(To keep the list at a manageable level, documentaries were left off, but 2012 had its fair share of great ones, including "How to Survive a Plague," "Searching for Sugar Man," "Bully," "Central Park Five," "Side By Side," Knuckleball!" "West of Memphis," "Mea Maxima Culpa," "Detropia" among many others).
It's fairly safe to assume that the majority of filmmakers at Tribeca this year who've made activist documentaries are left-leaning.
Applying savvy business skills and thinking to non-profit problems is a growing trend, and there's no reason why documentaries should be left out.
Their ambitions are thus fulfilled and the documentary-maker is left wondering why he didn't make a programme about Amazulu instead.
So it was that Steve James and Peter Gilbert, two of the filmmakers behind the acclaimed documentary "Hoop Dreams," were leaving their seven-year shoestring existence far behind last week.
He can claim the dubious honor once more after "Life Itself," his poignant documentary about Roger Ebert, was left off the list despite being tipped by many as a favorite.
Try to imagine maneuvering your new stump over the toilet bowl, fielding endless unwanted calls from medical documentary-makers, and being left with nothing much to ponder past the day your nightmare was plastered across the world.
Other winners included James Marsh, for the documentary "Project Nim," which was left out of the Oscar playing field; Robert B. Weide, who won directing the "Palestinian Chicken" episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm"; and Patty Jenkins, who won for the pilot of "The Killing".
Still, since the collection can't offer documentary truth, what one is left to seek is, simply, beauty: and that it has.
It lays out a range of evidence but falls short of a straight documentary, and some viewers will be left wondering how much poetic license lies behind the depiction of events.
As a result of the focus on King, two of the civil rights movement's more powerful vignettes, both covered in the documentary Eyes on the Prize, are left out of the movie.
