Documentaries

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It is difficult to produce a television documentary that is both incisive and probing when every twelve minutes one is interrupted by twelve dancing rabbits singing about toilet paper.

A&E

Known for its popular “Biography” series, A&E is a cable television network that strives to make history accessible to the channel-surfing masses. Check current listings and go behind the scenes at the network’s latest projects.

Anne Frank Remembered

This is the official site of the film that won an Oscar for Best Documentary. Of special interest are an interview with Jon Blair, who wrote, produced, and directed the film, and the production notes, which discuss the facts surrounding the film’s creation.

The Center for Documentary Studies

Located at Duke University, the Center’s mission is to examine dosumentaries in a new light, one that shows the documentary’s effects on education and community structure. Find links to film resources, photodocumentary sites, and several literary sites.

CRUMB

Get the behind-the-scenes story on R. Crumb, the strange cartoonist of Keep on Truckin’ fame that also happens to be part of the world’s most dysfunctional family. Read extensive production notes and get a deeper glimpse into the neurotic world of the film’s main character.

Documentary Filmsite

Located in the Netherlands, the DFS isn’t drenched in American subjectivity. Find a list of critically acclaimed films from around the world. Find background reading on documentary topics, enter the chatroom, find out about upcoming festivals, and maybe even find a job.

Film School Confidential

This site is the home page of the book Film School Confidential: The Insider’s Guide to Film Schools, written by Tom Edgar and Karin Kelly. Contains parts of the book, a list of MFA film schools, and guides about what you should expect from a film school and what it will expect from you.

Hoop Dreams

Although the film itself has long been gone from the “New Releases” category, this site is worthy of investigation based on the interesting biographies of its filmmakers and the lengthy production notes section. Also included is a transcript from an AOL conference with Producer and Director of Photography Peter Gilbert.

Internet Movie Database

Search the massive database by film title, director, narrator, or more. Write a review or give a film your own star rating. An extensive linking system lets you find all films of a given topic, by a certain director, featuring the same actors, and so on.

Lewis and Clark

One of the latest joint ventures between master documentarian Ken Burns and PBS. This site features a timeline of the journey into the new American territory, commentary by historians, journals written by the explorers, and even a Lewis and Clark screensaver.

Liberty! The American Revolution

Part of the PBS Web site, this area focuses on Liberty!, a production of Twin Cities Television and Middlemarch Films. Get historical background on the series’ content, play a revolutionary game, read interviews with the filmmakers, and find out about the scholars that give PBS films that intellectual edge.

PBS Online

At the official site of Public Broadcasting Services, you’ll find information on current programming and fully stocked sites about PBS’s current and recent documentaries, such as Lewis and Clark, Hoop Dreams, Rock and Roll, and more. The most interesting parts are the behind-the-scenes interviews with cast and crew members and reading the goals of the film-makers.

Sundance Film Festival

Documentary films are given special attention at the Sundance Film Festival, the organization that featured the debuts of Hoop Dreams and Crumb. The site features highlights of the festival since 1990 and a call for entries for next year’s competition.

When We Were Kings

This is the official site of the award-winning documentary that covers the “Rumble in the Jungle”—the 1974 heavyweight championship fight between Mohammed Ali and George Foreman. Read the reviews, find out what went into making the film, and learn about the politics that set the stage for the fight.

A&E