New documentaries captivate Oscar watchers

Morgan Spurlock starred in and directed Super Size Me.

LOS ANGELES - Forget fictional movies "The Aviator," "Million Dollar Baby" and "Sideways," for many Oscar watchers 2004's best films are the documentaries.

Box office hits "Super Size Me," an attack on US fast food restaurants, and "Tupac: Resurrection," which tells of murdered rapper Tupac Shakur using his own words, are nominated alongside more traditional fare like "The Story of the Weeping Camel," which looks at the lives of Mongolian nomads.

They face "Born Into Brothels," which has already changed the lives of its subjects - children of prostitutes in India - as well as "Twist of Faith," which hopes to influence the way people view victims of sexual abuse by Catholic priests.

"Each of these films is very different from the other, and that is what is so refreshing about the group," said Susan Froemke, whose "LaLee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton" was nominated for 2001's best documentary Oscar.

Since Michael Moore's anti-Bush "Fahrenheit 9/11" took in US$120 million at US and Canadian box offices this summer, 2004 has been seen as the year in which documentaries break the old rule that people won't attend non-fiction films in theaters.

Moore pulled "Fahrenheit" from Oscar consideration for documentaries to aim at best film but failed to be nominated.

But the Oscar nominees do not lack box office clout. With US$11.5 million in ticket sales, "Super Size" is the No. 3 non-fiction film of all-time. "Tupac" is No. 6 at US$7.7 million, according to box office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

NEW VOICES, NEW ERA

"It's a new era of documentaries. These are not the same old subjects," said Maryann DeLeo, whose "Chernobyl Heart" won the Oscar for short subject documentary in 2003.

Several factors are causing change. Notably, low-cost digital cameras and tape are giving more people access to movie equipment. Corporate and charitable funds are less necessary, and the result is a digital democratization of the medium.

Generally, documentaries had been journalistic endeavors with filmmakers telling stories from multiple viewpoints. They did not put themselves in the story, but that is changing.

Super Size" director Morgan Spurlock wanted to shed light on obesity, so he picked up an inexpensive digital camera, ate only food from McDonald's for 30 days, and chronicled the weight gain and organ damage he suffered.

"I'm a believer that documentaries are becoming one of the last bastions of free speech," he said. "It's an arena where no one is going to tell you what you can or cannot say."

Similarly in "Born into Brothels," first-time directors Zana Briski and Ross Kaufman set out to tell of the plight of kids growing up in the red-light district of Calcutta. During their work, they gave the kids cameras and what emerges is a portrait of the children's lives through their own pictures.

In "Twist of Faith," Toledo, Ohio-resident Tony Comes and his family tell much of Comes' story of sex abuse by a Catholic priest utilizing home-made video. "Faith," directed by Kirby Dick, challenges audiences to question norms in society.

Director Lauren Lazin takes a more traditional approach to documentary making in "Tupac: Resurrection," but she fascinates audiences using old TV interviews of Tupac talking about himself so that, in effect, he is the murdered man commenting on his own past life.

"The good news is it just shows how open-minded audiences are," Lazin said about the success of these new documentaries. "Audiences are saying, 'Challenge us, do something new."'

- REUTERS