AMERICAN DOCUMENTARY CATEGORIES
Or, Why My Films May Never Get Into US Festivals
by Rachel Lears
Disclaimer: The lister’s intention is not to belittle any individual film, for many films that fit these categories are really great, even genuinely inspiring (with which the lister has no problem!). It’s the patterns that get to her.

Shorts
1. Eccentric/ quirky person tells life story, with inspiring results.
2. Eccentric/ quirky person tells life story, with disturbing results.
3. Person engaged in offbeat or extreme activity shows such activity and talks about it, with inspiring or disturbing results, or perhaps just results in audience proclaiming, “wow, only in America!”

Features
1. White people help brown people, with inspiring results.
2. Someone, often the filmmaker or someone s/he knows, undergoes a harrowing medical treatment, with inspiring results.
3. A member of some historically oppressed or disadvantaged group overcomes lots of harrowing issues in order to accomplish or achieve something, with somewhat disturbing but ultimately inspiring results.
4. A musician you have heard of allows filmmaker to follow him/her around for a while, spewing lots of platitudes about the Meaning of Music, with amusing/ inspiring/ disturbing/ rocking results.
5. Someone, often the filmmaker or someone s/he knows, with a mental illness or something else wrong with his/her brain allows filmmaker to follow him/her around for a while, with results that may be inspiring or disturbing, but they will definitely make you contemplate the depths of the human psyche.

Special Jury Prize for Politically-themed feature or short
1. Flashy graphics frame the presentation of an issue you are familiar with from reading the major headlines, with results that are at first disturbing then inspiring or even comforting as you realize that you can (but probably won’t) “take action”.