March of the documentaries

By Steven Zeitchik

The word today that MSNBC will use "Dear Zachary" as a springboard to increase involvement in feature-length documentaries was welcome news for a category that's been harassed by some tough times at the box office, and almost as many news stories belaboring same.

So what really is the state of the documentary? From the movies we caught at the Silverdocs festival in Silver Spring, Maryland, this past weekend, not as shabby as the doomer stories would suggest. There's a more innovative and interesting group of filmmakers out there than ever, even if the market has yet to demonstrate the Spurlockian and Penguin-ish vigor of 2004. Sure, some of the movies can be a little rough around the edges. But anyone bemoaning the state of American filmmaking as cookie-cutter and studio-compliant, beset by the same foreign competition as cars and computers (damn you, Romania), would have been heartened by a trip to this quiet middle-class suburb on the Edgar Allan Poe side of the D.C.-Maryland border.

A couple of the movies have been on the fest circuit, and a few more will open in the coming months. Here's our take on a few of them -- including "Zachary" -- as well as some of the premieres.

"Man on Wire:" -- There's really no better testament to quixotic whimsy than James Marsh's look at Philippe Petit's walk across the twin towers in the mid-1970's, a film that Magnolia releases next month. Marsh's Erroll Morris-esque use of re-enactment may trouble some purists, but quirkiness and persistence of vision, the sheer _Frenchness_ of it, is more than just charming -- it's inspiring.

"Holy Land Hardball" -- Is it "Hoop Dreams" or an Alex Gibney-style look at the shortsightedness of institutional who say they have it all under control? A little of both, as directors Brett Rapkin and Erik Kesten capture moments of striking grandiosity and stunning cluelessness in the bid to bring America's pastime to Israel. The lesson: If you want to bring baseball to a country that's never had it, maybe make sure they have dirt for a pitching mound first.

"The Garden" -- One of the buzzed-about titles we didn't get to see, in part because our first reaction was: Community garden in South Central? Just another tale that's a triumph of the spirit, or at least of the chrysanthemums. But people who have seen it report back on a twisty tale of civic neglect, community power and, of course, botany.

"American Teen" -- Nanette Burstein's take on a group of disparate high-school seniors at an Indiana school shows that you can portray both types and individuated characters at the same time. The movie is interested in people more than storylines, though that doesn't mean it doesn't embrace the natural dramatic calendar of a school year (graduation, prom, basketball season). It's a thinking man's "Laguna Beach," though Vantage's marketing is very "Breakfast Club," minus the Simple Minds theme song. (You know you remember.)

"Dear Zachary" -- Painting concentric circles around the story of an elderly couple who lost their 28-year-old son after a psychologically disturbed ex-girlfriend allegedly murdered him -- while pregnant with his child -- Kurt Kuenne makes a movie for the ages. If this was five years ago, when dark docs were more commercially fashionable, it would be as successful as "Capturing the Fredmans." As it is, it's still a really solid movie that hopefully a few million people will watch on TV and a few more in theaters. "Zachary" is an indictment of a (Canadian) legal system, a portrait of a lost friend  and a minutely detailed study of determination in the face of great pain, with a shocking event at the center. The rapid cuts sometimes seem to put effect over substance, but no matter -- the movie's power derives from intensely traumatic events happening in real-time to one very real family.

What documentaries should do, in other words.