52docs Week 4 - Know the whole story

The Oscars are the FA Cup of the documentary world and the nominations were released this week, which means we’re down to the final five!

For those even less interested in soccer/football than me, the FA Cup is a knockout tournament in which even the smallest clubs have a chance to make it all the way to the final and play against famous teams owned by billionaires.

So it is with the Academy documentary categories, especially since they opened up their membership. The result has been a remarkable snubbing of the big players in favor of more independent work and international stories.

Shout out to friend of 52docs Dan Sadowsky who edited on one of the nominated short documentaries, and much respect to Dom and Nadia from Encompass Films whose lovely film Planetwalker had been shortlisted but didn’t move forward.

Of the five remaining in the feature doc race I’ve seen and highly recommend Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat (screening for free in the US on Kanopy), No Other Land (watch via Dogwoof) and Porcelain War (not available yet). That leaves just Black Box Diaries (which is streaming via Paramount+ and I can’t face signing up for another subscription) and Sugarcane (on Hulu which I haven’t cancelled yet) so let’s watch that one next shall we?

Trailer

Watch via Hulu in the US or Disney+ in the UK