A Guide to This Year’s Oscar-Nominated Documentaries Inline
Photo: Courtesy of © Grain Media1/5Virunga
Executive produced by Leonardo DiCaprio, this documentary takes its name from the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Virunga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and one of few places where endangered mountain gorillas can still be found. Virunga is unfortunately also home to a wealth of resources (read: oil), which makes it incredibly contested ground and vulnerable to corporations, armed militias, and poachers. **Orlando von Einsiedel’**s film captures the battle to save Virunga and follows the remarkable few who regularly risk their lives to preserve the park and its animal inhabitants.
Available on Netflix
Photo: Courtesy of © IFC Films2/5Finding Vivian Maier
At a Chicago auction, director John Maloof, an avid collector, stumbled upon a trove of negatives taken by Vivian Maier, an unknown former nanny who had passed away in 2009. Enamored with her black-and-white images, Maloof tracked down thousands more of her prints and eventually posted them on Flickr. Maier posthumously became an art-world star, and exhibitions of her work have since been displayed around the world. In Finding Vivian Maier, Maloof tries to piece together the story behind the reclusive photographer.
Available on Amazon Instant Video
Photo: Courtesy of © Radius-TWC3/5Citizenfour
In 2013, filmmaker Laura Poitras started receiving encrypted emails from a man going by the alias Citizenfour, who promised to reveal information about the NSA’s surveillance program. Poitras pairs up with journalist Glenn Greenwald, and the two eventually travel to Hong Kong to meet their source—Edward Snowden. What follows is a fascinating look at the days immediately preceding and following their encounter. Trust us: This is probably the scariest movie you’ll watch all year.
Premiering on HBO on Monday, February 23 at 9 p.m.
Photo: Courtesy of © American Experience Films4/5Last Days in Vietnam
It’s impossible not to see the many parallels between the story told in this documentary, which examines the 1975 fall of Saigon and the U.S.’s pullout from Vietnam, and our latter-day exit strategy from Afghanistan. Directed by Rory Kennedy, the film features dozens of devastating news clips and interviews from those final frantic days when American contractors and troops were about to depart for good, leaving many desperate South Vietnamese behind in a war-torn country.
Available on iTunes
Photo: Courtesy of © Le Pacte5/5The Salt of the Earth
The latest from master documentarian Wim Wenders (Pina, Buena Vista Social Club), The Salt of the Earth examines the life and work of photographer Sebastião Salgado, who was famous for his black-and-white shots of war zones around the world throughout the eighties and nineties. His son, Juliano Ribeiro Salgado, codirected the film, and at one point shares his own experience of growing up with a mostly absent father.
Coming to theaters on March 27
