If you haven't figured it out, I'm the person who is always watching. I will watch almost anything and I've seen over 12,000 features.
There are 12 titles in your Top 100 I haven't seen. If you arrange your list by Popularity, the Bottom 11 are all among my Unwatched. The 12th title is Columbus which I should be getting to in a couple of months.
I am most happy to see Blackfish. It is a favorite of mine, though I tend to be a poor judge of documentaries.
I have definitely noticed! I don't know if you're the longest standing member here, but when I am looking through replies, I have this vision of you as a mix of the board's Godfather and Fairy Godmother lol. I know you know your shit.
And I read your comment on making lists brick-by-brick and thought of that when I made this. For me, that meant obviously I want what I feel the best films I've seen are, but I also feel there's room for films that have had the highest impact on me, as a film-viewer and person, as well as those that have changed the world. When it comes to documentaries, there are several levels here. When it comes to Blackfish, I think its greatness lies primarily in its cultural impact beyond craft. It spurred me to travel several hours over to San Diego on multiple occasions to protest in front of Sea World. I didn't bring it into the classroom at all, but students began hearing about it at our school and began questioning our science teacher's field trips there. I WILL say, as a result I got more interested in whales, and for three years before I moved from that area, I had my kids fund raise to do a whale-watching expedition during Gray Whale migration. Now, I might not personally take Top 100 to mean Top 100 Films that Spurred the Most Change, but Blackfish made me realize what power film can have beyond artistry. That's why it's there. Project Nim and Crude are politically agreeable films to me, but I also find the former to be a penetrating look at what we mean by humanity and humane, while the latter excels as each a suspenseful procedural, portrait of human neglect, and a searing critique of capitalism. The one film here that's almost purely sentimental is Heaven Adores You, because Elliott Smith has gotten me through a lot, and I feel the doc is incredibly moving and worthy of his legacy. All excellent to me, but in very different ways.
Sorry, lots of writing, but it was something I was dying to explain.
Even if no one asked.
Sandy: Looking forward to your opinions, good or bad! It is weird, but being in front of a room of 30-40 tweens and early teens all day, every day means one gets used to being scrutinized. Just maybe not quite so much on an intellectual level (no offense to my kids, they're awesome and brilliant, but still 11-14), but my skin is about 6 inches thick. It'll be fun.
