The 2015-2022 IFC series “Documentary Now!” remains one of the funniest things that’s ever been on television. One of the show’s conceits is that it’s actually been running much longer than the four seasons we got in the real world, presenting itself as a “60 Minutes”-esque news magazine show that’s been on for generations. In keeping with that premise, McSweeney’s has released a “4th edition” companion book to the series, “updating” the 1975 original companion with a new introduction (to join the original one by Burt Lancaster) by our very own Matt Zoller Seitz, which is a comedic work of art. Everything about this hefty volume plays into the premise of the show, including even pull quotes on the back from people like Questlove and Morgan Neville, who writes that “it’s the documentary Bible.”
It’s certainly a wonderful companion to people who miss this show and long for a fifth season of a show that’s more than just an easy parody of non-fiction filmmaking. It’s a program that understands the filmmaking it’s mimicking on a bone-deep level, not just mocking classics like “Grey Gardens” or “The Thin Blue Line” but recreating why those movies work in terms of both form and content. This book reminds one not just how funny “Documentary Now!” was but how incredibly intelligent it was, never punching down on non-fiction filmmaking, but reflecting its art through comedy.
It contains so much clever writing that mimics filmmakers, journalists, and celebrities. For example, the introduction by Helen Mirren was written by Seth Meyers, but the book itself remains so faithful to its vision that it includes fake essays by Peter Bogdanovich, David Foster Wallace, Tom Wolfe, Joan Didion, and many more, and they all read like the genuine thing.
Bogdanovich writes about “Kunuk the Hunter,” “When you’re shooting a fictional picture, you’re telling a story. When you’re shooting a doc, you’re capturing a story. Or, at least that’s how I see it. But it always matters, doc or not, what you choose to show and how. The moment any subject steps in front of the camera, a performance begins. The minute a splice in the film strip is made, reality is being edited.” It’s a fake article using the name of a real person about a fake movie that’s making an insightful, truthful point about documentary filmmaking. It’s almost breathtaking in its ingenuity.
Of course, everyone has their favorite episodes of “Documentary Now!” and I think often of “Sandy Passage” (the “Grey Gardens” riff penned by Seth Meyers), “Batsh*t Valley, Parts 1 & 2” (inspired by “Wild Wild Country”), “Original Cast Album: Co-Op” (from D.A. Pennebaker’s seminal film about the production of Company), and the Werner Herzog-inspired “Soldier of Illusion, Parts 1 & 2,” written by John Mulaney.
Let’s take that last one as an example of what to expect from this book. You’ll learn about the cameras used on both “Soldier” and the director’s sitcom project “Bachelor Nanny,” along with articles and quotes about the 2003 documentary, like this one from Andrew Sarris: “It takes a genius like Cray to capture a genius like Rainer Wolz. It’s pure divine alchemy.”
Like most sections in the book, you’ll also get dozens of photos, but this volume is more than just coffee table stills. What’s so great about it is how consistently inventive it can be. Turn a page and find part of the original script of “Bachelor Nanny,” which, again, is a fake show in a fake documentary in a TV comedy. There’s a phrase called “Commitment to the Bit” that this book exemplifies in glorious fashion.
The Publisher provided a review copy of this title. It’s now available in stores and online.
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