It’s time to consider some documentaries.

Eight Bridges

“It’s time to consider some bridges,” is a front-runner for best tagline of the year, because it really is time to consider some bridges. There are eight of them herein. Eight ten-or-so minute extended shots of bridges existing as they are. Delightful architectural functionality, ready for your consideration. The small beauties of the film are the unplanned happy moments. A helicopter ruttering above the Keys, a great endless sky stretching over North Dakota, the too-often shot Golden Gate Bridge, where it’s framed so long, that you rexamine your relationship to the bridge. It’s absolutely time to consider some bridges.

American Doctor

Poh Si Teng directs American Doctor in the style of cinéma vérité, with great power and tenacity. She is an exceptional documentarian working with exceptional subjects — a trio of American doctors sent to work in Gaza’s Nasser Medical Center during wartime. What’s exceptional about American Doctor is that by not directly making a political statement, she offers our boldest condemnation of Benjamin Netanyahu and his genocide of the people of Palestine. The most striking argument against something like ethnic cleansing is just showing the truth removed from the politics and propaganda of both sides. What it reveals is a desperate situation where some very brave and humble helpers have stepped in, offering a slice of humanity, where humanity is being so harshly stripped away.

The Big Cheese

At the Mondial du Fromage, a biennial competition to crown the world’s best Cheesemonger, skilled dairy labor is as gouda as it gets. The Americans want to be taken seriously about cheese across the pond and they have a new hope in ringleader Adam “Mr. Moo” Moskowitz, who dons a cow suit and leads Team America in chants like a pack of deeply-motived bovine enthusiasts. Come for the cheese, stay for the pure heart of The Big Cheese and stay for lines like “a Cheesemonger saved my life.” Can the Americans overcome their reputation as cheese samplers and Kraft cheese casuals to prove to Tours, France, and the world of cheese, that with enough enthusiasm you can create Charcuterie culture out of love for the game?

Radioheart

Warm-hearted hagiography of Minneapolis and Seattle radio DJ Kevin Cole who deserves this treatment. Cole befriended Prince, defined alt-radio in Minnesota, then brought the same energy to Washington, helping mold KEXP into one of the greatest international showcases of live music. Cole’s interest in bringing Scandi music to the States is so earnest and that he helped break some really decent bands is second only to his raw honesty and love for radio. Putting Mudhoney on the Space Needle was a stroke of genius, and one of the great showcase moments in our city’s rich musical history. Seattleites are collectively thankful for folks like Cole who continue making Seattle a hotbed for music culture and discovery.

The Best Summer

Tamra Davis has better summers and home videos than you. The Best Summer is a hangout documentary compiled from tapes just sitting around in her garage. They’re not just any tapes though. Davis had just finished filming Billy Madison (1995), and was setting out on an Australian tour alongside former husband Michael Diamond (Mike D, of Beastie Boys). They spent the tour chilling with the biggest alternative acts of the day — Pavement, Sonic Youth, Bikini Kill, and a new band called Foo Fighters. They soaked in the music in what was affectionately dubbed “Summersault,” or Australia’s answer to Lollapalooza. Watching the doc feels a bit parasocial, as it goes watching someone else’s home movies. It’s just that the home in these movies is the center of 1994’s music culture. Worth seeing for the vibes and the soundtrack.

Beat the Lotto

Downtrodden under the grip of severe national debt, widespread unemployment, and the escalation of years-long sectarian violence of in the North, the 1980s were a dark decade for Ireland. Folks just wanted a dream they could buy into. A big lottery was formed and in the wake of all the attention and hope it attracted, it also caught the attention of mathematician Stefan Klincewicz who mathematically worked out how to game the system. The system didn’t love being gamed and tried to fight back. Beat the Lotto captures this curious caper with the very standard streaming-era approach to documentaries and it’s just one of those: a story to watch for comfort.