With museums and cinemas still closed, many of us are wondering how can we entertain ourselves?
Fortunately, we are in an era where the web offers many alternatives to going out. From Netflix to Amazon, those platforms offer many TV series, films, and documentaries to comfortably enjoy a journey through history, nature or the life of others.
So here are ten documentaries, between old and new, cult and not to be missed, for your social distancing days.
The Imagineering Story
By Leslie Iwerks
Behind the magic of every Disney theme park lay mud, sweat and fears. Creating happiness is hard work. For nearly seventy years, a unique blend of artists and engineers - called Imagineers - have cultivated an impossible notion from the mind of one man, Walt Disney, into a global phenomenon that touches the hearts of millions. Given unprecedented access, Academy Award-nominated filmmaker, Leslie Iwerks, leads the viewer on a journey behind the curtains of Walt Disney Imagineering, the little known design and development center of The Walt Disney Company, to discover what it takes to create, design, and build twelve Disney theme parks around the world.
March of the penguins
By Luc Jacquet
At the end of each Antarctic summer, the emperor penguins of the South Pole journey to their traditional breeding grounds in a fascinating mating ritual that is captured in this documentary by intrepid filmmaker Luc Jacquet. The journey across frozen tundra proves to be the simplest part of the ritual, as after the egg is hatched, the female must delicately transfer it to the male and make her way back to the distant sea to nourish herself and bring back food to her newborn chick.
Abstract, Art of Design
By Scott Dadich
This series, made of eight episodes, follows leading designers operating in different industries. There are episodes dedicated to Ingels, Devlin and Crawford, as well as graphic designer Paula Scher, automobile designer Ralph Gilles, Nike shoe designer Tinker Hatfield, illustrator Christoph Niemann and photographer Platon.
This documentary really spoke to me as a designer. It really broke down the process of creativity and execution in so many different ways from professionals in the industry. It shows how art and design affects every aspect of our lives and how it shapes humanity.
13th
By Ava DuVernay
A documentary that looks at the mass incarceration of minorities following the passage of the 13th amendment. As the documentary points out, it is not just ingrained cultural racism that results in the widespread incarceration of African Americans and other minorities. There’s a financial incentive as well, and it’s good business to lock people up. 13th systematically goes through the decades following the passage of the 13th amendment to show how black people were targeted by the media, by the government, and by businesses to create a new form of slavery.
Rivers And Tides
By Thomas Riedelsheimer
I recently re-discovered a cherished one from many years back about the artist Andy Goldsworthy called “Rivers and Tides”. Andy Goldsworthy is a contemporary artist who works with natural materials such as stone, branches, and leaves. This documentary focuses on several works that incorporate the element of water, both as liquid and ice. His works are often ephemeral, with the process of their destruction part of the artwork’s expression. I find his work inspirationally poetic and I likely connect with them because so many of my favorite memories involve the stacking of rocks. As a young adult I spent countless hours building rock terraces and whirlpools while camping along an alpine river. My hiking days are characterized by using rock cairns as trail markers. The Bay Area is fortunate to have several of his works, my favorite being “Wood Line” in the Presidio, which is a sinuous curve of tree trunks along the ground in an eucalyptus forest.
Free Solo
By Chai Vasarhelyi & Jimmy Chin
This film is about Alex Honnold’s freakily dangerous free solo attempt in 2017 at El Capitan, the 3,000ft-high rock formation in Yosemite Valley, California. Honnold specialises in the most mind-boggling and gasp-inducing “free solo” climbs – without a rope, up sheer rock faces,
The documentary also takes in the views of the camerapeople who are recording his climb – climbers themselves, going up ahead of him or behind him (with ropes) or sometimes deploying drones.
I enjoyed it because I had no idea anyone would or could do this. Or better yet, want to do it!
The National Parks: America's Best Idea
By Ken Burns
The National Parks: America's Best Idea is a six-episode series produced by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan and written by Dayton Duncan. Filmed over the course of more than six years at some of nature's most spectacular locales – from Acadia to Yosemite, Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon, the Everglades of Florida to the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska - The National Parks: America's Best Idea is nonetheless a story of people: people from every conceivable background – rich and poor; famous and unknown; soldiers and scientists; natives and newcomers; idealists, artists and entrepreneurs; people who were willing to devote themselves to saving some precious portion of the land they loved, and in doing so reminded their fellow citizens of the full meaning of democracy.
It Might Get Loud
By Davis Guggenheim
This American documentary explores the careers and musical styles of prominent rock guitarists Jimmy Page, the Edge, and Jack White. Rarely can a film penetrate the glamorous surface of rock legends. It Might Get Loud tells the personal stories, in their own words, of three generations of electric guitar virtuosos--The Edge (U2), Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), and Jack White (The White Stripes). It reveals how each developed his unique sound and style of playing favorite instruments, guitars both found and invented. Concentrating on the artist's musical rebellion, traveling with him to influential locations, provoking rare discussion as to how and why he writes and plays, this film lets you witness intimate moments and hear new music from each artist. The movie revolves around a day when Jimmy Page, Jack White, and The Edge first met and sat down together to share their stories, teach and play.
Watching these three music legends do a jam session is not to be missed.
The Biggest Little Farm
By John Chester
The Biggest Little Farm is a 2018 American documentary film, directed by Emmy Award Winning director John Chester. The film is a testament to the immense complexity of nature, The Biggest Little Farm follows two dreamers and a dog on an odyssey to bring harmony to both their lives and the land. When the barking of their beloved dog Todd leads to an eviction notice from their tiny LA apartment, John and Molly Chester make a choice that takes them out of the city and onto 200 acres in the foothills of Ventura County, naively endeavoring to build one of the most diverse farms of its kind in complete coexistence with nature.
180 degrees south
By Chris Malloy
The film emulates the 1968 trip made by Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins to Patagonia, but rather than by land, Jeff Johnson travels by sea from Mexico and south along the west coast of Chile. The film opens with original home movie footage as taken by Chouinard and Tompkins, and then continues with Johnson's own footage, in which he includes surfing, sailing and climbing as the film follows Johnson signing on with a small boat heading for Chile, his being delayed for several weeks on Easter Island, his meeting travel partner Makohe, and in his reaching Patagonia, Johnson meeting with Chouinard and Tompkins. The film concludes with his attempt to climb Cerro Corcovado (the Corcovado volcano), an attempt that was halted 200 feet from the summit out of concerns for safety.
I thought this film is perfect for those with an adventurous spirit. I was inspired by traveling to far and away places to climb, surf and sail. It was amazing that Yvon Chouinard and Doug Tompkins made their own equipment to climb Patagonia before climbing gear was even mainstream.
5B
By Dan Krauss, Paul Haggis, Rupert Maconick, Brett Henenberg
5B is the inspirational story of everyday heroes who took extraordinary action to comfort, protect and care for the patients of the first AIDS ward unit in the United States. 5B is stirringly told through first-person testimony of the nurses and caregivers who built Ward 5B at San Francisco General Hospital in 1983, their patients, loved ones, and hospital staff who volunteered to create care practices based in humanity and holistic well-being. The result is an uplifting yet bittersweet monument to a pivotal moment in American history and a celebration of quiet heroes worthy of remembrance and renewed recognition.