Binge Watching Docs

After dodging the Corona virus for almost 4 years, it finally got me. It happened during a quick weekend college touring trip to Seattle, and it hit me on Tuesday. I slept for almost 48 hours straight, but Thursday I started to have a bit more energy, and while in quarantine in my room, was able to binge watch one of my favorite movie genres: documentaries.

It is a genre that I cannot convince my family to watch with me, so it was perfect as I laid in bed, recovering from COVID-19. I like all documentary sub-genres, but nature, music and photography are the sub-genres that I am drawn to the most, so here’s what I watched during my recovering.

Photography

Bill Cunningham New York

Streaming on Max.

Wow! What a legend! Bill Cunningham was a fashion photographer, but not the typical kind. He did not direct his models. He did not have his models made up. He did not place his models in beautiful locations. He did not light up his models. He was a street photographer in search of fashion manifesting itself naturally in the streets of New York. He documented trends. He was a fashion photojournalist.

Besides the streets, he also attended galas, fundraisers and other social events, to document Manhattan’s high society fashion. He was active until his 80s and used his bike as his main means of transportation. For almost 30 years, he had 2 weekly columns in the New York Times, one for this street photography, and one for his high society fashion.

He lived a modest life, in a micro apartment at the Carnegie Hall, with no kitchen and no bathroom. The little space he had was made even smaller by dozens of filing cabinets for his negatives, and the piles of fashion books. Another resident of Carnegie Hall, and good friends with Cunningham, was celebrity photographer Editta Sherman whose studio we also see in the movie.

I highly recommend this one.

Harry Benson: Shoot First!

Streaming on Tubi (with ads)

Harry Benson is another legend, who landed in America with the Beatles in 1964. Literally. He came on the same plane, shooting for the Daily Express. He established himself in the US and worked for LIFE magazine. He was a versatile photojournalist, sent on assignments to shoot not only celebrities, but also general news like the Civil Rights movement, and refugee camps in Somalia, to name a few.

The film has Harry himself telling us how he got some of his famous shots, over his 50+ year career as a photojournalist. He is a very likable person, and has a great sense of humor, which makes the movie very entertaining.

Finding Vivian Maier

For rent on Apple

This is an incredible movie, about an artist no one knew, until her negatives and unprocessed rolls were found and bought in auction, after her death. She was a nanny with a Rolleiflex TLR, and did some amazing street photography in Chicago.

The director John Maloof tells us how he came across these incredible body of work, his quest to find out who the artist was, and his effort to share such incredible work with the world.

Vivian Maier’s work is amazing, and her story is pretty sad. Worth the rental fee.

Music

Elliot Smith - Heaven Adores You

Streaming on Prime

I did not know much about Elliott Smith, a singer-songwriter from the Portland music scene, with beautiful voice and great songs. In his solo career, after leaving his band Heatmiser, he hit the mainstream with an Oscar nominated song for the movie Good Will Hunting. One of those that have gone too early, at the age of 34.

WHAM!

Streaming on Netflix

I never really listened to WHAM!, but had some personal sources recommending the movie. Really good documentary telling the story of the band, that was a global success (they were the first western performers to play in China in the 80s).

The director builds the narrative on top of the more than 40 scrapbooks created by Andrew Ridgeley’s mother documenting their trajectory. And what a performer George Michael was!

The Bee Gees - How Can You Mend A Broken Heart

Streaming on Max

Another band that I cannot say I listened to much, but always respected them as artists. I did not know much about their earlier career and how they changed overtime, culminating with huge success that was the soundtrack for Saturday Night Fever. Their stuff from the 60s and 70s was awesome (no falsetto 😉).

The movie shows the ups and downs (and breakups) of these brothers journey and the legacy they left.

O Canto Livre de Nara Leão

Streaming on globoplay (in Portuguese)

A 5 episode series in Portuguese about Nara Leão who was at center of the birth of Bossa Nova as a teenager. Nara was an upper middle class girl, who partnered with samba musicians from the poorer communities in Rio, to bridge the Bossa Nova and the samba styles, on her fist album.

I’ve only watched 2 episodes so far. The second episode goes into her position and voicing against the military dictatorship that took over Brazil in 1964. I am really enjoying the series so far.

Nature

The Great Barrier Reef with David Attenborough

Streaming on Hulu

Having just come back from Australia, that obviously got my attention as I browsed. It is a 4 episode series from 2015, and classical Attenborough. Beautiful and educational. I’ve watched 2 of the 4 episodes so far and I am really enjoying it.

---

Its been 6 days since I got my positive COVID-19 test, and started the treatment with the antiviral Plaxovid. I feel much better, with no symptoms, and will later today be testing again. It is possible that the test will still say positive, but I feel 100% better, and am getting back to working from home this week.

What about you? What are some documentaries you’ve watched and recommend? Please leave a comment with suggestions as I am always looking for good documentaries to watch.