Sight & Sound: The Critic's Best Documentaries

Meltwater flowing down the mountainside becomes a wild, churning river. Silhouettes battle desperately against the rushing water so as not to be swallowed up. Vast cloudscapes glide at speed over the Armenian highlands. In this, his last collaboration with cameraman Mikhail Vartanov, Artavazd Pelechian captures a reclusive peasant community in its unceasing battle with the elements. In spring, they migrate into the mountains with their herds. When summer ends they harvest the hay—creating a dusty avalanche of bales. In winter, it is the shepherds themselves, hanging on to their sheep, who roll down the mountains in the snow. Accompanied by Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, these highland dwellers perform feats of pure survival. This is humanity, trapped in a brutal but stunningly beautiful existence. To the melodic rhythms of camerawork, montage, and a lyrical score, Pelechian and Vartanov elevate it into a full-blown symphony—a symphony of being.

1935 Nazi propaganda film by Leni Riefenstahl about the 1934 Nazi Party Congress in Nuremberg

2008 Animated documentary film directed by Ari Folman

The nature and complexity of the welfare system is examined by sequences illustrating the staggering diversity of problems that constitute welfare: housing, unemployment, divorce, medical and psychiatric problems, abandoned and abused children, and the elderly. These issues are presented in a context where welfare workers as well as the clients are struggling to cope with and interpret the laws and regulations that govern their work and life.

1895 French short black-and-white silent documentary film directed by Auguste and Louis Lumière