Every movie buff is familiar with the ‘dive into the rabbit hole’ phase at the end of a wonderful movie. A film fan just cannot help it; some films are so well made that they just have to learn all the details involved. Then there are those who are long time film fans who’d like to explore genres and dive into the world of documentaries. Documentary films have a reputation of being boring and slow. But more often than not, the topics chosen for documentaries are so good that just discussing them is more than enough to captivate the audience (of course, many documentaries go beyond that; some are even at par with commercial films with regard to filmmaking techniques). Here’s a list of film recommendations which are both informative and entertaining.
Hey Ram - Directed and starred by Kamal Hassan, this film is set in Kolkata during the time of the partition and doesn’t sugar coat the horrible situation during that time. The film, though focussed on revealing the mentality of the extremists and what pushes them to that state, also serves the purpose of educating the general public about the politics of that time. People who loved that film, why not learn a little more about the partition from Simantorekha?
Simantorekha (The Borderline) by Tanvir Mokammel is an excellent documentary about the partition of Bengal. "Simantorekha will deal with all the social, political, economic and cultural aspects of the Partition of Bengal in 1947 and the tragedy and trauma it had created on both sides of the border,” Mokammel told PTI from Dhaka. Best part, it’s available on YouTube! This documentary portrays the pain and trauma the people had to endure. The general public played a huge role in making this film too! The total budget of the film is Tk 1,800,000 BDT. Tk 1,200,000 BDT was arranged by the production company, Kino-Eye Films, in the form of loans from various sources. The project needed another Tk 6,00,000 BDT more to complete production. A crowd-funding endeavour succeeded in generating around Tk 1,000,000 BDT.
Historical fiction, especially about royalty, has always had an incredible fan base. One such series which received critical acclaim is the Turkish drama ‘Magnificent Century’ which portrayed the life and reign of Sultan Suleiman and his wife Hurrem Sultan. This series focussed on the period of the Sultanate of women. As with any historical fiction produced commercially, this series also took a considerable amount of creative freedom. The series serves as a good introduction to that period and fans of this series would like to know more about it. Fans of the Game of Thrones series would love this even more!
‘Rise of the Empires: Ottoman’ is a docudrama on Netflix. It has two seasons and covers the time period 1453 – 1462. It covers the period when Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II waged an epic campaign to take the Byzantine capital of Constantinople and shaped the course of history for centuries. This documentary was originally made in Turkish. For the majority of the crowd who’d watch this in English, there’s a very exciting treat, especially exciting for fans of the “Game of Thrones” series. The English version of this documentary is narrated by none other than Charles Dance who played the smart and intimidating Tywin Lannister!
Black Panther
Everyone loves this film. Directed by Ryan Coogler, this 2018 film stars the late Chadwick Boseman and Michael B Jordan in the lead roles. The plot revolves around the newly crowned T’Challa and Eric Killmonger, who want to change the nation’s isolationist policies. Both these characters have a huge fan base. Their political identities are very deeply rooted and crafted well in the film. Digging deeper into the real life political figures whom these film characters resemble is a preoccupation that’s worth its while. The political figures are none other than two of the most prominent personalities figured in African American History: Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. Both their life stories are inspiring enough on their own, but watching it and later looking at the characterisation of T’Challa and Eric Killmonger is incredibly satisfying.
Malcolm X: Make it Plain directed by Orlando Bagwell, released in 1994, showcases the life of the civil rights movement leader through archival footage and interviews of Malcolm X and his associates. This documentary is available on YouTube.
King in the Wilderness is a documentary on Martin Luther King’s last years (1965 – 1968). It is directed by Peter Kunhardt and was released in 2018. It showcases his involvement in the voting rights to his assassination. This documentary is available on YouTube.
To end the list, here’s one of the most successful and artsy films of the decade, Oppenheimer. The Christopher Nolan film starring Cillian Murphy is a treat for physics enthusiasts and war history enthusiasts alike, portraying the contribution of Dr Robert J Oppenheimer to the attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the politics around it. The film is an audio-visual treat with excellent acting, cinematography and storyline. This is the kind of film that convinces the audience to spend the next week reading up on information about the events portrayed in the film. A good place to start is the PBS documentary ‘The Trials of Robert J Oppenheimer’ on YouTube.
‘The Trials of Robert J Oppenheimer’ by PBS released in 2009 features interviews with the scientist’s former colleagues and eminent scholars to present a portrait of one of the most important and controversial scientists. The film traces the course of Oppenheimer’s life: his rarefied childhood, his troubled adolescence, his emergence as one of America’s leading nuclear physicists, his leadership of the Los Alamos laboratory, and his tragic humiliation.
Happy Watching!