Bonus Episode: Best Documentaries of 2020

Fog of Truth

In this bonus episode, cohosts Bart and Chris revisit their favorite documentaries of 2020, and then invite, each in turn, six guest hosts from the past year to chat about their own favorites. Those guests, in alphabetical order, are: Hannah Buchdahl, Sandie Angulo Chen, Leslie Combemale, Roxana Hadadi, Lisa Sanchelo and Debra Zimmerman. Chris and Bart each gave a Top 10, while our guests each listed a Top 5. Those lists follows, below, in the order given on the episode. Enjoy, and see you in 2021!

Chris’s List (in alphabetical order):

• Boys State (Amanda McBaine/Jesse Moss)
• Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Justin Pemberton)
• Collective (Alexander Nanau)
• Crip Camp (James Lebrecht/Nicole Newnham)
• Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President (Mary Wharton)
• John Lewis: Good Trouble (Dawn Porter)
• Mayor (David Osit)
• 76 Days (Hao Wu/Weixi Chen/Anonymous)
• Space Dogs (Elsa Kremser/Levin Peter)
• A Thousand Cuts (Ramona S. Diaz)

Bart’s List (in alphabetical order):

• Boys State (Amanda McBaine/Jesse Moss)
• Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Justin Pemberton)
• Disclosure (Sam Feder)
• Feels Good Man (Arthur Jones)
• Jasper Mall(Bradford Thomason/Brett Whitcomb)
• John Lewis: Good Trouble (Dawn Porter)
• The Last Dance (Jason Hehir) (10-part Netflix series)
• Mayor (David Osit)
• A Thousand Cuts (Ramona S. Diaz)
• Totally Under Control (Alex Gibney)

Sandie’s List (in alphabetical order):

• Boys State (Amanda McBaine/Jesse Moss)
• The Dissident (Bryan Fogel)
• John Lewis: Good Trouble (Dawn Porter)
• River City Drumbeat (Anne Flatté/Marlon Johnson)
• Time (Garrett Bradley)

Hannah’s List (in order of preference):

1. Collective (Alexander Nanau)
2. Tie: John Lewis: Good Trouble (Dawn Porter) / The Way I See It (Dawn Porter)
3. Jimmy Carter: Rock & Roll President (Mary Wharton)
4. Tie: The Dissident (Bryan Fogel) / A Thousand Cuts (Ramona Diaz)
5. Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You (Thom Zimny)

Debra’s List (in order of preference):

1. Collective (Alexander Nanau)
2. Tie: Belly of the Beast (Erika Cohn) / Coded Bias (Shalini Kantayya)
3. Capital in the Twenty-First Century (Justin Pemberton)
4. Tie: Dick Johnson Is Dead (Kirsten Johnson) / Time (Garrett Bradley)
5. The Earth Is Blue as an Orange (Iryna Tsilyk) – not yet released

Roxana’s List (in alphabetical order):

• Boys State (Amanda McBaine/Jesse Moss)
• Diana Kennedy: Nothing Fancy (Elizabeth Carroll)
• The Last Dance (Jason Hehir) (10-part Netflix series
• Midnight in Paris (James Blagden/Roni Moore)
• Time (Garrett Bradley)

Lisa’s List (in alphabetical order):

• American Murder: The Family Next Door (Jenny Popplewell)
• Athlete A (Bonni Cohen/Jon Shenk)
• Baby God (Hannah Olson)
• Becoming (Nadia Hallgren)
• Class Action Park (Seth Porges/Chris Charles Scott III)

Leslie’s List (in order of preference):

1. Crip Camp (James Lebrecht/Nicole Newnham)
2. Welcome to Chechnya (David France)
3. The Painter and the Thief (Benjamin Ree)
4. Boys State (Amanda McBaine/Jesse Moss)
5. John Lewis: Good Trouble (Dawn Porter)

Other Films Mentioned:

• Born to Be (Tania Cypriano)
• The Disrupted (Sarah Colt/Josh Gleason)
• The Fight (Eli Despres/Josh Kriegman/Elyse Steinberg)
• Icarus (Bryan Fogel)
• The Mole Agent (Maite Alberdi)
• The Social Dilemma (Jeff Orlowski)

Timestamps:

• 00:52 – Intro + Chris and Bart’s respective Top 10 lists
• 11:31 – Sandie Angulo Chen’s top docs of the year
• 18:02 – Hannah Buchdahl’s top docs of the year
• 23:58 – Debra Zimmerman’s top docs of the year
• 30:03 – Roxana Hadadi’s top docs of the year
• 37:11 – Lisa Sanchelo’s top docs of the year
• 43:42 – Leslie Combemale’s top docs of the year
• 50:51 – Closing + End credits

Website/Email:

www.fogoftruth.com

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Credits:

Artwork by Hilary Campbell

Intro music by Jeremiah Moore

Transitional music by BELLS≥ (thanks to Christopher Ernst)

Editing and shownotes by Christopher Llewellyn Reed