Allison Argo, who wrote, directed and produced "Chimpanzees: An Unnatural History," the season premiere episode of "Nature," has made a touching and persuasive political documentary.
"Dust to Dust: The Health Effects of 9/11," a powerful and persuasive one-hour documentary on the Sundance Channel tonight, analyzes that cloud ("a devastating toxic soup containing more than 2,500 contaminants") and addresses its devastating legacy for the thousands of workers and others who breathed it in.
Judd Ehrlich's persuasive but slight documentary "We Could Be King" movingly argues for the necessity of high-school athletics, especially in low-income communities, where pigskin is a key tool educators have in encouraging would-be dropouts to stay in school.
A persuasive polemic, Eugene Jarecki's documentary, which won the Sundance grand jury prize takes an honourable place in a rather crowded field along with The Power of Nightmares, Fahrenheit 9/11 and John Pilger's recent The War on Democracy about the Iraq war, US foreign policy and the lies and manipulations that surround both.
A. H. Weiler, writing in The New York Times, said, "It evolves, through an unpretentious, documentary treatment, as tough and persuasive, if disquieting, drama".
With this punchy documentary, Jim Jarmusch makes a fairly persuasive case that the Stooges, fronted by snake-hipped rock legend Iggy Pop, were the greatest band of all time.
Of the documentary she said that "the material is potent and persuasive", but that Lohan was a "constant, distracting presence".
Even relatively light-hearted documentaries can benefit from taking this sort of persuasive approach, so never lose sight of the sort of reaction you're trying to create in your audience.
A terrific new documentary, "Food, Inc.," playing in cinemas nationwide, offers a powerful and largely persuasive diagnosis of American agriculture.
If you're working in social justice or want to learn how to mount a persuasive argument, come and learn from some of the world's best investigative journalists and documentary makers.
