A film that I will be slow to forget, that momentarily keeps my mind and my imagination more than active is the multiple prize-winning documentary film Nostalgia for the Light from 2010 by the Chilean director Patricio Guzmán. Guzmán is famous for his political documentaries like The Battle of Chile and The Pinochet Case. In Nostalgia for the Light he turns personal, philosophical and political at the same time. If you define documentary film as the art of storytelling through factual material, then you find in this film a masterpiece, truly an art film.

The film is about the Atacama Desert in Chile, the driest place on earth, a place for astronomers to search the cosmos in order to find answers concerning the origins of life. Because of the dryness, the sky is so crystal clear that you can see as far as the boundaries of the universe. In the same place women are sifting the sand searching for body parts of loved ones, the remains of political prisoners dumped there by the Pinochet regime. Once again, it is the heat that keeps these parts of the human body intact.

Guzmán brings the harsh, cruel reality of the past with its heart-breaking memories in contact with the exploration of the vast universe, the search for heaven. Completeness and utter moral failure need both their honest, proper attention. Guzmán explores the connection between the cruel, barren past and the promise of the heavenly scope. He seems to suggest that the unresolved questions of the present need some kind of fusion between the past and the infinite realm. Only then some kind of peace or tranquillity can be obtained.

10 documentary films that have not only caught my attention but have greatly added to my fascination with this genre are:

• The Salt of the Earth by Juliano Ribeiro Salgado: during 40 years a photographer has witnessed catastrophe around the globe
• Searching for Sugar Man by Malik Bendjelloul: the heartwarming true story of rock-icon Rodriguez
• Joy of Madness Hana Makhmalbaf: 14-year old Hana records in after Taliban Kabul the production of her sister’s film
• The Story of the Weeping Camel by Byambasuren Davaa: The life of an extended family of camel herders in the Mongolian Gobi desert
• The War Game by Peter Watkins: depicting a hypothetical nuclear attack on Britain
• The Five Obstructions by Lars von Trier/Jorgen Leth: 5 different remakes of the same short movie give a fascinating insight into the filmmaking process
• Makela by Emmanuel Gras: trials and aspirations of a young African farmer becomes a metaphor of life
• Five Broken Cameras (2011) by Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi: an account of non-violent resistance of a Palestinian farmer in a West Bank village
• This is Not a Film (2011) by Jafar Panahi: the clandestine documentary of the day-to-day life of the director in house arrest in Teheran
• Man on Wire (2008) by James Marsh: the story of the Frenchman Philippe Petit’s hour long walk on a wire without safety net between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center – about a man’s obsession.

I would be eager to hear of other experiences and memorable moments with this form of story-telling!

Rinus

*Image posted for non commercial purposes
 under 'fair use' of copyright material in recommendation of the film