Welcome to The Watchlist 005.
Another week, another raft of documentaries for you. After last weekend dancing in a field, I’ve spent quite a bit of time being horizontal and got through quite a few documentaries. Unsurprisingly a lot of them have ended up being animal based…
01 THIS WEEK’S PICKS
Directed by Shaunak Sen · 2022 · Available to rent on Amazon Video and Apple TV.
All That Breathes
This had been on my list for a long time and I finally got around to it. Might be my favourite documentary I’ve watched this year - it’s about a sanctuary in New Delhi that treats the black kites that are being made sick by the pollution.
God sometimes it’s hard to make documentaries like this sound good, but trust me, this is some of the best filmmaking I’ve seen all year.
Watch the trailer here.
Directed by Ceyda Torun · 2016 · Available to rent on Amazon Video and Apple TV.
Kedi
A band of cats roaming around Istanbul living their best lives. This is like a great travel show, but through the eyes of the cats. They’ve each got their own personalities, but you end up really staying for Istanbul. I need to book a flight there asap.
Directed by James Reed · 2023 · Available on Netflix
Chimp Empire
Not a cuddly animal documentary by any stretch of the imagination, this is like Succession meets Game of Thrones set in the Ugandan jungle in a band of Chimps. Alliances form, there’s betrayals that rival the Red Wedding, and so much scheming it keeps you totally hooked.
There are a few films I’m really excited to see in the cinema coming up, I wish I was in the States to see Crows are White.
In the UK: Super Nature comes to cinemas on 4th September. The whole film was shot on Super 8 cameras by 40 people across 25 countries, capturing the natural world on land, underwater and in the air. It looks absolutely gorgeous, and exactly the type you want to see on as big a screen as possible.
Then on 7th September, Lomu is in cinemas for one night only. Jonah Lomu was probably the first global superstar in rugby, and this looks like much more than a straightforward sports documentary.
In the US: Barbara Forever opens on 4th September. It’s an archive-driven documentary about Barbara Hammer, one of the pioneers of queer and experimental cinema, built around footage from her films and personal archive. It won the documentary editing award at Sundance and Best Documentary at the Berlinale Teddy Awards earlier this year. Hoping it gets a UK release in not too long.
03 THIS WEEK ON DOCS TO WATCH
I did my first webinar! And the recording is now live, it was with Keith from Show&Tell Films, you can watch the recording here.
Thanks for reading!
See you next week.
Cheers, Patrick.