Anyway, kudos to Jarecki, and also to HBO, which has become an important patron of first-rate documentary filmmaking.
This first-rate documentary generates similar mixed feelings at a time when freedoms seem to be threatened everywhere.
Jeff Orlowski's first-rate documentary begins with complacently smug anti-global-warming clips from Fox News and from the owner of America's weather channel.
This two-disc edition contains the director's original cut, and the extras include a first-rate documentary narrated by Kris Kristofferson, who appeared in Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.
They also came away with 120 hours of material, more than enough for a full and first-rate documentary, because they had the backing of Mr. Gilliam, who let them stay on the set and keep putting their camera in everyone's face even when he and the others knew full well that the film was headed for disaster.
Such were my thoughts as I enjoyed a concert on a seven-minute BBC excerpt, which rolls footage also aired in a first-rate documentary, Ocean Giants.
Although "The Civil War" was special, public broadcasting came through with many other first-rate documentaries.
Worlds apart in all other respects, two first-rate documentaries released on Tuesday are equally savvy in working their territories.
For instance, Mr. Diller said, he would like News World International to run first-rate documentaries and to feature in-depth discussions of issues.
One of the jury members at Sundance was Nick Fraser, who as series editor of the BBC's celebrated Storyville strand has probably been responsible for the commission and dissemination of more first-rate documentaries than anyone else on the planet.
One of the great things about being a film geek in Kansas City is that we are in throwing distance of a pair of two wonderful festivals that celebrate terrific movies from the past and first-rate documentaries that have yet to start their theatrical runs.
