I Lost My Faith

 I Lost my faith

Cape Conran, Victoria, March 2025, @Richard Leigh

... in documentaries. When I studied at film school in 1997, I put all my career eggs in the basket of being a Documentary filmmaker. Documentaries had the power to change the world, and us students were all pumped and ready to do just that. One of my VCA colleagues a few years later said, “Documentary filmmaking is all I ever want to do,” but I remember thinking — really? I’d already started getting cynical, even back then.


Fast forward to the start of 2026. I realised that I hadn't watched a documentary in years; well nothing longer than about 5 or 10mins anyway. Frankly I found them all a little boring and besides, they were usually preaching to the converted. They always had an agenda, something they were trying to convince me about; so effectively they were just long ads. Why would I waste my time watching? Tell me your point in 30 or 60sec so I can move on with my life. Sure, I still watched a bit of TV drama, YouTube, and short reels on Instagram. Tell me a good story as a movie (occasionally – sometimes I can watch for that long), or a well-produced drama on tellie, but don’t waste my time trying to persuade me of something in this noisy, opinionated world. I’m over it.

Then last week began a few reasons to tilt me back towards the good old documentary form that I was once so passionate about.

A documentary about AI, sent by my friend Warwick. It was only about 16mins long, but it captured a personal journey, a point of view I could relate to. I'm not sure I agree completely with where he ends up, but he does point to a strange hope in documentary as a form. That was refreshing.

  https://youtu.be/k51k2AyUpao?si=oDBpyyrDFvshCCJN

A TV doco series exploring facts and why they matter, shared by another good friend Bruce. Captivating, and yes, beautifully produced. Hmm, another doco that compelled me

  https://iview.abc.net.au/show/matter-of-facts

Then last night, on one of my favourite tech podcasts, I heard about a new documentary coming out this week. It has the potential to be something to gather round as a society as we face one of the biggest social challenges of our time. 

“The AI Doc” https://youtu.be/xkPbV3IRe4Y?si=rnaRzKXxioSLBFmv was made by the talented individuals who made "Everything Everywhere All At Once" and it sounds really promising.


I'd lost my faith in documentaries; the feature-length documentary form.

But I think I might be getting it back.


RL

26.03.2026



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