Tuesday, November 20, 2007

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has unveiled its list of 15 documentaries that are "short-listed" for next January's nominations:

• "Autism: The Musical" - about kids with autism
• "Body of War" - about a soldier paralyzed in Iraq
• "For the Bible Tells Me So" - about gays and the Christian right
• "Lake of Fire" - about the abortion debate
• "Nanking" - about the 1937 Japanese occupation of the Chinese city
• "No End in Sight" - about U.S. policy blunders in Iraq
• "Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience" - about soldiers in Iraq
• "Please Vote for Me" - about Chinese students running in a school election
• "The Price of Sugar" - about labor in the Dominican Republic
• "A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman" - about the exiled Chilean playwright
• "The Rape of Europa" - about the Nazis' theft of art during World War II
• "Sicko" - about health care in the U.S.
• "Taxi to the Dark Side" - about U.S. troops in Iraq
• "War/Dance" - about Ugandan refugee kids in a national music competition
• "White Light/Black Rain" - about survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

OK, so let the grumbling begin about which films didn't make the list.

My pick for biggest snub is "Manufactured Landscapes," Jennifer Baichwal's brilliant and beautifully photographed look at photographer Edward Burtynsky and his work - which casts a light on what industry is doing to the Earth. Close behind was the fascinating "Deep Water," about an amateur sailor in over his head in an around-the-world race.

"The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters" was apparently too popular, and its topic not serious enough, for the Oscar documentary branch - a stiff-necked lot if there ever was one. But the Academy's penchant for serious and depressing didn't help two docs about the genocide in Darfur, "The Devil Came on Horseback" and "Darfur Now."

Documentarian AJ Schnack (whose "Kurt Cobain: About a Son" was also snubbed, so consider the source) writes a blistering criticism of the Academy's short list on his blog, along with a ton of details about the 15 that got in. (Hat tip: Movie City News.)