Bummer Docs are nothing new. They’ve been around as long as protest songs. But in recent years, the Bummer Documentary has become an entertaining means of educating the masses. More so than a library full of books, film is our modern literature.
While watching a Bummer Doc the viewer goes slack-jawed. These documentaries rip your skull off. You are simultaneously enlightened and horrified. Now, a few films are produced by obvious conspiracy theorists. But Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ legitimized the category. By contrast, ‘Fahrenheit 911’s facts check out, but Michael Moore slants his work with leftist humor. It makes for better entertainment but targets him for dismissal by the right as a propagandist.
‘An Inconvenient Truth’ was, in a word, sobering. And it was extremely depressing (thus a Bummer Doc). But I was wide awake after leaving the theater, physically sickened by garbage along the freeway on the drive home; sickened that I, like a billion other humans, am a petroleum addict. Glaciers melting into the sea haunted my dreams for a week or so. Reports of drowning polar bears adorned Yahoo’s home page. And I was angrier than ever that Gore wasn’t president.
Bummer Docs are stronger than any single piece of legislation. They are stronger than Greenpeace. The following documentaries are not listed in order of importance, but they are all MANDATORY:
5. Why We Fight
6. An Inconvenient Truth (duh!)
9. Sicko
11. Tony Iommi: Inside Black Sabbath
…okay, this last one isn’t really a Bummer Doc, I just love Sabbath and recommend you rent it. But returning to my point, a well produced/researched Bummer Doc can have a stronger impact than the box office revenues for the opening weekend of ‘The Dark Night’. Hopefully, after enough of these penetrate the American psyche we will experience the rise of the Solution Doc.
(editor’s note: hold the fuckin’ phone! I neglected the ultimate BummerDocOfAllTime! The most unsavory journey through hell-on-earth is narrated by Joaquin Phoenix. It is EARTHLINGS!!!!!!!!)
[...] I hope my new friend Talal Jabari accepts his induction into the Bummer Doc sub-genre with [...]