My Fathers, My Mother and Me
The BFI London Film Festival is now just over a week away and there are some films that are going to light up the big screen.
The documentary competition is set to be incredibly fierce as we are going to be treated to some cracking film.
We take a look at some of the stand out movies and directors in this category.
- My Fathers, My Mother and Me - Paul-Julien Robert
Paul-Julien Robert makes his feature film debut with My Fathers, My Mother and Me; a hard hitting movie that looks at events in his life.
Robert embarks on a journey into his past and the commune that he lived in with his mother for the first twelve years of his life.
Through archive footage and talking to people who also lived in the commune Robert shows was it was like to live there. This was a place that was sexually free where children didn't know who their fathers were.
But this way of life had a huge emotional effects on the children that were raised there. This is a hard hitting and personal movie that is not to be missed.
- The Armstrong Lie - Alex Gibney
Alex Gibney has always been a fascinating documentary filmmaker, and how he is back with his new film The Armstrong Lie.
Gibney started filming Armstrong back in 2009 before it was halted due to the doping scandal.
When Gibney resumed in 2013 this became a very different movie. The Armstrong Lie looks the scandal that has rocked the cycling world and paints a picture of a complex athlete who wanted to win.
Gibney has made some great documentaries in recent years and The Armstrong Lie looks set to be another fascinating watch.
- Teenage - Matt Wolf
Teenage is an America movie to watch out for as Matt Wolf returns to the director's chair.
Wolf made his debut with Wild Combination: A Portrait of Arthur Russell, and now he is back.
Using archival material, filmed portraits, and voices lifted from early 20th Century diary entries this movie shows a time where the 'teenager' didn't exist.
The movie looks at the tension between adults and children as a new idea of youth begins to emerge.
- Manhunt - Greg Barker
We have seen plenty of movies and TV series that have tackled the decade long hunt for Osama Bin Laden.
But Manhunt takes us into the CIA and allows us to meet the people that had a hand in finding the world's most wanted man.
This is the third feature film documentary for Barker having been behind Sergio and Koran By Heart.
Barker has unprecedented access to the those who searched for the Al-Qaeda leader for ten years in a riveting and complex movie.
- At Berkeley - Frederick Wiseman
Another American documentary comes in the form of At Berkeley; the thirty ninth movie from director Frederick Wiseman.
Wiseman is a director who has been capturing institutions on film for years; now he is looking at one of the most prestigious schools in the USA.
In the last ten years Berkeley have had to make some changes as the school has had half of its budget slashed.
The director shows that Berkeley is facing huge challenges and yet meeting them head on.
- The Missing Picture - Rithy Panh
Rithy Panh has moved between documentary and live action movies throughout his career and is back to the former with The Missing Picture.
Panh is a director who has never turned away from tackling tough subject matter, and for The Missing Picture, he looks at the Khmer Rouge labour camps; an experience that Panh knows only too well.
Using clay figures, archival footage, and his narration to recreate the atrocities Cambodia's Khmer Rouge committed between 1975 and 1979.
The Missing Picture looks set to be one of the most powerful movies in the documentary competition this year.
Other films in this category include Aatsinki: The Story of Arctic Cowboys by Jessica Oreck, Cutie and the Boxer by Zachary Heinzerling, Here Be
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