It has already been a great year for documentary film with a whole host of really great movies hitting the big screen in the first half of 2015.
The Look of Silence
As we go through the second half of this year, that fine trend looks set to continue as there are a whole host of hard hitting and interesting documentaries that are still on the horizon.
We take a look at some of the documentary films that we are looking forward to and ones that really cannot be missed.
- The Look of Silence - released in UK on12th June
The Look of Silence is already one of the most talked about documentaries this year as Joshua Oppenheimer returns to the director's chair - the film hits the big screen in the UK this week.
The Look of Silence sees the director return to the killing fields of Indonesian for the sequel to the critically acclaimed The Act of Killing - which was Oscar nominated for Best Documentary.
This new movie is just as powerful as The Act of Killing as it follows a family who survived the Indonesian genocide. However, they discover how was one of their sons was murdered and the man who killed him. The younger brother wants to break the silence on the event and confront the man who took his brother's life.
The Look of Silence has already won The Grand Jury Prize at the Venice International Film Festival and is set to be one of the most powerful documentary movies that you will see this year.
It has already been met with critical acclaim and is as unflinching and as devastating as The Act of Killing. This is a movie about survival and the fight to have the happened in their country acknowledged and no longer swept under the carpet.
- The Hunting Ground - out now
The Hunting Ground is a movie that has already hit the big screen here in the UK and sees Kirby Dick return to the director's chair for the first time since the powerful The Invisible War, which was one of the best documentaries that I had seen in recent years.
The Hunting Ground is exposé of rape crimes on U.S. college campuses, their institutional cover-ups, and the devastating toll they take on students and their families.
We hear harrowing stories from students who have been assaulted whilst on their college campus and the institutional cover-ups that have followed as the colleges seem more interested in keeping their rape statistics low.
The Hunting Ground premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and has been met with critical acclaim on the festival circuit. Much like The Invisible War, The Hunting Ground is a devastating watch and a movie that really will make your blood boil at the injustice and just how these victims are treated in the wake of their assault.
The Hunting Ground is another hard-hitting film from Kirby Dick as he puts this topic well and truly in the spotlight. It may be a difficult watch but it was a movie that had to be made.
- 3 1/2 Minutes - released in UK on 8th June.
Back in 2012, four middle-class African-American law-abiding teenagers stopped at a gas station. While one of them was inside, Jordan Davis argued with Michael Dunn, a white man parked beside them, over the volume of the music they were playing.
The event turned into a tragedy when Davis fired ten bullets at the boys - killing Davis. When arrested, Dunn claimed that he had fired the gun in self-defence.
Marc Silver is in the director's chair for 3 1/2 Minutes, which looks at the events of that night, the danger, and subjectivity of Florida's Stand Your Ground self-defence laws, and racial prejudice. Silver mixes accounts and opinions of what happened on that night with moments from Dunn's trial.
3 1/2 Minutes was another documentary that screened at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. Silver had delivered a movie that is unbiased and gives audiences the facts - you really are left to make up your own mind and if justice was served for this murder.
The interviews with Davis' parents are some of the most heartbreaking moments in the film as they struggle to get their head around why this happened to their son. This is the third documentary feature from Silver and this is best and most powerful film yet.
- What Happened, Miss Simone? - screened on Netflix June 26th.
What Happened, Miss Simone? is a documentary that had the honour of opening the 2015 Sundance Film Festival and will screen on Netflix later this summer.
The movie sees Liz Garbus back in the director's chair for her first feature film documentary since Love, Marilyn back in 2012. This time around, she focuses on another icon... the fantastic Nina Simone.
What Happened, Miss Simone? is a movie that looks back at the life and career of this wonderful music artist combining interviews with never before seen archive footage.
Garbus has delivered a very honest portrayal of Simone's life and has really captured the vulnerability as well as sensibility of her subject. Simone's life was not all glitz and glam as we candidly learn about the domestic abuse and depression that Simone suffered during her life.
This is a compelling documentary that delves into Simone's life and troubles as well as showing off some of her greatest songs. Whether you are a Simone fan or not, this is a terrific documentary that is well worth a watch.
- Cartel Land - released 3rd July in U.S.
Matthew Heineman has returned to the director's chair for his third documentary feature Cartel Land, which is his first film Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare.
Heineman won the Best Director Award and Special Jury Award for Cinematography in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.
With unprecedented access, Cartel Land is a riveting, on-the-ground look at the journeys of two modern-day vigilante groups and their shared enemy - the murderous Mexican drug cartels. In the Mexican state of Michoacán, Dr. Jose Mireles, a small-town physician known as "El Doctor," leads the Autodefensas, a citizen uprising against the violent Knights Templar drug cartel that has wreaked havoc on the region for years.
Meanwhile, in Arizona's Altar Valley - a narrow, 52-mile-long desert corridor known as Cocaine Alley - Tim "Nailer" Foley, an American veteran, heads a small paramilitary group called Arizona Border Recon, whose goal is to stop Mexico's drug wars from seeping across our border.
Cartel Land is a great look at the drugs war the view from two very different sides - it is interesting to see these two opposing points of view.
- An Open Secret - out now in the U.S.
Amy Berg has already brought us documentaries such as Deliver Us from Evil and West of Memphis and now she is back in the director's chair with the hard-hitting An Open Secret.
An Open Secret is a movie that is an investigation into accusations of teenagers being sexually abused within the film industry. The film follows five former child actors who claim that they were the victims of some of these predators working within this industry.
I am a huge fan of Berg and her documentary West of Memphis and she has delivered another great movie that is also a very important film. It is a courageous move for all involved to take on the powers that be in Hollywood - that bravery really should be saluted.
The most shocking thing about this film is just how rife these practices seem to be - those at the top have abused their position of power and there has been zero accountability.
This is a subject matter that many directors would not have touched but Berg has delivered an unflinching - and I have to say absorbing movie - about a topic that has very much been swept under the carpet. You do get the opinion as the credits roll, that this could be just the top of the iceberg.
The Look of Silence is released 12th June.