A documentary tells the story of events that are happening or have happened, regardless of whether or not they are made into a film, and its characters also exist outside the film, before and after the film.
The documentary film has as one of its objectives to keep a testimony of a situation that has happened or is happening.
Very fashionable is the mockumentary, where conventional documentary techniques are used to present a story as if it were true.
Here are 4 very entertaining and highly recommended documentaries:
Baraka (1992) by Ron Fricke
The human being, his environment, human life in relation to the world, all this represented visually and musically, without words. Baraka is a word of Sufi origin (Islamic religious community), whose meaning is breath of life.
The film tells us about the evolution of humanity and nature, the latter being the container of the space that man uses to build his ecosystem and how he modifies it from the different cultures.
It shows the relationship between religion and worship in the construction of spaces, temples and the sacred.
The passage of time is very important to understand the relationship between humans and their environment. The ruins of us humans show that previous generations had more respect for sacred architectures, these had greater proportions and what has been lost with the evolution of modernity, and where nature has always found ways to reclaim its place.
[Source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcVmt5je88M)Life in tribes is shown to be attached to rites, to the sacred and spiritual where the human being deeply cares for nature.
Modern civilization appears from gestures that announce the destruction of the natural to give way to progress, and we are shown how the migration from the countryside to the city, takes away space to the countryside and nature presenting the problems of urbanization.
In the urban space we observe flows, speeds, and displacements, and they displace the human being from the spiritual, giving way to other acts that define the everyday, which is not necessarily spiritual. This dynamic prevents the recognition and care for human value.
That's Entertainment! (1974) by Jack Haley Jr.
In 1974, Metro Goldwyn Mayer celebrated its 50th anniversary, and therefore gathers its best musicals together with commentaries by their stars. It presents sequences of their best films of this genre, both in black and white and in color, with a journey through the history of musical cinema and its performers, musicians, and directors.
The film is entertaining, appreciating the majesty with which these productions were conceived to give them an extraordinary artistic quality.
[Source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBc03MAE4Y0)Featuring, among others, Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Gene Kelly, Peter Lawford, Liza Minnelli, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Reynolds, Mickey Rooney, Frank Sinatra, James Stewart and Elizabeth Taylor, it shows a selection of the best musical numbers from MGM films between 1929 and 1958. In addition to well-known and acclaimed musical artists, we see in this facet actors far from the genre such as Clark Gable, Cary Grant, Jean Harlow, Joan Crawford, Robert Montgomery and James Stewart.
Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story (2017) by Alexandra Dean.
"Any girl can be glamorous, you just have to be willing and look stupid." Hedy Lamarr's words.
Hedy Lamarr, was a seductive starlet and was once known as the most beautiful woman in the world. She starred in the first on-screen female orgasm (Ecstasy, Gustav Machatý, 1933). She is best remembered for her role as Delilah opposite Victor Mature in the film Samson and Delilah (Cecil B. DeMille, USA 1949).
But despite her pretty face and seductive performances, she was a pioneer in technological development and her inventions occupy a central place in this documentary. For the millionaire Howard Hughes, she designed a more aerodynamic and faster airplane, and collaborated in the Second World War in the development of a frequency hopping communication system, to be implemented in submarines.
This frequency hopping communication system is the basis for Wifi, Bluetooth, GPS and the development of various military technologies.
[Fuente](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaBW2vpfrZ4)In this documentary, authoritative voices from different fields intervene and, most importantly, it is structured from the voice of the protagonist herself.
We are told how she abandoned her first husband, Fritz Mandl, an Austrian businessman who helped supply armaments to the Nazis, she talks about how she seduced Louis B. Mayer to sign her for Metro. Mayer to sign her for the Metro. The Electra complex that seemed to accompany her in many of her marriages is striking, as well as her ability to recover from professional and sentimental onslaughts.
Searching for Sugarman (2012) by Malik Bendjelloul.
Sixto Rodriguez is a folk musician of Hispanic descent who became a music icon in South Africa, the problem was that he didn't know it. His style was similar to Bob Dylan's, but he never made it in the United States. This documentary is an example of how reality overcomes fiction and shows us the power of music.
Between the late 60's and early 70's the musician was discovered in a bar in Detroit by two producers, who recorded an album with him because they were sure that the artist was going to position himself as one of the greats of his generation. But success did not come, being commercially ignored and fired from the record label that signed him. The singer disappeared and it was rumored that he had committed suicide on stage.
[Source](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e70oln-7evM)Coincidentally, a bootleg recording of the album was found in South Africa during the apartheid era and, given the messages of the songs, it became a phenomenon.
The documentary mixes interviews with archival images, we observe an appropriate setting and shows the parallel life of a musician who, believing to have failed in his artistic project, dedicates himself to live a simple life without luxuries. On the other side there is a virtual life in South Africa, where he is a mass idol.
Thanks to the research detailed in the documentary, Rodriguez manages to travel to South Africa and is involved in a bath of crowds, and even performs concerts, however, given his simplicity and modesty, he assumes that he will have to return to Detroit, to continue with his daily life.
Searching for Sugarman won the Oscar for Best Documentary in 2013.
In addition to conventional cinema, it is very important that we visualize documentaries, like a photograph of a family album where we can appreciate outstanding cultural facts, this cinema can be used as an educational tool. In addition, it allows us to discover other points of view about a certain situation.
Thank you for your attention, dear CineTV community. This is my post to participate in the CineTV Contest #9- Your favorite documentary(s). Link Here
The Gif is of my authorship being these the sources:
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