Content area
Full Text
[Graph Not Transcribed]
EVERY SO OFTEN, AN ARTISTIC MEDIUM OR style becomes the darling of a generation. In the late 15th century, a group of young Italian artists, among them Michelangelo, took as their motto the biblical line Ecce homo (Behold the man), celebrating the naked body and the human perspective. Likewise, in the early 1800s, the work of England's Romantic poets captured the attention of their contemporaries around the world. The first decade of this millennium will be remembered for its embrace of the documentary; movies like Capturing the Friedmans, The Fog of War and The Corporation have pushed the form's boundaries and attracted unprecedented audiences, comprised mainly of young people.
Even Vanity Fair, that great arbiter of the Zeitgeist, has acknowledged the cultural phenomenon: for the first time, it devoted a page in its annual Hollywood issue to documentarians. Some critics have attributed the rise in popularity to our current geopolitical crisis (9/11 has triggered a greater desire to engage with the world) or to technical advances (digital cameras and editing software have made cheap, quick filmmaking possible). These explanations deal with the cause, but the effect is more interesting: like artistic innovators in times past, a rising generation has infused a fresh energy and new perspective into an established art form.
Documentary filmmaking is international in scope to be sure, but local filmmakers are being recognized as among the best on the circuit. Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein are, with their customary good timing, poised to join the movement just as its influence peaks. Their first film, a piece about the collapse of the Argentinian economy, debuted in April at the city's Hot Docs festival, the largest fact-based film gathering on the continent, and one of the most popular in the world. Catherine Annau, who brought us the memorable Just Watch Me, a film about her generation's affections for Trudeau, recently wrapped a documentary on lottery winners and is turning her attention to a film on sexual intelligence, featuring Kim Cattrall of Sex and the City fame.
In this new wave, Nick de Pencier and Jennifer Baichwal are already considered veterans. Their first joint venture, a documentary about Paul Bowles, the American novelist who adopted Morocco as his home, won international acclaim...