Completed Category: Documentary Feature

This is one of my favorite categories! I love good documentaries. It's pretty rare for a terrible one to get nominated in Documentary Feature. (It has happened, but rarely.) 

Part of what I love about Documentary Feature watching is learning about things around the world. It's my favorite when the five noms give us five different countries and preferably some history from each one. 

BOBI WINE: THE PEOPLE'S PRESIDENT: First up, Uganda. Bobi Wine is a famous pop star who speaks to and for the people, which of course means he and his movement are widely quashed, with some people even being killed, by the president-dictator-for-life in power who insists that everyone is still voting for him. This is such an interesting (though sad and frustrating as well) look at Uganda. Bonus points because we also get a campaign road trip with a map route. 

THE ETERNAL MEMORY: At first glance, this is more about an interpersonal relationship and the debilitating devastation of Alzheimer's but as it goes along you realize you're also going to get glimpses of Chilean history and the film weaves in the theme of how this journalist acted as a recorder of Chile memory - think about the verb recordar in Spanish! - even as we watch him lose his own. Bonus points for the CAT! Who hangs out in multiple scenes!

FOUR DAUGHTERS: Of all the places I almost went to but didn't, Tunisia sticks in my craw the most sometimes. I gotta get there. Anyway, this doc is sad and engaging, almost transfixing, as you plunge into the relationships of this mother and her daughters, two of whom are now eaten by the radicalization wolf, as she puts it. The way they choose to depict this family's story is unique and effective, and that makes me think it has a serious chance of winning here. 

TO KILL A TIGER: First of all - not an actual tiger! It's a metaphor. There are no tigers in this film. India frustrates the hell out of me whenever I watch a documentary or read a book about something happening there. It's always someone trying to fight some enormous injustice, and you get some little bit of hope, and then there are 1 billion more injustices to fight the next day. That said, this documentary did a lot of work and frankly could have edited it down a tad more because it kind of starts to drag after a while, but then in the end it pulls you back in. This is the kind of documentary that makes me think humans are so frequently so terrible to one another, but, as long as we are all here thank godz there are people trying to shine at least one light in the darkness. 

20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL: More lights shining in dark days in Ukraine. This is a constant barrage of sadness and misery, and sometimes I still think about the pet turtle even two months after I watched this. The journalist filmmakers did fantastic work, and it's Ukraine, so this has a really really really good chance. 

Order I want them to win: 
This is probably my hardest category to rank! 
Maybe 20 Days in Mariupol
The Eternal Memory
Four Daughters
Bobi Wine The People's President
To Kill A Tiger

But they are so close in that ranking it might as well be a 5-way tie for me. 

Order I think they will win: 

20 Days In Mariupol
Four Daughters
To Kill A Tiger
The Eternal Memory
Bobi Wine: The People's President* 
*unless Academy voters see shades of trumptydumpty and fear him becoming prez for life and that ratchets up the relatability factor here giving this more votes

I love Documentary Feature watching! 
Which one was most impressive to you?