Admittedly though, I haven’t seen any of these films (except Sicko – which was aggravatingly repetitive, manipulative and redundant).

I’m anxious for the DVD release of “Lake of Fire” as I’ve heard it’s amazing – and King of Kong probably should have been in here if for no other reason than to shake things up a bit (ala Juno) and for its pure entertainment value.

I HAVE seen Helvetica, however, and would say I’d be upset if it were up for best doc. It’s a neat idea for subject matter and I enjoyed it for the most part. But again, maybe a third of the film are image montages of how, where and the frequency of which the Helvetica font is used in society. That got a bit tedious after a while.

Helvetica is about graphic design, and in particular the font Helvetica.

There is a review on this site for Helvetica, and if you go to FilmJunk.com and do a search for CPH:DOX I wrote up an article of the films I saw there this year, including these two great films.

Internet movie fans are an easy bunch to manipulate I guess. All you have to do is refer to us, and we will love you.

I thought the best documentary I saw last year was ‘Forever’ but that could technically be 2006, and in lieu of that, I would say Helvetica. But I have not seen any of the nominees. The only american documentary I can remember having a bona-fide theatrical release here is Sicko – other than that documentaries are related to the annual film festival CPH:DOX.

Yes, I’m the same one who co-produced Operation Homecoming. Hope you all like it when you see it. I should have stated my conflict of interest in my first post.
Hey, I also run Los Angeles Filmforum, http://www.lafilmforum.org
We’ll be screening a good music doc called “Imagine the Sound,” by Ron Mann, a reissue of his film from 1981, on February 10. Come if you can.

This year was very good for docs. I am still looking forward to seeing “Nanking,” because I am intrigued by the use of performance of first-person accounts. “Manda Bala” of course, was exceptional.

“sorry to Jay for hijacking your comments section.”

That’s what they’re for! I encourage hijacking! Wait, that sounds terrible.

Hey Adam,

I also congratulate you on your success with Operation Homecoming.

I realize how unfair it is to respond to a list of films in which I’ve only seen 1 out of the 5. Hopefully I clarified the fact that I’m not intending to slam the nominees or their work. I think my response, oddly enough, comes from all of the attention Juno is getting. It just reminds me that there’s a lighter side to the Academy, and it would be great if they could use that line of thinking with docs as well. As you mentioned, there have been some great ‘lighter’ films nominated (and winning) in the past. However, this year, for me at least, felt exceptionally great in terms of broadening the scope of documentary film making, and it’s unfortunate those films weren’t recognized. Although after your description of Operation Homecoming, I may eat my words.

Having said all of that, I do hope to catch the rest of the nominated films once they’re made available to me in my small, Southern Ontario town, and for what it’s worth, I still congratulate all of the nominees.

I probably shouldn’t expect the Academy to be responsible for promoting docs anyway. Like you say, that is not really where their interests lie, at least not financially. It is a shame, though. After discovering and watching a ton of docs the last few years, I’ve come to find them generally more compelling than dramatic features. I think others might, too, if they had more exposure to them. On a positive note, it does seem like documentaries continue to become more and more commercially viable.

As far as adding more awards, I’m conflicted. On the one hand, the concept seems, as you say, ridiculous. But if more awards means more exposure which in turn means more financing and distribution of good docs, then it’s a good thing.

By the way, if you are the same Adam Hyman who co-produced Operation Homecoming, congratulations! I have it at the top of my Netflix list and look forward to seeing it soon. Everything I’ve read about it has been extremely positive.

I agree, the whole notion of awards & bests is rather ridiculous, except for raising business, which is why the Academy Awards exist to begin with.

The silly comment was a more general notion rather than anything you said in particular. Sorry for the curt tone.

The Academy doesn’t really know how to treat docs (and foreign films are even worse). But those aren’t the cash machines that the industry is worried about promoting. Silly of them, because they could make a decent number of millions if they put more attention into it.

A friend of mine suggested yesterday that the Academy should have two doc categories, one for the serious investigative stuff, and one for the “lighter” or personal works. The Academy really has no idea what to do with personal and experimental non-fiction. It’ll never happen, but it’s a nice idea. I actually think the Indie Pix Cinema Eye Awards is a decent response, if we can get people to learn about them.. But even those will become predictable, like the Spirit Awards. And those also don’t have a place for films like “Trick or Drink” – more experimental & personal work.

That all said, “March of the Penguins” was pretty light and it won an Oscar. So did that Norman Corwin short which was up against several more serious (and IMHO better) films. But that’s people based on the topic, not the filmmaking, and that’s always the problem with doc voting.

And that all said, I actually think the 5 nominees this year are quite good, and the main reason people are bored by them are… the topics. True, it would be nice to see “Manda Bala” in there.

There are some years they get it right – like when they nominated and awarded “Born into Brothels” with the Oscar.

So far this is my favorite poster of 2008. The Dark Knight poster is pretty hot but this has so much more meaning. It has a great colors and texture that give the posted some feel. I think the shadow of the detained person that makes up part of the US…