cop Movie” uses a lot of dramatic conceits to tell its story about officers in the Mexico City police force, and two of them who fall in love and form a relationship as partners. That’s enough as is—given the Mexico City police force is so under-budgeted and ill-equipped to keep up with the volume of crime in the city making for an extra riskier proposition of potentially putting your life on the line each day at work. But Ruizpalacios takes it a whole step further and hires two professional actors to undergo an immersive process to find out what it takes to be a cop in Mexico City, essentially playing the aforementioned lovers. The way it all unfolds is extraordinary, and “A Cop Movie” is easily the boldest and most innovative doc we’ve seen in years. – RP
“In the Same Breath”
Directed by Nanfu Wang (“One Child Nation”), “In the Same Breath” documents the way that China handled its own early days during the COVID-19 pandemic, but with a more dystopian edge than “The First Wave.” Wang, who has always had a mindful approach to criticism about China, analyzes the way that propaganda took over the nation’s understanding of the issues, with government messages softening what was happening, which were then broadcast on various news programs. “In the Same Breath” has one of the most chilling sequences in documentary filmmaking of 2021, in which Wang layers different broadcast announcements of many talking heads as they read the same exact bit of information, almost in the same tenor and pacing, spreading news that is not entirely truthful and is designed to control the projected reality. Wang’s film also makes brilliant, claustrophobic connections to how such harmful misinformation can be recognized in America. Her empathetic and thoughtful approach helps make this an essential documentary about the period we are still very much in. – NA
“All Light, Everywhere”
In a brilliant follow-up to his 2016 documentary “Rat Film,” director Theo Anthony focuses on the dynamic of police surveillance and body cams, while using numerous poetic devices to explore how a narrative can be controlled by those who have the camera. Anthony’s film blends its own investigative work (touring a security company’s headquarters as if it were the set of “RoboCop”) with its own unflinching gaze, filming a police training session in which cops learn about how to use body cams, but then show a discomfort at how Anthony’s camera is capturing them. Following a narrative flow inspired by visual essays, and accompanied by an equally standout score from Dan Deacon, the documentary touches upon the history of the camera as related to the philosophy of a gun, and offers a mind-blowing new way to think about filmmaking. Heady and unforgettable, the documentary provides a horrific big picture about the power that policing is given with each new camera that is put on the streets, or in the skies. – NA
We hope you get a chance to catch up on some of these terrific documentaries over the holiday break. Thanks for reading and sharing and hope you enjoy these recommendations.
Follow along with the rest of our Best of 2021 coverage here.