Before Morris became Morris — before the Interrotron, before Philip Glass, before the reenactments — there was Vernon. The Florida panhandle. The turkey hunter and the other residents — their passion, Morris's respect. The eye, painterly. The interview, an art. The absurdity of life, celebrated. You can feel everything that's coming.

Chris Smith spent two years with Mark Borchardt — a Wisconsin filmmaker trying to finish a horror short with nothing but raw enthusiasm and tenacity. Mark, his uncle, his best friend Mike — a cast you couldn't write if you tried. American Movie is the funniest sad documentary ever made.

São Paulo as labyrinth — kidnapping, corruption, a frog farm laundering money for politicians. Every shot composed, every cut a provocation. Jason Kohn studied under Errol Morris and it shows: the formal rigor, the moral fury underneath. Where most documentaries observe, Manda Bala indicts. The opposite of cinéma vérité, and proof that documentary can be designed.