‘Columbine’ Named Top Documentary of All Time
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – “Bowling for Columbine,” about gun culture in America, gained momentum on Thursday as it rolls toward the Oscars, racking up the honor of best documentary of all time from the International Documentary Association.
Director Michael Moore also had the No. 3 nonfiction film on the list with his 1989 title, “Roger & Me,” in which he took on automaker General Motors Corp. and its then-Chief Executive Roger Smith over a plant closure at Flint, Michigan that left thousands of employees jobless.
Coming in No. 2 was 1988’s “The Thin Blue Line,” about wrongful convictions in the 1976 murder of a Dallas, Texas policeman, and rounding out the top five were 1994’s “Hoop Dreams” about high school basketball players and 1969’s “Salesman,” about four door-to-door Bible salesmen.
“All these films provide an intimate, behind-the-scenes look at the human condition,” said the association’s executive director Sandra Ruch. “They make you think about things you might not have ever considered before.”
The International Documentary Association, or IDA, was formed in 1982 to serve as a forum for documentary filmmakers, and has since grown into a respected organization for nonfiction films with some 2,700 members in 50 countries.
For the most part, documentaries are relegated to film festivals and cable television channels because the material is generally considered too cerebral for mainstream moviegoers.
But “Columbine” has been an exception, and it is considered a front-runner for this year best documentary Oscar, which is Hollywood’s top film honor handed out each year in March.
“Columbine” has already scored well with audiences, tallying $12.9 million at domestic box offices, which for a documentary is a big sum.
Last week, it earned the U.S. National Board of Review honour as the year’s top documentary and won audience choice award at this year’s Chicago International Film Festival. Back in May, it was given a special prize at the Cannes Film Festival in France.
In “Columbine,” Moore takes a wry look at the fear that seems to grip the United States and the widespread use of handguns and rifles to seemingly address that fear, even as Americans face violent crimes and murders involving guns.
Moore covers topics ranging from the shootings at Columbine high school in Colorado to the murder of a 6-year-old girl by a 6-year-old boy in Michigan, and he interviews National Rifle Association President Charlton Heston.
Oscar nominations are announced on Feb. 11, and the awards will be handed out in a gala ceremony in Los Angeles on March 23.
“Bowling for Columbine” was distributed by United Artists, a division of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. film studio.
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