Documentaries offer quality alternative to Hollywood
By Bansari Sheth
Aug. 28, 2005 9:00 p.m.
The summer movie selection offers viewers its fair share of big
name actors ““ Tom Cruise, Ewan McGregor, Angelina Jolie. But,
possibly the most notable performances this year come from an
unlikely source. Measuring in at an average 2.5 feet and 34.2
pounds, the penguins of Antarctica waddled their way onto the
screen through a traditionally unpopular medium, the
documentary.
In fact, documentaries have attracted growing audiences, while
current mainstream Hollywood is struggling to draw large numbers of
people into theaters. Six of the top 10 highest-grossing
documentaries ever made were released within the last two
years.
Now, with a cumulative gross of $48 million to date,
“March of the Penguins” has moved into second place. No
foreign film has broken the $1 million mark this year, but
documentaries other than “Penguins” have been doing so
with regularity ““ “Mad Hot Ballroom” ($7.3
million), “Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room” ($4
million), “The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill” ($2.8
million), “The Aristocrats” ($2.7 million) and
“Murderball” ($1.2 million), with “Grizzly
Man” poised to break the mark in a week or two.
“There have been some really good documentaries that have
come into the theaters in the past few years,” said Judy
Irving, director and producer of “The Wild Parrots of
Telegraph Hill.” Her film is based on the true story of a
homeless musician in San Francisco who finds meaning in life after
befriending a flock of parrots.
“A lot of documentaries have opened up people’s
minds to real-life stories. And movie tickets are so expensive
these days that they want something substantial, and they
aren’t getting that from Hollywood. Audiences want something
good and memorable, and people see that documentaries aren’t
just cookie-cutter versions of older Hollywood movies.”
Though several major blockbusters were released over the summer
season, it is documentaries that have received consistent major
critical acclaim. According to www.rottentomatoes.com, a Web site
that compiles film reviews, the top five most critically acclaimed
films of the year have all been documentaries.
And despite their modest returns compared to large studio films,
documentaries are successful films in their own right considering
the amount of money spent to make the films. For example, the fast
food eye-opener “Super Size Me,” had an estimated
production budget of $65,000, according to www.boxofficemojo.com.
The film grossed $11.5 million after hitting theaters ““ a
17,952 percent profit.
Investment in Hollywood films has proved riskier. The production
budget for a huge hit like “War of the Worlds” was
approximately $132 million, according to the same Web site, but the
film grossed $231 million, resulting in a 75 percent profit.
“The reason that documentaries are doing so well right
now, while Hollywood is not, is because mainstream production
companies go for the lowest common denominator, trying to get away
with whatever they can,” Brian Roddy, the general manager at
Laemmle’s Santa Monica Fourplex, said.
“If they put in 80 percent brain power to make a film this
year, next year they’ll put in 70 percent. It’s the
downward spiral of Hollywood. People are just not interested in
making the “˜Casablanca’ or “˜Citizen
Kane’-quality film that doesn’t cater to the
15-year-old who will go to watch a film three or four times. They
are looking to make an entertaining film, not a quality
film.”
Looking at the summer crop alone, most of the largest so-called
blockbusters have been either sequels or remakes, showing a lack of
creativity in Hollywood.
“Hollywood has a lack of substance in its films and
releases movies looking only to make money,” said third-year
anthropology student Jarred Heinrich, who has seen this
year’s “Penguins” documentary. “If you even
just look at the sequels that have come out, they are just going
for the blockbuster. Documentaries have more significant
information. People want to see something real, instead of the fake
garbage that Hollywood is trying to put out.”
That need has resulted specifically in the success of
“Penguins,” which has been a hit with students this
summer.
The film spread from art houses like the Fourplex to the AMC
Theatres Avco Cinema on Wilshire, and has now made its way into
Westwood’s Mann Theaters, screening at the National, which
has not screened a documentary since “Fahrenheit
9/11.”
In addition, documentaries may have attracted audiences not only
because of originality, but also because of a change in
presentation and topic.
“When I released “˜Dark Circle’ about 20 years
ago, it was a tougher sell because it’s about something wrong
that needs to be fixed, whereas “˜The Wild Parrots of
Telegraph Hill’ is just a story about a man searching for his
path in life,” Irving said. “It’s a good story
with some of the dramatic film elements in it. People just light up
when they hear about it.”
