2004/04/08 by Peter Byrne · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · #Narrative Theory and Analysis #Themes in Literature Analysis #Contemporary Literature and Criticism #Brother #Comics #Art history #IMG #Art #Spelling #Visual arts #Computer science #Literature #Sociology #Philosophy
paper · doi:10.1136/bmj.328.7444.901
openalex publication_date 2004/04/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
Directed by Andrew Jarecki, 108 minutes UK release date: 9 April 2004 Rating: ![Graphic][1]</img>![Graphic][2]</img>![Graphic][3]</img>![Graphic][4]</img> The past year has been a great one for feature length documentaries. It began when Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine ( BMJ 2002;325: 1247), the highest-earning documentary feature of all time, won an Oscar. Spellbound , about an American spelling competition, also achieved a high profile release, as did the semi-documentaries Touching the Void , a story of mountaineers' survival in the Andes, and American Splendor , about comic book artist Harvey Pekar. Capturing the Friedmans , a documentary about child abuse, is likely to be as successful as these. It is polemical, heart wrenching, suspenseful, at times even funny—and more. At one level, we are voyeurs to a family system where one brother audiotapes family rows and catalogues them. Fortunately for the filmmakers, his older brother went … [1]: /embed/inline-graphic-1.gif [2]: /embed/inline-graphic-2.gif [3]: /embed/inline-graphic-3.gif [4]: /embed/inline-graphic-4.gif