Scotsman.com News - Features - Docs and the box office

"IN THAT long-ago era of the 20th century the mention of documentaries caused yawns. Now it’s one of the hottest races around," observed Variety in a recent Oscars preview. In this US election year, there were burning issues at every local multiplex - and the debate is set to continue.

Mondovino, a polemical exposé of the globalisation of the wine industry, opens here next month. In February comes The Yes Men, following a bunch of satirical pranksters posing as World Trade Organisation officials. Channel 4 has paid around £800,000 for Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11, which it plans to screen in a prime-time slot in 2005, along with other high-profile documentaries, including Morgan Spurlock’s Super Size Me. Moore is now at work on Sicko, an investigation of the US health insurance business.

The control of mass media is another hot topic - witness last week’s Orwell Rolls In His Grave. In addition, there is Outfoxed, about the Rupert Murdoch empire (released on DVD here this week) and Citizen Black, an uncomplimentary profile of Conrad Black. Globalisation, media ownership, and American foreign policy are seemingly indigestible movie subjects. Yet they speak not just to diehard Lefties or dinner-party chatterers. "For everyone from snobbish cinéastes to casual moviegoers, documentaries have gone from a dirty word to de rigueur," marvelled the Los Angeles Times. "These films must be delivering something that people aren’t getting on TV," suggests Mark Achbar, co-director of The Corporation, which examined large conglomerates.

The American Right has attempted a riposte. No fewer than four anti-Moore polemics, with titles such as Michael Moore Hates America, Celsius 41.11 and Fahrenhype 9/11 have been doing the rounds in the US. But none achieved popular success or critical respect. Celsius 41.11 was described in the New York Times as "a didactic screed that has all the verve of a PowerPoint presentation".

By contrast, left-wing documentarians have rediscovered comedy.

"One problem with the Left," says Joel Bakan, co-writer of The Corporation, "has been the serious and earnest, almost pious, ways that people approached criticism and activism.

But if you go back to the agitprop theatre of the 1930s, humour was an important part of politics."

Traditional documentary directors such as America’s Fred Wiseman or Britain’s Roger Graef employ a discreet, fly-on-the-wall approach.

Many of the newer breed are flamboyant showmen . A typical Yes Men stunt involves advocating third world slavery in the name of the WTO at an economic conference before whipping out a three-foot inflatable phallus. The extrovert personalities of The Yes Men, Moore, or Spurlock, their complicity with the audience and self-promotion are critical to the appeal.

Sceptics claim audiences need heroes and villains to root for and boo at just as much as in action flicks, but Achbar disagrees. "I believe people are smart and they want to be treated that way." Will George Bush’s election victory put an end to this wave?

"Oh no," he replies without hesitation. "The opposite. It’s going to fire our collective passions even more. And these films broke into such a broad market that everyone is saying, ‘Hey where’s the next one?’" The bottom line, as always, is the balance sheet.

• Outfoxed is released on DVD today.

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